Low Literacy Levels Among U.S. Adults Could Be Costing The Economy $2.2 Trillion A Year

Forbes ^ | 9/9/2020 | Michael T. Nietzel

[EBH]

A new study by Gallup on behalf of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy finds that low levels of adult literacy could be costing the U.S. as much $2.2 trillion a year.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of U.S. adults 16-74 years old - about 130 million people - lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. That’s a shocking number for several reasons, and its dollars and cents implications are enormous because literacy is correlated with several important outcomes such as personal income, employment levels, health, and overall economic growth.

Commenting on the significance of the study, British A. Robinson, president and CEO of the Barbara Bush Foundation, said, “America’s low literacy crisis is largely ignored, historically underfunded and woefully under-researched, despite being one of the great solvable problems of our time. We’re proud to enrich the collective knowledge base with this first-of-its-kind study, documenting literacy’s key role in equity and economic mobility in families, communities and our nation as a whole.”

Adults who scored below Level 3 for literacy on the PIAAC were defined as at least partially illiterate. Adults below or at Level 1 may struggle to understand texts beyond filling out basic forms, and they find it difficult to make inferences from written material. Adults at Level 2 can read well enough to evaluate product reviews and perform other tasks requiring comparisons and simple inferences, but they’re unlikely to correctly evaluate the reliability of texts or draw sophisticated inferences. Adults at Level 3 and above were considered fully literate. They’re able to evaluate sources, as well as infer sophisticated meaning and complex ideas from written sources.

[LibertarianLiz]

lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

This is the result of years of NOT teaching children how to read.

English is a "phonetic" language; yet, the teachers refuse to teach children how to read using phonics. I was fortunate in that the Catholic grade school that I sent my children to, did use phonics to teach reading. Now, both of my girls were reading before they got there (hubby and I were voracious readers and passed that on to our children), but the 1st grade teacher (Mrs. Riggio) used a phonics based system and all of those children in that class went into the 2nd grade fully prepared for that level of instruction.

Teachers are not teachers anymore. They are Union members. They care about their pay checks and benefits, the children are only useful as cudgels when they go on strike for more money and benefits.

Sorry if I sound a bit pessimistic; but, I have been watching the educational system in this country collapse for a long time. I am at the point of supporting the complete collapse of the current system and the replacement with a school choice option for ALL, not just poor people, everyone gets to choose.

[central_va]

The IQ of the average central American is around 85. This is who the open border voter/cheap labor express cabal wants to invade the USA. These people can never reach 1st world status. They are incapable.

[Kevmo]

so we learned quickly to get books that we actually wanted to read!
***That’s the key, right there. Let kids read Harry Potter or romance novels or Sci Fi or the bible or whatever.

[central_va]

The people flooding have an average IQ of 85. Notice how low the IQ is in central America.

[MayflowerMadam]

And there are those hit men to go to the wrong house to kill a family because they can’t read the address correctly. That’s a problem. We need literate hit men. (Have seen a couple of those stories on true crime shows.)

[daniel1212]

And another level (not you) thinks posting one sentence, or a few words from a blog and which may even includes pleas for funds and or advertisements, constitutes providing a useful summary information on a conservative forum, versus reading and comprehending the article enough to select the most pertinent excerpts to post, within the limited number of words allowed.

[Kevmo]

Teachers are not teachers anymore. They are Union members.

Perhaps tagline worthy. I’ll update the tagline page

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3992415/posts?q=1&;page=375#375

[SamAdams76]

Agree 100%.

Parents make a big mistake when they "forbid" their children to read certain things and force them to read only what they think they should read.

That approach does nothing to foster a love of reading and can actually turn the child off to reading for life.

I still remember friends coming over to my house to read MAD magazines and comic books because their parents wouldn't allow them in the house!

Yes, I read a lot of junk growing up but eventually I got bored of it and moved on to more serious reading. By the time I was 12, I was reading history books and biographies for pleasure. Of course with a little National Lampoon and racy fiction thrown in. My parents literally did not care what we read and they figured if we were able to read and comprehend it, we were mature enough to deal with the content. They were right and I took the same tack with my children in the 1990s. They had their Harry Potter books, their Goosebumps, the Hobbit and all that. But now they are out on their own and building their own impressive libraries.

[daniel1212]

Lots of somewhat dates statistics here.

[daniel1212]

"u r prolly corek cuz enny hoo kant reed gude gonna hev like a reel difcult rode a head."

Parsing this is part of the FR reading comprehension test. Having to discern my own arthritic stiff-fingered typos let me try:

You are probably correct because Johnny who can't read good is going to have like a real difficult road ahead.

[PapaBear3625]

So eugenics is your answer?

It will happen, one way or another.

I prefer not having it happen by means of a "collapse of civilization/survival of the fittest" scenario, but it will happen once the number of dependents exceeds the support ability of the productive class.

What is your solution?

[PapaBear3625]

I have had multiple bosses who never took a calculus class, don’t even know what calculus is. The ones who DID pass calculus were far and away better bosses, more capable than those who had degrees in sociology or no degree at all. Calculus is a far better measure of proficiency than cursive.

The ability to pass calculus is an indicator of having a reasonably high IQ.

[PapaBear3625]

The pattern to me seems to be fatherless children, with extremely young uneducated mothers who prefer taking their government checks to get their nails done, and iphones rather than making sure their kids learn and read. No discipline is instilled in their children and they cannot function in a setting that expects personal responsibility and self control. Gang membership, theft, constant fighting and disruptive behavior in classes is the norm. These are the reasons they are not literate, and they don’t care that they can’t read and don’t know anything. Literacy and learning are not culturally supported and not supported in their families.

The answer to "why?" is often "Because they can, and it feels good".

Up until the last few centuries, the penalty for being stupid was death. Death by starvation, or by some other means, but stupidity would still get you killed eventually.

Charity, especially government charity, subverts this process, and allows the stupid to expand until they reach the limits of society's ability to deal with them.

[PapaBear3625]

One thing my mother did was take us to the library every Saturday morning. We were forced to borrow four books each. We could pick what we wanted to read but it had to be four books every week. And yes, we had to sit down and read them when we got home so we learned quickly to get books that we actually wanted to read!

My mom worked. So after school, from first grade, I walked to the public library on the next block, and waited there for her. There was nothing to do there for the three hours until she showed up, but read and do my homework. I was reading at adult level by third grade.

[9YearLurker]

How about the poor working schlebs? Private school is a luxury for the wealthy, at over $50K per student per year. There is no way the public should be paying for that.

[Captain Peter Blood]

Oh my just figuring that out. It’s been going on for 40 years. Our school systems have been failing for a long time and you have 2 or 3 generations out there of semi-illietrate’s who can hardly find a job.

[drSteve78]

Dat werks gude.