Damare Thompson is mom to six kids, ranging from nine months to 10 years old, and getting her high school diploma will take a massive weight off her shoulders.
Four days a week, for more than a year, she’s been taking GED classes at the Union Adult Learning Center. Thompson, 25, has already passed the math and social studies exams, and finishing the rest will bring a “new glow” to her life.
“I’m finally stepping out of the box of just being a mom, and I wanted to do something for me,” Thompson said.
UALC is the second largest program of its kind in Oklahoma, providing English as a Second Language (ESL) education and a High School Equivalency (HSE) program for free to anyone in the community. It’s also a testing center and provides job placement and education fairs as well as family and workplace literacy classes.
Last year, the center served 1,254 students ages 16 to 60-plus.
“Sometimes life happens at 16, sometimes it happens at 18 and it continues until you’re 33, 34, 35,” said Amy McCready, UALC director. “We say it really, truly, is never too late.”
But UALC programs are shrinking due to budget cuts — and its waitlists are booming. The federal government froze one of UALC’s grants this summer, and the center was approximately $175,000 short heading into the fall semester.
“It’s not that we don’t have the people, it’s that we don’t have the money to hire the teachers in order to accommodate the students,” said Kim Barger, the UALC’s ESL guidance specialist.
A redeeming experience
“Yes, it’s a taboo that we didn’t finish high school, but that’s the only thing you are missing,” said Ahmad Abdraffur, another guidance specialist, noting many UALC students have steady jobs and stable families.
“A GED is just a trophy in their trophy cabinet, it’s just one in a lot of accomplishments,” he said.
Adults enter the program with a guard up, often with poor experiences in their educational background. When you start a HSE program, anything you’ve done in K-12 “no longer exists,” McCready said. Students face up to five intensive exams and extensive studying.
UALC staff constantly help students tackle the stigma of learning a new language, needing a diploma or feeling inadequate. The answer, they say, is community.
One-on-one interviews with teachers before their first day can establish emotional, academic and physical safety.
“They come in so anxious, so worried, so intimidated,” said Lorissa Francois, a guidance specialist. “By the time they sit down and have this conversation, they’re spilling out their entire life to us.”
The walls of UALC are littered with paper graduation caps, toting alumni names in glitter letters. Students celebrate birthdays, holidays and even baby showers. On one teacher’s birthday, Barger said, ESL students baked a multi-tiered cake and decorated the classroom to celebrate.
“We become a big family here,” Francois said. “As students pass tests or graduate, the entire school has an uproar, we ring bells, we want to show support.”
Funding uncertainty
People are “coming out of the woodwork” for ESL classes, Barger said. Her program already has a waitlist of more than 600, and the HSE program has more than 500.
Despite the demand, funding reductions forced UALC to cut two GED sections, two ESL levels and one full-time teacher. Immigration crackdowns in recent months have added to the strain, and some students who are in the U.S. illegally have already stopped attending, Barger said.
“This could look very different if they start saying the money is only there if you’re here lawfully,” Barger said.
UALC does not ask or require students to show proof of legal residency before enrolling in a course.
Oklahoma CareerTech, the state agency that serves as one of UALC’s grantors, mandates students receive 40 hours of instruction and take a post-test in order for the center to keep its funding.
“Although the program is free to the students, we always tell them we’re asking them to pay with their time,” said Abdraffur.
If students meet those mandates, they’re given VIP status and guaranteed a spot for the next year’s enrollment.
Tighter budgets are creating more motivation for students to do so, guidance staff said.
“We have an extensive waitlist,” Francois said. “Your attendance matters, your commitment matters.”
For more information on UALC’s HSE program and other alternatives across Tulsa County, read our guide.
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