[AAACE-NLA] State and Federal Funding for the AELS

[tsticht at znet.com]

September 26, 2006

The Adult Education and Literacy System of the United States:
Moving Toward a Multiple Life Cycles Education Policy

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

Gross disparities continue to exist between funding for Higher education,
K-12 education, Head Start and the Adult Education & Literacy System (AELS)
of the United States. Using data circa 2002 and 2003, average per enrollee
funding for Higher education was $20,545, for K-12 it was $8,556, and for
Head Start it was $6,943. In stark contrast, per enrollee funding for the
AELS, including both federal and state/local funding, came to some $803,
less than one-eighth of the Head Start funding, less than one-tenth of K-12
funding, and less than one-twentieth of what is spent per enrollee for
Higher education.

Even within the AELS there are wide disparities across states in combined
state/local plus federal funding, with the latter coming  from the Adult
Education and Family Literacy Act, Title 2 of the Workforce Investment Act.
The top five states in per enrollee funding have combined state/local plus
federal funding as follows: Vermont $2,683 per enrollee and 78% of this
funding is non-federal;  Michigan $2,301 with 89% non-federal;
Massachusetts $1,904 with 72% non-federal; Oregon $1,462 with 86%
non-federal, and Main$1,361 with 85% non-federal.

The five states with the lowest per enrollee spending are Georgia $208 with
35% non-federal; Mississippi $248 with 25% non-federal; Illinois $310 with
40% non-federal; Idaho $319 with 36% non-federal; and Nebraska $325 with
25% non-federal funding per enrollee. Clearly, the five states spending the
least per AELS enrollee are not as strongly supported by state/local funding
as are the five states with the highest per enrollee funding.

Overall, just 2 states spend more than $2,000 per enrollee, 16 spend between
$1,000 and $2,000, 25 spend between $500 and a $1,000, and the rest spend
less than $500 per enrollee.

Given the research that has emerged in the last few years that demonstrate
the clear and strong relationship between parent’s education and the
achievement of their children in school, it is extremely shortsighted to
provide such miserly amounts of education funds for adults in the AELS
compared to adults in higher education. Such tremendous disparities only
serve to promote further the intergenerational differences in educational
achievement among children who grow up to form our Nation’s population of
adults.

Similarly, if we can see fit to invest almost $7000 per child in Head Start,
but only $800 for the education of the adult’s children, when we now know
that the real head start starts with the heads of the children’s parents,
then this is a policy that will guarantee future generations of failures in
the K-12 system who become the next generation of functionally illiterate
adults.

The states/local agencies that provide the least funding while relying on
the federal funds for their adult education and literacy education are
shortchanging both their adults and their children by promoting
intergenerational functional illiteracy. They are also falling short of
their investment in their own economic development because they fail to
understand the multiple returns to investments resulting from adult
education and literacy development. Finally, they shortchange our Nation
because they fail to provide their fair shares of fully literate, educated
adults for our national defense and our national competition in the global
economy.

There is a need for all states to come to the support of the Adult Education
and Literacy System (AELS) of the United States to tackle the major problems
facing our Nation today. There is a need to recognize the AELS as a unique
adult education system that provides the third leg of a three legged stool
of education consisting of Higher education, pre-school-12, and adult
education. All states should agree to recognize that their state programs
are members of the national AELS and let adult students know that they are
a part of this national educational system and that it is there for them no
matter into which state they move.

By investing in adult education it is likely that we will find cost-savings
in the need for compensatory childhood education and this cost-saving can
help offset the cost of a more equitably funded national AELS. This is
possible because of the intergenerational transfer of health, motivation,
language and literacy resulting from adult education. This is the basis for
what I call a multiple Life Cycles education policy. Simply stated, when we
invest in the education of adults, we improve the educability of children.

With this understanding of the effects of adult literacy education in mind,
policymakers should move to increase the obscenely low per enrollee funding
for adult literacy education at both the state and federal governments to
levels more on a par with the other two legs of our Nation’s education
system.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net