[mobglob-discuss] Education shouldn't be a debt sentence -- vote for a change

[Paul Browning]

Education shouldn't be a debt sentence: 
Tuition Fees In Canada

The steady decline of federal funding for post-secondary education over the last 
20 years has resulted in provincial governments and individual university and 
college administrations replacing the lost funds by relying heavily on tuition fees 
and other user fees from students. 

In 1990-1991 user fees accounted for an average of 18% of an institution's 
operating budget. The continual decline in government funding brought that average
up to 32% in 1998-1999, and much higher in some provinces. From 1990-1991 to
2000-2001 average undergraduate tuition fees increased by 135 per cent, more 
than six times faster than the rate of inflation. User fees at Canadian universities, 
adjusted for inflation, are at their highest recorded levels.

Student Debt is Soaring 

The impact on student debt as a result of funding cuts has been devastating. 
On average, students completing a four-year program will have $25,000 of debt, 
an increase of 300% from 1990. 

Access is suffering 

Recent studies are painting a disturbing picture of the effect high tuition fees 
have on access to post-secondary education for low and middle income Canadians.
A study done at the University of Western Ontario demonstrated that after 
graduate and professional user fees were deregulated in Ontario, the 
participation rates of low-income families were cut in half. 

Researchers at the University of Guelph found that 40% fewer students from
low-income families were attending the University after tuition fees rose. 
The conclusion is simple: user fees act as a barrier to access. 

Tuition Fee Freezes And Reductions: Steps to Ensuring Access

Although much of the blame for Canada's regression to a primarily user pay
system falls onto the federal government, there is a great disparity amongst
provinces with regard to tuition fee policy. In the face of deep cuts from the 
federal government, some provinces have frozen, and in some cases, reduced
user fees. Others, like Nova Scotia, Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan and, 
most recently, BC have increased tuition fees and cut student aid in response
to the crisis of underfunding.

British Columbia 

Students in BC are facing an average tuition fee increase of over 25% in 2002 
- the highest in the country. BC had the second lowest tuition fees in Canada 
until the current provincial government ended a seven year fee freeze earlier 
this year. The previous provincial government demonstrated a commitment to
access by freezing fees from 1995 to 2001, and by funding a 5% tuition fee 
rollback in the 2001 provincial budget. 

Manitoba 

Tuition fees in Manitoba have been frozen for three years. In 2000, the provincial
government funded a 10% user fee reduction. Québec · For residents of Québec, 
the province has the lowest university tuition fees in the country, and college is free.
User fees in Québec have been frozen for 15 of the last 20 years. 

Newfoundland & Labrador 

User fees have undergone significant reviews in recent years. Following a two year
tuition fee freeze, fees at Memorial University of Newfoundland were reduced by 
10% in 2001. Fees for most programs at Memorial were reduced a further 10% 
in 2002, with fees in the remaining programs frozen at 2001 levels. A freeze at 
other Newfoundland post-secondary institutions has been extended for the fourth
consecutive year. Newfoundland now has the second lowest undergraduate 
tuition fees in Canada. 

Grants NOT Loans 

Despite soaring student debt levels, the federal government's strategy for reducing
debt is deeply flawed. Canada remains one of only two member nations in the 
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) without a 
national system of needs-based grants, yet saddles its students with some of
the highest fees. The loans-based approach to student financial assistance has
proved to be a failure at guaranteeing access. 

The research clearly demonstrates that the cost of post-secondary education and
 increasing debt levels are significant factors in the decision students make about
 whether or not to continue their studies beyond high school. Even more significant
 is the finding that students from lower income households are much more likely 
to be affected by financial issues when deciding to pursue or not pursue their 
education beyond high school. 

Income Contingent Loan Repayment Plans (ICLRPs): A Lifetime of Debt

Income contingent repayment schemes were designed with one purpose in mind:
to facilitate a system of individual user fees in which the students pays the 
full cost of post-secondary education. ICLRPs go by many names, but they are
first and foremost a regressive funding model that eliminates government support
for post-secondary education, not an alternative loan plan. 

Canadian students vigorously opposed the Plans when they were proposed by the
federal government in 1994, and consequently they were never implemented. 

Often referred to indirectly as "flexible repayment", ICLRPs stretch repayment out
over a longer period of time. Additional interest payments ensure that students 
earning less after graduation will pay three or four times more for their education 
than students with higher incomes, who would pay equivalent loans back faster. 
Furthermore, the gender gap in wages will profoundly disadvantage women. 

Millennium Scholarships 

Despite the fact that the Millennium Foundation was endowed with $2.5 billion 
over ten years, Millennium Scholarships have proven to be ineffective at providing
widespread relief to students. 

More of a public relations exercise for the federal government than a student grants
program, the Foundation has experienced great difficulty in ensuring all of the 
provinces distribute scholarships. Provinces like Ontario and Nova Scotia have 
refused to cooperate, and as a result students in those provinces are seeing little
or no benefit from the program. 

A Canada Student Grants Program 

The only way to adequately begin to address the student debt crisis is for the 
federal government to introduce a Canada Student Grants Program (CSGP). 
For years, the Canadian Federation of Students has been proposing a system 
of needs-based grants that would be national in scope, and available to any 
student in financial need. 

Reallocating the Millennium Foundation's endowment, as well as other ineffective
federal programs, such as the Canada Education Savings Grants, could fund a 
CSGP. If a CSGP was administered as a non-repayable portion of the Canada 
Student Loan, then the federal government could use its existing infrastructure 
to save on costs, as well as avoid difficult federal-provincial arrangements. 

>From the Canadian Federation of Students: www.cfs-fcee.ca

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