Leap called godsend for nonreaders

Contra Costa Times

Rebecca Rosen Lum
TIMES STAFF WRITER


RICHMOND -- John Tate's cell phone rings with a Bach fugue. A slim, well-spoken man with wire-framed glasses and a neatly clipped goatee, Tate could easily pass for a writer.

But Tate, 54, never learned to read. Born in New Orleans, he grew up picking cotton, then migrated to Richmond in 1983 to work construction. He had "mother wit," black Southern parlance for the moral sensibility learned from one's mother, but no education.

That's a gift Richmond's Literacy for Every Adult Program, or LEAP, gave him.

"All my life I've been pretending I could read," Tate said. "LEAP is like a family for people like me who come in scared to let the public know I can't."

After an on-the-job injury ended his work life, he sat down with a tutor and learned to sound out long vowels and short vowels. How to break down words. How to sound out the letters of the alphabet. How to form sentences.

"Oh, lord!" he said. "I'm 54. It's hard to absorb all the fundamentals at my age."

LEAP program staff have patiently prodded, inspired and cajoled hundreds of people like Tate to learn to read long after most others have given up or mistakenly assumed they could read.

But those days could end soon. The program is slated to shrink drastically in January.

Although LEAP pays its own way by landing state and private grants, another city department has tapped those funds, leaving little to run a program that serves more than 100 clients a year.

"If they close this program, they close down hope," Tate said. "Of all the things in the world. Man! Something so small, yet something so large."

According to a national survey, nearly one in four Richmond residents struggles with literacy.

Literacy specialist Mark Trotter said program clients create ways to navigate a literate society. "It's, 'I lost my glasses,' or 'I have arthritis in my hands, could you write this for me?'" Trotter said.

"I'd always watch people reading the newspaper," said Fred White, 43. "Now, I can do that. It felt so good to read a newspaper in front of other people. When I came in here three years ago, I couldn't read a children's book."

Education has been a disappointment for many adult literacy students, said Trotter, 30, now in his sixth year at LEAP and his fourth as a staff member. "In order not to dash their hopes, you've got to have a lot of patience. A lot of it is frightening. (But) one's life can change, even though it might seem like it's unchangeable."

A smile playing over his face, he added, "Since I've been working with Fred, he's penned two plays."

Clients include an executive chef at a four-star hotel whose wife read menus aloud to him so he could memorize them.

One woman successfully kept her functional illiteracy a secret from her husband.

"Some, at one point, could read to some degree when they were younger, but over time their skills diminished," Trotter said. "For some, where they lived, education wasn't valued. A woman from Fiji told me in her culture, women really weren't expected to learn to read. They were just expected to cook, clean, care for the children. It didn't matter if they didn't learn."

It mattered in Tunami Eaton's family; many had attended college, and she hoped to follow.

But Eaton, 26, and the mother of four young children, had reading disabilities. Like other adult learners, she bluffed well.

When her 9-year-old daughter showed signs of reading problems, she got help.

"She would say, 'My stomach hurts,' or 'I'm tired,'" Eaton said. "Then at a certain point, she didn't want to go to school anymore. I realized I was no help to her unless I could assess my own disabilities."

At LEAP, "The hardest thing was letting my guard down," she said. "I was in a private room so I didn't have other eyes looking at me or judging me. It made it easier for me to say, 'I can't read.' This was the only place I could go to find some assistance.

"It really opened my eyes that I didn't have to stop with a GED; I could go to college and reach my dreams."

Layoffs resulted from plunder of literacy program

December 16, 2003 Rebecca Rosen Lum TIMES STAFF WRITER RICHMOND -- The city's Employment and Training Department managers drained $221,447 in restricted cash from the city literacy program to pay their own salaries, then laid off nearly all the literacy teachers for lack of money. Department records obtained by the Contra Costa Times show that city literacy funding, plus state and private matching grants, were tapped to help pay 11 employees with salaries up to $133,285 a year who do not work in the Literacy for Every Adult, or LEAP, program.

An incoming grant of $98,922 could delay pink slips sent to seven of nine literacy staffers, although there is no immediate plan to do so. Irregularities do not end there. Records show that at least one LEAP worker was directed by a supervisor to falsify a timecard. The wife of the department's deputy director makes $80,000 yearly as a top-level information technology specialist assigned to the department. SEIU Local 790, which represent LEAP employees, says that flouts the city anti-nepotism policy, which is in its contract with the union. City officials recently decided to lay off more than 100 city workers to close a yawning budget gap. The literacy misappropriations could spell big trouble for Richmond. The state library, which issues the grants, has tight rules for spending and overseeing the money. "At the very least, I know the state would pull its funding if they knew about this," SEIU Local 790 shop steward Linda McPhee said. "Literacy programs all over the state compete for these grants, partly dependent on their history. This does not look good for Richmond." Cities may eye literacy programs during hard times "because they are a magnet for funding," said California State Library consultant Valerie Stadelbacher Reinke. "But there are certain minimum standards for using these grants, and if they are not following those standards, we would hold Richmond responsible." One is that the program must be run by the city library. Here, it is not. "That alone is equal to fraud," McPhee wrote in a Nov. 25 letter to assistant city manager Leveron Bryant. Not true, said Employment and Training assistant director Sal Vaca. "This is a total misunderstanding," he said Monday. "LEAP is paying its fair share of the Employment and Training Department overhead. It's a cost allocation plan, and it has been negotiated with and approved by the finance department." Studies show that in Richmond and across the state, one in four residents can barely read, as dismal a showing as three of the lowest-ranking states: Alabama, Florida and South Carolina. Only Louisiana, with 28 percent adult illiteracy, and Mississippi, with 30 percent, are worse. More than one-fifth of Richmond's population has reading problems, according to a recent survey by the National Center for Education Statistics. After Upesi Mtambuzi, the Employment and Training Department director, issued the pink slips, closed satellite offices and bumped the main office from its longtime home, she left for a monthlong trip. "The level of their conduct is surreal," teacher Mark Trotter said. "Funds were taken unconscionably. Two staffers isn't hardly enough to give this city literacy." Tonight, the City Council expects an explanation of the concerns raised by LEAP staff members earlier this month. None of the Employment and Training workers whose salaries were subsidized with LEAP funds take home less than $65,000 a year. The list includes office helpers, bookkeeping assistants and secretaries. Mtambuzi earns more than $133,000 year; $25,725 of that i LEAP money. According to the city's agreement with SEIU Local 790, employees can only be laid off for lack of work or lack of money. Demand for literacy help continues to soar, and minus the misappropriations, there would have been plenty of money, McPhee said. Of LEAP's $845,000 budget, the city contributes $385,000 from its general fund. The state library fund and other private sources ante up matching funds. After long meetings with City Manager Isiah Turner, Vaca proposed changes to Mtambuzi's plan, with only one tutor-coordinator losing his job. "Upesi (Mtambuzi) tried to fulfill (both departments') objectives and also reduce dollars, but her restructuring has disproportionately affected the LEAP staff," Turner said. "The city doesn't have much experience laying off people," Vaca said. "It's awkward and uncomfortable for a lot of people, but it needs to be done to preserve the financial health of the city." SEIU members slated for layoffs have muddied the waters: "If they go down, they want to drag everyone down with them," he said. Meanwhile, many LEAP clients will watch the outcome of today's council meeting to see what will come of the proposed cuts. "I could see if it was a place where no one succeeds, but everyone comes out of here benefiting," said Kareem, 19, an aspiring electrician who came to LEAP to improve his math skills. "There are jobs where you can get out there and work your body to death, but I want to use my mind. It's already a struggle to get hired. It's crucial to get the skills." Reach Rebecca Rosen Lum 510-262-2713 or rrosenlum@cctimes.com.