[NLA] Discussion: NIFL and the Big Picture

[Jon Randall]

Thanks George for your support. We're hard at work on recommended criteria for NIFL Director. Our focus will be solely on adult literacy. Once we've got sponsors for a Dear Colleague letter in which Members of Congress will advocate with us, we'll post the alert. We hope to have it done within the next 7-10 days.

You hit the nail on the head when you wrote, "For a variety of reasons, the field's top leadership has chosen not to directly challenge the Board nominees ... based on the assumption that any direct challenge would result in a further erosion of the field's marginalized status"

Unfortunately the fact is that even our closest ally in the Senate right now is not willing to challenge the slate of nominees. It's not a character flaw or a decision we can influence with pressure from the field. The political reality is that the NIFL Advisory Board is not a big enough national issue on which to take on the President.

Shifting hats now -- personal opinion, not NCL Policy Committee chair ... 

Regarding your call for comprehensive vision based on core ideals, I'm all for it! However, when your wrote "Will the current NCL decision be viewed  as a temporary strategy that ultimately will require the field to take the issue to the
nation and its core ideals of equality, opportunity, liberty, and social justice, or will interest politics alone, continue to govern the field's policy orientation in perpetuity?" I reacted sharply that it doesn't need to be either or.

I think what we're doing now is much like what the little Dutch boy did putting his fingers in holes in the dike -- only we're trying to construct a better one behind us at the same time. For better or worse, depending on your perspective, the Action Agenda for Literacy was and is intended to be the blueprint for that better dike. I concede that the core ideals on which it is based are implicit rather than explicit and perhaps making them explicit would strengthen the new dike's foundation. However, some ouf us must continue in our role as the little Dutch boy, because things will continue to be done to us if not with us. As you acknowldege, we must deal with the here and now, while we plan for the future.

Though you've stated repeatedly, George, that your call for a comprehensive vision based on core ideals is not a repudiation of the Action Agenda, I fear some still view it as such. Therein lies some of the resistence to your call. 
I suspect additional resistence comes from the weariness folks feel as they take care of issues in their current strategic plans, including having to deal with the impact of recent and proposed Washington policy-making. Building a public understanding -- accross our field, and in the general public -- of the core ideals that make adult litercy a national priority can require a significant investment of both human and financial resources with no guarantee it will change the public's perception or the basis for our own collective planning. Where will these resources come from and will they divert resources from dealing with the here and now?

Don't get me wrong -- I don't mean to suggest the hurdle is insurmountable. I'm just trying to idenify some of the factors that may need to be addressed to win converts to dealing with these "more substantive matters."

Best,
Jon 

Jon Randall
FedStrategics, LLC
strategic advocacy & public affairs consulting
to charitable organizations
www.FedStrategics.com

8413 Park Crest Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Tel: (301) 588-5304   Fax: (301) 588-5353
jrandall at FedStrategics.com




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