• Alberta Government core funding has dropped by more than 50 per cent over the past 20 years. Most of these cuts took place during the Klein years.
  
  
• Government revenues continue to soar with no corresponding increase in funding for post-secondary education.
  
  
• The long-term drop in funding has institutions turning to tuition fee increases and corporate funding.
  
• Differential tuition fees will bar accessibility to low-income students.
  
  
• Institutions are being shaped and influenced more and more by corporate “partnerships” — with programs being tailored to individual corporate clients — not by the needs of society.
  
  
• Education has become a business rather than a public service. Privatization threatens our system.

AUPE believes public post-secondary education is an investment, not a costly burden.

AUPE believes government needs to recognize the demonstrated social and economical benefits generated by tax dollars spent on post-secondary education.

Employees, faculty and students in every institution need to cooperate in the effort to pressure the politicians for adequate funding.

Administrators must work with union members to educate the public about the issues and the challenges that threaten the quality, accessibility and affordability of the programs their children are hoping to enter.

Public awareness of the need for adequate funding to post-secondary education must rise.