Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.
I think these numbers are inflated, but the problem is still pretty bad.
Part of the problem is we have some politicians here that thrive on uneducated voters. Uneducated voters also tend to be more racist, and racists are a really reliable voting block if you speak their language. Also, they tend to believe “news” that corresponds with what they already believe, so social media and telemarketing works really well on them. Abortion and contraception bans increase the number of children born into poverty, who won’t get a decent education and will rely on what they learn from their parents or TV.
So education funding rarely gets increased.