Ministry of Education fails to quell fears

University and college student groups across Quebec want more proof that the provincial government will inject new money into the education system.
This message comes in the shadow of a public feud between Education Minister Francois Legault and Finance Minister Bernard Landry over rumoured cuts to education spending.
Although the Quebec government said it will not cut funding to education and the two ministers appear to have patched up their differences, some student leaders are still unsatisfied.
The row centred around promises of new spending in education made during the last provincial election and at last year’s Youth Summit.
Christian Robitaille, president of the Quebec Federation of University Students (FEUQ), said no one has made it clear how the government will keep its promise for more education funding.
“Francois Legault reassured me that there will be no new cuts and that he will keep all his promises [for new spending], but Bernard Landry hasn’t,” he said.
He also said it is unclear Legault will keep his promises by using new cash infusions or by cutting back in other areas of education spending.
Mistie Mullarkey, chair of the Quebec component of the Canadian Federation of Students, and CSU vp academic, said she thought Legault’s public outcry against education cuts was mostly genuine.
“There is a certain degree of truth in his actions. It would have been a PR nightmare for him [had he done anything else].”
She also said Legault’s public backing for education funding was very positive, adding that “pressure needs to stay on them until the budget this [spring]. What happened last week was an example of what can be accomplished when there is public pressure.”
Although the Quebec government promised an new $1-billion injection into education last spring, students at the time were asking for as much as two or three billion, Mullarkey said. “One billion dollars is not enough.”
She also suggested the whole affair may have been a trial balloon to gauge the public’s response to a reduction in funding for education.
Robitaille agreed: “What reassures me is that if this really was a balloon, we popped it.”
He also said he does not care about the Parti Quebecois political intrigue that may have been the root cause of the tug-of-war over education spending.
“[Legault] did what he had to do as a education minister,” he said, adding that ministerial solidarity is not his concern.

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