For immediate release
February 1, 2012

Toronto, ON — On this National Day of Action to Drop Tuition Fees, members of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance—Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) stand in solidarity with the Canadian Federation of Students and all students as we demand to drop tuition fees and student debt and to advance our entitlement towards universally accessible post-secondary education in Canada. As students who come from a marginalised community, the high cost and unabated increase of tuition fees not only denies us our right to education, but also presents a major barrier that prevents us from genuinely settling, integrating and successfully participating in Canadian society.

With the onslaught of Canada’s neoliberal agenda, as seen through the rabid implementation of austerity measures and cutbacks on public and social services, public funding for universities are unabashedly slashed in favour of the deregulation of higher education, all for the sake of corporate interests and profitability. As these measures intensify the privatization and corporatization of public education, it is not a coincidence that tuition fees have skyrocketed to almost 10% on average within the past two years and continue to rise. Currently, student debt in Canada amounts to $15 billion, a staggering figure which reveals that most students are sentenced to a life of debt and economic uncertainty.

In Ontario alone, students pay the highest tuition fees in Canada—numbering $6,640 per year on average—a 244% increase from what students used to pay 20 years ago. To quell growing dissatisfaction amongst students, Premier Dalton McGuinty garnered support by making education central to his political platform and touted his announcement to provide 30% tuition cuts, a move that privileges benefits for middle-class students. Only 1/3 of all eligible students will receive the 30% reduction. Instead of implementing policy changes to increase provincial budget in education and reduce tuition fees altogether, the provincial Liberal government chose to implement band-aid solutions to address this growing crisis. In line with the politics of distraction, this move is nothing more than an effort to pit students against each other by privileging the needs of certain groups of students over others. McGuinty’s promise is rendered meaningless by those students who need tuition cuts the most: such as part-time students who come from working-class backgrounds, mature students and single mothers who struggle to make ends meet.

For Filipino Canadians, the high cost of post-secondary education presents harsher realities that affect the community at large. Starting from the non-accreditation of foreign educational credentials and non-recognition of previous professional training, Filipino Canadians and other racialised immigrants are often stuck in dead-end, low-paying jobs, thus making post-secondary education even more difficult to access. Worse, for temporary foreign workers under the Live-in Caregiver Program, the issue of accessibility does not even factor into the equation as downright policy restrictions prohibit them from taking educational upgrading courses.

As the older generation of Filipino Canadians has limited access to post-secondary education, it is then no surprise that the youth and students are further pushed into the margins as they inherit the community’s cycle of poverty. Often required to work to support and supplement their families’ incomes, Filipino Canadian youth alongside previous generations are streamlined to become Canada’s permanent sources of cheap labour. Academic and community-based research has shown that Filipino Canadian youth experience staggering rates of downward social mobility, and now have one of the highest high school drop-out rates in major cities such as Vancouver and Montreal. These form the crux of the social, economic and financial barriers that Filipino Canadian youth continue to face in accessing education.

We, members of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance—Ontario, assert our position that education should be a basic right and not a privilege for the few. We will continue to expose and oppose any government’s neoliberal efforts to slash public funding in education that prevent marginalised individuals and communities from fully participating in Canadian society. Together with all racialised, marginalised and working class students and communities, we will march forward and continue our fight to make education accessible to all towards our genuine development as individuals and as a society.

Drop the fees! Eliminate tuition fees and student debt now!
Stop the privatization of public education!
Onwards with the demand for accessible education!
Advance the movement for genuine settlement and integration!

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For more information, contact:
Kenneth Santos
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
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