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Guard the middle class – Metro US

Guard the middle class

They didn’t get 47 per cent more. That’s what the University of Calgary asked for nine of its professional programs.

This week, Advanced Education Minister Doug Horner gave the go-ahead to raise tuition for only two U of C programs. In 2011, tuition will rise to $7,220 for undergraduate business and $14,000 for an MBA.

Bow Valley also asked for tuition increases for early childhood education and the licensed nurse practitioner program. Both denied.

So who wins and loses when tuition rises?

When Ontario dramatically raised tuition fees for its professional programs, something remarkable happened.

The numbers of well-off kids (who also had parents with a professional degree) actually increased. But, at the same time, the numbers of poor kids (who had no parents with a degree) also jumped, probably because of more student aid.

Guess who suffered? The middle class.

Alberta needs to take note.

In Alberta, we know little about the economic backgrounds of our students.

Why do we care? Because our richest citizens are those who graduated from university, especially graduates of professional programs.

Overall, Statistics Canada shows that poor kids nationwide are the least likely to go to university, and the wealthiest, the most likely. No surprise.

Yet for poorer kids, tuition wasn’t the main deterrent to attending university.

Study author Marc Frenette found that more significant barriers are low school marks, poor reading skills, low parental education, and poor performing high schools.

These factors weighed more heavily than tuition fees. He feels the original study was misinterpreted to say tuition didn’t matter, but that’s not the case.

Poor kids have the odds stacked against them before the bill comes.

There was another big deterrent: Having to move away from home and foot the bill for living expenses.

Many forget that the Alberta government (that’s me and you, taxpayer) subsidizes 63 per cent of tuition and even more for program costs.

We’re all bound up in a pretty serious social mission.

But we need better information about who gets to university and why.

The solution starts, as it so often does, with family supports for the poor, arresting low school achievement, and creating high expectations.

Then we need to examine the tuition fee burden on our middle class — and on those who must move away from home to study.

– Janice Paskey teaches at Mount Royal University and is a volunteer with Westwood Hockey.