Juno News - The NDP is WRONG about free tuition

00:00:00.000 finally let's move on to the leftist third and final argument in favor of free tuition

00:00:04.640 which is that it increases equity in canada equity is different from equality equality says

00:00:09.280 we should treat everybody the same equity says that we have to recognize that people start in

00:00:13.920 different places and so we have to treat them differently to try and level the playing field

00:00:18.400 presumably when leftists apply this equity lens to the tuition debate they're saying that people

00:00:23.840 don't always start in the same place financially so we have to help lower income people make that

00:00:29.200 leap into post-secondary by covering the cost of their tuition but a universal free tuition policy

00:00:34.480 does the exact opposite of that in fact free tuition policy is often defined as a regressive one the

00:00:41.040 opposite of progressive it's regressive because it helps the rich people in canada a lot more than

00:00:46.160 it would help the actual poor as tristan hopper points out in a national post column according

00:00:51.040 to statistics canada nearly 80 percent of children from the richest fifth of canadian households go

00:00:56.320 to post-secondary education among children from the bottom fifth the rate is less than 50 percent

00:01:02.080 so by eliminating tuition fees the benefits would disproportionately accrue to the wealthy canadians

00:01:07.280 already sending their kids to university and this really seems to be a common theme on this show

00:01:12.400 reality check is questioning why leftists when they claim to want to help the most vulnerable in

00:01:18.080 society or the lowest income why they always insist on these grand universal programs that pay for 0.98

00:01:24.560 everything for everyone even the rich you don't need the help why not just focus your efforts on

00:01:29.120 those who actually need it now one of the weirder claims that i found from the left regarding this

00:01:34.240 issue of free tuition comes from the green party of canada on their website it states and i quote

00:01:39.360 students are one of the most disadvantaged groups in society end quote a canadian student is in an

00:01:44.640 incredible position of privilege and this statement by the left is contradictory in itself because

00:01:49.360 if they're saying that access to education is the path out of poverty and a path of self-betterment

00:01:54.240 and higher earning potential then it's unclear why they would suggest that a student is so

00:01:58.480 disadvantaged and if there is a genuine concern for equity here then it's really questionable why they

00:02:03.840 would suggest that people who haven't had the opportunity or perhaps the inclination to attend a

00:02:08.400 post-secondary institution why they should be saddled with the cost of sending someone else to as

00:02:14.240 norma kazaya from the montreal economic institute said by broadly subsidizing higher education more

00:02:20.000 heavily the average taxpayer is in effect financing the high salary earners of tomorrow it should be

00:02:26.160 asked if this is fair for people who do not benefit from university to contribute to its financing

00:02:31.280 to this extent but ultimately painting the cost of tuition as an equity issue fundamentally

00:02:36.720 misunderstands the reason why people choose not to attend post-secondary as university of ottawa

00:02:41.760 akarmist ross finney points out cultural factors are a more relevant predictor of one's decision

00:02:48.320 whether or not to attend post-secondary corroborating these findings kelly foley who's an economic

00:02:54.160 professor from the university of saskatchewan points out quote research suggests that before

00:02:59.760 students ever reach the barriers posed by the costs of applying for and enrolling in university

00:03:05.120 disadvantage and less skills investment in early childhood can represent a brick wall

00:03:10.560 thus the link between family income and university enrollment is largely though not entirely driven

00:03:15.840 by factors that wouldn't be ameliorated by making university free so in conclusion eliminating the

00:03:21.600 cost of tuition for canadians would not eliminate the underlying factors that influence why individuals

00:03:27.440 choose to or to not attend post-secondary in canada

Juno News - August 26, 2022