NLA Info: Adult Education Funding

[Thomas Sticht]

[NLA Colleagues, I am re-sending the message below because the first one,
for some reason, contained some confusing code. I hope this will be a
clearer copy.  David J. Rosen, NLA List Moderator]

David: The following Research Note may be of interest to NLA list
members.

Research Note 7/31/99                             tsticht at aznet.net

Federal Funds For Adult Education Plummet By 75 Percent Since 1965

Thomas G. Sticht
Applied Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences, Inc.
2062 Valley View Blvd. El Cajon, CA 92019-2059

In 1965 the federal adult education program received federal funds of
some $18,612,000 and enrolled 37,991 adults. By 1999 federal funds had
increased to over $345,000,000 and enrollments rose to over 4 million.

Funds Per Enrollee. Despite the growth in federal funding overall, the
federal funds per each adult enrollee expressed in constant 1995 dollars
from 1966 to 1999 show that by the late 1990s the dollars per enrollee
had lost about three-quarters  of their original 1966 value, dropping
from about $274 per enrollee in 1966 (using constant 1995 dollars) to
$73 in 1998.

Over the years the federal share of adult education funds has declined
while the share of matching funds by states and local education has
increased. In 1966, federal funding for adult education was around $20
million for some 377,660 enrollees ($53 per enrollee) while state and
local funding was around $10 million ($26 per enrollee). By FY 1998,
federal funds for adult education were about $345 million for some 4.2
million enrollees ($82 per enrollee) while in FY 1998 around $958
million ($228 per enrollee) were available for adult education from
state and local matching funds.

Two Bucks Ahead in Over 30 Years.  In constant 1995 dollars,  funding
per enrollee  for adult education has grown from around $274 (federal
dollars only) in 1966 to $276 (combined federal, state & local dollars)
in 1998, about $2 per adult in over 30 years, a rate of growth of less
than 7 cents a year!

Rates of Return on Investments in Adult Education Are High!. Given the
multiplier effects of investing in adult education - it makes adults
more productive workers, more effective parents, healthier and more
engaged citizens - it makes sense to raise the federal share of funding
from $82 per student to match the state's $228 per student. With
enrollments approaching 5,000,000, this calls for a federal budget of
some $1,140,000,000 per year.

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