Ontario college students receive second post-secondary education platform from the Green Party of Ontario

TORONTO, May 29, 2014 /CNW/ - On May 16, 2014 the College Student Alliance (CSA) asked Ontario's party leaders to provide their post-secondary education platform pertaining to the CSA pillars: accessibility, accountability, affordability, quality and transferability.

The CSA received its second submission from the Green Party of Ontario on May 28, 2014:

Affordability: We will index tuition to inflation and instead of existing youth-employment programs that prioritize employers' requests; we will implement a Social Innovation Foundation. It will provide grants, loans, and mentorship to help young entrepreneurs invent and implement solutions to problems we face. It will put young post-secondary graduates to work and will help them pay their student debts.

Accessibility: We will work with student organizations and the federal government to revise the tax credit system for university tuition to make it work better for students and their families. See above on student employment.

Accountability: The GPO always advocates for transparent public policy and community-based decision making. The performance of universities and colleges, since they are publicly funded institutions, ought to be public. The MYAA is an important instrument by which to study the performance of post-secondary institutions and to report those findings to the public.

Quality: We will increase funding for university and college operating budgets to ensure a high quality of education. By increasing investments in colleges and universities, the Green Party will provide the support needed for schools to increase the number of professors, faculty, and employees.

Transferability: The GPO recognizes that trying to transfer credits from one post-secondary institution to another is a headache. We will work to implement a system in which the process of credit transfer is transparent.

The CSA would like to thank the Green Party of Ontario for sharing their platform, and are looking forward to responses from the Ontario Liberal Party, and the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. To explore student priorities for Ontario's 2014 General Election please visit www.itsyourvote.ca.

The College Student Alliance (CSA) is an advocacy organization, which has been proudly serving Ontario's college students since 1975. The CSA currently represents 15 colleges and 21 student councils with over 130,000 full-time student members throughout the province.

SOURCE: College Student Alliance

Tyler Epp
Director of Advocacy
College Student Alliance
416-340-1212
[email protected]

Matt Stewart
President
College Student Alliance
226-237-0127
[email protected]