A resolution expressing support for designation of the week of October 18, 2009, as National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 707) expressing support for designation of the week of September 13, 2009, as Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I request 5 legislative days during which Members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on House Resolution 707 into the Record.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 707, a bill that supports the designation of the week of October 18 as Adult Education and Family Literacy Week.

Adult education and family literacy programs provide millions of Americans with the skills they need to lead productive lives, boost their academic achievements, and engage in the workforce and earn a living. Adult Education and Family Literacy Week recognizes the impact that adult education and family literacy programs have on our Nation's adult learners and their families in the next generation.

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, there are approximately 90 million adults nationwide who lack the literacy skills to reach their full potential. Approximately 30 million of these individuals are at the lowest rudimentary levels of literacy.

Adult education programs work with these individuals as well as new immigrants striving to learn English, to help them gain and retain jobs, transition to postsecondary education or a training program, read to their own children, and fully participate in their own education and obtain the English language skills necessary to succeed in their new home country. These programs emphasize basic skills such as reading, writing, math, English language competency, and problem-solving techniques.

It is important to recognize that the supply of adult education and family literacy services has lagged significantly behind the growing demand. In my home State of Colorado, an estimated 585,000 adults, or 18 percent of the State's population over 16 years of age, have not attained a high school diploma or equivalent and are not enrolled in school. Yet in school year 2007-2008, adult literacy programs have provided slots for less than 15,000 individuals, 79 percent of whom were between the ages of 19 and 44. More than half of the participants were unemployed, and more than two in three of those served were Latino.

At over 100 sites around the State, our critical programs provide adult basic education, adult secondary education and English as a second language to Colorado's most-in-need population, helping adult learners and their families to break the cycle of illiteracy and move toward self-sufficiency. In the 2007-2008 school year, 2,500 students earned their high school diploma or GED and almost 10,000 adults received English as a second language services.

Family literacy programs work with parents without a high school diploma or GED and their young children to help break cycles of illiteracy and poverty that plague some of our Nation's most vulnerable families. Most importantly, they provide parents with the knowledge and skills they need to be their child's first and most important teacher and role model and to be full participants in their child's education. For children, family literacy programs help ensure that they start school ready to learn and on an equal footing with their peers.

In Colorado's Second Congressional District, which I have the honor of serving, the Boulder Valley Family Literacy Program, in partnership with the Boulder Valley School District, operates a high-quality adult and family literacy program for low-level literacy adult learners and limited English speakers, both adults and children; 160 learners and families attend the program together, interacting in literacy activities as they learn. Parents participate in English classes or GED preparation and learn more about the public school system offers and how best to support their child. Schoolchildren receive homework tutoring and enrichment, and preschool children learn the skills they need to start their formal education.

Also in my district, the Colorado Mountain College has several satellite campuses serving 2,300 students. Most of their learners are ESL students, and their goal is to provide them with a pathway to college wherever possible.

Effective adult education and family literacy programs improve adults' lives by helping them develop a basic yet strong understanding of the English language. These skills lead to jobs, workforce readiness, higher education and successful outcomes in life. Furthermore, adult literacy contributes to self-sufficiency for adults and families across the Nation.

Again, I want to express my strong support for this resolution. I urge my colleagues to endorse this measure by voting ``yes.''

I reserve the balance of my time.

Does the gentleman from Wisconsin have any additional speakers?

I yield back the remainder of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 707 ``Expressing support for designation of the second week of September as Adult Education and Family Literacy Week.'' The literacy of American citizens is essential for the economic well-being of our great Nation and I strongly believe that families play an important role in promoting and enabling learning at all levels.

Illiteracy is the root of many problems in our lives today. For example, in my home district, the 18th District of Texas approximately 68 percent of those arrested, 75 percent of welfare dependants, 85 percent of dropouts, and 72 percent of the unemployed are identified as functionally illiterate, Youth Plus. One in three adults in the greater Houston metropolitan area functions at the lowest level of literacy: They are unable to read and comprehend a menu or a street map, fill out a job application, or read the directions on a medicine bottle, Literacy Advance of Houston. And in Texas, 85 percent of teenagers appearing in juvenile court are functionally illiterate, Youth Plus.

No skill is more crucial to our future, nor to a democratic and prosperous society, than literacy. Basic literacy skills are the premise of reaching one's full potential as an upstanding citizen. President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, ``A book is the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance,'' in order for us to utilize this priceless weapon, we must educate our citizens.

The education skills of parents along with reading to children have a direct impact on the educational success of their children. Parental involvement is an intricate part of a child's success and as the level of parental involvement increases the education level of the parent increases. Parents in family literacy programs have proven to become more involved in their children's education and gain the tools necessary to obtain a job or find better employment.

Advocating literacy across America will result in children's lives becoming more stable, leading to higher achievement in the classroom, and success in all future endeavors becomes inevitable. Studies have shown that two important factors that influence student achievement are the mother's education level

and poverty in the home. It is clear that if adults are not part of the learning equation, then there is no long-term solution to our Nation's education challenges.

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy reports that 90 million adults lack the literacy, numeracy, or English language skills to succeed at home, in the workplace, and in society. National Adult Education and Family Literacy week would highlight the need for our government to support efforts to ensure each and every citizen has the necessary literacy skills to succeed at home, at work, and in society. I support the designation of National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, which encourages people across the United States to support programs to assist those in need of adult education and family literacy programs. I call upon the Federal Government, States, localities, schools, libraries, nonprofit organizations, community- based organizations, consumer advocates, institutions of higher education, labor unions, and businesses to support increased access to adult education and family literacy programs to ensure a literate society.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my support for H. Res. 707 and for designating the week of September 13, 2009 as Adult Education and Family Literacy Week.

I commend Representative Jared Polis, sponsor of the resolution, and the House Education and Labor Committee for recognizing the importance of literacy among adults and families, particularly in relation to the economic well being of these individuals.

Having been an educator for over 30 years, I am keenly aware that education and literacy are crucial to helping individuals achieve economic success. It has been shown that parental involvement is a key indicator to a child's success, and parental engagement increases as educational attainment increases.

Sadly, however, many over 90 million adults in the United States lack the literacy, numeracy, or English language skills needed to succeed at home, in the workplace, and in society. These adults are unable to be involved in their children's education, which perpetuates the cycle of illiteracy.

Of this group, here are still over 54.8 million people who speak a language other than English at home. According to the Census Bureau, between 2000 and 2005, the native-born Limited English Proficient population nearly doubled, and it is increasing at a higher rate than the immigrant population. In spite of this growth, there continue to be 1- to 3-year waitlists for English literacy education in many areas, leaving employers and communities with opportunities to invest in the education of their workforce.

As we work to address adult education and family literacy, we remember the need to extend literacy and education programs to new populations to help them fully integrate into our society. To help achieve this goal, I introduced H.R. 3249, the Strengthen and Unite Communities with Civics Education and English Skills Act of 2009. H.R. 3249 seeks to provide individuals with civics education and basic education programs and assist local communities in this integration process through impact aid and community-based solutions. This legislation will also provide businesses with tax credits for providing English-as-a-second-language programs to their employees, incentivize teachers with tax credits when they teach English Language Learners, and authorize more funding for such instruction.

I urge all of my colleagues to support H. Res. 707 and the laudable goal of designating the week of September 13, 2009 as Adult Education and Family Literacy Week. The resolution encourages people across the United States to support programs to assist those in need of adult education and family literacy programs, and I urge my colleagues to do so not only by supporting the resolution, but also by supporting the Strengthen and Unite Communities with Civics Education and English Skills Act of 2009, which would forge productive dialogues in our country about newcomers and provide real and concrete solutions to our communities by giving them the means and resources to help families learn English and integrate into U.S. society.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 707, which seeks to designate the week of September 13, 2009, as National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week and to raise the awareness of adult literacy programs. I am also a cosponsor of this resolution.

Education spans from conception to the grave. Earning a high-school diploma makes people better qualified for the work force, for raising a family, and for improving their standard of living. For those who were unable to complete their education in their youth, adult education programs can provide a second chance.

Unfortunately, according to a 2005 study by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 45 percent of all adults function below the high school reading level. For these adults, it is much harder to get a good job that can sustain them or their family. Sadly, when faced with this reality, some adults turn to crime. The more than 1 million incarcerated adults in the Nation had lower average literacy scores than adults in households on nearly every comparable scale--age, gender, and ethnicity.

The inability to read not only affects individuals' lives but also the lives of their family. Children of parents who are unemployed and have not completed high school are five times more likely to drop out than children of employed parents. In turn, parents who can read are more likely to be employed full time and receive a higher income. When parents can read, especially the mother, they will be more involved in their children's lives. They will read to their children and discuss school topics.

The importance of education and the ability to read doesn't end with the family. Its benefit also helps improve the community and even saves us all money in the long run. Putting that 2005 study into real terms, 93 million adults can't read or follow medical instructions. Individuals with limited literacy skills are more likely to have chronic conditions and are less able to manage them effectively or be aware of preventive care. These individuals will make greater use of emergency room and hospital services and less use of services designed to prevent health complications. Greater use of the emergency room raises health care costs for all of us.

In addition, American businesses lose more than $60 billion in productivity each year due to employees' basic skill deficiencies. For our country to remain competitive in the global market place, more and more jobs will require advanced skills, and public schools produce only 2 percent of the workforce annually. Without adult education programs, important jobs could go unfilled holding back development or, worse yet, the jobs will go abroad to other nations.

Madam Speaker, literacy and education benefit so many aspects of our lives. I encourage my colleagues in the House to support this resolution and to raise the awareness of adult and family education programs.

Madam Speaker, today I rise in support of House Resolution 707, expressing support for the week of September 13, 2009, as Adult Education and Family Literacy Week. Syracuse, NY, in my district, is considered the ``home'' of the adult literacy movement. It was in Syracuse that Dr. Frank Laubach established Laubach Literacy International to combat this ever growing problem. In my district, ProLiteracy continues the fight to encourage adult literacy in order to improve the lives of adults, their families and communities. ProLiteracy, the world's largest organization of adult literacy and basic education programs, provides advocacy, professional development, training, technical assistance, and materials to the programs that help adults learn to read, write, perform basic math, use technology, and communicate in English.

Fourteen percent of adults nationwide cannot read at an 8th grade level, that number rises to twenty two percent of adults in the state of New York. The ability to read is a key component for overcoming poverty, maintaining good health, finding a job that pays a living wage and preventing crime. Almost 63 percent of all inmates in state and federal prisons are almost totally illiterate.

For example, Carl Sodeberg from Minneapolis, Minnesota had a learning disability that made it difficult for him to read. When Carl was in high school, he was called to the front of the classroom to read something from the blackboard. When students and the teacher mocked him, Carl lashed out at the teacher verbally and was suspended from school. He never went back. Over the next 20 years Carl found himself in and out of work. He developed a drug problem and ended up in jail. When he finally realized he needed to learn to read, Carl was in his mid-40's. Carl worked with an adult literacy program in his community-- he learned to read, earned his high school diploma, and then went on to get a paraprofessional's license that enables him to work as a teacher's aide. He's now employed by the high school from which he was suspended, working with students who have fallen behind in their studies due to reading problems.

It is stories such as Carl Sodeberg's that remind us the importance of encouraging adult literacy and the mission of organizations like ProLiteracy. I encourage other Members to join me in supporting H. Res. 707 to designate the week of September 13 Adult Education and Family Literacy Week.