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<div>Friends,<br>
CAAL sent out a letter about the make-up of the NIFL board and the
need for a strong and continuing Department of Education presence in
adult literacy last September. It went to some 24 members of
Congress (heads of all relevant committees), the White House domestic
affairs advisor, and key officials at the US Department of Education.
Since most of us have double-duty work loads these days, anyone who
wants to use any of the language of that letter for their own
write-ins is most welcome to do so. To this end, I am pasting in
a copy of the letter below (with apologies for any formatting problems
that may appear.) Gail S<br>
<br>
Gail Spangenberg<br>
President<br>
Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy<br>
1221 Avenue of the Americas - 50th Floor<br>
New York, NY 10020<br>
212-512-2362, fax 212-512-2610</div>
<div>http://www.caalusa.org<br>
</div>
<div>Letter of September 22, 2001 to:</div>
<div>Senators Byrd, Stevens, Harkin, Specter, Clinton, Gregg, Kennedy,
Murray, Schumer Representatives Young, Obey, Boehner, Miller, McKeon,
Mink, Regula, Kennedy, Sawyer The Honorable Rod Paige (with copies to
Bryan, Hansen, D'Amico, Hartman, Pugsley) White House Domestic Policy
Advisor Margaret LaMontagne<br>
Dear _____________:<br>
<br>
Despite the staggering events of last week, I firmly believe in the
core strength of our nation and am confident about the future of
America. In this spirit, I write to you about my concerns and hopes
for adult literacy. I do so as the head of the new Council for the
Advancement of Adult Literacy, and as the former operating head of the
Business Council for Effective Literacy (BCEL), an organization that
through the mid-90s provided national leadership in adult literacy --
with the support of corporations, government, and professionals
throughout the field.<br>
<br>
My basic message is simple. Even as the President's effort to advance
literacy in the schools goes forward, it is vitally important for the
Administration to keep a strong, visible commitment to adult literacy
-- especially at the Department of Education and the National
Institute for Literacy. Dedicated professionals across this land --
including governors and Republican and Democratic members of Congress,
during several administrations -- have toiled mightily for years to
develop understanding about the nature of the adult literacy challenge
as well as a framework and resources for delivering services on a
level commensurate with the need.<br>
</div>
<div>In the months to come there will be many pressing demands on the
federal budget. Urgent as they are, support for adult literacy is also
essential to our future stability and progress.<br>
</div>
<div>We have made substantial gains in the adult literacy field to
date. The skills and hopes of hundreds of thousands of Americans have
been lifted, enhancing their job prospects and enabling their
participation as citizens and family and community members. The
beneficiaries of the collective effort are adult learners of every
age, 16 to 80, of every racial and ethnic background. They are parents
with improved skills who have become positive forces for their
children's learning. They are a large population of immigrants with
English-As-A-Second-Language (ESL) needs, and of Americans born to
poverty, who are handicapped by some form of educational disadvantage,
or whose skills are simply not adequate to meet the changing demands
of jobs.<br>
<br>
Anyone who has ever been privileged to sit in a tutoring session or
workshop in any program in the country -- especially those offered by
libraries and the voluntary groups, which serve persons at the lowest
skills levels -- has been moved by watching the "enabling"
process at work. They know that adult literacy services directly
affect the way lives are lived, and they know why. Moreover, they have
been touched to see enrolled adults learn tolerance for their brothers
and sisters even as they gain in self-confidence and higher-level
basic skills.<br>
</div>
<div>Despite the progress, however, our work has just begun. For lack
of adequate resources, there are long waiting lists in programs across
the country. And there remains a vast number of young and older adults
in need of skills upgrading that we haven't reached at all or that we
have reached only minimally -- many, many millions, no matter how the
results of the National Adult Literacy survey are interpreted.</div>
<div>The modern adult literacy movement had its roots in Lyndon
Johnson's War on Poverty. The Reagan, Bush, and Clinton years lifted
the movement to new heights. But even as people across this country
struggle to increase resources for adult literacy, to implement major
goals from last year's National Literacy Summit, and in other ways to
move adult literacy from "the margins to the mainstream,"
they are fearful that they will no longer get the support they need
from federal and state government. This is not a time to retreat from
adult literacy. It is a time to take stock of needs and to pursue and
support opportunities for further development.<br>
<br>
The case for adult literacy has come to be made in terms of family
literacy and workplace/ workforce literacy, a shift that resulted from
the Workforce Investment Act. Yet there is also a compelling need to
expand ESL services for newly-legalized immigrants -- and issues of
poverty, social equity, and participation are re-emerging as important
"driving" forces for adult literacy.<br>
<br>
For all of these reasons, I urge your support for the following
federal actions:<br>
<br>
1) Increase funding for adult literacy activities across the board,
including national leadership activities and the National Institute
for Literacy. If financing the current "relief effort" makes
that impossible, temporarily maintain last year's funding levels while
expressing intent to move toward higher levels as soon as feasible.
(It is worth noting that while we are not in competition with the U.K.
and Canada, it would be read as an enormous negative for the U.S. to
retreat in the area of adult literacy just as those countries have
dramatically increased their commitments and funding.)<br>
2) Maintain a strong, visible focus within the Division of Adult
Education & Literacy on adult literacy programming, making certain
that the agenda of the Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult
Education firmly includes adult literacy.<br>
3) Assure that the National Institute for Literacy retains a strong
and clear adult literacy focus. I would urge that NIFL's funding --
which has always been well below that originally intended by the
National Literacy Act -- be increased for adult literacy programs even
as new funds are made available for the new school-based activities
planned. NIFL provides vital national leadership for the entire
literacy field. A bipartisan Congress created it. Indeed, it was the
centerpiece of the National Literacy Act and it has worked hard for
adult literacy during the past decade. The field needs NIFL. If NIFL's
adult literacy activities were cut back, no other organizations, not
mine, not the Coalition for Literacy, could fill their unique and
still-developing role. Could NIFL do its job better? Certainly, as
every young organization could. But, it is extremely important that
they have the tools to do so and that the decade of groundwork they
have laid -- links to other government agencies, to business and
industry, to the international community, and to practitioners,
planners, and students -- be strengthened.<br>
<br>
4) In appointing the NIFL board, I recommend that every effort be made
to maintain bipartisan membership, as well as a balance of
professionals representing both school literacy and adult literacy. I
urge that the new director, whom I understand the NIFL board will
recommend, be someone with broad perspective, someone able to think
and plan systemically and strategically, a person with solid
organizational and political skills, and dedication, vision, and
flair. I believe these qualities are more important than being steeped
in the specifics of literacy. For the substance, I would urge that
NIFL be equipped with two deeply-experienced deputy directors, one
responsible for school literacy, the other for adult literacy. This
would enable the more orderly functioning of NIFL and produce a more
coherent interaction with the outside world.<br>
<br>
One question often asked of BCEL was which was more important, reform
in the schools or adult literacy skills upgrading? Our answer was that
it is not a matter of either/or, but of complementary educational
goals that should be pursued as twin challenges, on parallel tracks,
each having its own points of interventions, goals, and programs.
Among the many stellar Americans who helped advance that message were
two early champions of adult literacy, First Lady Barbara Bush and
McGraw-Hill's Chairman Emeritus, Harold W. McGraw, Jr., who founded
the BCEL.</div>
<div><br>
I sincerely hope that this can be the guiding principle in federal
actions taken on literacy.<br>
</div>
<div>Gail Spangenberg</div>
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