The province-wide Day of Action for a Poverty-Free Ontario will take place this Thursday, and we at UTSU and the Drop Fees Poverty Free Ontario Coalition have spent countless hours leafleting, speaking with students, and getting materials ready for the rally. We’ve gone around to classes, dining halls, and residences to speak with thousands of students, as well as staff and faculty, about the demands of the campaign and why it’s important. There’s been an enormously positive response, with 90,000 signatories to petitions from across the province. But we’ve also encountered a number of bizarre myths about the campaign that I think should be cleared up before the big day. After all, we wouldn’t want people deciding not to come because of faulty information.
Myth one
These campaigns happen every year and nothing comes of them.
Campaigns calling for accessible, well-funded education have been happening for decades, but certainly not every year. There have been four in the last 10 years, all of which produced results. In 2000, a province-wide Day of Action resulted in the re-regulation of tuition fees for professional faculties like law and dentistry after they skyrocketed 200 per cent in one year. In 2004, the campaign resulted in a two-year tuition freeze, while in 2007, the National Day of Action produced a national system of need-based grants (which takes effect this year). Last year, our campaign led to an extra $150 million in provincial funds for post-secondary infrastructure. That seems like a little bit more than nothing to me.
Myth two
The campaign demands don’t apply to international students, students in professional faculties, or students not on OSAP.
The campaign applies to all students in the province regardless of programme of study, status, or financial background. Back in the early ’90s, international students and those in second-entry professional programmes like pharmacy or law used to pay the same amount for tuitions fees. It’s high time we end differential tuition fees, because all knowledge is important.
Myth three
The campaign is nothing but an NDP-Ontario election platform.
The campaign is officially non-partisan, but is supported by a number of Members of Provincial Parliament, including several from the PC Party of Ontario and the NDP. The current Critic for Colleges and Universities, PC member Jim Wilson, recently lambasted Premier Dalton McGuinty’s terrible record on education, and called on MPPs to join us on Nov. 5. Supporting education and social programmes with the goal of eliminating poverty is in everyone’s best interest, liberal and conservative alike.
Myth four
Reduced tuition fees will reduce the quality of my education, since the university will be getting less money.
The campaign calls for a fully-funded reduction in tuition fees, which means that any revenue lost from the reduction would be made up by an increase in government funding. The burden of financing public education should be on the government, not on students.
So I hope that this has cleared a few things up. It is only by raising all our vices together and demanding an accessible education for everyone that we can achieve our goal and lower tuition fees.
Adam Awad is Vice President University Affairs for UTSU
