VANCOUVER
(CUP)—A new study argues that students aren't the freeloaders that some might
believe them to be. "Paid in Full: Who Pays for University Education in
B.C.," published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA),
has found that British Columbians with a post-secondary degree contribute more
to the public coffers through future income taxes than it would cost taxpayers
to entirely pay for their entire degrees now.
"There
seems to be a conventional wisdom … that students are subsidized and they
should stop complaining about high tuition fees because really, taxpayers pay
for their education," says Iglika Ivanova, an economist with the CCPA and the
author of the report.
"But
because [post-secondary graduates] earn more money, they end up paying more
taxes. The question is how much more do they pay in taxes and is that enough to
cover the upfront costs of their degree?"
In
the study, Ivanova compares how much it costs to fund a four-year degree to the
expected lifetime income tax contributions of a university graduate. The higher
earnings of degree-holders combined with lower rates of dependence on welfare
or employment insurance meant that students more than end up paying their own
way.
"A
lot of people, when you talk about lowering tuition fees, think you're saying
you want to subsidize education," says Ivanova. "But you're not really
subsidizing it. They pay."
According
to her findings, governments could cover the entire cost of tuition twice-over
and would still be getting a bargain.
The
CCPA study didn't take into account the various other ways that degree-holders
contribute to the economy, such as by paying higher consumption taxes,
contributing to economic growth and through innovation.
Ivanova
embarked on the project in order to update a previous CCPA study done by UBC economist
Robert Allen in 1998, which came to a similar conclusion.
She
was interested to see if Allen's findings still held at a time that tuition
rates increased substantially and British Columbians were paying less in taxes:
"Some people have speculated that we have so many graduates now [and] that
university education isn't what it used to be. Maybe it no longer has a payoff
for students," she says.
"But
by and large we continue to find that almost every field of study including
things that you would think have no practical value, like humanities, pay for
themselves."
There
was only one discipline that didn't cover its own cost – visual arts and that's
because artists tend to earn considerably less than their peers in other
professions.
Ivanova
went on to argue that because many prospective students experience
"sticker shock" when confronted with the high cost of a university degree,
they may decide to pass on higher education and that governments are therefore missing
out on the potential tax revenue.
"So
why are we putting barriers to education for so many people by having high
tuition fees instead of making sure that everyone who wants to can get an education
and contribute to society?" she says.
Zach
Crispin, the chairperson for the B.C. wing of the Canadian Federation of
Students (CFS) argues that decision-makers should take heed of this study.
"I
would definitely hope that [governments] would take a look at the data that's
been presented here by the CCPA and at least choose to freeze and work towards
reducing tuition fees in the short term and really think fully about getting rid
of financial barriers to post-secondary education," he says.
He
also points out that the study demonstrates that the net gains to the public
treasury from higher education have actually been decreasing.
"The
fact is that when we used to have a more progressive tax system, those numbers
were higher," he says. "As we move to reduce tuition fees and
increase the tax base through a progressive tax system, students are going to
be paying for their education more times over and we can actually increase the
quality of it at the same time."
Ivanova
emphasizes that regardless of how high tuition fees are, students end up paying
for their degrees one way or another – it's just a matter of when.
"It's
economically feasible and fairer to ask graduates to pay for their degrees
through taxes after graduation, rather than asking them to pay through high
tuition fees up front."
//Arshy Mann, CUP western bureau chief
//Arshy Mann, CUP western bureau chief
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