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.
They didn’t achieve that rate through childhood education investmemt. They spent a few years forcing (as in it wasn’t optional) adults to become literate too. At the peak about one in ten cubans were involved in teaching others, they even closed schools early at one point and literally drafted 100k students to go teach adults.
The parents weren’t needed because an even higher power stepped in to mandate things and actually could and did enforce it.
The US government doesn’t have the political authority to mandate such a thing, the rights of individuals are very strong in the US, including the right to be ignorant. Parental involvement is the only realistic option to improve the current situation.