From: Napa Valley Register
What happens when kids can’t read?
One in five Americans can’t read English. And California is at the bottom, with almost one quarter of its adults English illiterate. Best guess: this state of affairs costs the US about $2.2 trillion per year. And our country is a global leader in incarceration. And that costs roughly $85 billion per year.
Why talk about reading and jails? These costly facts are connected. If you can’t read, if you can’t do basic math, the odds of you going to jail are high. No denying the importance of other issues – housing, health care, drug abuse – but the failure of our children to read and do simple math by the end of third grade is something we can do something about, now and locally.
Some food for thought: our kids can’t read:
- Illiteracy in primary grades may be compounded by the fact that 15% to 20% of all students have a learning disability. These students need special modalities, which are scarce in our education system.
- Based on recent studies, about 38% of 4th-grade students read at a level that’s below average.
And if you can’t read, you’re likely to go to jail:
According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of the fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare.
- 85% of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally low literate.
- Juvenile incarceration reduces the probability of high school completion and increases the probability of incarceration later in life.
And if you’re in jail, and you can’t read, your odds of surviving on the “outside” are low.
According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 70% to 75% of all incarcerated adults cannot read at a fourth-grade level. This means they have little or no chance of finding a decent job with a living wage, or get more education, or profit from treatment programs, or even knowing what resources exist to help them have a stable, productive life.
What about our own backyard?
What should we do?
First, start locally, and get ahead of the curve: improve the reading and math skills of our children.
Our school districts do not have the funds to employ the extra personnel that would be needed for an all-out reading and math tutoring program and our teachers are simply stretched too thin, and they alone, no matter how valiant, don’t have the resources to solve the literacy problem. There are other ways to help, such as:
- Parent volunteers in the classrooms.
- Buddy systems between fifth and sixth-grade students with second and third-graders reading together.
- Partnerships with service clubs, both locally and nationally, such as Rotary, Kiwanis, Civitan, Soroptomists, etc., to volunteer in the classroom to assist with reading.
- Partnerships with the Interfaith Council in the community.
- Special after-school programming at the county libraries and at the Boys and Girls Club.
- Partnerships with local and national literacy organizations, i.e., Reading is Fundamental.
We have a “deep bench” of organizations that could come together to offer this kind of support, evaluate progress, and tell the story that emerges. Then perhaps reach out to other counties or the state.
Granted, this is a complex issue. But we can start by working through some simple solutions. Advocates 4 Justice is building a cohort of individuals to focus on what can be done in our local community. Individuals in our county are encouraged to join the fight to, first and foremost, make sure our children can read and do simple math. We cannot waste another day just talking about this problem and writing more letters to the editor; it is time we take action! If you are interested in being part of this cohort, reach out to me at ellyn@advocates4justice.org.