FSIN report indicates educational funding disparity

At the end of March, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations released a report indicating that First Nation education receives 40 to 50 per cent less funding for instruction than provincial schools. The report found that First Nations schools also receive 18 per cent less for basic instruction and 14 per cent less for operations and maintenance. The FSIN report compared on-reserve schools in the North Battleford area with the nearby Living Sky school division. “It is time for the federal government to stop ignoring the fact that our First Nation students are, and have been chronically underfunded for a very long time, and that the government has an obligation to ensure that our students are funded at an equitable rate so that they have the tools to reach their full potentials,” said FSIN Vice Chief Simon Bird in a news release. The province is lobbying the federal government on behalf of First Nations, calling on Ottawa to provide equitable funding for on-reserve schools.