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The focus on literacy in this country has primarily been focusing on schools, primary grades and early childhood, specifically. This is essential. The one disturbing aspect of our country however is we are losing ground in adult literacy. It is estimated that thirty million adults cannot read well enough to follow directions on a medicine bottle or fill out a job application without help. In real-world settings this is showing to be more of a problem than the statistics that say: 18,500 Americans are illiterate.

President Obama has a great potential to repair funding that has been lost in adult literacy programs and now that the economy is in need of improving this will become a critical point in the education world. In the past, adult literacy programs have been losing funding. Partnerships and renewed interest in adult literacy is crucial to our success as a developed nation.

If a person cannot perform reading skills to literally save his life or provide for himself, this is a lack of literacy. Obama's transition team includes many Rutgers experts in education and we hope that this issue will be readdressed. This population of adult learners-to-be have thousands of reasons for their situation and no one reason can be attributed to this but nonetheless it is critical that it be addressed.

We do know that the funding was cut for existing programs. If Obama refunds these programs, at least there will be minimal progress. Traditionally Democrats have been a friend to community based programs such as Head Start. This federal program focuses on the critical skills needed in the young and at risk and serves as a outreach program for adult literacy. Finding and enrolling potential GED seekers is one goal of the Headstart program. This is one possibility of an increase in funding and a possible solution. Headstart has been shown to indeed, help its clients. It does not do miracles, but Headstart does a documentable job of helping children and adults have better lives.

Our communities need an outreach program that is consistent from state to state. We hope Obama will utilize existing technology to stop the growing gap between the rich and poor by focusing on adult education. The technology is there, the libraries are there and a growing internet access for everyone is there. What we need is a way of networking these existing facilities with funding to teach those who want to learn, no matter their age.

For more information go to www.proliteracy.org

Learn more about this author, Brenda G. Koscelny.
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