We have some exciting news for you! Congressman Dan Maffei (D-NY) is sponsoring an Adult Literacy Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives!

Congressional caucuses are organizations for Members of Congress to advance causes that are important to them. A House caucus is a group of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives who share something in common, whether personal (ex: the Congressional Hispanic Caucus), related to a district’s needs (the Congressional Rural Caucus) or about House Members’ interests or concerns, like the new Adult Literacy Caucus.

Now that Congressman Maffei has formed the House…

Appropriations

The Senate Appropriations Committee (Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies) markup for FY11 (S. 3686, Senate Report 111-243) is now available and reflects the President’s budget request for adult education. The full House committee markup is not yet available and contacts on the Hill have indicated that we may not see an appropriations bill until after December or January.

WIA Reauthorization

A Senate bipartisan team is finalizing a draft WIA reauthorization bill and anticipates that it will…

National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week—Thank You Congressman Polis!

June and early July have been deceptively busy in the public policy arena!

For the second consecutive year, Congressman Jared Polis has led the U.S. House of Representatives in passing bipartisan legislation (H Res. 1472) supporting the designation of the week of September 13, 2010 as National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week. The resolution, authored by Congressman Jared…

Update and Thanks!

Dear Adult Literacy Advocates:

Thank you to all who contacted their Members of Congress in response to alerts on this issue. Your calls made a difference!

Special thanks to advocates in Colorado for their advocacy work with Congressman Polis. Congratulations to advocates in New York, Arizona, Texas, California, Maryland, Kentucky, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Maine, DC, Minnesota, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Tennessee and the Northern Mariana Islands who cinched commitments from House members to co-sponsor the resolution (H. Res. 1472).

If your House Member co-sponsored the resolution, now is a good time to follow up with a note

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Many irons in the fire, but will Congress get it all done before November? Updates this month include appropriations, WIA, ESEA, and TANF reauthorization, immigration reform, House resolution for dedicating Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2010, advocacy for Even Start and for including adult education in the National Education Technology Plan.

Appropriations:

Despite the fact that adult education serves approximately two and a half million of the ninety-three million adults in need each year, adult education has been nearly flat funded for almost a decade,

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It’s been a busy spring for the National Coalition for Literacy! Congress was on recess for two weeks but resumed session April 12. Following is a report of NCL’s latest public policy activities.

Appropriations

The House and Senate appropriations sub-committees have been accepting outside witness testimonies; the National Coalition for Literacy submitted testimony to both. Copies of the NCL testimonies are now online. Additionally, Senators were to submit their appropriations requests for FY11 to Appropriations Chair Inouye…

 Action: Please call, email, or fax your two Senators with this message:

 “Please increase funding for adult education to at least $750 million to provide services to potential students placed on waiting list for services.”

Talk about the need and demand for services in your area. Share the 2009-2010 NCSDAE Adult Student Waiting List Survey and discuss the waiting list numbers in your program or state. Make

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By Jackie Taylor, NCL Policy Co-Chair

On February 1, 2010, the President released his budget proposal for FY2011. Below is the proposed budget for Adult Basice and Literacy Education State Grants, National Leadership, EL / Civics, and Even Start, as found in the Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Summary, retrieved from the Department of Education website .

Please post your comments or questions in the Comments box below.

• What are your reactions to the proposed budget?
• From your perspective, what are the implications for

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The NCL Public Policy Committee met during the Membership meeting in December.  Subsequently, Peter Waite, NCL president, appointed a task force to produce a statement of NCL’s top priorities for WIA reauthorization.  The task force consisted of Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, Art Ellison, David Harvey, Heidi Silver-Pacuilla, Margaret Patterson, Tony Peyton, John Segota, and was co-facilitated by Marsha Tait and Jackie Taylor.  The task force produced a document that was then adopted by the NCL Board of Directors.  This document, along with all of NCL’s current public policy positions, is…