[Vision2020] Programs that Teach Basic Skills Face Cuts

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (June 1, 2005) Spokesman Review.

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Programs that teach basic skills face cuts 
Bush plan trims funding for adult literacy programs

Shawn Vestal
Staff writer
June 1, 2005

The Bush administration is proposing to cut about two-thirds of federal
funding for adult literacy programs, which would drain more than $500,000
from programs to help the poorest, least-educated people in the Inland
Northwest.

If approved by Congress, the changes would mean that Spokane's Institute of
Extended Learning, which provides adult education throughout Eastern
Washington, would lose about 13 percent of its total budget. North Idaho
College in Coeur d'Alene, which provides the programs for six North Idaho
counties, would lose more than a third of its budget.

"It would pretty much devastate us," said Rex Fairfield, director of Adult
Basic Education/GED programs for NIC.

The programs affected would include GED classes, English as a Second
Language, and other basic skills that people who lack high school
credentials need to get jobs and operate in society, officials say. 

"You have to have a GED to get a job at McDonald's anymore," said Geri
Swope, dean of adult education for Spokane's IEL.

More than 51 million American adults lack a high school diploma or its
equivalent - about 23 percent of the population, according to the 2000
Census. In the Inland Northwest, the figures are lower - 15 percent in
Spokane County, and less than 10 percent in Kootenai County, though the
figures rise in rural counties.

Educators say that people who lack such credentials often have trouble
negotiating the world - filling out job applications, reading road signs,
comprehending information in the media. They also make less money; earning a
GED raises the average salary of a worker by $8,500 a year, Swope said.

Fifty-year-old Duane Satran of Spokane is one of the people hoping to
improve their lives by earning a GED. Last week, Satran sat in a science
class at the IEL center on Monroe Street, taking notes during a lesson on
expansion and contraction due to temperature.

He dropped out of Ferris High School as a 17-year-old. After developing back
problems as a masonry worker, he decided to go back to school.

"I'm here to get my GED so I can move on," Satran said. "So I can use my
brain instead of my back. My back's wore out."

Efforts to reach the White House for comment on the budget proposal were
unsuccessful. However, the cuts come as first lady Laura Bush has touted the
importance of literacy in the Mideast. 

At the World Economic Forum in Jordan in late May, Bush linked freedom to
literacy, according to transcripts of her speech.

"I'm asking all nations to help people acquire literacy skills," she said.
"A mother's ability to read and write is especially important. Our mothers
are our first teachers, and children's success is linked closely to theirs."

Educators say literacy is no longer a matter of simply being able to read.
Many adults can read and write on a simple level, but lack the skills to
fully operate in a world of growing complexity.

"Today, adults need higher levels of basic skills to function effectively in
many areas of their lives, and literacy is defined more broadly to include
problem-solving and higher level reasoning skills," according to the
National Adult Literacy Survey.

Under the Bush plan, funding for adult education and literacy programs would
be cut 63 percent nationwide, to $215 million.

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they
are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say
about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

-- Robert F. Kennedy