No subject

top-down, "here's how 
the majority says it will be done" set of mandates?"

I did not feel the "system" was operating from the top down at all until
the NRS was mandated.  I think a lot of local frustration stems not from
how we are funded, (except that it isn't enough!) but more from the NRS.  I
have predicted on this list several times that the NRS will eventually
collaspe of its own weight.

I'm wondering if the AELS as it is  (minus the NRS) doesn't actually
represent a balance of national-state-local as well as
public-private-non-profit and school district-higher
ed-library-workforce-community organizations already?  Could it be that we
already have a system that represents the state of the art (of balance)in
terms of who provides adult education programs?  Could it be that the
current legislation already allows providers to work for a new balance
locally if they are unhappy with the status quo?  

More and more, I'm seeing the need for advocacy (at all levels) to boil
down to basically   four issues:  1.  more money  2.  accountability
measures  3.  legitimacy 4. quality program delivery (instruction, and the
associated research implications).  I'm wondering if changes can occur, as
it has in Massachusetts (and I would add NYC) without tampering with the
basic legislation (The WIA) as it is.  

This discussion is helping me to focus.  Does anyone else have the same
feeling?     



Deborah W. Yoho
Co-moderator, NIFL-Health Listserv
President, SC Adult Literacy Educators
Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy Council
2728 Devine Street,  Columbia, SC  29205
803-765-2555   Fax  803-779-8417   dwyoho at earthlink.net


> [Original Message]
> From: Eileen Eckert <eileeneckert at hotmail.com>
> To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> Date: 12/9/2002 5:38:31 PM
> Subject: [NLA] AELS as its own system
>
> Debbie and others:
> I, too, have wondered at the seeming defense of the status quo--even as I 
> contribute to it! Is that it, really? I know I don't think having the
AELS 
> administered through the community colleges is perfect, and I don't want
to 
> impose it throughout the country, I just wanted to point out that the 
> positives and negatives are not the same everywhere. But maybe, more than 
> defending the status quo, we are defending our local knowledge of needs
and 
> priorities, our local expertise in responding to those needs, and the 
> inappropriateness of an outsider dictating the what and the how of needs
and 
> responses. Maybe this has something to do with the majority rule model of 
> power.
>
> If we see the role of any AELS administration system as imposing a model 
> that fits the majority, then we each <have to> explain, defend, and
justify 
> our own way of doing things as best for the majority, or risk being left
out 
> in the cold. The correlate to that is that we have to put people who do
or 
> see things differently in the minority. It sets up an adversarial, 
> competitive way of thinking, talking, and acting. I guess I just "got"
what 
> Nancy was trying to tell me about the whole idea being to set up a system 
> that works for the majority. I hadn't seen it that way; I had not seen my 
> different perspective as a threat to Nancy's or Dixie's or anyone else's 
> being able to meet local learners' needs. I still don't think it <has> to
be 
> that way, but yes, I guess too often that's the way it is, or maybe it's 
> just the way it's becoming (since Newt Gingrich, or did it start with 
> Reagan, or even before then?).
>
> Does the AELS have to be a winner-take-all system, a top-down, "here's
how 
> the majority says it will be done" set of mandates?
>
>
> Jon and/or David inferred that there is another way, saying something
like, 
> how do we set up a system (or reform the one we've got) that is
responsive 
> to diverse local needs? Sorry if I'm misrepresenting that message. Can 
> others speak to this issue--majority-rule or otherwise?
>
>
>
>
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