High tuition fees make us all poorer, Georgetti says

OTTAWA ... The Canadian Labour Congress stands in solidarity with the Canadian Federation of Students and supports its campaigns and its National Day of Action for affordable, high-quality, post-secondary education in Canada.

-Our governments, federal and provincial, are short changing the country and betraying our children when they refuse to open up access to post-secondary education while they keep repeating that we now live in a knowledge-based economy," says Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress.

The Canadian Labour Congress has long advocated for affordable education. Soaring tuition fees have resulted in much higher debt loads for students and reduced access to post-secondary education for working families.

-High tuition fees make us all poorer, individually and as a country."

-During the 2006 federal election, we called for the re-regulation and phasing-out of tuition fees for all post-secondary education programs and increased core funding for colleges and universities."

-This would promote equality and would help the economy as a whole because it would deliver young workers from the accumulated burdens of high student debt loads and low wages," concludes Georgetti who invites everyone to consult the study -Better Educated, Badly Paid and Underemployed: A Statistical Picture of Young Workers in Canada" available online at www.canadianlabour.ca.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canadas national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 135 district labour councils. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca