A new CCPA study finds that over the past two decades, Ontario's system of financing higher education has become more regressive, exploiting already over-stretched families who want to help their children pursue their educational aspirations.
In 1990, a middle income family in Ontario could earn the equivalent of four years of tuition fees in 87 days; it will take 195 days in 2011. The situation is even more dire for low income families who are looking at the equivalent of two years of income for four years of tuition fees in 2011.
By forcing all but the wealthiest families to play priority roulette, assume still more debt, or make the difficult decision that higher education is too great a financial burden to bear, Ontario is hampering its economic and educational potential, and we are all paying the price.
There are alternatives: the study shows how the government of Ontario can maximize investment benefits and create a highly educated populace not overburdened with debt, and in so doing help ensure that university is affordable to students and their families regardless of income.
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read an op-ed based on the report. Click here to see an infographic on the burden of a university education in Ontario.
The spring 2011 issue of Our Schools / Our Selves -- Critical Mass: A primer for social change comes at a pivotal time in our political and social development. It tries to get at a few key questions many of us have been struggling with, even before the results of a federal election that left the country highly polarized. How can we build on our past successes while harnessing the remarkable energy and creativity in the social justice movement in such a way that we can create meaningful and sustained progress --politically, economically and socially? And with increasing social fragmentation that is often cynically exploited for short-term partisan gain, how can we learn to work with our debates and our differences and our conflicts and our debates, and not let them tear us apart?
The stakes are extremely high and the task is not easy. But if we succeed, there is little doubt it will make our movement(s) stronger, more responsive, more inclusive and, ultimately, more resilient in the face of neoliberal oppression and opposition.
Click here for a preview of the book and/or to purchase.
“We need the CCPA to remind us that our dreams of a decent, egalitarian society are reasonable — indeed that with a little work, they are practical. And I love that practicality, that protection of the dream of the possible.”
— Naomi Klein