| Literacy and adult education goes hand in hand. Due | | | | three kids, is given a welfare payment allotment and |
| to failures in the public education system, kids are | | | | is chided to get a job. The amount given is |
| graduating from high school unable to read or find | | | | insufficient to afford a living, so that person falls |
| New York City on a map. The school system has put | | | | further and further into poverty. What is this young |
| them out in the real world without sufficient skills to | | | | woman to do? Some states will pay for day care, |
| manage their own life. These kids seldom pursue | | | | but the process takes 3-4 months for approval. If |
| literacy and adult education, becoming resigned to | | | | she doesn't look for work, because she has to watch |
| menial jobs with no future. | | | | her children, she is disqualified to receive her welfare |
| An impoverished and uneducated population is not | | | | payment. The current policies create a catch-22 |
| good for any of us. Being in a state of poverty with | | | | situation. Which, unfortunately causes some to begin |
| no prospects open in the future also leads to these | | | | taking some of the other illegal options, requiring |
| kids getting into drugs and drug dealing. It simply | | | | neither literacy or adult education. |
| becomes the point of least resistance. Although they | | | | A more cost-effective and long term solution lies in |
| know the consequences of getting caught, they get | | | | funding literacy education programs, rather than |
| too into this method of making quick, easy money. | | | | simply sustaining the person or family in poverty. |
| Many become addicts along the way. Young, | | | | Aptitude tests might be administered to determine |
| uneducated women may get married early, soon | | | | the natural talents of the individual. Everyone has a |
| having kids to support which only worsens the | | | | talent for some productive work. Pay to educate |
| situation. Others, with diminished self-esteem, fall into | | | | each individual in a skill that allows them to earn a |
| prostitution. | | | | decent living and those welfare rolls would surely |
| The problem with impoverished families is that, | | | | shrink. Were a massive and comprehensive literacy |
| lacking functional literacy creates a cycle of poverty | | | | and adult education to be made a primary goal, |
| that can go on for generations. Divorce rates among | | | | everyone's taxes would go down, poverty would |
| young people with these problems is particularly high, | | | | decrease and the GDP would grow, increasing the |
| when compared with other age groups with a better | | | | overall prosperity of the entire society. The best |
| education. While there are some free adult education | | | | result would be the number of lives changed forever, |
| programs, if you can't read, how will you ever know | | | | as well as the next generation. |
| about them? It seems that it would be a smart idea | | | | Write your congressional representative and let them |
| to be proactive about ending this cycle of poverty. | | | | know you want to actively promote literacy and |
| The current public education system has failed these | | | | adult education programs for those who need it, for |
| people. However, the current policies virtually punish | | | | the ultimate benefit for all. |
| these individuals. The young woman, now single, with | | | | |