Barbara Bush Foundation Establishes the Robert and Dorothy King Technology Innovation Fund

Barbara Bush Foundation Establishes the Robert and Dorothy King Technology Innovation Fund with $2 Million Gift from King Philanthropies

@BarbaraBushFdn

Barbara Bush Foundation: 3.01.2021

The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy is pleased to announce the establishment of the Robert and Dorothy King Technology Innovation Fund, made possible by a $2 million gift from King Philanthropies. The new fund will advance the Foundation’s work to address America’s low literacy crisis by driving the development of innovative educational technology solutions for adult learners and their families.

Nationwide, 130 million adults – 54% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 years old – lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. Low literacy prevents millions of adults from fully engaging in society as parents, workers and citizens, lying at the core of multigenerational cycles of poverty, poor health and low educational attainment.

This crisis impacts not only individuals and families, but also the economic stability of our entire nation. A 2020 Gallup study commissioned by the Barbara Bush Foundation examined the impact of adult literacy on the U.S. economy, finding that the nation could be losing up to $2.2 trillion annually due to low adult literacy rates. Parental literacy is a particularly critical driver of both current and future economic mobility. A 2010 study by the National Institutes of Health found that a mother’s education level is the single greatest determinant of her children’s future academic success, outweighing every other factor including neighborhood and family income.

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In today’s increasingly digital environment, successful literacy programs must leverage innovation to expand learning beyond the traditional classroom environment. While there are many educational technology solutions available for K-12 children, very few existing tools meet the unique needs of parents and adult learners. Through the Robert and Dorothy King Technology Innovation Fund, the Barbara Bush Foundation will continue its groundbreaking work to bridge this gap by identifying and scaling educational technology solutions for adults, including mobile apps and artificial intelligence, investing expertise to optimize and bring promising solutions to market.  READ MORE ➤➤

 

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