Educators say demand for adult courses booms amid stagnant funding

As public-school districts across California face declining K-12 enrollment , participation in adult-education classes — sometimes known as continuing education — is going the other direction.

Although state-level funding for these programs remains stagnant, adult-education teachers and advocates say the demand for these courses is increasing, and that lawmakers should take note.

“We're not seeing declining enrollment, as far as I can tell,” Adriana Sanchez, executive director of the California Council for Adult Education, told The Examiner. “The voices I hear from the field are saying that they are either meeting the need or have waiting lists.”

School districts and community colleges are the state’s main providers of free continuing-studies courses, which include English as a second language, GED or high-school diploma equivalency, career and technical job training, and prerequisite proficiency classes in reading, writing and mathematics.

While the state legislature passed the 2024-25 budget bill to support a 1.07% cost-of-living adjustment for the California Adult Education Program — the state’s main funding pipeline for adult education — Sanchez said the programs are historically financially challenged.

“We've been fortunate in the most recent years to whenever there's been a cost of living increase for community colleges or K-12 districts, we've been able to have parity and get that COLA,” she said. “But the best kept secret is that we are underfunded.”

San Francisco’s history of adult-education coursework predates the Civil War.

According to the California Council for Adult Education, the state’s first recorded adult-education class was held in the basement of The City’s St. Mary’s Cathedral in 1856.

That year, the San Francisco Board of Education approved a program to teach English to Irish, Italian and Chinese immigrants. John Swett, who later became the California Superintendent of Public Instruction, was the first volunteer teacher to lead the adult-education class.

For adult students then and now, advocates say access to these courses provides a lifeline and can lift families out of poverty. A free English course, for example, could give a non-native English speaker the opportunity to pursue work that would be otherwise unavailable.

Community colleges such as City College, where Leila Easa teaches, are “especially situated for adults to seek continuing education,” she said.

Easa teaches creative writing courses and students from all walks of life — some have already completed undergraduate or graduate degrees. Others need courses for ongoing continuing-education requirements or to learn new skills when switching fields or adapting to changing work requirements, she said.

“As both a community-college teacher and an older student who returned to graduate school in my 40s and is working on my third degree since, there are many reasons why adults might seek continuing education,” she said.

Adult-education access is once again brought to the forefront, as mass layoffs in The City’s tech sector and other industries have driven many adults to pursue a change in careers.

“When the economy of the state or a city or the country takes a downturn and people are losing their jobs because of that, our programs are critical,” Sanchez said.

Although many programs are free or low cost, Bay Area adults still face barriers to continuing their education.

Kathy Locke, an English literacy teacher at Oakland Unified School District’s adult school, said that the need for child care prevents some students from attending in-person classes.

“Our program prioritizes putting funding into lowering those barriers,” she said during a recent EdSource panel on adult-education funding . “As a district, we named [access to child care] as a barrier, and made that our priority.”

The Oakland Unified program, which operates six adult-education classes at six different elementary schools, now offers day-care options so “students [are] able to come with their children and learn,” Locke said.

She pointed to adult-education classes as a way to support families, including their young children.

“If school districts are trying to provide equitable learning for their kids, you have to provide learning for their parents,” Locke said. “Parents that attend classes to learn English, their children have more increased literacy at home. They were reading with their parents.”

Higher educational attainment is often associated with higher incomes , but teachers of adult-education courses say the benefits of continuing education go far beyond the finances. Many adults take courses simply to enrich their own interests, Easa said.

“When all people have access to education at any age, we encourage curiosity and a drive toward self-improvement and lifelong learning; the development of compassion, empathy and a rich inner life; [as well as] the growth of schema or background knowledge that allows folks to be informed and participating citizens of democracy,” Easa said.

While the EdSource panelists concluded that more outreach and access in this space are necessary, Sanchez said adult education has always answered the needs of the moment, regardless of its funding level.

“With the funding we have and have had, we are able to pivot and create the courses and hire the people to teach those classes so that we can offer the retraining and reskilling that people need,” Sanchez said. “That’s why people turn to adult education.”