The Value of Adult Education

Editor's note: The following is an adapted excerpt from an op-ed piece I wrote for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette a few years ago. While it talks about Arkansas, the story is true for every state in the Union.

With all the pomp and circumstance of high school graduation almost upon us, we may forget those students who did not graduate.

The sad reality is that, even with the job market demanding advanced levels of education, at least one out of every five high school students who should be graduating this spring has dropped out. Their reasons are as varied as they are – family situations, illness, an undiagnosed learning disability, lack of basic academic skills, personal problems, boredom, unrealistic dreams, poor choices.

When they drop out, these students condemn themselves, and their future families, to a second-class life. Today’s college graduate will make $1 million more over a lifetime than a high school graduate, but the dropout, averaging less than $19,000 a year, won’t even make $1 million in a lifetime.

The number of adults who do not have a high school education is growing. In Arkansas alone, nearly a half-million residents over 18 have not finished high school. More than 170,000 of those don’t even have an eighth-grade education. And thousands more do not have the basic educational skills needed to be successful in today’s workplace.

Why should the rest of us care?

By addressing these needs, adult education increases the earning (and spending) power of these adults, which then comes back to the state through higher income and sales taxes. It also reduces the amount of public money -- your tax dollars -- that must be spent on welfare.

But instead of investing in adult education and workforce training, most states, and the federal government, continue to feed the welfare system. Arkansas is the only state that provides adults a free second chance at getting a high school education. While other states charge for GED classes and tests, about 6,500 Arkansans -- including prisoners -- receive their high school diploma by passing the free GED tests each year.

Under Gov. Mike Huckabee, the state went a step further by offering its residents on welfare free tuition to a two-year college and help with childcare and transportation. It was a win-win situation for the families and the state.

Real Solutions for Real People -- Education, Part 2

It shouldn't take a Ph.D. in education to understand why parental influence is more important to a child's academic success than any billion-dollar government program.

For one thing, most parents know their children better than any teacher could. They know what interests their children, what motivates them, what discourages them. They know their children's dreams as well as their limitations.

Educated parents who understand the importance of education will encourage their children to learn -- not just in school but from life itself. They will be there to teach their children, to guide them through homework assignments the kids don't understand, to explain difficult concepts in ways the teachers couldn't. They will whet their children's appetite for learning by reading and discussing books with them, by taking them to museums and historic sites, by watching and discussing television with them, etc.

The flip side is the parent who has limited education and doesn't understand the importance of a high school diploma, much less a college degree. They can't help their children with difficult homework assignments, putting their children at a disadvantage. If the parents have limited English abilities, they can't talk to their children's teachers or read the notes about registering their children for extracurricular activities that could ignite their children's interest in education.

I'm reminded of Roy, a Hispanic teenager I knew years ago. Even though his parents weren't truly migrants, Roy grew up in the federal migrant education program and participated in several other well-intentioned government education projects aimed at ethnic students. Roy wanted to be the first in his family to graduate from high school. He even started to think he could go to college. But when Roy turned 16, his father, a dropout himself, literally browbeat him into leaving school. The father told Roy repeatedly, "You're nothing but a dumb Mexican, and that's all you're ever going to be." Eventually, Roy believed his dad, dropped out of school and began working in the fields, giving his paycheck to his dad. Roy got married young, had children young and ended up in jail -- young.

In Roy's case, the influence of his father far outweighed any positive feedback he got from government education programs. Had the government wanted to save Roy, it should have focused on educating his father instead.

More on that tomorrow.

Real Solutions for Real People -- Education, Part I

Part of President Obama's spending plan includes $2.2 billion more for Head Start programs. Citing studies that show Head Start helps close the learning gap for children from low-income families, educators and politicans tout the program as a progressive way to improve educational opportunities for minorities and level the academic playing field.

Head Start began in 1964 as part of President Johnson's Great Society program. Although it has been around for nearly half a century, the program -- which last year had a federal budget of nearly $7 billion -- has made little dent in graduation rates, test scores and college attendance for low-income children. In fact, high school drop-out rates are actually increasing.

Why?

What the educators and politicians don't tell you is that the same studies have shown that the progress Head Start students achieve disappears by the time they reach junior high school. In fact, other national education programs -- like Jobs for America's Graduates, a program for high school students at risk of dropping out -- have found the biggest barrier to a kid's academic achievement is a parent who didn't graduate.

In other words, family values are more of a determining factor in a child's education than any multibillion dollar federal program.

So perhaps we've been approaching this problem backwards. Rather than pouring more and more money into Head Start, we should put that money into adult education programs in an effort to educate the parents and help them become the role models their children will follow.

In the World According to ...

In the world according to …

• 
  Perez Hilton, beauty pageant judge and self-proclaimed “gossip queen”: Only contestants who agree with me deserve the crown. All others need not enter. (http://omg.yahoo.com/news/perez-hilton-the-way-miss-california-answered-her-question-lost-her-the-crown/21528?nc)
• 
  Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain and new social media darling: Only the beautiful people should follow my tweets on Twitter. “Creepy people” like Karl Rove should stay off line. (http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/04/megan-mccain-karl-rove-is-a-tw.html)
• 
  Hillary Clinton, secretary of state and wannabe president: “Let’s put ideology aside; that is so yesterday” especially when it comes to embracing Hugo Chavez. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/world/americas/18diplo.html)
• 
  Barack Obama, president and celebrity-in-chief: “We showed that while we have our differences, we can -- and must -- work together in areas where we have mutual interests, and where we disagree we can disagree respectfully.” He said this in a news conference at the end of the Americas summit – you know, the one where he mugged with Hugo Chavez for the cameras, graciously accepted a book denouncing our country and sat, uncomplainingly, through a 50-minute tirade against the U.S. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Press-Conference-By-The-President-In-Trinidad-And-Tobago-4/19/2009/) A few days after saying he would “disagree respectfully” with the likes of Chavez (who, incidentally, came close to having some of our troops killed in international waters a few years ago), Obama opened the door to trying to criminally prosecute Bush administration officials with whom he disagreed.

Week of Enlightenment

This has been a week of enlightenment.

First, I was reminded of how much of my hard-earned money Uncle Sam lays claim to.

Then, I was informed that my father, one of my brothers and many of my uncles and cousins were potential terrorist threats because they were veterans. Oh, and Homeland Security will consider my son a threat when his military stent ends in a few years. Silly me, I was proud of him and considered him patriotic. For that matter, Capt. Phillips, who was freed this week from Somali pirates by Navy SEALS, was misguided enough to consider the military superheroes.

But Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security secretary, defended an "intelligence report" that classified veterans -- and people opposed to abortion -- as potential terrorists. When asked to retract that part of the report, Napolitano said, "It was an assessment, not an accusation." (In other words, she saw it as unarguable fact.) And in her "apology" a few days later, she apologized that veterans groups took offense at the assessment -- she did not apologize for the "assessment" itself. Perhaps President Obama should apologize for making her secretary of Homeland Defense and ask her to step down.

On a brighter note, I was reminded this week that dreams don't die with youth. Susan Boyle, who became an international superstar at 47, proved that in a matter of a few notes on "Britain's Got Talent." Much of her appeal is the realization she brought that regardless of our age, our looks, our financial or social status, we can live our dreams if we have confidence in our abilities, if we remain true to ourselves and if we are willing to face some disbelief and rejection.

So if you have some dreams that are simmering on the back burner, maybe it's time to bring them to a Boyle.

The True Dependency

No, we haven't abandoned the blog. Mom is trying to get over walking pneumonia, and I've been enjoying a lot of family time -- first with my kids and now with my "baby" brother and his family.

But on to the blog. In this past election, we heard a lot about the need to cut our dependence on foreign oil and, thus, the Middle East. The truth is that the majority of our foreign oil -- 70 percent by some accounts -- comes from Canada and Mexico.

Our biggest dependency is on -- drum roll -- China. We have virtually sold the heart of our country to China. Not only do we owe much of our national debt to China, we have sold this Communist country most of our manufacturing. And in relocating all of our manufacturing there, we have given this country virtually all of our intellectual property just for the counterfeiting.

Think about it. When's the last time you bought anything that wasn't made in China? Try buying a pair of children's or women's shoes not made in China. And the problem can't be blamed on Wal-Mart. Most of the stuff sold at Bloomingdale's, Nordstroms, L.L. Bean, etc., also is made in China. In fact, anything in the L.L. Bean catalog that doesn't say where it's made is a product of China.

We do not have to sit idly by and watch the rest of our industry go overseas. Here are some things you can do:

• Buy local as much as possible.
• Be aware of where the things you buy are made.
• When you're shopping, ask store personnel if they have anything not made in China.
• If you find products made elsewhere, thank the store personnel for stocking it.
• Write to your favorite stores or brands and ask for products not made in China.

Stress that this isn't about quality. Goodness knows, quality is a problem everywhere. This is about economic dependence and the future of our country.

Importance of the Secret Ballot -- Then & Now

If the rally we attended this past weekend is any indication, we will be hearing a lot in state and national campaigns about "card check" -- the so-called Employee Free Choice Act. This bill, introduced last month in both the House and the Senate, strips workers of the secret ballot process when it comes to unionizing. Instead of a secret ballot, union organizers would need only produce cards allegedly signed by a mere majority of the workers to turn an open shop into an airtight union shop. This bill has many people who value their freedom and their right to a secret ballot fighting mad.

Rep. George Miller of California is one of the House sponsors of card check. In introducing the bill, he said: "The current process for forming unions is badly broken and so skewed in favor of those who oppose unions, that workers must literally risk their jobs in order to form a union.... Even when employers don't break the law, the process itself stacks the deck against union supporters. The employer has all the power.... The Employee Free Choice Act would add some fairness to the system ."

But a few years ago, Miller was one of 16 congressmen who lectured union organizers in Mexico on the importance of the secret ballot: "As members of Congress of the United States who are deeply concerned with international labor standards and the role of labor rights in international trade agreements, we are writing to encourage you to use the secret ballot in all union recognition elections. We understand that the secret ballot is allowed for, but not required, by Mexican labor law. However, we feel that the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose" (emphasis added).

I'll let you draw your own conclusions. But suffice it to say that President Obama, who first introduced this legislation two years ago when he was a senator, owes a heavy campaign debt to the unions -- as do many of the sponsors of this misguided legislation.

Mexico, by the way, now requires a secret ballot.

Source: Congressional Record, March 1, 2009