Concordia Student Union's Response to Paul Martin; Make Education a Priority

MONTREAL, Jan. 14 /CNW Telbec/ - The Concordia Student Union (CSU), which
represents all 26,000 undergraduate university students at Concordia welcomes
Prime Minister Paul Martin's announcement that a Liberal government will pay
for the education of students who volunteer abroad for one year.

The CSU is still very concerned, however, that Paul Martin and Stephen
Harper have not committed to making education a priority. "Previous
Conservative and Liberal governments are both responsible for cuts to federal
funding for Canada's post-secondary education system, and neither Party has a
complete plan for solving the problem," said Mohamed Shuriye, President of the
CSU.

Since the early 1980s, annual federal funding for higher education has
been cut in half, from $8 billion to around $4 billion, with the bulk of the
cuts coming since the mid-1990s. The results of these cuts include soaring
tuition fees and student debt, greatly reducing access for low-income
students.

The CSU is calling on all federal parties to promise an annual dedicated
transfer of $8 billion for higher education. "Education must be seen as a
major priority by all the federal political party leaders," said Steven
Rosenshein, Vice President Communications of the CSU, "and students, now more
then ever, must recognize how important it is to vote to ensure that
politicians take us seriously."

Steven Rosenshein, CSU Vice President Communications and Mohamed Shuriye,
President of the CSU will be available all day today for comments on today's
announcement by Paul Martin and to answer the media's questions.

For 26 years, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) has been representing the
interests of Concordia University undergraduate students. For more
information, visit its official Internet site: www.csu.qc.ca

For further information: Steven Rosenshein, Vice-President,
Communications, Concordia Student Union, (514) 848-7474 ext 8900,
communications@csu.qc.ca; Mohamed Shuriye, President
Concordia Student Union, (514) 848-7474 ext 8899, president@csu.qc.ca

Source:http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2006/14/c2480.html