Bob Rae goes to college

Community Action, Feb 21, 2005

Former Ontario Premier Bob Rae's report on post-secondary education in Ontario points out the need for more opportunities. It is a fundamental requirement for the economic and social development of Canada and we are lagging, Rae reports. Less than 50% of our high school graduates go on to further education. Those who do not are mainly from economically and socially disadvantaged groups. For them, post secondary education is a foreign idea.

Other countries are doing better than Canada in this respect. Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States are providing post-secondary education opportunities at a higher rate than we are. China and India are racing to multiply the number of university graduates and making an enormous investment in post-secondary institutions. Rae asserts that a university or college education should be a right for any qualified student in Canada.

To the consternation of many, he proposes that universities and colleges set their own tuition fees to any level they see fit. Many fear that this would create a few elite institutions for the affluent and influential. However, Rae wants a new system of grants and student loans put in place that would enable students to deal with the financial barriers they face. At the same time, the institutions would have the obligation to assure that qualified students of all backgrounds are able to attend. (Can we also be assured that our status seeking universities will not want to emulate Harvard and Yale by turning away a qualified student in favor of a poorly prepared, affluent and well-connected one like George W. Bush?)

Rae calls for a major expansion and liberal provision of grants and loans for students in the lower-income and middleincome groups. The grants should be generous enough to increase greatly the number of students paying no tuition at all or those paying reduced fees. Loan conditions would be flexible and repayment schedules long-term and be related to income after graduation. For example, the current practice in student loans of having to pay interest during periods of unemployment would be eliminated.

Many critics suggest that tuition fees should be eliminated altogether or made nominal. Apparently, the community is not prepared to accept this as yet. Rae accepts the prevailing belief that students should pay toward and be responsible for their own education. Students currently pay about 25% of the cost of their education in universities and colleges and this rate would effectively decline when grants are taken into consideration.

In the 1950's and 1960's, when new universities and community colleges were created, Ontario and most other provinces chose not to emulate the admirable California system, one that integrates most forms of post-secondary education. Instead, we modeled ourselves on the British system of universities and polytechnical schools that are keep aloof from each other. The UK approach was related to the class system and a post secondary education served as a way of controlling the upward mobility of people. It's a system unsuitable to Canadian life. For a community college student, it is a serious burden if he or she decides to transfer to a university because it can mean starting all over again.

The separation of universities and community colleges in Canada is slowly breaking down. A few colleges are allowed to grant degrees and, against considerable resistance, universities are now accepting limited Credits from students transferring to them. Rae is proposing that these "silos" be eliminated quickly and that the universities and colleges work to make their courses and programs more transferrable.

We close with a thought about Kimberley Rogers. She became a community college student in her late 30s aiming to change the course of her life. She committed the crime of not reporting a modest student loan while continuing to receive meagre welfare payments. For this crime she was sentenced to 6-months of house arrest and her welfare payments suspended. Without income, despairing, depressed, pregnant and living in an airless apartment during a very hot summer, she took an overdose of sleeping pills. A coroner's jury suggests that welfare policies contributed to her death. This story points to the need for action so that students can undertake post-secondary education with less financial difficulty than Kimberly Rogers experienced. The Rae report's recommendations

on student aid should be implemented now and we propose that a new student assistance law be called the Kimberley Rogers Memorial Law.--L.K.