IDENTIFIERS

Adult functional illiteracy is estimated at more than 20 percent of the U.S. population and 12-19 percent of Indiana residents over age 25 (390,000 to 600,000 adults). In addition, high school dropouts and those who do not seek education past high school also need additional training. Functional illiteracy costs government and business through industrial accidents, lost productivity, direct training costs, lost earnings, unemployment expenses, and the cost of operating prisons. The price of illiteracy too often also includes unemployment and even crime. Government has long played a role in literacy education. At the turn of the century, the federal government helped to assimilate immigrants, and many other federal literacy initiatives have been undertaken, including the National Literacy Act of 1991. Indiana has five state-level agencie