Budget Boost

Transport minister John Baird made the following anouncements today regarding infrastructure spending in the upcoming federal budget: 

$4 billion for an infrastructure stimulus fund to help provinces, territories and municipalities.

$2 billion for repairs and construction of colleges and universities.

$1 billion for sustainable green infrastructure projects.

"Students are impressed that the government has recognized the importance of investing in PSE infrastructure," said Zach Churchill, National Director othe Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. "The question for tomorrow's budget is how this money is going to be delivered and whether or not it will

simply displace pre-existing funding."

CASA was the only national student advocacy group calling for investments in infrastructure in the upcoming budget.

Zach also made a good point in his blog when he points out that none of our elected officials are talking about making room for more seats in colleges in universities across Canada. We can throw money at a problem, but without a skilled workforce, we're going to continue suffering from a skilled labour shortage.

 In addition to infrastructure spending, CASA is recommending that the following actions be taken as a part of the 2009 federal budget: 

a one-time, earmarked transfer to the provinces for PSE to offset freezes or claw-backs in provincial PSE funding
Provide temporary targeted grants to counterbalance the difficulties students and their families may face in finding the means to afford post-secondary education
Extend the Interest Relief period for Canada Student Loans from the current 6 months, to 9 months

Time to lead...

It's no secret that I'm an Obama fan. I started out as a Kucinich fan (big dreams, lots of pockets),  and then became an Edwards fan, and then got bounced to Obama. 

Why Obama? Because he gets people excited about politics. Regardless of the policy stances he's taken on several controversial issues, he is able to use his candour and gravitas to bring people together and get them excited about politics, even when they might disagree with him. 

Isn't this blog about education? 

Barack Obama (Senior) came to America from Kenya.  He was a bright student, self driven, academically capable, but encountered financial barriers in trying to enter the higher education system. He began writing letters to American universities asking for admission and scholarship, and eventually The University of Hawiaii agreed to give him an education. He would here continue his education and father Barack. 

Barack himself funded his university career on student loans. Barack and Michelle only recently paid off their remaining student loans after becoming elected to the United States Senate in 2004 and becoming a bestselling author. 

So what's his pledge to students?

Barack Obama will reform No Child Left Behind:

• Obama and Biden believe teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests and he will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college.
  

ans:Invest in early childhood education:

• The Obama-Biden comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. And they will help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.
  

I would argue that these first two promises are as important (if not more important) than the final promise. With a public school system as good as the one we have throughout most of Canada, we can't begin to imagine the work that needs to be done before we can fully consider making it possible for every capable American high school graduate to obtain a higher education. 

• Obama and Biden will create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 in exchange for community service. It will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students.
  

Three small promises, that will arguably have resounding affects on the next generation. I haven't studied american education policy, and the context is certainly very different. 

Hope for Education

Sometimes I catch myself drifting away from the importance of higher education and wonder if I should be focusing my efforts elsewhere. But the Obama story is inspiring for more reasons than unity.  Within the student advocacy movement we talk alot about the difficulties faced by students in Canada from families with no history of higher education. 

The Obama story is an unlikely one for many reasons, but its inspiring to believe that the chance accessibility of higher education has played such a pivotal role in paving the path for the president of today.  Because of the generousity of some University of Hawaii adminstrators, his father was empowered to visit America and father one of the greatest organizers and thinkers of our time. 

It makes me extremely hopeful for a world of possibilities. Possibilities that will only be realized once our leaders take the steps to ensure that every capable student is able to pursue a higher education with the right tools at their grasp, and to able to do so without the fear of backbreaking debt, balancing two jobs with full time study, or taking care of a young family. 

That's why I like Obama.

Textbooks are sexy (Part 2): Homeward Bound

I’m writing this post while sitting in the airport on my way back to Halifax, which is fitting, because everything I’ve learned this week tells me that the solution to dealing with the high costs of textbooks begins at home. As I mentioned in my last post, Dalhousie faculty and instructors are the ultimate decision makers when it comes to choosing and negotiating textbook orders for you. Alternatives, though there are few, need to be made apparent to students on campus before they’ve made their textbook purchases for the year.

Each year profs are approached by marketing representatives from the major publishing companies. Obviously, professors of larger classes are the target market, giving publishers the biggest bang for their book (Har har…). Profs can be (and usually are) offered lucrative deals from these reps. If, lets say, a prof is considering ordering “Campbell Biology” (Gazzilionth Edition) they may be offered full copyright access to countless images and diagrams for their slideshow, teaching aids, technological supplements for course websites, and more. Often times, profs aren’t even given a price for the text book until an order has been made. And, if your prof accidentally spent too much time on the beach over the summer and failed to order their course texts until August, the cost of your textbook just jumped over the moon. The list goes on.

An interesting tidbit that came out of our meeting with the publishers was the availability of digital texts for courses. James Reeves, president of Neilson Publishing’s Higher Education Division, argued that a large majority of their books were offered in digital format at roughly half the price, but, he concluded, it was pretty evident from sales that students preferred hard copy. This, of course, took us by surprise, as a straw poll quickly revealed that not a single student in the room was aware of this service. Think of the money that students could save (or better yet, the money we could curtail from the publishers) if students in our huge first year courses were able to purchase digital texts for half the cost of the hard-copy.

There is a long list of actions we can take here at Dal to mitigate the financial burden of textbook purchases on students. I’m in the process of developing an action plan for the year that consists of meetings with faculty members, student awareness initiatives and coordination with other student unions and bookstores.

In the meantime, if you’re as concerned about the costs of textbooks as I am, here are some steps you can take:

1. Talk to your prof. Ask them how they ordered your textbooks. Find out if they asked what the price of the books would be before they made an order. Ask if they inquired as to whether or not a digital version of the text was available at a cheaper cost. Make sure your prof knows you expect this of them.

2. Check tigerbooks to see if you can get a purchase a used textbook from someone who no longer needs theirs. If you can’t find the edition you’re looking for, ask your prof to see if you can get away with using a previous edition.

3. Share a book with a friend, or use a copy of the book that is on reserve in the library.

As I continue researching this issue more, I’ll keep you DSUers who are watching from blogland posted on what else we can due. So stay tuned!