Poverty, homelessness, unemployment; these are some of the ills that plague our society. What can we do to solve these problems? Education is a fundamental means of alleviating these problems. To ensure that our society has an educated population, and that all people have an equal opportunity to it, education must be accessible to everyone. Free postsecondary education will ensure that everyone has fair opportunities and options.
We live in a time where a high school diploma is not enough. The many manufacturing jobs that were available from the end of the 1940s have been disappearing at an alarming rate. We are now a knowledge-based society with high-technology industries becoming more common and jobs that demand highly skilled workers. Where a generation ago a high school diploma was necessary, today workers need at least an undergraduate degree.
Free postsecondary education would mean that students could concentrate and focus on their education instead of struggling to pay tuition at the expense of their studies, families and health. Too often people are forced to forfeit the option of going back to university or college due to the financial burden. The relationship between family income and postsecondary participation has been documented and proves that higher education in Canada has increasingly become the domain of students from moneyed families. However, education should never be a privilege, but a right. From 1999-2000, U of T students and community created the Free University of Toronto program that offered between 25 and 50 free courses each term.
APUS is now hosting its second Free Education Week. In solidarity with the International Students Movement for Free and Emancipating Education we plan to highlight the continued need for Canada to create a universal free postsecondary education system, and set the example that learning is possible without a price tag.
For more information:
www.apus.utoronto.ca
supportapus@gmail.com
(416) 978-0831
*ASL interpretation, childcare, and other accommodations available upon request*
