Illiteracy is a National Emergency Unfolding Across America, and it's Only Getting Worse
While people argue over the president declaring the situation at the border a national emergency, they ignore the national emergency in every town and school district in America.
I once walked into an inner-city school cafeteria for an author visit and was amazed by the scene. A donor had gifted copies of my latest “Will Wilder” book to each of the children in this particular middle school. As I entered the cafeteria, nearly all them were embracing their books and some were caressing the volumes.
“What are they doing?” I asked the principal standing in the doorway.
“Oh, most of these kids don’t have books at home,” she explained to me. “That’s probably their first one – and they’re happy to have them.”
Scores of author visits later, I discovered that the scene was not an anomaly. By every measure we have a literacy crisis in America, and it’s on track to worsen.
Sixty-four percent of all eighth-grade students are unable to read proficiently, according to the National Assessment of Education Progress’ latest report. Eighty-two percent of black students and 77 percent of Hispanic students are not reading proficiently.
While people argue over the president declaring the situation at the border a national emergency, they ignore the national emergency in every town and school district in America.
More than 30 million Americans cannot read or write above a third-grade level. The strong correlations between illiteracy and incarceration, unemployment and suppressed GDP are well established. Eighty-five percent of the juveniles in the court system are functionally illiterate, as are 60 percent of prison inmates.
If you feel that this has no effect on you, think again. Each of those inmates costs you, the taxpayer dearly. In California, by the state's own estimates, they spend more than $81,000 to incarcerate each prisoner, each year. And the amount to imprison juveniles is nearly double, costing taxpayers more than $148,000 annually according to The Justice Policy Institute.
And if a citizen cannot read, how can he or she engage in our system of government, or think deeply about the issues that we face as a society? Their inability to read has written them out of a large part of our national story.