Texas is a state that loves to hold itself apart from others, likes to think of itself as special, above the average.  And we are above the average in most things, even rank top or close to the top statistically in many categories.  The problem is, some of these things we rank so high in aren't anything to brag about.  In fact, we should hang our heads.  And one of those rankings, literacy, has us right up close to the top - when it comes to not having it.

Finding exact statistics on where a state stands in terms of literacy isn't easy.  The government collects those stats, mostly, and you know how they are about getting out information like that.  Most stats are old by the time the government finally gets them published.  But they still indicate how we were doing at a particular time.  I can remember finding stats back in the 1990's showing that Texas ranked 48th in the nation in scores high school students made on college entrance tests.  Yeah, damn near the bottom.  That didn't surprise me, not in a state where football is more important than actually educating the kid.  We spend lots of money down here on education and get wonderful football instead. 

Texas ranks low in literacy, high in illiteracy - not a good mark for us.  But it's not like we're really dragging the low end here, since many states are about in the same category. Over 20 percent of American adults can't read well enough to even read the label on a can, or fill out an employment form.  That's right at 45 million people.  And another 25 percent can read a little, but not enough to really do even moderate reading.  In other words, they barely function, and that's another 50 million people you can put on the illiterate list.  My  God!  That means nearly half of our adult population is illiterate to some degree.

That's a problem in lots of ways.  What kind of workers will these people make?  What can they do with their lives?  And what kind of voters do they make?  I'd just love it if I could jump to the conclusion that these folks voted for George Bush . . . but they didn't.  In fact, most of them probably didn't vote for anybody.  And if you're wondering why we can't get half of our voters to the polls most of the time, think about who's missing.  And even if they did vote, what kind of voters would they make?  We have some answers here, just from those who do vote, but we can't say for sure who benefits from their votes.

And does literacy really matter all that much?  I've got friends with doctortes who vote like idiots . . . at least, in my opinion.  I can't see how a reasonably intelligent person can vote for a conservative, for someone who's ideas are so outdated they belong in the previous century.  Can't these people read and write?  And then they turn around and go to the polls and vote the same way some Texas redneck votes - for Bush, or someone like him.  On the other end of the political spectrum we have the highly intellectual dude with the doctorate, and he's voting for some liberal or left winger, the same as does some dock worker from San Francisco.  Go figure, huh?

It's hard to say how smart or dumb the voter is, even here in Texas.  I guess when it gets down to it, literacy doesn't have a lot to do with how we go about making fools of ourselves.  Sometimes a moron casts a genius vote, and sometimes just the opposite is true.  But I still believe in the saying that STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.  Sometimes literacy just doesn't translate into a smart decision in the voting booth.

Polly, 2/21/08