It is not a problem if you don't finish high school. It is a problem if a high school gives diplomas to those who only read at grade school level. It is a problem if colleges are accepting 18 year-old 8th graders for their students.
What is the purpose of secondary and tertiary education if the kids still perform at the primary level?
For me, it's to get a skill or proper certification that will allow access to a money making career. If I just wanted my kids to have an education, I wouldn't have spent the money for them to go to college. Google could have given us that for free.
By the way, I don't mean to say that the educational system in our country isn't a mess. It is. I just don't think athletes reading on a fifth to eighth grade level are the problem. Actual illiterates going to college? Big problem. But the article has lumped actual functionally literate adults together with adults who can't read at all. It's the old bait and switch. And people are falling for it.