The Conference was deep and powerful.
An AEM post on the conference is coming soon.
Cuts and reform in California Adult Education are part of a larger puzzle affecting every piece of Public Education in the US. To understand what is happening in Adult Education in California - and to influence it in a positive direction - we need to understand what is happening elsewhere - and we need historical context.
Historical context is what Kristen provided at our panel discussion. Kristen is a lead ESL teacher at West Contra Costa Adult School. She is a founding member of COSAS - Communities Organized to Support Adult Schools, a group that formed in response to the cuts six years ago and has met weekly since. She authors the Save Your Adult School blog, a priceless repository of facts and insight about Adult Education.
San Francisco and San Diego are often presented as models for how a Community College can (or should) deliver Adult Education.
What people often forget is that the Community College system, just like the K12 Adult School system and every other branch of public education, is undergoing reform. Models being held up as examples may in fact no longer exist - or won't exist for much longer. It is good to remember our role in this re-forming process. We have both the right and the responsibility to assess the changes as they are proposed and to speak up about what we think will best serve us as a people.
CCSF has credit ESL and non-credit ESL. The non-credit is what we generally call "Adult Education."
The CCSF Administration is for splitting it.
The CCSF Department Chairs are against splitting the ESL department.
I will provide more information as I get it. For now, here is a leaflet against splitting the department.
Save Community ESL!
CCSF management is proposing to split the ESL Department into two: ESL Community and ESL Vocational and Credit. This would effectively split ESL Noncredit into two pieces; part of noncredit would be under Community, and the other part of noncredit would be under Vocational and Academic. The reason being given is that two departments will be "more manageable" - rather than academically sound reasons such as excellent instruction, a viable program, and meeting real student needs.
Splitting the ESL Department in two is
DISRUPTIVE - The ESL Department once was divided into a noncredit "Centers" program and a credit program under the English Department. We have spent over a decade merging the two, and have achieved a seamless program that goes from Literacy to College Composition. Students move along this pathway at their own speed and have teachers who know the entire breadth of the program. Why would anyone want to disrupt this flow? Why would the college want to weaken the ESL program in this manner?
CONFUSING - How will students read the schedule? How will they enroll in courses in two different ESLs? How will they know the difference between the two? How would they enroll in a "Community" class at 8:00 a.m. and then a "Vocational" class at 10:00? Many do this effortlessly now. Moving from noncredit to credit is already daunting for students. This proposal would add yet another obstacle.
DAMAGING TO STUDENT PROGRESS - Students are now eligible for numerous certificates that include courses that, under this proposal, would be in two separate departments. Noncredit students are already not sufficiently aware of these certificates due to administration's failure to institute them since their inception in 2007. How would they earn certificates if they are split between two separate departments?
DISCRIMINATORY - The proposal to split ESL into "Community" and "Vocational and Academic" smacks of limiting the mission of City College to a degree and transfer mill. Relegating the largest part of noncredit to "Community" is a good way to make it easier to abandon these students in the near future. But the people who would be abandoned are the seniors, the recent immigrants, and those who have the least prior education - in other words, those who don't fit the current definition of "Student Success."
A whole and integrated ESL Department is
HIGH QUALITY - CCSF ESL is a central resource for San Francisco and its language minority inhabitants. If CCSF educates the workforce, ESL provides the support for non-native speakers to benefit from that training. Our minimum qualification for instructors, both credit and noncredit, is a Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language.
ACCESSIBLE - Students come first, and our mission is to serve them in ways that will serve them best, at convenient locations and times. We see students as whole human beings and provide them with the instruction they need no matter what the label. We do not differentiate from an administrative point of view: credit or noncredit; vocational or academic.
FOCUSED ON STUDENT PATHWAYS - Versatile instructors who move easily between credit and noncredit are the best student advocates for transition from noncredit to credit and noncredit to vocational certificate programs. One department ensures that students move from entry to goal in one straight line.
INCLUSIVE - CCSF ESL is open to all. Our mission includes all of the above: community, vocational, academic and several important goals that have not even been mentioned: skills focus, citizenship, bridge-to-vocational courses, and bridge-to-academic courses.
THIS IS AN IMMEDIATE THREAT - NEGOTIATIONS ARE PROCEEDING QUICKLY RIGHT NOW.
PLEASE CALL OR E-MAIL THE FOLLOWING RESPONSIBLE PARTIES AND TELL THEM TO STOP THE ATTACK ON COMMUNITY E.S.L.
Special Trustee with Extraordinary Powers Robert Agrella
“I spent most of my career” outsourcing jobs, said David Perdue, a business executive who’s running for Senate from Georgia in one of the closest-watched and tightest races in the nation. "This is a part of American business, part of any business. Outsourcing is the procurement of products and services to help your business run. People do that all day." He blames America’s jobs losses instead on “bad government policies: tax policy, regulation, even compliance requirements. It puts us at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world.”
They aren't only the shapers, of course. Grassroots groups, Teachers Unions, Legislators, Think Tanks, Academics, there are many. But these two groups definitely have an impact and they work on the national level, which is important.
More and more, things are flowing in a top down and federal sort of way - Common Core, College & Career Readiness, these are changes flowing from DC. California is and isn't embracing these changes. We are a big state with an economy stronger than most of the world's countries. California doesn't say yes to everything. It sometimes does things its own way and until the Crash of 2009, it had much stronger and better Adult Education than most states which it funded with its own money - unlike many states. All that in mind, it is still 1 of 50 states united under a Federal Government which has been changing public education in a number of significant ways. And where California isn't saying "yes" to changes suggested by the Federal Government, it's making its own changes. All in all, in California and everywhere else in these United States, public education is changing.
None of that, in and of itself, is good or bad. It is change. As always, we need to be awake to what is changing, look it over closely in light of the big picture, and then consider how the changes do or don't benefit our people. If and where we think the changes are beneficial, we need to nurture and encourage those changes. If and where we consider them harmful, we need to take steps to arrest the bad and begin the good.
Back to our story, the similarity of the names and acronyms - NCL and NCAL - makes it hard to remember which is which but it's important to try. They are different in some important ways. I won't try to detail the differences here. I'll doing so to my "List of One Hundred Posts I Need to Write."
National Commission on Adult Literacy - The Council grew out of two background assessment and planning projects carried out in early 2001. Funding for that work came from Harold W. McGraw, Jr., The Ford Foundation, and The Carnegie Corporation. One project assessed the status and lingering problems of adult literacy, following the work of the Business Council for Effective Literacy (BCEL); the other explored the feasibility of establishing a blue-ribbon commission on adult literacy. Both projects developed lengthy research and action agendas, and the rationale for them. CAAL was formed to build on that foundation, including the work of BCEL, its predecessor organization. Chairman of NCAL, David Perdue (Dollar General Literacy Foundation)
I created my own powerpoint on Adult Ed Reform for the Grassroots Summit last summer in June 2014 but have yet to post it on this blog.
On the one hand, I can see that a Dollar Store corporation would understand the struggles of people who, because of poverty, are very likely to shop at Dollar Stores. Poverty has a strong connection with lack of education. And yet, the fact that David Perdue, CEO of Dollar General, considers outsourcing something to be proud of... Wow, how does this work? How does outsourcing connect with a place to buy cheap stuff made by people working very hard jobs probably without a lot of work and safety rules connect with Adult Education? If you are providing people with a place to buy cheap stuff and you are sending jobs overseas, what kind of education might you suggest would be best for the country?
Who benefits? That was the question that drove my own powerpoint on Adult Ed Reform and I suppose at some point I should post it here.
In the meantime, I wanted to be sure you knew about Mr. Perdue.
You can put it in your "Things That Are Disturbing" file where it will hopefully compost into "Great Ideas For How to Increase Democracy and Public Engagement in Great Public Education."
I am sharing and analyzing the following 2011 Community College Academic Senate Resolution because I think it reveals a lot about how we've gotten to where we are now...
Hit the "read more" link to see and understand more...
K12 Adult Education needs a stable source of funding separate from the community college system.
Within the Regional Consortia system, both Community Colleges and K12 Adult Schools are mandated to provide Adult Education, but only Community Colleges have secure funding. And they will continue to have secure funding because their funding exists independent of the Regional Consortia system. They have apportionment (this is what their funding is called). They are secure. On top of their apportionment money, they may get extra money for Adult Education - which may come in through the Community College Chancellor's Office.
K12 Adult Schools are not secure. K12 Adult Schools are not safe. K12 Adult Schools have been mandated to do a job but haven't been given the means to do the job and can't properly prepare to do it, given the fact they don't know what the future holds.
This is the plain truth.
It is a also a truth some folks have danced around when asked to explain how K12 Adult Schools can survive this challenge. And it is a truth that has sometimes created division amongst Adult Ed advocates in their desperation to figure out a way to save K12 Adult Schools.
It is not, however, a truth which K12 Adult Schools or their advocates created.
It is just a truth they must face... that K12 Adult Schools, themselves, need stabilizing if they are to continue on as the stabilizing fourth leg of California's Public Education system.
In what form that stability will come - a return to categorical status, some new form of dedicated funding specific to K12 Adult Schools, or some other way - we don't know.
We just know if it doesn't happen, more K12 Adult Schools will collapse, which will destabilize our public education system, economy, and social stability.
This December 2012 Edsource article provides helpful information. I've highlighted the section with quotes from Paul Steenhausen, who wrote the LAO Report.
California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office says the state’s embattled adult education system needs a dedicated and permanent funding stream that can’t be appropriated for other school programs when the state budget goes south. Restructuring California’s Adult Education System calls for the state Legislature to restore adult education as a categorical program. Adult Ed advocates lauded the proposal, even though it relies on funding that is speculative and requires a commitment from legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown that they have so far not shown. Adult schools are an important strand in the state’s safety net, offering community-based classes to some of the state’s neediest adults, ranging from the unemployed, the disabled and the elderly to ex-offenders reentering society, immigrants trying to learn English and become citizens, and high school dropouts seeking to earn their GEDs.
Until the 2008-09 academic year, adult education was funded through one of the dozens of categorical programs that could be used only for their stated purpose. But as part of the February 2009 state budget plan, legislators approved what’s known as “categorical flex,” giving school districts the authority to use funds from 40 categorical programs, including adult education, for any educational purpose. Chris Nelson, State President of the California Council for Adult Education. Photo courtesy CCAE. (Click to enlarge)The LAO report says that move signaled “adult schools’ lower priority within the K-12 system.” Since then, local school boards have funneled as much as 70 percent of statewide adult ed funds to support K-12 programs, according to Chris Nelson, president of the California Council for Adult Education.
At least 35 programs have shut down as a result, and many of the 300 remaining programs are operating on shoestring budgets. Altogether, the LAO estimates that in 2011-12, the state and federal governments spent about $400 million on district-run adult schools, down from $854 million before flex started.
Many community colleges also offer adult education classes, spending about $1.7 billion last year, according to the LAO, but the colleges take that money from their regular state funding and not from separate categorical accounts.
Categorical flex is due to expire at the end of the 2014-15 school year, and the LAO is recommending that starting in 2015-16 adult education be restored as a categorical program with a dedicated funding stream. The program is a good candidate for restoration of funds, said Paul Steenhausen, who wrote the LAO report, because it reaches a distinct, underserved population.
“Adult education is a different animal,” Steenhausen said. Because it doesn’t serve K-12 students, it is “fundamentally different from other categoricals.”
However, many observers believe that the current level of flexible funding will continue beyond 2014-15 unless Gov. Brown convinces the Legislature to reconfigure the school finance system using a weighted student formula (WSF). Under this approach, money would follow the student, so schools enrolling students with greater needs, such as English learners and those from low-income families, would receive more funds. When Gov. Brown first proposed WSF last January, he didn’t support separate funding for adult education, leading advocates to oppose it.
Even the recent passage of Proposition 30, which increases funding to schools through a combination of a small sales tax increase and higher income taxes on the wealthiest Californians, has not revived support for adult education, according to Nelson.
“We’re still hearing that programs are being threatened with being cut more,” Nelson said. “I have not heard of anybody who has said they’re going to get an increase because of Prop. 30.” Roadmap to restructuring Adult Ed, California Legislative Analyst’s Office. (Click to enlarge)Instead, Nelson said he believes that school districts will be under pressure to use increased revenues to provide raises for teachers. “We’re all fighting for every little dollar, and it’s unfortunate how this has played out – one program against another.”
Nelson described the situation in Sonoma County, which had 11 adult education schools a few years ago, but has only one remaining program, in Petaluma. That program is being inundated by prospective students from all over the county. Nelson expects that Petaluma, which doesn’t have the capacity to serve so many people, will soon have to restrict its program to city residents.
One reason adult education may lack support from some legislators is the program’s uneven distribution across the state. Adult ed schools are more common in urban than rural communities.
The LAO report addresses this issue. The LAO is predicting that as the economy improves, the state will soon be receiving more funds that must be spent on K-14 education. The report recommends that some of this new money should be allocated to adult education based on regional needs and the ability of districts, colleges and local businesses to work as a team to avoid duplication of services and provide smooth pathways for students to jobs and college. The LAO also recommends that funding be allocated based on student outcomes – such as how many successfully complete courses – the way federal funds are now distributed.
But, finally, “the bigger issue is how is adult ed going to get funded,” Nelson said. “The LAO does recommend designated funding for adult ed, and that’s very key.”
Going deeper
At Risk: Adult Schools in California, EdSource, June 2012
California Council for Adult Education
Restructuring California’s Adult Education System, Legislative Analyst’s Office, Dec. 5, 2012 Video: Paul Steenhausen, LAO principal fiscal and policy analyst and author of adult ed report, discusses the findings and recommendations.
This post is directly primarily to my colleagues in Adult Ed but the blogs listed (about halfway down the page) are recommended for all.
A lot is going on in the world of education.
Two big teachers unions - the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have been debating Common Core, the head of the US Department of Education, charter schools, diversity in the teaching side of the classroom (it's far less than the class side for those who don't know), tenure, the Vergara decision, and a number of other things. Many of their debates were public and all of their resolutions are. You can read about NEA's call for Head Fed Ed Arne Duncan to resign here and AFT's call for him to submit to "improvement plan" or resign here. You can see lots of the debates on the union websites and You tube including this speech by Rev William Barber:
Clearly, change is afoot in teachers unions. And by afoot, I mean from the ground up, with calls for change not just in US administration and policy but union administration and policy, as well.
Note: Many Adult Ed teachers, like myself, belong to CFT - the California Federation of Teachers - which is a branch of AFT. In Los Angeles, the biggest Adult School in California, teachers belong to UTLA which is part of both AFT/CFT and NEA/CTA.
Were those enough letters or did you want more alphabet soup?
Meanwhile, those of us in Adult Ed, especially in California, especially in K12 Adult Schools, have been focusing all on our energy on survival.
This is understandable.
What we need to remember, however, as we organize within and between schools and programs, push for student and teacher inclusion in the Regional Consortia planning process, email and visit legislators, and ask the Governor and the Department of Finance for stable K12 Adult School funding...
is the connection between what is happening in Adult Ed in California, especially K12 Adult Schools, and what is happening in education all across the country.
If we don't, we either won't succeed, or we'll succeed in the short run but fail in the long.
We must see and understand the changes in how education is funded, what is taught, what is valued, who is valued, and who does and doesn't benefit from these changes.
This makes things twice as hard for us as for other branches of education. It also makes it twice as clear that we need to be aware and speak up about what we know to be true because we have twice as much riding on it. Our programs are not just at risk of being hugely altered, they are at risk of being eliminated. Which it makes it doubly important that we bring news of this to the larger community because without knowledge of what is happening in Adult Ed, the folks in the other branches of Public Education may never see the full and larger picture. We are the missing piece.
Yes, it's hard.
Life is hard, sometimes.
In fact, mostly, on this planet, it has been... and still is for a good number of the people riding on it.
Sometimes I ponder how we are the branch of public education charged with teaching citizenship.
If we are not willing to practice responsible citizenship, which includes participation in democracy, what gives us the right to teach it?
We are also the branch of public education charged with teaching the folks with the most hurdles to get over - barriers of language, poverty, dis/ability, literacy, resources, etc.
If we, ourselves, are not willing to leap a few hurdles... to risk overwhelm, injury, or failure in the trying... what gives us the right to ask others to do so?
Yes, we can speak English and teach English. But does that gives us the right to ask someone to try harder than we're willing to?
At some point, we in Adult Education have to ask ourselves: What are we teaching and why?
Many in Adult Ed teach immigrants. We teach ESL, Family Literacy, Job Skills, and Citizenship.
Why?
Because we "believe in" democracy and the "American Way"?
Because we care about our students, see their struggles, and want to give them tools to succeed here? But only so far - not so far as to ourselves actually engage in real citizenship, real democracy, real understanding of the world and how it works or to encourage our students to do the same?
Because we like the backwater nature of our jobs, out of the fray of K12, with a little more freedom, a little less structure, a little more humanity - until we're asked to give something more of ourselves than teaching... until we're asked to take the same sort of risks we ask our students to take... to challenge ourselves, exercise self-discipline, and put into practice what we know will make things better?
I say again: Yes, this is hard.
It takes effort. Risks must be taken and mistakes may be made. At times we may feel overwhelmed, frustrated, discouraged, angry, tired, confused, and scared - the same way Adult Ed students sometimes feel as they pursue their GEDs and High School Diplomas, learn English, master new job skills, and become citizens.
The same way anyone doing anything of real worth feels as they move through discomfort and into the deep joy of meaningful accomplishment.
It's all scary, unknown, and what could ultimately save us.
It's also not the first time humans have taken risks to make things better and we're not in this all alone. There are many of us of working to save and rebuild Adult Ed. Many of us working to save and strengthen Public Education. And many more of us who can do so.
To show us more of the bigger picture so that we can see where we fit in it, here are some blogs by writers focusing more on the K12 side of things. I've pulled quotes from some of them and I've added a few comments.
1. Mercedes Schneider's blog Deutsch29. Mercedes teaches school by day and at night apparently never sleeps because her blog is gobstoppingly amazing. Research research and more research. Every i is dotted and t's are crossed.
The following post is in response to the discussion about Common Core at the AFT Convention. Remember that Adult Ed is also going Common Core. Already there are workshops at CCAE and Catesol Conferences about how to teach ESL the Common Core way. And the GED is now Common Core. And the GED being used in most of California (but not Los Angeles!) is the Pearson version. It costs more and it certainly makes Pearson a few bucks. As in many. Here's the post:
And here's a quote to consider with my highlights:
So, to those teachers who are tempted to take AFT money in order to “”make CCSS better,” let me caution you that your work will become part of the CCSS that is ultimately locked into place and handed over to the likes of Pearson for nationwide marketing purposes. Pearson plans to make itself indispensable and benefit handsomely from CCSS by offering assessments, curriculum to accompany those assessments, teacher development, and “data driven adaptive learning.” Imagine how much better it will be for Pearson to be able to advertise that CCSS was “rewritten by teachers.” That is a phenomenal selling point, not only for Pearson, but also for any influential, pro-CCSS individual taking to the cameras.
2. Anthony Cody's blog Living in Dialogue. Anthony taught middle school science in Oakland for many years. He started the Network for Public Education with Diane Ravitch.
In this post, Common Core-Aligned Tests and the New Pearson GED: Failure By Design?, he discusses Pearson and the new GED.
So the key is that those who design the tests are making an intentional decision regarding how many students pass or fail. A 30% pass rate on Common Core tests is not some objective statement regarding how many students are ready for career and college. It is a predetermined outcome, which has a whole set of assumptions in it regarding what "college and career ready" means.
3. Jose Luis Vilson's blog The Jose Vilson. Jose teaches math in New York city. He addresses many issues in his blog including issues of race, class, and gender. This is a topic often left out of discussions about Adult Education even though race, class, and gender has a great deal to do with who is in our classrooms and why and who will be there in the future and what is taught to them and why. Never forget that California is the 8th largest economy in the world. Whatever happens here, someone, somewhere, is making money. California is a "majority-minority" state with Latinos outnumbering whites. Issues of race, class, and gender make it all the more important that student voice is included in planning the new Regional Consortia. Students reflect the reality of who California is and is becoming far more than admin or teachers do.
4. Professor Vasquez Heileg's blog Cloaking Inequality. Prof JVH was at the University of Texas at Austin but is now on his way to Sacramento where he will be a Full Professor and Director of the Educational Leadership at California State at Sacramento. It was at the panel on Research and Advocacy at the Network for Public Education conference in Austin, that I learned from Prof JVH why there is often muted, mumbled, or absolutely no outcry from academics on what is happening to public education. Just as we in Adult Education fear reprisal or job loss for speaking up about what is happening in Adult Ed, so do the folks in higher ed. I don't know why I thought it would be any different. We're talking about human beings here. Yes, there are "rules." Yes, there is free speech, tenure, and an agreed on value for the "truth." But what actually happens is often a different story.
You can read the blog post that was the basis for his remarks at the NPE panel here:
Prof JVH's wisdom did something else for me: It made me hopeful. If Prof JVH can be truthful about what is happening in Public Education, so can other academics. Maybe academics focused on Adult Education. It would be hugely helpful if they did so.
In the meantime, I can be truthful.
Like those silent academics, I fear rebuff and reprisal.
I also know if I'm not willing not to speak... if I'm not willing to take a risk and share what I know and see... If I'm not willing to work as hard as I ask my students to work... If I'm not willing to risk rejection, failure, and fear...
not only do I not have the right to ask my students to take such risks...
I don't have the right to expect anything to change for the better - for Adult Ed, for Public Ed, for me.
Things really are at a crisis point in Public Education - especially in Adult Education.
That doesn't mean everything will end badly.
Crisis, as we all know, is opportunity.
But it does mean that if I want a good outcome, I need to make an effort for one.
I need to think toward it, risk toward it, work toward it.
This program is run with a combination of Adult Ed money and First Five money. First Five is what we call "soft money." It's a grant. Some of the grant money was used to do research on the program to find out if a combination of Parent Ed and ESL for parents and Early Ed for kids could help kids succeed in school in the long run.
What do you think the answer was? Yes. You're Right. It does.
But soft money is called "soft" for a reason. There's no guarantees. Donators, philanthropists, foundations, grant givers can change their minds, choose different programs to fund, or run out of money.
Just like the state, I guess. But the difference is the state is run by our representatives. We elect the people who make the decisions. There is some accountability and transparency. And if we are unhappy with the decisions being made, we can tell our representatives we want them to choose a different way.
With soft money, there is no such thing.
Sometimes soft money is used to get something started or do as First Five did here, find out if something is really worthwhile. Then the soft money pulls out and the idea is, if the program is really good, if it serves the people and saves them money in the long run, the state or district stays in.
But that's not what's happening here.
Just as the soft money is pulling out, LAUSD is pulling out, too.
Why?
Good question.
Maybe because it reads the writing on the wall of AB86. Parent Education is not funded. The emphasis is CCR - College and Career Readiness.
Is that legal?
SB91 - the Maintenance of Effort clause - states that K12 School Districts must continue to fund Adult Education at the same levels previous until 2015 when the new Regional Consortia program goes into effect.
But fund what? Do districts have to fund the same programs they did last year? Or can they fund whatever sort of Adult Ed they want to so long as it's some sort of Adult Ed? I don't claim to know the answer but it seems that LAUSD is interpreting it to mean the latter.
What does that mean for the families served by the Family Literacy programs? And what does that mean for the larger community of Los Angeles?
What does that mean for us, as a people?
These programs have been proven to affect children positively years into the future.
Wouldn't LAUSD want that? Doesn't that save them money and support them in their efforts to educate children?
Of course, it does.
This leads us to the question of whether or not LAUSD has the wisdom to change its mind. They made the decision to close the program on Thursday, May 29th. Is that a hard decision? A soft one? Do they have the wisdom to recognize that perhaps they made this decision too hastily and cutting these programs will be too costly in the long run? It's a little like selling your shoes before you climb a mountain, in the mistaken idea that those few bucks will make the climb easier. Stop! Don't sell those shoes! Instead, lace them up tighter!
There will be a rally to save the program on Tuesday, May 27th. Folks will gather outside school district offices carrying signs and chanting in English and Spanish. They will wear red. Speakers will use a portable PA system. Speeches and interviews will be available in English and Spanish. Press Release here.
The decision that LAUSD makes about this program will determine where they land as a community in the future, as will the decisions that other districts make. Together, their decisions and the decisions the Governor and Legislature are making now in this time of great change in how we educate and care for ourselves as a people, will determine our future.
What we fund, how we fund it, how open we are to really looking at what we're doing and where it's taking us - these things decide the softness or the hardness of our landing and the joy or pain thereafter.
When we fund something through democratic means... choosing to tax ourselves to pay for something that serves us as a people... doing this through a democratic process... voting, representation, etc... there is recourse when we are unhappy about something. We can use the democratic process to change the course of things. And we can use the tools gained through education - reading, research, analysis - to follow the money. Was our money spent as it we intended it to be?
When we don't... when we rely on private sources of money to pay for something that serves us a people... we really have no recourse when, for whatever reason, that funder pulls out.
This is why I am concerned when folks in the legislature and elsewhere say that we can still provide Parent Education, Older Adults, Home Economics, and Financial Literacy classes, all still listed on the California Department of Education's list of Adult Education programs, so long as we fund them through fees or foundations.
To my mind, education funded through fees and foundations is not public education.
It's education, but it's not public education.
Democracy cannot function without public education.
To erode education is to erode democracy.
And I don't want to live where that lands us.
It might seem I have wandered far from where I started but I don't believe I have, anymore than I believe it will not be long before we go from closing down these programs and a future where even more money goes to build and run privatized prisons, and deal with the price our people pay for addiction, mental and physical illness, and the breakdown of strong family and community connections.
We need strong families and communities. Schools - even community schools - can never replace them. Programs such as this one support and strengthen families and communities so they can do what they do best and schools can do what they best. Together, we work to create a future where we can live in health and harmony.
This is a long post which should be longer. I want to get it out while it's still in our minds and hearts. Therefore, I am not trying to cover every aspect of the hearing. You can watch the whole thing here. It is not that long - under 3 hours - and you can fast forward through the parts not of interest to you.
This post also contains comments. I do my best to report information here. I also do my best to think about things as I go along, asking questions and learning as I go. I see what I'm doing here as being partly about sharing those questions and observations. They aren't all there is to know about Adult Education. They are my best effort to learn, be open, and maintain a commitment to principles. And they are a work in progress - just like Adult Education in California.
When you're pulling into traffic, there's a general rule for safety:
Look in the direction you want to go, look in the opposite direction, then back to where you're going before pulling out into the flow.
This seems a good rule for us to remember as we move into the flow of change where not just Adult Education is concerned, but public education, as a whole.
The January 29th Oversight Hearing on Adult Education - Joint Senate Committee on Education and Assembly Committee on Higher Education - was a good opportunity to do just that.
It was called into being by the need for more information for legislators so they can make better informed decisions about Adult Education, including the fate of SB 173, the question of extending the MOE clause, and determining a budget for the new Regional Consortia system when it starts up in 2015.
For those who, like me, are learning as they go, an oversight hearing is just informational - no one votes on anything.
The three students spoke during the public comment section. I highly recommend you read what Hitomi, Marco, and Marina said. We need to hear from more students as make decisions about the future of Adult Education. If you are a student or know a student who would like to share your perspective on Adult Education, please send me an email at cyn period eagleton and then "at" g and then mail and then period and then com (yes I'm paranoid I'm one of the people who got slammed in the Target thing). I would love to post more student wisdom and perspective on the value of adult education and how best we can renew and rebuild it for the future.
And here is my own summary of the hearing, along with a few comments and observations which I'll do my best to put in italics.
As you read through it, you might want to keep the Look Three Ways Rule in mind - look where we want go, look where we've come from, then look again to where we want to go.
Public education, including Adult Education, is by, for and of the public (the people)
For that reason, I believe that the public should be part of deciding the future of Adult Education.
To that end, I am doing all I can to provide information about Adult Education
- what is it?
- how did we get here?
- where do we want to go from here?
- what are our options?
and to provide and promote spaces where people can share their ideas, hopes, experience, needs, and desires about Adult Education.
From time to time, I have featured specific "perspective" pieces - students, teachers, administrators sharing their perspectives from their experience.
The budget crisis that devastated Adult Education and nearly wiped out K12 Adult Schools left many school buildings, which once served thousands of Adult School students, empty. Or to put it another way, the budget crisis freed up a lot of real estate.
Now that crisis is over - sort of. We are in the planning stages for the new Regional Consortia system. This is the new system where K12 Adult Schools, Community Colleges, Jails & Prisons, and any other Adult Ed providers will work together in their regions to decide what Adult Ed is needed and who needs it and who will provide it.
In 2015, there will be 500 million dollars for these Regional Consortia.
In the meantime? There is some freed up real estate.
And what happens to freed up real estate? Good question.
In National City, a city on the US side of the border with Mexico, maybe some renting out of the space to Alliant International University, a private university, making for what could be called the privatization of public education.
Opposable thumbs are not the only thing that make us human.
The ability to think and to ask questions, to consider past, present, and possible futures, are tools more important than thumbs.
And we've got 'em.
As the money from increased tax revenues and Prop 30 flows in, and we make choices about how and where to spend it on education, across the state, let's use 'em.
At the 2015 Network for Public Education Conference in Chicago, Kristen Pursley, Bruce Neuberger, and I presented a panel entitled, "The Battle for Adult Education."
