Your teacher calls you up to read a paragraph during class, but you don’t know any of the words. Your mind starts racing: you should know the words, but you don’t. Your hands start to sweat, your heart rate goes up, and it becomes hard to breathe. Year after year, the reading continues to get harder, yet you haven’t learned those words or any new words. Then you’re reaching adulthood and struggling to read a job application.
Students in my class struggle to read words we talked about multiple times in class. I am concerned and worried about how difficult things will be for them. And it goes beyond my class: this is what it is like for many people with reading disorders or educational gaps, when better reading comprehension would help them succeed in life. In recent years, funding has been cut for millions of adults in the United States who struggle with literacy. However, state governments should increase, not decrease, funding for adult literacy programs and interventions in school.
Many people in the United States struggle with reading and comprehension. For instance, The Policy Circle, a non-partisan group that informs people how to be more impactful citizens, states, “In the United States, 54% of American adults read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, and nearly one in five adults reads below a third-grade level. Lower literacy rates directly correlate to higher unemployment rates, reduced income, and overall impact the United States’ competitiveness on the global stage.” This shows that struggling to read directly correlates with difficulty in getting jobs and affects the entire country’s economy. Another example by Ballard Brief, which publishes research on social issues, states, “Major factors influencing literacy development include education, socioeconomic status, learning English as a second language, learning disabilities, and crime. Many of these causes and consequences of illiteracy are intersecting and cyclical. Additionally, illiteracy is perpetuated from parent to child and is likely to lead to higher chances of unemployment and poverty.” This evidence shows that there is a relationship between one’s life growing up and their literacy development. When your parents have difficulty reading, it impacts the future generations. Without someone to read to you or help you practice sounding out words, your literacy is affected. Illiteracy affects adults since they can’t read a job application, which makes it harder to obtain jobs. Illiteracy and poverty can last generations if the cycle is not broken. In conclusion, when people struggle with reading, comprehension, and literacy, it affects the economy, livelihood of people, and future generations.
To support the millions of adults in the United States who struggle with reading and comprehension, state governments should increase funding for adult literacy programs and interventions in school. According to Ballard Brief, “Adult literacy classes can be found at libraries, community centers, schools, and independent literacy centers throughout the United States. These classes aim to improve decoding skills, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.” This evidence shows that adult classes could be easy to find for adults since they are offered in their community, which makes it a possible solution. These classes would help improve people’s reading and comprehension skills, allowing them to get better jobs. In addition, PubMed Central says, “A RAVE-O intervention study of 44 children (grades 1–3) in an after-school program found significant pre- to post-test standard score gains, with 77% of learners showing improvement in word recognition, 65% in pseudoword decoding, 73% in text comprehension, 86% in speed of word reading.” This shows that interventions drastically increase literacy rates in students. Allowing these students to meet with small reading groups will help teachers target their needs and allow them to grow in those areas. Some students have reading disorders, so they could be diagnosed and overcome those challenges in those groups. Focusing on the state government would help the funding be put towards the states that need it the most. If we focus on the school intervention, then adults wouldn’t need literacy classes later. In conclusion, the state government should increase funding for adult literacy programs and interventions in schools to increase literacy rates and comprehension.
I envision a future where every adult can read. Considering that millions of people in the United States struggle with reading and comprehension, the state government should help increase literacy rates. Some states struggle more with literacy than others, so this would help put the funding towards the ones who need it the most. The government should expand the budget for schools and communities. Interventions in school would help students target their areas of need to help improve their reading level. However, adult literacy classes would help adults find jobs to succeed in life. If we put these programs in place at a young age, we will reduce the percentage of adults who struggle with reading. One thing the average citizen can do is to reach out to your state government and ask to increase funding for these programs. I hope we will soon be able to live in a country where every adult knows how to read.
