The concept of an administrator of literacy programs as one who is reflective of the values of those responsible for the program is explored in this paper. The paper places literacy in a framework of values as an instrumental value, or journey toward an end state, requiring competency from the individual. The theories of Paulo Freire, who advocates that literacy programs should arise from the needs of the students, are used in the paper to show that in literacy programs one is either working for liberation and the full development of human potential or for the control and manipulation of people. Freire's influence on adult literacy workers in Victoria, Australia, is noted and his theories are used as support for the decentralized literacy programs in that state. (MKM)