Press Release
Greens say new tuition program will have negative impacts on New Brunswick students
Fredericton – April 10, 2019, Green Party Leader and MLA for Fredericton South David Coon says the Renewed Tuition Bursary will make post-secondary education less accessible for low income students, while removal of the Timely Completion Benefit eliminates the only provincial debt relief program available to students, just before graduation.
There were 6300 students who accessed free tuition this year. Students now receiving free tuition under the Free Tuition Program have not been grandfathered in which means those students may have to drop out of school.
“The timely completion benefit needed to be improved not eliminated and eliminating it just before graduation is punitive to those students who counted on it” says David Coon. “My caucus colleagues and I had suggestions for how to improve it, but there was absolutely no consultation with us.”
Greens support the long-term goal of extending the public education system to include post-secondary institutions through universal free tuition.
Megan Mitton MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar says that, “this policy change is not supporting the people who are least able to pay for education. It is another example of this government moving money away from the people with the lowest incomes in the province.

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