Musings on Education

For all the rhetoric on youth being Canada's future, our governments seem little concerned to act concretely on the matter. Given the much higher rate of unemployment among young adults, and given how much energy is required to write complex resumes for minimum wage jobs, it is time we put some serious government money into post-secondary education. Here I refer to universities, colleges and apprenticeship training in the trades.

1. Our New Democratic Party has made strong moves in that direction. In colleges and universities we will give $1,000 grants to all loan-qualifing students. In addition, we will restore the student loan system to government control & allow loan repayment to be stretched out without penalty, & based on ability to pay. Medical school students will be given debt cancellation if they commit to working ten years in family practice. To my view, this is not enough. Given crippling debt loads for far too many students & given the reality that most students need to hold jobs during their education, I would push for free tuition for all students who are able to meet entry requirements, covered by federal tax revenues given to the provinces for that express purpose.
   
2. An NDP government would set-up apprenticeship programs in trades emerging through a transitional period toward "green jobs." In this process workers entering such programs will be fully funded without any clawbacks to their EI. In fact, we will restore EI to its full funding capacities of 80% before Paul Martin reduced it to 37%, plundering it to the tune of $9 billion.

Musings from the desk of Oz.
Visit my website at http://www.ozcole-arnal.ca/