Martine Desjardins, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, representing about 125,000 university students in the province, said 65 per cent of Quebec students already have debts of $14,000 and more and Beauchamp’s plan would drive debt higher.
Desjardins added that the strike has cost taxpayers $100 million in salaries for teachers not teaching, empty classrooms, police overtime and security.
“It is not a solution,” Desjardins said, appealing to the minister to meet the students to discuss not only tuition, but what universities do with public money, noting millions in administration buyouts paid by Concordia University and spending fiascos on other Quebec campuses.
“We have concrete proposals,” Desjardins said, “(but) we don’t want to sign a blank cheque.”
Léo Bureau-Blouin, who heads the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec representing about 200,000 CÉGEP students, said he sees Beauchamp’s proposal as an opening, but dismissed it, saying student debt is “the heart of the debate.”
And he expressed hope Beauchamp would meet with the students after Easter, saying: “We have to meet as soon as possible.”
While the student associations organizing the strike, opposition parties, teachers and parents slammed the proposal, saying it does not address the students’ concerns, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal called the Charest government’s proposal to allow graduates to pay back their loans in proportion to their income “enlightened,” recalling the board made the same proposal in 2010, when the Charest government held one day of consultations on the fee hike.
Students opposed to higher fees walked out of those consultations, saying the only issue on the table was how high the fees would be.
Quebec’s university rectors at the time proposed five $500 increases. The government settled on five annual increases of $325 starting this fall, for a total of $1,625. That would bring tuition for Quebec residents from $2,168 now to $3,793 in 2016-17, or about 17 per cent on the average cost on a year of their university education.
On Thursday Marie Malavoy, the Parti Québécois higher education critic, waving a government news release from 2005, recalled that the Liberals made the same repayment offer seven years ago, but did not implement the plan, telling Premier Jean Charest, in power for nine years, that he has forgotten the 2005 commitment “because he has been there too long.”
Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault, who made a similar proposal two weeks ago, called the Liberal proposal “underfinanced and improvised.”
And Amir Khadir, of Québec solidaire, said the government proposal to grant more student loans is good for banks collecting interest, calling instead on Quebec to reinstate its capital tax on banks.
This would bring in added tax revenues of $550 million and make possible the free tuition some of the strikers want, Khadir said.
The strike, which began in mid-February with a trickle of students, has grown to a flood of nearly 200,000 students boycotting classes, with other students joining them at times, most spectacularly in the March 22 peaceful demonstration by 200,000 students in Montreal.
Some of the strikers have gone back to prepare for exams.
In an interview after her announcement, Beauchamp said she knew the student associations would reject her position.
“The student leaders have always said no,” Beauchamp said, explaining that for this reason she addressed her appeal to the families and students of the middle class, noting that with exams approaching and weeks of courses to make up, students at some colleges and universities are entering “a critical zone.”
And she will not back down on the decision to raise tuition, saying students must pay their “fair share.”
“That decision has been made,” Beauchamp said, maintaining her position is “firm.”
The government says the higher fees will raise $265 million, or 31.2 per cent, of the $850 million in additional funding for Quebec’s 41 university entities in 2016-17, with taxpayers paying $430 million more and the remaining $155 million from private and other sources.
Premier Charest stresses that taxpayers are already paying a bigger share of the $850 million than the students and the goal is to ensure Quebec can continue to provide quality education and pay its teachers.
But the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec, a union representing about 30,000 CÉGEP and university teachers, sided with the students Thursday, saying they were disappointed with Beauchamp’s announcement.
“We understand very well the government’s little political game that is trying maybe to divide the student movement a bit,” said FNEEQ head Jean Trudelle.
And a group of parents opposed to the hike, calling themselves Parents contre la hausse, said Beauchamp is not listening to the middle class and students “showing instead incomprehension and bad faith.”
Original Article
Source: montreal gazette
Author: Kevin Dougherty
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