-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REED. Mr. President, we have a longstanding adult literacy crisis that affects the quality of life for individuals and families and holds our economy back, and the latest international assessments show that it is only getting worse. It is time for a major expansion of adult education. Today, I am proud to introduce bipartisan legislation--the Adult Education Workforce Opportunity and Reskilling for Knowledge and Success Act--or the Adult Education WORKS Act--with my colleague Senator Young.

Adult education provides numeracy, literacy, digital literacy, English language skills, work readiness, soft skills, high school equivalency, and numerous wraparound services to millions of adult learners nationwide. These essential skills can make the difference between earning a family-sustaining wage and struggling to make ends meet. A study commissioned by the Barbara Bush Foundation estimated that getting all U.S. adults to the equivalent of a sixth grade reading level would generate an additional $2.2 trillion in annual income for the country. Without the opportunities provided through adult education programs, many adults will be left on the sidelines.

The latest results for U.S. adults on the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, PIAAC, are sobering. Between 2017 and 2023, literacy and numeracy skills sank, with the percentage of adults at the lowest performance levels increasing from 19 to 28 percent in literacy and from 29 to 34 percent in numeracy.

Building a sustainable economy that truly works for everyone is going to require helping these individuals acquire the basic skills they need to succeed. Unfortunately, we are reaching only a fraction of these individuals today. A recent study from the Adult Literacy and Learning Impact Network, found that over 80 percent of the adults surveyed indicated a strong or moderate interest in developing their skills, but only 20 percent reported knowing about existing programs in their communities. At current funding levels, the Department of Education reports that 1.1 million individuals were served, with over one-third of programs reporting waiting lists.

In my home State of Rhode Island, there are over 61,000 adults who could benefit from English language instruction and nearly 64,000 working-age adults without a high school credential. Yet, under current funding levels, the adult education program serves just over 5,100 individuals.

The Adult Education WORKS Act provides a roadmap for addressing this crisis. It calls for increased resources, nearly doubling funding for adult education by 2030. At the same time, it makes significant improvements to the adult education system. It calls for a new emphasis on digital and information literacy, which are essential for success in the workplace and in navigating everyday life. It enhances the role of adult education providers, with a special focus on public libraries and community-based organizations throughout the workforce development system, ensuring coordination and efficient use of resources. It invests in the professionalization of the adult education field, strengthening State certification policies, encouraging full-time staffing models, and expanding professional development opportunities and career pathways for adult educators. It provides support for college and career navigators in public libraries and community-based organizations to support adult learners where they live. Finally, it invests in innovation and accountability through pilot projects that test new approaches for measuring program performance and learner outcomes.

In developing this legislation, Senator Young and I worked closely with key stakeholders, who are on the frontlines in the adult education community. I am pleased to count the American Library Association, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Coalition on Adult Basic Education, the National Coalition for Literacy, National Skills Coalition, ProLiteracy, the TESOL, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, International Association, and the Urban Libraries Council among the supporters of this legislation.

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and work with us to ensure it is passed on its own or as part of legislation to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source