Adult Literacy - Why it matters

The chart below shows statistics about adult literacy in the greater New Orleans area:

National projections of adult literacy estimate that in the city of New Orleans, 39% of individuals 16 and older function at Level 1 literacy (below 5th grade level) and an additional 31% at Level 2 (below 8th grade level).

Individuals functioning at Level 1 literacy generally cannot attain entry-level jobs with significant career potential. Those functioning at Level 2 have only limited possibilities for advancement.

The figures above suggest that 70% of the adult population age 16 and older, is at high risk of economic marginalization, of being relegated to low wages and job insecurity, and of being unable to gain access to the needed skills for higher paying jobs.

This means economic marginalization for fully 70 percent of our city’s residents—and their families. More families in poverty mean more children in poverty.

This is tragic enough for those individuals directly affected, but it is also tragic for our city.

The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center outlined the current and future needs for a well-educated workforce in a March 2012 report entitled “Building an Inclusive, High-Skilled Workforce for New Orleans’ Next Economy” March 2012. Their conclusion? “Although often considered an economy with low-skilled and low-wage jobs, the New Orleans metro in fact has many jobs that require more education than our workforce has attained. In a recent Brookings Institution report [indicates hyperlinks], the New Orleans metro scored in the lowest quartile among the largest 100 metros for its gap in 2009 in the supply of educated workers relative to demand. Indeed, since 1980, the industrial drivers of our regional economy have shifted from those requiring less education to those requiring more education. To be competitive in the Next Economy, New Orleans will need to place particular emphasis on building the education and skills of its future workforce in a more inclusive way.”

And if you can’t read or have only low-level reading skills, you can’t compete.

This critical challenge to the well-being of our community can only be met effectively through a collaborative effort that engages city and parish leaders, employers, educators, the media, the faith-based community, the health care system and the population in general. The time has come for focused, substantive innovation in the area of adult literacy over an extended period. This innovation is required if we are to provide opportunities for greater literacy to the hundreds of thousands of adults in the greater New Orleans area whose abilities to read, write and do basic mathematics exclude them from anything but minimum-wage work, severely limit their ability to support their children's education, and detract from their involvement in religious and civic life. A committed, intelligent response to this challenge is as important for the economic future of our community as a whole as it is for the individuals whose lives we must touch.