[NLA] NLA Action: Input Requested for New Literacy Legislation

[Jon Randall]

Your Input Wanted by Thanksgiving
For New Federal Literacy Legislation

Dear Literacy Supporter,

The National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) is spearheading efforts to produce
an omnibus literacy bill in the U.S. Congress. Such a bill will call for
changes in a number of public laws that impact adult and family literacy in
this country. We welcome your input between now and Thanksgiving Day.

The concept paper for this bill can be found at
www.natcoalitionliteracy.org. Click on Commitment 3 on the Policy and
Legislation page. Then click the link to the Omnibus Literacy Legislation
page.

Please look over the concept paper and forward suggestions. Pass it along to
others in your organization's network and urge them to make recommendations.
Convene focus groups to review the paper and make suggestions. The NCL will
accept input until Thanksgiving Day, November 22nd. Please send your input
to OLL at fedstrategics.com.

BACKGROUND
This began as members of the NCL Public Policy Committee compiled a list of
all of the recommendations from the National Literacy Summit Action Agenda
that require legislative fixes. Next we asked the national organizations
that make up the NCL what additional provisions they'd like to see in such
legislation. This concept paper includes provisions from both sources. Now
we're circulating this draft to get recommendations from a wider audience.

We're hoping to get input on a broad array of federal laws - not just the
Workforce Investment Act - anything that touches adult education and
literacy programs, teachers, volunteers, adult learners, nonprofit
organizations, charitable contributors, immigrants, individuals with
disabilities, and anything else you think is relevant.

We're asking for input from adult education and literacy programs at every
level, individuals, researchers, corporate supporters, grant-making
entities, government agencies at every level, labor unions, and others. We
want to lay the groundwork for a piece of field-driven legislation like the
National Literacy Act of 1991.

IMPLICATIONS FOR LOCAL PROGRAMS
How many times have we heard "Why don't they just ...?!" Work on this
omnibus literacy bill provides every sector of the literacy field the
opportunity to have its unique policy needs addressed legislatively - to
advocate for solutions based on experience. Local programs, putting their
heads together with similar entities at the state or national level can
recommend legislative provisions to improve funding equity and to improve
the federally funded programs under which providers operate.

PROACTIVE LEADERSHIP
While policy-makers on Capitol Hill address imperatives generated by current
events, their education staffers continue to grapple with issues like
literacy. Although external forces shape political agendas, so too do social
movements like ours. Senators and Congresspersons stay in office by giving
the electorate what it wants.

For years we have longed to be proactive. We now have the vehicles to be
proactive: the National Literacy Summit Initiative and this omnibus literacy
bill. We can educate Senators and Congresspersons about adult and family
literacy and frame future policy discussions by outlining both needs and
preferred solutions.

We can wring our hands about being at the mercy of external forces or we can
step up and exert real public policy leadership for our social movement.
Providing input now for this omnibus literacy bill is one place to start.

PROCESS
By Thanksgiving, please contribute your thoughts and improvement suggestions
on things already in the draft concept paper. Also send us recommendations
for additional provisions. We're not looking for legislative language, just
the CONCEPT and the RATIONALE behind the recommendation. If you can identify
the law that should be amended, that's great. If you can't, that's okay.
We'll figure it out.

Example:
Concept ... Change the distribution formula for the adult education state
grants to address the needs of ESL students.
Rationale ... The current formula does not take into account the ESL
population. As a result, appropriators have provided a set-aside within
state grants to address the inequity of the existing distribution formula.

The NCL will review the recommendations received, and add to the concept
paper those that it feels can be supported by all constituencies. Not
everyone will agree with all of the provisions. This legislation must meet
the needs of multiple constituencies. Therefore, we must think as broadly as
we can and oppose only those things with which we absolutely can't live. NCL
members have done a little horse-trading to build such consensus on
provisions in similar legislation in the past. We expect to have to do it
again for this paper.

NEXT STEPS
Between now and Thanksgiving Day, the NCL welcomes input from a broad array
of constituencies to improve the concept paper. Between Thanksgiving and New
Years Day, the NCL will revise the concept paper based on the input received
and ask a House or Senate member to draft the bill. While it is being
drafted, we will ask House and Senate members that have supported our
efforts in the past to become initial cosponsors. Shortly after the first of
the year when the draft bill is available for review, cosponsor solicitation
will accelerate as literacy supporters around the country use it to educate
and engage Senators and Congresspersons in the cause of literacy.

TWO-YEAR STRATEGY
Early next year, an omnibus federal literacy bill will be drafted and
introduced by supporters on Capitol Hill. It will be based on this concept
paper for which we seek your input now. Once drafted, literacy advocates
around the country can use it to educate and engage Senators and
Congresspersons by asking them to cosponsor this bill.

In its entirety, this bill may not be enacted into law. However, we can use
it to shape the federal literacy policy agenda in 2002.  Efforts to
reauthorize the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act as well as the rest
of the Workforce Investment Act must begin in 2003. In part, this bill could
frame the issues for that reauthorization. Through this omnibus literacy
bill, we can advocate for the improvement of provisions in other public laws
as well during the next two years.

THE NATIONAL COALITION FOR LITERACY
The National Coalition for Literacy includes 45 public- and private-sector
agencies with a national focus on adult and family literacy. Many of them
have national networks of individual and organizational members. The NCL
strives to forge a unified, proactive voice for the literacy field in this
country and lead advocacy efforts for sound public policy and increased
resources. Check us out at www.natcoalitionliteracy.org.

Please look over the concept paper on our web site's Policy and Legislation
page. Then by Thanksgiving Day, November 22nd, forward recommendations to
NCL Public Policy Committee chair, Jon Randall at OLL at fedstrategics.com.
Together we can create a comprehensive bill that truly reflects the needs of
the field. We look forward to your input!

Sincerely,


The Executive Committee
National Coalition for Literacy

Marsha L. Tait, Chairperson (Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc.)
Noreen Lopez, Vice Chair (PBS Literacy Link)
Edith Gower, Secretary (National Alliance of Urban Literacy Coalitions)
Dale Lipschultz, Treasurer (American Library Association)
Robbin Sorensen, Past Chair (Executive Management Services)
John Sabatini (National Center on Adult Literacy)

#   #   #

Jon

*  *  *  *  *
Jon Randall, Public Policy Committee Chair
National Coalition for Literacy

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