By Mario deSantis, September 12, 1999

In last Wednesday night's televised leaders debate, Premier Romanow prided his government for being able to balance the budgets and charged the opposition for not being able to add up numbers(1). However, we must also remember that our Premier Romanow promised that Saskatchewan would be the shining light to the world and that "...the time for mortgaging our children's future is over. The time for building their future is here...."(2). No Mr. Romanow, the time for building our children future is not here yet, and your electoral promise to provide free tuition fees for first year post secondary students is just an electoral gimmick to further divide and conquer(3) the electorate.

Yesterday, the University of Regina Students' Union and the University of Saskatchewan Students' Union had a full page on the StarPhoenix publicizing the present deteriorated state of our educational system(4). Also, yesterday, I received an e-mail from my son Eric and he invited me to visit the web site of his mathematics professor Dr. Doug MacLean(5). Well, I visited Professor MacLean's web site and I found the disconcerting truth that our Saskatchewan students have an overall substandard knowledge of mathematics and that our educational system is falling apart. Professor MacLean reported that students who received a 6% grade on a 35 year old grade 10 algebra test had obtained final grades in excess of 80% in their high school algebra courses(6). Yes, Mr. Romanow, you were able to balance the budgets, but you have downsized the most important resource, a resource with no price tag: the education of our children.

Endnotes

1. Leaders exchange political fire, by Mark Wyatt, The StarPhoenix, September 9, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

2. Saskatchewan New Democrats Home Page, as at March 14, 1999

3. The Political Mission of Premier Romanow: Divide and Conquer, by Mario deSantis, April 18, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

4. An excerpt of the statements publicized by the University of Regina Students' Union and the University of Saskatchewan Students' Union: "...education matters. Make post-secondary education your concern. Vote education...", The StarPhoenix, September 9, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

5. Professor Doug MacLean's Web Page, University of Saskatchewan

6. Professor MacLean's memo dated January 21, 1998 directed to Faculty members http://math.usask.ca/~maclean/memo_35.pdf