[NLA] Discussion: WIA Reauthorization and OMB Four common Measures

[Catherine B. King]

David:

If the present administration is REALLY interested in
worldwide change of our policy and our image, they
should start with the immigrant population that enters
our programs.  What a rich place.

Whom do they think these folks communicate with if not
with their families back home?  If the current administration
really  understood this, or if they really are interested in
making long-term inroads in communication with the
people in other countries--especially the middle eastern
countries--then what better way than doing everything we
can to educate these people--for us, and for them?

What they send back in their letters, e-mails, phone calls
and just their general attitude,  is political manna for us--
a country who desperately needs to better our policy and
our impression of neo-colonization on others in the world?

Catherine King
Adjunct Instructor
Department of Education
National University
San Diego, CA
-- Original Message -----
From: David J. Rosen <DJRosen at theworld.com>
To: nla <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 4:38 AM
Subject: [NLA] Discussion: WIA Reauthorization and OMB Four common Measures


> NLA Colleagues,
>
> At the final plenary of the National Workforce Alliance Conference in
> Washington, D.C. yesterday, a representative of the U.S. Department of
> Labor (DOL) outlined some of the factors which we might expect to
> influence WIA authorization in 2003.  Among them she mentioned the
> recommended change from the current 17 to four common measures
> recommended by the White House Office of Management and Budget. She said
> the four proposed performance measures for programs serving adults are:
> employment entry rate, job retention rate, earnings increases, and an
> efficiency measure involving the appropriation level per participant,
> something like a return on investment assessment figure.
>
> She also mentioned that DOL is concerned about the increasing number of
> immigrants with employment-related goals who are limited English
> proficient, that the DOL would like to do something about that.  In the
> question and answer period I pointed out that the four common measures
> would discourage programs from providing English language services,
> especially under WIA Title II, since clients seeking beginning English
> language and adult literacy services often will not be able to attain
> these program outcomes within a funding year. She said they would have
> to look at that. (In a downturned economy, with an unemployment rate of
> 6%, all employment-related outcomes are challenging to attain.  Programs
> would have to be selective about who they admitted, and would serve only
> those who could produce these outcomes in a year, in a word would
"cream.")
>
> We must be concerned about the OMB four common measures recommendation.
>   Apparently it is being taken seriously.  For example, if the
> Administration put this forward to Congress in its WIA Authorization
> plan this winter, and if, as we saw with the Administration TANF
> reauthorization plan last year, debate in Congress were limited, and if
> the administration proposal passed largely as proposed, the four common
> measures could be part of the law. This would compromise one of the most
> important principles advocated by our field, that public adult education
> funding must be broad, to serve a variety of legitimate student and
> community goals and needs, not only employment.  WIA Title II, as many
> on the NLA list know, is funding which was before in the National
> Literacy Act, now called Adult Education and Family Literacy.  If the
> four common measures recommendation holds, that would be the end of
> federal broad-purpose funding for adult education and literacy.
>
> Through our NIFL advocacy campaign the past few months, we have
> identified friends in Congress. That's good news because we are going to
> need a lot of friends in Congress in 2003.  As I read the signs, we are
> going to need to work very hard for adult literacy education this year.
>
> David J. Rosen
> NLA List Moderator
>
>
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