SA right to avoid CFS

By Quinn Damery

dame0013@algonquincollege.com

Algonquin’s Student’s Association should be applauded for its decision to not become a member of the Canadian Federation of Students, unlike the University of Ottawa and Carleton.

This should not be interpreted as indifference towards the rising tuition rates and debt which plagues students. Instead, the S. A. will save students’ money by not joining with this controversial organization, which has a history of skewing facts to promote their own importance while providing little in the way of lasting benefits for its members.

For example, by not including inflation rates in their tuition calculations the CFS draw exaggerated conclusions that don’t accurately reflect the issue.

A report by the Education Policy Institute used the same data as the CFS but included the inflation rate in their assessment. The CFS figures show a 58 per cent increase in tuition fees over the last decade; the EPI figures are nearly half that at 26 per cent. Not great, but not a CFS-level crisis.

The CFS is asking the government to provide more upfront, needs-based funding to make college and university-level education an accessible option to everyone. However, a Statistics Canada report recently determined that differences in high school performances, standardized testing scores, and parental influence accounted for over 80 per cent of students not pursuing post-secondary education, while financial concerns only accounted for a little over 10 per cent. Furthermore, additional data shows no correlation between increasing tuition fees and declining enrolment.

Each year across Canada, enrolment increases along with tuition costs.

These numbers suggest two things: first, if students want to attend post-secondary schools, they will. Secondly, debt has become an expected by-product of getting a degree. The CFS should put away their unrealistic requests for a tuition roll-back and focus entirely on debt reduction. The Manitoba government passed a tax rebate in 2007 that allows students to write off 60 per cent of their tuition costs after graduating, effectively reducing their costs to a few hundred dollars, so long as they remain tax-paying citizens of the province.

The CFS has remained largely indifferent to this development. Further, if the college was a member of the CFS, each student would have to pay an additional $14-$17 in membership fees. It seems hypocritical that an organization that lobbies for lower tuition and stricter regulation of ancillary fees would actually add to the costs. This might be acceptable if the CFS was providing students with savings that offset the costs but, once again, this is debatable.

Members of the CFS receive benefits in the form of discount cards, cellular services and income tax filing services. At the CFS-Ontario Annual General meeting this past August, the Society of Graduate Students analyzed the value of these benefits. The SOGS determined that, overall, they were not utilizing the CFS benefits because the savings were minimal. In the case of cell phone plans, students could find better deals through providers. While the CFS claimed membership would provide savings on income tax services that were already made free to students.