[AAACE-NLA] Save NIFL, acquiesce or act?

[Eileen Eckert]

Should we sacrifice adult literacy to child literacy? If we sacrifice adult 
literacy, we <also> sacrifice child literacy. Children become literate in 
great part from being talked to and read to; if parents can't (or won't) 
read to their children, it is quite likely the children won't read either.


From: David Rosen <djrosen at comcast.net>
Reply-To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by 
AAACE<aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: [AAACE-NLA] Save NIFL, acquiesce or act?
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 20:06:12 -0500

AAACE-NLA Colleagues,

I would like to highlight three points about the Save NIFL campaign that may 
help some subscribers to understand it better and to act.

1. Decisions about NIFL will be made, possibly this month, by a 
Congressional conference committee. Conference Committee members will take 
the House and Senate versions of WIA reauthorization and will work out 
something which both branches can approve. So it's important that we ask our 
Senators and Representatives to contact the two chairmen of the conference 
committee. For more information on who the chairmen are, go to 
http://savenifl.org/tp.html

2. The Senate version of WIA Title II -- for those who care about NIFL's 
adult focus at least -- is better than the House version because it 
preserves the original focus on adult and family literacy, and uses as its 
starting point the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) . (To see 
the details on this, go to http://www.savenifl.org/tp.html and choose "AEFL 
Reauthorization".  A side-by-side .pdf will download.  Open the document and 
scroll down to the National Institute for Literacy section under the Topic 
column, or do a "find" for National Institute for Literacy)

3. When you write or talk with your Senators and Representative, emphasize 
that you are interested in saving NIFL's adult-focused initiatives, for 
example: EFF, LINCS, and Bridges to Practice.  For talking points on these 
initiatives, go to http://www.savenifl.org/tp.html

What's at stake?  A lot.  NIFL has provided national leadership in adult and 
family literacy. Some of NIFL's programs -- many of you may agree -- are 
very important to the staff and program development of our field.  But, 
there's more.  A weak response from the field on this issue may help to 
support arguments of  those who do not care about adult literacy, those who 
would like to see adult literacy resources used  to support  children's 
literacy.  Should we sacrifice adult literacy to children's literacy?  
Should we acquiesce? If you don't think so, do something about it now.

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net

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