TORONTO--The McGuinty government's funding announcement of $60 million over three years for college equipment modernization is only a modest first step to address annual budget shortfalls that are being improperly downloaded by colleges onto students."Insufficient government funding for information technology has resulted in Ontario Colleges downloading these costs onto students by charging fees that are clearly prohibited by government policy," said Jen Hassum, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. "McGuinty must use today's announcement as a step towards permanent funding to fully cover prohibited ancillary fees so that these fees can be stopped once and for all."The money announced today purports to cover "computers or software for classroom use, books or digital materials for libraries, and equipment or machinery for lab instruction" – all of which are items which are currently being charged to students through additional fees. The annual cost to students for these unfair fees is $50 million."At $20 million a year for only 3 years, this funding announcement will leave college students footing the bill for $30 million in classroom infrastructure costs that are supposed to be covered by the tuition fees they already pay," said Hassum. "While today's announcement is a welcome recognition of government underfunding, students are still waiting for McGuinty to step in to enforce government policy protecting college students from technology fees and to provide permanent funding for their campuses."