National Coalition for Literacy

By Ellen Fern and Jackie Taylor

In this month’s update, learn more about the status of the budget and appropriations process for FY2012 and what this means for adult education; find updates and breaking news on extending Unemployment Insurance (UI) employment benefits and how it may impact undereducated workers, new jobs legislation that includes adult education, and see more progress made on WIA reauthorization in the House.

• Budget and Appropriations
• UI Alert
• WIA Reauthorization
• Pathways Back to Work Act
• Adult Literacy Advocacy – What this means for you

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The National Coalition for Literacy is hosting its Quarterly Meeting on December 8, 2011, at the Phoenix Park Hotel (Georgian Room) in Washington, DC. We’re thrilled to welcome several presenters as well as legislative staffs joining us for a Hot Topics Legislative Panel.

The Meeting fee is $30.00 to help cover the cost of the meeting space.

RSVP Here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NCLMtg-LegPanel

Please RSVP by November 28 to reserve your seat, after which we will open the legislative panel up to others who would like to attend.

NCL Quarterly Meeting…

—October 2011

By Jackie Taylor and Ellen Fern

Action items are listed first in this month’s update:

• American Jobs Act (Action)
• WIA Reauthorization (Action)
• Budget and Appropriations (Update)
• Joint Deficit Reduction Committee (Update)
• ESEA Reauthorization (Update)
• Advocacy Workshops & Tools
• 2012 House Calendar and Congressional Visits

American Jobs Act

A few weeks ago, the American Jobs Act was brought to the Senate floor where it died quickly. The only way both Democrats and Republicans…

The National Coalition for Literacy will be presenting several interactive public policy advocacy sessions at the US Conference on Adult Literacy (USCAL) in Houston, Texas, November 2-5, 2011. We hope you will join us! Come share your experiences and recommendations in advocating for adult and family literacy and have a voice in strengthening NCL’s advocacy nationwide. Leave armed with resources for strategically developing your advocacy campaigns.

Add a preconference to your schedule: Register today for our day long preconference on Effective Advocacy Strategies. Early registration has been extended until October 21. Register here.

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By Washington Partners

Budget and Appropriations

The best 4th of July fireworks in Washington this year might just be under the dome of the U.S. Capitol versus on the National Mall. The inability of the Congress to come to consensus on a plan to raise the federal debt ceiling has led to fiery remarks and partisan sparks all week.

In his first news conference in months, President Obama compared the slow progress on negotiations to kids unable to finish their homework. He soundly criticized Republicans for drawing a line in the sand…

By Jackie Taylor with Ellen Fern and Heidi Silver-Pacuilla

WIA Reauthorization

On June 17, 2011, the National Coalition for Literacy and several adult education and family literacy organizations submitted their recommendations for the Senate Discussion Draft of the Workforce Investment Act of 2011. Many adult education advocacy groups, such as the Association of Adult Literacy Professional Developers (AALPD), Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Commission on Adult Basic Education (COABE),…

By Jackie Taylor with Ellen Fern and Heidi Silver-Pacuilla

Advocacy Groups Meet Deadline to Comment on the Senate’s Discussion Draft of the Workforce Investment Act of 2011

Last week, the National Coalition for Literacy met the Senate’s June 17 deadline to submit feedback on the Senate Discussion Draft of the Workforce Investment Act of 2011. The Coalition’s feedback, as well as feedback submitted by several Coalition Member organizations, is available here on the NCL Advocacy Blog. …

By Washington Partners and Jackie Taylor

Advocacy Updates

WIA Reauthorization

On Thursday, June 9, the Senate released a discussion draft of Title I of the proposed Workforce Investment Act reauthorization for stakeholder comment. Titles II – VI are being released separately over the next several days. The National Coalition for Literacy is analyzing the draft and preparing recommendations to submit to the HELP Committee staff by this Friday, June 17. To ensure you receive a copy of NCL’s recommendations, subscribe to our blog’s RSS feed or follow us on…

By Jackie Taylor and Ellen Fern

On Thursday, June 9, the Senate released a discussion draft of Title I of the proposed Workforce Investment Act reauthorization for stakeholder comment. Titles II – VI will be released separately over the next several days.

The National Coalition for Literacy is scheduling calls to organize a strong response from NCL Members and to prioritize our top recommendations. We believe the draft bill will be introduced next Wednesday, June 15, and the deadline for comments back to staff is Friday, June 17. While the Senate HELP Committee has…

Adult Education’s Latest on the Hill

By Washington Partners and Jackie Taylor

FY2012 Appropriations

On May 20, the House reached its deadline to submit its programmatic funding priorities to Chairman Rehberg (R-MT), as reported in NCL’s May 22 Update. This was a quick turnaround for signatures, and advocates did well in calling attention to this opportunity to their House Members. Final Copy of Roe-Hinojosa Letter

Several of you received commitments from your House Member to sign on, but given the time constraints…

By Washington Partners and Jackie Taylor

The House Adult Literacy Caucus and the National Coalition for Literacy held a Congressional briefing May 12, 2011, highlighting 21st Century Approaches to Adult Literacy. Approximately 40 were in attendance, including adult education leaders, advocates, and legislative staffs.

The briefing followed the NCL Quarterly Meeting, where Congressman Bill Goodling made a surprise visit after recovering from a serious medical condition.

Heidi Silver-Pacuilla, President of the National Coalition for Literacy, opened the…

—Week in Review on Budget and Appropriations

By Washington Partners

Events in Japan and Libya, a presidential trip to Latin America and a congressional recess period took the Fiscal Year 2011 budget debate out of the headlines this week. Regardless, it was not far from the minds of nervous education advocates who fear deep cuts in spending for the Department of Education in a final FY 2011 budget agreement. The 6th continuing resolution (CR) is now in effect and will expire on April 8th. Finding common ground between the Republican-led House of Representatives, the…

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…

By Jackie Taylor

We have the important task ahead of us for 2011 in educating a new Congress, protecting adult education and family literacy funding at the federal level, and advocating for the priorities we want to see included in a new WIA reauthorization bill.

Here are 11 ways you can recommit to adult education advocacy for 2011. Take our poll in the right column (scroll down) to select your top three:

1. 5 Minutes, 5 Alerts: Commit to responding to 5 alerts on adult education issues in 2011. The

…

—A Public Policy Update on Adult Education and Literacy

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.

.

Part I of V: Jobs and

…

By Jackie Taylor

Vote! Key Legislators and Midterm Elections

Several key legislators who support adult education are up for re-election. See Midterm Elections: what are they? What is at stake?. On page 10, Art Ellison, NH State Director and NCL Executive Board Member, discusses what adult education advocates should know for the coming election. He also lists key House and Senate Members running for re-election.

If you haven’t yet, see Project Vote Smart’s “Vote Easy” website. Vote Smart is a non profit, non-partisan organization helps you sort…

By Jackie Taylor

Appropriations

Members of the Senate voted 69-30 on Tuesday evening, September 28, to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep government operating until Dec. 3.

The House passed a CR  on Wednesday and Congress is on recess until after the November 2 elections. They are expected to be back the week of November 15, then on recess for the week of November 22, and return the week of November 29 until the 111^th Congress is done.

Congress passes a CR when appropriations bills are not passed by October 1,…

The National Coalition for Literacy has been asked by Hill staff, “Of the NCL WIA Reauthorization Priorities, which are most important?” The answer to that question is that they are all important.

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…

By Jackie Taylor

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…

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…

. . . in Title I and Title II. [i]

—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…

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

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…

. . . recognizing that programs providing individual instruction may provide fewer hours than programs employing group instruction.

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

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

…

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

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…

. . . and allow those funds to be added to the formula grants for states.

—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…

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

Article by John Segota

Most federal funding programs are created through authorizing legislation, and then funded annually through the appropriations process. The EL/Civics grant program came about in a different way: it started first as a demonstration grant at the U.S. Department of Education, and has been funded annually for over a decade, but lacks the actual legislative backing to authorize the program. This creates a significant disadvantage for the program, as it only really exists on a year-to-year basis, rather than having the opportunity to grow. Moreover, without authorizing language, the program could disappear…

. . . to ensure that required outcomes measures are appropriate for all levels of adult education students.

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

Article by Peggy McGuire

How might the National Reporting System (NRS) be reformed in order to best serve the needs of adult learners? Whether or not WIA is reauthorized this year, we should continue to move NRS reform forward. Thoughtful dialogue and recommendations are needed and welcomed from YOU! Just enter your comments and recommendations for NRS reform in the Comment box below. Your contributions will also show policy makers that there is significant interest in this…

. . . to improve teacher quality by providing more professional development, improving working conditions, professionalizing the workforce, and researching what practitioners need to be effective.

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

Article by Andy Nash

NCL is advocating that state leadership funds be returned to 15% (the funding level before WIA), and that those funds be dedicated to strengthening the adult education workforce by supporting professional development and working conditions that stabilize the field. Understanding that state budgets are tight, if not in crisis, some are reluctant to use federal funds that could go into direct service this way.

I…

. . . to ensure that all local eligible providers[i] have access to apply and compete for grants and contracts.

—An NCL WIA Reauthorization Priority

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

Current law requires that all eligible providers have “direct and equitable access” to apply for federal grant funds under the Act. This means that a state must have grant application procedures in place that allow for all eligible providers of adult education services to apply for Title II funds, and it must treat all applicants fairly in funding decisions.

In practice, however, a number…