Education should be a top priority of any enlightened society. Unfortunately in Canada, we're allowing the cost of a post-secondary education to grow out of the reach of the poor and working classes. Why is it that states like Sweden are capable of offering free college educations to its citizens while Canada allows tuition costs to grow out of control, increasing student debt and even preventing people from getting a higher education at all? If Diogenes Laërtius is correct and "The foundation of every state is the education of its youth", then Canada's foundation is cracked.
Tuition fees have more than tripled within the last 17 years, far outpacing the rate of inflation in this country. It costs an undergrad student in Canada approximately $4,500 per year for tuition costs alone. Factor in books, residence and other fees it's no surprise that Canadian students are leaving college with colossal amounts of debt to pay off. If this trend continues and the federal and provincial governments continue to turn a blind eye it's going to leave the poor unable to acquire a university education without also acquiring crushing debt which will follow them for the majority of their lives.
Like Sweden, Canada should be providing free post-secondary education to any citizen that desires it. This means building more universities and hiring staff to operate these institutions. It's not the cheapest endeavour this country has ever embarked on, but it's certainly a noble one. A free education means more doctors and nurses for our hospitals, more teachers for our primary and secondary classrooms and more skilled labour across the board. A quality education is the greatest gift we can give to future generations of this country. If we continue down this same path they will not receive one.
Social Disorder by Stephen Henderson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.
Based on a work at www.socialdisorder.net.