Drop Fees is a growing campaign of students, families, campus workers and allies who are working together to build a lasting movement for a new post-secondary education system. It’s not a surprise that students and their families are proposing alternatives.
Ontario is ranked last for per-student funding in Canada. Ontario students face the highest tuition fee hikes; we are charged high ancillary fees and we face growing class and tutorial sizes. Students are in learning environments that are being manipulated by privatisation and treated as revenue generating units by their college and university administrators.
The good news is that this is the final year of the McGuinty government's "Reaching Higher" framework for tuition fee increases. The government has promised to review the system, but we are tired of students not being put first. This campaign is intended to empower students, families and allies to have their say and demand a new plan for the post-secondary education system; one that is based on access, equity and fairness.
The Drop Fees campaign is initiated by the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, the student organisation representing over 300,000 college and university students across Ontario.