It seems that our official past-time in Canadian politics for the last few years has been the state of Health Care. Don't get me wrong, I do think that maintaining a high-quality publicly funded equitable health care system is important. But, health care spending simply amounts to spending on consumption. If we want to improve the quality of life of Canadians we need to make investments that will pay off in the future. Which leads to the focus of this post: Education Funding.
Yesterday, Canadian Premiers announced that they would begin to push for more education funding from the federal government in the form of a dedicated fund like the one established for health care. This is welcome news! Although education is under provincial jurisdiction, the federal government can play a positive role in improving education across the country.
Today, Universities gave this education plan top marks saying that this dedicated funding in the form of increased transfers to provinces would improve universities. Universities could hire more professors, increase the number of spaces, increase financial aid and further fund research projects.
Where I disagree, is when people talk about the need to halt tuition-fee increases. For instance the folks over at Canadian Federation of Students who started this campaign denouncing Bob Rae's review of Ontario's post-secondary institutions.
Contrary to popular belief, it is PROGRESSIVE to increase tuition fees if it is coupled with increases in financial aid based on need. By keeping tuition fees artificially low, which they are in Canada, the government is essentially subsidizing better-off Canadians and foreign students who are able to pay more for their education. If tuition fees were increased then we would have a progressive system based on a student's ability to pay for education. The government would have more funds available to provide even lower fees to poorer individuals. Moreover, the increased revenue from the higher tuition rates paid by well-off Canadians would allow post-secondary institutions to provide better quality education.
It seems that Rae is advocating this course of action. According to Rae, tuition should not increase at all until the student assistance system is reformed and government has made significant new investments.
Instead of vehemently denouncing the Rae review, CFS and others who I consider my progressive peers, should truly think about how we can make our post-secondary education system more progressive and beneficial to students.
1 comment:
Great blog I hope we can work to build a better health care system as we are in a major crisis and health insurance is a major aspect to many.
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