Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - 

Polling demonstrates with stunning reliability that most British Columbians want affordable, high-quality public education. They think tuition fees are too high, and have considerable anxiety about the record student debt that this generation of students is carrying.

Despite the popularity of reducing tuition fees and cutting student debt, the BC Liberals have shown no interest in making university and college more affordable. Tax cuts and more trade with pacific rim countries seem to be the only policies on the radar, and it’s unclear how either issue helps average families.

But in order to divert attention away from the student debt burden created when tuition fees doubled under Gordon Campbell between 2002 and 2005, the government relies on a variety of excuses and half-baked theories.

This time last year, it was fashionable for politicians to cite the higher earnings of university graduates as an excuse to ignore student debt and the upfront costs (tuition fees) imposed by government. Organizations like the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), a small but powerful interest group comprised exclusively of university presidents, has gone so far as to suggest that a university graduate will earn one million dollars more in her working life than a high school graduate.

Enter the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the 2011 edition of its Education at a Glance publication comparing education systems around the globe. When examining all of the costs and benefits of university participation in Canada, the OECD concluded that the average lifetime premium for male university graduates is only $80,000—less than 10% of the AUCC’s fantastical figure.

For female university graduates, the average earnings premium is only $46,000. In other words, the average woman graduating with a university degree today should only expect to net $1,150 more each year in her 40-year working career.

No doubt there are other benefits to a university and college degree in addition to higher wages. Education is correlated with things like better health and greater career satisfaction. Society benefits in a variety of ways too, as does the broader economy. But the fact remains: proponents of higher tuition fees have been grossly exaggerating the individual returns for their own policy ends.

So this year, with the diminishing credibility of the argument that more student debt is okay because university graduates are all millionaires-in-waiting, politicians need new reasons to fend off the middle-class demands for affordable public education.

The new excuse is the allegedly poor financial planning skills of today’s young adults. In an effort you might call victim-blaming, provincial and federal politicians have begun to cling to the idea that students (and therefore their families) are to blame for their own lot. 

The mainstream press has embraced the idea with gusto. In the month of November 2011, The Province newspaper wrote no fewer than six stories about the record debt  facing this generation—without a peep about the government policies that got us here. Almost all of the solutions covered by The Province were of the self-help variety.

Clever budgeting for students is not an entirely new fad on campus. University administrator and self-styled financial planning guru Murray Baker has made a tidy sum selling his “Debt-Free Graduate” series in which he reminds students to turn off the lights to cut energy bills. Baker estimates his methods to be so effective that he counsels his readers to max out their student loans so they can invest what they don’t spend in the stock market (which, by the way, is fraud).

There may be some truth to the idea that it wouldn’t hurt for students to brush up on their budgeting skills. Unfortunately, this potentially positive approach has—like the millionaire myth discussed above—been used by political opportunists to distract attention from the heart of the matter: sky-high tuition fees.

If the public discourse about fault can be shifted to the victim, so too does the public discourse about the solutions, which is convenient for a government hell bent on tax cuts over investment in public education.

Instead of tuition fee reductions, we get a gimmicky PR campaign to convince us that education is more affordable when you buy less coffee or car pool twice a week.

Of course, even the most aggressive personal budgeting couldn’t change the fact that tuition fees in BC have more than doubled over the last decade and that student debt has skyrocketed into uncharted territory. Clever money management is unlikely to change the interest rate charged on BC student loans which, at prime plus 2.5%, is the highest in Canada.

Better financial literacy won’t hurt, but it is a band-aid solution to a problem caused by government divestment in vital public services. If the government is serious about a BC that is fair and an economy that works for everyone, it should attack the causes of student debt by reducing tuition fees and re-establishing the student grants program that was cut in 2005.

University of Victoria Vice-President Academic Jamie Cassels wrote to the Victoria Times-Colonist to dispute facts presented by the Education Shouldn't be a Debt Sentence campaign. The CFS-BC response is below.

A Sept. 12 letter stated: "Over the past decade, our Liberal government has more than doubled tuition at B.C. institutions. and starved universities and colleges of funding needed to compete in a global economy." The following day it was reported that an average B.C. university student graduates with $27,000 in debt, according to the Canadian Federation of Students.

As the vice-president academic at the University of Victoria during the decade referred to, I have a different understanding of the facts.

Government does not set tuition fees. They are set by university boards of governors, subject to maximum limits set by government. Over the past decade, B.C. tuition fees were indeed increased to bring them into line with fees across the country, but have increased by only two per cent per year for the past four years.

During this same decade, the government did not starve the universities, but paid its share as well, by increasing direct funding to universities by many hundreds of millions of dollars.

The increased funding from tuition and grants has been used to create new programs and courses, to accommodate much higher student enrolments, to provide financial support for students in need and to provide higher salaries for faculty in a competitive labour market.

Average student debt is not $27,000. According to the most recent data, about half of B.C. university students graduate with no debt at all. The median debt for the remaining half is $20,000.

During the recession, public funding for universities has been frozen at 2010 levels. And there are students with very large and unsustainable debt loads. Social and economic development depends upon a strong education system, and it is particularly important that initiatives be developed to enhance educational opportunities for less advantaged members of society.

But it seems wrong to say that the B.C. government, and the taxpayers who foot the bill, have not supported higher education, and the reported statistic on student debt is simply incorrect. Public discussion and good policy should be based on accurate facts.

Jamie Cassels, Faculty of Law University of Victoria

CFS-BC Replies 

In a letter to the editor on September 21, UVic vice-president academic Jamie Cassels challenged figures presented by students to illustrate the massive student debt problem in British Columbia.

Unfortunately, in Mr. Cassels’ haste to defend the government, he neglected to cite a single reference for his factum. On the other hand, we are happy to provide the well-established sources for our figures:

1. Average student debt in BC is $26,738 (Price of Knowledge by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, 2009). Given that tuition fees have increased since 2009 and BC has eliminated its student grants program, we do not expect this figure to decline. This figure doesn’t account for private debt (credit cards, lines of credit, family loans), making the true figure substantially higher.

2. The BC government regulates tuition fees. In the absence of regulation between 2002 and 2005, tuition fees doubled. That the individual institutions (including Mr. Cassels’) behaved so irresponsibly in an unregulated environment is an embarrassment, but it does not take the burden of ultimate responsibility away from the BC Liberal government.

3. Per student funding in BC is lower today than in 2001 (BC Budgets; Confederation of University Faculty Associations-BC). This decline is likely due in part to the addition of (unfunded) spaces over the last decade, but the fact remains: our institutions are being asked to do more with less during a time when a most new jobs require post-secondary graduates.

These facts are no doubt what leads British Columbians to conclude that tuition fees and student debt must be reduced. In an Ipsos poll commissioned by the Federation of Post-secondary Educators of BC last month, well over 80% of respondents supported a freeze or reduction in tuition fees. 

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

VANCOUVER--British Columbia’s record high student debt is a concern for the majority of it’s citizens, according to a new poll released by Ipsos commissioned by the Federation of Post Secondary Educators of BC (FPSE) and the Canadian Federation of Students-BC (CFS-BC). 

“University and college education in BC is a debt sentence,” said Zach Crispin, Chairperson of the CFS-BC. “The BC government needs to take action to reduce tuition fees and to eliminate student debt.”

Highlights of the poll include:

• 92% of British Columbians think that high tuition fees are making it difficult for low-income families to participate in post-secondary education

• 87% want tuition fees frozen or reduced in BC

• Only 33% of British Columbians approve of the BC Liberals’ handling of post-secondary education issues

“Saddling this generation of students with massive debt is no way to ensure a prosperous future for British Columbia. This poll shows that the people of BC want affordable education in BC to be a priority.” said Cindy Oliver, President of the FPSE.

At $27,000 after a four-year program, student debt in BC has never been higher. BC ranks dead-last among the provinces in grants and other student aid disbursements. 

A summary of the poll can be downloaded at http://db.tt/QCuWLD7

The Canadian Federation of Students-BC is composed of 150,000 students in British Columbia from 17 universities and colleges. Post-secondary students in Canada have been represented by the Canadian Federation of Students and its predecessor organisations since 1927. 

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VANCOUVER—Students across BC were surprised to learn that Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto sees nothing wrong with record student debt caused by her government’s tuition fee policies. In an interview with the Kelowna Capital News, the Minister said that student debt was “good debt to assume”.

“As a result of her government’s policies, student debt in BC has never been higher,” said Zach Crispin, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-BC. “We don’t need more spin-doctors in government, we need leadership that will make college and university more affordable.”

In an interview this week the Minister attributed the rosy sentiment about the state of BC’s universities and colleges in part to what she was hearing from students as part of her extensive provincial tour.

“I heard a very different version of what was discussed from students who met with Minister Yamamoto,” said Crispin. “Reducing student debt was a dominant theme. It would be nice to have that acknowledged by the Minister.”

In March, the Minister’s office responded to a large rally of students at the Legislature by suggesting that students should drink less coffee and use the savings to pay for tuition fee increases.

At an average of $27,000 plus compound interest, student debt is at an all-time high in British Columbia. The Canadian Federation of Students-BC is calling on the government to reduce tuition fees, re-establish a student aid program, reduce student loan interest rates, and improve the quality of universities and colleges in BC by increasing funding.

The Canadian Federation of Students-BC is composed of 150,000 students from 17 university and college students' unions. Post-secondary students in Canada have been represented by the Canadian Federation of Students and its predecessor organisations since 1927.

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VANCOUVER—Students are encouraged by BCNDP leadership candidate Mike Farnworth’s proposal to restore need-based grants and reduce the student loan interest rate.

“Education is shaping up to be one of the most talked about issues in the BCNDP leadership race,” said Nimmi Takkar, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-BC. “Students in BC are buried in debt, and a public discussion about solutions is encouraging.”

Farnworth joins fellow candidate Adrian Dix in expressing support for student grants in BC. In 2004, the BC Liberal government eliminated more than $80 million in grants for students with financial need.

Farnworth’s proposal to reduce the interest charged on student loans to prime minus 1% places him between former BC Liberal leadership candidate Moira Stilwell who proposed prime plus 1.5%, and Dix, who has proposed eliminating interest on student loans altogether.

BC currently charges the highest student loan interest in Canada at prime plus 2.5%. On the average student loan, that can add up to more than $7,000 in interest payments alone over a ten-year repayment.

“We welcome the focus on education, and encourage other candidates to ‘up the ante’. In the next election, affordable education will no doubt be a central issue on the minds of voters,” said Takkar.

The Canadian Federation of Students is composed of 150,000 students in British Columbia from 17 university and college students' unions. Post-secondary students in Canada have been represented by the Canadian Federation of Students and its predecessor organisations since 1927.

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