- The Guardian
- Issue #2158
On 22 July this year, a 20% cut to the HECS/HELP (Higher Education Loan Program) payments students have to make after they finish tertiary education was passed. The ATO will apply it to HECS/HELP debts that were outstanding on 1 June. The cut will cost $16 billion. Labor is very pleased with itself about this. Their website shows a nice big green tick next to ‘Achieved,’ with the ‘cut to student debt’ top of a list of achievements. Should the rest of us be just as pleased? Is Labor to be congratulated?
Not really. Every little helps, and it’s nice that the HELP debt will be cut by between $670 and $5,835 because of the cut, but the word ‘little’ is important here. Those supposedly lucky graduates will still have between $14,000 and $125,000 of debt hanging over them. Another dampener on the ALP’s self-congratulation is that this debt reduction is a one-off thing. Generations of students, including those making decisions about future study now, will still face massive debts. Anecdotal evidence suggests this is influencing decisions about study.
The government’s shiny new report from its Education Summit likes HELP. It says that the “core principles of HELP remain sound – asking students to contribute to the costs of their education later in life through an income contingent loan.” Actually HELP fails on those principles alone – a big argument for HELP was that uni students go on to higher incomes, but it’s easy for governments to change the threshold so that almost any income triggers repayments.
The problem with HELP debt is much more basic than just how it’s implemented. Details like when the debt kicks in or how it’s indexed cover a more basic problem – one that should concern all of us. The problem is a neoliberal approach to education. The idea being everyone should pay their own way so that the state can be small and (neoliberals think) efficient. As the corruption and binging on consultants of the Morrison government showed, ‘efficient’ is not what we get with this approach.
Of course there are exceptions for the military, who never face the sort of scrutiny on spending that other areas do, politicians, and private schools who continue to be generously funded from the taxes of people who can’t afford to use them.
The neoliberal mindset treats education as a cost, and an expense, only benefiting the individual who receives it. In fact, education is good for individuals and the whole country.
A lot of people don’t use tertiary education. Why should they care about this? Two reasons. Firstly the neoliberal approach doesn’t stop at university students. Everything is commodified. This approach applies to TAFES, to healthcare, to aged care and to childcare (as recent scandals in the private childcare sector have shown).
The second reason is that as we’ve said, education is a positive thing for the whole country, not just for the high school, TAFE, or uni student who gets educated. It makes the nation richer and a better place to live in. Students already contribute to the cost of their education through taxes. They contribute to making Australia a better place through applying the things they’ve learned.
The Communist Party of Australia stands for free lifelong education; early learning, kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, TAFE and universities. This country can afford it and it’s good for us. To get it, we’ll have to shake off the failed neoliberal mindset.
