What's Our Message?

1. Adult Education Matters.

Adult Education is the fourth leg of the chair that is education.  It supports people where and when the other systems fail.  It meets the needs of a huge number of people - seniors, immigrants, parents, young adults, job seekers, disabled adults - and it does so in a nimble, low-cost way.  Cut off that leg in the name of saving money and the whole chair goes down.

2.  No on W.S.F.  

Gov. Brown's Weighted School Formula, while it might be good for K-12 schools, is NOT good for Adult Education.  No on WSF unless Adult Ed is pulled out and given its own dedicated funding stream.

3.  Adult Education Needs Its Own Dedicated Funding Stream.

If the steam is smaller because the pool of money is smaller, so be it.  But Adult Education needs its own dedicated funding stream.  It matters.  It serves.  It needs to survive.  And in order to do that, it needs its own dedicated funding stream.

4.  Education Matters.

There is no substitute for good, free, public education.   This is so true, so fundamental, both the left and the right actually agree on this one.  It is the one thing California is united around:  Schools matter.  California schools are struggling.  We, the people of California, want them to be strong and healthy, so that we, the people of California, can be strong and healthy, too - mentally, physically, socially, and economically.

5.  We Can Choose.

Things are changing.   There is turmoil in many areas - the economy, the housing market, the school system,  the State Legislature, our culture.  Old structures are dissolving and new structures are emerging.   We can choose the shape of the new structures and the values they uphold.  What is important to us?  What are our needs?  What are our resources?  What do we want more of and what do we want less of?  We can take time to consider these questions.  We can decide what is important to us.  And we can make choices to strengthen and enlarge what is important to us and decrease what is not.
6.  We can, even in the midst of great difficulty, choose good.

7.  Adult Education is a very good thing.