[NLA] In support of a separate AELS Act for the USA

[Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council]

Hi NLA subscribers, Linda, Tom and David Hayes:
This turned out to be a lot longer than I wanted, but several points were of interest to me in 3 different emails addressing this topic.
 
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 9:37 AM
LINDA WROTE:
<<"My primary reason for supporting the move of AELS out of WIA is that I 
view AELS as one part of a continuum of educational services.  National 
planning for AELS, then, can be viewed in light of other educational 
planning, as it is done in the U.S. Department of Education Strategic Plan 
2002-2007 draft (February 7, 2002)." >>

It angers me that there wasn't more foresight exercised into identifying what 
the problems would be as the WIA took over the funding of adult ed - it has 
NOT been all that long ago and problems are already beginning to crop up.  I 
never DID approve of the DoE throwing adult ed into the cold, if that's what 
happened.  Now we are going to become a Senator's AELS.  Will adult ed then 
become a program of the NE of the US only?  I mean, the program, which I 
administer, isn't even *close* to Massachusetts!  Will my program receive the 
same attention that AELS out there does?  Part of me feels that this may be a 
fair resolution yet another gut-feeling is it isn't going to provide funding 
to *all* but only to a few larger AELS entities.

David Hayes' message included this statement from C Gullion:
", Senator Wellstone states "we want to focus on the
> intersections between WIA and TANF -- workforce development and welfare
> -- and how both of these programs can be made to work better -- together
> - to provide meaningful training to workers currently caught in a cycle
> of poverty."

You know something?  There is an incorrect message floating around that *all* 
adult learners come to learn to read or to improve their reading skills 
because they need a job!  It isn't true!  Not *all* adult learners *are* in 
poverty either!  So expecting that all literacy providers are work training 
programs is so *wrong*!  We see a percentage of WIC recipients, but not the sum total.

Yes.  Senator Wellstone is right to believe there should be access for those 
who *do* need training programs and happen to also be unable to read well 
enough to participate in "regular work training", but instead need literacy 
training be available to them.  But, NLA subscribers, the normal routine of 
learning to read is *not* something that can happen in a Short Six Week 
Course!   This is not a Quick Fix program.

In a message dated 05/17/2002 5:09:29 PM Central Daylight Time, Christy 
Gillion writes:

<<  I appears that David Hayes and possibly Tom Sticht viewed my posting 
about the hearing conducted by Senator Wellstone as further erosion of the 
adult education system.  I think that view misses the point.  Senator 
Wellstone's hearing was not focused on adult education -- the focus was on 
how to better align TANF and WIA so that low-skill TANF clients could better 
access education and training in order to lift them out of poverty and into a 
career path with opportunities for advancement and further training.  Senator 
Wellstone seemed very concerned that many states have interpreted WIA as a 
strict "work first" program.  I have also heard this concern from many in the 
adult education field.  Throughout the hearing yesterday, the testimony and 
comments from Senator Wellstone and other Senators SUPPORTED the concept of 
allowing TANF clients to obtain education and training rather than being 
forced into the workplace without proper skills and training.  This is 
exactly the type of support the adult education field should be seeking as 
the Congress continues to work toward reauthorizing the TANF program, 
especially since the House has just passed a bill that would limit access to 
education and training options for TANF clients.   >>

So if Senator Wellstone and others do support such a concept, it becomes a 
"delivery system" question which will serve not only the TANF recipient, but 
the others in the community who have chosen not to take federally funded 
financial assistance.  Who is talking to our Senators?

How do we *fix* this??  I get the sense that one step we should be taking 
is Information Sharing.  If every single state AELS Director took it upon 
themselves to share demographic information about their individual enrollees 
perhaps the Senators and Representatives would be better informed about just 
exactly *who* is receiving adult education in their individual states!  So 
does *your* AELS Director *know* who *your* learners *are*?  (The Human 
Picture of what AEL is!)  *and* is that AELS Director an advocate or a 
hindrance to your program(s)?  Who is "doin' the talkin'" where YOU live?

Also included in this lengthy email is this study done by Tom Sticht:
"> Combined, the foregoing indicate that the LVA and Laubach organizations
> now serve around 215, 000 students annually. This is about 7 percent as
> many adult students as the 2.9 million served by the AELS, though it is
> not clear how many of the LVA/Laubach programs receive AELS funds and
> whose students are therefore included in the AELS total. But even if all
> 215, 000 adults served by LVA and Laubach are subtracted from the AELS
> totals, this still leaves 2, 685, 000 adults served by the AELS outside
> these charitable organizations. This is over 12 times as many adults
> served in the AELS as in these two largest volunteer literacy
> organizations. >>
> 
Tom, if you had chosen to go one step further than "visit the national 
organizations' websites" and visited with the people charged with the 
responsibilities of these organizations (such as Executive Director Peter 
Waite of LLA who has always been available to visit with lil-ole me about my 
concerns) you might have found out that the organizations are volunteer-led 
in many, many cases.  The figures are going to be only as good as those 
reporting them - and I'm NOT a good example because even MY reporting is 
sporadic!  The "drop" from one reporting period to the next could be impacted 
by ever changing leadership of programs.  

Alright, the next issue Tom Sticht brought up:  ".it is not clear how many of 
the LVA/Laubach programs receive AELS funds and whose students are therefore 
included in the AELS total."  

I have said it before, but will repeat it one more time:  The volunteer 
programs, which teach the adult whose skills are at the 0-3 grade level of 
reading, are going to balk, hesitate or refuse to demand their students at 
the enrollment date be standardized tested - if they have any blood in their 
veins at all!  I would suggest that this might be why you don't see their 
numbers elsewhere.  Standardized Testing is the prerequisite for federal 
funding that stops cold many literacy providers from accessing funding for 
their learners - The consequence?  They don't report their numbers as well.  

The question about the remaining 2,685,000 students?  Aren't they the people 
detailed in Tom's explanation about two paragraphs later?  Prison, GED-prep 
students, English As a Second Language students (who aren't enrolled in 
either LLA or LVA programs), library literacy, Head Start, Family Literacy 
and perhaps church-led programs.  In our community *alone* there are five 
very large programs whose numbers will never appear in Laubach/LVA's 
reporting system even though our Council is an LLA member.  OR --- Maybe the 
remaining students are not literacy level learners, which is the needs the 
Laubach materials in particular address, but higher level students instead.

My view -- And JUST MY view?  The gorilla is ONLY a gorilla if you are trying 
to document the exact number of people who have no literacy skills, whose 
educational experience is being federally funded AND for the sake of 
governmental reporting systems that are obviously ineffective at forecasting 
and/or documenting the *true* level of illiteracy in the US of A.  It's *my* 
feeling that there are folks whose personal goals are being sought and they 
are gaining literacy skills because they *want* to, not because they *have* 
to -- they really don't care if anybody knows they are learning.  It's a 
secret in their *families*, so why in heaven's name would anybody believe 
they would report it to anyone ELSE???  They also "don't buy into the 
system".  They just want to learn to read.  To heck with the policy-makers!  
It's just for myself, I've had many learners express.  I just had to do it 
for me.

Nancy Hansen
sfliteracy at mcleodusa.net 
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Linda Hoover 
  To: nla at lists.literacytent.org 
  Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 9:37 AM
  Subject: Re: [NLA] In support of a separate AELS Act for the USA


  Tom Sticht wrote

  ...Recently, because of the powerful roles that President John F. Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy have played in originating (JFK) and supporting (EK) the AELS, I have asked for discussion on the NLA list about the idea of pulling the AELS out of the WIA legislation and instead funding it in separate legislation as the Kennedy Adult Education and Literacy System of the United States of America Act. This would have the benefit of making policymakers and others aware of the existence of the AELS as an educational system, not just another federal program, and it would recognize the unique contributions of the Kennedy family in the formation of the AELS (I understand that Congressman Joseph Kennedy is a strong supporter of adult education, too). To date there has been no discussion of this proposal. 

  ------
  I have been an advocate of taking AELS out of the WIA legislation since it was first moved into it.  
  In my opinion, your suggestion has merit.  My question  is how to do that?   Through what organizational structure will we promote that idea?  Who are the people who have the time to take on the mobilization needed to achieve the move?  What would such a mobilization look like?

  Like you, I have been met with mostly silence when I have raised the issue of moving AELS out of WIA.  I'm not sure if that is an indication that folks don't care where the money is coming from as long as it keeps coming in or if it is an indication that people don't see the path along which the struggle might move or if people just don't have the time to take on this issue or ...

  My primary reason for supporting the move of AELS out of WIA is that I view AELS as one part of a continuum of educational services.  National planning for AELS, then, can be viewed in light of other educational planning, as it is done in the U.S. Department of Education Strategic Plan 2002-2007 draft (February 7, 2002).  
       Goal Five:  Enhance the Quality of and Access to Postsecondary and Adult Education (Increase opportunities for students an


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