Calling All Journalists

Adult Education -

how it's structured, who it serves, how it used to be, how it's now, how it might be -

these are pretty complicated things, actually...

and very, very important to understand.

Because when you're in a mess, understanding how you got there is part of understanding how to get out.

So what to do?

Keep slogging away at the blog posts?

Definitely!

But what about the skills and scope of journalists and large-scale bloggers?

What about a good comprehensive series or an investigative piece on Adult Education -

how things came to this pass, what's at stake, and how California can benefit if it creates a way out of this mess and into repair and renewal?

How about calling on journalists to bring their skills, smarts, and light to the subject?

The more requests they get, the better -

because journalists respond to need and need is demonstrated by frequency, urgency, and intensity.

Please join me in contacting one or some to ask that they look into Adult Education

what's happening, why, and what's at stake.

Click the "read more" for information about who and how to contact journalists...

Send a note or email to an editor, writer, columnist or blogger asking for coverage.

There really hasn't been comprehensive work about what's happened and is happening.

Not really.

Not a big, comprehensive piece that helps the general public understand what's happened and brings large-scale attention to what's at risk.

And not an investigative piece that looks at who loses and who gains when Adult Ed is cut.

Not a hard look into what may be saved and what's (who's) being thrown under the bus.

So please, take a moment and contact one or more of these folks - or anyone you know - who can cover this topic in a substantive way.

Los Angeles Times

San Francisco Chronicle

Sacramento Bee

Huffington Post

Daily Kos

Frontline

Bill Moyers

AARP  (Older Adults will NOT be covered in Gov. Brown's plan - nor in any of the legislation as currently written)

NPR

KPFA

KQED

Univision

Spanish language media

Chinese language media

Russian language media

Your-choice-of-language media

Your favorite columnist

Your favorite blogger about immigration, parenting, seniors, disabled adults, job seekers, young adults trying to regroup and rebuild their lives.

Remember - Adult Education serves and connects to many groups:

           immigrants
           seniors
           job seekers
           parents
           disabled adults
           young adults
          
And the people who connect to those groups -

           for example, the adult children of seniors who rely on grandparents for childcare while they work...  they need healthy grandparents to help them...  that health may be maintained in part through Older Adults classes...

           or health care providers who will care if disabled adults lose access to programs which help them maintain optimal functioning... 

           or courts which will care if there are no parenting classes available for court-mandated parents who need to improve parenting skills...

Think about who and what is benefited by Adult Education... and then think of which media connects to that... and that ask that media source to cover this issue.

Yes, it takes trouble to do this.  It may take some thinking and it will take a bit of time to write the email or make the call or mail the note.

Think of the trouble created if you don't.

We really do have choices.

We can use our energy to put our heads in the sand.  Yes, this takes energy!

It takes effort to shove our heads deep in the sand so that we don't have the alarm bells going off.

Or we can use our energy to do something in response to the alarm bells.

It's our future.  It's your choice.

It's your call.  It's our state.