[Reading-hall-of-fame] President Fails to Address the State of Adult Education

[tsticht at znet.com]

January  26, 2011

President Fails to Address the State of Adult Education


Tom Sticht                                                           
International Consultant in Adult Education


In his State of the Union address of 25 February 2011, President Obama made
observations about education that are problematic. For instance, the
President said, quote ”Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs
will require education that goes beyond a high school education. And yet,
as many as a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school. 

Of course, the education race doesn't end with a high school diploma. To
compete, higher education must be within the reach of every American.”end
quote

One of the problems here is that if only half of all new jobs will require
education that goes beyond a high school education, then why not let the
high school drop outs and non-college bound high school graduates fill the
half of the jobs that do not require higher education?  Why should we
struggle at extraordinary costs in both financial and human resources to
make higher education within reach of every American when only half of our
jobs will require higher education?

The President asserted that, quote”America has fallen to ninth in the
proportion of young people with a college degree. And so the question is
whether all of us — as citizens, and as parents — are willing to do what's
necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.”end quote

But here we have to wonder why we need more college degreed young people if
only half the jobs we have will demand higher education. Presumably, the
non-higher education demanding jobs, things like construction, nursing,
etc.,  are not going to be crucial to our ability as a nation to compete in
the global economy. So what difference does it make if the U.S. has fallen
to ninth in the proportion of young people with a college degree. There is
no evidence that other nations with higher percentages of college degreed
people actually have jobs that demand such high levels of education and
that that makes the nation more competitive than the U.S.

A second major problem with the President’s education component of his
speech was that he placed the responsibility for solving education problems
of the next generation only secondarily on the education system but
primarily on adults who are parents. He said, quote” That responsibility
begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and communities. It's family
that first instills the love of learning in a child.”end quote

The problem is that the President did not address the millions of parents
who are undereducated, many functionally illiterate, who are ignorant about
how to go about fulfilling their responsibility to instill preschool skills
and the love of learning in a child. The Adult Education and Literacy
System (AELS) of the United States serves some 2.5 million adults a year
who have no high school diploma, many of whom are unprepared to help their
children achieve well in the schools. Thousands of family literacy programs
that help parents fulfill the responsibility that the President charged them
with were closed when the President cut funding for the Even Start program.
This makes the President’s assignment of primary responsibility for our
nation’s education problems to parents ring hollow.

The President asserted that, quote ”Because people need to be able to train
for new jobs and careers in today's fast-changing economy, we're also
revitalizing America's community colleges.”end quote This is fine as far as
it goes, but the President failed to recognize the millions of adults with
no high school diplomas and basic skills of reading and mathematics below
the 8th grade level in the AELS. These adults are unable to qualify for
either the academic or vocational training offered in community colleges.
And with an obscenely low level of funding at less than $850 per student,
the AELS is unable to provide the education that these adults, many of whom
are or will become parents, need to access the opportunities offered in the
nation’s revitalized community colleges.

All told, by ignoring the many educational challenges facing the
economically marginalized adults in our nation, the President undercut his
own case for placing the primary responsibility for overcoming our
education problems on the parents of children. To overcome the achievement
gaps in children’s education, we need to overcome the achievement gaps in
the education of the children’s parents.

tsticht at aznet.net