News!
The Importance of Adult Education
by Edward James Olmos
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California Council for Adult Education
Los Angeles Metropolitan Section
News Update - November 2010
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Message from LA Metro President, Candace Lee
With our new Governor in place and a new State Superintendent, Tom Torlakson, we wait to hear what will happen to school budgets and how adult education will be affected. Jeff Frost, our CCAE lobbyist has addressed a number of issues below as a result of the election.
Message from Jeff Frost,
Legislative Lobbyist
November 2 – The Good, The Bad…and the Ugly
Yesterday's election has given us Jerry Brown for a third term and give the Democrats the ability to pass the 2011-12 budget with a majority vote. That is the good news.
The bad news is that the voters approved Proposition 22 which restricts the legislature's ability to raid local government funds in order to balance the state's budget. The voters also passed Proposition 24 which allows the tax breaks from 2009-10 budget to go through and also passed Proposition 26 which makes charging fees a 2/3 vote requirement. What this means is that without taxes, the legislature will undoubtedly look toward Prop 98 funds as their budget balancer.
Now for the ugly. Now the Democrats can pass a budget by themselves (with full political accountability for the outcome) but have very few options with which to raise revenue to make the 2011-12 budget anything but a horrible all-cuts budget. Additionally, the Governor-Elect campaigned on a platform that any new taxes would have to be approved by a vote of the people.I see no appetite for new taxes among the state's voters. Mr. Brown has also been talking about the need to return control to the local level. Exactly what that means is not yet certain but it might not be good for a stand alone adult ed program funded by the state.
Where does this leave adult ed? In my view, the budget discussions over the next 18 months will be very difficult and result in additional Proposition 98 cuts. As we position ourselves for trying to get a portion of the adult education apportionment returned to adult education programs, we need to determine how to do this most effectively. The K-12 establishment will work hard to maintain and extend the current categorical flexibility. While the majority vote budget has given us new opportunities, it presents difficulties as well. It is not yet clear where Governor-elect Brown will be on categorical flex and what solutions he will suggest for balancing the budget.
In order to be successful, adult education leaders will need to do the following: 1) Use key folks in Oakland, Brigitte Marshall, Chris Nelson (and perhaps do so via Assembly member Swanson) to get access to Governor Brown in support of adult education, 2) develop a strong platform for reform of adult ed that is linked to job preparation and expansion, 3) develop allies such as the Get Real partnership that will fight in support of adult education and our legislative efforts, 4) mobilize Democratic legislators in support of freeing up at least one-half of the adult ed apportionment in 2011-12 and beyond, 5) begin a dialog with K-12 management groups to suggest a compromise that would give us a guaranteed portion of the adult funds in exchange for our support for some type of extension of categorical flexibility (remember the Dems now control the budget process exclusively), and 6) work to get CTA and CFT to support our efforts.
In order to be successful in 2011, I told everyone we would need Jerry Brown and Prop 25 to win. Both of those happened, but that is only the action that opens the door. We have a long way to go if we want to be successful. One final comment: in order to be successful we cannot over reach and our reforms must be targeted but not too expansive. We need to keep our eye on the real goal of incremental escape from categorical flexibility and only then should we look at broader program reform (the move to regional support centers, etc.), expansion and full autonomy.
I welcome comments and ideas.
- Jeff
2010 Fall Dinner Awards
This year's dinner honored the following classified personnel.
Carmen Caceres – Pacoima Skills Center
Maria Elena Castellon – Huntington Pk.-Bell CAS
Karen Holeman – Van Nuys CAS
Tere Perdomo – Venice-Emerson CAS
Leticia Solorio – Metropolitan SC
Mini-Grant Recipients are as follows
Selene Kurland – Harbor CAS
Angela Robinson – Abram Friedman OC
The E. Manfred Evans Award for service to CCAE-LA Metro went to Mike Wada, Fremont-Washington CAS.
World's Finest Chocolate Sale
Support our scholarship program with purchases of a chocolate bar for only $1. Half of your purchase supports our scholarships and we appreciate your help.
The Abram Friedman Award for an outside agency involved with adult education goes to Debra Pasquerette from the Geffin Playhouse
World's Finest Chocolate Sale Support our scholarship program with purchases of a chocolate bar for only $1. Half of your purchase supports our scholarships and we apprecia
Great American Online
If you are thinking about purchasing a magazine subscription, buy it through Great American. Your gift will also support our scholarships. Go to store.gafundraising.com to purchase your magazines as well as other gift items. Enter your Chapter ID and with every purchase you make, a portion is donated the CCAE Chapter.
• CCAE Central Chapter ID 1081314
• CCAE East Chapter ID 1079441
• CCAE South Chapter ID 1081272
• CCAE Valley Chapter ID 1081280
• CCAE West Chapter ID 1081306
Wishing everyone a happy holiday! Enjoy your break and you will hear from us in the Winter.
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For more information:
Click Here for Conference Flyer
or
Go to: www.ccaecoabe2011.com
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IMPORTANT DATES
1. Fall Awards Dinner
November 5, 2010
2. Legislative Day - Sacramento
March 7, 2011
3. State Conference - San Francisco with COABE
April 17 - 20, 2011
4. Spring Awards Dinner
June 3, 2012
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MESSAGE FROM LOS ANGELES METRO PRESIDENT,
Candace Lee
CCAE Members and Adult/Career Tech colleagues I welcome you back to the new 2010-11 school year. Our educational area has continued to see changes and cutback in the last two years. I plan to bring you quarterly updates on how CCAE is supporting all of you in the field. Remember that CCAE is an organization for teachers, classified employee as well as administrators. I look forward to communicating with you regularly in the upcoming year.
Mike Wada continues as CCAE’s State President for his second year. In 2009 the State Board decided that the executive officersmaintain their positions for two years in order to improve continuity in the program’s operations. The last year and this year the office of President is filled by LA Metro member, Mike Wada.
LA METRO MEMBERSHIP
The State Board has agreed to hire Bonney and Associates to handle our membership and mailing list. The decision was made in conjunction with the closing of our state office in Sacramento. The Board felt that our expenses had to be reduced and we needed to act in a fiscally prudent manner. Membership rosters were our highest priority and thus we hired a professional to manage this part of our organization.
Within the new few months, we hope to have an updated roster of all LA Metro members. We will also be asking you to update us with your email as well as a current address so we can be in contact with you.
Members, please ask your colleagues to join CCAE. We are an organization that focuses only on adult education. LA Metro has the largest voice of 900+ members. The second largest group is south Coast is consists of the Southern California area surrounding LAUSD.
I know we can do even better and thus I ask you to sign-up and use payroll deduction. For full-time teachers it is only $7.50/month for 10 months of the year. For classified staff, the payroll deduction is only $3.00/month.
MESSAGE FROM LOS ANGELES METRO
LEGISLATIVE CHAIR,
Philip Dwyer
Mike Wada, CCAE state President, is assisting Assemblymember Tony Mendoza with anti-gang training programs.
Cynthia Puralan-Colfer, of Hacienda-La Puente District will serve as State Leg Chair again this year.
CCAE lobbyist, Jeff Frost’s message is that CCAE should be expanding connections with the business community – and develop a larger network of alliances with businesses statewide.
It was recommended that there be a greater turn-out of our organizations (CCAE, ACSA, CAEAA) for at CDE Education sub-committee hearings that are held for public input. There are usually 3 such sub-committee hearings, 2 of which are in southern California.
Work is proceeding on the new Strategic Initiative Plan, which would influence adult education state-wide, and should come out in the fall.
Mike indicated that CDE is reconsidering piloting regional Transitional Work Centers, which are similar to One-Stop Centers, state-wide.
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CCAE - Los Angeles Metropolitan Section
invites you to participate in raising Student Scholarship Dollars
We have contracted with Great American Opportunites to set-up an online store for CCAE-LA Metro. Great American Opportunites is an online catalogue service that, since 1975, has helped schools and non-profit organizations all over the United States raise $750 million to reach their fund-raising goals.
Great American Online is a premier catalogue store that offers not only magazines (new subscriptions and/or renewals), but also a huge variety of wares and gift items that are pre-sorted into category ‘shops’ for your convenience. Items are shipped directly to you. There is also an option of sending gift orders! Who doesn’t like to get a present in the mail!
Each CCAE Chapter has been issued a unique log-in code number. Using this number insures that your support is credited to the scholarship fund for your chapter. Use your own name as the student name.
- CCAE Central Chapter ID 1081314
- CCAE East Chapter ID 1079441
- CCAE South Chapter ID 1081272
- CCAE Valley Chapter ID 1081280
- CCAE West Chapter ID 1081306
Please use your special log-in code to check out the website and show your support for CCAE!
Online Store – store.gafundraising.com
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