The Unseen Casualties of the Budget War: California Adult Schools
by Danny Weil
You’ve heard about the severe budget cuts to K-12 schools, and you’ve probably seen countless stories about the dire straits colleges and universities are in. Chances are, you don’t know much about the schools that have been hit the hardest:California’s adult schools.
About 10% of adult schools have already closed, and about 15% more have been cut 50%-90%. That’s about 25% of adult schools that have had their funds cut by half or more. The “lucky” ones have only been cut by about 30%. There are numerous developments that could eliminate adult schools altogether, and more threats coming all the time.
So what’s so great about adult schools? Adult schools help students obtain high school diplomas and equivalents, provide job training, teach English, literacy, and citizenship, provide education for the handicapped, help seniors stay active and connected with their community, and a lot more. And they provide all of these services at a much lower cost per student than other types of schools.
Before the cuts, adult schools served about 1.8 million students. Today, they serve about 700,000.
Arnie’s Union Busting Express Visits Sacramento-Meets with Rhee & School Superintendents And Exclusive Screening of movie “Won’t Back Down”
by Danny Weil
SEIU Nationally And In California Colluding With “trigger laws” And NEA Pres Lauds “Won’t Back Down” 9/15/2012 by Steve Zeltzer lvpsf@igc.org In the midst of a major strike by Chicago CTU teachers against privatization and the targeting of publicschools and education...
