Doug Ford is much loved by his fans, but it’s a safe bet Taylor Swift is not among the premier’s admirers.

They seemingly don’t sing from the same songbook.

Last month, after the premier cut government aid to needy students, the pop megastar cut a cheque to a student in need — via PayPal:

“Ayesha, get your learn on, girl!” Swift wrote after sending cash to ensure Mississauga’s Ayesha Khurram could stay in school despite the latest cutbacks. “I love you! Taylor.”

Like thousands of her fellow students, Khurram had taken to social media bemoaning her shortfall in anticipated OSAP (Ontario Student Assistance Program) money after Ford’s Tories ended “free tuition” for low-income applicants earlier this year. Answering the appeal from her digital pen pal, Swift used PayPal to send $6,386.47

While much-retweeted, the story won’t be repeated for tens of thousands of other cash-strapped students who are back on campus this month. Nor will it help the unknown number of low-income students who gave up on returning to school, or — more importantly — will be too discouraged from even bothering to apply in future.

When the Progressive Conservative government first announced the scaling back of OSAP grants and loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the individual impact was impossible to predict. The Tories artfully deployed “issues management” to soften the bad news hit by throwing in a positive bit — a 10 per cent reduction in tuition across-the-board.

Despite its populist appeal, the changing cash flow amounted to a shell game. While claiming credit for ordering a tuition cut, Ford’s government didn’t make up the difference of more than $400 million to universities and colleges — it merely forced campuses to do without.

While everyone benefits in theory from a tuition cut, they don’t benefit equally — not if the tuition is still too expensive for poor students to afford in the first place. Now, the most affluent students are paying less, while the poorer students are paying — and borrowing — more.

In effect, Ford is robbing Peter — or Ayesha — to pay Paul. Over the summer, tens of thousands of students discovered that they were losing thousands of dollars in grant money they had been counting on, much of it loaded on to ever-larger loans.

The previous Liberal government had embraced free tuition for lower-income families as a way to decrease the undeniable disincentive faced by those who must borrow year after year. Yet now the Tories who publicly decry growing government debts think nothing of burdening students with yet more debt upon graduation — oblivious to the inequities of the indebtedness cycle by which affluent kids escape debt-free.

In their defence, the PCs point to an analysis by the provincial auditor-general that OSAP costs were growing, yet student enrolment wasn’t — especially among low-income applicants — suggesting that the more generous aid program wasn’t worth the cost. But it’s hard to fathom how the auditor imagined so rapid a shift in demographic update could take place in a program that was instituted only in 2017, but was expected to slowly influence behaviour for years to come.

For all the ideological and bureaucratic debate, one of the biggest defenders of bigger OSAP grants was the non-partisan deputy minister of the day, Sheldon Levy — a former Ryerson University president — who noted that students from low-income families, whose parents lacked post-secondary educations, were the most likely to be deterred by tuition barriers and debt burdens. Moreover, generous OSAP grants and minimal loans were the best way to remove disincentives for women and minorities, rather than pricing a post-secondary education out of reach, he argued.

There is a temptation to tell students they will benefit disproportionately from post-secondary education in their future earning years, so they should personally put up (the money) and shut up. But in today’s precarious economy, there are no guarantees of lifelong employment from investing in university or college tuition — only the certainty that without the credentials of a degree, they are unlikely to even be considered for employment.

That reality may be difficult for the premier to comprehend, given his own life experience. As Ford wrote in an autobiographical account before running for premier, he found college boring and quickly dropped out, jumping at a job offer from his father.

Unlike most students today, Ford didn’t have to bother with a degree or a debt burden. Instead of taking on student loans, he inherited his father’s company, Deco Labels.

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No one begrudges Ford his good fortune. If only he were a little less grudging about the challenges others face.

As premier, he can’t just cut cheques like a pop star on social media. But he should think twice about cutting the neediest students loose in the first place, and consider the societal benefit of investing in their education rather than adding to their debt burden.

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