State budget cuts, combined with more spending flexibility for school districts, are reducing adults’ options for learning English, earning their GED or high school diploma, and training for jobs.
California adult education programs have changed dramatically over the last three years, with 22 of the state’s 30 largest school districts making major cuts to adult programs and one district eliminating adult education completely, according to a new report.
“Adult schools find themselves in a very difficult position,” said Louis Freedberg, executive director of EdSource, the education nonprofit that produced the report. “They kind of fall between the cracks of the K-12 system and the higher education system.”
Lawmakers in 2009 gave school districts more power to determine how to spend state funds to help them deal with budget cutbacks, but that flexibility has led districts to direct money away from adult education programs to protect their core population of K-12 students, Freedberg said.
“In most of the last several decades, when California didn’t have a budget deficit, there were funds to support these programs,” he said. “Now, in a time of scarcity, these programs are at greatest risk.”
The Anaheim Un…………… continues on Sacramento Bee
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Survey findings: Action sought against schools with over 50 per cent …
News from The Express Tribune:
700 schools have been found expelling poor performers for better results.
700 schools have been found expelling poor performers for better results.
FAISALABAD:
The education secretary has ordered action against high schools with more than 50 per cent drop out rate.
The directive follows a survey finding that 700 high schools have been expelling students with poor performance ahead of annual examinations to ensure ‘good performance’.
A circular issued to district education department offices mentions that the survey was carried out after a number of complaints were received from parents of children expelled ahead of the annual exams.
It said the complainants accused the schools of expelling students whose performance was relatively poor to ensure that the school’s performance at board exams. It quoted parents of these students as saying that in some cases their enrollment had been cancelled just before the examination without any prior notification.
The circular said that show-cause notices should be issued to the schools identified by the department and a probe initiated in the matter.
Of the 700 schools identified in the survey, 49 schools are in Faisalabad district.
The Faisalabad executive…………… continues on The Express Tribune
