Adult Education Matters: Red for Adult Ed

Showing posts with label Red for Adult Ed. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Getting to the Finish

This is it, folks. The last leg of our marathon.

The money for K12 Adult Schools runs out in June of 2015.

We have until January - really, it needs to happen before then - to convince Governor Brown, the Department of Finance and the Legislature that K12 Adult Schools need their own secure funding source. Yes, we have a new Regional Consortia system. But without secure funding, the future is mightily uncertain for K12 Adult Schools.

Everyone who cares about Adult Ed and K12 Adult Schools - grassroots groups, CCAE, CFT, CTA, UTLA, etc. - is going to be doing all they can - calling, visiting, and emailing the Gov, DOF, and Legislators, pulling together NASCAR letters, connecting with community and communicating in creative ways the message:

Adult Education matters!

K12 Adult Schools need their own secure funding!

And for many of us: Keep the mission of Adult Ed broad!

Strategies may differ slightly but the end goal is the same:

A good future for our people
through good public Adult Education.

Here's a budget timeline kindly provided by CCAE:

Fiscal Year 15-16 Budget Timeline

July 1, 2014 Fiscal Year 14-15 Budget Takes Effect

July – December 2014 Development of the Governor’s FY 15-16 Budget Proposal

State & Local-Based Adult Education Advocacy

Public Relations Campaign

October 1, 2014 Deadline for Local Meetings & Nascar Letters to be Submitted

November 4, 2014 General Election

December 1, 2014 Beginning of 2015-16 Legislative Session

January 5, 2015 Legislature Reconvenes for 2015-16 Legislative Session

January 10, 2015 Release of the Governor’s FY 15-16 Budget Plan

(within a couple days or so)

January – May 2015 Budget Subcommittee Hearings & Decision-Making

March 15, 2015 School District Lay Off Notice Deadline

March 24, 2015 CCAE & CAEAA Leg Day at the Capitol

**Budget Advocacy & Focus – Be There, Strength in Numbers!

June 15, 2015 Constitutional Legislative Budget Deadline

July 1, 2015 FY 15-16 Budget Takes Effect

Here are some of the strategies for getting us to our goal:

* A4CAS's - Alliance for California Adult School's - strategy

* CCAE's (California Council of Adult Education) - strategy

* CFT's (California Federation of Teachers Union) strategy

* CTA's (California Teacher Association) strategy

* NLLB's (No Lawmaker Left Behind) strategy (part of A4CAS)

* UTLA's (United Teachers of Los Angeles) strategy

Full disclosure: I work with A4CAS (Alliance for California Adult School). I am on the steering committee for NLLB (No Lawmaker Left Behind). I am a member of CFT (California Federation of Teachers union) and CCAE (California Council of Adult Education). And I work at San Mateo Adult School.

If you look closely you will see while the approaches may differ in style and scope they all have the following things in common:

* Connect with the Governor and Legislature
* Get the message out that Adult Education matters
* Stories and data - heart and mind - both are important
* K12 Adult Schools need their own wallet

SMAS Student Leader Hitomi getting the message out:
K12 Adult Schools need secure funding!

My personal thoughts and observations:

* Wearing Red for Adult Ed on Tuesdays - unifies & amplifies
* Being organized in multiple ways - hard but helpful
* Sharing data so that all can access and use for good - multiplies the good
* Connecting with community, press, legislature - turns the tide
* Respecting different approaches - sustains
* Staying out of blame and accusation - rejuvenates
* Staying in support and respect - strengthens
* Understanding we share the goal of saving and strengthening public Adult Education because we share the larger goal of wanting a good future for our people - empowers

* And when you're tired and worn out, consider these guys:

AP Photo/Elise Amendola
Jeff Glasbrenner, Andre Slay and Chris Madison cross the finish line of the Boston Marathon 2014.
Glasbrenner ran Boston in 2013 but didn't get to finish because of the bombings.

We can do this.

Yes, together, we most definitely can.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Soft and Hard: Money, Decisions, Landings

(This one is a combo platter of information and perspective.)

Even though these Los Angeles Unified School District Family Literacy programs have been proven to help the kids the new Local Control Funding Formula is designed to help, it's set to be closed May 29th.

What's the connection to Adult Education?

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.

"Independent research has demonstrated that the Family Literacy Program is more successful than other LAUSD preschools in building success for children who come from households challenged by illiteracy and poverty. It has been ranked by its peers as one of the highest performing such programs in the nation, as measured by achievements of both children and adults."

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.

For more information on this matter please see:

http://saveouradultschool.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/letter-to-governor-brown-re-closing-of-the-la-family-literacy-centers/

http://saveouradultschool.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/save-our-school-appeal-from-la-family-literacy-program/

http://saveouradultschool.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/urgent-la-family-literacy-centers-set-to-close-may-29/

http://saveouradultschool.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/la-school-district-set-to-dismantle-effective-and-popular-family-literacy-program/

For more information, please contact:

Patricia Bauer, spokesperson. patriciaebauer@mac.com; 310-617-5809

savefamilyliteracy@gmail.com

If you are unable to attend the protest, please send an email to lend your support.

They need to receive this message: SAVE LAUSD FAMILY LITERACY.

Please copy us on all emails you write: savefamilyliteracy@gmail.com

LAUSD Superintendent of schools:

John Deasy <john.deasy@lausd.net>

LAUSD Board of education: