By Jennifer Gonzalez

Washington

In preparation for debate expected next year over legislation to renew the Workforce Investment Act, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education is holding a series of "community conversations" around the country.

The goal is to solicit recommendations from a range of stakeholders whose work is directly affected by the federal work-force law. On Thursday, the conversation series came to Washington. About 50 people, including representatives from literacy, correctional-education, and workforce-development groups, took part.

One recommendation echoed by several speakers was better alignment between federal education and labor programs. Job seekers who receive occupational training are not always referred to adult-education services, such as courses in basic reading, writing, and mathematics.

Linking work-force development and adult basic education would provide people with an opportunity for dual enrollment, which could greatly enhance their prospects for employment, work-force advocates said.

Speakers also expressed concern about the lack of attention to adult basic education in the United States, with some of them advocating that more dollars be spent in that endeavor.

"Unless we get this right, adult education won't survive in the next 10 years," said Forrest P. Chisman, executive vice president at the Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy.

There was also great interest expressed in strengthening the career-pathway system, including a call for new, designated federal grants. The money would support local implementation of new policies and practices intended to increase student success across a wide range of education and training partners in a career pathway.

Other recommendations included eliminating the "sequence of services" provision to allow individuals to immediately access needed services; clarifying that federal work-force-investment money can be used in conjunction with Pell Grants to ensure that low-income students receive the full support they need to succeed in training; authorizing annual appropriations for adult education of $1-billion or more; and creating a separate money stream for the operation of one-stop centers.

The work-force law was created in 1998 to encourage public-private partnerships to modernize work-force-development services and serve at-risk youth, undereducated and unemployed adults, youth and adults with disabilities, and English-language learners.

The law has essentially lain dormant since 2003, when it expired, although Congress continues to appropriate money based on the current version. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed versions of bills to reauthorize the law in 2006, but legislators never convened a House-Senate conference to iron out their differences, and the bills died.