Creative Commons/Marlon E

City College of San Francisco, Mission Campus

Facing staggering cuts tied to the state budget deficit, a growing number local school districts and community colleges are focusing precious resources on K-12 and undergraduate education at the expense of adult-education classes, eviscerating a key economic springboard for low-income Californians.

The cuts for the coming school year will likely affect everyone from seniors hoping to learn new computer skills in the San Jose Unified School District to English learners in the Oakland Unified School District and at City College of San Francisco.

School administrators say the state’s $15.4 billion budget deficit and uncertainties tied to the highly politicized parrying over tax extensions have left them no choice. But adult educators say the cuts will only exacerbate California’s dismal literacy rate, overcrowded prisons and other intractable problems. As it is, 23 percent of adults lack basic literacy skills in California, according the National Center for Educational Statistics.

“We have a great need in California for adult education,” said Mike Wada, president of California Council for Adult Education, an advocacy organization that represents nearly 3,000 adult educators statewide, with offices in Huntington Beach. “This, in essence, dooms people to a life of poverty because they won’t have things like basic math and English skills.”

For many, adult-education courses offer an inroad to a better job, earning power and social mobility. The result is a skilled, fluent population that boosts the state’s broader economy and cuts down on crime.

But state budget cuts have created a new imperative — one that resonates with a philosophy long invoked by educators across the state: getting back to basics. School administrators say with shrinking resources, they must concentrate on K-12 students over adults.

For school districts, the shift is also tied to a decision by the state Legislature in February 2009 to relax restrictions on how school boards use state funding for certain programs, including classes for gifted children and training programs in carpentry and other blue-collar fields. Three out of four school districts statewide have reported making cuts to adult education since the state lifted its restrictions, according to a survey by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office released in February.