Adult Education and Family Literacy Week
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MILLION ADULTS in the United States struggle with basic academic skills, making
it difficult to function effectively as workers, parents, citizens, and
consumers in today’s society.
Adult
literacy intersects with almost every socioeconomic issue—parenting, health,
workforce development, and poverty. To
address these issues effectively, we must invest in educating parents and
workers. Adult education helps break the cycles of intergenerational illiteracy
and poverty by giving adults the skills they need to be successful as workers
and parents. The value of adult low
literacy to our economy in additional wages and the reduction in costs for
public support programs is estimated at more than $200 billion per year.
Increasing adults’ level of education is a sound investment. Yet, public
funding of adult education has declined over the last 15 years. Most adult
education programs have long student waiting lists. They are able to serve only
a fraction of adults who need services.
INCOME
INEQUALITY
Low literacy has an adverse effect on the employability and earnings
of American adults. The widening “skills gap” continues to have an increasing
impact on income inequality. Adults without a high school diploma are more than
twice as likely to be unemployed, working in low-wage jobs, living in poverty,
and relying on government aid programs as those with higher levels of
education. READ
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