The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation has come out strongly to urge both the Federal and Provincial governments to increase the amount of financial assistance that they dedicate to First Nation students.
Key among those funding requests would be to provide better training and to create more support staff positions that would be dedicated to educating First Nations youth about the number of options available in post secondary education…
Gar. If anyone ever suggested that more funding be allocated specifically for white kids, they’d be laughed out of whatever room they were in. This is a joke.
[quote=“eccentric”]
Gar. If anyone ever suggested that more funding be allocated specifically for white kids, they’d be laughed out of whatever room they were in. This is a joke. [/quote]
Ah - yes - once again the well-thought out arguments pointing to the complexities of the situation. I do so appreciate it when people post opinions with a strong case.
I certainly agree that basing any funding decision on skin colour or ancestry is overly simplistic. However, take a good long look at the statistics for First Nations kids graduating and carrying on to post secondary schooling.
Personally, I believe a kid’s decision to complete/continue schooling has more to do with socio-economic status and social capital than it does their ancestry.
Why should a native get any more funding than anyone else because of a perceived lack of education to them?
They already get lots of the post-secondary education paid for. And frankly, the education granted to students about post-secondary education is equal. Native kids sat in all the same CAPP/Planning classes I did.
But yea. My point wasn’t at all overly simplistic, Become the Change. I’ll lick your feet the day you can show me a single bursary or scholarship–in the booklet that gets handed out to grads–that says “preference given to white students”.
Edit: Podunk, perks given by an employer to employees is not the same thing as a government allocation funds because a group is found to be statistically under represented in post-secondary institutions.
If the perk was only given to a certain race of employees because they were statistically fatter, I’d be arguing against that too.
Perks given by an employer to employees is not the same thing as a government allocating funds because a group is found to be statistically under-represented in post-secondary institutions.
If the perk was only given to a certain race of employees because they were statistically fatter, I’d be arguing against that too.
Hmm, ok well I’m going to ask our fellow htmfers to weigh in here and jump into the deep end of the pool (no offence intended to any civic workers)
But does anyone else see the inconsistency in the argument of eccentric regarding the belief that perks for city workers is fine, but the funding in question isn’t…
Just wondering shall leave this in the hands of the jury now…
I’m just not seeing how you draw the parallel. The mere fact that I am in favour of one type of funding but not in favour of another type is hardly inconsistent.
We’re dealing with two completely different things here. Were the First Nations students in question already attending post-secondary schools or programs, and it was found that they were making less headway than their counterparts of other races, then I’d be all for this funding.
However, throwing money at a statistic probably won’t change it. Really, my main point it simply that this type of funding should be colourblind. There are deserving kids from every race and ever walk of life. Very few students these days don’t graduate High School without some aspiration regarding post-secondary education. Many of them won’t get it. Who cares if a large number of these people are Natives. A large number are white, black–whatever.
All hard working students deserve the chance to continue their education past High School. Why should some statistic make it so that someone is less likely to get that kind of funding because they’re white?
And again, if other people are going to weigh in. I’d like to know what people think about a bursary in the award booklet in which “preference is given to a white student”. If I remember correctly, there are several in which preference is given to a Native student.
But then again, cheap gas, lower tuition, funding for extracurricular programs–I really don’t think we do enough to help First Nations students succeed.
okay, since you obviously think that all first nations people get their education paid for on a “silver platter” for being a bad statistic, then you are horribly mistaken.
Yeah, money is funded to the First Nations band for all sorts of things, Education being one of them.
So you think all that money given to the band sends every single first nations kid listed under that specific band to a nice post secondary institution ?
No, sorry.
it’s the band council’s family first, then all of their wives and husbands. Then their In-Laws.
then there’s a little bit left to send the people at the top of the waiting list to some crummy Community college.
Please, get your facts straight and read the Indian Act please?
It’s not my problem that, allegedly, the money doesn’t go to the most deserving Natives. What gets done with handouts doesn’t change the fact that they’re handouts–and racist handouts to boot.
the First Nations people endured decades of assimilation & residential schooling, and because of that fact; First Nations people are entitled to those “Hand Outs”
If your culture were to be assimilated, not being able to carry on with a normal life and having to live up to somebody’s “Standards” then I would think your culture would be entitled to some sort of apology, no matter which form it be (written / official / “Hand Outs”)
anyways, my point being - if an individual’s culture were to be messed up so much as the First Nations culture was, then it is understandable that the wrong were to be recognized by the government, and I think in a way, it is for the First Nations peoples - The Indian Act?
and the Fact cannot be Alleged that the money doesn’t go to the most deserving, because it doesn’t. Ask any First Nations person you know, and they’d be able to tell you. That the Band Council and their Family come first, and everyone else has to work their ass off to even be recognized as a potential candidate for post secondary funding, and not everyone gets the funding either.
I’m not going to deal with your entire post, because it will all just get moved to the wasteland. Besides, both sides of the “should Natives get money” debate have been argued a lot already over the years.
All I’ll say is this. In response to your question “How is it racist?” The money being dolled out is being dolled out specifically because of race. Were it being dolled out using a system that guages the amount x person was affected by assimilation it would be different. But it isn’t. You’re born brown and in a tribe, suddenly gas is cheaper… suddenly you’ve got access to far more post secondary funding than your friend who was born white.
[quote]
the First Nations people endured decades of assimilation & residential schooling, and because of that fact; First Nations people are entitled to those “Hand Outs”
If your culture were to be assimilated, not being able to carry on with a normal life and having to live up to somebody’s “Standards” then I would think your culture would be entitled to some sort of apology, no matter which form it be (written / official / “Hand Outs”)[/quote]
Annndddd… racist funding is what? Oh yea…
That really adds weight to your “we’re entitled to it” argument. Well, since you agree that the racism has turned in the other direction, I guess I’ll just have to wait for my kids to get tax cuts and extra funding for post secondary school. After all, I’m going to be entitled to it, right?
I merely took your bad argument to a logical conclusion.
If past racism means that future generations should make amends, then eventually racist funding will lead to extra (and racist) funding for non-Natives.
