Adult Education Budget Information

I am pleased to announce that the Council on Postsecondary Education staff budget recommendation includes funding for local Kentucky Adult Education programs as part of the Council’s number one funding priority. 

The recommendation includes a $4 million increase for the 2008-10 biennium, escalating adult education funding from $25 million in the current fiscal year to $29 million for 2009-10, a 16 percent increase.

The Council will discuss and act upon the recommendation at its November 5 meeting in Frankfort.  Copied below is the narrative regarding adult education. To read the entire Council budget recommendation, click on the links below. 

Adult Education Funding Program

• As part of a statewide imperative to double the number of working-age Kentuckians with a bachelor’s degree by 2020, the Council has charged Kentucky Adult Education (KYAE) with increasing the GED productivity from 9,281 in 2007 to 15,000 in 2020 and with increasing a GED postsecondary transition rate to 36 percent by 2020. In response to these aggressive goals, KYAE staff developed a new framework for adult education, which places more emphasis on quality student learning outcomes, more flexibility in providing adult education services, higher performance expectations, and new opportunities for local programs to earn additional funding based on student outcomes.
  
• This program funding is requested for the biennium to continue and enhance program services related to adult education programs statewide.
  
• Funding will be allocated to county programs through grants for adult education services geared toward completion of GED, workforce/employment initiatives, basic literacy, participation and engagement in adult learning opportunities, and transition of students into postsecondary education.
  
• The staff recommends that the Council request an appropriation of $27,026,000 in 2008-09 and $29,026,000 in 2009-10 for the Adult Education Funding Program. These amounts include additional budget requests of $2,000,000 in 2008-09 and 4,000,000 in 2009-10 over the 2007-08 General Fund appropriation to support increased service provision at local adult education programs located throughout Kentucky and facilitate attainment of the Council’s 2020 GED attainment goal.
  

Sarah Hindman Hawker