Is lower tuition worth
higher taxes?
Posted on 11/21/06
The image of student activists marching
on Queen’s Park, brandishing bright yellow “Reduce tuition fees” placards, is
one that most students might recognize.
They bring megaphones to amplify their slogans and wear T-shirts that say “I
sold my other shirt to pay for tuition.” Their signs don’t read “Increase
taxes.” But some think they might as well.
Tuition fee reductions and freezes would lead to “obvious” tax hikes, says C.D.
Howe Institute Policy Analyst Yvan Guillemette. As pushes for freezes and
reductions continue, he and others are wondering whether proposals designed to
take some of the load off of students’ chequebooks will hit other citizens’
pockets instead.
In 2003, the
That’s what students can expect from freezes and reductions, analysts say.
“(Students) can’t only expect the government to keep services high and fees
low,” says the Ontario Director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, Neil
Desai. “They have to be willing to work with them as students.”
Student groups advocating lower user fees may want to be careful what they wish
for, Guillemette adds.
“Freezes and reductions are not an investment,” he says. “When the government
freezes or reduces tuition, it’s not putting funding into the other aspects of
post-secondary education.” Those “other aspects,” he says, include building
maintenance and research funding.
But Canadian Federation of Students Chairperson Amanda Aziz
says fees can add up, preventing students from pursuing their education.
“User fees are a barrier for low income Canadians,” she says. “We have to send
the message to the provinces helping to create those barriers that this isn’t
good for students.”
But the CFS and other groups may be forgetting that the provinces’ roles goes beyond this one issue, Guillemette says.
“Education always seems to lose out to things like health care,” he says. Desai
agrees.
“The government has so many other things to deal with besides post-secondary
education,” he says.
“There has to be a balance between
public and individual investment. When groups are calling for a (tuition)
freeze, they’re calling for society as a whole to fund universities in a
greater way.”
But funding post-secondary education is “absolutely” society’s role, Aziz says.
“Education has a huge societal benefit,” she says. “While there are obviously
individual benefits, the societal benefits are as great or
even greater than those for individuals.”
She cited the B.C. government’s 2005-2006 budget, which stated that “70 per
cent of job opportunities will require some post-secondary education,” as a
reason why “society needs an educated population.”
Desai says that while he can understand students’ desires to get a good education,
they should be prepared to get what they pay for.
“It (currently) falls to all taxpayers to fund universities,” he says.
“Students need to come to the realization that they’re contributing to the cost
of post-secondary education, but so are other citizens.
“And not everyone in the province goes to university.”
Aziz says that doesn’t matter.
“That’s just the way our tax system works,” she says. “Once you make a lot of
money and can afford to pay more in taxes, you have to help to fund education for
people who are faced with barriers.”
Guillemette says Aziz’s argument is indicative of
student lobbyists’ position — that post-secondary education is society’s
responsibility.
“They’re aware that society is contributing most of that money,” he says, “but
they think it’s the right thing to do. A tuition freeze might even work against
students, he adds.
“It would hurt them more than it would help them, I think,” he says. “When you
freeze tuition, you freeze it for everybody, not just those who have difficulty
paying.”
Desai recently finished his masters degree in
“We are very privileged here,” he says. “We have very high expectations, and
expectations don’t come cheap.”