WASHINGTON : 2 Measures Provide Ammunition in U.S. Campaign Against Illiteracy

It’s time to go back to school.

The latest report by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee says 23 million Americans are illiterate. Another 45 million adults read with only minimal comprehension. Jonathan Kozol, author of “Illiterate America,” estimates that the United States ranks 49th among the 158 nations in the United Nations in literacy level. And it’s getting worse:

* New York Telephone Co. had to give an entry-level exam to 60,000 people to hire just 3,000 because 84% failed the test.

* Chemical Bank in New York interviews 40 applicants to find one who can be trained successfully as a teller.

* Chrysler Corp. had to incorporate graphics on its assembly line because so many workers could not read the words bad hood fit on the button they were supposed to push when they detected an ill-fitting body part.

“If you can’t read, write and do basic math, you just cannot be a truly productive American. It’s just that simple,” said Rep. Tom Sawyer (D-Ohio), who is the primary sponsor of the “literacy for all Americans act.”

Sawyer made the statement standing behind a low wall of books representing the 465,000 pages of technical data that an automobile mechanic must be able to read to diagnose and repair cars. “This wall between good people and good jobs must come down,” Sawyer said.

A worker who lacks basic skills to keep up with change in the increasingly complex work environment--who can’t read basic instruction manuals or safety instructions--drops farther and farther behind. And low-level opportunities are disappearing.

“American jobs are placing greater demands on employees,” said the Senate Labor Committee report. “The average American worker today must have skills at the ninth-grade through the 12th-grade levels, not the fourth-grade level typical after World War II. And the standards keep rising. The growth occupations have increasingly shifted to the service and retail sectors, which require high-level problem solving, communication, reading, writing and math skills.”

Without a federal initiative on literacy, these workers will be more vulnerable to a shift or advance in the marketplace, be confined to dead-end jobs or always be in danger of dislocation.

President Bush and the nation’s governors have embraced a new national policy calling for every American to be literate by the year 2000. To that end, two major literacy bills are on the verge of final congressional approval this fall.

Sawyer’s bill is part of the omnibus “equity and excellence in education act” (H.R. 5115) sponsored by Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Los Angeles). The House approved it overwhelmingly.

Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) sponsored the Senate counterpart, the National Literacy Act of 1990 (S. 1310), which passed unanimously. The bills’ differences will be ironed out in a conference committee this fall.

The main federal program to fight illiteracy today is the Adult Education Act, which is funded at $160 million, less than 1% of the Department of Education’s budget. Sawyer’s bill calls for an additional $250 million, Simon’s for an additional $230 million.

The purpose of both bills is to provide federal leadership and focus for an issue dominated by fragmented state and local efforts. It would create the federal infrastructure to coordinate and strengthen efforts at all levels. And it would provide incentives for the private sector to become more involved.

The bills would create a national center for literacy to write national educational goals, develop better teaching methods and tools and train teachers.

But while Simon’s bill focuses more on the unemployed person who can’t read, Sawyer’s bill concentrates on the functionally illiterate employed worker. His bill would establish a National Workplace Literacy Assistance Collaborative to help small and medium-sized businesses and labor organizations implement special programs through a system of grants.

“It’s tremendously important to upgrade the skills of today’s work force,” said Harold W. McGraw, president of the Business Council for Effective Literacy, “not only in terms of our own profitability and ability to compete internationally, but also in terms of giving workers new opportunities. There are less and less low-level jobs out there today.”

Bill Would Let U.S. Firms Recruit Aliens

New employment-based immigration laws could open doors to the U.S. job market for foreign recruits while providing money to educate and retrain American workers.

Jobs are going begging in the current economy, said Rep. Bruce A. Morrison (D-Conn.), primary sponsor of the “family unity and employment opportunity immigration act” (H.R. 4300).

Instead of the quota system used under current law, Morrison proposes awarding visas to people overseas with relatives already in the United States. This system would allow employers to recruit workers from abroad.

Morrison proposes a head tax, of sorts. After attempting to find workers in this country, companies would be allowed to recruit immigrants--for a fee. Companies with 200 or more employees would pay $1,000 per worker; companies with 50 to 200 employees would pay $500. There would be no fee for companies with fewer than 50 employees or for nonprofit organizations.

The money would go to the American Workers’ Educational Trust Fund, which the secretary of Labor could use to provide education grants to states.

“By balancing the benefits to employers who recruit immigrants to fill jobs with raising revenues to educate and train American workers for the jobs of the future, we will have built a system of employer-based immigration where everybody wins--the immigrant, the employer and the American worker,” Morrison said.

The bill, which has passed the House Judiciary Committee, is expected to come to the floor for a vote when Congress returns from summer recess. The Bush Administration favors similar, although narrower, legislation passed by the Senate last year.