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San Mateo Adult School Federation of Teachers 789 E. Poplar Ave. San Mateo, CA 94401 Anthony Rendon, Speaker of the Assembly Attention:  Rick Simpson State Capitol Room 219 Sacramento, CA 95814  May 21, 2016 Dear Speaker Rendon: We are writing to urge you to increase adult education funding from $500 million to $750 million in this year’s budget. California adult schools received $754 million in funding in 2007. Our budgets were cut drastically during the recession, and adult schools are the only public education system whose funding has not been restored. Also during the recession, school districts were allowed to take money from adult schools. Many districts closed their adult schools outright, while others cut adult school budgets by 50%, 75%, 95%. Oakland adult school, for example, had 25,000 students before the recession and now has less than 1,200. Even before the recession, adult schools were the most efficient public education system in the state. We educated 1.2 mil...

The deadline for an approved budget for California is June 30.  Now is a key time to express to legislative leaders what our needs are in Adult Schools and Adult Education.   Below is information to help you with letter writing campaigns for adequate funding for Adult Education and in support Assembly Patty Lopez bill AB1846 which would increase funding for Adult Education by 250 million dollars.   If you share this on social media, be sure to use the hashtag #RestoreAdEd.   Feel free to change in any way that suits your program, school, or consortium needs. ______________________________________________________________________   Adult Education matters.  It is important for many reasons.   For example, Adult Education helps people learn English to help their children in school learn English to get better jobs or for job advancement learn English to get involved in the community learn new job skills get their GED or H...

Kristen Pursely, author of  the blog "Save Your Adult School," shines a light on the current situation and brilliantly explains it all in the SYAS post below: We Need to Serve 5 Million Posted on May 22, 2016 by kpursley   California is home to 5.2 million adults who have less than a high school education, and community colleges and adult schools combined have only ever been able to serve about one-fifth of them. That figure should be the north star that guides all adult education policy in California,the goal of reaching all 5.2 million the mark we know we all need to strive for. But so far this has not been the case.  Currently the state is in the midst of reforming the adult education system, and is shining the bright light of scrutiny on all adult education activities, demanding data, data, data. But the  3.5 million unserved adults remain in the shadows, rarely mentioned, though the shocking size of their numbers is the most important datum of al...

Do you use social media? Hit it with the hashtag #RestoreAdEd to let legislative leaders know of the need to adequately fund Adult Education! You can directly post to the following facebook and twitter accounts: Governor Brown: @JerryBrownGov Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin De León: @kdeleon Speaker Anthony Rendon: @Rendon63rd Assembly Budget Chair Phil Ting: @PhilTing Senate Budget Chair: @MarkLeno  

From the Press Enterprise: EDUCATION: Bill could help revive Inland adult schools State legislation would restore funding for programs decimated by budget cuts during the recession.    EDUCATION: Bill could help revive Inland adult schools Hit the link to read the article. Print Photo Share Pin It 1 of 5 More Galleries Guadalupe Marquez, 36, of San Bernardino works in an ESL class at I...

From the Office of Assembly Member Patty Lopez Hi Everyone, I would like to announce that we will begin to increase our pressure to the Governor and the State Legislature through the budget process as the legislature has until June 15 to pass a budget. Our Call to Action We are asking students, teachers, and community members to wear red on May 31 st at their adult schools and to post photos on facebook, twitter, and other social media outlets asking the Governor and Legislature to restore adult education funding. Please use the hashtag #RestoreAdEd when you are posting so we can keep track of how many post have been sent. Also please make sure to directly post to the following facebook and twitter accounts: Governor Brown: @JerryBrownGov Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin De León: @kdeleon Speaker Anthony Rendon: @Rendon63rd Assembly Budget Chair Phil Ting: @PhilTing Senate Budget Chair: @MarkLeno Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks everyone once again for all your h...

Assembly Member Patty Lopez produced the following fact sheet about AB1846.    Assembly Member Lopez authored the bill which is now co-authored by Republican Assembly Member Rocky Chavez and Democrat Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia . The bill goes to Assembly Appropriations on Wednesday, May 11, at 9 am in Room 4202.  The merits of the bill as it regards to its financial impact  will be heard at that time. Because of its cost, AB1846, like any bill over 150,000, will be moved to the suspense file.   There will be a suspense hearing later in the month.  If it passes through the suspense hearing, it will move to the Assembly floor. Here is the fact sheet, which outlines the bill, the reason it's needed, and its supporters: Hit the link to read it. AB1846:   Restoration of Adult Education Funding BILL SUMMARY   This bill will permanently restore adult education funding by appropriating an additional $250 million do...

A lot of information, insight, and wisdom is to be found in the comments on the Edsource article, " Bill Would Increase Funding for Adult Education by 250 Million ."  As of Wednesday evening, May 4, 2016, here are the comments so far: Jae Woon Jeong: I came from Korea last year and have been studying English at Pacific Grove Adult School since January, 2016. This English course is such a great opportunity that I can brush up on my English in writing, speaking, reading, and listening. This course is really helpful and useful for me to become a member of this community. Lacie M.: AB 86 required agencies serving adult learners to “come together” to avoid duplication of effort and align and consolidate services. This occurred after devastating funding cuts that left deserving adult learners out in the cold (relying more and more on tax-payer supported benefits) without options for learning English or gaining necessary skills for work. Now the consortia is meant to provide these c...