Protesters denounce inequities in First Nations school funding

EDMONTON (CBC) - Hundreds of protesters from First Nations across Alberta held a lunchtime rally in downtown Edmonton on Wednesday to demand equal educational funding for aboriginal students.

Protesters said the federal government does not fund First Nations schools as well as other schools in Alberta, and that inequity violates promises made in their treaties.

Glenys Buffalo, principal of the school in Ò°, Alta., said the federal government gives her school about half the amount of money that is given to provincially funded non-reserve schools.

"We're always behind the provincial system in terms of all our dollars, any kind of funding that we have, which includes the busing, post-secondary is a big one. Inequality for teachers' pay, salary ... every issue that you can imagine," she said. MORE INFO