Federal Policy

Educating and Training for Adults Largely Ignored in 2013 State of the Union Address

/ The Old Crank

Last night I was reviewing the President’s 2013 State of the Union address alongside my my notes on last year’s address. The thing I remember most strongly about last year’s speech was the President’s reference to a “maze of confusing training programs” which, at the time, (tweeting on behalf of D.C. LEARNs), I thought might be interpreted as a vague endorsement of the proposal then being floated by House Republicans to consolidate Workforce Investment Act (WIA) job training programs:

2012 SOTU Tweet

Sure enough, when House Republicans released their WIA reauthorization bill last spring, (H.R. 4297, the Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012), they used this quote in their fact sheet. In retrospect, I think the quote was taken entirely out of context (it seems clear when you read the President’s entire speech that he was talking about consolidating information about federal job training programs, not the programs themselves) but the House Committee on Education and the Workforce used the President’s words time and time again throughout the spring to support their arguments.

But hey, at least the President talked about job training and adult skills last year. Jobs were, in fact, explicitly linked to a proposal to support more job training. The President said that he had been hearing from business leaders “who want to hire in the United States but can’t find workers with the right skills.”  He then issued this call to action:

Join me in a national commitment to train 2 million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. My administration has already lined up more companies that want to help.  Model partnerships between businesses like Siemens and community colleges in places like Charlotte, and Orlando, and Louisville are up and running.  Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers -– places that teach people skills that businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing. (my emphasis)

And I want to cut through the maze of confusing training programs, so that from now on, people like Jackie have one program, one website, and one place to go for all the information and help that they need.  It is time to turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system that puts people to work.

But on Tuesday night the President barely mentioned adult skills. And when he did, it was to introduce other education proposals:

These initiatives in manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and housing will help entrepreneurs and small business owners expand and create new jobs. But none of it will matter unless we also equip our citizens with the skills and training to fill those jobs. And that has to start at the earliest possible age.

Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.

Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let’s do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our kids that chance.

Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.

In 2012, preparing Americans for unfilled jobs required job training and community colleges and partnerships with businesses to retrain workers for new jobs. Last night, by contrast, when the President said that we must “equip our citizens with the skills and training to fill [new] jobs,” he immediately pivoted to his preschool proposal, and retraining adults is never mentioned. He then goes on to discuss the need to ensure that high school diplomas “puts our kids on a path to a good job.”

In other words, in 2012, preparing citizens for new jobs was linked to job training for adults; this year, it was linked to preschool and high school education. Adult training or re-training was never actually discussed at all. (It was only mentioned again as a segue into his discussion of immigration reform.)

No one I know in the field of adult education or job training is opposed to the idea of improving high school education or improving access to high-quality pre-school, (although, if we are serious about preparing kids for success in school, our strategy should include efforts to improve the skills of parents/caregivers), but I’ve never understood how improving preschool education is going to help us fill the jobs that are available now.

And it can’t help but make one wonder about the adminstrations’s engagement/commitment to WIA reauthorization. Perhaps after House Republicans appropriated his remarks on job training last year, he decided it was best not to get into the subject again last night. Or maybe it’s just a case of not having the time to hit on every priority, and/or wanting to keep the speech fresh. Hopefully it’s not a sign that adult education and training has slipped a further down the administration’s list of priorities.

NEA Updated Sequester Analysis Projects Over $30 million Cut to Federal Adult Education Funding

/ The Old Crank / 1 Comment

The NEA has updated its analysis of the impact of the sequester on major education programs, using the 5.1% cut assumed by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).  They project a little over a $30 million dollar cut to the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act program, and a nearly $89 million dollar cut to Career, Technical, and Adult Education overall:

NEA Updated Chart

Source: NEA

h/t: Committee for Education Funding

A Lot Riding on the Border Security Issue in Senate Immigration Reform Proposal

/ The Old Crank

(Updated below)

While both the Senate “gang of eight” and the President seem to agree on the key components of immigration reform, the border security component, at least in the Senate proposal, looks a little bit more key than the others. From today’s Washington Post:

Under the Senate’s new blueprint for reform, the legalization of undocumented immigrants would only happen if the government “finally commit[s] the resources needed to secure the border,” as well as strict visa enforcement for legal immigrants. It’s a provision that’s similar to Bush’s 2007 immigration bill, which also made legalization contingent on beefed-up border security. (my emphasis)

In other words, if I understand this correctly, the part of the legislation that many of us in the adult education community are most interested in—a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants—will be entirely contingent on an agreement over whether sufficient resources are being provided for border security. And that’s troubling because the language in the Senate document implies we’re not doing enough right now, even though there is evidence that, in fact, we are. Again, quoting that same story in the Post:

The Senate’s language suggests that the government has held back from devoting money, equipment and personnel to border security. In fact, we’ve hit nearly all of the targets that the 2007 bill established for increased border security—except for achieving absolute “operational control” of the border and mandatory detention of all border-crossers who’ve been apprehended.

This raises the possibility that, despite the evidence that we’ve actually beefed up border security over the last five years quite a bit, and achieved most of the targets that were in the 2007 bill, there are members of Congress who are going to push for more no matter what. If so, then I think the debate on border security is not going to be so much a policy debate over whether sufficient resources are truly being committed or not, but more of a political negotiation. That is, it may boil down to those in Congress representing border states pushing as hard as they can to get as much money for border security out of this bill as possible, whatever the need actually is. The higher their price, the higher the hurdle will be for the legalization provision to go forward (and the less likely, perhaps,  that Congress will be willing to invest in other things, like additional English classes).

Even if I’m wrong in my specific analysis, there’s no question in my mind that the negotiations around the border security issue are going to be critical. I’ll be looking closely at the draft legislation that emerges from the Senate to see how they define the level of commitment to border security that will be sufficient to trigger the legalization provisions.

UPDATE: More on the border security “trigger,” from TPM:

Responding to challenges from [Rush] Limbaugh that Obama would demand reforms with fewer border security measures, [Senator] Rubio emphasized his willingness to walk away from a bill if he didn’t get what he wanted on that front. In particular, he said including enforcement measures as a “trigger” for undocumented immigrants to seek permanent residency was key. (my emphasis)

UPDATE 1/30/13: More from Reuters, yesterday:

…[D]ifferences quickly emerged between what Obama would like and the proposals by the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators, whose plan is heavy on border security.

Obama pushed for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants that is faster than the one the Senate group proposed.

Rather than emphasize border security first, he would let undocumented immigrants get on a path to citizenship if they first undergo national security and criminal background checks, pay penalties, learn English and get behind those foreigners seeking to immigrate legally.

“We all agree that these men and women should have to earn their way to citizenship. But for comprehensive immigration reform to work, it must be clear from the outset that there is a pathway to citizenship,” he said.

For Republicans, this is a sticking point. The Gang of Eight plan envisions first taking steps to toughen security along the U.S.-Mexican border before setting in motion the steps illegal immigrants must take to gain legal status. (my emphasis)

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.”