New York, NY —
New York education advocates have been leading a national fight to restore funding for adult literacy programs. The Bush Administration wants to slash the national budget for GED and English classes by 64 percent. In June the House voted to restore the funds but advocates say the senate could still cut the programs and they still feel threatened. WNYC’s Cindy Rodriguez took a look at one program and what it has to offer.
REPORTER: At La Guardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens dozens of immigrant students are in English class, looking at a painting.
TEACHER: What is the difference between these two paintings? The colors, the light colors
REPORTER: They practice their vocabulary by speaking about art. 34 year old Amado Castillo comes here right before he heads to his full time job as a parking attendant in Manhattan. During class he explains what he likes best about Renoir’s painting of the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris:
CASTILLO: One thing that caught my attention was that the painter sends his brother to delay people while they crossing the bridge to capture the appearance.
REPORTER: Castillo is from Mexico and says when he first came to New York 9 years ago, learning English was not a priority because he did not plan to stay long. But that’s changed and now he says he would like to follow his brother’s example:
CASTILLO: My brother came to La Guardia. He learned to speak English and then he went to city college and he is assistant engineer right now. He opened his own business two years ago and he’s doing ok.
REPORTER: Castillo’s brother is a success story but according to the federal government there are not enough of those... or at least it’s hard to measure success for the officials who help pay for the programs. C. Todd Jones is Deputy Secretary for Budget and Strategic accountability.
CASTILLO: And then there is a category of results are not demonstrated and one of the problems with the federal program in this area is that local programs don’t have measures that are valid across the country for demonstrating that their local programs are effective.
REPORTER: The New York State Department of Education receives $42 million dollars for adult literacy from the federal government. $26 million of it goes to New York City. The money is spread among dozens of community groups, libraries, schools, and local unions who altogether served about 56-thousand students last year. The Bush proposal would likely reduce the city’s pot of money to $8.3 million dollars…This means Castillo’s class probably would be cancelled. Mae Dick is Director of Adult Literacy at La Guardia Community College:
DICK: I would say that I would have to cut back by at least half the number of students that I would serve…
REPORTER: Already there are about 10,000 names on waiting lists for English classes throughout the city. At La Guardia – part of the CUNY system -- it can take students up to a year to get into a class. Mae Dick says her program is working and she has submitted results to the Department of Education for years:
DICK: I can tell you for example in fiscal year 04 we had 141 GED recipients and to me that’s an extremely significant accomplishment.
REPORTER: The White Houses office of management and budget remains unconvinced. C. Todd Jones says the statistics that are available still show people are not getting their GED’s and learning English fast enough.
But experts in the field argue there are some achievements that just can’t be measured
Amado Castillo’s teacher says her art lesson was in preparation for a trip to the Metropolitan Museum. Most had never been. She says immigrants who don’t speak English isolate themselves and miss out on all the city has to offer. Castillo says he’s also learned a lot of history in his English classes:
CASTILLO: I didn’t know anything about slavery and now I know lots about slavery time. We learn about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and we also learn about …the African American history. I like it…The more I learn the more I like.
REPORTER: A Senate Committee is expected to vote on whether to fully fund the programs or to make cuts later this month. For WNYC: I’m Cindy Rodriguez.