A shift in adult education

Brian Griffiths brought up the subject of moving responsibility for adult education in Maryland from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation on Red Maryland and his own site earlier this week. At the end, he noted, “more as we hear it…” – well, here’s more.

The bill to do this has already been introduced as SB203/HB367 at the request of Administration. The Senate hearing on it, originally scheduled for yesterday, was pushed back to February 14th.

It was also one of several subjects in an e-mail I got from the DLLR recently; likely I’m on the list because I have professional registration in the state as an architect. Here’s what Tom Perez had to say about the adult education shift:

SENATE BILL 203/ HOUSE BILL 367- WORKFORCE CREATION AND ADULT EDUCATION ALIGNMENT

The quality of Maryland’s current and future workforce is vital to the State’s economy. While Adult education classroomMaryland currently enjoys a healthy, diverse business climate, many Maryland industries are facing worker and skills shortages. The situation is exacerbated by the approaching retirement of close to one-sixth of Maryland’s population and the job growth associated with the Base Realignment and Closure process. Maryland’s continued economic success is directly linked to our ability to create and continuously develop a highly-skilled workforce. 

  • There are nearly 750,000 Marylanders with limited literacy skills, no high school diploma or ineffective English language skills in need of services.
  • The 2003-2004 Maryland Adult Education Score Card shows that only three to five percent of Marylanders in need of adult education receive it.
  • Currently, adult education programs in Maryland are not fully progressing sufficient numbers of students to the post high school skill levels necessary to compete in today and tomorrow’s economy.
    • Recognizing the importance of linking adult education and workforce creation and aligning those programs with the needs of businesses, a number of states have transferred responsibility for adult education from their K-12 systems to state workforce development agencies.
    • 19 states now have adult education programs housed either in workforce development or in a higher education context.
    • Six states have integrated adult education with workforce development, including Alaska, Michigan, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee and Arkansas.
    • In local jurisdictions within Maryland, the distinct trend has been to move adult education away from K-12 and into community colleges, where services are better aligned with career training and other workforce services.

    Senate Bill 203/House Bill 367 will ensure that our system meets the workforce needs of Maryland’s employers by aligning adult education and literacy programs, career preparation, postsecondary education and workforce development.

    This legislation moves responsibility for administering and supervising policy and funding for adult education and literacy, currently a function of MSDE, to the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

    The Adult Education and Literacy Services Office will be part of DLLR’s Division of Workforce Development.

    Under DLLR’s leadership, this new alignment will:

    • Serve more people through more programs
    • Create synergies between our workforce one-stop system, community colleges, nonprofit providers, state agencies and the business community
    • Ensure a stronger evaluation component for adult education programs
    • Provide career development opportunities for adult education instructional and administrative staff
    • Streamline accountability for our adult education system
    • Build a seamless system of adult education in Maryland that strengthens the case for more funding

    DLLR’s goal is to shape a new vision for adult education in Maryland that has the support of the many stakeholder groups around the State while recognizing regional differences.

    The new system will continue to serve everyone but ensure that the pursuit of lifelong learning includes access to postsecondary educational opportunities and a clear pathway into Maryland’s workforce.

    DLLR will establish strong accountability standards and align them effectively to assure that adults can transition among various levels of English for Speakers of Other Languages, adult literacy, GED, career preparation, and our postsecondary system.

    DLLR will identify best practices around the country to ensure that Maryland leads the way in the education of our adult population.

    DLLR will also promote programs that provide financial literacy, through our Division of Financial Regulation and will partner with state agencies and nonprofits working to enhance the health literacy of Maryland adults.

    The community colleges have the potential to become local resource centers for adult education and workforce training, and have already been stepping up to this challenge across the State.

    Under DLLR’s leadership, the community colleges will also help provide curriculum alignment and professional development for adult education professionals.

    First of all, my apologies for the odd presentation. But I did keep the pretty picture in the blockquote.

    The key phrase in this long passage to me is the “nearly 750,000 Marylanders with limited literacy skills, no high school diploma or ineffective English language skills in need of services.” (Emphasis mine.) It sounds like some of the money I pay biennially to maintain my registration in good standing is going to go to aiding illegals. Not only that, Perez is out to “strengthen the case for more funding.” Perhaps he’ll seek a Thornton-style mandate for adult education next?

    Similarly, under the leadership of Perez the DLLR has gone far afield in a number of other areas, one that sticks out to me being mortgage foreclosures. Remember, the R in DLLR stands for “regulation” and with a far-left guy like Tom Perez in charge it’s what you will get. 

    Here we have advocacy for taking steps into adult education and moving it from an area where we rank third in the country to an area that would be set up to maintain Maryland as a destination state for illegal immigrants (excuse me, undocumented workers.) Despite his pledge to adopt REAL ID by 2010, you have to think that Martin O’Malley is hoping to have Hillary or Barack bail him out by gutting the program as their first payback to Latino (and prospective Democrat) voters. Why else would it take two years?

    Starting after Tuesday’s primary, it’ll be time for me to get into studying what’s going on with our General Assembly. Rest assured HB367/SB203 will be one I look at.

    Author: Michael

    It's me from my laptop computer.

    One thought on “A shift in adult education”

    Comments are closed.