[NLA] follow-up to a proposal to "save" the NIFL

[David J. Rosen]

NLA Colleagues,

George E. Demetrion wrote:

 
> In the meantime, advocating for our own cause, including the appointment
> of board members that many of us feel is more appropriate to NIFL's
> historical mission, including identifying senators who will raise
> critical issues with Senator Kennedy,  is perfectly valid. It is also
> valid, in my estimation,. for the field to put a full court press on
> Senator Kennedy to raise the concern in the Committee himself on the
> nominees.issues of the nominees.  The worst case scenario is that the
> effort fails.  That does not preclude the field from coming together
> afterward or engaging in pragmatic politics in working with the realities
> that are in front of us.  Ceding those "realities" in advance is anything
> but pragmatic.
> 
> But these are my views.  Let's hear what others say and continue a


Senator Kennedy has many issues to fight for these days,  including many 
education issues.  My reading is that although adult education is on his 
screen, the NIFL Board is not one of his top issues. He hasn't heard 
from many people about NIFL. Alice Johnson Cain suggests that Senator 
Kennedy needs to hear from other Senators that the NIFL Board -- and 
NIFL -- is of concern to them. I agree.

I see no evidence of the administration's interest in adult literacy 
education.  Given a strong commitment to reading for children, K-3, I 
believe the administration hopes to harness as many existing resources 
as it can to achieve that goal.  I see no evidence that the 
administration thinks parents are an important part of the solution to 
that problem.  If the present course continues unchallenged I believe 
that NIFL will gradually become the National Institute for (child) 
Literacy, that NCSALL may be in danger in a couple of years, and that 
the federal budget for the adult education under WIA will stagnate or be 
cut.  Not a pretty picture.

And I am not confident that the field is sufficiently organized to do 
anything about this.

Will the National Coalition for Literacy (an organization with almost no 
resources, no staff) see how important keeping the NIFL's focus on 
adults is?  Will they have the resources to organize the field around 
this issue, should they choose to act on it?  Will the field -- you and 
I, among others -- respond to their leadership with a groundswell of 
letters, faxes and phone calls?

Now is the time for a bold agenda, and for the groundswell from the 
field that Jon Randall has called for.  We must make it clear that NIFL 
is important to us, and that its focus must remain in support of adult 
and family literacy.  We must start with NIFL -- and let Congress and 
the Administration know that their constituents care about adult 
literacy education and want them to support and strengthen NIFL as an 
adult education leader.  We must also support having a strong, separate 
adult education research institute (e.g. NCSALL.) We must support having 
the USDE Office of Adult and Vocational Education. And most important, 
under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act of WIA -- or under a 
new piece of legislation -- we need a minimum of $1 Billion in order to 
begin to build an Adult Education and Literacy System.

David J. Rosen
<DJRosen at theworld.com>





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