federal budget

The President’s Proposed FY 2013 Budget for Adult Education

/ The Old Crank / 1 Comment

Yesterday the President unveiled his budget proposal for fiscal year 2013. To no one’s surprise, the President proposed level funding for adult education. This doesn’t mean that this will be the actual federal budget for adult education in 2013—most people who follow the budget process agree that there is no chance the President’s proposed budget will be adopted by Congress. As Derek Thompson notes at The Atlantic, “[T]he vast majority of its provisions are dead-on-arrival.” Still, it’s a good sign that a reduction in adult education spending is not being proposed here. As we know from last year’s FY 2011 budget debate, Congress is likely to go along with almost any proposed reductions in non-military spending. (It’s also important to remember that there are other smaller sources of federal funding for adult education services in other parts of the budget, which I haven’t looked at yet.)

Anyway, for those who are interested, here is the section on adult education from the Department of Education’s summary document:

Update on Pell “Ability to Benefit” Students

/ The Old Crank

(Updated Below)

On December 15th, I wrote about a provision that was included in the House version of the FY 2012 omnibus appropriation package that proposed to eliminate Pell grant eligibility for students without high school diplomas (known as “ability to benefit,” or ATB students).

Unfortunately, this provision was included in the final package that was passed at the end of the year. In my earlier post I mentioned that I did not have a current estimate of the number of people without high school credentials who attend postsecondary education—and I still don’t—but in a letter sent on December 6th by the Campaign to Invest in America’s Workforce to the Senate Appropriations Committee, they included an estimate of the number of ATB students who until recently were eligible for Pell Grants: approximately 100,000.

If you are interested in this subject I recommend reading the enitre letter; here is the section regarding ATB:

Unfortunately, the House FY 2012 Labor‐H draft bill contains a number of permanent programmatic changes that will wash out the path to postsecondary credentials, making it harder for these individuals to achieve the American dream, including:

  • Eliminates access to Pell Grants for “ability‐to‐benefit” students. Current law permits individuals without a high school diploma or equivalent to qualify for Pell Grants by completing an “ability to benefit” test or by successfully completing six credits towards a certificate or degree. This option is particularly important for low‐skilled individuals participating in “career pathways” programs, which have proven effective and efficient in combining basic adult education with occupational training to allow participants to more quickly earn industry‐recognized credentials necessary to find good jobs and progress in their careers. The House bill would completely eliminate access to Pell Grants for approximately 100,000 individuals who rely on this provision each year, while generating minimal savings.

UPDATE 3/20/12: For those of you who have stumbled upon this article looking for more detailed information about the changes, this article, published by Inside Higher Ed today, is a good primer on both the changes and the issues they present for students and institutions.

President’s Proposed FY 2012 Budget

/ The Old Crank

The Administration’s proposed spending plan for 2012, which was released on Monday, was sort of a mixed bag for adult literacy. It included a small increase in the state block grants to local adult literacy and basic education programs; it proposed the creation of a Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF) (this was also proposed last year) a competitive grant programs for new, innovative adult education and job training projects; and called for reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the largest source of federal funding for adult literacy (via Title II). But it also cuts some programs outside the education budget that have provided some funding for many adult literacy programs in recent years.

The proposed budget includes $635 million for state grants to local literacy programs, an increase of $6.8 million over the 2010 appropriation and the adjusted 2011 Continuing Resolution. But $50.8 million from this line item will be used to support the WIF, which will also include $30 million in funding from the Rehabilitation Services and Disability Research account, and almost $298 million from the Department of Labor.

This leaves $584.2 million for formula-based state grant money for adult literacy programs (of which $75,00,000 is set-aside for English literacy and civics education grants, also managed at the state level), a figure that is still short of what is needed.

Especially when you take into account that state budgets for adult literacy have been cut significantly over the last several years, and I expect that funding for adult literacy will continue to be on the chopping block as states grapple with their own budget challenges over the next year.

At a Department of Education briefing on the budget held February 14th, Department of Education officials told me that eligible grantees for the WIF would include programs, consortia of programs, and/or states. So it appears that this money will eventually get out to programs in the field. Essentially what they’ve done is take away some of the funds that would normally go to states via formula funding and made it competitive. Some states could end up doing better under this scheme. But it appears that there is definitely a chance here that some states will end up with less federal funding.

In addition, the proposal wants to more than double the amount of money going to the Office of Vocational and Adult Education at the Department of Education by providing an additional 12 million dollars for national leadership funds to evaluate the impact of college bridge programs and build technology infrastructure.

Again, during a period where states are cutting funding, some may raise concerns about the fact that the bulk of the President’s proposed increase for adult literacy stays (at least initially) at the Department of Education, and not out to the states that need the help now.

What concerns me more, though, is the proposed cuts to the community development block grant program and the community service block grant program. Many adult literacy programs have supported instructional services in part through these programs. And finally, the President’s budget also does not include funding for Even Start, the program that integrates adult literacy and early childhood literacy instruction.

But there are a few other positive things in the proposal: first, during a conference call briefing on the education budget held February 16th, administration officials noted that the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which has been increased by $100 million dollars, support partnerships with adult education programs. Adult Education projects could also receive funding through a proposed public-private financing program called “Pay for Success,” an innovation that is designed to encourage private investors to support education projects that would receive public funding only once the projects have met performance targets and generated successful outcomes.

Finally, it was encouraging to see the administration’s ongoing support for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). CNCS engages more than five million Americans in service through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. Many AmeriCorps members serve as instructors and in other capacities at adult literacy programs across the country. The President’s FY 2012 budget requests $1.26 billion for CNCS, a $109 million increase over current funding levels.