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Devil’s scholar
When the Ontario government presented their budget last week, they had some bad news. Gas and energy prices would be rising. So would the provincial debt, with interest taking a big chunk of provincial spending.
Of course, there were goodies to offset that news, including a pleasant surprise for low-income families: free tuition to people with an annual household income below $50,000, with additional grants offered to families earning less than $83,000 per year.
It was one of the most-discussed items of the new budget. Student unions applauded the move, while others raised concerns, mainly about the plan’s fiscal viability, despite insistence from the government the program was simply a restructuring of the current financial aid program for students and wouldn’t cost the province more.
Most parents hope their kids aspire to go off to university and for those who have been struggling with how to help their kids pay for the heavy burden of post-secondary tuition, this must seem like a godsend.
And it is even a slight improvement on the European model. In some countries, including Germany and Sweden, tuition is free for everyone, regardless of income. This creates other inequalities: young people going off to school, especially from places without a university nearby, still have to pay for rent and food.
In those countries, students from low-income households are still at a disadvantage, working one or more jobs alongside attending classes and studying because their parents may not have the finances to help them cover those costs. To lowincome families in Prince Edward County, where the nearest university is in Kingston, this might be a familiar problem.
But putting aside the financial aspect, there are other downsides to free education.
One is the ubiquity of degrees that are financially easy to come by. It creates a problem of demand: if more people entering the labour market have degrees, the demand for qualifications will go up. In Europe, this has meant some grocery stores are requiring clerks to have a bachelor’s degree.
It also means a higher demand from people entering the labour force for professional positions, where no new positions are created. Already, some professions have more graduates than positions, forcing people to be underemployed or to take unpaid internships—sometimes for years—while they wait for an opening.
Certainly, failing to find a paying job would not help a young person hoping to avoid crushing student debt.
On the other side of the coin, demand for service and trade jobs could go down, as more people are able to access university training. Imagine a future where it is impossible to find a roofer, but unemployed accountants are a dime a dozen.
Of course, there are other ways to balance these changes. Universities can push up their standards, limiting enrollment and graduation through merit. But universities are businesses, and if increased enrollment means increased budgets, it could be a tough sell.
So while low-income parents celebrate the opportunities that have opened up for their children, just remember, if your child wishes to become a plumber or a mechanic, perhaps you should nurture that dream.
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