The ugly face of privatization and financialization are not turned solely at our nation’s youth. The loaded guns also have their sites set on doing away with adult public education.

Going back to school to sharpen your skills, take the class you always wanted, develop your potential, become a better citizen by sharpening your critical thinking skills, this is all on the chopping block which is also the ‘auction block’ in privatization circles.

You can help! Get involved. If you know an adult who is going back to school or thinking about it, tell him or her to attend the June 12th meeting to fight privatization and the decimation of education for adults.

W.E.B. Dubois said it best: “The role of education is not just make carpenters out of men, but to make men out of carpenters”.

I am sure now with women struggling for recognition and human rights, Dubois would have mentioned them in paticularity as well. Education is a human right and this must be hammered home to the child abusers known as ‘reformers’ for if not, they will steal all of our public commons and commodify it all with a toll booth for access to basic human rights like education.

The message is clear: we do not just go to school to earn but to learn. However, this rigged capitalist system is constructed in such a way that the youth will now be handcuffed and the old trampled in a society of no expectations and no jobs as we enter into the neo-digital darks ages.

You can make a difference!

San Mateo Adult School San Mateo Union High School District

789 E. Poplar Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94401

Office (650) 558-2101 ● Fax (650) 762-0232

Lawrence Teshara, Director

Tim Doyle, Asst. Director/Admin. Services

Fred Thompson, Asst. Director/Instr. Services

Adult Schools Face Extinction

Press Conference To Be Held

What: Press conference by adult educators

When: Tuesday June 12, 10:30 AM

Where: San Mateo Adult School

Why: Adult schools have received devastating cuts and face total elimination if Governor Brown’s Weighted Student Formula is adopted as is. Adult schools must be taken out of this formula and given their own funding

Who: Adult educators and students from Los Angeles, Oakland, Berkeley, Campbell, San Mateo, and more

Contact Information

Informational questions: Tim Doyle, assistant director

650-280-7924

[email protected]

Press conference organization: Bruce Neuburger, press conference organizer, teacher

415 -235-6918

[email protected]

School website: www.smace.org

Address: 789 E. Poplar Ave.

San Mateo, CA 94401

June 12, San Mateo – The entire California adult school system faces destruction due to changes in the state budget and school funding. Adult school funds can now be used for other programs (Flexibility), and Governor Brown’s current budget proposal includes a new funding formula (Weighted Student Formula) that would eliminate dedicated funding for adult schools entirely. Adult schools need dedicated funding restored.

Five million adults in California don’t have high school diplomas.

7 million adults lack English proficiency.

Half of all children in California have at least one immigrant parent.

One third of California high school youth drop out before graduation.

2 million adult education students in 2009; 1 million today

Adult schools provide vital services to the community that students cannot get elsewhere, all on a surprisingly small budget. Our students are those who want to complete their high school education, prepare for college, obtain new job skills, learn or improve their English language skills, learn to be better parents, or maintain their health and fitness as older adults. Adult schools are needed more than ever, yet they are disappearing.

Adult schools used to receive dedicated funds. In response to the recession in 2008, the legislature introduced Flexibility. This has allowed school districts, facing cuts to other programs, to take money from their adult schools. Districts across the state have taken up to 90% of their adult school money, and many have closed their adult schools entirely.

The Los Angeles adult school system, by far the largest in the state with well over 200,000 students, may close this year. If not, it will receive devastating cuts. In either case, this alone could be the death knell for adult schools in California.

If Flexibility and the demise of LA Adult School do not eliminate adult schools in California, the Governor’s Weighted Student Formula will. While we support the idea of providing additional funding for the state’s neediest children, this proposal benefits some children by depriving others, and does so by taking money away from adults who need further education to improve their lives, care for their families, and revitalize their communities.

Studies show that more literate parents produce more successful children. Yet this funding system creates a divisive and destructive conflict between children’s schools and adult schools, even though their goals are complementary. Adult schools need to be taken out of Weighted Student Formula and out of Flexibility. We need a dedicated funding stream in order to continue providing crucial services, and we urge our representatives to oppose any budget that eliminates our funding.

About San Mateo Adult School

San Mateo Adult Education is a school of 2,000 ADA, and over 14,000 annual enrollments. We are a service of the San Mateo Union High School District to the communities of San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame, Hillsborough, San Mateo, and Foster City. We are committed to fulfilling the mandate of Adult Education in California by directing resources to serving those traditionally underserved; especially those disadvantaged economically or academically.



