misleading G&M article on ontario election, education

In today's Globe & Fail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ontario-election/ontario-ndps-shift-to-middle-could-leave-liberals-feeling-squeezed/article2185809/

By Karen Howlett and Steve Ladurantaye

"This shift could leave Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty feeling squeezed from both the left and the right, because Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has already essentially adopted all of his main rival’s health-care and education policies."

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D - only if "education" does not include post-secondary education. Which it does.

I am bewildered by that statement.

BIAS ALERT - I'm voting Liberal this election. In fact, I'm helping with their campaign.

D - education is 1 of 3 issues that got me off my butt, after not even bothering to vote for the last DECADE. And beyond my undergrad years, vote was all I did.
The Liberal platform on education is so distinct, so elevated and so consistent in the past that I think McGuinty really CAN claim to be the The Education Guy!

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/ontario-liberals-make-tuition-grants-platform-centrepiece/article2153810/

Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals are trying to refashion themselves as frugal fiscal managers while at the same time making a nearly $500-million bet on postsecondary education.

The Liberals are making tuition grants the centrepiece of a campaign platform that focuses on helping Ontario families cope with strained finances. The platform makes its clear that the Liberals plan to spend the next five weeks going head-to-head with the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats on the same turf the opposition parties have staked out: consumers’ pocketbooks.
But the Liberals will do so by adhering to the self-described Education Premier’s vision to create a well educated, highly skilled work force.

The biggest-ticket item in the platform would help families offset the rapidly rising cost of postsecondary education. Students from families with annual incomes of less than $160,000 would be eligible for grants of $1,600 a year for university tuition and $730 for college, effective Jan. 1. The pledge would lower tuition fees by nearly a third for the vast majority of students and cost taxpayers $486-million a year.


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http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/progressive-economics-forum/2011/09/ontario-ndp-platform

6. Post-secondary education. As I've blogged about before, tuition rates in Ontario are the highest in Canada. Ontario's NDP is proposing to freeze them at these levels. It also proposes to eliminate the interest on the provincial portion of student loans, which, for a student with a $25,000 student loan, would amount to an annual savings of $60. In my mind, this pales in comparison with the undergraduate tuition grant being proposed in the current election campaign by the governing Liberals, which would be worth $1,600 per year for a full-time undergraduate university student.  

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D - in 2003, the Liberals froze tuition rates. After that, capped their increases.
I still recall the doubling of tuition in the 1990s.
Plus the Liberals have introduced various other measures, such as a $150 grant for textbooks, and a $500 needs-based grant for part-time post-secondary studies.
 
Contrast and compare with what the Ontario NDP did the last time they were in power.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rae_Report
 
Rae's appointment was opposed by many students, who had seen his government permit a 57% increase in tuition fees and the elimination of need-based grants.
 
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/08/06/students-cook-up-tuition-protest
 
According to placard menus, Ontario students saw tuition fees increase by 10% every year during Bob Rae’s premiership from 1990 to 1995. Under the subsequent leadership of Mike Harris, Ontario’s universities and colleges suffered funding cuts and fees were bumped up yet again.
 
During the 1990s tuition fees represented 20% of a post-secondary institution’s operating budget, he said. Today, fees represent over 50% of schools’ operating budgets.

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D - The NDP/ Rae combo of ending grants and 10% annual tuition hikes pretty much left me in financial tatters for most of my adult life. Thanks for nothing, NDP.
I cannot believe I VOTED for him! Never again.
 
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http://www.theargus.ca/articles/editorials/2011/09/the-rising-cost-of-education
 
. While domestic students also felt the sting of increases, the limits on how much tuition can be raised – about 5% – prevented many students from feeling the impact of the rising costs of attending postsecondary education.
It may have been easy to dismiss the matter entirely had almost any university not raise tuition by nearly the maximum amount allowable for the past four years. That spells out an increase of over 20%...

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D - contrast with the Rae/ NDP record with tuition hikes of twice that - and in comparably bad economic times.

D - or Mike Harris and the PC record (article by Mike Harris).

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http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/717084

One of those efficiencies meant our post-secondary education institutions had to find ways to provide students quality education with less government money. To their immense credit, the leaders of Ontario's universities understood the magnitude of the financial pressures and the need for everyone to shoulder some of the burden. They met the challenge. Over the course of our first term in office, Ontario universities were more than able to make up for an initial grant reduction of $400 million. In fact, the total budget for universities actually rose by $300 million.

D - still $100 million down.

D - so yeah, given the track records of the various parties on education, and the tuition grant the Liberals propose this election, I'm voting Liberal. With my background and experiences, I am sympathetic with students who risk graduating with too much debt to pay off with entry level jobs.

Vote LIBERAL!!!

Ontario Election. Vote LIBERAL!

Track record:

In a move students are calling a “huge step forward,” Queen’s Park will keep its 5 per cent limit on post-secondary fee hikes for two more years, and beef up student aid to more than 188,000 students.


The announcement Monday morning by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities tackles many student concerns by raising the weekly loan limit for a single student to $150 a week from $140 a week and more than doubling the amount of money – to $103 from $50 – that students may earn each week without being penalized on their student loan.
The move delays for at least two more years any dramatic surge in tuition some had feared might kick in when the current five-year tuition cap expired this spring.
Moreover, the provincial government has added a $500 grant for part-time students with financial need, and delayed for six months after graduation any interest charges on a student loan.

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Ominous trends in Quebec (and California- they'd rather build prisons):

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110315/mtl_mcgill_110315?hub=MontrealHome

Quebec has the lowest tuition rates in Canada and a decade-long freeze on fee hikes, but McGill has been pushing back.


Last September, McGill began charging $29,500 in annual tuition for its two-year MBA program _ nearly nine times higher than provincial limit that caps tuition at around $3,400 per year.

D - imagine a university degree as a second (prior) mortgage in size. With no promise of payoff. Ouch.

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http://www.ontarioliberal.ca/NewsBlog/DailyWireDetails.aspx?id=Subject%3A+30%25+Off+Undergraduate+Tuition+In+Ontario

We're moving Ontario forward, together, by keeping the cost of postsecondary education within everyone's reach. Here's what you need to know:




•We're creating a tuition grant that takes 30% off the average undergraduate tuition in Ontario, keeping the cost of postsecondary education affordable for lower- and middle-income families.

•Our tuition grant will save families $1600 per student in university and $730 per student in college, annually.

•We're also creating 60,000 more postsecondary education spaces, in addition to the 200,000 spaces we've already created.

•We're also building three new, leading-edge undergraduate campuses so students can study closer to home.

•The Harris-Hudak PCs cut postsecondary education by $435 million, slashed student aid by 41%, allowed fees to skyrocket by 67% and provided no help to middle-income families.

•The last NDP government promised to eliminate tuition, then said they'd freeze it — but all they ever did was raise it by 50%.

•During tough economic times, instead of supporting students as we did, the NDP made them bear the brunt with a 48% cut to student aid.

The Hudak PCs have a $14 billion hole in their platform, which means they won't help middle-class families afford postsecondary education, and will make deep cuts that send tuition through the roof, again. The current NDP platform barely mentions education but their legacy is clear — they were the party that eliminated up-front student grants, before we brought them back.

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D - 'nuff said. See my rant on my public transit blog on the fossil fuel cuts.

http://k-w-bike-walk-bus.blogspot.com/

students around the world. ain't it heavy

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10754503

About 250 University of Auckland students protested the Voluntary Student Membership Bill today by occupying the top floor of the Owen G Glenn Building on campus.
After five hours of being holed up, the group marched to the Auckland Central police station after one of the protesters, Marcus Coverdale, was arrested for trespassing.
The students attempted to stop Mr Coverdale from being taken away by surrounding the police car.

The students said they occupied the top floor of the Owen G Glenn Building in opposition to three key issues: the Voluntary Student Membership (VSM) Bill, due to pass its third reading on September 28; the erosion of democracy on campus and the regular hiking of student fees.


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D - to be fair, they had chained the door.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8124370/Student-tuition-fee-protest-police-response-to-Millbank-riots-embarrassing-says-Met-chief.html

The demonstration, organised by the National Union of Students and the University and College Union, started peacefully, with up to 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters, marching from Whitehall past Downing Street and Parliament.


But around an hour after the protest started, violence flared at Millbank Tower, close to the Tate Britain art gallery where the march was due to end with a rally.

Hundreds of workers were evacuated from the building, which also houses other organisations including Government agencies, as windows were smashed and a fire was lit.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/10/chile-riot-student-protest-violence

Violence erupted on the streets of Chile's capital and other cities as tens of thousands of students staged another protest demanding changes in public education.
Masked demonstrators burned cars and barricades, looted shops and threw furniture at police in Santiago on Tuesday. Some attacked an apartment building, throwing rocks and breaking windows. Riot police used tear gas and tanks with water cannons to push them back.
By nightfall, at least 273 protesters were detained, including 73 in Santiago, and 23 police officers were injured, said Rodrigo Ubilla, a deputy interior minister.

Five days after a banned march ended in nearly 900 arrests, students and teachers marched peacefully in Santiago and elsewhere in Chile on Tuesday, calling for the government to increase spending on schooling and provide "free and equal" public education.

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D - riots for 'free and equal' public education?!
Can you image apathetic Canadian university students even protesting mid-recession tuition hikes at twice the rate of inflation?

The tuition CAP in Ontario, for example, is 5% per year.
That is considered restraint.

night clubs ban young men (and very young women)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/trends/trends-features/more-nightclubs-saying-no-young-men-allowed/article2174905/

Some of the country’s hottest clubs, including Toronto’s Muzik, Maison Mercer and Pravda Vodka Bar; Ottawa’s Velvet Room and Montreal’s Candi Bar practice such ageism. Obviously drinking establishments are allowed to cultivate a convivial atmosphere – Canada is not a despotic state after all – but blanket discrimination directed toward an entire demographic is, well, surprising in this PC age.

Muzik, whose management was unavailable for comment, seeks a mature crowd and (according to its website) restricts men under 25 and women under 21. It’s Mr. Zakaria’s experience that in many cases “it seems as though they are willing to forgo the rule if it is a girl.” Other bars in Toronto known for their age policies include Century Room (21+) and sister club Maison, where they have recently begun to only accept patrons 25 years or older.

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D - I have worked at a bar for a decade.
And am 40. So am of 2 minds on this.
There ARE tendencies that come with young men that make me avoid bars full of them.
And yes, very young women ought to be avoided for comparable reasons too.

But yeah, I guess it is discrimination.
Unless, I suppose, we count 'youth only' events as being versus older people.

Any time I talk about ageism, folks default to the assumption I'm talking about old people.