Strike 2001 With the prohibitive weight of an average $30,000 student loan debt for an undergradu- ate degree, ordinary Canadians are losing access to post-secondary education. by Bernadette Wycks On February 2nd, 2000, | arrived late to the ‘Access 2000’ rally and march. This national day of action to restore educational funding was sponsored by the Canadian Federation of Students, (an organization that is set up to represent the interest of over 400,000 post-secondary students across Canada). Arriving late meant | missed Emily Carr students roll a huge boulder, labeled ‘Student Debt', across the Granville Street bridge. Arriving late also meant that | missed the speeches at the Vancouver Art Gallery. | missed the march through downtown streets, whose route was later called "obscure" by one student, which drifted by financial lending institutions, but didn't create a ruckus. | did make it in time to see some lonely placcards left behind on the VAG grasslands. | marched my own route, slapping the downtown pavement, through to the central library. At the library | was transported through a milky, dry-ice veneer of big budget movie making. Huge, puffy, gold stars cavorted with guys in headsets. Signs up around the library said that with the money they received from this filming escapade, they wouldn't have to close for a week in August. "Welcome to the privatization of higher learning," | thought as | continued my own march to the Plaza of Nations. Originally ‘Access 2000' was supposed to be ‘Strike 2000’, as delegates at a national CFS general meeting in November of 1998 had voted. "Indeed, in a time when curriculum is showing more glaringly the effects of corporate co-optation and as the warning bells sounded by average student debt figures (can any- one say $25,000 without choking?) grow louder, the strike call came like sobering and pragmatic news: it was time to deal with this shit directly." (The Spark/Student Activist, Sept. 1999) Since 1993, in the name of ‘deficit reduction’, the Canadian government has slashed $7 billion from post-secondary eduction. Indeed, the feds only spend 12% of its economic output (GDP) on social programs, the lowest since the 1940's. And in the mid-1990's, the federal government decided to hand over student loans - to the banks: they got rid of grants, no longer guaran- teed the loans, outlawed filing for bankruptcy, and cancelled federal loan remission, thereby increasing the amount of money students had to pay just to have a chance to enter the work force. And this is happening ~-while real earnings among young Canadians (18-30) have decreased by 30% over the past 10 years. Students are more indebted today than at any other time in Canadian history. (CFS Fact Sheet) Suzanne Baustad, a Vancouver activist, pro- duced (with Irwin Ostindie, and partial funding by the Langara Students’ Union) an aural documentary CD about the student loan debt crises, entitled "Student Students need more grass- roots action to restructure educational funding Debt 101". Baustad interviewed scads of students, and documented their details about debt. Baustad presents a solid case of an educational system in crisis. With the prohibitive weight of an average $30,000 student loan debt for an undergraduate degree, ordinary Canadians are losingsaccess to post-secondary education. Post-secondary funding can be contemplated in two different ways. The first way is to assume that it is the individual who will benefit from.a college or uni- versity education, in the form of higher incomes, and therefore students shoulder bear the burden of funding their schooling with student loans. The other way of looking at the funding question is to realize that society as a whole benefits from a highly educated populace, Thus everyone should have the opportunity to attend post-secondary schooling, and it would be paid for with a national grant system. The reality is that students are graduating from college or university and the juicy high paying jobs don't exist. Youth unemployment is running at 20%. The minimun wage, service industry, McJobs most available to young people don't pay enough to save money for tuition, nevermind pay the average $400/month for ten years loan payment after gradua- tion. Another reality is that most of the students having trouble making their loan payments are women. Seventy per cent of those applying for debtors’ assis- tance are young women between the ages of 26 and 30, and many are single moms. Women still only make 60-70 % of what men earn, and if the juicy, high pay- ing jobs did exist, they would go to men. (Student Debt 101) Yet another reality is that people need a post- secondary education today to enter the workforce. Mark Veerkamp, the CFS BC chairperson (also saddled with a student loan debt), shared in "Student Debt 101", that around the turn of the century, the Canadian educational system was at a similar cross- roads. People had to pay tuition to go to high school. But a high school education was seen as a basic need for entering the workforce. And now, Veerkamp says, post-secondary education is at the same milestone. According to Human Resources and Development Canada, in 2001, 70% of jobs will need some form of post-secondary education. So, how did we get into this mess? In 1995, the Canadian government decided to enter into ‘Risk Share Agreements’ with banks. The government would administer the loans (basically decide who's eligible, and how much they get). And the banks would lend the money, and then collect the big bucks, and ten years of interest payments at almost twice the interest rate they charge businesses. ~~ Strike 2001 With the prohibitive weight of an average $30,000 student loan debt for an undergradu- ate degree, ordinary Canadians are losing access to post-secondary education. @= by Bernadette Wycks ‘On February 2nd, 2000, | arrived late to the ‘Access 2000' rally and march. This national day of action to restore educational funding was sponsored by the Canadian Federation of Students, (an organization that is set up to represent the interest of over 400,000 post-secondary students across Canada). Arriving late meant | missed Emily Carr students roll a huge boulder, labeled ‘Student Debt’, across the Granville Street bridge. Arriving late also meant that | missed the speeches at the Vancouver Art Gallery. | missed the march through downtown streets, whose route was later called “obscure” by one student, which drifted by financial lending institutions, but didn’t create a ruckus. 1 did make it in time to see some lonely placards left behind on the VAG grasslands. | marched my own route, slapping the downtown pavement, through to the central library. At the library | was transported through a milly, dry-ice veneer of big budget movie making. Huge, puffy, gold stars cavorted with guys in headsets. Signs up around the library said that with the money they received from this filming escapade, they wouldn't have to close for a week in August. "Welcome to the privatization of higher learning," 1 thought as I continued my own march to the Plaza of Nations. Originally ‘Access 2000' was supposed to be ‘Strike 2000’, as delegates at a national CFS general meeting in November of 1998 had voted. "indeed, in a time when curriculum is showing more glaringly the effects of corporate co-optation and as the warning bells sounded by average student debt figures (can any- ‘one say $25,000 without choking?) grow louder, the strike call came like sobering and pragmatic news: it was time to deal with this shit directly." (The Spatk/Student Activist, Sept. 1999) Since 1993, in the name of ‘deficit reduction’, the Canadian government has slashed $7 billion from post-secondary eduction. Indeed, the feds only spend 12% of its economic output (GDP) on social programs, the lowest since the 1940's. And in the mid-1990's, the federal government decided to hand over student loans to the banks: they got rid of grants, no longer guaran- feed the loans, outlawed filing for bankruptcy, and cancelled federal loan remission, thereby increasing the amount of money students had to pay just to have a chance to enter the work force. And this is happening while real earnings among young Canadians (18-30) have decreased by 30% over the past 10 years. Students are more indebted today than at any other time in Canadian history. (CFS Fact Sheet) Suzanne Baustad, a Vancouver activist, pro- duced (with Irwin Ostindie, and partial funding by the Langara Students’ Union) an aural documentary CD about the student loan debt crises, entitled "Student Students need more grass- roots action to restructure educational funding Debt 101”. Baustad interviewed scads of students, and documented their details about debt. Baustad presents a solid case of an educational system in crisis. With the prohibitive weight of an average $30,000 student loan debt for an undergraduate degree, ordinary Canadians are losing.access to post-secondary education Post-secondary funding can be contemplated in two different ways. The first way is to assume that it is the individual who will benefit from a college or uni- versity education, in the form of higher incomes, and therefore students shoulder bear the burden of funding their schooling with student loans. The other way of ooking at the funding question is to realize that society as a whole benefits from a highly educated populace, Thus everyone should have the opportunity to attend post-secondary schooling, and it would be paid for with a national grant system. The reality is that students are graduating from college or university and the juicy high paying jobs don't exist. Youth unemployment is running at 20%. The minimun wage, service industry, Mclobs most available to young people don't pay enough to save money for tuition, nevermind pay the average '$400/month for ten years loan payment after gradua- tion. ‘Another reality is that most of the students having trouble making their loan payments are women. Seventy per cent of those applying for debtors’ assis- tance are young women between the ages of 26 and 30, and many are single moms. Women still only make 60-70 % of what men eam, and if the juicy, high pay- ing jobs did exist, they would go to men. (Student Debt 101) Yet another realty is that people need a post- secondary education today to enter the workforce ‘Mark Veerkamp, the CFS BC chairperson (also saddled with a student loan debt), shared in "Student Debt 101", that around the tum of the century, the Canadian educational system was at a similar cross- roads. People had to pay tuition to go to high school. But a high school education was seen as a basic need for entering the workforce. And now, Veerkamp says, post-secondary education is at the same milestone. According to Human Resources and Development Canada, in 2001, 70% of jobs will need some form of post-secondary education. So, how did we get into this mess? In 1995, the Canadian government decided to enter into ‘Risk Share Agreements’ with banks. The government would administer the loans (basically decide who's eligible, and how much they get). And the banks would lend the money, and then collect the ig bucks, and ten years of interest payments at almost twice the interest rate they charge businesses.