I noted Krystal Watters’ letter about the concern for funding the Adult Literacy Center at the Adult Education School, and I agree with her concerning the center’s value and low cost of operation. I’ve been a volunteer tutor at the Conejo Valley Unified School District Adult Literacy Center since 2003 and currently have four students.

Until very recently the Adult Literacy Center and the companion ESL (English as a Second Language) classes were offered free of charge to all students. They were asked to pay for their own books, and I was told that if a student couldn’t afford them, the books would be provided free.

Literacy center students receive two hours of one-on-one tutoring weekly from September through July of the following year, except for school holidays.

The ESL students receive four days a week of classroom instruction from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. from September through the following mid-June.

It’s all provided free of charge at taxpayers’ expense.

Due to the recent school cutbacks, the Adult Literacy Center now charges an administration fee of $25 and requires the students to pay for their books. A month has been lopped off the literacy center students’ school year. The ESL classes have now been reduced to one class and also charge a small fee and have lost some staff members.

However, other weekly and daily classes offered at the Adult Education School charge their students more, in most cases much more than the ESL or literacy students. Thus, instead of asking taxpayers to chip in more money or taking money from other departments, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to charge both literacy center and ESL students a much higher fee (e.g. $100 or more) to help cover the operating costs of these classes and keep the operation solvent.

As Margaret Thatcher said, “Socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money.”
Bob Meisterling
Thousand Oaks