[AAACE-NLA] An Advocacy Message

[Debbie Yoho]

With Tom Sticht's permission, I have edited his posting about the Bush
administration's "Blueprint" into a letter to my senator, Lindsay Graham. 
The text of that letter follows, in case this might be useful to someone
else. Best, Debbie

Dear Senator Graham,

Because you serve on the Senate committee currently considering the
reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act, including Title II, the
Adult Education and Literacy portion, please give your attention to the web
site of the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult
Education (OVAE), where a report has been posted that offers the Bush
administration's vision for adult basic and literacy education. It is
entitled " A Blueprint for Preparing America's Future: The Adult Basic and
Literacy Education Act of 2003: Summary of Major Provisions".

At the beginning of the Blueprint, the Bush administration's vision for
adult basic and literacy education is presented in 32 words: " Adults will
have opportunities to improve their basic and literacy skills in
high-quality research-based programs that will equip them to succeed in the
next step of their education and employment." 
It is clear from the statement of the Bush administration's "vision" that
adult basic and literacy education is viewed as only a second-chance for
adults to learn what they should have learned in the K-12 system in the
first place.  This entirely ignores that many of the adults currently
enrolled in programs already possess a high school diploma. Some even have
college degrees.  The vision calls for programs for adults that "will equip
them to succeed in the next step of their education and employment."
Apparently the vision is that the adults will proceed up the "steps"
through a curriculum that will lead to elementary school and high school
completion and then into college or employment. This supposition is
supported by the statement that: "States will be required to align content
standards and assessments with what students need to know to continue to
the next level of education and employment. They will be expected to take
into consideration the standards for elementary and secondary education,
the standards for entry into post-secondary education, and the expectations
of employers for entry-level workers."

Missing from the vision is a discussion of just what is meant by adult
"basic" education. Literacy and mathematics skills are frequently referred
to as "academic" skills, as though reading, writing, and computing are
simply of "academic" use. The report sees adults solely as potential
taxpaying employees and ignores the fact that adults also serve on juries,
shop in our stores, drive our highways and take care of children.  There is
no discussion of the importance of adult education and literacy development
for helping adults cope with their own and their family's health needs, for
helping parents help their children with the children's socialization and
school needs, or for helping older adults maintain the integrity of their
brains and cognitive skills through learning.  There is no mention of the
importance of helping adults develop self-confidence and positive attitudes
toward learning, or other important benefits to society in general that
result from opportunities for adult education, in addition to its academic
and employment benefits. 

Interestingly, at one point the Blueprint recognizes that this "one size
fits all" approach of making programs into purely second-chance, remedial,
academic programs is not always appropriate. This occurs when the report
discusses workplace education programs. Then it states: "Since workplace
education services are typically shorter in duration and more directly
linked to workplace objectives, accountability measures will be refined to
reflect the specific goals of such services." But it fails to recognize or
appreciate that in many cases adults enter into adult education and
literacy programs with specific, short term learning goals just as adults
do in workplace learning contexts. In this case, then, to insist upon an
academic curriculum leading to post-secondary education is just as
inappropriate for these adults as it would be for an adult in a workplace
learning environment studying for job advancement. 

The report states that  " tens of millions of American adults do not have
the reading, language, computational, or English skills they need to be
self-sufficient or continue adapting to the changing demands of the global
information economy that characterize our Nation’s present and future…" 
But then the report fails to address in any way how its Blueprint will
approach the problem of trying to improve outreach to attract up to 90
million adults to sign up for adult basic and literacy education. The
severity of this problem is indicated by the report's comment that: "The
Federally funded system of adult basic and literacy education serves
approximately 2.7 million adults each year." At this rate of service, it
will take over 33 years to reach the 90 million adults the reports cites as
being unable to be self-sufficient or meet demands of a global economy,
assuming the number of people in need does not rise.  Nothing is said in
the report about how to go about increasing the numbers being served in the
Federally funded programs. Nor is anything said about the fact that
enrollments fell 33% from a little over 4 million in 1998 before the
present accountability system was put in place, to the 2.7 million
mentioned in the report. 

This report does not present a clear rationale.  It fails to address the
important problem of the recruitment of adult learners; it characterizes
the system as only a remedial education and employment preparation system,
(as opposed to a program for lifelong learning to stay abreast of the
Information Age);  it offers a "carrot" and "stick" approach to improving
the system, using incentives for doing what the government wants and
threatening the loss of funds for not doing what the government wants; and
it treats the students in this system as though they are children rather
than taxpayers who provide the funds for their own education. 

Perhaps most revealing, the Blueprint does not ask for any more money for
adult education over what it had last year.  In fact, the Bush
administration has never asked for more money for adult education than it
had in the previous year. The failure to ever ask for more funds means
that, with inflation, the Bush administration's vision for adult education
and literacy is that administrators, teachers, and adult learners are being
asked to do more for less.

Surely our nation can do better.  I ask that you, Senator Graham, step up
to the plate.   

Deborah W. Yoho
Co-moderator, NIFL-Health Listserv
President, SC Adult Literacy Educators
Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy Council
2728 Devine Street,  Columbia, SC  29205
803-765-2555   Fax  803-779-8417   dwyoho at earthlink.net