Adult Literacy

A Closer Look at the English Requirement in the Senate Immigration Reform Framework

/ The Old Crank / 3 Comments

One of the interesting pieces of the Senate immigration reform proposal released yesterday is the list of requirements for legal permanent residency status for undocumented immigrants. Their proposal would not only require those individuals to “go to the back of the line” of other prospective immigrants, but also require them to meet a more burdensome set of requirements for achieving permanent residency status than are required of other immigrants.

I’m specifically thinking about the English requirement: Under current law/regulations, when you apply for permanent legal status (a green card), there is no requirement that you know how to speak, read, or write English. It’s only when you apply for citizenship that you must “be able to read, write, and speak English and have knowledge and an understanding of U.S. history and government (civics).”

But as I noted yesterday, the Senate proposal would require undocumented immigrants currently residing in the U.S. to, among other things, “learn English and civics” in order to earn the opportunity to apply for lawful permanent residency. It would appear, in other words, that they intend to apply the English requirement now just needed to qualify for full citizenship to the list of qualifications that undocumented immigrants must meet to just get to the permanent residency stage.

If that is the case, this suggests to me that under this plan we’d see a pretty big upsurge in demand for adult English instruction right from the get-go. Where the supply is going to come from is another question.

It’s also worth  noting that under the current requirements for citizenship there are are exceptions to the requirement that applicants for citizenship know English. Specifically, applicants are exempt from the English requirement, (but not the civics test) if they are:

  • Age 50 or older at the time of filing for naturalization and have lived as a permanent resident (green card holder) in the U.S. for 20 years; or
  • Age 55 or older at the time of filing for naturalization and have lived as a permanent resident in the U.S. for 15 years.

Applicants may also be eligible for an exception to both the English and civics requirements if they are “unable to comply with these requirements because of a physical or developmental disability or a mental impairment.”

It remains to be seen whether similar exceptions will be included in the English requirement for permanent residency that is apparently going to be part of the immigration reform package introduced by the Senate.

That’s a Big Pile o’ Books

/ The Old Crank
War Book Drive

Source: Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

You Help Build It!

Source: Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

I’ve been fascinated with these pictures ever since I saw them on Retronaut a few weeks ago. Both were taken during a book drive at The New York Public Library in 1919 for troops serving overseas during WWI. Poking around a bit I came across a terrific article from last July posted to one of the NYPL’s blogs, by Valerie Wingfield of the NYPL’s Manuscripts and Archives Division, about the Victory Book Campaign during World War II, which included a little bit of information about the World War I book drive recorded in these photos:

During World War I, the Library also participated in a book drive known as the War Library Book Drive. A report from that period reported that the NYPL, the central collection point, looked as though the books within the Library had burst through the hugh Fifth Avenue doors, and overflowed down the curb. The 9th Regiment and the members of the Signal Corps stood nearby. John Foster Carr headed the local drive. William Butt Gamble of the Science and Technology Division of the New York Public Library handed out short pieces of string and would cry out “Tie this round your finger! Remember to bring a book.”

Sen. Murray: Workforce Investment Act in Danger of Not Being Reauthorized

/ The Old Crank

From a blog post by Jonathan Brunt of The Spokane Review this past Wednesday:

[Sen.] Murray was in Spokane to hold a forum about job training programs. After she toured Haskins Steel in East Spokane, she listened to education and business leaders and recently hired workers about the importance of job training programs. Many of the programs discussed at the forum are supported by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which provides job training and job search programs as well as assistance for employers who are recruiting for openings. Murray said the act is in danger of not being reauthorized by Congress. (my emphasis)

“As I take on the chair of the budget committee, our nation is rightfully talking about our debt and deficit, but we also have to be talking about our education deficit and our transportation deficit, our jobs deficit.”

The Case for Adult Literacy, Simply Stated

/ The Old Crank

Adult literacy advocates looking for a good elevator speech might consider a variation of  this quote from Greater New Orleans Community Data Center Director Allison Plyer, taking with WWNO about recent a study showing that 27% of of the working age population in the New Orleans region lack basic literacy skills:

Center Director Allison Plyer says improvements now happening at public schools are not enough to bolster the workforce needed for the future.

“That is absolutely essential, what we need to understand it will take many decades — all the way until 2060 — for our full workforce to have gone through those public schools,” Plyer said. “So we have to really consider the current workforce that is here, because even by 2025 two-thirds of the workforce will be people who are currently working-age adults, and 27 percent of whom are low-skilled.”

Whatever we are doing for K-12 students, none of that advances the skills of the current workforce—in New Orleans, or anywhere else.