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<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Hi MCAE members and
supporters. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Following are two
messages regarding the Literacy President Campaign. The first message from Art
Ellison gives some background and some links to the Literacy President
Campaign. All candidates for President are being asked to respond to questions
regarding Adult Education. Candidates John Edwards and Barrack Obama have
responded, but the other candidates have not. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In order to get Adult
Education on the agenda of the other Presidential Candidates, the national ABE
student organization, VALUE, has posted a petition, that I urge you to sign, that
will be sent to all Presidential candidates the week of December 17.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">To see and sign the
petition, go to ... <br>
<a href="parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ipetitions.com%2Fpetition%2Flitpresident" target="_blank">http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/litpresident</a> <br>
<br>
The full text of the messages is below.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Kenny Tamarkin, Executive Director<br>
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">To the Field,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Many of you are aware
of the Literacy President campaign that has been in action for the past year.
The campaign has been raising the issue of adult education with all of the
candidates for President in both parties. The primary goal of the campaign is
to make adult education and literacy one of the top three education priorities
for the next President. Listed below are the links to two great resources that
have been developed by the Literacy President folks. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The link to the
Literacy President Website will connect you with lots of information about each
campaign. The link to the candidate’s web page will allow you and your students
to connect to the Web Pages for any and all of the candidates. You can use this
link to communicate with a particular candidate’s campaign with questions
related to the candidate’s position on adult education. You will notice that
the Edwards and Obama campaigns have issued detailed positions papers on their
support for adult education. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I hope that this
material will be useful to you and to the adult education teachers and students
in your state.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Please let me know if
you have any questions. Art Ellison, Co-chair, Policy
Committee, National Council of State Directors of Adult
Education </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">LITERACY PRESIDENT
CAMPAIGN WEBSITE AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES WEB PAGES</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Microsoft Word
Format: <a href="http://www.litpresident.org/Candiates-Web-Pages.doc" title="http://www.litpresident.org/Candiates-Web-Pages.doc">http://www.litpresident.org/Candiates-Web-Pages.doc</a><br>
Adobe PDF Format: <a href="http://www.litpresident.org/Candiates-Web-Pages.pdf" title="http://www.litpresident.org/Candiates-Web-Pages.pdf">http://www.litpresident.org/Candiates-Web-Pages.pdf</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Here is the link to
the home page: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.litpresident.org/" title="http://www.litpresident.org/">http://www.litpresident.org/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="">Literacy
Petition messages:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="">VALUE
tentatively plans to hand-deliver the petition to the Washington <br>
DC offices of each of the candidates running for President during the <br>
week of December 17. For this petition to be credible, the field really <br>
needs to come up with several thousand signatures. With any less, our <br>
field looks weak and "ignore-able" to the next administration. <br>
<br>
We have just five weeks in which to gather as many signatures as <br>
possible. For this petition - and the field - to be credible, we need to <br>
gather AT LEAST 500 additional signatures a week for five weeks. That <br>
would give us at least 2,700 signatures. VALUE's Executive Director, <br>
Marty Finsterbusch said his dream would be to collect 10,000 signatures <br>
by December 17 - that's 2,000 signatures a week. That would put the <br>
adult literacy field on candidates' radar screens! <br>
<br>
There are several ways you can help pump up the signatures on this <br>
petition ... <br>
<br>
1. Everyone, after you sign the petition, urge other members of your <br>
family to sign too. We could quickly double the number of petition <br>
signatures if each person signing gets one family member to sign. <br>
<br>
2. Everyone: send an email message to your friends and colleagues <br>
asking them to sign the petition. If you enter your email address <br>
when you sign, you will automatically receive a confirmation email <br>
that includes a draft message you can then forward to your friends <br>
and colleagues. <br>
<br>
3. Tutors and teachers: please use this petition as an opportunity to <br>
discuss with your students the importance of the presidential <br>
election to future adult literacy policy and have them sign the <br>
petition. Urge them to have their friends and family sign it too. <br>
<br>
4. Local, state, and national organizations: please send a call to <br>
action for the petition to your members through your email <br>
distribution list and post it on your web site as a news item - that <br>
you're taking part in the Literacy President Campaign by gathering <br>
petition signatures. <br>
<br>
5. Local, state, and national organizations: include a call to action <br>
for the petition in any electronic or hard-copy newsletter that <br>
literacy supporters will receive before mid-December. <br>
<br>
6. Everyone: during your Thanksgiving Day gathering, have everyone <br>
there sign the petition. This may be a shameless suggestion, but we <br>
must seize every opportunity to raise the visibility of adult <br>
literacy to our future President, whoever he or she may be. <br>
<br>
To see and sign the petition, go to ... <br>
<a href="parse.php?redirect=http://www.ipetitions.com%2Fpetition%2Flitpresident" target="_blank">www.ipetitions.com/petition/litpresident</a> <br>
<br>
This is a nonpartisan activity - this petition will be delivered to all <br>
of the candidates from both parties. This petition simply urges all <br>
candidates to provide information that will be posted on a public web <br>
site. Therefore, neither the gathering of signatures nor the posting of <br>
candidate responses is electioneering. <br>
<br>
Let's get busy! </p>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Here are the numbers as of 7:30 AM Eastern Time today
for the Literacy <br>
President Petition ... <br>
<br>
There are 221 signatures. Pennsylvania is in the lead with 43, followed <br>
closely by Massachusetts with 37. California is next with 22. The other <br>
states in double-digits include New Jersey (17) and Arizona and Maine, <br>
each with 14. Anonymous has 16. <br>
<br>
Still in single digits ... <br>
NM = 9; VT = 6; NV = 5; NH, NY, TX = 4 each; DE, FL = 3 each; MD, MN, <br>
NC, RI, TN, VA = 2 each; and DC, IL, KS, MI, OH, OR, WA, WI = 1 each <br>
<br>
The following states aren't even on the board yet ... Alabama, Alaska, <br>
Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, <br>
Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Misouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, <br>
Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and <br>
Wyoming. <br>
<br>
To see and sign the petition, go to ... <br>
<a href="parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ipetitions.com%2Fpetition%2Flitpresident" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/litpresident</span></a>
<br>
<br>
This non-partisan petition simply asks all of the candidates running for <br>
President to answer five questions about adult literacy policy under <br>
their administration. Edwards and Obama have already responded. To read <br>
their answers, go to <a href="parse.php?redirect=http://www.litpresident.org" target="_blank">www.litpresident.org</a>. <br>
<br>
- Jon Randall<br>
<a href="javascript:top.opencompose('jrandall@fastmail.fm','','','0')">jrandall@fastmail.fm</a>
<br>
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