Stand up and get involved

Aaron L. Pope

We cannot sit idly by and hope for something good to happen; it’s time to get involved.

Ontario students are facing some of the worst circumstances in the history of this nation. Sky-rocketing debt, unemployment rates in the double digits, especially for the younger workforce, and on top of everything else, tuition rates that have increased 110 per cent since 2000.

The fact of the matter is students, parents, teachers and anyone who gives a damn about the future of Canada should be learning the lessons the students’ in Quebec taught their government.

The lesson they taught is a simple one: If you don’t do something about this insanity, we will be forced to take drastic measures to get a fair deal.

As a child, I was told that if I worked hard and applied myself to things that I hate, I can get the job of my choosing. I was told that if I took part in the over 15,000 hours of mandatory schooling and kept my opinions to myself, I could expect a college degree, the key to a happy and prosperous life.

What a load of bull.

And now I’m told that rising tuition is a necessity, because costs keep rising and government subsidies keep subsiding. I’m told that letting every single Canadian child get a good and fair education is simply not sustainable. I’m told that some must be left behind so the rest can prosper. Not everyone can get to go to college.

Oh but there is so much money available for students to go to school. There’s OSAP, and TD bank seems to have fair interest rates; someone will “give” students the cash to get through it. Never once mentioning the fact that most students who graduate will face a debt load of upwards $20,000, and that’s if they are lucky.

Most loans involve promises. I promise to pay back the cost of my car to the bank or mobster, whichever will accept my credit rating. I promise to pay back the cost of my house – hopefully before I die. In return, I am given a car and a house. Both things are guaranteed for as long as I can make my payments or complete them.

A college diploma on the other hand, is a wishy washy half-truth. You will pay back what you owe, but there is never a guarantee made that your diploma will be worth the paper it’s printed on the moment it hits your hot little hands.

The best the post-secondary establishment can do is offer statistics. They can say for certain that the majority of college graduates will earn roughly 25 per cent more money over the course of their lives than their under-educated counter parts. They can say the job market demands you have a college degree and trying to go without a post-secondary diploma will put you behind all the other hundreds of thousands of people who worked and toiled for years paying for the privilege to do so.

I believe that if we can open our wallets in order to spend billions of dollars on a war we had nothing to do with, millions on war planes we will never use, if we can spend billions of dollars subsidizing corporations to keep Canadians dependent on corn and oil, then we can pull a little change out of the couch to put our kids through school.

That’s why we must protest; we must write letters and demand change. The piecemeal discounts and tuition refunds politicians offer students when it’s politically advantageous is nothing compared to the cost Canadians will have to bare when the wells dry up and our children are too stupid to do anything about it.

We must make education, real education as accessible as fast food chains. We must make them a beacon of hope, and then maybe we will see real change and everyone can have the life they choose over toil and death.