Lawrence Folks Visit Nation’s Capital to Gain Support for Local, National Education Programs
WASHINGTON– Members of the Lawrence community stopped by Congressman Martin T. Meehan’s office on Capitol Hill Thursday to gain support for educational programs.
Dawna Perez, who runs Lawrence Literacy Works, was here for a conference on adult literacy and wanted to brief Meehan, D-Lowell, about Lawrence’s effort to help immigrants learn English. Five language-based organizations came together under the umbrella of Lawrence Literacy Works, and pledged last year to work together to increase the number of English-as-a-second language courses offered in the community. Currently, Perez said, there are 1,573 people waiting to take a course, up from the 1,200 listed last May.
“And in the meantime, what are they doing?” she asked rhetorically.
Most of them are probably working low-wage jobs because they speak poor English, said Shaw Rosen, executive director of the Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board.
“People are stuck,” said Rosen, whose board is part of the literacy initiative. “They can’t be promoted.”
And with unemployment on the rise, Perez and Rosen say the classes are needed now more than ever. The community-based plan aims to add 60 courses over the next three years at an estimated cost of $2 million, Perez said. The short-term goal is to open five classes. Perez said she hoped Meehan would be able to point her in the right direction for federal and state grants.
“Adult literacy programs are critical in my district,” Meehan said, adding that nearly 42 percent of adults in Lawrence don’t have high school diplomas. “Proper funding for adult literacy programs is essential in educating adults who use English as a second language and helping them find jobs. In today’s economy, this is now more important than ever.”
While Perez met with Meehan, members of the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council headed to a conference on Head Start, the federally funded preschool program for low-income children. Under his fiscal year 2004 budget, President Bush wants to move the program from the Department of Health and Human Services to the
Department of Education, thereby giving states more control over the program.
Critics of Bush’s proposal say they fear that the health and social services components of Head Start would be lost for good because the president wants to replace the program’s traditional mission with an emphasis on literacy. Council members met with Meehan earlier Thursday to voice their concerns. Charles “Chick” Lopiano, assistant director of the Lawrence action council, said what Bush wants to do “would mean the end of Head Start as we know it.”
“If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” Lopiano said.
Meehan told the council members that he favors keeping Head Start where it is.
“Under HHS, Head Start receives an array of essential services… that prepare low-income children for kindergarten,” he said. “I fear the Department of Education does not have the experience nor the ability to provide some of these services.”
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
