In a recent op-ed on student fees, Jerry Agar made it clear he doesn’t understand the implications of the new Ford policy on student programs.
Ford’s policy to allow students to opt-out of student programs isn’t as simple as he makes it out to be. To be fair, the material the Ford government has released on this policy change is intentionally confusing and at some points vague. But we have enough information now to understand how students are going to be affected.
The premise is this: students should not have to pay for anything they don’t want to, aside from fees related to health and safety. Sounds good right? Except Students already collectively decided on what they want to fund.
Student fees are not decided upon in some dark boardroom run by student activists. Instead, they are voted on by the whole student body in a referendum. Despite students voting on which fees they want (and which ones they don’t), Doug Ford wants to make it possible for students to opt out of referendums if they don’t agree with the results.
What’s clear is that the effect on students will be more consequential than just defunding some clubs or organizations.
It’s clear from the documentation that transit passes are going to be covered by the opt-out. Many student associations buy transit passes for students in bulk. These are carefully negotiated deals that save students hundreds of dollars. These deals are now in peril because they will be eligible for the opt-out.
For students in Ontario, tuition is being cut but many of them won’t see any real benefit because their grants will be turned into loans so they will graduate with more debt. They will be paying more for less because Universities will have to cut millions of dollars from programming. And once the university transit pass agreements are broken, they will be paying more for transit.
One billion is being taken away from post-secondary and this will reduce access for students and have far-reaching consequences on the system. This policy is going to do more than just affect student newspapers. Other services that could be affected are LGBTQ centres, walk home programs, food banks, indigenous student resource centres and ethnic clubs — all things that students need and that are generally funded by student association fees not individual levees that could be protected.
The government has not said or made clear how it’s going to make sure supports for vulnerable students remain in place — likely because they have not thought about or do not care about the implications of their own rule changes.
The policy that was introduced was supposed to do one thing: defund student organizations that protest the government. It doesn’t matter to Ford that these organizations were democratically elected. He doesn’t like them, so he wants students to be able to opt-out.
His policy will accomplish his objective, but it will have negative consequences to campus life. Students will have less leadership and experiential learning opportunities and there will be less discussion and debate on campus as student groups are defunded. The losers will be students, parents, and ultimately all of us. And that’s a shame.
— Mitzie Hunter is the MPP, Scarborough-Guildwood and the former Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-allowing-students-to-opt-out-of-programs-will-have-a-ripple-effect
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