Home About LIFTIlliteracy in Dallas
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Illiteracy in Dallas
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Low Literacy is a Critical Issue in North Texas
Adults at the lowest levels of literacy are in the greatest need of our attention. Illiterate adults do not have the full range of economic, employment, social and personal choices which are available to people with higher levels of literacy.
In a recent poll, 90% of Fortune 100 executives expressed concern that low literacy is hurting their productivity and profitability. More than 60% of non-managerial jobs in Dallas require a high school diploma. Children of parents who are unemployed and have not completed high school are five times more likely to drop out than are children of employed parents.
Why should we care? - Because we need a productive and growing workforce
- Because we want our families to thrive
- Because we want lower health care costs and more efficient health care
- Because we want to reduce poverty and get people off of welfare
No one literacy organization will reach all 49% of low literate adults in the greater Dallas area. Not all want to be helped. But there are at least 6,000 individuals this year who will find it in themselves to overcome their embarrassment at not being able to read, and will call LIFT, or get a friend of relative to call. These dedicated learners will make an appointment for an assessment, rearrange job shifts and baby sitting schedules, drive or take the bus, despite not being able to read a map or bus schedule. They will signs up for classes and walk into that first class even though they are scared that it will be like all the other times in school that were so humiliating. For those people, LIFT must continue its proven programs of learning and is grateful for the help of generous individuals and community organizations who make those programs possible.
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- Adult illiteracy carries an estimated price tag of more than $17 billion per year as a result of lost income and tax revenue, welfare, unemployment, crime and incarceration and training costs for business and industry. National Adult Literacy Survey
- The number one determinant in the success of a child's education is a parent who reads. US Department of Education
- Nationally, 43% of adults with low literacy skills live in poverty, compared to less than 5% of those with strong literacy skills.National Institute for Literacy
- Sixty percent of prison inmates can't write a letter, read a map or a bus schedule. ProLiteracy Worldwide
- In the greater Dallas area, 60% of adults between the ages of nineteen and forty four reads below a high school level and 49% read at or below a fourth grade reading level. Dallas County Adult Literacy Council.
- In Tarrant County, 19% of adults older than twenty five have no high school diploma and 8% have less than a ninth grade education. US Census 2000
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