Ways to Get Involved

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Take Action Now: Ask Your Senators to Support American Graduation Initiative Requirement

October 9, 2009

As you know, earlier this summer President Obama unveiled the American Graduation Initiative (AGI), a plan to double the number of people who graduate or receive a credential from community colleges. The AGI bill passed the House last month and is currently being negotiated in the Senate HELP Committee. We expect that the bill will be marked up (passed through Committee) in the next few weeks and receive floor consideration soon thereafter.

The House bill, HR 3221, includes $9 billion for competitive grants to community colleges to develop programs that will create college opportunities for nontraditional students, including low-income adults. The bill counts adult literacy and basic education programs among the providers eligible for partnerships with community colleges, but it does not require the colleges to make those connections. ProLiteracy strongly supports requiring community colleges to partner with community literacy programs in the development of their programs to ensure that low-skilled and low-literacy workers get the tailored assistance they need to move up the economic ladder.

Right now, members of the Senate HELP Committee are in the process of negotiating the Senate version of the AGI and the community college grants in particular. We have a short window to encourage our senators to require community colleges to partner with local adult literacy service providers in their grants. Please use ProLiteracy's CapWhiz program to contact your senator and request his or her support for this position. The bill is currently being negotiated among Democrats on the HELP Committee. If one of your senators is a Democrat from the HELP Committee it is critical that you weigh in with him or her. The following is a list of these senators:

Senate HELP Committee Democrats
Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.)
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.)
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.)
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.)
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)