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.
To add on to that, without publicly funded education those illiterates will only perpetuate and exacerbate the problem. If one generation is poorly educated their children will have even more difficulties. And their children even worse. And then they are stuck forever because without education it is uncommon to have enough money to afford a good one for their kids.
If education is privatized and costs money no poor and uneducated person can ever climb out of their misery on their own.