Dawn Koepke's Assessment of the Budget

Dawn Koepke is a lobbyist who works to give voice to Adult Education in Sacramento.

She gives a very heartening assessment of the Governor's proposed budget for 2013-14.

She also lays out specific bits that we need to think on as we go forward into the next few months, as the proposal is hammered into a reality.

We need to be one of those hammers, as the proposal as assessed, tweaked, and finalized.

From her assessment:

While I am intensely aware of the significant concerns within the field of hearing the Governor propose a shift of adult education responsibilities to the community colleges, let me suggest to you that this proposal is an incredibly positive outcome from the hard work we’ve all put in over the last year.  When I look at the proposal, I see the Governor and his Administration coming around about adult education – a shift that is in and of itself a HUGE victory!  To put it in to perspective, the Administration last year refused to acknowledge that adult education needed a different path rather than merely providing flexibility to the locals to make adult education a priority.  And to take it a step further, providing a dedicated funding source was a nonstarter.  

Look where we are now – the Governor has proposed a budget plan that acknowledges the importance of adult education, the need to sustain it going forward, the need and allocation of a dedicated funding source.  180 degree turn – AWESOME!  Now, of course the details of the delivery model are incredibly concerning.  Shifting to the community colleges doesn’t make sense for a host of reasons as follows: 

Be sure to click here to read the full piece on the CCAE webpage, including that host of reasons.

We'll need to know what those reasons are as we approach Legislators and the Governor in the months to come.