Education « Social Policy in Ontario

Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Student fees bankroll ‘crazy Marxist’ councils, says Premier Doug Ford

Tuesday, February 12th, 2019

Only programs that support transit, health and wellness — like athletics, walk-safe programs or counselling — and career services will be mandatory… “He seems to think his opt-out plan will help students and defund radical organizations. What he will actually defund are diversity clubs, student newspapers, (LGBT) centres, food banks, walk-home programs, Indigenous centres, and other important programming,” said Hunter.

Tags: budget, ideology, participation, youth
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Experts call Ontario’s full-day kindergarten ‘visionary.’ The Ford government is eyeing changes

Sunday, February 10th, 2019

Ontario’s full-day kindergarten program is in a class by itself. With a full-time teacher and full-time early childhood educator working together, it provides a unique staffing model and two-year curriculum for the province’s 4- and 5-year-olds… a hasty change that will likely inhibit the social and economic progress being made, is irresponsible.”

Tags: budget, child care, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Ontario universities still don’t really want free speech on campus

Saturday, February 9th, 2019

The University (of Ottawa) prizes and protects freedom of inquiry and all forms of freedom of expression… Others actually subordinate freedom of speech to social goals and to considerations of imbalances of power… [They don’t] see the idea that free expression and the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion can be at odds with one another.

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40% of Ontario full-time post-secondary students granted free tuition, CBC analysis shows

Monday, February 4th, 2019

“How many of them were able to quit a part-time job and focus solely on their studies because of this grant? How many of them didn’t need to access mental health resources this year because they weren’t worried about making ends meet?” … although 24 per cent more university students and 27 per cent more college students were issued financial aid in the 2017-18 academic year, the total number of students accessing higher education for the first time stayed virtually the same.

Tags: budget, ideology, participation, pharmaceutical, poverty, tax
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Ford shouldn’t mess with success of full-day kindergarten program

Thursday, January 31st, 2019

All the available evidence suggests the benefits of full-day kindergarten for kids, parents, employers and even the economy far outweigh any cost savings the government will be able to find by cutting this program… every dollar invested in the program will generate $2.42 for the province in reduced social costs and improved health outcomes. In other words, full-day kindergarten more than pays for itself.

Tags: budget, child care, ideology
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Allowing students to opt-out of programs will have a ripple effect

Monday, January 28th, 2019

… 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.

Tags: budget, ideology, participation, youth
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Students demand Ford government reverse course on OSAP changes

Sunday, January 27th, 2019

Nour Alideeb, the Ontario chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, said students from the lowest income families will bear the brunt of the cuts to grants. “Our message to the government is you messed with the wrong people,” she said. “We’re going to be here to make sure that you’re actually listening to the people, which are the students, and students want to see a reverse on the OSAP cuts but also public investments into our institutions.”

Tags: budget, ideology, participation, poverty
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Removing caps on class sizes is a failure of both education and economics

Friday, January 25th, 2019

Research on the correlation between class size and student achievement… determined that children in classes with fewer than 20 students learn more, learn better and are less likely to fail… and that the investment required to maintain this ratio more than pays off in the reduction of remedial supports and student’s higher economic performance as adults… The educational case against the removal of caps is damning, but so too is the economic one.

Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living
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To Doug Ford, being “for the students” means reckless OSAP cuts

Thursday, January 24th, 2019

Doug Ford does not represent—nor does he care for—the students of Ontario. If he did, he would respect the need for adequate student spaces and student-led services, respect the autonomous structure of the student unions, and ensure Post-Secondary institutions have the funding needed to provide both the current and future students with high quality education and adequate resources on campus.

Tags: budget, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
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Tuition changes will hurt students, society, in the long run

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019

Nobody I know in higher education resents the notion that students should pay less. The way to make this happen is to spread the cost of higher education investments over our broader tax base… at first blush the announcement seems positive: Tuition rates are going down! But a clear-eyed reading of the situation reveals these cuts do far more harm to students. The real goal is the government will spend far less on student grants — siphoning resources from an already underfunded system.