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Illiteracy in the American Education System is Rampant.

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One in every twenty adult Americans cannot read a simple sentence written in plain English.

It is not only illiteracy in the American education system that should have people worried.

In fact, according to United Nations statistics, the United States never even enters the top twentieth percentile in most educational areas.

This includes the crucial subjects of science and math as well as problem solving and reading skills.

The United States is a world power with a Third World educational system.

How can there possibly still be illiteracy in the American education system?

One can begin with a look at salaries.

How is that an executive who brings in big bucks for their company can make a six digit salary, yet a person who is responsible for shaping the future earns only enough to keep them at the very edge of the poverty level?

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Illiteracy in America

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Money for Nothing

Why is there so little funding where education is concerned? Where does the money go instead?

Could some of the $3.6 billion dollar budget for the National Security Administration be directed towards improving schools?

How about using some of the more than $840 billion dollars directed towards the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Making an educated populace a priority comes at a cost to everyone, but the benefits are remarkable.

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An Ounce of Prevention

Literacy statistics are directly related to other major issues within the United States as well.

Consider that there is an incredibly strong connection between illiteracy and crime.

Seventy percent of American inmates cannot read above the fourth grade level.

Consider too that a lower level of literacy is linked directly to health care costs, and several studies have put a $73 million price tag on the issue.

Obviously, a population that is encouraged to read and nourish their curiosity and minds will flourish. So, why isn’t that a priority?

Unfortunately, history demonstrates that reading skills dropped with the enforcement of mandatory schooling.

In Massachusetts the literacy rate for children prior to compulsory public education stood at 95% (in the 1850s).

Today, children in the same region are at 90% literacy.

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Reforming Reform

With improved technologies, transportation and mandatory attendance, how is that illiteracy in the American education occurs? Most can point to “reform” as a leading culprit.

Reforms have been undertaken many times over the past century. Each episode is initiated by a need to create a specific strength in the populace.

For example, following World War II and the rise of the Soviet Union, reforms were put in place to ensure that students were competitive in math and science in order to ensure that the United States could compete with their only major enemy.

In a rush to use public schooling as a way to accomplish political or social goals.

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