The good news is the government's student-loan scheme has been an overwhelming success. The bad news is that it's student-loan scheme has been an overwhelming success.

How can the fact that twice as many students are taking advantage of the country's most generous student financial assistance program as did five years be both good news and bad?

Well, it's good news if you care about educating our youth, about the necessity to ensure our children have the skills to get jobs and ensure they don't end up dependent on an ever-shrinking welfare state. It's bad if all you're worried about is cutting corners in the Department of Education's budget.

The nervous bean-counters might argue that we are being unfairly simplistic. After all, they say, not only did the number of students using the program to attend colleges and universities double, so did the price tag -- now $15 million and rising. Can we really afford to keep paying more and more?

To that we respond: Yes.

There is no argument that some students have taken advantage of the government's generosity, pocketed the money and then made no real attempt to secure a diploma or degree. Drop-outs are, sadly, far from rare in the North.

But a few bad apples doesn't mean we should chuck out the whole barrel. As we've said countless times before, few challenges facing the NWT compare with finding a way to ensure our youth get the education they so desperately need. Anything that discourages them from seeking that schooling -- cutting back on the funds, for example -- should be considered a last resort.

And until we've run out of money to send MLAs on European fact-finding missions, it seems unlikely we will reach that point.

So, nervous bean-counters, go ahead -- tighten up some of the eligibility requirements. Do your best to ensure that no one abuses the system. But don't back away from the most important investment this government can make -- the education base of a people.