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More (not so) fun facts:
54% of American adults read below a 6th grade level.
21% read below a 5th grade level, which is considered functionally illiterate.
High immigration numbers don't fully explain it either, as first gen immigrants only make up about 1/3 of those with low literacy.
If the foundations of freedom in our society were built on everyone being able to run a 6 minute mile, then by-god everyone needs to be out there everyday, rain or shine, hoofin' it.
are you serious? that's not how any of this has worked, or ever worked. our society was, is, and will always be run by a small group of elite people.
the question really is, what do those elite people believe in? do they believe in the general welfare of everyone, or do they only give a fuck about themselves?
history shows us that this goes back and forth, and usually when the elites stop giving a fuck the society collapses or has a revolution and wars. then in the post revolution/war period things get broadly better, but eventually after a generation or three it erodes back to the elites only caring about themselves.
Allowing those political elite to permit schools to fail to bring students up to a basic level of literacy does not help the working class. That only helps the elite, which is why they're so intent on defunding, degrading, and dismantling the education system.
History shows us time and time again, that every successful revolution has been led by educated people.
The political elite doesn't care about the working class. They are disgusted by their existence.
The only people they want to help is themselves, and their children.
I never said otherwise. That's a red herring.
You make elites care by having leverage over them. You get leverage and power through various ways, but one of them is a majority of the population being able to understand when the wool is being pulled over their eyes. My point is not that people need to bootstrap, it is that they are powerless without reading skills (in agreement with most of this thread). If they want to be able to protect themselves/ have rights, then they need to arm themselves with the tools to defend those rights: basic logic, reasoning, and reading.
You will never be able to guilt someone with power into giving it up. Maybe a few of them innately have no desire to hold onto it, but the vast majority of people that have clawed their way to the top were... Well, willing to claw others.
It may be hard, and the odds may be stacked against them, but we need to fucking get the underprivileged there if we want to survive. Or you cater to their current state of ignorance and reap the rewards.