Savoie on the case!!!

The Brock Press - Drowning in debt

By: Kristen De Palma
Posted: 3/20/07

Empty a student's pockets and you might find some loose change, crumpled receipts and a few pieces of lint - but few would contain the average $22,000 that many students need to repay their accumulated debts upon graduating.As the prosperity gap continues to grow in Canada, the amount of student debt has reached an all-time high, a point which NDP's post-secondary education advocate Denise Savoie calls "unmanageable".

"From what I understand, from recent stats, the total student debt under the Canada student loans program has surpassed $12 billion. When the debt from the provincial loans program is factored in, the public student debt is at $20 billion," said Savoie. "It's really made the last 10 years of university students, including the ones that are there now, kind of just victims of a horrible experiment."<P>Savoie has been fighting to make student debt a priority in post-secondary education issues that must be tackled, and has proposed a vision for the federal NDP party to make student aid simpler and more effective - a drastic change from previous governments. "

I see that the policies of the previous liberal government and the conservatives over the last couple of years are directly responsible for this [student debt crisis], and are unconscionable," she said. "From what I've seen in the last budget, the response to student debt has been ... with silly tax credits like the book tax credit - you know, for heaven sakes … I think it ends up being something like 81 bucks? How useful is that? I think it's not an exaggeration to call it a debt crisis."

As the MP for students that are dealing with unmanageable levels of debt, Savoie constantly hears from students that are simply unable to repay the loans that they have acquired during their studies. "I have a letter on my desk from someone that is $52,000 in debt - she had taken a student loan out, and she got ill and just came upon unfortunate circumstances," said Savoie. "She feels like she's just got this huge burden of debt that she's never going to get out of. I heard another student say, 'I hope I make my last payment for my student debt from my job and not from my pension'.
That's how high student debt can get. Student debt has soared and is overwhelming students and graduates."

Although students attend post-secondary education in the hopes of broadening their career opportunities, the burden of student debt is often placing a limit on the options that are feasible given their financial status. Some students are opting to settle for jobs that pay more rather than the jobs that they want in order to pay off their debts.

"[Student debt] might impact the type of career choices that students make. When you have such a high level of debt load, you're unable to pursue careers such as non-profit work or looking out for the public good," said Scott Courtice, the Executive Director of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. "It also can have other social impacts such as decisions around when you want to marry, where you want to settle, and bigger picture issues that people really haven't considered." "I've recently met with young doctors who say that they know of many young medical graduates who are, for example, not necessarily choosing the specialty or career path that is of most interest or of most benefit for them, but that they're choosing specialty areas that are allowing them to pay off their student debt," said Savoie.

"I hear the same thing from engineering graduates who want to get involved in particular fields of new energy, but there's less money there than in the oil and gas fields. So, I think it's hampering the ability of young people in choosing a career path and I think we're going to pay for it, as a society." Students generally have enough on their plate without having to worry about whether they will live to see their debts paid off.

For students halfway through their studies, it can be both daunting and frustrating to think about the money that has already been put into their studies, along with the funds that still need to be borrowed. "Realistically, I predict to be in debt until my late 30s and maybe even into my 40s, depending on how long I continue to study at Brock … each year I have borrowed more and more money to afford to continue my education," said second year Brock communications student, Jeramie Bailey. "When I hear about my friends who worked in the trades immediately after high school, and how they're making $30-$40 per hour at my age, I feel really disenchanted with a system that suggests that post-secondary education parallels success.

Starting in grade nine, I was led to believe that university is the answer to a promising career and a healthy paycheque. For some, this dream might ring true, but for myself, all that I am promising myself is a debt that will take years to pay off. It makes me angry to think that I am not going to be rewarded for the work that I have put into my studies." See DEBT Page 16Since loans are often the only way for many students to have the opportunity to receive a higher education, some debt is inevitable. Finding a solid career straight out of university is not realistic in many cases, however, and paying off years of accumulated student debt on a minimum wage income also does not seem realistic. "It's frustrating to know that when I'm done with my academic career I will still have this tremendous yoke of burden strapped around my neck," said fourth year Brock student, Benjamin Steinley. "What If I get a job pumping gas after I receive my [bachelor's degree]? My degree will amount to nothing unless I go on to take more schooling and therefore, even more debt. But what can I do? Some people are not able to take post-secondary studies without amassing debt. If I didn't sell my soul to OSAP, there would be no way for me to be in university."

If the costs of pursuing higher education continue to rise, society will begin to see the effects in the near future, said Savoie. "I think that some of us are pushing harder for the government to come to terms with the impacts of their neo-conservative or neo-liberal policies and to really show the impact that these policies have had," said Savoie.

"I believe that university management and presidents are maybe beginning to realize that if fees keep going up, at some point, it's the straw that breaks the camel's back. At some point, potential students are going to start staying away. And we're beginning to see empty spaces at universities, and I think that speaks to when young people have a choice of a job that offers immediate return, and facing these huge debts, perhaps they're starting to re-think it."


Ultimately, if steps are not taken to improve the student debt situation in Canada, there could also be serious implications for young people and their involvement in the economy. Education requirements changing over the next 15-20 years will be the biggest challenge, said Courtice. "Right now, the participation rate for the 18-22 year old demographic is around 40 per cent. So 40 per cent in that demographic attend higher education," he said. "All of the research shows that 70 per cent of young people are going to require some level of higher education just to participate in the economy. So you're talking about almost a doubling of the number of people that need to attend higher education. So we need to start having a discussion about how do you fund the higher education system, where 70 per cent of people are expected to attend? "It's starting to move back to a situation where we were back in the 1800s, when base level of high school education was required to participate in the economy. So, I think that we're talking a much larger system change that we need to start grappling with now, so that when we get to that position in 15-20 years, we've thought through the implications of that."

The cliché that "young people are the future" is trite but true. There is currently a barrier of accessibility for higher education, as the costs are simply too high for many potential students, and no one wants to be in debt for the better part of their lives. Savoie is pushing for changes to be made, to ensure that the education level a person can receive is not entirely dependent on their level of income.

"I think we have to be better at supporting lifelong learning because we know that people are changing jobs and we have to become a society that makes learning a part of the culture more than we have in the past," said Savoie. "My ideal situation is that every person capable of post-secondary education, whether that be university, college or an apprenticeship, have the ability to do that. That we allow or empower every individual who can and wants that training, to be able to access it. In other words, not to make education conditional on their pocketbook."