Puerto Rico

Programs of adult education began in earnest with the 1940s initiative of Fred Wale and others to provide practical aid to the new communities formed by the breaking up of old latifundios into small farms (parcelas) that were awarded to disadvantaged rural citizens. Engineers volunteered their time to help these communities build a needed bridge; architects and builders helped with construction. Others developed programs of adult eduction (reading and writing, arithmetic, etc.). Artists, writers, and theater people also intervened.

These efforts led to the creation, in 1949, of the División de la Comunidad (Community Education Division) under the auspices of the Departamento de Instrucción Pública as the Department of Education was then known (Wale). This was the starting point of the diverse set of offerings and programs over which the Community Education Division and its various offices has jurisdiction. By means, first, of itinerant teachers and of correspondence courses, and then through radio and public TV broadcasts, it became possible to complete a high school diploma and take college-level courses or classes in various technologies. In 1958 (and reformed in 1985), the Community Education Division was renamed the Area de Extensión educativa (Area of Educational Extension).

In 1997 the Administración de servicios de educación de adultos (Administration of Adult Education Services) replaced the Area of Educational Extension. This was done pursuant to the passage of the Federal Public Law 105-220 or the Workforce Investment Act. Federal funding has been made available to "raise the level of school of youth and adults" and "to reduce illiteracy" (Fajardo) in response to project proposals made by the various school districts, community (i.e., charter) schools, and by specific public and private not for profit institutions. Evening, night, and weekend schools are supported as are approved applications by individuals.

Thus, as time has passed, the community-focused nature of these special programs has tended to give way to more classic, adult education-type offerings with an increased emphasis on basic skills and technology. Therefore, by the mid-1960s, the Program of Adult Education and Cultural Extension had come into existence, under the leadership of an Assistant Secretary of Public Instruction: adult education was henceforth integrated into Public Instruction more and more as a remedial, or "catch up," addendum to the general educational purposes of Public Instruction with a decided emphasis on vocational preparation, individual "recycling," and technology. The communitarian vision that had inspired Wale and Isales was downplayed, which they deplored:

There are those who assume. . .that the physical solution of a problem is a part of growth, but it is so only when it emerges as the result of the entire involvement of a community in the process of solution. . . [If this involvement does not occur,] the methods employed by the leaders can perpetuate dependence instead of aiding true development (Wale).

Like the 1990s theorists of community schools, Wale and Isales appear to be suggesting that the progress of the individual is contingent upon a wider community-oriented commitment, and that it is the job of the government to encourage such a commitment.