Adult Literacy

Depressed for Life

/ The Old Crank

The title of this post comes from a Paul Krugman column published in The New York Times this past Sunday (“Wasting Our Minds“). A couple of points caught my attention:

You’ve probably heard lots about how workers with college degrees are faring better in this slump than those with only a high school education, which is true. But the story is far less encouraging if you focus not on middle-aged Americans with degrees but on recent graduates. (my emphasis) Unemployment among recent graduates has soared; so has part-time work, presumably reflecting the inability of graduates to find full-time jobs. Perhaps most telling, earnings have plunged even among those graduates working full time — a sign that many have been forced to take jobs that make no use of their education.

College graduates, then, are taking it on the chin thanks to the weak economy. And research tells us that the price isn’t temporary: students who graduate into a bad economy never recover the lost ground. Instead, their earnings are depressed for life. (my emphasis)

It worries me that the college premium argument for recent college graduates seems to  rest on ever-shakier ground. Do the latest projections related to lifetime earnings of college graduates adequately reflect the “the lost ground” research that Krugman notes above? Or the anemic wage growth we’ve experienced over the last decade? Or the possibility that the economy might tank again in the near future?

There’s no guarantee that the economic policies being implemented today—or in the future—won’t significantly degrade the economic value of an education. No one can really know with certainty what your earning power over the course of the next 30 years will be.

Successful adult education students who transition to college surely have better economic prospects than they did before they entered adult education, but are those prospects really good enough? For these adults, in particular, what other policies are needed in order to increase the likelihood that the pursuit of education produces the economic payoff we are hoping for?

Retired Los Angeles Adult Education Teacher Says Shutting Down LAUSD Adult Education Would Harm K-12 Children

/ The Old Crank

The Los Angeles Times published an excellent op-ed piece today by John McCormick, a retired Los Angeles adult education teacher, on the folly of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s “worst-case scenario” budget plan, which puts LAUSD’s entire adult education system at serious risk of elimination. (For background on their proposal, read my post here; for an update, I recommend Marjorie Faulstich Orellana’s article in The Huffington Post, published last week.)

I want to highlight one particular point that McCormick makes in his article, and that is about the impact that shutting down adult education would have on parent/caregiver engagement:

Closing adult schools would also result in collateral damage to K-12 children. My students often attended the same schools at night that their children attended during the day. Because kids usually pick up English faster than their parents, if the parents don’t learn the language, they become marginalized in their own families. They cannot communicate with teachers, help with homework or even understand what their kids are saying. So instead of being able to help their kids assimilate, parents are more likely to remain isolated.

I’m often puzzled as to why parent engagement advocates aren’t up in arms when adult education cuts are threatened. In the paragraph above, McCormick does a great job explaining the connection between the two issues.

Arizona Budget Compromise Drops Proposed Restoration of Adult Education Funding

/ The Old Crank

The budget agreement that was hammered out late last week between Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Republican state legislative leaders appears to drop Governor Brewer’s initial recommendation that state funding for adult education be restored to a “minimum” level that would enable the state to access federal Workforce Investment Act funds. “She’s drastically revised down her (education) spending initiative,” according to Luige del Puerto of the Arizona Capitol Times.

The budget proposal released by Governor Brewer in January proposed a minimal investment of $4.6 million dollars for adult education. That document noted:

Without additional funding, the State will lose eligibility for federal Workforce Investment Act dollars targeting adult education and will lose capacity to serve Arizonaʹs under‐ educated adults and support economic recovery in the state. The Executive Recommendation of $4.6 million is the minimum required to draw down $11.8 million in federal Workforce Investment Act dollars and maintain adult education services statewide.

However, according to this document, released by the Arizona Children’s Action Alliance on Friday, the Governor agreed to drop this request in the compromise agreement.

One of Four New D.C. Charter Schools to Open in 2013 Will Serve Adults

/ The Old Crank

According to The Washington Post, four new charter schools have received tentative approval from the D.C. Public Charter School Board to open for the 2013-14 school year. One of them, the Community College Preparatory Academy, will offer “an educational second chance” to unemployed and under-skilled adults. According to the Post, the school will hold classes at the Backus Campus of the University of the District of Columbia Community College, the Shadd School and the P.R. Harris Educational Center.

h/t @PostSchools