[NLA] The AELS as its own system.

[Thomas Sticht]

A Strategy For Advocacy to Move The Adult Education & Literacy System of
The United States From the Margins to the Mainstream of Public Education

The discussion about the AELS and whether its funding ought to flow from
the K-12 or Higher Education components of education is a fundamental
discussion about how the AELS is to be considered. At the present time,
the Struture of Education figure that the National Center for Educaton
Statistics uses shows a progression from the top of the figure to the
bottom that shows the P/K-12 and Higher Education components of the
structure of education in the United States.

Higher Education/Post-Secondary
BA, MA, Ph. D & professional graduate programs
Vocational/Technical Institutions,  Junior or Comunnity Colleges

Pre-School, K-12
High School
Middle School
Elementary
Elementary School
Kindergarten
Nursery School

The AELS does not appear on the figure. Instead, outside the figure at the
bottom is a footnote that says, "NOTE: Adult education programs, while not
separately delineated above, may provide instruction at the elementary,
secondary, or higher education level. "

It seems to me therefore that one of the first orders of business for
advocacy for the AELS is to establish it as a third branch of publicly
funded education that should probably fall alongside Junior or Community
Colleges but not belong to the Higher Education/Post-Secondary system nor
the P/K-12 system.  This would look like:

Voc/Tec, Junior/Community Colleges, Adult Education & Literacy System

So far on this list, we have moved from not having a name for nor
agreement on what the adult education and literacy educational system
should be called, to the point today where most of the recent discussions
have referred to the AELS as the Adult Education and Literacy System
(AELS) of the United States, and come to agree, not entirely but mostly,
that the AELS is the education system consisting of the 50 states and U.
S. territories which receive some or all of their funding from the State
Grants program of the Adult Education and Family Liteacy Act, Title 2 of
the Workforce Investment Act.

In my opinion, this is not a trivial accomplihment. It means that today it
is possible to conceive of advocating for a concrete national entity, the
AELS of the United States, and to begin to orient state directors of
education, governors, legislators, media, and the public in general toward
the understanding of (1) the name of this national education system that
provides lifelong learning oportunities for adults, (2) the fact that the
AELS supports some 3 to 4 million adult enrollees per year looked at
nationwide across the last decade, (3) that the AELS provides education
much different from that found in the P/K-12 and Higher Education systems,
(4) that it is one of the greatest educational bargins in the nation
because it helps adults achieve greater functionality at home, in the
workplace, in the schools, in the community, and with the health care
system and (5) it achieves all these outcomes with a paucity of funding
that is less than $600 per enrollee when state and federal funds are
combined.

Over the years, the AELS has provided funding for a wide array of adult
literacy providers in adult high schools, community colleges, libraries,
correctional institutions, and numerous charitable organizations. When the
AELS grows, there are opportunities for adult learners all acroos the
spectrum of need. For this reason the adult education and literacy field
ought to unite behind a strategy for moving the AELS from the margins to
the mainstream of publicly funded education consisting of at least these
important steps.

Step 1: Formulation. A White Paper should be developed that can be used to
educate about the AELS and show (1) its name and present national
structure, mode of functioning, and distribution through state agencies,
(2) its high returns to investment through multiplier effects in adult
functionality in different domains of life activities, including spiritual
and humanistic activities, (3) its difference from the P/K-12 and Higher
Education systems, (4) the many negative cultural beliefs and forces that
hold back the further development of the AELS, and (5) the need for much
larger funds per enrollee to improve the delivery of services across the
life span.

Step 2. Dissemination. This White Paper should form the basis for a news
conference in Washington DC at the National Press Club and it should
include a call for White House Conference on Adulthood Education and the
importance of the AELS in meeting adult learning needs in the increasingly
complex world of knowledge of the 21st century. The paper should also be
released to all federal and state legislatures and executive offices, and
other agencies where policymakers may read it and states should hold their
own local press conferences to explain the AELS to the public at large. A
national logo should be developed and all states and territories that
participate in the AELS should make use of this logo on documents,
reports, etc. VALUE and other student organizations should also use the
logo as part of a national AELS alumni identification activity.

Step 3. Consolidation. Adult education and literacy providers such as
ProLiteracy Worldwide and the American Library Association, the YMCA,
YWCA, etc. should unite behind a strong, continuing advocacy activity that
calls for greater funding for the AELS at state and federal levels, with
the understanding that over time the AELS can develop rules and
regulations that will provide greater access to a larger number of
providers and their students. Funding should flow from federal to state
AELS agencies that can then distribute the funds to eligible providers
under the aegis of the AELS, and not the P/K-12 or higher Education
systems (though both systems may include programs that may be among those
providers who qualify to receive funds).

Already, on the NLA list, we have moved a long way toward Step 1, the
Formulation phase. There is some fair degree of consensus on the name of
the AELS and what it includes. There are messages that can be reviewed and
synthesized along with other reports, such as From the Margins to the
Mainstream, to move toward a White Paper. The Formulation phase will set
the stage for moving into Steps 2, which will require some funding to
support the printing and distribution of the White Paper and the news
release meetings. Movement on Step 3 is already ongoing in some efforts to
secure greater funding for the AELS at the federal level, and similar
activities can follow at the state level as the identity of the AELS is
disseminated and more and more organizations come to support the AELS as
the flagship for the armada of adult education and literacy providers in
the nation.

The AELS is today a very real system, now we need to rally behind it and
advocate for it!

¡Si se pueda!

Tom Sticht




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