EQUITY IN EDUCATION
connection between literacy skills and incarceration
rates. Children who do not read on grade level are
more likely to dropout, use drugs or end up in prison.
Research shows that reading abilities in third grade
act as a tell-tale barometer for later school success.
Governor Haslam has wisely invested Tennessee
dollars into literacy initiatives in 2016 because
he knows poor reading skills are connected with
unfavorable life outcomes. Low literacy is strongly
related to crime. Low literacy is strongly related to
unemployment. Illiteracy and
crime are closely related. The
Department of Justice states,
“The link between academic
failure and delinquency,
violence, and crime is welded
to reading failure. Over 70%
of inmates in America’s
prisons cannot read above a
fourth grade level.”
We need to come together as
a society and work to address
the real issues facing our
children. We need to have
community
conversations
about what we expect from
our local schools, but we
need to recognize that the
problems are much larger
than what a school can
address and are likely to be
different in each community.
A “one size fits all” approach
simply does not work.
You probably know the line,
which comes from Jim Collins’
bestselling business book,
Good to Great: “Get the right
people on the bus, the wrong
people off the bus, and the
right people in the right seats.”
It is important that we start
prioritizing our spending,
and over the long run it will
save money that we can use
to create a stronger public
school system. And we have to
get the right people into our
classrooms and retain them.
When educated and intelligent citizens make
informed decisions about what they want from their
government and society, the outcome is far more
likely to be positive. Similarly, if a good education
system is in place for the next generation of children,
the likelihood of societal stability is greatly increased.
So it is important we get this right. Literacy is critical.
And public education is a wise investment.