Research Note      May 16, 2004

The Adult Education and Literacy System of America: Separate and Still Unequal

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

On May 17, 1954 the U. S. handed down the decision known as Brown v Board of Education that struck down the prevailing idea that schools could be separate for black children so long as they were equal to the schools for white children. It was held that such an arrangement was inherently discriminatory and conducive to radical differences in the education that black and white children receive. This May 17, 2004 the nation is looking at the changes that have been made in public education since Brown v Board of Education and finding that many of the hoped for changes have not been forthcoming. Segregation of education for whites and minorities is once again a growing reality.

Adult Literacy Education: Separate and Still Unequal

In 1964, the War on Poverty was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson and created the Adult Basic Education program for undereducated, functionally illiterate, adults. In 1966 the ABE law was changed to the Adult Education Act of 1966 and the program was shifted fully to the U. S.
Department of Education where it had in fact been previously administered.
In 1964, and again in 1966, the program for adult education and literacy development was grossly under-funded compared to the funding of K-12 programs. This persists to the present time, some 40 years after the 1964 War on Poverty was declared.

Poverty Level Funding

Today, combined federal and state funding per enrollee in adult education and literacy development is less than $900 per student, in contrast to over $6500 per K-12 student and $16000 for a higher education student.

Undesirable Facilities

Facilities for adult literacy students are largely separate from those for
K-12 and higher education, including community colleges, and are without the basics of a quality education, including libraries, laboratories for learning the science on the General Education Development (GED) tests, computer labs with up-to-date equipment, and even books that students can take home, write in and retain for follow-up study. Adult educators frequently have to find their own facilities, perhaps a back room in a library, a room with a bare light bulb and a weathered blackboard behind a church, a former kitchen turned into a teaching room and other makeshift facilities way separate from public schools and not at all equal to even the most disappointing of K-12 and higher education settings.

Devoted But Underprepared Teachers and Tutors

The instructional staffs in the adult education and literacy system are made up primarily of part-time teachers and even greater numbers of volunteer tutors who are not specially educated and trained in educational methodologies, psychological testing and assessment, cognitive science foundations of education and learning, instructional curriculum design and development, and other aspects of educational training that can help in meeting the needs of adult literacy learners, who are frequently among the most difficult to educate learners in the nation.

Tyring to "Fix" Kids While Leaving Parents in Limbo

Today, billions upon billions of federal, state and local dollars are put into the hands of pre-school and in-school educators to provide "compensatory" education to the children of parents who are so destitute that they cannot even take the time to engage in adult literacy education.
Yet over and over again we are told that the educational successes of the children that we are spending tens of billion upon are largely determined by the educational and economic success of the children's parents.

But knowing this, we still do not seem to feel that we should strive to provide an Adult Education and Literacy System which, while separate from the K-12 system and higher education systems, should still be equal in funding, facilities, instructional staff, and social acceptance as the systems for K-12 and higher education. For some little understood (by me) reason, after forty years we still consider it socially justified to maintain the Adult Education and Literacy System in America in a grossly unequal status from our other major education systems.

Perhaps someday there will be a Brown v Board of Education decision by the U. S. Supreme Court for the Adult Education and Literacy System. Who knows, a strong, well-funded, mainstream, Adult Education and Literacy System might serve to unleash the social, political and economic potential of millions of adults, and it might even contribute to eventually making Brown v Board of Education a success, too.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht@aznet.net

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