Young people today in Canada face a reality vastly different from the one 20 or 30 years ago, economically and socially. This paper examines how young workers are experiencing various changing realities such as: student debt, precarious employment (unemployment, under-employment, and unwaged work), reduced job security (including unionization), rising inequality, changing wealth/debt dynamics and, less quantifiably, diminished social cohesion and community connection as a result of growing insecurity.
Education
Restacking the Deck: Streaming by class, race and Gender in Ontario schools includes contributions by editors George Martell and David Clandfield, and Bruce Curtis, Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Alison Gaymes San Vicente, D.W. Livingstone and Harry Smaller. The book speaks about the need for a destreamed schooling reform because many students are not being served well by the present streamed system.
It’s no surprise that students today are feeling the pinch. The cost of tuition and ancillary fees, costs of living, and textbooks all increase year after year but we aren’t really seeing any substantial increases in the quality of higher education. We also aren’t seeing increased wages, leaving a growing gap in how we can pay for school.
Inside this issue:
The Ombudsperson’s Report on Seniors Care: A Brief Analysis of the Government’s (Non)Response by Marcy Cohen and Janine Farrell
Are we undermining our schools by not investing enough in education? by Iglika Ivanova
BC’s GHG targets and LNG: not compatible by Marc Lee
BC’s public sector pensions plans need to divest from fossil fuels by Marc Lee
Are big-five forest firms about to get a windfall? by Ben Parfitt
Because unions have always been on the front lines fighting for progressive social change they have always represented a well-funded and organized threat to the political and economic power of those in positions of authority. This issue of Our Schools/Our Selves looks at the role unions—specifically teacher unions—have played and continue to play in fighting for social progress and the protection and expansion of basic rights that are now often taken for granted.
Graduating from high school is a rite of passage, but for students at risk, high school can be an oppressive and intimidating place. Programs like the Gordon Bell Senior Off Campus program (GBSOC) however, offer an alternative to the mainstream school system, allowing students to work at their own pace, away from the barriers they experience in the mainstream system.
To better understand these dynamics, the CCPA worked with five at risk students in the GBSOC program, and made a film about their experiences. Film by Carole O'Brien.
Graduating from high school is a rite of passage, but for students at risk, high school can be an oppressive and intimidating place. Programs like the Gordon Bell Senior Off Campus program (GBSOC) however, offer an alternative to the mainstream school system, allowing students to work at their own pace, away from the barriers they experience in the mainstream system.
In July 2013, Erika Shaker, Director of CCPA's Education Project, was invited to deliver a lecture at the 2013 Summer Institute—an intensive, two-week, interdisciplinary workshop that invites undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral fellows or doctoral recipients with an interest in youth-related research to work collaboratively with major researchers and public intellectuals to generate new scholarship and innovative modes of public communication related to the research theme.
The University of Manitoba narrowly averted its third faculty strike in eighteen years in late October, a strike that would have disrupted the lives of 29,000 students and almost 9,000 staff members.
Cost of learning vs. cost of living? The cost of a university education in Canada has risen dramatically since the 90s. Has everything else? Share our infographics and find out more in our report, Degrees of Uncertainty: Navigating the changing terrain of university finance.
An Education in Inflation: Canada (1990-2013)