Ontario's Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities, John Milloy, announced this week that Ontario will cut 1,000 spaces from its teacher training programs in an attempt to correct an oversupply of unemployed B.Ed graduates.

Cutting enrolment at public universities is one of the few methods available to the government to be seen as addressing this problem. The cutting back of spaces in the province may have no impact on the oversupply of qualified teachers - but it will ensure that more teachers come from privileged backgrounds, with parents who could afford paying for a teacher's degree from elsewhere.

There already exists a market for foreign institutions - especially those in U.S. border states such as New York - offering teaching degrees to young Ontarians who are rejected within the province but whose parents can afford to pay for them to attend out-of-country. The Ontario government has no control over these universities and degrees from "Western Nations" are fully recognized when graduates return to the province in search of a full-time teaching position.

I'm already hearing from contacts that teachers' colleges along the border have engaged in a media buy and are likely to expand their enrolments this September to profit from the increased demand for out-of-province spaces.

There are many interests vested in keeping the status quo.

Students

Despite a glut of qualified teachers applying for a limited supply of teaching jobs (with the exception of certain high-school specializations), the rewards of securing a full-time teaching job more than outweigh the risks of unemployment - especially for those holding undergraduate degrees who find themselves already facing poor employment prospects.

With above-average pay, lots of time off - including two months in the summer - and union protections that prevent all but the absolute worst teachers from being fired, it should not be a surprise that many young people are pursuing a teaching career. It's one of the few career paths that offer job security in today's economy.

Students have little desire - but plenty of interest - to decrease spaces. After all, most people believe they're the exception to the rule and will find their dream job (teaching Kindergarten for many) immediately upon graduation.

Universities

Universities have little interest in regulating the flow of graduates from their programs - once they have the student's tuition and government funding units, their interests are fulfilled.

School boards

School boards benefit from an oversupply of teachers who fill the ranks of their supply teaching availability list.

But here's the twist: School boards are also dealing with a shortage of qualified teachers in specialized disciplines, such as French and high-school science.  While they are able to better balance their budgets by hiring supply teachers - both retirees and recent graduates - because they do not have to pay benefits, they are also forced to spend more money recruiting teachers in specialized disciplines.

Sometimes they are forced to settle for less than ideally qualified candidates to fill positions; for example, having a non-French major who can speak French instructing the subject at the elementary level.

All parties could benefit from a serious plan to address the current imbalance in teaching graduates - both in numbers and qualifications.

A suggestion

The problem of an imbalance between teaching graduates and jobs can be solved by pre-screening candidates entering teachers colleges for jobs at local school boards when they graduate. To gain entrance to teachers' college, a candidate should be required to prove they have a position lined up with a public or private school waiting for them when they graduate.

This would enable school boards to directly recruit undergraduate students in specialized disciplines and for the creation of incentives for these in-demand graduates to pursue a teaching degree. As undergraduate students would require the endorsement of a school board to enter teachers' college, there would be significant incentives for those wishing to teach to be volunteering at primary and secondary schools. This pool of potential volunteers could be the basis of a comprehensive effort to increase educational outcomes at schools in the poorest socio-economic areas of Canada's cities.

Engaging children in Canada's poorest neighbourhoods - with role models attending university - would achieve more to increase the representation of our nation's lowest social classes in higher education than any present government program. This could help address the increasing gap between the well-off and the poor.

Schools would have an interest in "sponsoring" teaching candidates with roots in their local communities. This could also result in more students from rural, poor and inner-city areas, as well as from native reserves, attending teachers' colleges, which could do more than present "access" programs to encourage socio-economic diversity in the teaching profession.

The oversupply problem was not created overnight and it will not be solved with a knee-jerk reaction. The greatest cause of the current crisis was the knee-jerk responses of previous governments to the supply and demand crises they faced.

It is time for a serious review and restructuring of the teaching profession, and the best place to start is revamping the present assembly-line teaching colleges, which are producing too many graduates who are generalists and not enough who are specialists.

The only party with the power and motivation to act is the government.

What do you say, "education premier" Dalton?

Student groups are celebrating a "victory" in Ontario today as the provincial government announced a continuation of the tuition status quo and unveiled some incremental changes to the provincial student loans program.

Unless the definition of victory has changed, I don't see why student lobbying organizations are celebrating. Sure, the announcement today only included one cutback - the debt cap for Ontario's neediest students is increasing by $300 per two-term academic year - but it didn't exactly have a lot of substantive benefits for students, either.

In the context of the province's record deficit, it is definitely good news that student aid was not cut and the government continues to cap tuition. However, this good news should not be construed as anything more than student lobbying groups holding the line until after the next provincial election.

Still, "victory" is not a word I'd use to describe today's announcement. Tuition will continue to increase at more than two times the rate of inflation, and the neediest students are about to carry $300 more in provincial student debt each year. The increase to the maximum amount of provincial student loans is only $320 per academic year - less than the amount tuition has increased since 2005.

There are positive changes in this package. The fact that students can now earn more toward their studies without government claw backs has doubled and been indexed to inflation. There are new grants for part-time students, interest relief on loan repayments for the first six months after graduation, repayment assistance for former students with low earnings, and the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) formula is being indexed to inflation for non-tuition educational expense.

The battle over the contribution that Ontario's higher education sector will make when the government tackles the deficit has merely been put off until after the 2011 election. If today's announcement is a victory, it is only one battle in a war in which the odds are against the sector.

The provincial Liberals have positioned post-secondary education as an 2011 election issues - it's now time to man the barricades.

Poll: Does keeping Ontario post-secondary tuition increases at 5% for the next two years help students?

Ontario's budget will make space for 20,000 new students this September with $310-million in new money for the province's colleges and universities, but all students will be left wondering how much they will pay to attend.   

The much expected "Reaching Higher Two" (the successor to the government's Reaching Higher plan for post-secondary education) that will set the direction of Ontario's higher education sector was not revealed in the budget. This leaves institutions, students, and parents wondering what the price tag of a degree or diploma will be in Canada's largest province.

From what was revealed in the budget, the outlook for higher education and students in the province is good.  At $15,500 per student, the funding for the 20,000 new spaces is significantly higher per student than the average per-student funding of approximately $8,000 at the university level. This provides the necessary funds for institutions to properly invest in the capital and operating expenses necessary to offer a quality education for these students. Overall, the government will spend more than $8.3-billion on higher education in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Controversially, the budget also freezes public sector wages to help the province wrestle with its record deficit. The wage freeze extends to colleges and universities but will not effect current collective agreements or contracts. Post-secondary unions currently negotiating agreements will face this freeze. With memories of the 2008-09 York University CUPE strike still fresh in the province, the increased labour tension should make students at institutions with contract negotiations underway nervous. The flip-side is that the freeze will finally bring spiraling higher education costs under control. The primary driver of above-inflation cost increases in higher education have been rapid wage increases, especially for senior administrators, many of whom have seen six-figure increases in the last decade. 

The budget includes new funds for Ontario Summer Jobs programs, with an additional $39-million being injected this summer to assist employers, especially non-profits, to fund employment for students. This is in addition to the funding added last year and brings the total budget of the program to $96-million - 69 per cent higher than prior to the recession.

There is a glaring omission from the budget - the government has given no indication how much tuition will increase this September. This is very concerning as there are less than five months until tuition payments start becoming due. I called both the Minister's and Ministry communications officers. They stated updated tuition regulations will be revealed "shortly." When pressed, they did not give a timeline. From the conversations, it does not appear the announcement will occur prior to the Easter long weekend. The Ontario Legislature does not sit during the week of April 5-9, 2010, which makes it likely that "Reaching Higher Two" will be unveiled early that week.

No reason was given for the later release of this plan, but having talked to sources within the government and Ministry over the last few weeks, I've been left with the impression that a great deal of thought is being put into ensuring that any increase in tuition is offset with targeted financial aid to prevent a drop in students from under-represented backgrounds. 

If the budget is any indication, parents and students have little cause for concern that tuition will skyrocket as it did during the recession of the 1990s.

What are your reactions to the budget's effects on higher education? Continue the discussion in the comments or on GlobeCampus's or Coleman's Twitter pages, or on the Canadian post-secondary education discussion thread. 

The First Nations University of Canada's latest series of financial mismanagement scandals - incredibly frustrating to all who want to see successful models of aboriginal higher education - are much the same as previous ones: alleged mismanagement of funds, questions about the diligence of FNUC's board of governors, and a former senior administrator suing the university for alleged wrongdoing. This time, as well, the FNUC has admitted that money has been misused from the scholarship fund.

After years of scandal and inaction, both the provincial and federal governments have cut funding to the troubled university.

Now, with funding cut, the university is being forced to make substantive changes. Having started to make the changes to governance structure demanded over the last five years - and ignored despite scandal after scandal - the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations is demanding both levels of government reinstate funding to the institution so that it will continue to operate independently and remain wholly owned by FSIN. The demands are being backed by both the federal NDP and the federal Liberal Party.

Yet, no one is asking the big question - is a separate university for aboriginals located in Regina the best model to address social mobility for Canada's First Nations?

Having seen a better model, I say no. 

The First Nations University of Canada needs to be more than a building in Regina. The fact is - surprisingly - more aboriginal students in Saskatchewan are attending the Universities of Saskatchewan and Regina than FNUC, according to the Regina Leader-Post. But the people who are not necessarily being served are those on reserves and in communities outside Regina. It is time for the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations to look for a new model. I suggest they look at the First Nations Technical Institute on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario.

FNTI offers a wide range of post-secondary options to members and non-members of the Mohawk nation, including reputable college diplomas, undergraduate degrees, and Masters degrees. Instead of reinventing the wheel, FNTI partners with established institutions to bring post-secondary education to its people. Students can earn a diploma from three of Ontario's public colleges, an undergraduate degree from Ryerson University, or complete a master's from Queen's or Wilfrid Laurier. 

Beyond degrees and diplomas, FNTI offers a wide range of certificate and "university diploma" programs that meet the needs of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.

With over 2,000 graduates, FNTI is a First Nations success story. Research shows that students from lower-socio-economical backgrounds are less likely to travel far to attend higher education as living at home keeps their costs down, and research also shows that having post-secondary options within a community increases the percentage of the population which obtains post-secondary education. It is for these reasons that FNUC needs to be revamped and given a strong outreach mandate.

The federal and provincial governments should step up and offer funding for FNUC to have a leading role in spreading the FNTI model to First Nations across Canada.