Thread: St.Lucie, FL: 20% of adults are illiterate (wonder why?)

urvey shows 12 percent of Indian River County residents are illiterate
Survey shows 12 percent of Indian River County residents are illiterate

By Kelly Tyko (Contact)
Friday, January 9, 2009

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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — About 20 percent of adults in Florida lack basic literacy skills like being able to read a newspaper article or a brochure, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.

The estimates are better than the state average for Treasure Coast adults, and Martin and Indian River counties were also better than the national estimate of 14.5 percent. Estimates show 16 percent of adults in St. Lucie County lack basic literary skills based on data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy and the Census.

Nationwide, about 32 million Americans are illiterate.

The study used data from the Census and a nationally representative sample of about 18,500 Americans 16 or older who took the National Assessment of Adult Literacy in 2003.

While the national illiteracy rate improved slightly, in Florida it got worse.

Only two other states — New York and California — had higher rates of illiteracy than Florida in the latest survey. States with large immigrant populations have the most adults who can't read English, with about one in five immigrants unable or barely able to understand basic prose, the study said.

LACKING BASIC LITERACY SKILLS

Here are the percentages of people 16 and over lacking basic literacy skills.

Indian River County: 12 percent of the 96,967 adults in 2003; 12 percent of the 79,019 adults in 1992

Florida: 20 percent of the 13 million adults in 2003; 15 percent of the 10.8 million adults in 1992

RELATED:

Roughly 1 in 5 people in San Diego County, CA. lacks basic English literacy skills, according to data released Thursday by federal education officials.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-142480.html

Wait...Wait...Here it comes...MORE Govt. programs to HELP illegal aliens learn English! Paid for by....