An NPR story about what happens when schools fail to impart even the most basic skills like reading:

Years Of Schooling Leaves Some Students Illiterate

NPR, December 12, 2009

Listen to the Story

December 12, 2009

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121374125&ft=1&f=1013

 

Author Beth Fertig says that as many as 20 percent of American adults may be functionally illiterate. They may recognize letters and words, but can't read directions on a bus sign or a medicine bottle, read or write a letter, or hold most any job. Her new book, Why cant U teach me 2 read, follows three young New Yorkers who legally challenged the New York City public schools for failing to teach them how to read — and won. Host Scott Simon talks to Fertig about her book.