From https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/14phpbq/how_is_it_possible_that_roughly_50_of_americans/

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.

  • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
    20·
    1 year ago

    The Every Student Succeeds Act, which is the successor to the No Child Left Behind Act, puts the accountability for education in the hands of individual states rather than the federal government.

    Journalist Libby Nelson wrote that the ESSA was a victory for conservatives who wished to see federal control of school accountability transferred to states, and that states “could scale back their efforts to improve schools for poor and minority children”.

    The overall effect is that education standards are lowered so that low-performing students can “succeed” (receive a passing grade) without being forced to actually learn.

    And later the accountability requirements for states were removed:

    In March 2017, Republican lawmakers with the support of the Trump administration used the Congressional Review Act to eliminate the Obama administration’s accountability regulations.

    So the real answer to your question is because Republicans are stupid and shortsighted and they want to keep the general population uneducated so they can be more easily manipulated.