Why Bother With ESL for Adults?

Here's why:

Ten Ways Immigrants Help Build and Strengthen Our Economy.

Or how about the fact that Georgia Tripled Economic Activity By Investing In Adult Education."

Or how about the fact that Silicon Valley knows the value of and is activily pursuing effective ESL training for adults on the Peninsula?

And if that's not enough for you, consider the fact that


half of all California kids have a foreign-born parent.

And the fact that the greatest predictor of a child's academic success is mother's literacy level.

Or maybe you don't care how California kids do in school?

No problem if California maintains its embarassingly high school drop-out rate, right?

Yes, I know, it's improving slightly.  Our graduation rate is now 76.3%.  That's good!  Err, it's better than last year.  It's actually not so good that almost a quarter of California kids don't graduate from high school. 

I mean, really, almost a quarter?

And what happens to those drop-outs, by the way?

If Adult Ed goes away?

Well, I'll tell ya.'  They won't be enrolling in any GED or High School Diploma programs, that's for darn sure.  Because those programs are part of California's Adult Education system.

I'm sorry if this post smacks of sarcasm when the last post was so heartfelt.

It's just hard for me to believe, sometimes, that so many people, many of them in the State Legislature and one of them sitting in the Governor's office, don't understand the value of Adult Education.

Adult Education matters.

It really does.