Students have been given new hope with the new Ontario budget for tuition, but the implications of the massive changes are still somewhat of a mystery. The budget seeks to provide grants to cover the average tuition for students whose parents make less than $50,000 a year as well as partial grants for middle-class families. The budget will be implemented in 2017 to replace the current OSAP system.
This solution does have its flaws, such as its dependency on the income of the student’s parents. Not all students receive help from their parents either because of personal or financial reasons. This can be problematic when trying to figure out who needs the financial support. For this reason, some students have argued the budget should be looking at the income of the students instead of their parents to get a more accurate idea of who needs help.
It is also problematic that even people who earn above $50,000 a year may not be able to pay for post-secondary education for their children, even with the help of partial grants. When it comes to families’ finances, there are a lot of internal and external factors that can complicate determining who needs financial assistance most.
There seems to be a lot of bitterness about the cut-off at a certain amount of yearly earnings. Some students feel it is unfair to have such a strict cut-off because there are still those who will not have an easy time of trying to pay for post-secondary education.
Some students also see this budget as a success for a few people instead of the masses. It is understandable to have both positive and negative opinions about any governmental decision, but it is important to look at decisions such as these from all angles to understand it fully.
But it’s clear this is a first step to creating more affordable education. The best way to do this is from the ground up, starting by ensuring students who had no chance of post-secondary education now have that opportunity. It is impossible to remedy the entire system at once, but this is a significant step in the right direction.
What this budget does is create equity by giving more to those who have less so everyone starts at the same level. It’s also sparked debate for changing the way grants for post-secondary education work in other Canadian provinces. This budget is not perfect, and the fact that it doesn’t get implemented until 2017 may not be ideal for current students, but it is the start of a larger conversation about a shift in the accessibility of education in not just Ontario but also in Canada.
For those students who are still worried about finances for post-secondary, remember this discussion isn’t over—it’s just beginning, and I hope that it will end as a positive change for all.
