A week or two ago, the Illinois House passed an Appropriations Bill that eliminates funding for Adult Education and Family Literacy. With $0.00 for Adult Education in the budget, all Adult Education programs in Illinois will close and the 118,000 people enrolled in ESL, GED, tutoring, basic computer skills, etc classes would no longer receive services, including the folks at my lovely, little place of employment, the Albany Park Community Center. On June 20, it's pretty likely that I'll be laid-off, as well.
Progress Illinois has a nice summary of the consequences of such cuts.
However, as responsible members of our community, there are some small things we can do. Get your Illinois legislators on the horn:
You can find your local representatives' phone numbers by typing in your address here. When you call, tell the staffer who answers that you want to offer an opinion on an issue. They're prepared for this. They'll ask for you name and address. You can tell them that you would like Senator X or Representative Z or Governor Quinn to support a state budget that includes funding for ICCB and Adult Education. They should not support any sort of budget that eliminates ICCB or Adult Education funding.
The APCC is immensely important to me, and all of this has been quite hard.
Progress Illinois has a nice summary of the consequences of such cuts.
However, as responsible members of our community, there are some small things we can do. Get your Illinois legislators on the horn:
You can find your local representatives' phone numbers by typing in your address here. When you call, tell the staffer who answers that you want to offer an opinion on an issue. They're prepared for this. They'll ask for you name and address. You can tell them that you would like Senator X or Representative Z or Governor Quinn to support a state budget that includes funding for ICCB and Adult Education. They should not support any sort of budget that eliminates ICCB or Adult Education funding.
The APCC is immensely important to me, and all of this has been quite hard.
Without state funding, awesome things like this will no longer happen.No more Thursday pajama parties??!!?? WTF?
These people feel like my family, and I'm really not ready to leave.
2 comments:
Linzo,
I'm really sad to hear this. You mentioned this in the car, and self-centered me totally forgot about it. I'll call tomorrow, and spread the word!
-LD/P
Thanks, Dude. We're all trying to keep our chins up and do our jobs well for as long as they last!
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