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Robert Bickerton,
Chair
202-624-5250
MEMORANDUM
To: State Directors
From: Patricia Bennett,
Art Ellison
Policy
Committee Co-Chairs
RE:
Issue Papers
Date: November 9, 2004
Attached are the six issue papers that we used in
many of the battleground states during the Presidential Campaign. Some State
Directors have found them to be very helpful in their awareness efforts on
the state level. As we discussed in New Orleans we are developing an
additional paper on Learning Disabilities which will be sent to you when it
is completed.
Intergenerational Literacy
 MSWord
Format
Job Training
MS
Word Format
Working Poor
MSWord
Format
ACCESS TO QUALITY PROGRAMS
Issue: At
current funding levels (federal state and local) the adult education
system can only serve three percent of the eligible population.
Discussion:
- Adult education
provides services to a diverse population of adults lacking a high
school diploma or the literacy skills necessary to participate fully in
society.
- According to the
most recent statistics, 20 percent of the adult population, or 42
million workers, family members and community members have not completed
high school. Forty percent (90 million adults) have basic skills
deficiencies.
- A large number (42%)
of current enrollees are immigrants in search of the language skills
they need to obtain a job, help their children with their homework, and
become active members of their community.
- Unemployed and
underemployed workers seek adult education services to improve
employment opportunities. In the next decade, the U.S. will lack the
skilled workforce necessary to fill 12 million jobs. The majority of
these high skill slots must be filled from the existing adult workforce
or be outsourced to other countries.
- Without a strong
investment in adult education, the system will be unable to meet service
demands, leaving many Americans without the skills they require to
become productive citizens.
PROPOSED RESPONSE:
To ensure access to quality
adult education services, we propose the federal investment in adult
education be increased from $574 to $1 billion over a four-year period.
This increase would ensure program access to eligible adults interested in
adult education services.
Issue:
The fastest growing
segment of the U.S. population is immigrants. In the decade separating the
1990 and 2000 Census, our foreign-born residents and citizens grew from 19.8
million to 31.1 million – a 57% increase! We need to ensure
that all immigrants have
opportunities to learn the English language other basic skills they require
to fully participate in their new country.
Discussion:
-
The imperatives for
immigrants to develop strong English language and basic skills have
changed dramatically over the past three decades. The most rapidly
growing sectors of our economy demand high levels of fluency in English
and reading. Further, the ability to write and compute at levels expected
of a high school graduate is key to attaining jobs at family-sustaining
wages.
-
Immigrants account for 42 percent of the
current enrollment in federally supported adult education programs (1.2
million currently participate). However, in many states there are long
waiting lists for ESOL students.
- An estimated 15 million limited English
proficient adults could benefit from adult ESOL services.
- Adult education provides quality English
language and civic literacy instruction to immigrants throughout the
country, helping them to meet work, family, and community responsibilities
and opportunities.
- Assisting limited English proficient
adults will also help ensure their children do not fall behind in school.
Education reform has dramatically increased the role that parents must
play for their children to keep pace with their peers and succeed in
school. If immigrant parents cannot assist their children with their
schoolwork, it can be detrimental to their long-term academic achievement.
- Without adult education programs, our
new citizens would have difficulty obtaining the English language and
other basic skills they need to obtain a job, help their children with
their class work, access health care, communicate with public schools,
participate in community activities, and attain citizenship.
- Unless there is an infusion
funding into the adult education system, many immigrants will not be able
to access the services they need to fully participate in today’s society.
Proposed Solution:
Reduce the waiting lists and expand opportunities for learning by increasing
availability of classes to accommodate one million additional ESOL learners
a year for the next five years.
Incrementally expand
adult education federal funding over the next four years from $574 million
to $1 billion to increase opportunities for participation.
HEALTH LITERACY
Issue:
Individuals with low literacy skills are often unable
to understand materials distributed by health care providers. It is
imperative that all citizens have the capacity to obtain, process, and
understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate
health care decisions.
Discussion:
-
Based on the National
Adult Literacy Survey, an estimated 90 million adults have limited
literacy/English language proficiency that test below high school level.
Of these, about 40-44 million have difficulty finding information in
unfamiliar or complex texts. Medical and public health literature are
often complex, far above high school level, placing adults and children at
risk.
-
The April, 2004 report
from the Institute of Medicine highlights the dimensions of the national
crisis: “Tens of millions of U.S. adults are unable to read complex
texts, including many health-related materials.
-
The Institute of
Medicine estimates that the national cost to taxpayers could be as much as
$69 BILLION if as few as half the individuals with marginal reading skills
were also not health literate – especially with respect to pre-natal and
early childhood care. The impact included missed work days and the cost of
longer hospital stays.
-
Public hospital
patients with limited literacy had higher rates of hospitalization and
use of emergency services than those with adequate health literacy.
-
A lack of literacy
skills can impact school attendance, work habits and place adults and
children in life and death situations when health care instructions or
prescriptions cannot be read or understood.
-
Partnerships
between literacy and health providers are making a difference in low
literate communities. They ensure individuals with low levels of literacy
or limited English proficiency can access insurance, read prescription
labels and other medical instructions, and navigate the health care
system.
National Response:
Legitimize health
literacy as a component of literacy by including it in the allowable
services in adult education and family literacy.
Incrementally expand
adult education federal funding over the next four years from $574 million
to $1 billion to increase opportunities for participation. Only 3% of the
eligible population is currently served.
INTERGENERATIONAL LITERACY
Issue:
In order to break the cycle of illiteracy, we must ensure parents who lack a
high school diploma or have low levels of literacy have access to high
quality adult education or family literacy programs. Without strong
parental support, many children will continue to be left behind, eventually
dropping out and joining the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed.
Family literacy programs work with parents and children at the same time
empowering parents to become their child’s first and most important teacher
and breaking cycles of illiteracy.
Discussion:
-
One in every 5 adults
in America (42 million) has not finished high school. Many of these
adults are parents who lack the skills to be their child’s first and most
important teacher.
-
Children’s literacy
levels are strongly linked to the educational level of their parents,
especially their mothers. The higher the mother’s educational level, the
better the child performs on tests and in school.
-
Children whose mothers
complete high school:
earn higher
scores on national achievement tests.
perform better in school
that those who mothers did not graduate from high school.
-
Children of parents who
are unemployed and have not completed high school are five times more
likely to drop out than children of employed parents.
-
The majority of family
literacy participants lack a high school diploma or GED. In 1997, only
15% of Even Start parents had a high school diploma or GED.
-
Reading to a child
increases their vocabulary and helps prepare them for school. Only 39% of
3-5 year-old children whose mothers lack a high school diploma were read
to daily. In contrast, 71% of children of college-graduate mothers were
read to daily.
Proposed Solution:
Ensure access to adult
education and family literacy programs to guarantee parents have the basic
skills to prepare their children to enter school and help them with their
homework.
Support an incremental
increase in adult education funding to $1 billion over a period of four
years and an increase of $50 million per year in Even Start funding.
JOB TRAINING
The Issue Many U.S. workers
function at low literacy levels. Some of these workers are compelled to
watch their jobs being "outsourced" to foreign countries, but are not being
given adequate access to the training and education that will allow them to
function in the new "global, knowledge-based economy.
Discussion:
-
American businesses are estimated to lose
over $60 billion in productivity each year due to employees’ lack of basic
skills.
-
About 20 percent of America’s workers have
low basic skills. Seventy-five percent of unemployed adults have reading
or writing difficulties.
-
In the next decade, the U.S. will be lacking workers to
fill 12 million skilled jobs— jobs requiring completion of high school
plus some college. Graduates of public and private secondary schools
provide only 2% of the workforce annually. The majority of these high
skill slots must be filled from the existing adult workforce or be
outsourced to countries able to satisfy this demand for skilled workers.
-
Adult education
programs provide the unemployed and underemployed workers the skills they
need to take advantage of job training programs, obtain a job and become
productive citizens. They allow welfare recipients to end their
dependency on federal programs and gain self-sufficiency.
-
Adult education
programs provide businesses with the skilled workforce they need to
compete in the world marketplace.
-
In 2001-2002, 42%
of adult education participants who enrolled to qualify for a job did so.
-
In 2001-2002, 65%
of adult education participants who enrolled in order to keep a job did
so.
Proposed Response:
To ensure a well skilled, competitive workforce, the federal government
should invest in quality adult education programs, particularly workplace
education programs. Such programs create a path for undereducated and
unemployed adults to secure employment and for underemployed adults to
upgrade their skills and qualify for jobs that might otherwise be lost to
other nations. A four-year incremental increase to $1 billion would ensure
access to all adults interested in improving their academic and job skills.
The Issue:
In 2000, 6.4 million adults were classified as
the “working poor.” The majority of the working poor—three-fifths— worked
full-time but remained in poverty. To make a “living wage” many of these
adults require further education and training. For many, the lack of a high
school diploma and strong literacy skills is a barrier to the training
necessary to obtain a job earning a living wage.
Discussion:
-
Over six million Americans are working but
not making enough money to make ends meet. Many depend on a variety of
federal and state support programs.
- 20% of American
workers still earn less than the official living wage of $14/hour; 30%
work for less than $8/hour
-
The risk of being among the working poor
declines substantially for workers who complete high school.
-
Nearly two in three adults without a high
school diploma have used food stamps, including 9 out of 10 black women in
that category. The numbers go down as the education level rises.
- The success of welfare
reform programs often depends on the education and literacy skills of
program participants. Many adults require additional academic instruction
prior to participating in job training and other programs to move them
from welfare to self sufficiency.
- A job may get them off
welfare but education will get them out of poverty.
- The situation will not
improve without a substantial federal investment in adult education
programs. Low- and medium-skilled jobs will be shipped to other countries
where labor costs are much lower. Individuals with limited academic and
literacy skills will compete over a limited pool of jobs for unskilled
workers. At the same time, education requirements for the remaining jobs
will increase.
Proposed
Response:
Ensure every family has
access to the education they require to match available jobs. Of the 94
million adults with basic skills deficiencies, only 3 million can enroll in
class today. Not all wish to enroll, but there are waiting lists in some
states and full classes in others.
If the country is
committed to helping low income families move to self-sufficiency,
creating sufficient opportunities for the adults to acquire the education
and training they need is the first step. Increasing adult education
funding to $1 billion over four years is a start.
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