Education is a Right

January 4, 2012

In December the MoveUP Executive Board voted to endorse the Canadian Federation of Students’ "Education is a Right" campaign and the associated day of action on February 1.

To support the campaign President David Black sent a letter to BC Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto. Here is an excerpt:

MoveUP represents approximately 14,000 members across BC in public and private sector workplaces. Many of our members are watching their children struggle to afford BC’s student loan interest rates – the highest in Canada – as well as rising tuition fees. Some of our members are students themselves, seeing the issues first-hand.

Fixing the issues with post-secondary education will be crucial to BC’s economic recovery. I hope the government recognizes that filling labour shortages and creating jobs in emerging industries will require BC students to access the advanced education they need without being saddled with exorbitant debt levels after graduation.

We support the CFS’s goals and join them in calling on the BC government to return tuition fees to pre-2002 levels, increase core funding to post-secondary institutions, eliminate interest on student loans, and restore needs-based grants. 

For more information on the campaign, visit educationisaright.ca.