RE: Adult Education

In response to Al Wilson's comment, I would invite you to re-read the recommendations pertaining to adult education in the draft Master Plan.  First, it DOES NOT propose to move all adult education to the community colleges.  It proposes to transfer ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY to the community colleges, continuing the mixed delivery system that now exists.  I frankly have been shocked by the misrepresentation of the MP recommendation by adult education providers in the K-12 sector and the declaration, in some cases, that K-12 schools will simply not deliver services or make their facilities available to serve adults if administrative responsibility were placed with the community colleges.  This attitude does not seem focused on students at all.  The goal is to reduce redundant administrative structures that drain resources that could otherwise be directed to direct student services.

The second recommendation in the draft Plan seeks to achieve reciprocity of treatment for adult education providers attached to the K-12 sector and those attached to the community colleges.  This too, has been met with resistance.  The goal with this recommendation is to eliminate the artificial separation in status of professional educators providing essentialy the same services to a similar population of students and, as a consequence, remove some of the obstacles to alignment and articulation of courses for adult students who choose to continue their education.

I invite you and other adult education providers to assist us in thinking constructively about ways to achieve the intended objectives, to better serve the huge numbers of California adults who want educational services, and to do so in a cost effective manner.