Reductions in further and higher education spending, combined with cuts to helping-hand schemes such as the Education Maintenance Allowance, present a fundamental threat to everything educators stand for. This author discusses the need to build a credible alternative that puts tertiary education at the heart of a strategy for economic growth and social justice. She poses a key question on how educators may build a credible alternative to cuts in education and beyond. She believes the answer is to argue for tertiary education to be at the centre of a strategy for sustainable economic growth and social justice.