1 In 20 Can't Read?

Hmmm...This is interesting.

Eleven million U.S. adults - about one in 20 - have such poor English skills that they can't read a newspaper, understand the directions on a bottle of pills or, in many cases, carry on a basic conversation, says a new federal survey that offers the first peek in more than a decade at the USA's "non-literate" adult population.

Recent immigrants with limited or no English skills account for most of the group, adult education advocates say, but the survey suggests that even the average adult has low skills. Only 13%, for instance, are able to compare viewpoints in two editorials; interpret a table on blood pressure, age and physical activity, or compare the per-ounce costs of two cans of soup.

11 million huh, why does that number sound so familiar, it'll come to me.

Interviewers surveyed 19,000 adults ages 16 and up living in the USA in 2003 and found that the basic skills of whites, Asians and Pacific Islanders rose modestly if at all across all education levels. Hispanics were the only group that fared worse than in 1992, in two of three areas: the ability to read "continuous texts" such as books and magazines, as well as forms, tables and TV listings. They were unchanged in "quantitative literacy," the ability to add a bank deposit slip, for instance.

But wait, didn't we just learn above that all groups fared poorly in the testing? So how is it in this pragraph we learn that only hispanics are the only group who did worse this time out?

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' on Thursday said the federal government will coordinate adult education efforts through several federal agencies. "One adult unable to read is one too many in America."

Jose Velazquez, director of the National Center for Family Literacy's Hispanic Family Learning Institute, said education needs to focus more on adults. "This country right now is focused on No Child Left Behind, but we can clearly see from this data that many adults are being left behind."

Oh, now I get it. Yeah, okay, sure, we got it Mexico, we'll educate every person on the planet because your too bloody cheap to take care of your own people.

Cuz, you know, that's our job.

One wonders if legal status were included what those numbers would look like. Just thinking out loud here, don't mind me.


illegal immigration
edumacation
stupid studies