[NLA] Re-posted, Urgent Action: Help Preserve NIFL's Adult Ed Focus!

Sat Sep 21 07:30:04 EDT 2002

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NLA] Urgent Action: Help Preserve NIFL's Adult Ed Focus!
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 12:01:05 -0400
From: "Jon Randall" <jrandall at fedstrategics.com>
Reply-To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
To: "NLA \(E-mail\)" <nla at lists.literacytent.org>

Urgent Action: Help Preserve NIFL's Adult Ed Focus!

SUMMARY ... We must ensure that the permanent director of the National
Institute for Literacy (NIFL) knows the adult literacy field well. Our
friends in the House are helping us by making such a recommendation to the
Secretaries of Labor, HHS, and Education, who will decide on the director.
We need your help in getting as many Representatives as possible to cosign
this recommendation letter. We must do this NOW!

ACTION NEEDED

1. Fax a letter to your Congressperson asking them to cosign this House
recommendation letter.
2. Mail copies of your letters to the Secretaries of Labor, HHS, and
Education
3. Call your Congressperson 3-4 days after you send your fax. Ask if they
have co-signed the recommendation letter.
4. Urge others in your program to do steps 1-3.

TIMING

Since the Secretaries may act before the end of September we must gather as
many co-signers as possible NOW for this House letter. Your Congressperson
must have agreed to sign the letter by Sept. 30th. That means you must fax
your letters now and follow up by phone within the next two weeks.

We will ask for you help with a similar letter in the Senate within the next
week or so. However, at this time we don't have a Senate Republican lead
cosponsor for the letter. We can't afford to wait any longer -- we've held
up the House letter mobilization for 10 days already.

In advance, thanks for your quick action on this issue! The future direction
of the NIFL - and its support for our field or lack thereof - hangs in the
balance.

BACKGROUND
As you are probably aware, the Administration has recommended to the Senate
a new Advisory Board to the NIFL. The recommended appointees have impressive
educational credentials but very limited experience with adult education,
giving rise to a concern that the NIFL may turn away from its statutory role
to serve as a national resource for adult education and literacy programs.

If the Senate approves the slate of nominees for the NIFL Advisory Board
shortly after Labor Day as expected, the new board could meet right away and
recommend someone who also has very little knowledge of our field. This
could be done in a matter of weeks after Labor Day if the Secretaries of
Labor, HHS and Education quickly approved the Board's recommendation.

Admittedly, this is a worst case scenario based on conjecture. However, only
if we start now will we have the time needed to prevent something like this
from happening.

SAMPLE LETTER

Please use this letter as a guide in writing your own letters. Ideally, your
letter should be a little different than this one, so it doesn't look like
you simply signed a form letter.

Here's the sample letter ...

September 17, 2002

The Honorable [full name of your Congressperson]
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Mr. or Ms. [your Congressperson's last name] :

Please help ensure that the unique mandate of the National Institute for
Literacy is preserved as a new director is selected.

As you may know the President has nominated an entirely new slate of
Advisory Board members. These new board members have impressive
qualifications in early childhood education and post-secondary education.
However, as a group their expertise in the area of adult education and
literacy is very limited.

One of the first duties of the new Advisory Board will be to forward
recommendations for a new director to the Secretaries of Education, Labor
and HHS. As members of the Interagency Group responsible for the
administration of the Institute, the Secretaries will be asked to approve
the selection of the agency's director.

I feel it is critical that the new permanent director of the Institute have
adult education and literacy expertise in order to direct the only agency
charged with serving as national resource for adult education and literacy
programs like mine.

Therefore I urge you to co-sign a "Dear Colleague letter" to Secretaries
Paige, Thompson, and Chao. The letter is being circulated by the office of
Representatives Thomas Sawyer (Amy Boyle, LA) and James Walsh (Martha
Carmen, LA).

Thank you for helping us.

Sincerely,

[Your name]
[The address from which you are registered to vote] (to show you are a
constituent of his/her district)

CC:	The Honorable Elaine Chao, Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor
	The Honorable Roderick Paige, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education
	The Honorable Tommy G. Thompson, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services

FAX NUMBERS

To obtain the fax number for your Congressperson, please check the following
web site: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

If a fax number is not listed, you will need to call their office and
indicate that you are a constituent who wants to fax a short letter.

SEND COPIES OF YOUR LETTER

Please send a copy of your letter to each of the following people. By
receiving a copy of your letter, these officials will see just how many
people care about this issue.

The Honorable Elaine Chao, Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor
Attn: Emily Stover DeRocco, Assistant Secretary, Employment and Training
Administration
200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room S-2307
Washington, D.C. 20210

The Honorable Roderick Paige, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education
Attn: Beth Ann Bryan, Senior Advisor to the Secretary
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Room 7W205
Washington, D.C. 20202

The Honorable Tommy G. Thompson, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services
Attn: Wade F. Horn, Assistant Secretary For Children & Families
370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W., Suite 600
Washington, DC 20447

RECOMMENDATION IN HOUSE LETTER

Here's what the National Coalition for Literacy asked our friends in the
House and Senate to recommend:

We urge consideration of the following factors as the new director of the
Institute is selected:
? The National Institute for Literacy is a unique national resource
established in law to support the system of adult literacy and language
learning and
? The National Institute for Literacy is a primary information source to
Congress about literacy and language need, current services, and impact and
? The National Institute for Literacy plays a crucial role in national
efforts to promote research, to identify and disseminate effective practices
and to coordinate policy and
? The National Institute for Literacy has a unique mandate to foster, and
encourage collaboration among, literacy-related activities that contribute
to the missions of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education and its offices of pre-K-12, post-secondary, adult, and vocational
education

Consequently, it would be advantageous for the National Institute for
Literacy's Executive Director to be:
* Conversant in adult education issues, research, and the diverse array of
providers that comprise the delivery system
* Passionate about building an adult learning system that integrates
services
* Knowledgeable regarding the variety of models and collaborative
arrangements, and articulate in describing how adult literacy/language
education enhances pre-K-12, post-secondary, and vocational education; job
training; health care; welfare reform; economic development; and post-prison
success

#   #   #

Jon Randall
Public Policy Committee Chair
National Coalition for Literacy
www.natcoalitionliteracy.org

NCL policy efforts are supported in part by funding from ProLiteracy
Worldwide

FedStrategics, LLC
strategic advocacy & public affairs consulting
to charitable organizations
www.FedStrategics.com

8413 Park Crest Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Tel: (301) 588-5304   Fax: (301) 588-5353
jrandall at FedStrategics.com

_______________________________________________
NLA mailing list: NLA at lists.literacytent.org
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/nla
LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
http://literacytent.org

_______________________________________________
NLA mailing list: NLA at lists.literacytent.org
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/nla
LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
http://literacytent.org