On November the 22, Ontario’s ex-premier Bob Rae is coming to Peterborough to lead a town hall discussion on the future of post-secondary education. This is but one stop on the government sponsored Rae Review. The mandate of this review is to give the current provincial government advice by January 2005 on the design and funding of Ontario’s post-secondary education.

As current students this review has many obvious and important ramifications concerning us. Essentially this review will shape the agenda for post-secondary education in Ontario during Dalton McGuinty’s tenure -- the next four years of your educational life -- and beyond. It is important that we, as present students, have a say.

To even attend the town hall meeting though, one has to sign up ten days in advance. That means sign up by Thursday, November 12.

To even attend the town hall meeting though, one has to sign up ten days in advance at the Rae Review website (www.raereview.on.ca). That means sign up by Thursday, November 12. While at the website it would be prudent to read or print off the discussion paper the Rae Review produced. It gives a sense where the discussion will go on November 22.

The Rae Review touches on five main areas: Accessibility, Quality, System Design, Funding and Accountability.

Accessibility: how can everyone Ontario who wants to participate in post-secondary education do so when factoring in financial, locational, ability, and identity considerations.

Quality: how to ensure that the post-secondary education is of a high quality.

System Design: how to ensure institutional collaboration and ease of user mobility.

Funding: how to pay for it all -- tuition, government, private, or a mix.

Accountability: how to ensure that the above goals occur and that there are appropriate checks and balances in place so that it continues to do so.

These are important matters. It is refreshing to see our provincial government really attempting to come to grips with its educational system in a holistic way. Rather than in the recent past when one could almost assume that the goal was to ignore it and only create bandaid solutions in times of crisis.

While reading the discussion paper though, I sensed it was tainted by two problems:

1) To fund the post-secondary education they opened up a real possibility that tuition fees could be increased or an implementation of an ICR funded system (Income Contingent Repayment - get more information on the implications of such a system at the Canadian federation of students website (www.cfs-fcee.ca).

2) That the perceived purpose of post-secondary education was solely in the market context (creation of wealth and funneling participants into the job market) and not for a common good (education for knowledge’s sake and the creation of an intelligently informed, questioning, and happy populace).

Please sign up for the Rae Review town hall discussion or email the review to get your ideas heard. Also go to the TCSA office and see how they are preparing for the review and what you can do to help. The TCSA VP External is Jennifer Dale (vpexternal@trentu.ca) and she is spearheading the campaign.

For more information check out the following websites:

• The Rae Review Website: www.raereview.on.ca
• To sign up: www.raereview.on.ca/en/involved/road.asp?loc1=involved&loc2=road).
• The TCSA website: www.trentu.ca/tcsa/
• The Canadian Federation of Students website: www.cfs-fcee.ca
• A brilliant rebuttal to increased loans and privatization: www.cfs-fcee.ca/html/english/research/submissions/sub-200201-finnie.pdf
• Rae’s Discussion paper: www.raereview.on.ca/en/involved/DPpage01.asp?loc1=involved&loc2=workbook

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