Category Archives: Adult education

Daily Republic Column: FSUSD Kindergarten Roundup a great idea

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by Murray Bass

Without a lot of fanfare, great things are happening at the Fairfield Adult School.

In addition to regular classes, there is a new program in the Parent Education Department chaired by Cheryl Stumbaugh. The acronym PEP is for both Parent Education Program and Parent Education Preschool. The program educates parents on parenting skills. At the same time, it helps build family relationships by having parents and children share learning experiences and many more benefits than I have room to tell you about here.

via Kindergarten Roundup a great idea.

The Educated Guess: Legislative support elusive for adult ed funding plan

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by Susan Frey

Additional reporting by Kathryn Baron

California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office says the state’s embattled adult education system needs a dedicated and permanent funding stream that can’t be appropriated for other school programs when the state budget goes south.

Restructuring California’s Adult Education System calls for the state Legislature to restore adult education as a categorical program. Adult Ed advocates lauded the proposal, even though it relies on funding that is speculative and requires a commitment from legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown that they have so far not shown.

Adult schools are an important strand in the state’s safety net, offering community-based classes to some of the state’s neediest adults, ranging from the unemployed, the disabled, and the elderly to ex-offenders re-entering society, immigrants trying to learn English and become citizens, and high school dropouts seeking to earn their GEDs.

via Legislative support elusive for adult ed funding plan – by Susan Frey.

Daily Republic: FSUSD Adult School surviving despite funding cuts

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by Heather Ah San

FAIRFIELD — Last week it was National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, and at the Fairfield-Suisun Adult School that celebration has a lot of meaning.

Principal Kay Hartley certainly thinks so.

The Adult School faced some devastating cuts last year including several staff layoffs and the near dissolution of the English as a Second Language program. The Fairfield-Suisun School Board cut $862,607, nearly all of the Adult School’s budget.

The board did, however, change some language in its motion so that the Adult School could bring back programs if it found outside funding from grants or other sources.

via Adult School surviving despite funding cuts.

California Watch: K–12: Adult education programs see major cuts in state’s largest districts

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Stephanie Snyder

State budget cuts, combined with more spending flexibility for school districts, are reducing adults’ options for learning English, earning their GED or high school diploma, and training for jobs.

California adult education programs have changed dramatically over the last three years, with 22 of the state’s 30 largest school districts making major cuts to adult programs and one district eliminating adult education completely, according to a new report.

“Adult schools find themselves in a very difficult position,” said Louis Freedberg, executive director of EdSource, the education nonprofit that produced the report. “They kind of fall between the cracks of the K-12 system and the higher education system.”

Lawmakers in 2009 gave school districts more power to determine how to spend state funds to help them deal with budget cutbacks, but that flexibility has led districts to direct money away from adult education programs to protect their core population of K-12 students, Freedberg said.

via Adult education programs see major cuts in state’s largest districts.

The Educated Guess: Adult education’s existential crisis

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By Kathryn Baron

This is the second of a two-part series on adult education in California.  Click here to read part 1.

Adult education in California is nearly as old as the state itself. Today, the program that has helped millions of people learn English, earn a GED, and receive job training for 156 years is facing extinction. A new report released today by EdSource concludes that these schools, which provide second chances for the state’s most needy adults, “are as much at-risk as many of the people they serve.”

The report, aptly titled At Risk: Adult Schools in California, surveyed the state’s 30 largest school districts and found that 23 had made significant cuts to their adult education programs. In many cases, they lost at least half their funding. One of them, Anaheim Union High School District, shuttered its 73-year-old adult school.

“The important thing to remember is that these adult school programs are serving a population that really falls through the cracks,” said Louis Freedberg, Executive Director of EdSource. “This is a population that needs basic education in basic skills, that needs help with English as a Second Language, and for whom there is really no other place to go to get these basic services.”

via Adult education’s existential crisis – by Kathryn Baron.

EdSource Extra!: Expanding the role of community colleges in adult school programs

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By Susan Frey ~ EdSource Extra]

As school districts throughout California make major cuts or consider abandoning their adult schools, advocates for adult education programs are searching for ways to prevent their demise, including a possible heightened role for community colleges.

According to an EdSource report released today, At Risk: Adult Schools in California, 23 of the state’s 30 largest districts have made major cuts to their adult education programs since the beginning of the Great Recession, including Anaheim Union High School District, which eliminated its 73-year-old program in 2010–11. Only one district — Montebello Unified — reported no change.  (The full EdSource report can be downloaded here.)

Just last Friday, the Los Angeles Unified School District — which has a $138-million adult education program — negotiated an interim agreement with union negotiators, and backed away from the threat of terminating its adult school program entirely. But the district is still planning on making significant cutbacks.

In a report issued earlier this year, the Little Hoover Commission, the independent state oversight agency, recommended that community colleges take over all adult education programs in the state.

via Expanding the role of community colleges in adult school programs.

Daily Republic: Solano college hopes to benefit from federal job training focus

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by Jessica Philipps

WASHINGTON — California, home to a quarter of the nation’s community college students, could reap huge benefits from President Barack Obama’s $8 billion plan to pair local businesses and schools.

via Solano college hopes to benefit from federal job training focus.

EdSource Extra!: Commission: Community colleges should take over adult schools run by school districts

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By Louis Freedberg and Sue Frey

Community colleges should take over all adult school programs from cash-strapped school districts, the Little Hoover Commission, a state watchdog agency, recommended yesterday.

The commission pointed out in a just-released report that successful examples already exist for such a model, most notably in San Diego and in San Francisco.

via Commission: Community colleges should take over adult schools run by school districts.

The Educated Guess: Vital student programs may be sacrified on the altar of flexibility

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By Jim Aschwanden

Over the past few weeks, several articles have appeared in TOP-Ed (here and here) identifying programs that have been threatened by the governor’s latest budget proposal. Gov. Brown would dramatically overhaul current funding for education in California by instituting a pupil-based formula prioritizing districts with high-poverty and English language learner populations, while eliminating virtually all existing categorical programs.

via Vital student programs may be sacrified on the altar of flexibility – by Jim Aschwanden.