By Frosty Wooldridge.
John Wayne said, “Life is tough; it’s even tougher if you’re stupid!”
In order to maintain a constitutional republic, our citizens must be able to read, write, perform simple mathematics and think critically. Our Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin worked diligently to create the finest educational system throughout the fledgling United States of America.
Up until 1965, America enjoyed the most educated citizenry in the world. Most kids graduated from high school and most advanced to colleges and/or vocational trade schools. Our middle-class flourished as an intelligent and dynamic part of America’s greatness.
In 2013, however, according to the National Institute for Literacy, an astounding 42 million Americans cannot read, write or perform simple math. Another 50 million cannot read past the 4th grade level. It costs taxpaying Americans $240 billion annually in lost industrial productivity, uncollected tax revenues, welfare, crime, poverty and food stamps.
As to lowered health standards, over 150 million Americans battle health issues such as obesity because they cannot read food labels, prescription directions or think critically enough to eat healthfully.
As reported by NBC anchor Brian Williams, cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston suffer 50 to 60 percent dropout/flunkout rates. Heading up those cities, in a study completed in 2009, Detroit, Michigan high schools suffered a 76 percent flunkout rate.
Those cities and many more share one thing in common: according to current estimates, the number of functionally illiterate adults increases by 2.25 million persons annually. This number includes nearly one million young people who drop out of school before graduation, 500,000 illegal immigrant students, one million legal immigrants and 100,000 refugees.
In 2013, Denver, Colorado schools suffer 85 different languages from legal immigrants. When I asked teachers why they suffer a 55 percent flunkout rate, one educator said, “We do not have the funds to teach in 85 languages. Our ESL (English as a second language) courses in Spanish diminish our ability to educate so many other foreign students.”
CNN reported on August 30, 2010, “7,000 American high school students drop out every day; one every 26 seconds.”
Do you ever wonder why countries like Morocco, Pakistan, Mexico, Sudan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Congo—all third world countries—suffer human misery and failures on enormous scales? Why do 18 million third world citizens starve to death annually? (Source: World Health Organization) The one word that defines third world countries: mass illiteracy!
America faces a predicament more profound than anything ever in the 237 year history of this republic. A republic demands an educated populace. Without an educated citizenry, America cannot expect to remain a viable “people-driven” republic. Why? With continued mass illiteracy, a permanent underclass will become intractable.
Mass immigration and multiple languages cannot be sustained educationally. Millions of immigrants lack the educational, linguistic and cultural abilities to contribute in a first world country. The taxpayer base faces a tipping point where more people do not pay income tax as compared to how many do pay. Example: in 2013, 47.7 million Americans subsist on food stamps.
Can America withstand this accelerating illiteracy epidemic? Can it survive the multiplication of ghettoes, unwed mothers, welfare and crime? At what point does the American fabric shred into the hopelessness of the third world? For answers: visit LA, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, Houston and any other large city where gangs, graffiti, crime and drugs dominate.
With a new permanent, illiterate sub-class in America that grows too fast to solve, at some point, we will not be able to save ourselves from unraveling as a civilization.
Join me, Frosty Wooldridge, with Dave Chaffin, host of the Morning Zone at 650 AM, www.KGAB.com, Cheyenne, Wyoming every Monday 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., as we discuss my latest commentaries on www.NewsWithViews.com about issues facing America. You may stream the show on your computer. You may call in at: 1-888-503-6500.
© 2013 Frosty Wooldridge – All Rights Reserved
Frosty, you fail to forget that our great country has ALWAYS been a melting pot of various nationalities. This is nothing new. I think we can move past this dilemma if we direct these individuals to their own cultural centers to lean English. I also believe that if our schools, especially pre-schools, looked for volunteers to assist with the language barriers it would allow these ESL students to thrive. In addition, many of our students who drop out or fail are 2nd or 3rd generation Americans and not immigrants. Parent who bring their young children to the U.S. are looking for a better life for them not to fail but to thrive and have a more choices. If they wanted them to fail they would have stayed in their third world countries! I bet at least one of your ancestors came to the U.S. from another country!!