Peggy Nash releases plan to make post-secondary education accessible
NDP leadership candidate stands in solidarity with students across canada calling for an end to student debt
Vancouver / February 1, 2012 – Peggy Nash, MP for Parkdale—High Park and NDP leadership candidate, released this morning her plan to increase accessibility to post-secondary education (PSE) and alleviate student debt loads.
“Our social, economic, and cultural vibrancy depends on a real commitment to college and university education and training,” said Nash.
“After Liberal governments in the 1990s drastically reduced federal funding to post-secondary education, inaction by the Harper Conservatives’ has maintained the under-funding at a critical level.”
“Education is absolutely a right,” Nash added. “Something decisive needs to be done to ensure more people can access it without taking on massive debt.”
To make a significant and achievable step towards reducing student debt and making education more accessible, Nash commits to leading the NDP and the next government to:
- create a PSE Act
- establish a dedicated transfer payment
- convert a significant portion of loans made by the Canada Student Loans Program into non-repayable, up-front grants
- reduce interest rate on student loans to prime
- remove the funding cap on and extend eligibility for the Aboriginal Post-Secondary Student Support Program
- increase base funding equitably to the three granting councils
- support the independence, integrity, and protection of public research
