[NLA] The Kennedy AELS/USA Act

[sharon ultsch]

> Where can I get information on what is being done in UK and Australia
regarding life long learning?

Also, is anyone aware of any exchange programs with either of those
countries to see first hand how life long learning is supported?

Thank you 




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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Sharon Ultsch
40 EE Cummings blvd
oob. me 04064

Adult Education Director
207-934-7922 phone,  fax  934-3705
sultsch @hs.oob.k12.me.us


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