Facts

• California has provided adult education for over 150 years.

• Adult schools cost far less per student than K-12, colleges and universities.

Millions of Californians need adult education, yet the number who access it is shrinking.

• 5 million adults lack high school diplomas

• 7 million adults not fluent in English

• 1/3 of California youth drop out before graduation • 80% of need unmet (California Department of Education estimate)

• 1,861,434 – Number of Adult School students in school year 1990-1991 700,000 – Number of Adult School students in school year 2011-2012 350,000-400,000 – Estimated number of Adult School students after 2012 (California Federation of Teachers ((CFT)) convention Adult Education Workshop April 2012)

• 82% of school districts have used Flexibility to transfer adult education funds to K-12 programs since 2009. (CFT Workshop)

• Over 300 adult education programs in K-adult districts 32 already closed –about 10% 44 have lost 50%-90% of funding – almost 15% (from a self-reported survey of adult schools statewide)

The LA school board voted to close its adult school on March 13 of this year. (Huffington Post June 7, 2012)

• Largest adult school system in the state with well over 200,000 students – more than the University of California.

• The Adult Education program uses only about 2% of the LAUSD's budget and serves almost one-third -- 27.7% -- of the total number of students in the school district. (Huffington Post June 7, 2012)

• 1.7 million inhabitants of Los Angeles County live in poverty. (CFT Workshop)

• LA County has the highest percentage of children with foreign-born parents. (The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, May 17, 2012)

• Adult education centers last year reduced the LA school district's high school dropout rate by 10%, according to the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) (Huffington Post February 13, 2012) Note: Many more students received high school diplomas or equivalents via adult education after dropping out.

California has the 8th-largest economy in the world. (CA Department of Finance) The problem is not lack of money. We can afford to fully fund all public education.

Thanks to Teacher David Doneff for compiling this fact sheet.