[NLA] re: community colleges

[Nancy Hansen]

Dear Mev,
THIS is a reeeeeaaaaallllly distressing news article!  Stealing from Peter to save Paul, it appears.  Someone else had told me that with the tight budget, the decision-makers are shuffling funding around to cover their deficits elsewhere.  (I wonder if this didn't come from one of the LA's whom I was visiting with?  Can't recall.)  Sounds like the community colleges are about to be hit with one of those cuts.
 
Secondarily, who would even <think> that, if the community colleges are being threatened with cuts in their own <operational> dollars, that those administrators would even <consider> finding a _quarter_ to designate to "remediation" students (i.e., literacy-level needy adults)??  I'd say under the circumstances you've brought to light that the above is a pretty unrealistic expectation.
 
Nancy Hansen
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com
 mev at litwomen.org, UNEXPECTED_DATA_AFTER_ADDRESS at .SYNTAX-ERROR. wrote:(cross-posted)

For those of you with students who may be planning on community 
college, here's something else to worry about. Why is it that the Bush 
administration seems so hell bent on taking away educational programs 
for adult learners -- directly or indirectly??!
Mev
________________________

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/12/2002121001n.htm

Community Colleges Oppose Reported Plan to Eliminate $1.2-Billion 
Vocational-Education Program
By JAMILAH EVELYN

Washington

Community-college officials are worried about reports that President 
Bush may soon propose eliminating the entire budget -- $1.2-billion -- 
for spending under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical 
Education Act. The money would reportedly be used to deal with a 
growing deficit in the Pell Grant Program.

Officials in both the White House's Office of Management and Budget and 
the U.S. Education Department's Office of Vocational and Adult 
Education, which administers the Perkins funds, declined to comment on 
whether the administration was considering any cuts to the program. 
December is frequently a month in which administrations float ideas on 
ways to deal with budget problems, and while some of those ideas find 
their way into the president's budget plan the next year, many others 
disappear.

But many higher-education lobbyists cite "reliable sources" who say 
that when President Bush makes his budget proposal to Congress early 
next year, he may recommend entirely eliminating support for the 
program, which doles out some $1.2-billion annually to community 
colleges and secondary schools for skills-based training.

In a speech last week at Borough of Manhattan Community College, Sen. 
Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat from New York, said she had written 
to the president, urging him not to rob "Perkins to pay for Pell."

"Any threat to Perkins, even if it's only being considered, is 
extremely bothersome," said Ellynne Bannon, a legislative associate at 
the American Association of Community Colleges, which is urging its 
members to write to members of Congress, particularly Republicans. "At 
a time when most states are in a tough financial situation, the idea of 
cutting this critical funding source for community colleges is 
unimaginable."

Officials at the community-college association note that the Bush 
administration has put in place new accountability measures that rate 
federal programs according to their effectiveness. Because Perkins 
money is spent by states in a variety of ways, the program generally 
does not fare well under performance indicators.

Still, when word of the possible cut first spread, it caught officials 
at many higher-education associations by surprise because they say the 
Bush administration has been aggressive in planning for reauthorization 
of the Perkins Act, which Congress is scheduled to take up sometime 
next year.

Christopher Simmons, assistant director of government relations at the 
American Council on Education, said that he was shocked. "I find it 
really surprising that the administration that claims to be so 
dedicated to education would consider cutting one of the most important 
programs for community colleges," he said.

It was not immediately clear how an elimination of funds would affect 
reauthorization of the act, but one higher-education lobbyist, who 
asked not to be named, said that it would make things "awkward at best."

Higher-education institutions receive roughly 40 percent of Perkins 
funds, with the majority going to two-year colleges to help pay for 
equipment, staff development, remedial classes, and curriculum 
development, among other things. The remaining 60 percent goes to high 
schools that focus on career education.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

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