Adult Literacy Needs in Wisconsin

Overview of Adult Literacy in Wisconsin

The Need for Adult Literacy and English Language Services in Wisconsin
- Approximately 1 million Wisconsin adults qualify for adult literacy and English language services. (Source: US Census 2000 and the National Adult Literacy Survey 1992)
- 18.93%, or 785,682, Wisconsin adults, age 16 and older, are not enrolled in school and do not have a high school diploma.
- 7.3%, or 368,712, residents over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home.
Significance to the Public
- Nearly 30% of this state's population growth in the last decade stemmed from immigrants, 21% from people of Hispanic descent alone. (Source: U.S. Census 2000)
- Wisconsin has the second highest high school graduation rate in the country for whites. In contrast, Wisconsin has the worst graduation rate (50th out of 50 states) for African Americans. (Source: Center on Wisconsin Strategy, 2002)
Significance to Businesses
- According to a National Association of Manufacturers report, 40% of manufacturers say one of the principal reasons they cannot implement new productivity improvements is their employees' lack of reading, writing, math, or communication skills. (Source: The Skills Gap 2001, National Association of Manufacturers)
- Low literacy skills drive up the cost of health care premiums. According to the National Institute for Health, $75 billion dollars are lost every year due to patients' inability to read prescription labels or follow doctors' instructions, causing them to return to their health care providers, often in crisis situations, to receive further treatment.
- As baby boomers retire, Wisconsin's service industries will face a labor shortage to serve them, according to Terry Ludeman of the Department of Workforce Development.
Significance to Taxpayers
- Without literacy services, new immigrants could not live, work, or raise their families in Wisconsin. The nearly 30% population growth stemming from immigration means 30% more people paying income taxes, 30% more people paying sales taxes, and 30% more people--if given the tools of literacy--paying property taxes.
- Latino and Asian-owned businesses grow at a faster rate than the average American business. (Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, 2002). More sales = more sales taxes for the state of Wisconsin.
- In a national study, more than 65% of welfare recipients who had or attained a high school diploma left welfare and became self-sufficient within two years. (Source: National Institute for Literacy, 1998)
- Literacy services help stop the revolving door of Corrections.
  - In WI, spending for Corrections has doubled in the last decade, taking $500 million more per year from the State's general fund.
  - 70% of prison admissions are previously convicted felons who have committed parole or probation violations. (Source: Wisconsin Council on Children & Families, 2002)
  - 70% of inmates function below the level of a high school graduate. (Source: National Institute for Literacy, 1994)
  Since 7 out of 10 prisoners function below a high school level, and increasingly it takes a minimum of a high school diploma to gain a family wage job, it is no wonder that 70% of costly prison admissions are due to parole or probation violations. Convicted felons simply do not have the literacy skills to earn their way out of crime.
Current Problems in Addressing Wisconsin's Adult Literacy Needs
- Only 50,000 (or approximately 5%) of adults in need of services are currently receiving them.
- Adult basic education and ESL services are chronically underfunded. Nationally, the total annual government expenditure for adults in literacy education programs is approximately $310 per enrollee. By contrast, the government spends about $7,500 per enrollee in the K-12 system and $16,000 per enrollee in the higher education system. (Source: The Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) in the United States: Moving from the Margins to Mainstream of Education, 2000)
- The technical college system provides support to programs that receive federal adult education (Workforce Investment Act Title II) funds, but there is just now developing support for the estimated 100 organizations that operate outside the purview of the federal funding and its requirements.

This information was taken from First Lady, Jessica Doyle's, web page Read On Wisconsin at http://readon.wi.gov/section.asp?linkid=1173&locid=138.

For more information on Adult Literacy in Wisconsin go to Wisconsin Literacy, Inc., at www.wisconsinliteracy.org/literacy_facts.php.

Barbara Huntington, Special Needs Consultant
WI Dept. of Public Instruction
Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning -- Public Library Development
125 S. Webster St. Madison WI 53707-7841
(608) 267-5077, fax (608) 267-1052
barbara.huntington@dpi.wi.state.us

For questions about this information, contact Barbara A. Huntington (608) 267-5077

Last updated on 2/25/2008 9:05:28 AM