Danny Williams’ Post-Secondary Education Legacy

We KNOW that there is a direct relationship between education and poverty. To put it in terms that the political right might understand:   Poor kids don't get educated, and this keeps them in poverty, so their kids grow up poor, and poor kids don't get educated.  Equality in access to education is precisely where McGuinty should be pointing his Poverty Reduction compass.

UNESCO agrees:

"Two consistent research findings in the social sciences relate to the relationship between economic and education variables, and therefore between education and poverty. Educational research has consistently found home background (socioeconomic status) to be an important determinant of educational outcomes, and economic research has shown that education strongly affects earnings."

"Better educated people have a greater

probability of being employed,

are economically more productive,

and therefore earn higher incomes."

Link to the Danny Williams article

Some highlights:

"Admittedly, by the time Danny Williams was swept into office in 2003, the momentum had shifted. Newfoundland and Labrador had begun to lead the way in terms of post-secondary accessibility, in large part by going against the national trend of annual tuition fee increases.

But Williams, who won almost every seat in the provincial legislature that year, could have easily put things on auto pilot. He didn’t.

In 2007, the Williams government had both continued the tuition fee freeze and implemented an up-front, non-repayable, needs-based grant system for all post-secondary students. The same year, the interest rate on the provincial portion of all outstanding and future student loans was reduced from prime plus 2.5 per cent to prime.

In 2009, the Williams government went even further, eliminating the interest rate charges on the provincial portion of student loans. Also in 2009, the needs-based grant system became even more generous.

Since 2003, the Williams government has increased funding for post-secondary education in Newfoundland and Labrador by about 82 per cent."

....

"As McGuinty tries to differentiate himself from other party leaders, he’d be well advised to look at Danny Williams’ record on post-secondary education. If making a post-secondary education affordable worked on the Rock, it can work in other provinces too."