This interprestation flies in the face of the students' own interpretation
of why they are demonstrating (as in the article I originally noted), the
global interpretation of why they are demonstrating as in
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/quebec-student-fight-goes-internatio
nal-how-a-battle-over-1625-got-noticed-149349285.html and simple logic,
since the Quebec students who are demonstrating pay the lowest tuition in
Canada (and one of the lowest tuitions in the OECD countries where tuition
is paid) and the students in the rest of Canada are not demonstrating.
 
For better (or worse) the Quebec students seem to have decided that
education should be treated as a public good rather than a private one as
the neo-libs and the economics profession have been hammering away for a
couple of generations and are in this way making connections with the Occupy
Movement and with the broader energies towards redefining  political and
social directions.
 
M

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 6:50 PM
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'
Subject: Re: [Futurework] What makes Quebec students 'distinct'?



This makes sense.  

 

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 4:28 PM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION  
Subject: Re: [Futurework] What makes Quebec students 'distinct'?

 

I suspect that what is happening in Quebec will soon happen in the rest of
Canada and perhaps in the US as well.  In a previous posting, I suggested
that universities have become "holding tanks" for young people who probably
couldn't find the kind of work they're after if they were out in the labour
force and who therefore see universities not only as a safe haven but as a
place in which they can learn something that may be useful later on.
However, as students, they have to pay tuition and room and board, and much
of the money that keeps them going is borrowed. Given the uncertainties that
will beset them when they emerge from the hallowed halls, they want to pay
and borrow as little as possible.  Many, reading the world that is out
there, may have reached the point of being very uncertain about being able
to repay their debts when they graduate, so they march in an effort to keep
their costs down.

 

Universities, on the other hand, are expensive to operate.  One suggestion
aired on TVO's Agenda a couple of nights ago was that universities are too
diverse in what they teach.  They offer far too many subjects.  Perhaps they
could cut costs by specializing much more -- e.g. in a given geographic
area, University A could specialize in law, University B in health sciences,
and University C in the arts, social sciences and humanities.  Would this
work?  Perhaps though perhaps not.  The largest component of university
costs by far is professorial salaries.  You'd still have to pay these.  And
you might miss the cost advantages of having all of your infrastructure in
one place. 

 

Ed

 

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Ray Harrell" < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]>

To: "'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'" <
<mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]>

Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 1:41 PM

Subject: Re: [Futurework] What makes Quebec students 'distinct'?

 

> PS.   Canada really is becoming more Republican in the American sense.
That
> means you will have poorer health and the magnificent achievement of the
> Canada Council on the Arts will disappear except for the very wealthy as
it
> has here.    The battle is lost here but is raging full force in England
and
> in the old Iron Curtain countries.   The virus is now in Canada as well.
> Wealth as Aristocracy or wealth as private wealth.  If I had to choose
> either I would choose aristocracy.   At least they are a part of the
> government and have the paternalistic ideal of social responsibility for
> their serfs.   That's why we had so many educated and culturally
> sophisticated immigrants in the 19th century.    Even the house slave in
New
> Orleans were treated better than today's non-wealthy youths.   Rent or
own?
> Which do you like?   Personally what I like is irrelevant.   We lost the
> war.   But for the record I think both choices suck!
> 
> REH
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:  <mailto:[email protected]>
[email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of michael
gurstein
> Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 10:02 AM
> To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION';
>  <mailto:[email protected]>
[email protected]
> Subject: [Futurework] What makes Quebec students 'distinct'?
> 
>
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/26/f-quebec-students-t
u>
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/26/f-quebec-students-tu
> ition-debate.html?cmp=rss
> 
> 
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