DC Budget Hearing: DOES and the Workforce Investment Council

 

Adult Ed Budget Hearing

3 comments to DC Budget Hearing: DOES and the Workforce Investment Council

  • Ben King

    I would like to show my support, but I will be working as an adult educator during the hearing. How can those who can’t physically attend show their support? Email council members? Social media? Twitter hashtags?

  • Hey, good point. I should have included this in the post.
    Tweet DC City Councilmembers, encouraging them to #fund_adulted

    Also. Here are some fabulous talking points if you know anyone who might find themselves in a position to use them. They’d make a great blog post one of these days …

    An Urgent Issue:

    • Economists project that in just four years, 72 percent of all jobs in DC will require some postsecondary education. Yet more than 60,000 residents lack a high school diploma or its equivalent.

    • This skills disparity contributes to the District’s gap between rich and poor, which is already one of the fourth highest among major U.S. cities.

    • Investing in adult education also benefits the next generation. Research shows a child’s success in school is significantly impacted by their parents’ education and their family’s economic security.

    The Need for Better Coordination Among Agencies:

    • The District must help more people get the basic reading, writing, math, English language, and digital literacy skills needed to transition to and succeed in job training and community college programs.

    • To maximize the District’s limited resources, there must be an explicit goal and citywide strategy for coordinating efforts among different adult education, workforce development, and human service agencies.

    • Consider providing a particular example from your program where better coordination between agencies would help your learners achieve their goals

    The Solution: Basic Skills to Good Jobs

    • Ask the Council to adopt an “Adult Literacy for Good Jobs” platform for FY 2015. This means:

    • Setting a goal for the District to adopt a citywide initiative to ensure that every adult learner has access to a career pathway by 2020.

    • Establishing a cross-agency task force to develop and implement a strategic plan for connecting basic skills programs to career pathways, and provide funding for the Workforce Investment Council to convene and staff it. ($175,000)

    • Creating an innovation fund to help the task force pilot, evaluate, and then plan to expand proven career pathway approaches ($2 million)

    • Continuing to support cross-agency cooperation like that exhibited by the memorandum of agreement between DOES, OSSE’s Adult and Family Education Division, and DHS

  • Liane

    I now have specific tweets for this event compliments of the DC Adult Education and Family Literacy Coalition

    General Tweets:

    Over 60K DC residents lack a high school diploma #fund_adulted

    AT MOST, DC agencies providing basic adult education serve just 8,000
    residents #fund_adulted

    1 in 3 DC residents who lacks a high school diploma is also living in
    poverty #fund_adulted (Poverty chart image)

    By 2018, 72% of all jobs in DC will require a postsecondary degree #fund_
    adulted

    1 in 4 DC residents who lack a high school diploma is also unemployed #fund_
    adulted #DCFY15

    50% of students in DC?s Adult Ed & Family Ed programs don?t qualify for job
    training programs b/c of low skills #fund_adulted #DCFY15

    Only 10% of learners in DC?s Adult Ed & Family Ed programs have skills
    above the 9th grade level #fund_adulted #DCFY15

    When parents have an education, students have better achievement #fund_
    adulted #DCFY15

    The best predictor of a high school completion is a mother?s education
    #fund_adulted #DCFY15

    Investing $1.2M in #DCFY15 can help DC begin to close the literacy gap
    #fund_adulted

    By 2020 every adult in DC should be prepared for & have access to a career
    pathway #fund_adulted #DCFY15 @DC_Appleseed bit.ly/Skills2Jobs

    Invest $1M in innovation under ?Adult Literacy for Good Jobs? platform,
    #fund_adulted in #DCFY15

    Tweets directed at Committee Councilmembers (Orange is chair):

    @[councilmembername] Will you stand up & #fund_adulted in the #DCFY15 budget

    @[Councilmembername] The 60K adults in DC w/o a high school diploma need
    you to #fund_adulted in the #DCFY15 budget

    Will you @[Councilmembername] adopt an ?Adult Literacy for Good Jobs?
    platform in #DCFY15

    Councilmembers? Twitter handles:
    @cmdgrosso @JimGrahamWard1

    @marycheh

    @CMYMA

    @VincentOrangeDC