Public Education Achieves its Goals

In Detroit.

Report: Nearly Half Of Detroiters Can’t Read

From that report (PDF):

The National Institute for Literacy estimates that 47% of adults (more than 200,000 individuals) in the City of Detroit are functionally illiterate, referring to the inability of an individual to use reading, speaking, writing, and computational skills in everyday life situations.

It gets better:

We also know that of the 200,000 adults who are functionally illiterate, approximately half have a high school diploma or GED, so this issue cannot be solely addressed by a focus on adult high-school completion.

While these numbers are less severe for the region as a whole, the region at-large is far from immune to this issue. Within the tri-county region, there are a number of municipalities with illiteracy rates rivaling Detroit: Southfield at 24%, Warren at 17%, Inkster at 34%, Pontiac at 34%.

Further, from the (short) CBS story, it would appear that certain areas in the D.C. metropolis and around Cleveland are even worse.  Truly, if our education system had been foisted on us by a foreign power, it would have been an act of war.

UPDATE:  Breda takes this and puts her own, much more detailed spin on it.