Our Nation’s Literacy Deficit & Why School Choice is an All-American Issue

From The National Literacy Institute Website (Literacy Statistics 2024-2025 - Where are we now?

Retrieved online Oct. 27, 2024)

Like millions of other Americans, I homeschooled my children because I saw this as my only choice for insuring that they gain a respectable education which was more aligned with the standards of private schools than with our local public schools. I forfeited my children’s right to a public education along with the money which would have been spent to educate them. My children forfeited opportunities to socialize and participate in same-peer activities in exchange for a higher level education which, thankfully, my husband and I were able to provide.

The National Literacy Institute recently published an article on their website (Literacy Statistics 2024-2025 - Where are we now? Retrieved online Oct. 27, 2024), in which they claimed that 54% of U.S. adults have a literacy rate below a 6th grade level. This demonstrates, without question, that school choice is an issue which affects all of our children either directly or indirectly.

Oftentimes, our only alternative is to have our under-performing children tested for special education programs – just to get them the extra help they need. This frequently leads to stigmatizing our children with derogatory labels such as “dyslexic”. Although this is a viable and useful resource, being in a small group special education classroom within a public school has the potential to seriously impact the self-esteem of the students and cause them to believe they are not up to par with their peers.

The same article claims that low levels of literacy cost the U.S. up to 2.2 trillion per year. If this is the case, it might appear that things need to be shifted around a little. When parents are able to create and or join their own educational groups, they will be more aligned with others of like interests and similar educational philosophies. This will also decrease the strong emotions among groups with conflicting moral codes, and we will have a more peaceful nation.

Meg Rayborn Dawson, MA

Univ. of W. Florida (Exceptional Student Ed)