Over the past 15 years, both Flin Flon and Creighton have survived provincial initiatives to water down local control of education in the name of efficiency.
For some, the question now is whether the Flin Flon School Division (FFSD) and Creighton School Division (CSD) will continue to exist as standalone entities in the long term.
In 2002, Manitoba’s then-NDP government slashed the number of school divisions in the province by one-third. Northern Manitobans saw half of their eight divisions terminated, the Snow Lake School Division among them.
Fewer divisions meant larger divisions encompassing more communities, which in turn lessened the impact that individual towns could exert over their children’s classroom learning.
FFSD endured the forced mergers of 2002, but some educators wondered whether the move was the opening salvo in a battle between southern-centric politicians and northerners who prefer to elect their own school boards.
To its credit, the NDP never threatened the existence of FFSD for the remainder of its time in office. But there were still tiffs between the two parties, always with a fundamental question at the root: Who knows what’s best for Flin Flon students and taxpayers?
Some FFSD officials were unimpressed, for instance, when the NDP declared local trustees could not close a school unless the province approved. While no Flin Flon schools were slated to shut down, the very idea of Flin Flon taxpayers maintaining unwanted buildings to appease politicians in Winnipeg was understandably contentious.
The province and FFSD also clashed over a directive that most kindergarten to grade 3 classrooms contain no more than
20 students each. It wasn’t just a philosophical debate, either, since FFSD claimed the additional dollars the province provided to support this mandate fell short of the actual cost.
The Manitoba government is now under PC rule, but provincial authorities still dictate a large percentage of what local school boards can and cannot do. And if a rule makes sense in southern Manitoba but not in northern Manitoba, guess which side prevails?
Across the border, Saskatchewan’s former NDP government also forced a series of school division amalgamations in 2006. At the time, some local educators said tiny CSD survived simply because it was too remote to fuse with another division.
Now the Saskatchewan government of Premier Brad Wall is raising the possibility of further division mergers, though nothing appears concrete.
In some ways, Saskatchewan is even more dictatorial with school divisions than is Manitoba, having famously stripped local school boards of their power to levy property tax rates several years ago.
At this point, some may wonder whether it is still necessary for small communities to elect school trustees when provincial governments have overtaken so much of the education system. If trustees can no longer close schools, adjust early-years class sizes or set tax rates, why bother?
The answer is that some level of local control – especially over something as fundamental as education – is always an asset.
No matter how bossy and all-knowing provincial politicians and bureaucrats become, local people tend to know what’s best for their own community. Local people will always understand and respond better to local preferences than outside forces.
Amalgamating either FFSD or CSD with another school division would save a miniscule amount of money and hasten an unfortunate homogenization of the education system. Local voices matter, and hopefully politicians in Winnipeg and Regina continue to honour this truth in the long term.
Local Angle is published on Fridays.
