The 2008 federal budget marked a critical victory for the Federation's Grants Not Loans campaign. This fall the government will wind fown the Millenium Scholarship Foundations and replace it with Canada's first national grants programme. Slated to begin at $350 million and increase to over $430 million by 2012, the Canada Student Grant Program will be means-tested and reach approximately 245,000 students.
A monthly grant for a middle income student will be $100, and a monthly grant for a low income student will be $250.
With rising tuition and ancillary fees, the collective national student debt has ballooned to more than $12 billion dollars, increasing by more than $1.5 million each day. In Ontario, student debt has risen 300 per cent. In 1991 the average debt after a four year degree was $8,000 and with this year's increases, it is approaching $28,000.
Unfortunately, tuition fee increases are undermining the impact of these grant programs. For students whose debt loads are continuing to rise, loans are simply a means for the government and institutions to download education costs on to students and to make money on the interest rates.
Education shouldn't be a debt sentence! Students are calling on the provincial government to begin converting a portion of every student loan into a grant. This way, students can come closer to eliminating the financial barriers to post-secondary education.