Why it is a BAD Idea for LAUSD to close adult education

3 Mar

When you read the headlines that LAUSD is considering eliminating adult education as a way of coping with the current fiscal crisis, do you think about the 150 years that adult education has helped the state of California to grow and educate its adult population?  Does it come to your mind that by eliminating services to the parents of its school children, LAUSD is actually going backwards in its goal of helping English Language Learners to succeed? Does it occur to you that this decision could have disastrous effects on families in Los Angeles as they struggle to adapt to the current economic conditions? Without adult education, adults have no where to turn to: learn English, receive citizenship training, learn basic skills, receive vocational training from a public as opposed to for-profit entity, receive educational services such as adult diploma and GED preparation (which LAUSD claims it may still do), participate in the low-cost lifelong learning opportunities that promote community, learn a new trade, improve their job skills with computer and technology classes, stay informed on local issues, and increase their wages by all of the above?  Adult education is more than just a nice idea. It improves lives and families and incomes. The implication that our community colleges, which are stretched at the seams, are ready and waiting to absorb these adult learners is beyond the wildest stretch of the imagination. Community Colleges are in the midst of their own crisis. Even though the Little Hoover Commission recently said that the community colleges should take over adult education, there was no practical funding or plan in place for this idea to be implemented. Here is a link to the Little Hoover report: http://www.lhc.ca.gov/studies/210/Report210.pdf

The state of California deserves a cohesive plan that will allow every citizen to have the right to basic education. This right should not be doled out district by district depending on the ability of local school boards to consider the ramifications to the state as a whole. All the talk about local control hides the fact that by giving local control to school boards, many citizens could end up without the right to basic education as guaranteed in our Education Code.

This decision should not be left to local districts. Adult Education should be removed from the categorical flexibility list. One possible fix comes from Julia Brownley and AB 18.

Assembly Bill 18: Assembly Bill 18 by Julia Brownley was introduced in 2011 as a major education finance reform proposal. AB 18 seeks to accomplish the following: • Consolidates most categorical programs into three block grants to provide funding as follows: (1) Basic Funding, (2) Targeted and Equity Funding, and (3) Quality Instruction Funding. • Provides school districts with greater flexibility in addressing local needs without the constraints of categorical programs aimed at specific student populations. Of critical interest, AB 18 presently exempts Adult Education from inclusion in the block grants. As introduced in 2011, Adult Education was included in AB 18’s Basic Funding group. Opposition by Adult educators led to its removal from the block grant.

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Going the Wrong Way –Danger Ahead!

18 Feb

According to California Ed Code all adults in the state are guaranteed a right to basic education.  Adults specifically have the following rights:

8500.  The Legislature finds and declares that adult continuing
education is essential to the needs of society in an era of rapid
technological, economic, and social change and that all adults in
California are entitled to quality publicly supported continuing
education opportunity, including the following:
   (a) The opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary
to participate effectively in today's economy and society.
   (b) Access to courses at the postsecondary level that are
foundations upon which successive academic or occupational knowledge
are dependent.
   (c) Participation in other courses designed to meet the particular
needs of the local community.

Recent events, however, have moved Adult Education into the pile of services that are optional. Only districts that want to offer adult education will do so. Others, including LAUSD, are contemplating sweeping adult ed funds into their general fund in order to shore up seriously underfunded K-12 programs. This has pitted the needs of adults against the needs of children into a war with no winners. The entire state loses. Without adult education options, where will the following things take place: Where will adults get their GED or adult diploma? Learn English Acquire trades and vocation? Become citizens? Seek academic remediation? Prepare for college? Learn skills necessary for employment? Augment their wage potential? Keep pace with technology and learn new computer skills? To my knowledge Ed Code itself has not been changed. Somehow the legislators, including Gov. Brown himself, neglected this important part of the code when Adult Ed was placed on the chopping block. It is time to move it back where it belongs, on its own protected line. Here is a recent article from the Daily News about the risks of ignoring and abandoning adult education. http://www.dailynews.com/education/ci_19946921#.Tzk_NayJatU.email As a state we are on a collision course with a dangerous future. We need to correct the direction of this wrong decision. Adults need adult education in order to participate in the state and local economy.  We cannot afford  to become a state where the right to a basic education ends at age 18.Without basic skills adults have no way out of poverty and they will end up being supported by the state anyway. The unintended consequences of this decision are mind-bending.  Support adult education in your local community. Let your school board know that their decision has serious consequences. As of this moment, the fate of adult education remains in the hands of school boards. I would like to see the control go back to the California Department of Education, where the right to basic education could be protected.

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Wishes for the New Year: Real Change and Real Improvement

11 Dec

As the year draws to a close, the adult education community continues on its precarious journey to participating in the problem solving so desperately needed in the state of California at the present time. The journey is made that much more dangerous because of a lack of a coherent plan. The California Department of Education, although they have spent years writing the “Adult Education Strategic Plan”, has yet to find a manner of funding for their ideas and although it makes interesting reading, the plan is hollow to the core. See the full plan  at http://www.otan.us/strategicplanning/plan.html .

Each section of the plan is worthy of its own blog post but the one most meaningful to me is the part in which the state encourages adult schools to enter into the business of transitioning students to community colleges and other vocational programs through the process of building “Bridge Programs.”  Here are the actual words the state uses to describe its wish list of services:

“Develop and provide integrated, comprehensive intake, planning, and transition services within the ACET center system. Develop an integrated, comprehensive service delivery system, including: a) assessment of students’ academic skills using cross-disciplinary assessment and identification of career and employment interests and goals; b) identification and brokering of educational support services needed to motivate students to persist and facilitate learning, including necessary accommodations, mentors, online tutoring, and remediation; and c) transition services to further education and employment through dual enrollment programs with community colleges, connection of students to financial aid services, and links to job shadowing opportunities, internships, and job development services.

Ensure student success with the assistance of transition specialists. Identify the role of “transition specialists” within ACET centers to address barriers to success and facilitate seamless transitions for students. Specialists would provide guidance to students in designing and developing individual action plans and link students to programs, available career pathways, and dual enrollment opportunities, as appropriate. To ensure successful transitions to further education and employment, specialists will link students to community college programs and One Stop career centers and help students access job shadowing opportunities, internships, and job development services. Transition specialists would also link students to partner agencies such as community- based organizations and social service agencies.

Support student success by removing barriers through collaboration with partner agencies.

Partner with social services and community agencies to address barriers to success and provide students support with issues such as transportation, child care, mental or physical limitations, or other challenges to their success. Services should follow students to the next level of education or employment to ensure ongoing success.”

This all sounds great, but there is no money attached to provide these services. The report alludes to the federal government offering grants to eight states, including California, through a Policy2Performance grant, which funded  10 schools in 2011. However, the only way to get money to start a Bridge Program was to have already started one and be poised to grow the program!!!  Our adult school applied for the grant and we were told that our grant was well-received but we were not eligible because our program was not already up and running. So, unless we could find funding on our own, we were out of luck until the next funding cycle. When we inquired when that might be, no answer was available.

Our Bridge Program has survived on a wing and a miracle, a funding foundation that read about our situation and donated funds to help us through the first critical year (Big thank you to SAGE Publications/Corwin Press) and the assistance of our partner school Moorpark College, whose President Pam Eddinger has worked tirelessly on our behalf. But the state of California remains reticent on what is to become of our mission.

So, my list for the new year includes:

  • Funding from the California Department of Education
  • Guidance from the California Department of Education
  • A Strategic Plan with a budget attached
  • And, I guess, a miracle..

Happy New Year to all! Best wishes for a new prosperity in 2012!  Thank you for reading!

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New Opportunity for Adult Education: SB 734

23 Oct

With Governor Brown signing SB 734 (DeSaulierD)  into law, Adult Education has  a new opportunity to provide services to adult seeking employment. To read the entire bill, follow this link http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0701-0750/sb_734_bill_20111006_chaptered.html.

The basic emphasis of the bill is to include basic education classes into the job training funds currently available to unemployed. Currently 20% of the funding available every year is spent on the job training, this bill requires that an additional 5% be allotted to job training, including basic skills training, beginning in 2012. This amount is than increased to 30% annually in 2016.

Basic skills includes basic math, reading, and writing skills, all of which are required for success in the modern workforce. Currently, these funds are administered through local Workforce Investment Boards (WIB). In the state of California, the WIB channels up to $500 million in federal funding towards getting people back to work. Traditionally, the WIB has focused much of its efforts on helping the unemployed to build resumes, practice interview skills and conduct job searches. This legislation addresses the realization that a job applicant who is not in possession of basic skills (reading, math, writing) will not be less likely to secure longterm employment that can lead to stability.

This bill represents a great opportunity for adult educators throughout the state of California. Every adult school should get to know its local Workforce Investment Board and find out how to get involved.

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The final step for AB 189

9 Sep
AB 189 has made it to the final step of its journey to become law.  It has been approved by the state assembly and the state senate. Now it goes to the governor’s desk for signing. The last step is important as without the signature, all the hard work that went into getting the legislation through would be lost.The best action to take right now is a letter to Governor Brown stating you support for AB 189 and its requirement that public discussion before any local school district closes its adult education program.

I have included the press release issued by Mike Eng’s office in this post for easy reference.

You can write the governor at:

Governor Jerry Brown

c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173

Sacramento, CA 95814

On the letter, above the salutation, please put:

Request for Signature-Assembly Bill 189

Everyone who sends a letter should copy Mr. Eng’s office at:

The Honorable Mike Eng,

Assembly Member, 49th District

State Capitol, Room 4016

Sacramento, CA 95814

 
Wednesday, September 07 2011

Education Financing Legislation Heading to Governor’s Desk

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Today, the California State Assembly approved the passage of Assembly Bill (AB) 189 by Assemblymember Mike Eng (D – Monterey Park), which will empower parents and community members to advocate for the protection of education programs as local boards consider making deeper cuts or closing entire programs, and permit school districts to gain revenue to help fund programs like Adult Education.

Specifically, AB 189 requires Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) to hold independent meetings that are separate from the meeting to adopt a budget prior to the transfer of funds from categorical programs in Tier 3 flexibility. If a governing board intends to shut down a program, it will be required to notice a proposed elimination of a program at the meeting to discuss proposed transfer of Tier 3 funds or another meeting that is not the meeting to adopt the budget. In addition, it provides the ability to offer English as a Second Language and citizenship classes with modest fees as a means of keeping programs open and ensuring these services during flexibility.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2009-10 budget had an important impact on categorical programs. The budget agreement imposed a 20% reduction on 39 programs and gave LEAs that received those funds in FY 2007-08 the flexibility to use the funds for any educational purposes from FY 2008-09 through FY 2012-13. The Governor recently enacted legislation to extend flexibility through the FY 2014–15. “When categorical flexibility was granted, the Legislature assumed that the governing boards of school districts would provide communities with ample opportunities to weigh in on the possible diversion of these funds into other areas,” said Assemblymember Eng. “Unfortunately, that has not always been the case.”

Categorical programs like Adult Education and Regional Occupational Centers & Programs (ROCP) provide valuable educational and post-educational services to a broad cross section of California’s population and prepares both adults and high school students for the workforce.

“AB 189 ensures that school districts fully consult with the communities they serve before taking drastic steps in reducing or eliminating categorical programs,” said Assemblymember Mike Eng. “For many members in our communities, these programs help fulfill their dreams of obtaining a better job, buying their own home, starting their own business and becoming more involved in their children’s education.”

AB 189 is now on its way to the Governor for consideration. It is sponsored by the California Council for Adult Education (CCAE).

CONTACT: Edmundo Cuevas, (916) 319-2049, Edmundo.Cuevas@asm.ca.gov

Published in Press Releases
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Categorical Flexibility Explained

16 Aug

In California, adult education has been part of the education menu for over 150 years, ever since the first classes were offered in the 1850s in the basement of St. Mary’s church in San Francisco. The first classes offered were in English language instruction and citizenship and were intended for newly arrived immigrants who arrived in droves following the Gold Rush of ’49. Ever since those early days, adult schools have offered adults the opportunity to improve and expand their horizons, continuing to offer not only English language instruction and citizenship classes but also extending their offerings to include a wide array of vocational certification programs for those seeking wage enhancing employment options, enriching course offerings for adults in a wide variety of subjects from art to foreign language, parenting classes, and classes for adults with disabilities among other topics.  The course offerings, as expected, change with the times. At one point in the early half of the twenties century, homemaking and household arts classes were featured. During World War II, course offerings trained adults for wartime job offerings. What is offered mirrors what is happening in the state and in the nation.  Predictably, funding for adult education has waxed and waned throughout the years.  During the Depression of the 1930s, funding was reduced but it picked up during wartime to train workers in new manufacturing vocations and expanded again to retrain returning veterans after the war. With the advent of Proposition 13 in the 1970s, funding shrank again, rising again with the boom of the 1980s and early 1990s. The turn of the century has seen money fading again and finally the existence of adult education has been called into question with the move of the entire budget of the department ($650 million) to the categorical flexibility tier where it is controlled by local school boards.

Even under normal conditions, local boards would be tempted by the ability to use funds previously ear-marked for adult education in ways that would assist the primary mission of K-12 districts, which is to provide educational services to those ages 5 – 18.  Although in California Education Code 8500 guarantees all citizens a right to basic skills education (reading, writing, math literacy, and the ability to engage in the business of citizenship) there exists a belief that somehow adults without these skills can get along fine without them or receive basic skills education at the community college level. And while community colleges do provide some basic skills education, the fiscal crisis in California has taken its toll on their ability to do so and on the ability of the college system to pick up the pieces of what is essentially the job of teaching elementary and secondary school level skills. There are not enough seats available in the community college system and there is not enough money left for them to do this job.

At the point when the policy was formed in 2009, the state of California knew very little about the impact of dismantling adult education.  They did not study the issue before making the decision.  The basic argument made by the state is that local districts could decide what was needed in their own communities and for the most part the local districts have unmanageable budget gaps to fill so the adult education money presented a lifeline and potential way to save teacher’s jobs. However, due to the nature of adult education, taking this money results in a potentially a greater loss to the local community in the form of a loss of a training source and a loss of the opportunity for individuals to increase their wages through acquiring additional skills. This can affect the tax base and cost the state much more money than saved by moving the $650 million into this tier.  The other items in the category  III that were moved into this flexibility tier were items within the K-12 budget.  The entire amount moved into this category amounted to 4.3 billion dollars. The adult education budget comes to 650 million dollars, less than 2% of the total. However, adult education is a different type of line item than say Gifted and Talented Education (44 million) or Professional Development Block Grant (218 million) (Legislative Analyst’s Office Report, 2011).

Categorical Programs in the Flex Item
Program 2010-2011 Amount (Dollars in Millions)
Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant $855
Adult Education 635
ROC/Ps 385
School and Library Improvement Block Grant 370
Summer School Programs 336
Instructional Materials Block Grant 334
Deferred Maintenance 251
Professional Development Block Grant 218
Grade 7-12 Counseling 167
Charter Schools Block Grant 142
Teacher Credentialing Block Grant 90
Arts and Music Block Grant 88
School Safety Block Grant 80
High School Class Size Reduction 79
Pupil Retention Block Grant 77
California High School Exit Exam 58
California School Age Families Education Program 46
Prof. Development Institutes for Math and English 45
Gifted and Talented 44
Community Day School 42
Community Based English Tutoring 40
Physical Education Block Grant 34
Alternative Credentialing 26
Staff Development 26
School Safety Competitive Grant 14
Educational Technology 14
Certificated Staff Mentoring 9
County Offices of Education: Williams 8
Various Programs (under $5 million statewide) 22
Total $4,53

Source: (Legislative Analyst’s Office, 2011)

By reviewing the items in the flexibility list, it is clear that the majority of these items relate specifically to K-12 education.  Whether or not one supports categorical flexibility, there could be an argument that local decisions concerning the other items on the list is a viable option.  However, the decision to include adult education on that same list is baffling. It essentially gives local school boards the ability to negate the still standing Ed Code 8500 (right for all citizens to basic education) with no public discussion on the subject.

I believe it is time to reconsider the inclusion of adult education in the categorical flexibility list.  By placing adult education on this list, the state has jeopardized one of its potential resources at a time when it needs it the most. In order to train people for jobs and help businesses find suitably trained employees we need training sites. Adult education can also provide valuable remediation for adults looking to return to college or vocational training who lack the necessary prerequisites for success at the college level. At the very least, before adult education is dismantled, it requires further study and research, or even looking at the research that has already been done in order to better appropriate the funds.Moving adult education out of categorial flexibility would be a step in the right direction.

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Executive Summary of soon to be released thesis for MPPA program at California Lutheran University

3 Aug

 Executive Summary

Due to the recent decision on the part of the California state legislators to allow adult education funds to be swept into the K-12 sector, adult schools throughout the state are at risk.  Thirty-four  (out of eight-four) adult schools throughout the state have already been closed, others, such as the Conejo Valley Adult School in Thousand Oaks, are scheduled for preliminary cuts.  I contend that we need to better understand the impact that adult education has on our state and local areas before we dismantle it.  A main focus of the analysis is to show the lack of homogeneity in any comparisons of adult school and other K-12 schools.

At this point in time, the state of California knows very little about the impact of dismantling adult education.  They did not study the issue before making the decision.  The basic argument made by the state is that local districts could decide what was needed in their own communities and for the most part the local districts have unmanageable budget gaps to fill so the adult education money presented a lifeline and potential way to save teacher’s jobs. However, due to the nature of adult education, taking this money results in a potentially a greater loss to the local community in the form of a hole that would be left in the local area as currently no viable options exist for obtaining the services provided at the adult school.

The main focus in the study is to uncover the value of adult education to the community.  Current and graduated students participated in a survey to uncover a variety of facts about their adult school experience to determine the value to the local community offered by attending the school.  These surveys are combined into an easily digestible report showing the relationship that exists between the Conejo Valley Adult School and the local community. This data is used to further expose the unintended consequence of the legislator’s hasty solution to the education budget crisis and encourage the state to reframe the issue in their next round of solutions.  Policy implications of the survey suggest a more inclusive approach to this issue would better serve both the citizens of the local community and the state.  Potential solutions to the current situation are presented and discussed.

An additional component of the thesis is an analysis of the education pipeline as it relates to adult education with enhanced discussion of the issue of Basic Skills Education as it relates to adults in both adult education and the community college system. The nature of leaks in the pipeline is explored at length with an eye for how adult schools could better serve the citizens of the state of California by allowing adult education to take a role in providing more courses of a remedial nature that would address deficiencies in Basic Skills including not only English skills but also math literacy. Recommendations for alignment of the various sectors of the education pipeline include better utilization of adult education facilities to expand the capabilities of the state to better serve citizens who desire to continue their education and better their own and the states’ future.

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