Adult Education
2011-2012 Legislative Platform

An estimated 1.7 million Michigan adults fall below a ninth grade level for reading and math, disqualifying them from access to post-secondary education and job training. For these adults to be self-supporting, they must first have access to community-based adult education, literacy and ESL programs. Over the past 20 years, Michigan has continued to cut funding for programs that serve this population, while the need has skyrocketed due to fewer low-skilled, high paying manufacturing jobs and the increasing demand for a highly skilled workforce.

Priorities:

• Continue funding for K-12 Adult Education programs under Section 107 of the K-12 School Aid Bill. These funds should continue to be explicitly designated for community-based K-12 programs that serve adult learners who fall below ninth-grade reading level.
  
  
• Direct federal adult education funding toward those adults who struggle the most. So far, these funds have only been directed to those who are accepted into post-secondary education and training programs. While MACAE fully supports lifelong opportunities for all, if adult learners who struggle the most do not have access to community-based adult education in order to qualify for post-secondary programs, they will continue to weigh down the State budget through social services and incarceration for generations to come.
  
  
• To encourage more collaboration between community-based K-12 adult education, literacy and ESL programs with post-secondary education and job training programs, provide incentive grants that enable local communities to design innovative partnerships that best suit the needs of the community and local economy.
  
• Caps limiting the number of FTEs per district that adult education programs had back in the 1990s have not been adjusted for nearly 20 years, while Michigan’s economy and needs have changed dramatically. The caps need to be adjusted to reflect today’s reality.
  

Align adult education exit guidelines with post-secondary and job training entry-level guidelines and adopt common assessment tools so that adult learners can more easily transition from one level to the next.