Spotlight

In response to The New York Times October 12th editorial

On October 12, The New York Times ran an editorial which pointed out barriers for those wanting to study to take the GED test. While we respect the point of view of the editorial, we feel they overlooked a very important service available to help people study for the test. What follows is our response.

The Times editorial and the new GED study by the Community Service Society omit a dynamic resource available to New York’s adult learners: public television’s comprehensive GED test preparation series GED Connection.

The Community Service Society report cites a lack of quality instruction and access to preparatory materials. Universally accessible for free in New York on Thirteen and WLIW-21, GED Connection was developed through a national partnership by Kentucky Educational Television (KET), PBS, and the National Center on Adult Literacy to prepare America’s GED students at home and in learning centers.

The complete GED Connection preparatory system combines broadcast television programs – which are also available to learning centers on DVD or videotape – with workbooks, practice tests, and online resources including streaming video. The GED Connection videos are also available in Spanish for Hispanic GED-seekers.

These materials provide focused, high-quality instruction and were developed by America’s foremost experts in adult learning.

For adult learners without the basic literacy skills for GED test preparation, Adult Basic Education resources are available as part of the GED Connection learning system.

The millions of adult learners who are “trapped at the margins of the economy because they lack the skills that come with a high school education” should not be without access or quality instruction.

In fact, public television’s GED materials have helped more than 1 million adults gain their GED credential.  No other educational entity has produced a multiplatform adult learning system that has seen such widespread national use.

The 10,000 adults who leave high school each year in New York City, and the one in four high school students nationwide who do not graduate each year, are more likely to live in poverty, to require government assistance and to remain on public assistance longer than those with at least a high school degree, according to The Silent Epidemic, a report prepared for the Gates Foundation. Also, adults with more schooling are less likely to go to prison or return to prison and are likely to be healthier, to be employed, and to have higher occupational status and income.

This increased personal income translates to substantial fiscal impacts at every level of government.  According to a 2007 report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, there is a $301,000 lifetime gap between the net fiscal contributions of a high school graduate and an adult without a high school diploma.  Compare an adult without a high school diploma to an adult who has attained a bachelor’s degree and the gap nearly triples, to $900,000.

The potential impacts of improved adult education – or the costs of educational decline – are truly staggering.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 39 million American adults lack a high school diploma. Public television is committed to helping these adult learners be prepared to pass the test.

Increased availability and awareness of public television’s high-quality instructional resources will help those that have dropped out of school receive their GED credential so they can enter the workforce, continue to higher levels of education, and contribute to strengthening America’s economy.

Malcolm Wall
Executive Director
Kentucky Educational Television