Posts tagged with federal.

Harper fails to answer student loan question

By Joey Coleman, March 17, 2010 at 8:21 AM

Prime Minister Stephen Harper took to YouTube last night to answer questions from Canadians. At 31:29 in his online interview, Harper received a post-secondary education question.

"University students are expected to pay back so much money, plus interest, after furthering there [sic] education when most do not start getting a livable salary right after schol. [sic] Why is there not more assistance when it comes to student loans?" crazy4u79 asked Mr. Harper.

Mr. Harper spent the next minute and 15 seconds speaking in generalities and did not really answer the question.

"One of the things that is obviously a big concern to us over the past years, we know that younger people and new graduates have been particularly hard hit in the recession," he stated to begin his response to the question. "That's why we've introduced a number of specific programs in the last couple of years."

I went to Ottawa and covered the 2008 Federal Budget for Maclean's. The government did introduce changes to student loans, but they were administrative in nature and didn't provide any substantive relief to student loan payees. The student loan system was broke both administratively and financially.

The government addressed a lot of the administrative problems and Mr. Harper's administrative changes have helped make the student loan repayment process easier, but his government did nothing to address the overwhelming financial problems with the Canada Student Loans Program that destroys the lives of so many recent graduates.

Mr. Harper has refused to lower student loan interest, refused to increase the grace period for students to find jobs, and did nothing in the last budget to truly address the issues facing recent graduates.

To add insult to injury, one of the programs he cited in response has nothing to do with the question. The Prime Minister cited Pathways to Education as one of his government's "specific programs." The problem is that Pathways to Education does not assist recent graduates. The word "pathways" should have been a hint to the Prime Minister.

Mr. Harper's record on the student loan file is weak and he couldn't defend it. To use Internet lingo, his answer was a "HARPER FAIL."

Tagged with budget, students, federal, credit | Comments (8) |

Iggy talks post-secondary education

By Joey Coleman, March 16, 2010 at 5:16 PM

Michael Ignatieff is on a cross-country tour this week and the Conservatives are howling "Ignatieff Prorogues Himself.” Ignatieff’s absence from Parliament is of little interest to students, but what he’s saying during his latest cross-country tour is.

Ignatieff told a group of high school students in Newfoundland that he will be proposing changes to the Canada Student Loans Program during the next election. He says he will lower the interest rate on federal student loans and will propose a loan-forgiveness program for graduates working in the public service.

CSLP is in serious need of reform, especially the interest costs placed on students in repayment. The federal government charges a 2.5 per cent above the prime interest rate for student loans. Most provinces charge 1 per cent above prime with a few charging only the prime rate.

A lot of borrowers who are in collection are there as the result of a punishing payment schedule that fails to account for the economic situation facing recent graduates.

Ignatieff states that the federal government needs to take a leadership role in post secondary education by creating a dedicated transfer payment for post secondary education.

To encourage universities to recruit, enroll, and graduate students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, Ignatieff proposes the federal government create financial incentives for schools.

These ideas represent good public policy. For many years, post secondary education policy has been driven by political desires to funnel money into schemes that will deliver votes from upper-middle to upper class families.

During the 2008 federal election campaign, the Liberals proposed replacing current federal tax credits with in-study grants, to provide significant relief for student loan borrowers in their repayment phase, to create more needs-based grants, and to guarantee every student a loan of $5,000.

Ignatieff’s appears to be making post secondary education a major part of his pre-campaign speeches. If he continues, Canada may finally have a serious debate about higher education.

Tagged with university, budget, student, students, federal | Comments (3) |

Post-budget, can education breathe a sigh of relief?

Joey Coleman, March 5, 2010 at 8:04 PM

 

Is the budget scare over or merely delayed? That is the question I find myself asking following the release of the federal budget.

 

A couple of weeks ago, Alberta sent shock waves throughout higher education with massive cuts to student financial aid and higher education.

 

With massive cuts to post-secondary education in the United States and memories of funding cuts during the 1990s, the Canadian higher education landscape has good reason for concern. Seen in this context, it is not surprising that the Alberta provincial budget was seen as good reason for institutions and students in other provinces to be concerned about their own provincial budgets.

 

However, the British Columbia provincial and federal budgets released this week did not slash-and-burn higher education. Both budgets imposed freezes on higher education funding - B.C. in the form of a hard freeze and the federal government in the form of inflationary increases to the granting councils with minimal new initiatives.

 

They did not make cuts - this year - to post-secondary education.

 

The federal budget did include some new programs with very small budgets. Most promising is the $20 million for Pathways to Education - a successful early intervention program which assists those facing socio-economic challenges to graduating high school and continuing to higher education.

 

The British Columbia budget does include one interesting sentence that could indicate the early stages of an eventual deregulation of tuition fees in the province: "The legislation that government intends to develop will reflect the principles whereby universities would be free from government control while recognizing that accountability for public funds will continue to be a key area of interest." (Emphasis mine.)

 

The statement is ominous and could indicate cuts still to come in British Columbia. The federal budget allowed the sector to breathe a sigh of relief, but it is widely known that the federal deficit will eventually need to be tackled and health care is off limits.

 

We'll have to wait and see what the upcoming Ontario and Quebec budgets hold for higher education before passing judgment on Canadian budget trends. The sector's not out of the woods yet.

 

(GlobeCampus editor: You may also be interested in Eye on Higher Ed: Reading between the lines of Ottawa's budget.) 

Tagged with budget, federal | Comments (3) |