[NLA] The Kennedy AELS/USA Act

[Thomas Sticht]

March 18, 2002

The Kennedy Adult Education and Literacy System 
of the United States of America Act (AELS/USA)

Just prior to his tragic death in 1993, President John F. Kennedy
established the Task Force on Manpower Conservation.  With Daniel
Patrick Moynihan as staff director of the Task Force, a report was
prepared for President Lyndon Johnson on January 1st, 1964. Later, in
May of that year, President Johnson launched the "Great Society"
initiative  that led to the passage of Public law 88-452, the Economic
Opportunity Act. The EOA included Title II: The Adult Basic Education
program. In 1966, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was
amended to include the ABE program renamed the Adult Education Act of
1966. 

The Adult Education Act of 1966 became the basis for a unique education
system within the United States made up of a partnership between the
federal and all 50 state governments and U. S. territories. I call this
system the Adult Education and Literacy System of the United States of
America (AELS/USA-AELS for short). 

I believe that it is a poignant circumstance that we can trace the AELS
from the concerns for adult development that President Kennedy had in
1963 to the concerns that his last surviving brother, Senator Edward
Kennedy, has today for conserving and further developing our nation’s
adult citizens through his strong belief in the power of life long
learning in overcoming social exclusion of many kinds. 

In recognition of this commitment of the two Kennedy brothers to adult
learning and development, and to name and recognize the unique education
system that has evolved since President Kennedy established the Task
Force on Manpower Conservation, I am suggesting that the Workforce
Investment Act of 1998 be amended to remove Title 2: The Adult Education
and Family Literacy Act from that law and that a new law be passed
establishing 

The Kennedy Adult Education and Literacy System 
of the United States of America Act. 

In major developed nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and
others there exist recognized, publicly funded, adult education systems
for life long learning, called further education systems in the two 
nations mentioned,  in addition to the publicly funded K-12 and higher
education systems. And,indeed, in the U.S. there exists such a system
but it has not been formally recognized as such. The Annual Review of
Adult Learning and Literacy Volume 3 (Jossey-Bass, 2002) includes a
chapter that traces the history of the Adult Education and Literacy
System of the United States from Colonial days to the 21st century. 

The long history in the  U. S. to the commitment of providing education
for adults which has resulted in the rise of the AELS, and the fact that
in the last decade of the 20th century close to 40 million adult
enrollments were registered by the AELS, provide strong arguments for
moving the AELS from the margins to the mainstream of publicly funded
education in the United States, just as it is in other developed
nations.  

I hope that others on the NLA list will take some time to discuss the
vision of The Kennedy Adult Education and Literacy System of the United
States of America Act. The reauthorization of the Workforce Investment
Act offers an opportunity to extract the AELS from that limited context
and to broaden adult education and literacy development to include not
just workforce development, but active, life long learning for adults as
they strive to cope with the exigencies of the fast-paced, complex,
ever-changing, modern world of the 21st century.  

No time is better than the present to make this vision a reality.

Tom Sticht
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