With a new premier elected and about to take the helm, members of Ontario’s education community paused to reflect on how Mike Harris had changed learning in Canada’s largest province.
Their overwhelming conclusion? It can’t get much worse.
“Generally, I think, the quality of education has declined,” said Henry Jacek, McMaster University prof and president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA).
The most dramatic change in Ontario universities during the Tories’ Common Sense Revolution was the increase in class sizes, Jacek said. He added that larger class sizes decrease interaction between profs and students, and make multiple-choice tests more common than essay-style exams.
Harris resigned as MPP on April 2. His replacement, Ernie Eves, has promised to take a more centrist stance, consulting more with his critics while continuing to cut taxes.
“The public wants more investment in universities,” Jacek said, citing polls commissioned by OCUFA. “The rank-and-file Conservatives disagree with their own party,” he added.
Another faculty association, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), agreed with Jacek’s assessment. CAUT released an almanac of post-secondary education that provides statistics on education from a national perspective.
The numbers show post-secondary education funding dropping by 30 per cent in Ontario from 1992 to 2002.
Saskatchewan showed a 19 per cent increase in spending over the same period.
But despite the cuts, Ontario’s university participation rate remains the third highest in Canada.
“All the provinces were thrown into the same boat” in 1996, said Dave Robinson, CAUT president. That’s when the federal Liberal government cut transfer payments to the provinces in an attempt to balance the budget and eliminate the deficit.
“I think there was a decision in Ontario that governments should spend less on public education and students should spend more,” Robinson added.
“Students were spending significantly more under the Mike Harris regime.”
Joel Duff, the Ontario chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, noted that the provincial Progressive Conservatives “spiked tuition fees in Arts and Science programs” and voted in a “20 per cent across-the-board cut.”
The government defends the Common Sense Revolution record in university funding by saying Ontario took necessary steps to cut a bloated provincial budget, increase health spending to cope with an ageing population, and deal with a massive reduction in the federal transfer fees that pay for education.
The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities points to the SuperBuild program, which has invested $1.8 billion in 59 projects at colleges and universities across the province—“the single largest capital project in 30 years in the post-secondary sector,” according to the ministry’s business plan.
The plan also notes that tuition increases “in most programs [have been] capped at two per cent per year”—although professional programs have deregulated tuition, which means universities can hike tuition in areas like engineering and medicine to whatever they want.
The ministry also boasts that 21,500 new spaces will be created in computer science and engineering programs through an Access to Opportunities fund.
The ministry has also set targets to increase the number of medical and teaching graduates. The 2001 Ontario budget announced a $293 million increase in operating grants to colleges and universities, an extra $100 million for maintenance and $10 million for research awards.
The province is also moving to base a small percentage of university funding on employer and student satisfaction rates and graduation and employment statistics.
Critics of the Mike Harris legacy in education are cautiously optimistic that incoming premier Ernie Eves may increase post-secondary education spending when he takes over the government.
“Certainly there’s a lot of posturing. He’s been positioning himself as a kinder, gentler politician,” CAUT’s Dave Robinson said. Robinson added that he hopes Eves will follow through on his campaign promise to make sure qualified university students won’t be turned away from postsecondary education because of inability to pay.
“Eves graduated from university, whereas Harris didn’t,” Jacek said. “He has shown an interest in consulting with the experts.”
