politics

Links of Note 8/18/16

/ The Old Crank

Launching a new semi-regular feature today: occasional posts that simply compile links to announcements, new research and other news about adult education or tangentially related topics (probably more of the latter), with little to no commentary from me to get in your way. Just click and go. There are those who will describe these kinds of posts as “curated links.” I’m not one of them, but if you are, then you have the basic idea.

I welcome your suggestions.

In Many Courtrooms, Bad Interpreters Can Mean Justice Denied [Pew/Stateline]
“Because there are so many U.S. residents — roughly 25.6 million — who have limited proficiency in English, the credibility of the nation’s justice system relies on competent interpreters.” I witnessed this problem firsthand in Boston courts 25 20 years ago; it seemed to me that non-English speakers were often targeted for minor traffic violations. Many were frankly terrified and the lack of translation services certainly didn’t help.

DACA at Four: Participation in the Deferred Action Program and Impacts on Recipients [MPI]

  • “Examining DACA application rates against the MPI population estimates suggests that 63 percent of the immediately eligible population had applied as of March 2016; the rate fell to 48 percent when including the share that did not appear to meet the educational criteria but may have enrolled in a qualifying adult education population.”
  • “[T]he vast majority eligible to renew the two-year DACA grant have done so—93 percent MPI estimates.”

Lessons From a Year Teaching Digital Literacy [Pacific Standard]

Veteran Hillary Clinton Education Adviser Named to Candidate’s Transition Team [Politics K-12 – Education Week]

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Say They’ll Ease the Burden of Child-Care Costs [Real Time Economics – WSJ]
Summary of the two major party candidates’ proposals.

Overlooked: Women and Jails in an Era of Reform [VERA]
“Women in jail are the fastest growing correctional population in the country—increasing 14-fold between 1970 and 2014. Yet there is surprisingly little research on why so many more women wind up in jail today. This report examines what research does exist on women in jail in order to begin to reframe the conversation to include them.”

Two Lingering Suspicions About Economic Statistics [Bloomberg View]
Helpful primer (for me, anyway) on data smoothing (such as the seasonal adjustments made by the BLS to unemployment data) and “Pollyanna creep,” defined here as the likelihood that changes in economic indicator measures/calculations that make the economy look better are more likely to be implemented than changes that do not, resulting in a cumulative effect that is increasingly removed from reality. “[C]hanges made in the calculation of inflation over the past quarter-century… have come under the most fire.”

 

Why Adult Education Warrants Attention by the 2016 Presidential Candidates

/ The Old Crank

Andy Rotherham, writing today for The 74’s Democratic National Convention Live Blog, credibly explains the reasons behind the lack of focus on K-12 policy at this week’s Democratic Convention:

As for any focus on education this week? Yawn. The Democrats remain split on the issue along a few dimensions, although reformers certainly don’t have the upper hand. That will change over time though, and the election isn’t really about education in the first place. Presidential ones rarely are, and this one is even less so. To the extent education really matters, the emerging fault line is around workers dislocated by trade or technology. That’s a genuine problem, a boil Donald Trump picks at, and another issue that creates schisms among Democrats. There are more things we could be doing to help those workers now, but the education piece of that issue is a long game. (my emphasis)

I’m not sure if what he means here is that the “education piece” for dislocated workers can only be addressed through long-term solutions, or if he means that there is no short-game political strategy that would work to address their needs. But I would argue neither are true.

As a practical matter, the education and training needs of many of those workers are relatively addressable within a short time frame (granted, not all), at least compared to Pre-K and K-12 education, where the return on investment takes many more years.

I also think that advancing a strategy that addresses the educational needs of these workers in the short term makes political sense too, but it won’t emerge from either campaign unless the candidates can be convinced that a call for substantial new investments in adult education and job training would provide a political advantage in November.

There’s evidence to suggest it might. Yesterday there was an article by Nick Cohn in the Times that highlighted how poorly Hillary Clinton does in polls with white voters without a college degree—particularly white men without a degree. That population represents nearly half of the people who voted in 2012.

Chart: The One Reason the Election Is Close

Source: “The One Demographic That Is Hurting Hillary Clinton,” The New York Times, July 25th, 2016.

Whatever the merits (and of course on this blog we’d argue the merits are strong), a Democratic candidate for President looking to counter Donald Trump’s appeal to these voters might consider introducing a proposal to advance investments in education programs for this population as a potential strategy to win them over. (It’s also worth considering to what extent Congress and the current administration’s effort to address the needs of dislocated and under skilled workers has been perceived by this segment of the electorate to have been effective, but that’s a post for another day.)

The candidates would also need to understand that job training and college access alone won’t cut it—many of those adults without college degrees lack high school degrees as well.

Rotherman, in his post, goes on to write:

[I]n the post-ESSA world, what the federal government can do on K-12 is limited — what it can do absent congressional assent is even more so. That’s why pre-K and college affordability are attractive, and you’ll be hearing a lot about them going forward. They’re real issues affecting Americans, places the next administration could act in real ways, and issues where Secretary Clinton and Senator Kaine are aligned. (my emphasis)

I would argue that adult education and training are also areas where the next administration could act, and act boldly, and unlike pre-K and college affordability—issues that resonate with many of the middle-class liberal and moderate voters already supporting Clinton—adult education and training speak to those voters she is struggling to appeal to. (I acknowledge that addressing college affordability could potentially have positive implications for dislocated and under skilled workers, but to the best of my knowledge, these proposals are not focused on this population, and college affordability alone doesn’t address the range of this population’s needs.)

Addressing Inequality Through Education

/ The Old Crank

Jared Bernstein, writing for the New York Times’ Economix blog, responding to Miles Corak’s recent commentary on inequality, arguing that he doesn’t go far enough in his policy recommendations:

It’s a common default for economists and policy makers to present a trenchant analysis of a problem with many deep roots and then conclude, “That’s why we need better education and skill development.”

The problem is that a central thesis of the inequality/mobility nexus is that skills alone won’t crack it. Again, no question that overcoming the barriers that block lower-income children from achieving their intellectual (and economically productive) potential is an essential part of this, but if you don’t deal with the politics — really, the power — you’ll end up with a bunch more children who fortunately have gone a lot further in their personal development, but remain stuck in or near the income decile of their birth. (my emphasis)

I think that’s true, and I also had another thought.

When you look at the history of adult literacy in the U.S., you’ll find that for most of that history, adult literacy education was mainly focused on increasing the political agency of the individuals being taught. Only over the last 20-25 years or so (as adult education has become somewhat more institutionalized in schools and community colleges) has the focus shifted (at least in the policy arena) to more of an emphasis on employment and training. I realized, reading this commentary, that my discomfort with the pre-K movement stems not just from the fact that proponents often brush aside the fundamental pedagogical role that parents and the home environment play in children’s literacy development. That’s a problem to be sure, but the more fundamental problem with ignoring parents and parents’ education—particularly the parents of the poor—is that it fails to acknowledge or address the political agency of those parents—political agency needed in order to bring about meaningful political change.

Those who argue that education is not enough to solve the inequality problem without additional political change raise some valid points. But education does play a role in developing the critical thinking and self-reflection needed to bring about political changes. Education can do more than just help people reach their economic potential, it can also play a bigger role in bringing about the political changes Bernstein (and others) suggest.

Is the Allegory of the Cave a parenting skill? I suspect some would argue that it is.

NCL Action Alert on the Rubio Amendment

/ The Old Crank / 1 Comment

If you have been reading this blog recently, you know that Sen. Marco Rubio (D-FL) has  introduced an amendment to the Senate immigration reform bill, S. 744, (a bill that he co-authored) that would require undocumented immigrants applying for legal residency to prove that they know English, civics and U.S. history at the level currently required only for those applying for full citizenship. The bill as reported out of committee requires either proof of proficiency at that level or documented evidence of satisfactory progress in a course of study that will eventually lead to that level of proficiency.

For those interested in asking their Senator to vote against the amendment, the National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) has posted this action alert. 

Hurry though: the Senate will begin voting on amendments tomorrow, and it is possible that Sen. Rubio’s amendment will be taken up as soon as then.