As many as 70 million Americans are functionally or marginally illiterate. Among the consequences: disproportionate numbers of illiterates are unemployed, 50 percent of inmates are illiterate, and illiterate parents are more likely to raise illiterate children. (SK)

Discusses the breadth of the problem of adult functional illiteracy and the components of the National Adult Literacy Project, a National Institute of Education program to identify model programs, develop literacy materials, and involve college work-study students in tutoring illiterate adults. (SK)

Adults, whatever their competence, are not obsolete. Education for adults is the font we must draw on to make possible the new environment in education that we call lifetime learning and recurrent education. Following the lead of Europe in planning broad-based adult education programs, the United States has begun to fund and operate diversified…