Ending California's Public Adult Ed Through Policy - Will You Let It Happen?

Noncredit ESL faculty member at City College of San Francisco Susan Lopez has just sent a unique report that she researched and wrote on the topic of what has been happening to noncredit adult ed programs statewide. She also sent a cover letter along with the report. I thought you might find both revealing as well as informative. I sure did.

By the way, in case you are wondering who Susan Lopez is, here is video clip of her speaking at the Jan. 19, 2012 meeting of the Board of Governors of California Community Colleges showing a great deal of concern for the Student Success Task Force recommendations.

To read Susan's 19-page report titled "Ending California's Public Adult Ed Through Policy - Will You Let It Happen?", click here.

Below is Susan's cover letter:
Hi, all,

I bring you a unique report on what we do, in its statewide context. I can promise it's unique because I wrote the report and I saw nothing on the web like this.  Here's an intro. Report is attached.

Adults just like the ones we serve are losing their opportunities for schooling throughout this state. You may think of adult ed as being apart from what we do, and in one way you would be right. The CA Dept. of Education has Adult Education Programs through K12 districts in many parts of the state, not including SF at this time. In SF, we in noncredit provide that adult education function. It is really the same function, in that both systems are authorized to provide classes in exactly the same subjects and the students are basically the same types, people for whom credit classes are not generally their best option. (There used to be local agreements by region about which system was allowed to do what, but the courts threw out those "delineation of function" agreements in the late 1990s.) You may have heard that since 2009, K12 school boards have been allowed to raid adult ed funds and use them for grades K-12 instead. Desperate for funds to serve their children, some districts have swept all the money into K12 and have closed their adult schools. Others have drastically reduced enrollment by as much as 75%. It's been disastrous for adult students.

I have been on the statewide CFT Adult Education Commission for several years, so I have been opposing this attack on the K12 Adult Ed system. Our commission includes representatives from both systems, CA Dept. of Ed. (K12 Adult Ed) and CA Community Colleges (Noncredit). We have also discussed the feasibility of combining all services under one system - community colleges - as some recommend, and what the pros, cons, and barriers to that might be.

When I heard that noncredit at our own college was going to be cut 12% while credit would be cut only 8.5%, I wondered what was happening to noncredit around the state. Was noncredit in a slump too? If so, did it appear immigration-related, or were there other factors at play? Was it a simple matter of demand going up and down, or a matter of policy?  I trust you will find the attached interesting and I would love to hear your thoughts.

 Susan Lopez