Dear CCAE members,

I need to let you know that health and family challenges will sideline me for the next several months. Eventually these challenges will undoubtedly be worked through successfully, but meanwhile I find it necessary to resign my position as Executive Director of the California Council for Adult Education.

Eighteen months ago I became part of the CCAE leadership team, and what an exciting time period it has been. Collectively, our tenacious and talented CCAE members have progressed in their mission to save K-12 adult education, and we have made significant advances towards the goal of revitalizing our professional organization. Thanks to grass roots efforts, strong legislative advocacy, and the initiative of CCAE members, we have much to celebrate and notable reasons for optimism:

• Maintenance of effort legislation significantly reduced adult school program shrinkage
• Approximately 240 adult schools are now involved in the Regional Consortia process
• Members are charging ahead with implementation of the Call to Action plan
• Grassroots advocacy groups have sprung up in many parts of the state
• Legislator are perhaps more aware than ever of the need for basic adult education  
• CCAE membership increased by 12.75%, after 7 years of decline
• Institutional Membership is up 13%
• CCAE's stronger budget enables us to purchase additional PR and advocacy services  
• Participation in staff development, awards and social events has increased
• More members are volunteering for leadership roles
• The Communicator and CCAE website are better than ever and receiving more traffic
• Almost all CCAE procedures and protocols have been reviewed and updated
• Hundreds of new friendships and collaborations have developed among members  

What a joy to have been part of CCAE during this exciting period. Thanks to your work, the stage is being set for a gradual renaissance in California adult education. Long live CCAE!   Long live K-12 adult education!

Contributed by Dawn Keopke Legislative Advocate

Full Court Press to Save Adult Education Underway, Share Your Efforts and Progress Today!

As the Legislature works to wrap up its 2014 session, we are well in the midst of our full court press to impact the Governor's January budget proposal to ensure it is workable and protects K-12 adult schools.  As part of that effort, we have taken on a number of efforts at the state level and have provided a host of activities for you to undertake at the local level. In this regard, however, we do not have a good sense of the level of engagement and completion of activities at the local level (i.e. NASCAR letters).  It would be helpful for us, at the state level, to receive an update from the field on the status of your efforts. Please send such updates to Dan Garcia (Montebello) for CAEAA, at Garcia_Dan@montebello.k12.ca.us, and CCAE's office at membership@ccaestate.org.  

Also, thanks to the great work of our CCAE and CAEAA State Legislative Chairs,  Joanne Durkee and Bob Harper, we have crafted a draft letter for you to have your superintendent sign and send to the Governor.  It is important that each of your superintendents are engaged and supportive of our efforts to protect K-12 adult schools and the benefits they provide to their K-12 students and community overall.  Prior to even releasing the letter, we've already received commitments from superintendents across the state to sign such a letter and work with their colleagues across the state to do the same. We hope you'll convince your superintendent to do the same!

Of note, the timeline is short to meaningfully affect the front-end of the proposal the Department of Finance (DOF) is currently crafting. We anticipate DOF to finalize their draft proposal to take to the Governor for approval, by October 1st.  In this regard, we have the best opportunity to impact the proposal if our voices are heard loud and strong by then. Get your letters in today!

In addition to focusing on obtaining such support, we are continuing our efforts to impact the proposal, in Sacramento. We have engaged the key decision makers on all sides - Administration, Legislature, Department of Education, and stakeholders.  Those conversations are ongoing as we continue to craft the details of our proposal. As a matter of fact, I have a series of meetings already scheduled, in the next week, to meet with representatives from the California Teachers Association (CTA), California Federation of Teachers (CFT), California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO), Department of Finance, and more. 

We're working hard in Sacramento and hope you are doing the same at the local level. More to come soon, including some new "activities."  In the meantime, please keep us posted on your activities. Thank you - strength in numbers!

SB 173 (Liu) Passes Legislature

In the final week of the 2015 Legislative Session, the Legislature approved SB 173 by Senator Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) on a bipartisan vote. 

As amended in the final weeks of session, the bill would require the Department of Education (CDE) and the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO), as part of the report and recommendations required the regional consortia, as specified, to jointly develop and issue guidelines and policy recommendations to the Legislature regarding adult education in the areas of assessment, performance accountability, and fee policies; and, requires that the CCCCO and CDE annually report on the number and types of adult education courses being taught, including noncredit courses, and the number of students being served. 

As previously noted, amendments taken in the Assembly delete the provisions to reduce the categories of adult education course offerings, delete legislative intent language regarding the allocation of funding, modify and clarify reporting requirements and dates in order to reduce costs.

The bill will now go to the Governor for his consideration by September 30th.  

CCAE 2015 Conference  

Napa Valley Earthquake