Earlier tonight, the White House posted the full text of the American Jobs Act, a section-by-section analysis, and a message from from the President to Congress about this proposed bill.

This may already be clear to some, and will probably be clear to everyone now that we can look at the bill, (which I have not looked at yet), but earlier today I spoke with a policy person at the Dept. of Education about the inclusion of adult education in the $5 billion Investing in Low-Income Youth and Adults provision — specifically, how adult basic education mentioned in the fact sheet money would be distributed.

I was told that activities under this provision will be competitive grant awards to localities. In other words, there will be no specifically dedicated adult ed funding in the bill and will not be distributed via current WIA-funded state adult education systems. Adult education will be one of several carefully specified groupings of potential uses for these funds.

The decision was made to NOT to send through existing formula funding. The administration wants local areas to duplicate what has been succesful. “The idea was not to fill up existing discretionary coffers.”