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  Adult Education National Campaign Tell Your Story - Get Your Organization Recognized   Our Collective Campaign   Our 55,000+ adult education leaders stand united in a national campaign called Educate & Elevate to inform policy makers and our community about how we move learning opportunities forward for all Americans to achieve economic mobility. If we educate, then we elevate --- our students, workers, businesses, and our economic growth.   As part of our campaign, we are asking that adult educators submit success stories, customer testimonials, and innovations that will proudly be displayed on our campaign website which is currently in development. We are looking for both student and employer successes to share.   There are three types of submissions. Click on the links below to complete a brief online form and instructions for submissions. Success Story --- a narrative that shares the challenge(s), solution(s), and outcome(s) of a student or employer. C...

COABE is the Coalition on Adult Basic Education.  Their April Legislative Update provides a good overview of the situation from the federal perspective.  Reminder:  California Adult Ed is mostly - but not entirely - funded through the state.  Federal funding matters, too, and we should keep a close eye on what is happening on the federal level where Public Education and Adult Education are concerned.         Government Relations Report: April   This report focuses on budget and appropriations issues.   Congress is on recess for another week.   The continuing resolution (CR) under which the government is operating expires on April 28. There is a need to determine how the government will be funded for the remainder of the year. There is still a certain lack of clarity about whether there will be a long-term CR to carry funding through to September 30, or an omnibus appropriations bill (or bills) that will make actual funding decisio...

First, a reminder:  Most of California's Adult Ed funds come through the state but some comes in from the federal government through WIOA - the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act . From CCAE - California Council of Adult Education : From:      Art Ellison, State Director's S.P.O.C. Network Administrator   Alert:      Trump Administration Budget Proposal for Adult Education (FY18)     The first Trump budget proposal (skinny version) was released this morning.   It refers to significant cuts in job training programs in the Department of Labor portion of the proposal. Adult Education is not mentioned in the brief description of Department of Education programs however the Department would receive a -13.5% overall decrease. In the absence of more specific information which will not be forthcoming until mid-May WE ARE PROCEEDING WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT THERE WOULD BE AN ANTICIPATED CUT OF -13.5% FOR ADUL...

From COABE - Commission on Adult Basic Education January 20, 2017 White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Trump: The Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) congratulates you on your inauguration as our nation’s forty fifth president! As a national organization with more than 20,000 members who are committed to strengthening Adult Education we look forward to working with your administration to create the opportunities that will put Americans back to work!   We believe this goal is consistent with the vision you articulated during your  campaign: “Ensure that the opportunity to attend a two or four-year college, or to  pursue a trade or a skill set through vocational and technical education, will be  easier to access, pay for, and finish.”   Adult Education is a federal-state partnership as well as a public-private  partnership. By way of example, Indiana Adult Education programs (WorkIndiana)  provide mat...

COABE is the Coalition on Adult Basic Education . Here is their 2/9/17 Report from DC: Government Relations Report:  February Washington is trying to acclimate to the Trump Administration. The president is acting through a spate of executive orders. The Senate is slowly making its way through confirmation hearings and discussing how to consider the president's nominee for the Supreme Court. The foreign policy establishment is trying to weigh the impact of the president's remarks on our relationships with Mexico, Australia, and Israel, among other countries. Information about the budget and other administration policies has not been revealed. Like so much else with the new administration, including its views on education policy, details will be forthcoming. However, it is definitely not business as usual in the nation's capital! Secretaries of Education and Labor Confirmation Hearings Secretary of Education designate Betsy DeVos had her confirmation hearing on January 11. T...

COSAS - Communities Organized in Support of Adult Schools - arose in response to the cuts and closures of Adult Education that began in 2009.  They meet weekly for years and now meet monthly.  Kristen Pursley is the founder of COSAS and writes the Save Your Adult School blog.  Here, with her permission, are meeting notes from a recent January 30, 2017 COSAS meeting.  They contain excellent suggestions on how to respond to changes in Federal policy that affect Adult Education and the communities we serve. These notes can be found in this Save Your Adult School blog post . Responding to New Federal Immigration Policy (Travel Ban, etc.) Teachers need to teach students how to contact their U.S. congressional representatives by phone in case they are personally affected by the new immigration policies and need help.   Representatives can sometimes intervene on behalf of constituents who are affected by federal policy.  Here is the link for finding congressional...

By all rights this piece should be in the Perspective section. I t's my opinion that Betsy DeVos would be bad for Adult Education and bad for Public Education, in general.  Many people and organizations agree with me.  Read on to hear why.  -- Cynthia Eagleton, ESL teacher at San Mateo Adult School The Network for Public Education , the two large national teachers unions - the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association , Bernie Sanders, and any number of other individuals and organizations  - all say no to the idea of approving Betsy De Vos as Education Secretary for the United States. There is someone who does like DeVos - and that person is new President Trump.  She is his choice for the job.  Relevance to Adult Education While in California, Adult Education is largely funded by the state, in many states Adult Education is primarily funded by the federal government.  The tone, the direction, the policy at the federal...

From The Hill's Congress Blog : Task Force Breaks new Ground on Immigrant Integration   April 17, 2015 This week, the White House Task Force on New Americans released a first-of-its-kind report on integrating immigrants into American society. It breaks important new ground and furthers our national discussion on the issue. Its recommendations represent a step forward that must be built upon. Crucially, the report recognizes that ensuring that immigrants are able to fully participate in the workforce is sound policy—not just for individual immigrants, but for their American-born neighbors, employers, and the communities in which they live. Without immigrants, the U.S. workforce will not be sufficient to replace the workers expected to retire between 2010 and 2030. And as our economy has changed, so has the process of incorporating newcomers. Unlike in decades past, a hands-off approach that assumes immigrants will spend their working lives in jobs with little need for workforce trai...