Witnesses include: Enrique Ramirez, former adult educ. student; Andy Hartman, exec. dir., Nat. Inst. for Literacy; Jean DeVard-Kemp, assist. commissioner for adult literacy programs, Georgia Dept. of Technical and Adult Educ.; John Comings, dir., Nat. Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, Harvard Univ.; Richard Wade, prof. emeritus, graduate program, City Univ. of NY: and Sen. James Jeffords and Christopher Dodds. Also includes: Understanding Health Literacy: New Estimates of the Costs of Inadequate Health Literacy, by Robert B. Friedland, and Greg O'Neill, Nat. Acad. on an Aging Soc.

It is startling and it is shaming: in a country that prides itself on being among the most enlightened in the world, 25 million American adults cannot read the poison warnings on a can of pesticide, a letter from their child’s teacher, or the front page of a newspaper. An additional 35 million read below the level needed to function successfully in our society. The United States ranks forty-ninth among 158 member nations of the UN in literacy, and wastes over $100 billion annually as a result. The problem is not merely an embarrassment, it is a social and economic disaster. In Illiterate America, Jonathan Kozol, author of National Book Award-winning Death at an Early Age, addresses this national disgrace. Combining hard statistics and heartrending stories, he describes the economic and the human costs of illiteracy. Kozol analyses and condemns previous government action—and inaction—and, in a passionate call for reform, he proposes a specific program to conquer illiteracy. One out of every three American adults cannot read this book—which is why everyone else must.