When it comes to the subjects of debt and tuition fees, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) is the least trustworthy source on earth. They lie. Constantly.
To see the latest collection, just look at this press release, which averages roughly one lie per paragraph. For instance:
“Since 2006, tuition fees have increased as much as 71 per cent in Ontario”. The words “as much as” are doing a lot of work here. For the vast majority of programs, the 5% annual increase has meant an increase of about 47%. And for full-time students benefitting from the 30% rebate, it’s only 17% – which is less than inflation.
“Average student debt after a four-year degree is $37,000 for debt from public and private sources”. No, that’s the average for the small proportion (12% or so) of students who have debt from both public and private sources. Across all students with debt, it’s in the $26,000 range. Across all students, it’s about $16,000.
“The Ontario Liberals committed to reducing tuition fees by 30 per cent in the last election…”. No, they committed, quite specifically, to a rebate of 30% for full-time undergraduate students from families earning under $160,000.
“… their Ontario Tuition Grant has reached fewer than one-quarter of students in the province”. As I pointed out, here, this is only true if you include 300,000 college part-timers taking less than one course per year, 60% of whom are having their education paid for by their employers. Which, since no one thinks they need a tuition break, is pretty dubious.
“… untold number of youth being shut out of accessing a college or university education every year”. Ontario has the highest rate of combined access to university and college of any province. If tuition has an effect, the one place it isn’t showing up is in access rates.
These aren’t honest mistakes made by idealistic youth who aren’t good with statistics. The CFS has many professional staff who are paid to know this stuff, some of whom have been around for decades. They know perfectly well what the real data says; they just think that that lies are acceptable so long as they’re deployed in service of their cause.
And really, why wouldn’t they think that? Ministers still meet with them. Journalists and opposition parties, thinking them a reliable source, regurgitate their lies uncritically all the time. Usually, when interest groups take this kind of liberty with the truth, they lose credibility and, hence, access to power. For some reason, CFS never face any consequences for telling lies.
But maybe, for the sake of restoring honesty to debate, it should.
Tweet this post
Hi
Can you confirm which source you are using the for the student debt figures (27K versus 36K). There does seem to be no clear source for these figures – which seems to be part of the problem
The $37k figure quoted by the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in their infographic last week is not the average student debt for “all” students, it’s only for the subsection who have BOTH public and private debt at the same time (figure 3.5) which made up only 15% of all students. Which makes the infographic or any usage of the $37,000 figure incredibly dishonest.
However if we only consider the actual overall average the figure is lower at $24-25. (Figure 3.3)
While one can also claim that these numbers are old, with the rise in the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant and a socioeconomic shift in PSE income demographics, average “real” student debt is actually quite similar in 2013.
Source: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-595-m/2009074/debts-dettes-eng.htm
Another poster has provided some an observation on where CFS gets its number from. I think we’re all working from more or less the same source (the 2005 NGS). My $26,000 figure came from a special run we did from that same survey and which you can find here: https://higheredstrategy.com/a-closer-look-at-student-debt-postscript/. I’m assuming that just because of inflation it has risen a teeny bit, You can see some thoughts about how debt has changed right here: https://higheredstrategy.com/the-curious-case-of-disappearing-student-debt/.
Also, guys: what’s with the anonymous user names? It’s better for everyone not to post that way. And CFS isn’t really that scary.
But is the 37K from the NGS? I know BMO did a student debt survey. I just can’t find this figure anywhere in any of the reports on any of the data sources on student debt. Please help me.
CFS lawsuit coming in 5… 4… 3… 2…
No, look, they only do that to people they think they can bully. And – by the by – when you guys use anonymous names to discuss them, it encourages them to think that they are far more intimidating than they actually are. Use your real names, please.
“When it comes to the subjects of debt and tuition fees, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) is the least trustworthy source on earth.”
I can think a few less trustworthy, including yourself.
Alex, you just can’t stay away, always drawn like a pathetic moth to the flame, always nit-picking at the organisation that cost you your job. It’s not their fault the Millenium Scholarship Foundation was a flawed delivery method for student grants.
Yawn.