"College officials and adult students, including a well-known country singer, argued for increases in federal funds for job training and adult education in a Congressional hearing on Tuesday. And the lawmakers appeared sympathetic to their pleas," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "A House of Representatives education subcommittee held the session as Congress prepares to renew the Workforce Investment Act, which governs job-training grants to colleges. Members of the panel asked both the educators and the students how to improve the adult-education system. Almost all of the legislators present acknowledged that Congress would need to commit substantially more money to fix the problem of adult illiteracy. Federal appropriations for adult education under the act have declined over the past five years, and federally financed programs last year served only 2.3 million of the estimated 93 million people who are not literate enough to enroll in higher education or job-training programs, said Rubén Hinojosa, a Texas Democrat who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness."