Media Room
Inside D.C.—Updated April 14, 2010
FY 2011 Funding for Adult LiteracyThe budget process is underway. The Senate and the House have been holding hearings and working on their appropriation bills in response to President Obama's requested budget, issued February 1. Jane Oates, the Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training at the Labor Department, and Martha Kanter, U.S. Under Secretary of Education, testified at a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies on March 25. Here's a quick run-down of the President's proposed budget as it relates to adult literacy and education: - $612.3 million for Adult Basic Literacy Education State Grants, $30 million more than the 2009 appropriation, but a $15.9 million decrease from last year. That's because last year, the program received a one-time increase of $45.9 million to correct for a past accounting error that left some states underfunded for several years.
- $75 million for the English Literacy/Civics Education set-aside, the same as last year's appropriation.
- A $30 million increase for National Leadership Activities. Along with an identical amount from Vocational Rehabilitation, the money supports a new Workforce Innovation Fund that is to be part of a Department of Labor and Department of Education Partnership for Workforce Innovation. According to the Administration, the partnership "will coordinate to award competitive grants that would encourage innovation and identify and validate effective strategies for improving the delivery of services and outcomes for beneficiaries under programs authorized by the Workforce Investment Act." We don't know yet what the scale or targets for these grants will be—whether individual programs and/or local community-based projects will be eligible, or whether Education and Labor will be looking to fund regional or statewide initiatives (or even national initiatives)—or some combination of both. Another question to be answered is whether adult literacy and education will have access to more than just the $30 million in National Leadership dollars that are going into the fund. ProLiteracy has been working with the Representatives from the Administration and members of Congress who are working on the details, and have recommended that the final appropriations bill provides community-based adult education organizations with access to the fund. We'll update you as soon as we have more information.
Reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) With health care reform settled, the adult literacy field had hoped that Congress would take up reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which hasn't been reauthorized since it was enacted in 1998. (WIA Title II is the largest source of federal funding for adult literacy and education programs.) But as of this writing, there's no clear timetable for action on WIA. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on WIA on February 24, but it related primarily to Title I. Reauthorization was mentioned briefly by U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter during the March 25 hearing held by the Labor/HHS Appropriations Committee; she made more prominent mention of reauthorization as a priority in her written testimony. American Graduation Initiative (AGI) This initiative, which would have invested roughly $12 billion in community colleges over 10 years, appears to be a dead issue for now. A provision to fund the initiative, announced by President Obama last summer, was included in the version of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) that the House passed this past fall, but the budget reconciliation bill that was signed into law at the end of March dropped the provision. However, the bill does include $2 billion in funding for the Community College and Career Training Grant Program, a federal Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program for dislocated workers and those who may be laid off. This program was authorized last year in the federal stimulus legislation but never funded. The purpose of this program is to enable two-year institutions to develop, offer, or improve educational or career training programs for workers eligible to receive training under TAA. The funds will be disbursed in $500 million annual increments over fiscal years 2011-14. Grants will be awarded to community colleges in all 50 states on a competitive basis, but colleges in each state will receive at least $2.5 million each year. Connecting with Policymakers On February 18, ProLiteracy member programs from across the U.S. participated in a hill advocacy day focusing on WIA reauthorization and funding issues. A central message was the importance of WIA reauthorization and ways in which the current law often fails to meet the needs of adult learners at the lowest literacy levels. ProLiteracy also met with representatives from the Department of Education's Office of Vocational Assessment & Education (OVAE) and presented them with a memorandum outlining three key Title II reforms to make the legislation more accommodating to the needs of adult learners served by ProLiteracy affiliate members: - Strengthen the "direct and equitable access" provisions so that organizations serving the lowest level learners are better able to compete for grant funds.
- Add more flexibility to the intensity and duration of instruction provisions.
- Redesign the National Reporting System so that it meets the needs of learners at all literacy levels.
At the invitation of ProLiteracy, Brenda Dann-Messier, Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education, and Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor, both addressed the ProLiteracy/Commission on Adult Basic Education (COABE) joint national conference in Chicago March 16–19. This is the first time a high-level official from the U.S. Department of Labor has spoken at a national literacy conference. Both officials stressed that they are working closely together on WIA reauthorization and other concerns. As of February 1, ProLiteracy has a new Policy and Government Affairs office in Washington. If you are interested in our policy and advocacy work and/or meeting with your representatives in Washington, contact Jeff Carter, Director of Policy and Government Affairs, at jcarter@proliteracy.org or by phone, (202) 577-3638.
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