The Cost of an Education

So it has been a little while since I have felt the need to rant. Or at least, felt the need while my computer is on while I still remember what it is I want to rant about.

Today, in keeping with the Public Sector Disclosure Act, the University of Western Ontario released a list of employees whose 2008 income was $100,000 or above. It is a long list. 16 pages. Now I'm sure they are no better or worse than other universities. Look at York's strike when their support workers are one of the highest paid. But I am in no mood to get depressed by looking for the wages at other universities.

Now we all knew Profs made good money. Especially considering half the work is done by assistant professors and graduate student teaching assistants. But, when you take 10 years of post secondary and have to pay $100,000 to do that, I suppose rewarding them isn't so bad. Right? At least they're staying in Canada instead of running with their degree to another country where they can make more money. Though, with when most of them were in school, it didn't cost that much to get a good education.

And if tuition wasn't constantly going up, making it harder and harder for people to afford school, I probably wouldn't care. But UWO proposed raising tuition. Again. Yet they have coaches making $128,458.00, secretaries making $117,985.32, and librarians making $163,778.40. There was honestly a Dean that made $395,599.98 last year. While there are people who aren't going to school because they can't afford it without huge debt and poverty. The total at the bottom of the report for wages above $100,000 give last year? $105,787,584.09.

They also run around putting in flat screen televisions where cork-boards will do. New students are paying extra for a new recreation centre that was put in, because people who were graduating before having to pay for it, voted it was okay to have students paying for the building for the next 30 years. On top of the nearly $6000 in tuition per year.

Now sure, I may be jaded as I am one of those people who had to put off education due to not being able to afford it (which I find amusing since all the schools say that's not suppose to happen and they offer aid to prevent it, but that's bullshit). I doubt the people whose parents funded their education get what the issue is. They're probably just waiting until they are in those positions making that kind of money. But come on! You need a university degree to get some call centre jobs. You need one to be a receptionist. Having post secondary is far from an option these days. Everyone is expected to have it. And perhaps if we weren't paying the teachers $100,000+, everyone could have it. Perhaps we wouldn't have people with a 145 IQ having to work at gas stations and mailrooms because they couldn't get the money together.

How much money is getting an education really worth? We go from a free education in high school to paying $1000 a credit. How much debt are you willing to go into to get an education, while the people running your school drive home in their BMWs and their children get a nearly free education? Seriously, how long are we going to sit here and be sucked dry of our money in an attempt to get an education to be able to get a job that will pay enough to pay off the debt before we die.