A List To Unlock Our Power

Regarding Adult Education, on this Thanksgiving Day, we have much to be grateful for:

Hit the "read more" link to see the list.

Stronger Together: Each One, Teach One

Today San Mateo Adult School students met with Berkeley Adult School students.

You can read about it on the SMAS Student blog here.  (Clear English and lots of links.)

It was a powerful meeting.  Students realized that every school has different strengths, different challenges - and we're all much stronger working together, sharing ideas, strategies, experience.



Have students at your school met with students from other schools?

It's not hard to do.  Call a neighboring Adult School or Adult Ed program and suggest it.  Find out if they have a Student Council or regular meeting.  Decide on a time and place to meet.

If meeting in person doesn't work, use Skype.  But in person, if you can swing it, is better.

Suggest  a simple agenda:

* What's the current situation for Adult Ed - your school?

* What has worked for us - your school - for advocacy?

* What didn't work - obstacles?

*  What do you - we want to try in the future?

* How can students have a voice in the creation of the new Regional Consortia system?

* How can we help each other - work together - to save and rebuild Adult Ed in California?

At the meeting, share ideas, experience, strategies, hopes, concerns, plans.  Brainstorm.  Take notes.

Exchange emails or phone numbers if desired.

Share the notes with everyone after the meeting. 

Back at your own school, meet and decide where and how to go forward with this new energy, information, and partnership.

Then reach out to another school, student to student, community to community.

Each one, teach one.

CCAE: "Yes....dedicated funding is on the horizon."

Big news from CCAE:

".... the positive news to report is that there is a commitment to provide dedicated funding for adult education going forward.  Yes....dedicated funding is on the horizon."

And...

"... how can the field help with the commitment to provide dedicated funding already being obtained? 

First and foremost, we must continue to highlight the need for dedicated funding - ensuring Finance is unable to back away from its commitment. 

Second, K-12 based adult schools need to actively and forcefully participate in the regional consortia development and planning process at the local level.  Participation is critical to the future of K-12 based education across the state. 

Additionally, your local elected officials need to continue to hear from you about your current situation, what you are doing to participate in the regional effort, and what your needs are going forward.  It isn't enough to merely participate in the regional consortia effort. 

Grassroots advocacy must remain a top priority to help support and guide our efforts in the coming year to develop the framework for the future of adult education, including funding. 

We have the important commitment of dedicated funding; it's the details that are going to be the challenge to work out.  We continue to need your support at the local level with your legislators to keep them interested, apprised and prepared to fight for their adult schools and constituents."

Get the full scoop plus talking points for legislators here.

Reminder:  Grassroots advocacy - that's you and me and the person sitting next to you and the one on the other side, too.

Thanks, CCAE, for this good work and good result which truly fulfills your mission:

The mission of the California Council for Adult Education is to take a leadership role in promoting adult education, providing professional development, and effecting change to best serve the needs and interests of adult education, the CCAE membership, and the people of California..

Now What? Townhalls, Constitutions, Rebirth

This is a long post.  You can read it all in one piece here.  Or you can read it in parts.

Hall of History; Hall of Mystery

Last week - the week of Halloween, Dia de los Muertos and what I like the call the start of the Holiday Slide, there were four Townhalls about the new Regional Consortia system.

I attended the Bay Area Townhall, held in Oakland, on the day before Halloween, from 1 to 3 in the afternoon, at McClymonds High School.   It is a large building, partly in use as a high school and partly in use by what bravely remains of Oakland Adult & Career Education (and may it rebuild!), a program which once served over 20,000 people (who still need Adult Ed programs!) and now serves I am guessing less than 1,000 students.   The entry halls are decorated by a panel of beautiful murals painted by a McClymonds High School student years ago. 

There was a very quiet feel to the campus - and to the Townhall.  The large auditorium was mostly empty.

As Townhalls go, it struck me as not so much an opportunity for the public to share their needs and opinions, as a chance for administrators to have some input on what the applications for the new Regional Consortia will be like.  Adminstrative input is important.  So is public input.   We still need more of the second.

Click the "read more" link to get some.

The Regional Consortia From Here to Eternity Timeline

I'll do my best to add to this timeline as we go along...

creating a system we'll live with for decades to come...

K12 Adult Schools and Community Colleges...

forever locked in embrace.

AB 86  the group in charge of the rev up to the new Regional Consortia system for Adult Ed in CA

AB86 Timeline

■  Informational Webinars – more or less every Friday 11 – 12 pm.  Audio available afterwards.

■  Town Hall Meetings were held Halloween week.  Audio available soon.

■   December 2013 - RFA Release  - that means the application is available

■   January 2014 - Bidder’s Conference – I guess this means the applicants have a conference

■   End of February 2014   RFA Due – application due

 

Now till 2015-16  The MOE Clause.   The Maintenance of Effort clause says that if a school district had an adult school in 2011-12, they have to fund it - at the same level - until 2015-16 when the new Regional Consortia system kicks in.     MOE (SB 91-MOE for AE). Ed Code 2575 (k)(2).

 

From CCAE Legislative Analyst Dawn Koepke's  AB 86 Regional Consortia Planning Framework Overview:

March 1, 2014 for reporting to the legislature and Governor on the interim status of the development of local Adult Education consortia; 

• Fall 2014 for assuring that the Department of Finance and Legislature can anticipate what the outcomes of the regional consortia process will provide so as to plan for funding in the FY 15-16 budget process; and

• March 1, 2015 for reporting to the legislature and Governor on the plans developed statewide and recommendations for additional improvements in the delivery systems

 

Got questions or a comment for AB86?

Send them an email   AB86@cccco.edu.

They might answer you.  They often answer  - but not always.

And your question – in some version – might show up in the FAQs.

Their website:  ab86.cccco.edu/Home.aspx

 

Perspective: Marco -- They Have To Know We Have A Voice

Only three ESL students attended the Bay Area Townhall on the new Regional Consortia system for Adult Education.  All three were from San Mateo Adult School.   Marco, the ESL Morning Student Council President, was one of them.

He shares his reflections about the Townhall here:

l have to tell you that after the meeting, I had more questions than answers.  But the next day, l had to find the best way  to report that to my class.  So l came up with the idea of comparing what the consortia is trying to do with Adult School.  It is like when someone tries to organize a birthday party for a friend without even asking  what kind of cake or things this birthday person may need or want.  I guess  what  the Consortia or whoever  is making or will be doing decisions about Adult Education, they have to know that we have a voice and we will continue  making noise until they listen to our demands.   And  l hope it will be changes to be positive.  This is what I think.


Thank you, Marco, for attending the Townhall and for sharing your insights.

We need your voice - and the voices of millions of other Adult Education students across California - past, present and future.