More than just positive attitudes

Grits must invest in First Nations higher education

Roberta Jamieson is used to deviating from the norm. She was the first indigenous woman in Canada to earn a law degree, she’s a former chief of the Six Nations of Grand River territory and was once Ontario’s ombudsman.

Now she’s one of the few First Nations leaders not completely star-struck by the Trudeau government.

The president and CEO of indigenous education charity Indspire said Tuesday she welcomes the $2.6 billion allocated in the federal budget to primary and secondary education on reserves as a “great step in the right direction.”

But she said there was a glaring omission in the budget — the complete absence of funding for postsecondary indigenous education.

“We can’t let them fall off a cliff (after Grade 12). They’re our change-makers,” she said.

The budget said the government would work with indigenous groups to “explore how to best ensure that students wishing to pursue postsecondary studies have the resources and supports they need to pursue their dreams.”

But there was no money attached to that aspiration and Jamieson is concerned the Liberals are simply kicking the can down the road. “Hopefully there is another chapter. But at the moment there’s silence on post-secondary education,” she said.

As Indspire has discovered, there is no shortage of demand. In 2015, it received funding requests for $90 million but only had private and public sector funds to satisfy 16 per cent of those requests, handing out $14.4 million in bursaries to First Nations students.

“The myth is that our people get their education paid from cradle to grave, but it’s simply not true,” said Jamieson.

The situation differs from the K-12 dilemma faced by the government, where simple fairness demanded the federal government bridge a funding gap between what was being spent on students in provincial and on-reserve schools. But there is a similar achievement gap — the Canadian Council of Learning suggests just 42 per cent of indigenous adults hold a post-secondary credential, compared to 68 per cent of non-indigenous adults. The university graduation rate is just eight per cent among native students, compared to 23 per cent for the wider population.

Given the devolution of powers to First Nations that appears set to occur under the Trudeau government, there needs to be a commensurate buildup of capacity in those communities — and that means more native students graduating with some kind of post-secondary qualification. “You need people at the other side of the table,” said Jamieson.

Indspire’s own research suggests that the teachers, nurses, entrepreneurs, doctors and lawyers it has supported do, in turn, build capacity in their own communities, with 82 per cent reporting they are serving indigenous people in their current roles.

Jamieson said expectations for brighter futures are sky-high at the moment. “But there’s got to be more than just positive attitudes.”

The government has promised to implement all 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, one of which called for adequate funding to end the “backlog” of First Nations students seeking a post-secondary education.

There certainly seems to be a design flaw in a system that hopes to produce a growing number of high school graduates, yet has not made provision for increased demand for post-secondary education funding.

One of the goals of the 2016 federal budget was to create a more innovative country. Few investments would be more cost-effective than increased post-secondary education for the fastest growing demographic group in the country — a section of society facing barriers to educational success that are higher and more numerous than those faced by most other Canadians.

Taxpayers should always be wary of politicians who, when questioned about government spending, say they “can’t afford not to” spend.

It’s rarely true, but in this case it may be.

If spent wisely, the massive investment in First Nations education will result in a surge in high school graduation rates.

But the mismatch of available cash to funding demand experienced by Indspire suggests another generation of lost potential, unless money is found for more bursaries, scholarships and awards.