47 % of Detroiters Can't Read

Nearly 1/2 of the citizens of Detroit can't read?! That's the findings of a recent study.

Report: Nearly Half Of Detroiters Can’t Read

According to a new report, 47 percent of Detroiters are ”functionally illiterate.” The alarming new statistics were released by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund on Wednesday.

WWJ Newsradio 950 spoke with the Fund’s Director, Karen Tyler-Ruiz, who explained exactly what this means.

“Not able to fill out basic forms, for getting a job — those types of basic everyday (things). Reading a prescription; what’s on the bottle, how many you should take… just your basic everyday tasks,” she said.

What the heck?

If it is any consolation to the citizens of Detroit they are only slightly higher in number of illiterate than Washington DC.

I don't understand how this happens. This isn't some backwoods, 3rd world town, this is a major city in the US and almost 1/2 the population can't read.

How did we as a country let this happen and how do we fix it? This all can't be blamed on the economic collapse that has hit Detroit. Surely the seeds of this had to be planted long before that.

Well, on the bright side, the people from the Detroit won't feel too bad..... They can't read the article...


OK, seriously though, that really is amazing and stunning.... 47% in Detroit are functionally illiterate? How DOES this happen? How does our education system get so warped and just plain pathetic that this many cannot read?

I just don't understand it.

After reading the forums on a number of american sites I would have said 53% literate was an enormous success for detroit. Good for them

47% of Americans watch The Jersey Shore.
47% of Americans own at least one Justin Bieber CD.
47% of all statistics were made up.

Seriously though thats a really unfortunate statistic, I'd be embarrassed if I lived in Detroit right now, although I can't imagine the stats for St. Louis being much better.

This reminds of the movie idiocracy. Many people say it's for entertainment but that is the real deal

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Well, on the bright side, the people from the Detroit won't feel too bad..... They can't read the article...

OK, seriously though, that really is amazing and stunning.... 47% in Detroit are functionally illiterate? How DOES this happen? How does our education system get so warped and just plain pathetic that this many cannot read?

I just don't understand it.

The school system in the City of Detroit is pretty much a total failure. Been that way for a Looong time. This is the result of letting your school system rot. Not saying it's the teacher union's fault, but I have done taxes this year for two Detroit School teachers, one a 4th Grade teacher making 62,000+ a year and a Physical Ed Teacher making $75,000+ a year. That's way too much to be paying for such crappy results.

reply to post by Frogs


There is some illiteracy present in all communities, but I wouldn't have throught it so high in any major city.

In the report (pdf) linked to by the news story, it states that half of those considered functionally illiterate are in posession of either a high-school diploma or GED.

The only definition provided as to exactly what level the researchers deemed to be illiterate was:

functionally illiterate, referring to the inability of an individual to use reading, speaking, writing, and computational skills in everyday life situations.

I wonder if this figure is skewed by elderly who are less comfortable with information technology, and deemed "illiterate"?

Originally posted by whatisanameanyway

The only definition provided as to exactly what level the researchers deemed to be illiterate was:

functionally illiterate, referring to the inability of an individual to use reading, speaking, writing, and computational skills in everyday life situations.

I wonder if this figure is skewed by elderly who are less comfortable with information technology, and deemed "illiterate"?

I wouldn't think it would be very much. I know several people who are in their 70's, 80's and even 90's. They may not be very up on internet, tweeting, smart phones and the like. But literacy isn't tech. based. Its reading and writing. The vast majority of the elderly I know can easily read and understand a newspaper, a bill, balance a checkbook, write a letter, etc - in other words they are literate.

Seems like you would have to go out of your way to avoid literacy.

How many of that 47% are enrolled or have been enrolled in a public school?

Is truancy no longer enforced?

Are they letting kids out of the first grade without being able to read and write?

reply to post by Frogs


Welcome to a third world banana republic. You can't do the following:

-fund wars with 50% of the budget
-hollow out education and privatize swathes of it for those who can attain it
-create Medicare part D (aka, privatize a social program)
-have nepotism, no-bid contracts and other shady deals that would be relegated to the mafia if these were smaller-scale crimes
-watch the greatest income divide between rich and poor in the so-called 1st World swell
-watch the growth of the highest rate of incarceration in that "elite" pseudo-club of nations

...you can't do all of those things and still expect that magically literacy would be immune from the natural chain of events involved.

Look at any third world country, any two-bit minority-ruled** banana republic. It's the same pattern. The US is not so special that we get to pick and choose which 1st-worldy things we want to keep and which 3rd-worldy things we are willing to deal with. One small group gets 1st world stuff, one larger group gets thirld world stuff. The US is in many ways a microcosm of the world it has helped to create. Isn't an Empire always like that?

**Upon rereading what I wrote, I see that minority-ruled could be misinterpreted. By minority, I mean a small group of people...i.e., an oligarchy - ethnicity is irrelevant and while many third world countries have a bunch of different ethnicities in their borders due to colonial border fixing by European powers, in many race/ethnicity are of little consequence...Brasil is a good example.


You'd think I was writing for a pulitzer or something, but I need to explain what I mean by Brazil because that statement is too vague. Yes, Brazil has institutionalized racism that has been aleviated slightly over the decades since the dictatorship ended. Yes, racism was rampant during the dictatorship, and is still present in a population that is not as abruptly white-black as the US, but rather an ethnic continuum. It's all very complicated and I can go into more detail if you want, but Brazil high illiteracy that tends to be on par with how much African-ancestry you have.

However, like in the US, this is a generalization. You have to also include innercity life and rural life as social aspects. You have to consider the poverty inherent in these places. You have to consider slavery and the left-overs from it (in Brazil and/or here). The end fact is that whether or not the group that is illiterate is mostly Black is irrelevant. The fact that it exists at all is telling of a larger problem that also explains why it is that Black Americans and Brazilians form a percentage within illiteracy that is greater than their overal constituency of the population (i.e., over-represented). I went down this road and took a left. Don't want to derail the thread. My main point pre-edit still stands, however.

A related article from the Business Insider:

Nearly Half Of Detroiters Can't Read

Detroit was once the symbol of American wealth and industrial capacity. It is now everybody's emblem of decline. The data about Detroit grow more depressing by the month. This report may be the most depressing thing you'll read all year. In a nutshell, it says that roughly half of all the people who live in Detroit are illiterate. They can't read the back of a cereal box. They can't read a weather report. They can't read at all. Read more: www.businessinsider.com...

This is what Detroit, and whole parts of the once-great United States has come to: a world of illiterate drone zombies who cannot read nor write.

How high can they count? No higher than 1000, maybe.

Educational statistics in Australia (my home country)

Educational statistics in the United States