Liberals offer minimal disclosure while cutting student programs

The B.C. Liberals laid out a strategy of cutting by stealth in a confidential memo that went out from central government to colleges and universities over the summer.

The mid-July memo detailed $16 million worth of cuts to a half-dozen student aid programs, including bursaries for nurses in training, loan forgiveness for the disabled and loan reductions for those pursuing high-demand occupations.

The changes would affect hundreds of students, many of them among the neediest, some dedicating themselves to careers that the government had identified as critical to making up the significant skills shortages in B.C.

Even as the Liberals reversed direction, they were also bent on keeping the public in the dark about their changing priorities.

"There will be no announcements coming from government on these changes," the memo advised the college and university officials who received it in confidence.

This government can be counted on to flood the media's electronic in-boxes with press releases at the slightest bit of good news. But there'd be no official announcement on this exercise in retrenchment.

Instead, the government simply noted the changes on the website for the ministry of advanced education. It was left to staff in the information centres to pass the word should anyone make inquiries in person.

The memo itself was sent after the fact. Payments on the affected programs had been frozen since early June, weeks before the college and universities got their official notification.

As for those unsuspecting students who had already filed applications, believing those student aid funds were still active, they received letters saying "program no longer available."

Notices buried on the website. Oral communication only for those who thought to ask. News put in writing only for those unfortunates who went to the trouble of applying for a program that was already on its deathbed.

That was the full extent of the intended disclosure, as laid out in the government memo. But happily a copy was leaked to The Vancouver Sun, which published a full account of the cuts to student aid July 23.

Among other things, the story noted the elimination of the Premier's Excellence Award, which had offered $15,000 scholarships to top high-school students around the province.

The $240,000-a-year program was part of the premier's goal of making this the best-educated jurisdiction on the continent. But the Gord giveth and the Gord taketh away, as they say in government circles.

As for the government decision to make the cuts without announcing them, the story recorded a reaction from New Democratic Party MLA Spencer Herbert: "Pretty sneaky."

Agreed. And that sneaky way of doing things wasn't confined to the changes in student aid.

The government has been cutting here, there and everywhere since the election. Time and again, the public learned the news only after the affected group complained, or the information was leaked to the news media or the opposition.

Minimal disclosure was all but confirmed as official policy during the recent budget lock-up when reporters were rebuffed when requesting the kind of information that had been available in the past.

Most notably there was the answer from Finance Minister Colin Hansen when he was asked for a breakdown on the purported $354 million worth of cuts to discretionary grants.

"Is there a comprehensive list organization by organization?" he said. "No."

Note that he did not imply a refusal to release the list, but rather that no such list existed. Which seems to be the case, judging from the government's struggle over the past week to specify the full extent of cuts to government gambling grants. As of Wednesday, the Liberals still hadn't sorted out the numbers.

Meanwhile, every day brings new disclosures, new controversies. Last week it was cuts in grants to charities and arts groups. This week, school sports and parent advisory councils.

As news emerges piecemeal, the Liberals' own agenda is derailed repeatedly. For instance, whose brilliant idea was it to roll out the latest instalment in the $500,000 Spirit School program on a day (Tuesday) when the education system was in a furore over the elimination of a $130,000 grant to support high school athletics?

The Liberals want to "own the podium" at the Olympics. But they are cutting off BC School Sports, which serves 100,000 young athletes at 425 schools via 47 provincial championships in 18 sports.

In a feeble effort to minimize the impact, Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid suggested that maybe the teenage athletes can occupy themselves "walking, dancing or playing in parks." Is there no hopscotch? Are there no teeter-totters?

So the Liberals stumble onwards and mostly downwards. On the days when they aren't struggling to explain the botched deficit projection, they scramble to justify the nickel-and-diming of programs they once touted.

Hard to think these guys pride themselves on their news management skills. These days they have trouble even keeping the excuses straight.


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Boost seen for Dems' student loan plan, House vote near

Democratic lawmakers seeking a thorough overhaul of the $92 billion U.S. student loan market were expected to score a win in the days ahead from a favorable finding by the Congressional Budget Office.

With a House of Representatives floor vote anticipated next week, the CBO was expected to say the Democrats' bill would save taxpayers more money than a rival plan being put forward by student loan companies, a congressional aide told Reuters.

The CBO statement will likely mark a turning point in a long-running struggle over the biggest shift in U.S. higher education finance in 35 years.

Sallie Mae, Student Loan Corp, SunTrust Banks, Nelnet Inc and other lenders have been seeking support for their own reform plan. It would preserve a greater role for them in the lending business.

But the CBO finding will show that the industry plan would generate about $70 billion in savings, or $17 billion less than the Democrats' bill, the aide said.

That could make it difficult for lawmakers to support the industry plan over the Democrats' bill, the passage of which would mean a step forward for President Barack Obama's broad effort to tighten banking and capital market regulations in response to the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Democratic lawmakers will hold a news conference on Tuesday to urge passage of the bill, the U.S. Education Department said on Thursday.

The bill "will generate almost $100 billion in savings over the next ten years that will be used to increase ... scholarships, keep interest rates on federal loans affordable and create a more reliable and effective financial aid system for families -- all at no cost to taxpayers," it said.

Sallie Mae spokeswoman Martha Holler said lenders are "waiting for an official score from CBO. It is premature and unproductive to speculate about it before it is even released."

BILL APPROVED IN COMMITTEE

The House Education Committee in July approved the Democrats' bill, which would shut down the $55 billion Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and shift most student lending into a program run by the Education Department.

The bill is expected to be approved by the House, where Democrats hold a substantial majority, analysts said. That would send it on to the more closely-divided Senate.

"Nothing is final in Washington until it happens ... Yet in our view the odds favor Congress eliminating FFELP," said Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst at research group Concept Capital.

For 35 years, FFELP formed the core of U.S. higher education finance and a lucrative business model used by private-sector lenders of government-guaranteed student loans.

The profitability of the FFELP model fell sharply, however, when the Bush administration cut subsidies to lenders.


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