Adult Education – The Path Forward

When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters – one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.  ~John F. Kennedy

In the face of categorical flexibility, the new adult education coalition – comprised presently of the California Adult Education Administrators Association (CAEAA) and California Council for Adult Education (CCAE) – is moving forward to identify and capitalize on the opportunities for adult education.  While we are forced to be realistic about the significant challenges in the short term to eliminate flexibility, the work we undertake in the next few months and year will be critical to getting us from crisis and danger mode to that of opportunity and benefit. 

In this regard, the leaders of CAEAA and CCAE are working together in a proactive fashion to elevate the profile and importance of adult education in and around the Capitol.  With the help of McHugh & Associates, we will be refining and tailoring our messaging to capitalize on the issues du jour – the economy and realignment.  With year-over-year deficits and continued discussion about the need to grow the economy and jobs, we have an opportunity to further highlight and push the benefits of adult education in helping to achieve this goal and contribute to the state’s recovery.  Similarly, with the realignment of public safety and child welfare services, we have an opportunity to inform policymakers about the close tie to the services and programs provided by adult education and the beneficial outcomes for the goals of realignment.  Adult education is an important answer to these key state issues – now we must do the heavy lifting to educate these policymakers about the correlation and benefits of adult education in addressing them.   

CAEAA and CCAE’s legislative advocate, Dawn Koepke with McHugh & Associates, has been meeting with Department of Education and legislative officials over the last month to start this education process and identify the opportunities for furthering adult education at a time of limited resources and flexibility.  We are looking forward to partnering with Department of Education’s Gordon Jackson, in particular, as we move in to the New Year.  He and the Department are very interested in developing more of a partnership and working relationship with CAEAA and CCAE going forward, with a near term focus on the Strategic Plan.  They see the Strategic Plan as something that will be somewhat flexible and acknowledge that some of the pieces may be possible in the next few years, others are more of out-year items, and others may not be feasible at all.  The focus going forward will be to address the “what,” “when,” “how to” and “who” questions.  The opportunity to partner with and be front-and-center with the Department on implementation and answering these questions will be incredibly important to moving forward.

In addition to speaking about the Strategic Plan, we have also been raising significant concerns with the lack of data and inability to plug data in to the reporting system.  This is a major concern for the Department and Legislative staff as well.  The challenge will be how to address this problem – through an administrative or legislative fix?  We’re currently working to identify the opportunities and any potential challenges to addressing the data issue on both fronts.  Ideally, we would prefer an administrative fix and avoid yet another mandate in the education realm.  We think such an approach is the right one and doable and as such, we’ll be working to obtain the Department’s commitment to address this issue in lieu of legislation.  CAEAA and CCAE believe it is imperative to the long-term success of adult education in California to have the data available to demonstrate the need and benefit for our programs and services in the state.  Such data could also prove important as we near the sunset date for flexibility and the critical need to avoid any extension on the sunset.

As for seizing opportunities in the New Year, we are developing our legislative effort with the continued help of our dearest advocate and friend, Assemblyman Mike Eng (D-Los Angeles).  We anticipate carrying at least one bill this year, that may be introduced as a “Spot Bill” (placeholder) until the details are finalized.  In addition to working on a legislative proposal with Assemblyman Eng, he is also interested in working closely with CAEAA and CCAE to ensure that school districts are complying with the required hearings associated with the passage of AB 189 (Eng, 2011).  Recall, AB 189 requires a public hearing to be held prior to and independent of a meeting where the school district/county office of education adopts a budget and for the governing boards to identify the program(s) to be closed before the public hearing.

Although adult education is certainly in crisis mode, CAEAA and CCAE are looking forward to the opportunities that lie ahead to assist the adult education community.  We will continue to keep you posted as we move forward with our legislative proposal in 2012 and look forward to the opportunity to work with our partners to further the goals and protect adult education in 2012.

Happy Holidays & New Year!

Dawn Koepke

Legislative Advocate

McHugh & Associates

Some decent news about Adult Education on a federal level. Now we need some statewide

dedicated funding.

http://www.otan.us/index.cfm?fuseaction=othernews&newsid=4139&catid=3027&print=true

http://www.otan.us/

Berkeley Adult School is seeking local employers, small and large, to partner with and develop training that supports employment needs.

The current economic climate in the United States and the difficulty employers face in hiring and maintaining a skilled workforce in an increasingly competitive and global economy have generated interest in developing and promoting policies and programs that can most effectively help low-skill individuals gain job skills and move up the economic ladder, while also enhancing the viability and competitiveness of businesses. Employer involvement is critical to the success of these policies and programs.
Read this report from the National Institute for Literacy...http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/PartneringWEmployers2010.pdf