No Extra Curricular Activities in Ontario
The teacher’s union in Ontario today announced their tactics for fighting the McGuinty government’s wage freezes, no Extra Curricular Activities for the students (ECAs). My kids are lucky, they have escaped this mess and are at University, but now the kids left are being held hostage.
Why do I care? When I grew up in Montreal, we had no ECA’s for most of my High School career, and it really sucked. It sucked the life and spirit out of my school (MRHS), and I shake my head wondering why the kids are now the victims of the war going on between the Ontario Liberals and the Teacher’s Union (you know the one that has a pension fund that used to own Maple Leaf Enterprises).
I weep for the kids….
CO-OP Degrees a Parent Financial Savior
An excellent comment on yesterday’s post about RESP’s Only Covering 1/2 University Costs, pointed out I did miss an important concept that parents and students should be thinking about if there is going to be money issues around going to University (or other post-secondary instiutions) and that is a Co-operative Education program could bridge the monetary gap for many students.
Parenting Tip #327: Large Expenditures (Weddings & Education)
In hopes of helping other parents who might be having issues about how to spend their hard-earned pay on their children, sometimes myself and Mrs. C8j offer useful parenting tips, and this week we give you a solution to the following prickly solution:
Your daughter/princess wants to go to the University of OH MY GOD IT COSTS A FORTUNE, and she also wishes to have a Wedding out of a fairy tale (i.e. something well over $50K in costs).
University Education in Canada
So after attending my 20th anniversary alumni weekend, I have a new respect for having to save a pack-load of money to get your kids into University (and out the other end). I talked to a few alumnus and they were echo’ing my concerns about the costs of sending our kids to U Waterloo.
Are you guys curious as to what my Alma Mater says your costs might be (in this year’s money too folks, remember you have got to expect an increase in cost here):
Florida teacher is a Dickhead to Autistic Kids
Love to go down to Florida and ask who hired this stellar teacher….
Lillian Gomez, a special needs teacher at Sunrise Elementary School in Kissimme, Florida, had a problem with some of her autistic students eating the crayons. So, she decided to dip the crayons in hot sauce. She’s now been suspended.
Canada Learning Bond (Frustrations)
Many times new programs and ideas from the Government take a while before they start working in a smooth way (especially if the banks are involved in the process). I learned this the hard way with the RDSP (Registered Disability Savings Plan) that I set up for my son at TD/Canada Trust. The problems were on all sides, but it still frustrates the heck out of me waiting for systems to start working as advertised.
Student Debt (Who pays for Education)
This is a topic that my family has been talking about, and I suspect this is not just a one post topic, so it may stretch out over the week.
In my case I was very lucky in that my parents paid for my education, and I graduated (in 1986) with no debts (which is depressing knowing that all of the debt I carry now is of my own making, but that topic is really an underlying thematic premise in this journal, so we’ll leave that one aside for now).
My parents and many friends of mine, had to pay for their own education, or finance their education themselves at least.
Advice To Future University Students
It is the magical Back to School season so many of my compatriots in the Personal Finance Blog world have taken it upon themselves to pass on sage advice to the future leaders of our world. The advice given is very good and I wish someone had told me some of this advice before I started off at University, but then again, I most likely wouldn’t have listened (after all I was much smarter back then).
