One of our readers, Joanne, told us about a billlboard posted on the University of Ottawa campus this month in front of a construction site (a hint to its appearance: our version follows below).
The University is erecting a new building.
Now, we all know that action against the recession is founded in support for vulnerable sectors, like recently-laid off workers – hence the flashpoint issue of employment insurance to parliamentary survival.
However post-secondary education, the Right tells us, entails some sort of “private gain” that doesn’t materialize when we graduate – or for that matter, anytime soon afterwards. We students are supposed to recognize that we are “investing in our future” by struggling through school and living paycheck-to-paycheck, even years after we graduate.
So why is Harper trumpeting the Economic Action Plan’s “investment in Canada’s post-secondary institutions” by putting up one of his many signs in front of the university’s new building, like the one to which Joanne tipped us off?
Why does post-secondary education have any place at all in the Conservative’s recession-beating plan – something which flies in the face of Tory ideology and priorities?
Perhaps, if emergency recession funds (though tokenistic in size) are being allocated to universities, there is a greater connection between students and the workforce than many people give it credit for.
I suppose that, if even Stephen Harper can’t ignore it (though I’m sure he wishes he could), I hope that the postsecondary funding crisis gets the budgetary attention that it deserves in 2009.
-GPS
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