[AAACE-NLA] Advocacy issue in PA

[Tana Reiff]

Thanks for (re)sending out this paper, Tom. Marginalization is a fundamental
issue here, and you make the point that education is not only about
"workforce development" but social and economic growth in general.
Regardless, the bottom line is that education is the business of an
education department, and various departments can cooperate toward common
goals. But I'm just not sure how a case based on reason and sense will fare
over money and power. (Ironic, isn't it, that state agencies are fighting
over adult ed money, inadequate as it is?)

Moving WIA oversight, i.e. adult literacy education, into labor departments
has been happening in other states. A thread on this list back in March ("In
what state agency should adult ed be located?") addressed the topic for a
few days, but I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion on the
advocacy aspect. Are other states succumbing without a whimper - or a chance
to have some input? Does such a move happen swiftly by executive order
rather than legislation? (In PA, it requires legislation.) Have there been
advocacy efforts in other states - failed or successful? And then how are
things going in states where WIA Title II is in the labor department?

Tana Reiff
TIU Community Education Services
President, PAACE

> From: tsticht at znet.com
> Reply-To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
> <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:26:07 -0700
> To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Advocacy issue in PA
> 
> Tana: I read the PAACE letter and attachment to the Governor of
> Pennsylvania. Both documents are very well done and express what I think is
> a genuine concern with moving the adult education system from the education
> department to the labor department. I have argued for the primacy of adult
> education over workforce development in the past. You can find a brief
> paper entitled The Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS)in the United
> States: Moving From the Margins to the Mainstream of Education that may be
> useful to PAACE in its very important advocacy effort. The online
> address for the report is
> http://www.nald.ca/library/research/sticht/AELSinUS/cover.htm
> 
> Hope this is helpful.
> Tom Sticht
> 
> _______________________________________________
> AAACE-NLA mailing list: AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
> http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
> LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
> http://literacytent.org