Yesterday, I heard an announcer on the radio refer to Mississippi as a state with high illiteracy. As a retired teacher, I was shocked that illiteracy in the United States still exists. My schools certainly taught everyone to read. And school is mandatory in the US. So my whole adult career, I just never thought about people not being able to read in this county.
That radio show got me thinking about Scott Walker’s push to end public education. And then this morning I heard Rick Perry say he wants to end the Federal Department of Education. Is that so that every state can become a Mississipi? So that governors like Walker can gut public schools? Is that so that our schools can have more children in each classroom?
Is there really illiteracy in the US? Is there any in Wisconsin now? Well, a Google search answered that question! Yes, Mississippi does have 16% illiteracy. Wisconsin has 7%. But California has 23%, and New York has 22%! Can you imagine almost a quarter of the population not being able to read? Can you imagine Wisconsin in 10 years if Scott Walker stays in office? Is this the Wisconsin we want?
| National Center for Education Statistics | |||||
| Indirect estimate of percent lacking Basic prose literacy skills and corresponding credible intervals : All States 2003 | |||||
|
Location
|
FIPS code0 | Population size1 | Percent lacking basic | 95% credible interval3 | |
| prose literacy skills2 | Lower bound | Upper bound | |||
| California | 06000 | 26,029,840 | 23 | 20.3 | 26.2 |
| New York | 36000 | 15,058,111 | 22 | 19.7 | 25.0 |
| Florida | 12000 | 13,040,318 | 20 | 17.0 | 22.9 |
| District of Columbia | 11000 | 425,630 | 19 | 9.3 | 33.1 |
| Texas | 48000 | 15,936,279 | 19 | 16.4 | 22.1 |
| New Jersey | 34000 | 6,610,051 | 17 | 13.5 | 20.8 |
| Georgia | 13000 | 6,365,942 | 17 | 14.0 | 20.7 |
| New Mexico | 35000 | 1,394,621 | 16 | 12.2 | 21.6 |
| Nevada | 32000 | 1,668,489 | 16 | 9.5 | 25.3 |
| Mississippi | 28000 | 2,116,087 | 16 | 11.9 | 20.8 |
| Louisiana | 22000 | 3,313,847 | 16 | 12.5 | 20.3 |
| Hawaii | 15000 | 944,472 | 16 | 11.5 | 22.2 |
| Alabama | 01000 | 3,399,775 | 15 | 11.8 | 19.4 |
| South Carolina | 45000 | 3,098,822 | 15 | 11.6 | 18.4 |
| Arkansas | 05000 | 2,044,669 | 14 | 10.2 | 17.2 |
| North Carolina | 37000 | 6,278,385 | 14 | 11.0 | 16.5 |
| West Virginia | 54000 | 1,418,672 | 13 | 10.2 | 17.2 |
| Tennessee | 47000 | 4,439,666 | 13 | 10.5 | 16.5 |
| Arizona | 04000 | 4,083,287 | 13 | 9.6 | 18.1 |
| Illinois | 17000 | 9,507,861 | 13 | 10.4 | 16.6 |
| Pennsylvania | 42000 | 9,561,844 | 13 | 10.2 | 15.5 |
| Oklahoma | 40000 | 2,696,155 | 12 | 10.4 | 14.5 |
| Kentucky | 21000 | 3,202,516 | 12 | 10.3 | 14.3 |
| Virginia | 51000 | 5,522,625 | 12 | 9.6 | 14.8 |
| Maryland | 24000 | 4,190,921 | 11 | 9.1 | 13.7 |
| Delaware | 10000 | 618,525 | 11 | 6.6 | 16.4 |
| Idaho | 16000 | 1,000,313 | 11 | 8.0 | 13.8 |
| Oregon | 41000 | 2,713,872 | 10 | 7.3 | 13.9 |
| Colorado | 08000 | 3,385,807 | 10 | 7.1 | 12.9 |
| Massachusetts | 25000 | 5,096,670 | 10 | 8.3 | 12.1 |
| Washington | 53000 | 4,641,680 | 10 | 7.3 | 12.8 |
| Utah | 49000 | 1,638,079 | 9 | 6.1 | 13.9 |
| Alaska | 02000 | 460,997 | 9 | 6.1 | 13.3 |
| Ohio | 39000 | 8,715,916 | 9 | 7.2 | 12.0 |
| Wyoming | 56000 | 382,009 | 9 | 6.2 | 12.2 |
| Montana | 30000 | 704,494 | 9 | 5.9 | 12.2 |
| Connecticut | 09000 | 2,668,989 | 9 | 5.5 | 12.5 |
| Rhode Island | 44000 | 832,138 | 8 | 4.7 | 13.9 |
| Michigan | 26000 | 7,629,134 | 8 | 6.2 | 11.0 |
| Indiana | 18000 | 4,633,843 | 8 | 6.1 | 10.3 |
| Kansas | 20000 | 2,048,059 | 8 | 5.9 | 10.2 |
| Iowa | 19000 | 2,249,427 | 7 | 5.3 | 10.1 |
| Missouri | 29000 | 4,321,763 | 7 | 5.9 | 9.2 |
| Maine | 23000 | 1,036,269 | 7 | 5.2 | 10.2 |
| Wisconsin | 55000 | 4,185,290 | 7 | 5.1 | 9.9 |
| Nebraska | 31000 | 1,310,211 | 7 | 5.3 | 9.7 |
| South Dakota | 46000 | 572,209 | 7 | 4.7 | 9.7 |
| Vermont | 50000 | 485,416 | 7 | 4.4 | 9.4 |
| North Dakota | 38000 | 489,045 | 6 | 4.2 | 9.0 |
| Minnesota | 27000 | 3,852,097 | 6 | 4.1 | 8.0 |
| New Hampshire | 33000 | 995,072 | 6 | 4.0 | 8.2 |
| * The state and county Federal Information processing Standards (FIPS) codes are standardized unique state and county identifiers. The first two positions identify the state, and the last three positions identify the county. For more information, see http://www.census.gov/geo/www/fips/fips.html | |||||
| 1 Estimated population size of persons 16 years and older in households in 2003. | |||||
| 2 Those lacking Basic prose literacy skills include those who scored Below Basic in prose and those who could not be tested due to language barriers. | |||||
| 3 The estimated percent lacking Basic prose literacy skills has a margin of error as measured by the associated credible interval. There is a 95% chance that the value of the percent lacking Basic prose literacy skills is contained between the lower and upper bound. | |||||
| SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy
http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/StateEstimates.aspx |
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Fighting Bob
