Not using phonics to teach children to read and write English is insane.
Definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.
A lot of our “functionally illiterate” children (and teachers) are foreign language and ebonic speakers and they have their diversity race “right” to be functionally illiterate. How does a public school child learn to read and write when English is not their language? They don’t.