February 10, 2012
Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:
ELIMINATION OF ADULT EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES
The economic and educational success of all Californians in the 21st century is a goal stated succinctly within the California Department of Education’s (CDE) newly crafted mission statement:
California will provide a world-class education for all students, from early childhood to adulthood. The Department of Education serves our state by innovating and collaborating with educators, schools, parents, and community partners. Together, as a team, we prepare students to live, work, and thrive in a highly connected world.
It is our goal at the CDE to consider the “whole student” in our daily work of providing technical assistance and oversight of the multitude of state and federal programs we are responsible to administer. As such, we consider adult education a vital and integral part of the entire educational spectrum.
It is through adult education that the parents of the students within our kindergarten through grade twelve (K–12) schools can gain the education and literacy skills necessary to better their personal situations, thus benefiting all of California. It is here that they can advance in their own careers, obtain the skills for gainful employment, and become better parents and more active participants in our communities.
Documentation shows that with minimal fiscal resources, adult education still produces long term and far reaching benefits. Research has proven over and over again that children of educated and active adults are more successful and more engaged in their education. The benefits of a strong and dynamic adult education program are a priceless asset for all the districts that have built and supported it over the 155 years of its existence.
In these tight fiscal times, I urge all superintendents and district boards of education to consider this invaluable asset. Look hard at the benefits in adult education’s high school recovery programs, teaching English literacy to the 26 percent foreign-born Californians that presently make up our population, and the opportunities and tax dollars that could be generated if the 5.4 million adults without a diploma or GED were able to advance in their employment.
We hope that you execute deep research and evaluation of the benefits of adult education before you consider eliminating opportunities for students by sweeping up the adult education funds. Once a program such as this is dismantled, the extensive infrastructure and work that has gone into building this program cannot be readily recovered.
If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact Patricia Terry, Education Administrator I, Adult Education Office, by phone at 916-322-2175 or by e-mail at PTerry@cde.ca.gov.
Sincerely,
Tom Torlakson
TT:gj
cc: Vernon M. Billy, Executive Director, California School Boards Association
Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:
PRETEEN VACCINE WEEK—FEBRUARY 12–18, 2012
I am writing to inform you of Preteen Vaccine Week, a statewide immunization campaign spearheaded by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Immunization Branch that promotes adolescent health check-ups and immunizations for children eleven and twelve years old.
As part of this effort, the CDPH Immunization Branch releases an annual Preteen Vaccine Week Campaign Kit. The kit contains sample messages and templates in the first two sections and features educational materials for schools in the third section.
These educational activities are designed so anyone, even people with little to no immunization background, can successfully conduct them. Teachers interested in preventing diseases can easily incorporate these engaging activities into their lesson plans. This year’s kit is available on the CDPH Preteen Vaccine Week Web page at
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/immunize/Pages/PreteenVaccineWeek.aspx (Outside Source). It is customized for the promotion of Assembly Bill 354, a new school law that requires all incoming seventh graders to meet the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination requirement before starting the 2012–13 school year and all future school years. Additional resources related to AB 354 can be found on the Shots for School Web site at http://www.shotsforschool.org/ (Outside Source).
I urge you to take advantage of these resources and encourage your schools to utilize them.
Preteen Vaccine Week serves as an opportune reminder that adolescents need to be immunized, not only to meet the new whooping cough vaccination requirement, but also to protect them against the ongoing threat of disease in our schools.
If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact Rebeca Boyte, Health Educator, CDPH, by phone at 510-620-3762 or by e-mail at Rebeca.Boyte@cdph.ca.gov; or Linda Davis-Alldritt, School Nurse Consultant, CDE Coordinated School Health and Safety Office, by phone at 916-319-0284 or by e-mail at ldavisal@cde.ca.gov.
Sincerely,
Tom Torlakson
TT:lda