Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC

The province must invest in education programs for low-income adults with upgrading needs if it wants achieve its goal of making BC the best-educated and most literate jurisdiction in North America.

Shauna Butterwick, an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at UBC, is the author of "A Path out of Poverty: Helping Low-Income Adults Upgrade Their Education," released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The study, which was co-sponsored by Federation of Post-Secondary Educators (FPSE), calls on the provincial government to:

BC's new Deputy Minister of Advanced Education, Moura Quayle, met with members of FPSE's Presidents' Council to initiate an on-going dialogue with faculty members from around the province. "Council members were impressed with her openness and see this meeting as hopefully the first of many regular meetings with the Deputy to share our perspective and concerns about the public post-secondary system," said Cindy Oliver, President of FPSE.

"It's time to re-think provincial policies that have undermined access to our public post-secondary education system for our most vulnerable students," said Cindy Oliver, President of FPSE. Oliver was commenting after outlining a proposal to improve the access and affordability of the post-secondary education system.

Over 500 union and community activists from across the Lower Mainland rallied in downtown Vancouver over the weekend to show their support for NDP leader Jack Layton. The crowd also heard from provincial and national labour leaders including BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair and Canadian Labour Congress President Ken Georgetti added.

Georgetti reminded the audience that key labour issues, like a provision to ban the use of scabs in federal labour disputes, were narrowly defeated by Conservative and Liberal MPs in the last Parliament.