By Jackie Taylor

Adult education and literacy impacts a host of critical issues that face our nation: jobs and the economy, health care, immigration, poverty, families and children’s education, to name just a few. We can help change these issues for the better by advocating for more effective public policies that support adult education and literacy.

As the lame duck session nears a close, I’ll share public policy advocacy updates in parts.

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Part I of V: Jobs and

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From July 19 – August 6, the National Coalition for Literacy held a guest blog discussion on Reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act—What is a priority for you? During this period, guest bloggers from the Coalition wrote about why each NCL WIA reauthorization priority is important and invited comments from the field.

Substantive discussions resulted over multiple weeks about why these are priorities for the…

Article by Jackie Taylor

From July 19 – August 6, the National Coalition for Literacy held a guest blog discussion on Reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act – what is a priority for you? Even though these discussions are “formally” over, the conversations are continuing. (See, for example, the discussions on NRS reform, technology, the Center, and intensity and duration.)

We have thousands of users who spend…

Update: January 2011: The National Coalition is updating its WIA Reauthorization Priorities for 2011. Check back here and on the main website in early February for updates.

During July 19 – August 5, 2010, guest bloggers from the National Coalition for Literacy have shared their thoughts with you as to why each of the NCL WIA Reauthorization priorities are important. Many readers have posted timely, relevant, and thought provoking comments in response. But are all of your priorities for WIA reauthorization on the Coalition’s list?

For easy reference, here are links to all articles on…

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

Article by Jackie Taylor

In the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), several terms are defined in the beginning of the Titles. These definitions are then used as a foundation for crafting the legislation. WIA Title II authorizes federally-funded adult education and family literacy programs. You can find definitions for Title II in Section 203. As times change and the country’s needs change, definitions are added or altered to address these needs.

The problem arises when definitions within…

Article by Art Ellison

A separate line item for infrastructure services for the One Stop Systems in Title I is required to prevent the huge reduction in state administrative funding for adult education. Other proposals to provide this funding would result in approximately 2/3 of the current 5% state administration funding under Title II going into this infrastructure fund.

That would mean the reduction of 66% of the adult education state administrative services currently being provided to the field under Title II. The alternative which would be to take the funds out of programs…

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

Article by Jeff Carter, Director of Policy and Government Affairs, ProLiteracy

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Article by Jackie Taylor

As Nickie Askov discussed in her July 30 article on a research center, the adult education and literacy field has unique challenges not addressed by other fields. Thus, we cannot rely on other fields to conduct this research for us. In fact, we think research is so important, we made it a separate priority apart from the recommendation for a National Center for Adult Education, Literacy, and Workforce Skills.

We welcome your comments on any of the following questions:

Why, from your perspective, is…

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

Article by Nickie Askov

As former board member and research chair of the NCL, I have been concerned about the lack of funding for research, especially with the termination of a national research center for adult education and literacy.  The Institute for Education Sciences (IES) in the US Department of Education funded a national research and development center in adult education/literacy at Harvard University (National Center for the Study of…

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

Article by Art Ellison

The rationale for changing the administration of Incentive Grants under Title I-II rests mainly on the fact, that for the past five years, all of the money for the grants has come from Title II. Earlier in the life of the Act Title I also had funds in this pot but their payments into the Incentive grant fund seemed to end when the current WIA legislation went into one year extensions beyond the original…