Coachella literacy push a boon for city's residents, society
Desert Sun: 2.11.2017 by Editorial Board
City and education officials are working together
to help raise literacy and English language communication skills for
residents who lean heavily on their more native Spanish. To those officials, we
offer a hearty thank you and gracias.
Statistics show this is a major need in the
eastern Coachella Valley.
As The Desert Sun’s Anna Rumer reported last week, 9 in 10 Coachella residents don’t speak English at
home and nearly half don’t speak any English. This compares to about 1 in 5 in
the overall U.S. population who don’t use English at all.
The lack of English skills leaves people at a
clear disadvantage and other statistics bear that out. Illiteracy and poverty
go hand in hand and, according to the Literacy
Project Foundation, somewhere
around half of adults – the majority of whom are people of color – have an
income below the poverty level at least in part because of their inability to
read, including three out of four welfare recipients.
