A new study by former Steelworkers research director Hugh Mackenzie dissects right-wing arguments used to justify cuts to post-secondary funding and tuition fee increases.
In the study, entitled “Post-secondary education in Ontario: beyond the path of least resistance”, Mackenzie argues that Ontario governments of all three stripes have followed a policy of transferring an increasing proportion of the cost of post-secondary education on to the backs of students.
Now, when educational attainment is more important than ever, government funding is lower and tuition fees higher than at any time in the past 30 years.
And as a result, student debt is up - so high that where normally university graduates have 30 to 40 per cent higher net incomes than high school graduates, now some earn far less.
The complete study is available here: http://www.cupe.on.ca/sectors/2004/university/fundingpost.pdf