National Coalition for Literacy

By Jackie Taylor

I have a few more policy advocacy updates for you this week:

• House Adult Literacy Caucus
• COABE Meets With Key Staff on the Hill
• Next Steps

House Adult Literacy Caucus

On Wednesday, February 9, Congressman Hinojosa (D-TX) joined Congressman Phil Roe (R-TN) to co-chair the bipartisan House Adult Literacy Caucus. National Coalition for Literacy Members were in DC to welcome Congressman Hinojosa to the Caucus and hear the Caucus co-chairs’ plans for moving forward. The Congressmen set a goal of having 100 House Members to join the Caucus this year; they plan to have the Caucus meet quarterly about elevating adult education and family literacy in Congress. We’ll have another opportunity to invite House Members to join the Caucus soon. You’ll find a copy of the press release here.

NCL Meets With Key Staff on the Hill

On February 9 – ll, 2011, National Coalition for Literacy Members met with key staff over WIA reauthorization in the House and Senate. Anne Murr from Drake University called in to join one of our meetings. We learned last week that new House Members, in particular, are in a challenging position of both learning legislative procedures while also advancing a legislative agenda.

House staff with the Education and Workforce Committee asked that we help by educating the many new Members of the Education and the Workforce Committee about the impact and need of adult education and family literacy. Other staff members have urged us to educate all new Members of Congress!

We had the opportunity with both House and Senate staff to share our concerns about WIA reauthorization, including the need to improve teacher working conditions. They anticipate releasing the Senate version as early as this month and we’ve been asked to review the draft.

Next Steps

Congress is currently focused on finalizing its work on continuing funding for FY2011 to avoid a government shut down on March 4. Given this and the critical need to educate Members of Congress, particularly new ones, about adult education and family literacy, we need to meet with our Members while they are home. It is critical that we educate this Congress about the importance of adult education and family literacy, get them into our programs and classes, and have them meet our students.

House Members have 11 Constituent Work Weeks this year, in addition to the usual seasonal recess periods. These work weeks are intended for meeting with constituents back home in their districts.

The next Congressional Work Week begins next week. We will share more information with you shortly about setting up a visit.

You can view the House calendar here.

Thanks for all you do,

Jackie

Jackie Taylor

COABE Policy Chair

Jackie@jataylor.net