The Ontario chapter of the Canadian Federation of Students released a document called “Changing Priorities: Moving Towards Affordable Post-Secondary Education”, which proposes that the province’s new premier, Kathleen Wynne, take action to make postsecondary education more affordable. The recommended tuition fee framework would reduce tuition fees by 30% over three years, establish a long-term plan to progressively eliminate tuition fees, and ensure that tuition fee billing policies and practices are fair.
The current “Reaching Higher” framework, which was supposed to expire in 2010 but was renewed for the past three years without review, will expire this fall.
The Reaching Higher framework has allowed tuition fees to increase by five to eight percent each year since 2006.
“It’s important for students to come out ahead of the game with a proposal for the tuition fee framework,” said Sarah Jayne King, the chairperson of the Ontario chapter of CFS. “What we’re calling [for] in our framework is a dedication to funding high-quality postsecondary education, and that’s why we’re actually proposing a reduction of 30% over three years—because this is something that’s absolutely possible and absolutely imperative at this point [in] time, as tuition fees have skyrocketed and student debt has become a huge problem.”
