HALF OF DETROIT RESIDENTS CAN NOT READ; TEACHERS UNIONS AND GOVERNMENT WORKING TOGETHER...FAILURE AGAIN

It seems that every day there are several stories about the incompetence of some government agency or an ineffective wasteful government program.

Here is a story right from the Third World. Why are we building schools in Afghanistan, when we need then in Detroit?

Detroit, Michigan, once was a booming city. No more. It is dying before our eyes.

At its peak, America’s former “automotive center” was the 5th largest city in the U.S.A. Today, Detroit is the 11th largest city and can “boast” of these dismal statistics:

* 33.8% of Detroit’s residents were below the poverty level in 2007, the highest among large U.S. cities.
* In December 2010, Detroit had a 19.1% unemployment rate.
* 31.6% of households in Detroit were headed by a female with no husband present; only 26.7% of households were married couples living together.
* Whereas the city had fewer than 6,000 blacks in 1910, today blacks comprise 81.6%, while whites account for 12.3% and Hispanics 5% of Detroit’s population.
* Detroit was the 3rd most dangerous U.S. city in 2009, according to a study by the CQ Press.

Add to the above doleful list this latest statistic: Nearly Half Of Detroiters Can’t Read.

According to a report released on May 4, 2011 by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund, 47% of the residents of Detroit are “functionally illiterate.”

Functional illiteracy refers to a person who can read and possibly write simple sentences with a limited vocabulary, but cannot read or write well enough to deal with the everyday requirements of life in society, such as reading a prescription or a job advertisement, and filling out basic forms like job application forms.

Illiteracy is highly correlated with poverty and crime. As examples, over 60% of adults in the US Prison System read at or below the 4th grade level; 85% of US juvenile inmates are functionally illiterate; 43% of adults at the lowest level of literacy lived below the poverty line, as opposed to 4% of those with the highest levels of literacy.

And the sad story continues with the ever increasing level of inadequate education throughout the country. All grade levels in the USA perform below the levels of many other countries....soon, we will need the various world educational charities to be working in Detroit!