It shouldn’t be this hard to get an education.
Too frequently, I find myself weighing the pros and cons of being in university. On one hand, I get a degree that can help me get the career I want.
On the other, I get $40,000 (give or take) of debt to carry around for most of my life. And the immediacy of repayment means I’ll probably have to take any job I can find, rather than one in my field.
Last fall, when I interviewed Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre, I was impressed with the Liberal party’s proposal to reduce tuition by 30 per cent for a select group of students.
In December, when I found out this tuition break was being implemented as a grant during the winter term, I was similarly impressed with the party’s ability to follow through.
But then I started researching. As a person of little financial resource, when I hear I can get up to $800 back from my tuition, I’d like to know how much I’m actually getting.
The qualifications make some sense to me. Not to say people outside of them aren’t paying too much for tuition, but some of us run a greater risk of not coming back to school than others, purely for financial reasons.
You must be a full-time student at a public post-secondary school, check. It must be less than four years since you’ve left high school, that sucks a lot, but check. You’re in a program you can apply to directly from high school, check. Your parents’ gross income is $160,000 or less, sorry mom, but check.
But that’s just to be eligible. I don’t think I trust this just yet, so I look some more. I learn the grant isn’t retroactive, which seems fair. It doesn’t come in time to pay your tuition, but I guess they need some time to get organized for people who have to mail information — we all do this for the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP), so I have an idea of how long it takes.
As I browse the FAQs, I’m noticing the grant is pretty linear. But I hope that, at the very least, it will help the people who need it most. Then something strikes me: If you receive the Ontario Access Grant, which all OSAP recipients are automatically considered for, the amount of the grant is subtracted from your 30 per cent reduction.
This grant sounds familiar. I know this name, but from where? Two days prior, I was in the financial aid office confirming my OSAP details. They told me my OSAP loan was reduced to a smaller amount and I’d be getting a grant instead, but not to worry, I could expect it in seven to 10 business days.
So I log into my OSAP account and discover I’m getting roughly the same amount I would’ve gotten in OSAP this term from the Ontario Access Grant — brilliant, because I don’t have to pay that back. I can’t get the tuition reduction, which sucks, but at least I get this awesome grant.
Then I notice the words “four to six weeks.” Somebody somewhere really hates me. They sure as hell don’t want me to afford to go to school. I call the financial aid office: I won’t get this grant until early to mid-February. Sorry I was given the wrong information. Maybe I should take out a student line of credit?
Student fees left over, textbooks to buy, rent to pay . . . holy Batman!
I talked to some of my friends, and a lot of them get money from this grant. Not enough for panic, but enough that this tuition reduction does nothing for them.
Help me out here: If the tuition reduction can’t help me, most of my darling friends from low-income households, or people who don’t fall into the numerous eligibility criteria, who exactly is it helping?
I sincerely hope some people who need this tuition reduction get it, but my relationship with Carleton and Premier Dalton McGuinty is starting to feel abusive: too many lows and not enough ‘not so lows.’
I shouldn’t be scrambling just to afford textbooks. I have a part-time job, I’ve taken the appropriate loans, and I’ve applied for a zillion bursaries and grants.
What’s the point in having tuition breaks, government grants, and outrageous loans so I can contribute to society later when there seems to be no end to this disastrous poverty cycle?
