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!!!