Literacy: Spanning the U.S.
How
Low Literacy Rates and Lack of Education Funding Fuel the Cycle of
Incarceration
Prisoners
at Lowell Correctional Facility in Ocala, Florida, engage in a volunteer-led
literacy program.
At
Lowell Correctional Facility,
a women’s prison in Ocala, Florida, incarcerated volunteers provide a literacy
program to help fellow prisoners improve their reading capabilities. The
facility is the largest
women’s prison in the United States, housing roughly 2,600 prisoners.
Over
the past few decades, several studies and reports have been published in an
attempt to establish a sense of the literacy rates in prisons throughout the
United States. Though data is sparse, the few studies conducted by the
Department of Education and several other organizations point to a continuing
issue within the criminal legal system: Many of those currently incarcerated
find themselves struggling with the literary skills required to function in
society.
“We
test them to see where they are and get them ready for the GED. This is more
involved one-on-one than the teaching in the GED program,” Mary Christensen, a
prisoner volunteer tutor in the Lowell Correctional Facility program, told
Truthout. “I have some students who test at a second-grade level, so it varies.
There are some students in here who never completed kindergarten.”
Like
many prison education programs, the literacy program at Lowell Correctional
Facility is entirely run by volunteers, all of whom are prisoners. All
correctional department programs in Florida combined only constitute 2.3
percent of the state prison budget, and Republican Gov. Rick Scott has proposed further
cuts to education services for prisoners and parolees in the 2018-2019 fiscal
year. READ
MORE >>
Plymouth
Public Library’s literacy program expands
With
a little reshuffling of resources and some generous financing, Plymouth
Public library is set to launch a major literacy initiative for the people
of the South Shore.
The
library recently finished construction of a new technology center that will
serve as the centerpiece of the program.
The
technology center will double as maker space for library programming when adult
education classes are not in session. But plans call for weekday morning and
evening literacy classes, with drop-in sessions for students on the waiting
list or just looking for extra help.
Library
Director Jennifer Harris said the program will consolidate the library’s
literacy offerings under one roof for the first time in years and will nearly
double the number of students taking classes, increasing enrollment from 50 to
92.
The
expanded program is made possible with a combination of state grants and
private donations.
Gifts
from the late Lawrence Bongiovanni and local architect Jeff Metcalfe made
construction possible. Bongiovanni left the library $250,000 to promote
literacy in memory of longtime friend Donald Grimshaw. Metcalfe donated his
architectural services to design the technology center in the former periodical
reading room of the library.
The
lightly used sitting area where patrons once read newspapers and magazines is
now closed off and outfitted with 13 work stations for students in the literacy
program. Each station includes hard-wired computer terminals. A gift from
Entergy will outfit the room with an 80-inch smart TV that will allow teachers
and library staff to hold seminars in the room as well.
The
library’s old literacy center located right next door is being renovated as a
literacy classroom. READ
MORE >>
San
Antonio’s Adult Literacy Epidemic
If
you are reading this article, you’re one of the seventy five percent of of
adults in San Antonio who are literate.
Sadly, approximately twenty five percent of San Antonio’s adult
population reads at a 5th grade level according to the U.S. Census.
Among
the many challenges that permeate international conversations—poverty, human
rights, and global climate change—adult illiteracy is often forgotten.
For
most of us, learning to read is a blurry, forgotten childhood memory, a skill
taken for granted, even though it is skill we use almost constantly.
According
to the Central Connecticut State University, which has conducted a national
literacy study
since 2005, San Antonio is one of the least literate cities in the country. In
2016, out of the 82 cities studied, San Antonio was ranked the 76th most
literate city, just below Fresno, CA. Of the largest 35 cities San
Antonio is ranked dead last.
The
problem is by no means limited to San Antonio, however. According
to ProLiteracy,
over 36 million adults in the U.S. “cannot read, write, or do basic math above
a third grade level.” In 2014, the Council for Advancement of Adult
Literacy released an international study of literacy. The U.S.’s literacy level
was lower than the international average, and it was ranked lower than 12
countries including Canada, Japan, and Australia—all of which we are in
competition for jobs.
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Education
has historically been a tool wielded by authoritarian figures. Those in power
took measures to ensure that education was exclusively for the upper and ruling
classes. Therefore those at a lower socioeconomic levels became dependent on
the upper classes for employment.
The
question has long been asked whether the low-information community of San
Antonio is kept that way by decision makers and politicians because they have
failed to allocate funds to deal with San Antonio’s reading crisis. READ MORE
>>
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