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- 2011 Literacy Texas Conference
- 2011 Literacy Texas GED Position Statement
- 2011 The Return on Investment (ROI) From Adult Education and Training
- 2011 Verizon Foundation Grant Funds Literacy Texas
- America’s Most Literate Cities, 2011
- Census Finds Houston Lags in Education
- Congratulations to the WorkReady! RFP Award Winners
- Four Community Programs Receive Funding From Literacy Texas
- GED 21st Century Initiative: Moving from GED® test to a career and college ready assessment system
- Interagency Literacy Council Literacy Texas Testimony
- Literacy Texas 2011 Adult Learner of the Year
- Literacy Texas 2011 Volunteer of the Year Award
- Literacy Texas Calendar
- LITERACY TEXAS CHAMPIONS OF LITERACY AWARD
- Literacy Texas Honored as One of the 50 Champions of Literacy
- Literacy Texas Partners with ProLiteracy for U.S. Conference on Adult Literacy
- National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2011
- Newsletters
- Reading is BIG in Texas
- Senate Funding Update from ProLiteracy
- TALAE Recognizes Literacy Texas Board Member, Jon Engel, as Texas Adult Education Admin of the Year
- The First Lady’s Family Literacy Initiative for Texas - Grant Competition Announcement
- Time Is the Enemy: An In Depth Look at College Graduation Rates
- What’s New
- WorkReady! Training Opportunity
Senate Funding Update from ProLiteracy
Earlier this week, a Senate subcommittee approved a FY ‘12 funding bill for education, health, and labor programs. There are several additional steps that will occur in the Senate and House before a final bill is signed into law by President Obama. We expect a series of short-term funding measures to be passed by Congress to keep the federal government operating before a final bill is approved — likely just before Thanksgiving.
Below is a brief outline of the Senate bill.
1. The Adult & Family Literacy Act (Title II of the Workforce Investment Act) is funded at the same level as FY ‘11 — $596 million. These funds flow through states to support local adult literacy and basic education programs at community colleges, school districts, and community-based organizations. It’s a major win that we were not cut!
2. A new “fund to improve education — family literacy initiative” is funded at $30 million; these are consolidated funds that were taken from several programs that were eliminated, including Even Start. It’s unclear how this competitive grant program will work or whether adult literacy programs will be eligible for funding.
3. Job training under Title I of the Workforce Investment Act is funded at the same level as FY ‘11 — $771 million. Funding for the Workforce Innovation Fund was reduced from $125 million to $100 million. This fund may be a source of grant support for programs that integrate job training with adult literacy and basic education.
4. AmeriCorps funding was slightly reduced from $349.3 million in FY ‘11 to $347.36 million in FY ‘12. This program had been threatened with elimination.
5. Policy rider language was passed on both Labor and Treasury programs that encourages grants that promote integration of job training with community-based adult literacy programs, and grants to support financial literacy initiatives at community-based adult literacy programs.
Your advocacy makes a difference! Congress has heard from our field that these programs are important to the lives of adult learners. Keep up the good work! To sign up for action alerts, become a literacy champion.
For more information go to http://www.proliteracy.org.
September 2011
