[NLA] Alert: Is the NIFL Advisory Board Just the Beginning?

Wed May 15 09:31:07 EDT 2002

Hi David and others,

You are right that we do not have a good enough national structure in place
to advocate as strongly as we need to, but there are at least strong pockets
of organization.  Members of the National Alliance of Urban Literacy
Coalitions discussed the NIFL Board issue when they went to The Hill last
March during their annual meeting and were provided with draft letters for
their Congressional representatives who wanted to send something to the HELP
Committee.  We have developed a good feedback mechanism for those visits and
shared information about whom we visited and what their interest levels were
with members of the National Coalition for Literacy at their recent meeting.

I immediately pass on the advocacy alerts I get from the Pubic Policy
Committee of the National Coalition to the 40 plus NAULC members on our
listserv, who are asked to pass the information on to their local
stakeholders, including over 2,400 literacy service providers of all makes
and models, and over a million learners.  The local coalitions often have
local listservs of their own through which they convey this information.  In
evaluation surveys we have taken we know that NAULC members appreciate these
alerts and do pass them on, but we lack data that gives us detail about how
many communications to Congress this actually represents.  Given that
advocacy is an important aspect of what urban literacy coalitions do for
their members, we know that they are working hard to keep this issue front
and center on behalf of large constituencies.

Best,
Edith

Edith Gower, Executive Director
National Alliance of Urban Literacy Coalitions
5433 Westheimer Road, Suite 1001
Houston, TX 77056
713-961-3922
FAX: 713-961-4775
office at naulc.org
www.naulc.org
www.buildliteracy.org
 -----Original Message-----
From: nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org]On Behalf Of David J. Rosen
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 6:40 AM
To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: [NLA] Alert: Is the NIFL Advisory Board Just the Beginning?

  George, and other NLA Colleagues,

  Senator Kennedy's staff -- and perhaps other Senators and
Congresspeople -- are aware of the concern of the field, but I don't think
Congress heard from many people on this issue. I don't think that we have a
strong national organizational structure to mobilize the field.  At the time
when we most need national advocacy, we are least organized to respond.  I
hope that this will alert leaders in national adult literacy organizations.
I would like to see these questions as an item for discussion on the next
Board meeting of every organization which is a member of the National
Coalition for Literacy: "If Congress proposed a 20% cut to WIA adult
education funding, would our field be prepared to respond? Would we be able
to stop this?  Or if there were an opportunity to increase funding, could we
get hundreds or thousands of phone calls and faxes to Congress to make this
happen? If you can't answer these questions satisfactorily, then what needs
to be done?  And who is going to do it?"

  David J. Rosen
  NLA List Moderator

  George E. Demetrion wrote:

Christi and or others:Is Senator Kennedy's office aware about the widespread
concern within thefield about the fact that none of these nominees have
substantialbackground in adult literacy? If so, can someone shed light on
what thepublic response of his office is to the nominees? If not,one wonders
whatthat says about the power of citizenry advocacy given the letters,
faxesand phone calls that his office has received on this.I realize the
issues are complex and the president generally gets a passon his/her
nominees, but not always when there is significant fieldconcern/protest,
which, admittedly hasn't risen to the level of what onemay refer to as
mobilization.George DemetrionA concerned citizenOn Tue, 14 May 2002
14:18:47 -0400 "Gullion, Christy"<Christy.Gullion at ed.gov> writes:
As of today, all ten National Institute for Literacy Advisory Board
nomineeshave been sent from the White House to the Senate for confirmation.
TheSenate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee is
nowresponsible for confirming the board nominees. To the best of my
knowledge,the HELP Committee has not yet scheduled a date for that hearing
and/orvote.The nominees and proposed terms are as follows:Carmel Borders of
Kentucky, 3-year termDouglas Carnine or Oregon, 3-year termBlanc Enriquez of
Texas, 3-year termCarol Gambill of Tennessee, 3-year termMark Yudof of
Minnesota, 2-year termJean Osborn of Illinois, 2-year termPhyllis Hunter of
Texas, 2-year termJuan Olivarez of Michigan, 1-year termWilliam Hiller of
Ohio, 1-year termRobin Morris of Georgia, 1-year termI have also confirmed
with Senator Kennedy's office that after one of the1-year terms
 expires, that position will be replaced by a field nominee.Unfortunately, I
don't have any information at this time about how thisfield nomination
process will work. Christy GullionAssociate Director for Federal
PolicyNational Institute for Literacy1775 I Street, NW, Suite 730Washington,
DC 20006-2417ph. (202) 233-2033 fax (202)
233-2050------_=_NextPart_001_01C1FB73.C9EA2260Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable<!DOCTYPE
HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"><HTML><HEAD><META
HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html;
=charset=3Diso-8859-1"><META NAME=3D"Generator" CONTENT=3D"MS Exchange
Server version =5.5.2654.45"><TITLE>NIFL Advisory Board
Nominees</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>As of today,
all ten Natio
nal =Institute for Literacy Advisory Board nominees have been sent from the
=White House to the Senate for confirmation.&nbsp; The Senate Health,
=Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee is now responsible for
=confirming the board nominees.&nbsp; To the best of my knowledge, the =HELP
Committee has not yet scheduled a date for that hearing and/or
=vote.The nominees and proposed
terms are as =follows:Carmel
Borders of Kentucky, 3-year =term Douglas Carnine or Oregon, 3-year =term Blanc Enriquez of Texas, 3-year
=term Carol Gambill of Tennessee,
3-year =term</FONT&
gt; Mark Yudof of Minnesota, 2-year
=term Jean Osborn of Illinois,
2-year =term Phyllis Hunter of
Texas, 2-year =term Juan Olivarez of
Michigan, 1-year =term William
Hiller of Ohio, 1-year =term Robin
Morris of Georgia, 1-year =termI
have also confirmed with Senator =Kennedy's office that after one of the
1-year terms expires, that =position will be replaced by a field
nominee.&nbsp; Unfortunately, I =don't have any information at this time
about how this field nomination =process will work. </F
ONT>Christy
=Gullion Associate Director for =Federal Policy National Institute for
=Literacy 1775 I
Street, NW, =Suite 730 Washington, DC&nbsp; =20006-2417 ph. (202) 233-2033 = fax (202)
=233-2050</BODY></HTML>------_=
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