How do you get a good job today if you can't read? You can't, which is why two local lawmakers are pushing to increate the money going into efforts to improve adult literacy.
Buried in the tens of billions of dollars in the state budget is a one million dollar grant directed to Literacy New York for statewide efforts to combat illeteracy. Its local affiliate, Literacy New York Buffalo-Niagara, will get $25 thousand for training for 40 more people.
The days of people getting good jobs despite limited literacy skills are gone. State Senator Tim Kennedy says too many local residents can't read:
"While we face immense challenges in our city where one in three adults is functionally illiterate, and in our county where one in five adults is functionally illiterate, we need to do all that we can to make sure we're giving the resources necessary to educate those folks that want to learn the skills of reading, the skills of life."
State Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes is also a strong proponent of literacy skills in Albany, reflecting her own time as a teacher in Buffalo. The two Buffalo Democrats say they want even more money for literacy work next year.
Peoples-Stokes says city residents won't be able to benefit from the thousands of high-tech jobs on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus if they can't read the training manuals and fill out the forms for those jobs.
