It costs about $260 each year to educate adult students at Pima College Adult Education programs, estimates Greg Hart, dean of the college. "We had 1,300 people earn their high school diplomas through our GED testing program last year. At that low cost, I'd say that's good business." The federal government doesn't agree.

Funding for Arizona's adult education program is in jeopardy. When President Bush proposed his 2006 budget in January, it included a 63 percent decrease in federal funding, which would have a significant effect on Arizona's ability to offer adult education and family literacy programs. Federal dollars are matched to state dollars using a ratio formula. Under the formula, the cuts would amount to a 74 percent decrease in funding in Arizona.

"These budget cuts would devastate us," said Hart. "Our program serves 10,000 people with about 200-250 families in the family literacy program. We would only be able to serve one quarter of the people we serve now."

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Adult education programs offer comprehensive literacy services to Arizona citizens age 16 or older who are not enrolled in a kindergarten through grade 12 school. Instruction may include basic education in reading, writing and math through the 8th grade level, adult secondary education, General Educational Development (GED) preparation and testing, and citizenship test preparation.

Three certified adult education programs in Pima County receive a combination of federal and state money to run adult education programs: Pima College Adult Education; Pima County Adult Probation; and Literacy Volunteers of Tucson.

Currently, Pima College Adult Education receives $2.6 million in combined state and federal funding. Cuts could eliminate 50 to 70 percent of the entire budget.

"Cuts of this kind will have a harmful effect on Tucson and Pima County," said Hart. "Thousands who are struggling to get into the economic mainstream will be shut out of the gateway to success."

Betty Stauffer, executive director of Literacy Volunteers of Tucson said, "In Arizona, 25 percent of the high school diplomas awarded each year are through GED testing. If these programs are cut and there is nowhere to go for this education, there will be a significant increase in the number of people in our workforce without a high school diploma."

Literacy Volunteers of Tucson receives one-half of its budget from state and federal funds. The program now serves 400 students using 200 volunteers.

"While this is a volunteer literacy organization, using our volunteers most effectively and efficiently means we need an infrastructure to do the coordinating, recruiting, training, matching and resourcing," said Stauffer. "An infrastructure requires some salaries."

According to a recent report from the largest adult literacy organization in the United States, Proliteracy, low literacy skills cost U.S. employers approximately $20 billion annually in lost productivity, profit, and wages.

In 2002, a study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education concluded that people with skill levels of a typical high school dropout will only qualify for 10 percent of the new jobs and even those people with the typical skill levels of a high school graduate will be qualified for only 22 percent of the new jobs.

Studies have shown that the single most important determinant of a child's success or lack of success in education relates to the mother's education level specifically, and to the family's education level generally.

Debbie Tinajero, program manager of education services at Pima County Adult Probation, believes that if funding cuts result in a reduced program, Pima County's workforce will be negatively affected today and in the future. "If our mothers don't have educational opportunities it will affect their children, who will be part of our workforce in the future," she said.

"The federal government wants to cut the budget because they say that adult education programs are not effective, but Arizona has exceeded the standards set every year."

Tinajero said that plans are in the works for a letter-writing campaign to federal legislators to voice concerns over the proposed cuts.

"It is hard to understand why the administration is proposing these cuts, especially in our increasingly globalized economy. The job market demands higher and higher levels of education. We need adult education more than ever," said Hart.

Martha Lundin may be contacted at mlundin@azbiz.com.