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January 31, 2012 - No. 10 Education Is a Right!
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• Education Is
a Right! Support the February 1 National Student Day of Action
Nova Scotia
• The Anti-Social Offensive and Post-Secondary
Education
Ontario
• Support Students' Fight for the Right to
Education! - Dan Cerri
• Fee Mechanisms Feed Privatization of
Education - Christine Nugent
First Nations
• Aboriginal Students Demand Action to Broaden
Access to Post-Secondary Education
Education Is a Right!
Support the February 1 National
Student Day of Action
On February 1, students across
Canada will demonstrate
for the right to education. Students at over 50 educational
institutions from coast to coast are holding rallies, information
booths, speakers' corners, teach-ins and other activities.
Students are fighting for the reduction and eventual elimination of tuition and ancillary fees at post-secondary institutions, the elimination of differential fees and increased funding from the federal government for education.
Over the last 20 years, the portion of university and college operating budgets which is funded by the public has decreased from 81 per cent to an average of 57 per cent. At the same time, tuition fees have increased from 14 per cent of operating funding to more than 35 per cent. Accounting for much of the remainder are research grants from private corporations, which have steadily increased in the same period. As private research grants increase, those private interests dictate what research can be carried out and what kind of personnel they require be educated or provided with training.
The need to oppose monopoly right and to defend the right to education which serves the youth and the society goes beyond restricting the "right" of the monopolies to treat post-secondary institutions as their private research and training facilities. The expropriation of the social wealth produced by Canadians to pay the monopolies also means that necessary social programs such as education are denied adequate funding and the burden is placed on individuals to indebt themselves or forgo higher education. Governments in service of the rich falsely present this misappropriation as a "scarcity of funds" to justify cuts to social programs or increases in tuition and other user fees.
Rising tuition and ancillary fees
give rise to massive
levels of student indebtedness. Students in Canada owe more than $14
billion in Canada Student Loans alone, with provincial student loans
and private bank loans and credit card debt making the real figure much
higher. Twelve per cent of students have loans
from commercial lenders; the median amount borrowed is $6,000 per year.
While universities claim that they have no alternative but to increase tuition fees, this does not solve the problem and only perpetuates an unsustainable situation. As the Canadian Federation of Students points out, "Rising tuition fees are symptomatic of government underfunding, not a cure to solve the problem. Wherever tuition fees are allowed to increase, governments simply withdraw an equal portion of public funding." The post-secondary education system in a modern society like Canada requires that it be properly funded by governments. The fact that this basic requirement is not met creates instability for the teaching staff, researchers and students and is detrimental to the quality of education provided.
Canadians stand with students in demanding that the
right to education be provided with a guarantee. Education is one of
the claims people have on society by virtue of being human. The role of
education is not just to provide a work force equipped with the skills
required by the monopolies to attain maximum profits. It must concern
itself with the level of culture and educational attainment of the
society, which faces increasing complexities on both the technological
and social front. Public education must be constantly expanded and
developed to fulfil its role in developing that which makes us human.
For the youth of Canada
who are striving to have a bright future in which they can flourish and
make their contribution to society, the right to education is
indispensable.
Governments must increase funding for post-secondary education so that the high level of education required by the youth and the society is not left to chance or the financial wherewithal of the individual.
The Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist)
proposes a new direction for Canada with the program Stop Paying the
Rich; Increase Investments in Social Programs. In the field of
education, CPC(M-L) calls for:
- the right to education from the primary to
post-secondary level be given a constitutional guarantee
- major investments in education
- an immediate freeze on tuition and their progressive reduction and eventual elimination;
- businesses and institutions which currently
receive
trained and educated personnel free of cost be required to pay a levy
to finance post-secondary education;
- progressive transformation of loans into a national bursaries program to ensure each student has the right to a livelihood
- abolition of user fees; and
- a cap on fees and reduction of tuition for international students.
All aspects of political, economic and social life in Canada need renewal. Students must join with all those who work in the field of education and take the lead in demanding that the government invest more funds in education, health care and other required social programs that benefit the whole society, not a privileged few.
Education Is a Right!
All Out for the
February 1 National Student Day of Action!
Stop Paying the Rich!
Increase Funding for Social Programs!
Nova Scotia
The Anti-Social Offensive and
Post-Secondary Education
On January 5, the
government of Premier Darrell Dexter
announced that it had reached an agreement with university presidents
that will allow tuition fees for Canadian students to increase by three
per cent per year for the next three years. The province will also cut
operating grants to universities by three per cent
for 2012-13. A press release from the Canadian Federation of
Students-Nova Scotia (CFS-NS) points out that the three-year Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) also allows tuition fees for students in
medicine, dentistry and law to increase at whatever rate the
university decides, removes the three per cent cap
on tuition fee increases for international students and requires the
parties to examine lifting the cap for domestic out-of-province
students in 2013-14. The CFS-NS press release also notes that students
from other provinces currently pay $1,000 more than students from Nova
Scotia to attend university in the province.
Meanwhile, more and more students from Nova Scotia are going to
out-of-province schools which have lower tuition fees.
For students and their families, this is part of an increasingly unsustainable burden being shifted onto the backs of the working people in general, taking place in the context of the so-called jobless recovery from the recession of 2008 in which cutbacks are the order of the day in all government-funded social services.
 Halifax students protest tuition hikes, January 25, 2012. (CFS-NS) |
The justification for this particular policy shift was expressed in a September 2010 report commissioned by the Dexter government and carried out by Dr. Tim O'Neill. Dr. O'Neill's headline credential is that he is a former executive vice-president and chief economist for the BMO Financial Group. The Report on the University System in Nova Scotia claims that the cuts and fee increases are necessary to "manage the growing financial pressures and looming system over-capacity in the face of anticipated enrolment declines."
The fact that this report was carried out by a former financier and has as its foregone conclusion the denial of the right to education is indicative that the Dexter government, like other governments, operates in the service of finance capital. Whether it be health care, education or other social programs that are the mechanism to have the people's rights realized, these attacks by the governments of the rich on social programs are justified by claiming that government debts are primarily due to the cost of providing these programs. Such a rendering covers up that the social wealth produced by Nova Scotians is expropriated to pay the rich, including for debt servicing. The portion of government indebtedness due to funding social programs pales to insignificance compared to the amount of borrowing to pay the rich and to cover shortfalls in provincial revenues along with even greater amounts of interest and service charges added by the lending institutions. Furthermore, the intensified anti-social offensive is the result of pressure to reduce this debt or else have the bond rating agencies like Moody's or Standard and Poor's or Dominion Bond Rating Agency lower the province's credit rating, making it harder to borrow more money and more expensive to service previously accumulated debt.
 Nova Scotia students rally in downtown Halifax during the 2011 Student Day of Action. (Colin Davis) |
That is how the interests of finance capital take precedence over the needs of the public for quality social services in general. Health care and education being the two biggest areas of budgeted program expenditures has made them the principal target of the Dexter government's latest budget-trimming exercise. The burden of sovereign debt is always placed on the backs of the people, especially those of moderate or meagre means. Whether it be tax increases or cuts to social programs, all the government's schemes have relentless payments to the rich as their ultimate aim.
Like the federal Harper Conservatives, the provincial Dexter NDP government represents and serves the narrow class interests of the financial oligarchy -- a tiny minority whose interests are capital-centred, not human-centred, and utterly indifferent to the real needs and demands of the vast majority. The financial oligarchy sees the NDP's ties with organized labour as a means to keep the unions under control while their membership is gradually impoverished and reduced in numbers. This is what the government employees', the teachers' and the health care workers' unions in particular currently experience. That is also why, when a big multinational investor like NewPage or AbitibiBowater threatens to pull out of the province, the government responds with new inducements such as lower taxes or power rates, or additional funding to get them to stay, while permitting them to layoff some workers and cut the wages and benefits of those who remain.
The restoration of tuition increases is part and parcel
of a general decay in social services and standards of living, a broad
anti-social offensive. It requires that the youth and students join
with the workers and all others to organize themselves to resist this
offensive by all means at their disposal.
Ontario
Support Students' Fight for the Right to Education!
February 1 is the National Student Day of Action to demand that education be recognized as a right for all. The Toronto action is being organized by the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario and CUPE Ontario. Both organizations are calling for the Ontario government to reduce tuition fees, drop student debt and to increase education funding for all.
The event is timely given the developments in post-secondary education in Ontario and across Canada. Recently the McGuinty government announced tuition grants for only some students with many others being excluded arbitrarily. Some students who do qualify have also expressed their frustrations with the obstacles in the application process and about the relatively small amount of money that the grants actually represent for them. The arbitrary grants continue the anti-social offensive in Ontario which includes the negation of the rights of all to be educated in a modern society with guarantees.
Workers and students at
Ontario's community colleges are
particularly striving to have their voices heard. Colleges continue to
be chronically underfunded and are facing situations like larger class
sizes, lack of room availability and understaffed departments (and
over-worked people in them). Many part-time
college workers continue to experience precarious work conditions
including unpredictable contracts from one semester to the next. The
particular issues at the colleges, including the continued demand for
the recognition of bargaining rights for part-time college workers,
must be central at the February 1st event.
Students and workers from the university and college
sectors are demanding that governments serve the general interests of
society by building a modern education system which requires guaranteed
funding for all. They do not want to be told that there are exceptional
circumstances that require cuts to social
programs. They refuse to be dictated to by wolves in sheep's clothing
like former TD Bank Executive and so-called independent observer Don
Drummond who is heading a review of Ontario's public services. Drummond
has been quoted as saying: "One of our overriding themes is that policy
has to be evidence-based.
And there isn't really solid evidence of the benefits of the classroom
size reduction." All those directly involved in education recognize
this fraud as all direct experience tells us that classroom sizes make
a world of difference in teaching and learning. Drummond's background
makes it clear that he is not an independent
observer but a representative of the rich who seek more areas of
private investment to line their pockets. His recommendations for
education spending must be opposed by all those who have an interest in
keeping education a public right.
Fee Mechanisms Feed Privatization of Education
During the Ontario October 2011 election, the Liberals campaigned on providing a tuition grant for Ontario students. On January 5, the McGuinty government announced a tuition grant of 30 per cent for some, but not all, university and college students.
The following estimates prepared by the Canadian
Federation of Students-Ontario (CFS-O) identify the many types of
students who are not eligible.
A brief prepared by the CFS-O points out that the condition created by this disproportional allotment will foster a two-tiered private-public post-secondary education system among Ontario's universities.
Some colleges and universities have expressed interest in becoming private elite institutions who want to pursue more private funding for their operations.
The briefing states: "These institutions may compete for students who won't be eligible for the grant in order to show the Ministry through their operating funds that their students can afford to pay higher tuition fees. By attracting higher income students and relying less on government funding, these universities can argue that they don't require tuition fee regulation. By not funding institutions equally, the province is creating a situation where some institutions can claim that they receive less funding from the government and should be free to control private sources of revenue like tuition fees. Students fear that this will open the door to an American-style, two-tiered post-secondary education system."
February 1 is the National Student Day of Action to demand that education be recognized as a right for all. Education is a right. It is not a privilege. Educational institutions must be organized to ensure this right. It must be funded and public. The trend towards privatization of public services in Ontario must be vigorously opposed. The McGuinty government has set a target post-secondary attainment rate of 70 per cent. This reflects the high level of education required by society. Education from early learning through post-secondary education should be funded at no cost to the members of society. To do this the government has a duty to stop paying the rich and to increase funding for social programs.
Students must take up the call for education as a right. This requires a new direction for our economy. For many Canadians the present direction of the economy has become untenable and a new one must be found. For students it begins with demanding that governments uphold public right over monopoly right and fully fund our educational system; putting a stop to the student debts and financial hardship faced by students and their families; and for a public service that must be funded in a modern society.
For Your Information
According to Wikipedia, "Ontario has a binary public post-secondary education structure consisting of parallel college and university systems. The public college system comprises 21 colleges of applied arts and technology and three institutes of technology and advanced learning. The public university system is comprised of twenty-two universities. Some universities have federated and/or affiliated colleges which are considered part of the public university system. In addition, there are seventeen private religious universities and over 500 private career colleges that are not classified as universities."
First Nations
Aboriginal Students Demand Action to Broaden Access to Post-Secondary Education
Aboriginal Day of Action, Vancouver, May 29, 2008
Students are calling on the federal government to honour the Treaty rights guaranteed to Aboriginal students to access post-secondary education, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) informs in a January 25 press release. Despite rising tuition fees in many provinces, the Post-Secondary Student Support Program (PSSSP) for First Nations and Inuit students has been capped at two per cent growth since 1996. This has prevented tens of thousands of Aboriginal students from attending college or university, the Federation points out.
"If the federal government is serious about providing Aboriginal students with the opportunity to get the skills and training they need to participate in the Canadian economy, it should increase funding available to students who are ready to attend college or university," said Patrick Smoke, Aboriginal Students' Representative for the CFS. "The PSSSP has been shown to be a very successful program, but it is dramatically short on funds."
Due to the funding cap on the PSSSP, approximately 20,000 eligible students are currently on a waiting list to get funding to continue their studies. First Nations and Inuit communities are forced to make difficult decisions about who to fund and for how much using limited funds. In addition, Métis and non-status students receive no funding to pursue their education.
"Above and beyond the moral and legal obligation of the federal government to fund Aboriginal students' access to education, ensuring Aboriginal students' right to education would have a significant impact on the Canadian economy," added Smoke. "The federal government must lift the funding cap on the PSSSP and deliver on long-time promises to Aboriginal Peoples."
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