Return-Path: <nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g7TIgFX03644; Thu, 29 Aug 2002 14:42:15 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 14:42:15 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <000001c24f8b$5a26b5d0$0000a398@girlscomputer02> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "sissy kegley" <skegley@us.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:588] RE: Interational literacy day X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.2627 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 6777 Lines: 120 Andres et all, Thanks for sharing your article re International Literacy Day. By the way, speaking of funding for adult ed, I am in the middle of a document I just downloaded earlier today. It's a very interesting piece by Forrest Chisman addressing the roles that states do ( do not ?? in Texas and elsewhere,including here in Maryland ) play in funding, administration and policy building of adult education. I just received the link today. It's from www.caalusa.org then click on "Leading From the Middle". Here in Maryland, we will hold a press conference next week (invoking the occasion of International Literacy Day) calling for additional resources into adult education, with a focus on ESOL for adults. Sissy Kegley skegley@us.net 301-588-4333 -----Original Message----- From: nifl-fobasics@nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-fobasics@nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Andres Muro Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 2:28 PM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:587] Interational literacy day Hi everyone, I wrote an article for International Literacy day for September 8th for our local newspaper. This article is pertinent to our community specifically, but addresses some issues that may also be pertient to your communties. If you wish to use any portion of the article for any purpose, please do so. No need to get back to me to ask for permission (as long as it is agood cause). However, please let me know how you use it, and if you publish something related, send me a copy, email or whatever. Thanks Andres Article for International Literacy Day Do you know that September 8 is International Literacy Day? Do you know about the low literacy status of our community. Nearly 150,000 adults, a third of our adult population lacks high school equivalency, and of these, 80,000 have not progressed beyond the ninth grade. Most do not speak English well or at all. Is there anything that we can do about this? I believe that there is, if you understand the facts. Please continue reading. Over the years, several agencies in El Paso have received monies to address low literacy and unemployment. These agencies have focused their efforts on short-term workforce development and training in very narrowly focused job skills. These efforts may have been well intentioned, but they are short sighted and not based on research. There are significant problems with short-term workforce training. The majority of adults needing services need academic and language communication skills before they can participate in job training that would be beneficial. Since the agencies want to train people in a short period, they recruit people with academic and language skills such as young high school graduates and recent dropouts who should be encouraged to go to college instead. Those with the least education are left behind. Moreover, workforce training only leads to short term minimum wage jobs with no possibility for progress. Research has shown that people going into minimum wage jobs go in and out of these and into welfare and do not get out of poverty. In fact, the chances of a woman with limited education to find a job to support a family in the US is less than 9% and in El Paso, the chances are a lot less. Low wage jobs create hardships for the entire family, leading to dropping out of school, separation of the parents to search for additional income in other communities, emotional and physical illness, and endless poverty. Essentially, short-term workforce training ensures that the cycle of poverty is preserved rather than broken. Ironically, the dominant conservative perspective is that the woman should stay home with her children. Yet, we ask her to go into a minimum wage job that prevents her from educating herself or offering support to her family. Currently, most companies relocating in El Paso seek an uneducated, low cost workforce in impoverished communities. Interestingly, some companies have looked at relocating in El Paso with mid level management positions paying salaries that would put families way above minimum wage and the poverty line. These companies wanted people with associate and bachelor's degree and found that El Paso didn't have a good supply of these. So, they relocated in Tucson, Phoenix and San Antonio instead. While the picture is bleak, there is hope, depending on how we interpret the existing research. Data about educational achievement shows that the education of the parents closely matches that of the children. So, in essence, if the 150,000 adults in El Paso who lack high school equivalency have one child each, we can be sure that the next generation will have at least 150,000 adults w/o high school equivalency. Yet, George Bush is telling us that "No Child will be Left Behind" while proposing mandatory testing and vouchers, when there is no evidence that these initiatives will result in higher educational accomplishment. However, basing ourselves in the hard data, we can conclude that if we can help parents obtain high school equivalency, and associate degree or a bachelor's degree, their children will have similar accomplishments. Over the past several years I have approached many individuals and agencies in efforts to procure funding for adult education. The standard answer that I get is "great idea, but not with my money, lets look for outside funding to do this". The problem is that there is virtually no outside funding. I know, because it is my job to look for it and I am good at it. In fact, the entire federal/state allocation for adult education for El Paso and surrounding counties is 1.5 million a year. This is in contrast with the 45 million a year that the Workforce Development Board receives and uses for short term training or minimum wage employment support, or the 23 million dollars that the Empowerment Zone Corporation has received and wants to use mostly for short term workforce development. While employment is one of the outcomes of this funding it is not mandatory for these agencies to do short term training only. The rest of the United States needs communities with industrial warehouses, shipping/receiving centers, low skill industry jobs, assembly lines, telemarketing industries, etc. They need communities in which to dump toxic waste and locate highly polluting industries. They are not thinking of giving El Paso monies to educate the population. They rather see an ignorant community where they can dump their low wage and poisonous industry, before they move to other countries. If El Paso wants, and likes this picture, we should strive to remain poor and uneducated. Otherwise, we must invest our own monies in education to change our community. Andres Muro, Manager El Paso Community College/Community Education Program
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