Liberals Make Big Promises

Original Blog Posting

So, if you haven't yet had a chance to check out the Liberal Party announcement on PSE, check it out. Or, if you just want the basics, keep on reading this blog!

A Liberal government promises to make the following investments in Post Secondary Education through a 20 year education endowment fund:

• 200,000 needs-based bursaries of up to $3,500 per year
• 100,000 access grants of up to $4,000 per year for groups under-represented in post-secondary education
• Guaranteed student loans of $5,000, regardless of parental income
• Expansion of the post-graduation student loan interest free repayment period from six months to two years
• Reducing the student loan interest rate to prime
  
• A guaranteed universal education grant of $1000 for each full-time student in Canada each year - to replace the Harper tax credits program
  
• Increase tricouncil research funding by more than a third of its current value
  

These are just the highlights from the liberal plan. The cost, over 20 years, is estimated around $25 Billion. This is a big step up from the 50-50 plan announced by the Liberals in the 2006 election. It is clear that much more thought was put into this proposal than the last.

So, before getting too much into the criticisms of this platform, I must say that what they've promised is good. I wouldn't take away anything that is here. Obviously, the more money we can put into these programs, the better. This plan will increase access opportunities for Canadian youth who currently aren't participating in our PSE system. Unlike the Green Party plan , the Liberals have put forward a system of grants that is fully costed. We don't know the specifics of how the plan will be administered, or what the exact criteria will be for qualification for grants, and likely won't hear much about it until (if ever) the plan is implemented.

What's missing?

There is no significant mention of how the Liberals would work with the provinces to deliver this program. Aside from working with the provinces to ensure fairer provincial student loan practises and increasing aboriginal representation in the PSE system, we don't hear much at all. The responsibility for education has long been in the jurisdiction of the province, based on the understanding that each province has specific needs, and that blanket approaches don't neccessarily work nationwide. A dedicated transfer to the provinces for post secondary education is really what is needed.

Nova Scotia, in particular, desperately needs reform to the Canadian Social Transfer, the funding formula for transfering funding to the province for Post Secondary Education. The problem with the formula, is that it doesn't credit provinces like Nova Scotia for taking students from other provinces. Essentially, students from out of province make up about one third of our student population, but their tax dollars don't follow them to Nova Scotia.

Another critical element missing from the Liberal platform is Early Outreach. We know from the great research that the Millenium Canadian Scholarship Foundation has done that certain demographics of our population need early outreach programs like Pathways to ensure that they are aware of the educational oppotunities available to them after high school, and to ensure they are prepared for university once they arrive. No matter how many new programs we introduce, we need to pursue early outreach programs to ensure the opportunities available to Canadians are equally clear to all demographics.

The liberals made an announcement on childcare and early learning later in the day, but it's not clear exactly what the early learning programs will incorporate.

CASA and CFS have both responded to the announcement differently. “Tuition fee increases eat away at the value of any student grant, and we were disappointed that there was no commitment to work with the provinces to cap and reduce tuition fees,” Katherine Giroux-Bougard, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. “Increased federal transfers are key to protecting families from future tuition fee increases." I'm with her on this one.

“CASA believes the measures proposed by the Liberal Party will help students and families cope with the accelerated costs of education,” said Zach Churchill, National Director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. “The proposed plan, if implemented, can significantly enhance access to post-secondary education system, by providing funding to students who need it the most, while helping to lower the epidemic growth of student debt in this country.”

And thus my dissatisfaction with federal advocacy groups. The CFS response was too teethy, and the CASA response wasn't teethy enough.