An Attack on Illiteracy

It has been more than 20 years since we were told why Johnny can’t read. Despite the ensuing years of classroom emphasis on reading skills, the U.S. Department of Education now estimates that national illiteracy increases by 1.5 million people each year. For these Americans, the reason why they cannot read no longer matters.

The ability to read and write--sometimes as little as one’s own name--has traditionally determined whether or not a person is literate. But the world has changed. Warning labels, sales contracts and even the occasional traffic ticket demand an ability not only to read but also to understand and appropriately respond. For millions of Americans this task is impossible. Unable to function independently in today’s complex society, they are considered to be “functionally” illiterate.

The number of functionally illiterate adults in the United States is not really known. Estimates vary from 17 million to 75 million, depending on the breadth of the definition. What is known is that more than 50% of the nation’s prison inmates are not able to read newspaper headlines or understand written instructions. And last year 40% of the armed services’ enlistees were found to read below the ninth-grade level.

The cost of illiteracy is as impossible to estimate as the problem itself, but it is enormous. While some people succeed despite a lifetime struggle with reading disabilities, most do not. Experts say that illiteracy is responsible for many industrial accidents, higher welfare and unemployment benefits, increased poverty, crime and drug use and losses in international trade.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) has introduced legislation that would be a promising and inexpensive solution to the illiteracy problem. He calls it the Literacy Corps. The program would utilize one of the nation’s best resources, the university student. For a one-time cost of $20 million, about 800 universities and colleges across the nation would be able to start programs in which their students, under professional supervision, would each provide 60 hours of reading instruction at local schools, adult-education programs, community groups and prisons. In return for their work, the students would receive college credit for the elective program.

This is an innovative and cost-effective project that deserves congressional support. The Literacy Corps, along with other literacy programs, makes up the Senate’s Education for Competitive America Act (S 406). Unfortunately, this measure has now been attached to the Senate’s controversial trade bill. As currently written, this protectionist trade bill has little chance of surviving a presidential veto.

The Senate should reconsider the Education for Competitive America Act on its own. This is an appropriate vehicle for congressional action on the nation’s escalating illiteracy problem. The Literacy Corps would offer to thousands, perhaps millions, of non-readers an opportunity to participate in today’s world at today’s standard. The rewards would be great, the cost so low.