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Kevin McCarty, Poster Boy For Adult Education
Sacramento
News Review: 1.03.2019 by Jeff vonKaenel
California Assemblyman Kevin McCarty is not
only a leading legislative advocate for adult education. He is also a poster
boy for its importance. I recently met with McCarty and his educational policy
team, and he told me how adult school enabled him to receive his El Camino High
School diploma.
Because
he had focused more on playing baseball than on academics, McCarty dropped out
of high school during his senior year. He soon realized his mistake. Like
hundreds of thousands of other Californians, adult schools gave McCarty a
second chance.
And
McCarty has put that high school diploma to good use, attending American River
College and then CSU Long Beach, and finally earning his master’s degree in
public policy and administration from Sacramento State.
Elected
to the Sacramento City Council in 2004 and to the state Assembly in 2014,
McCarty is the Democratic coach for the annual legislative softball game. He
also serves as chairman of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education
Finance.
His
Assembly
Bill 2098, which recently passed with overwhelming bipartisan support,
recognized the role that adult schools can have in helping immigrants learn
English and the basic rules of citizenship, which will help them support their
children’s education, and improve their chances of employment. As a result of
this new law, future assessments of adult schools will look at how well they
serve the immigrant population.
But
the big issue for adult schools is funding. For more than a century, California
led the U.S. in providing adult education. In 2008, adult schools had a $750
million state budget and served more than 1.2 million students. READ
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