[AAACE-NLA]HOUSE PASSES H.R. 1261

[Thomas Sticht]

As David Rosen has noted, the House of Representatives has passed HR 1261
and sent it on to the Senate. For me, the good news is that the House
revised the Workforce Investment Act and renamed it the "Workforce
Reinvestment and Adult Education Act of 2003.’’ This places Adult
Education on more of a par with workforce development, although I would
have been happier with the title the "Adult Education and Workforce
Reinvestment Act of 2003." But I'm willing to take the present title as a
small recovery of the importance of the  original Adult Education Act of
1966 with attention to the education of adults not only to improve their
opportunities in the workforce, but also for purposes of general education
for a wide array of needs beyond employment.

Another piece of good news is that the House supported the continued
existence of the NIFL in the new act in what is called by the short title
of the "National Institute for Literacy Establishment Act." The purpose of
the new NIFL has, on the one hand, been narrowed to focus on reading and
its legislated purpose is to "provide national leadership in promoting
reading research, reading instruction, and professional development in
reading based on scientifically based research."

On the other hand, the new legislation has broadened the NIFL's scope
beyond a focus on adult literacy to consider reading achievement across
the life span and its purpose includes "disseminating widely information
on scientifically based reading research pertaining to children, youth,
and adults."

The final good news that I find in the new act is that it includes a bit
more funding (about $30 thousand) for the NIFL than requested by the Bush
Administration.

The major bad news as far as I am concerned is that the House did not
provide more funding for the state grants beyond the $584.3 million that
the Bush Administration requested. This is well below the $1 billion goal
that the National Literacy Summit has set for the state grants. However,
the Summit document set the year 2010 as the year for achieving $1 billion
for the state grants, so there is still time to work to achieve that goal.
While I personally think that the goal of $1 billion for the state grants
is way too low to make much of a meaningful impact on the adult education
and literacy system of the United States, either now or by 2010, I think
that it is better to have $1 billion than $584.3 million.

I understand that many advocates have their particular concerns and wish
to advocate for them. As for me,  I think the primary advocacy efforts
should be aimed at advancing the National Literacy Summit's goal of
getting the Senate to increase the appropriations for the state grants
program for the Adult Education and Literacy System of the United States.

Tom Sticht
Tsticht at aznet.net