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21% of U.S. adults read BELOW 5th grade level.

Posted: Aug 13, 2013

Half of all Americans don't read well enough to comprehend newspaper and magazine articles.

Just thought I'd mention it. This IS a major political factor given that almost no information about and explaining current events is available on TV, and most of that inevitably misleading -- like presenting the tip of an iceberg as the whole thing.

;

Not really shocking, considering - certain economic factors.

[ In Reply To ..]
..."The real scourge of the U.S. education system—and its greatest competitive weakness—is the deep and growing achievement gap between socioeconomic groups that begins early and lasts through a student's academic career," writes Rebecca Strauss, associate director for CFR's Renewing America publications. Wealthy students are achieving more, and the influence of parental wealth is stronger in the United States than anywhere else in the developed world.

Although the United States spends the fourth most in the world on per-student primary and secondary education and by far the most on college education, those funds are not distributed equitably. The majority of developed countries invest more resources per pupil in lower-income school districts than in higher-income ones. It is the reverse in the United States, in large part because local property taxes provide most revenues for K-12 public schools. The investment gap continues in college and has increased significantly over time. In 1967, the gap in real annual per-pupil spending between the most and least selective colleges was $13,500. In 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, it was nearly six times larger, at $80,000...

Places like the UK and Canada are more educated, and of course many Asian countries, where education is culturally more important than it is in the US.

We banked on the American dream of having a normal job that didn't require college and still being able to own a house and have a family. Well that didn't last long, did it? We should have focused more on education than consumerism.

People who worry about the deficit should worry - about literacy. There is an

[ In Reply To ..]
ENORMOUS correlation between illiteracy and EVERY problem that costs taxpayer dollars. Including an estimated $70 billion on extra healthcare spending DIRECTLY attributable to inability to read and understand prescription and other medical instructions.

We're not talking just minorities and poor people here. Every person here, regardless of background, has friends and relatives who cannot read well enough to take proper basic care of him or herself, much less perform their other duties as citizens adequately.

it is entirely shocking, but not surprising - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
our education system is a mess and completely burdened by theoretical schemes and experimental nonsense instituted by overpaid bureaucratic pretenders. If anything is driving us toward third-world status, it is our declining capacity to educate our citizens. It's shameful. We are so enamored of our ability to specialize and technologize that we have lost our ability to problem solve.

Agree. 20% of high schoolers handed a diploma - each year can't read properly. nm

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x

Public education and democracy - go hand in hand

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We have to have an informed electorate for democracy to work. I don't know which is scarier: A system that only allows the educated to make the choices and decisions, or a system that says everybody is in on the choices but then does not have a good educational system. I would not be opposed to some sort of minimal test to assure that people are making at least some level of informed decision.

I once wouldn't support a test for even the most basic - understanding of government

[ In Reply To ..]
function and social and economic issues, but I would now. Republics tend to fail over time because of the instability from irrational populaces.

Citizens should be able to hold any point of view as long as they demonstrate the most basic fund of knowledge available to draw on. Check the box for the answer that best describes the responsibilities of the executive branch. The questions might vary to include the big issues of an era, such as deficit spending in this one.

We should all have to retake and pass a test every decade or two to retain the privilege of voting. The most successful of those who choose to forget every fact that contradicts what they want to believe and choose to believe any lie that pleases would tend to be sifted out, and our country would be significantly more stable and rational for it.

This country has become so dumbed-down that - Libby

[ In Reply To ..]
now the products of the newest teachers are also "dumbed down," and THEY are teaching the very basics in math and spelling, which explains why today's high school "graduates" go on to become lawyers, judges, cardiologists and neurologists, etc.

It's been going on for a long time now, as far as I can remember.

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