NLA Clarification: waiting lists issue

[Catherine King]

David:

One other side issue in response to your note on the
waiting lists:

>From my own experience running a small rural program for a
brief time, I know there exists a great divide between small rural
programs like mine and Nancy's, and more urban programs where
demographics, methods, and program expectations are vastly
different.

I am sure this must be addressed in the literature somewhere,
but I know that in urban areas people have other options, whereas
in small rural programs, no or few other options exists.

Precisely because of these differences--that mean so much to
students--it is in these small rural programs that money for the new
reach of technology should be a point of rather loud concern in
our advocacy--for programs like Nancy's regardless of their
waiting lists--since long distances and access are such a
***major concern*** , where distance (and transportation), as well
as other opportunities, in urban areas are not so crucial to our
students.

Perhaps there already exists in our rural areas a "silent waiting
list" where people who would come **can't** because of spatial
barriers, which translate into money because space means
transportation, and tutors live under the constraints of the same
barriers.   More access to technology and the accompanying
training, and the connections and money that this will take--will
serve these folks who would come and be served, or put on an
actual waiting list, in an urban setting.

Best to all,
Catherine King

----- Original Message -----
From: David J Rosen <DJRosen at world.std.com>
To: <nla at world.std.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 6:44 PM
Subject: NLA Clarification: waiting lists issue


>
> Nancy and others,
>
> I may not have been as clear as I should have been about waiting
> lists.   Let me explain.
>
> I do not advocate creating waiting lists for the purpose of legislative
> advocacy.  To recruit students in order to put them on waiting lists, in
> my view, would be wrong -- and I know of no case where this is done. Where
> there >are< waiting lists, I recommend that we encourage adult learners
> to speak up for themselves, that we help them in that task by providing
> postcards which they (with help, if needed) can send to their elected
> representatives to let them know that they have to wait for adult
> literacy education services.
>
> Nancy, you may not know that in many cities which have large numbers of
> immigrants, there are people who cannot get into classes, people for whom
> there are not enough volunteers (given the resources needed to train
> and support volunteers -- and in some cases given the limited number
> of volunteers now available in a high-employment economy.)  In my city, we
> have programs which have had lists of people who wait up to three years --
> lists with over a thousand people on them. These programs stopped
> recruiting students many years ago -- still, they are inundated with
> requests for help to learn English.
>
> The good news is that some of these programs -- and individuals --
> have encouraged and supported the City to do something about this problem
> -- and the City's Office for New Bostonians, in collaboration with the
> Boston Adult Literacy Fund and several major foundations and corporations,
> is launching a four-million dollar, four-year effort to reduce the long
> waiting lists for ESOL services, to provide some needed help for those who
> want to learn.
>
> ESOL programs in Boston did not create the long wait for classes -- far
> from it -- but by carefully recording the number of people who have had to
> wait, and the length of time, by letting public officials know about this
> problem -- and in past years by helping students send their legislators
> postcards about the problem -- something good is being done. We have been
> able to make a difference.
>
> David J. Rosen
> <DJRosen at world.std.com>
>
>
>
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