Mungall wants the BC Liberals to stop making money off of student loans

During the Budget Estimates debate for Advanced Education, MLA Michelle Mungall, critic for Advanced Education, Youth and Labour Market development, uncovered that the BC Liberals are profiting off of low-income students who need loans to go to school.

"The BC Liberal government is borrowing money for students loans at prime minus 1% then turning it around to students at prime plus 2.5%. That's a 3.5% markup," said Mungall. "BC has the highest student loan interest rate in the country, one of the highest student debt loads and the BC Liberals are profiting from it."

When the Minister initially stated that revenue from student loans go into one of the few grant programs the province has for students with disabilities, Mungall questioned the legitimacy of generating revenue from low-income students' loans for grants for low-income students. However, this further uncovered that the revenue from students loans does not in fact fund student grants. Rather, it goes into general revenue.

With student debt and poverty at such high levels in BC, Mungall also asked about student grants, noting that most of the 2500 FTE students at Selkirk College don't have access to financial needs-based grants from the province. Since 2001, BC Liberals have been cutting funding for post-secondary grants so that now they are about half of what they were in 2001.

"BC has the lowest level of student grants in Canada. Couple that with the highest interest rate on loans, and we shouldn't be surprised that student food banks are seeing more and more clients," notes Mungall. “The reality is that without upfront financial needs-based grants, many low income students are just not able to get their foot in the door."

Alternatively, the BCNDP see advanced education as an investment in the province. With a skilled labor shortage of approximately 160,000 jobs in the next five years, BC needs to make post secondary education accessible and affordable for BC families. To start, the BCNDP will eliminate interest on students loans and increase student grants by $100million.

“Post-secondary education isn't a frill, it is a necessary component of our economy that requires investment by individuals and the Province," sates Mungall. $30million dollars to eliminating student loan interest rates and $100million will pay tremendous dividends to our communities."

Leader Adrian Dix and BCNDP Opposition will continue to stand up for students and strong provincial investment in post-secondary education.

www.michellemungall.ca