After removing limits on tuition fee increases ("deregulation") in 2002, the BC Liberal government responded to its critics by saying that higher tuition fees would enhance the quality of post-secondary education in BC.

(Even if that were true—see below for why it is not—higher tuition fees mean that those who cannot afford to pay will never see the benefits of increased quality.)

In reality, skyrocketing tuition fees have rarely coincided with an increase in quality. To the contrary, quality has suffered since tuition fees were deregulated. Last year most universities and colleges were forced to make drastic cuts in faculty and staff jobs, academic programs, and support services.

An explanation as to why skyrocketing tuition fees have coincided with cuts at universities and colleges can be found in the explanatory notes of the 2002 BC Budget:

"Given that the ministry’s budget is otherwise held constant, it has developed strategies to manage wage, demand and inflation pressures. The ministry will:

implement a new tuition fee policy which allows post-secondary institutions to set tuition rates;

provide institutions with tools to increase productivity in the post-secondary system, for example by removing class size restrictions"

In other words, deregulated tuition fees were designed to simply make up for funding cuts.

The BC Liberal government has reduced per-student funding in six of its eight budgets. As a result, per-student funding in BC is now 15% below 2001 levels (adjusting for inflation), leading to fewer programs, long wait lists for programs, fewer full-time faculty, and deteriorating labs.

Adequate government funding for post-secondary education is essential to a sustainable system of post-secondary education that does not burden BC's families with sky-high fees.

A well funded system will also reap benefits for British Columbia's economy. The rationale is simple: an educated workforce is economically productive and forms a stronger tax base. Conversely, an under-trained workforce mired in student debt places strain on the social safety net and holds back our economy.