Students diss provincial Conservative's education plan
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 by: SooToday.com Staff
NEWS RELEASE
CANADIAN FEDERATION OF STUDENTS
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Tory education plan attacks low- and middle-income families
TORONTO (February 12, 2013) - Proposals put forward in a position paper released today by the Ontario Progressive Conservative Caucus would exacerbate existing inequality amongst Ontarians and severely damage the quality of Ontario colleges and universities.
The recommendations in the paper call for continued tuition fee increases, the removal altogether of controls on tuition fees in many programs and increasing the role of the private sector in providing education and training.
"Record-high tuition fees and the growing role of for-profit interests on campuses are threatening the quality and affordability of public post-secondary education in Ontario," said Sarah Jayne King, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. "The Tory plan would continue to shift the burden for funding education onto the backs of students and their families, while forcing institutions to do more with less."
The paper, entitled Paths to Prosperity: Higher Learning for Better Jobs, recommends different streams of education based on a students' ability to pay.
Students who can only afford minimal tuition fees would be streamed into online, non-credit based courses or into three year degree programs at colleges, while students with higher incomes would be encouraged to go into "elite" programs in universities.
Since 2006, tuition fees in Ontario have increased as much as 71 percent.
As a result, the amount of money students and graduates owe the Ontario government has more than doubled, increasing 130 percent in just seven years.
"Affordable college and university education is a key component to a more equitable and more prosperous province," said King. "The plans put forward by Tim Hudak [shown] and his party sustain prosperity for the rich, while low- and middle-income students will continue to be forced into debt or be shut out of colleges and universities entirely."
Other problematic proposals in the paper include additional surveillance measures on student loan recipients, providing further funding to career colleges, wage freezes for college and university staff and faculty and changing the current standards for teaching and research for faculty.
The paper provides no recommendations on graduate programs or international students.
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H.E.T. 2/12/2013 10:03:51 PM ReportThe rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the gov takes more and more while canadians bend over and take it dry then complain but never do anything about it.
Polis 2/12/2013 10:08:07 PM ReportAs usual,more for the rich and elitist thinking from this bag of wind. "You poor folks can just scuttle along to the side, now..."
saultresident 2/12/2013 10:14:38 PM Reportthe devil we know!
shju 2/12/2013 10:16:17 PM ReportWell they have to get money from somewhere to pay teachers salaries, might as well get it from students.
saultresident 2/12/2013 10:28:05 PM Reportshju
very uninformed response.
I'm In 2/12/2013 10:38:24 PM Reportshju: tuition does not pay for primary/secondary school teachers, it pays for Professors and to operate the Colleges /Universities, wake up and don't vote PC becuase that is the rich mans party
tcowen 2/12/2013 11:57:46 PM Report"The recommendations in the paper call for continued tuition fee increases, the removal altogether of controls on tuition fees in many programs and increasing the role of the private sector in providing education and training.."
Interesting.. what exactly is the federal transfer payment & how do we go about taking some of that back.
Maybe the private sector should step in.. or maybe we should introduce the idea of mandatory drug testing for caucus members. They all look suspiciously sober to me.
My next vote goes to the first person who insists we stop calling it a 'Party'.
Bill_the_Cat 2/13/2013 8:32:08 AM ReportI suspect the 'many programs' does not refer to the self-help degree programs of psychology and sociology. Those bastions of mediocrity will never be priced at MBA levels. Deregulation of fees is not a tory idea: Bob Rae's idea I believe. That's when med school and MBA fees skyrocketed.
Most Bachelor programs have been devalued to the point of inconsequence--so why not funnel into colleges and trades? A good plumber earns more than many profs.
Goverments have always tried to tailor higher education for the jobs market. This is more of the same.
On a positive note, Hudak seems to want student aid tied to marks. That's a positive step to week out the chronically underperforming.
sportsfan17 2/13/2013 11:20:29 AM ReportThis is scary as hell and it is exactly why I would never vote Conservative.
Don't make enough money? Sorry, you can't come to my school to become a doctor. You can sit at home though and get your B.A. through an inefficient method of learning (online). As we continue to strive as a nation to promote equality and educational opportunity for all, these guys want to deregulate the system so that only the financial elite can afford a good education? NO WAY!
We have one of the best post-secondary education systems in the world, regulated so that it is affordable (somewhat anyway, if you compare it our American counterparts) and regulated so that each university and college has to meet certain academic standards.
If you deregulate this, you're going to get a tiered system such as that in the United States, where community colleges are essentially a joke and you're only really somebody if you've gone to an Ivy League school. Not to mention, it's all run for profit, so who gives a crap about how anybody actually does at the school!
Education is a right and shouldn't be based on financial prowess. The more educated our society is as a whole, the better off we are. And that goes for those students pursuing Sociology and Psychology degrees as well. The more we work to understand each other and why we interact the way we do, the faster we can move to a more peaceful and equal society.
newcon 2/13/2013 11:26:39 AM ReportWhere is the comment that I previously posted re. children are to be seen and not heard? This is not an unbias open forum of debate this site is for sheep only...left wing sheep.
Newcon
Bill_the_Cat 2/13/2013 11:51:57 AM Reportsportsfan: Med school is already deregulated, and out of the price range of most students. Tuition is already in the 5 figures--not including ancillary fees, which can double that amount. Average in Ontario seems to be about $20k.
The top academic students can already get scholarships and bursaries. It's the bottom 50% that need weeding out.
Bill_the_Cat 2/13/2013 12:04:18 PM ReportThere is a push from certain universities to become private institutions, eschewing public monies. Queens, U of T, UWO, all have large endowments which would allow them to do this. They could charge whatever they liked for tuition then.
Education is a right--but not post-secondary education. Fully 3 in 4 of students currently in university are wasting their time, and would fare better in a college.
As long as the goverment subsidizes student fees, it has the right/obligation to ask whether the money is spent properly.
This is not a Tory issue: all governments do this.
Bill_the_Cat 2/13/2013 12:19:49 PM ReportAnd academic accreditation has nothing to do with this story.
Accreditation boards are independent entities.
Slim Shady 2/13/2013 12:59:03 PM ReportEducation cost has always been a problem. Look at the cost of attending a US University? Ours have always been a bargain when compared to foreign Universities.
With fewer graduates able to get jobs (let alone well paying ones), there is a trend of not going to post secondary education. Why spend 4 years of your life and $100K to land up getting paid $11-$15 per hour? This in turn drives up the cost of Tuition because there are fewer students to pay for the operating costs of the University.... It's a vicious circle.
While there is nothing wrong with immigration however it needs to be balanced as the economic situation allows it. Too many foreigners are allowed to work here and displace our young people. Once again, nobody wants to pay to train and/or invest in our youth.
We are all to blame. We buy too much from countries like China and allow such countries to buy up our Canadian Corporations.
Perhaps companies will start to value University graduates and start paying more for trained individuals…. We all have to stop wanting something for nothing.
newcon 2/13/2013 2:20:32 PM ReportYes "scary as hell" which is why liberal socialists
and ndp communists will never get my vote...a: vote for the left is a vote to destroy our country.
Newcon
OMGWTF 2/13/2013 4:23:09 PM Reportnewcon The PC's in Ottawa and the old Harris gov't in Ontario is or has destroyed the country and our province with schemes like this. Harris decimated the education and health care providers with their cuts and downloading. Looks good on the Fed balance sheet but it killed many activities and raised local taxes. Why do you think we have deficits today - to make up for all the cuts to get us back to some semblance of normalcy. Students would be better off if they would take courses that have a chance of providing knowledge for a job after school. How many Psych grads get a job in this field? Everyone wants to get into something that they love, and so they should, but they also need to give their head a shake on the job prospects after school.
newcon 2/14/2013 12:47:42 PM ReportPsst...omgwtf....I'll let you in on something if you promise to keep it a secret...your hero "trudeau" was a nazi sympathizer and by his own admission was totally ignorant about economics and this is your hero? The embodiment of destruction and disaster at the helm of a once great ship known as Canada. Also, every body should follow their dreams but don't expect the tax payer to foot the bill....but then again we wouldn't expect anything different from a socialist apparatchick.
Newcon
Bill_the_Cat 2/14/2013 4:05:41 PM ReportHow did the federal PCs affect education? It was Chrétien/Martin who decimated federal transfer payments. It was they who overhauled the osap system burdening students with loans rather than grants.
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