My God, Three-Quarters Of Nevada 4th Graders Can’t Read To Save Their Life

We all know that children and grades can drive some parents to some crazy initiatives. Hacking into computer systems to change grades aside, mothers and fathers have every right to react and scatter with every resource that they can muster when their child is flailing. So following news that Nevada is ranked last in the entire country for education, I’m wondering what plan of action — if any — parents on that side of the world have in mind.

The Huffington Post reports that some might be fleeing the state altogether considering that 75 percent of Nevada fourth graders weren’t “proficient” in reading in 2011 — a startling number for the Western world. A mass parental exodus would be in order if said families could afford it, as 71 percent of 8th graders weren’t “proficient” in math either.

The 2012 Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore also determined that between 2008 and 2011, 71 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds were not enrolled in preschool. And at the other end of the scholastic career timeline, 44 percent of Nevada’s 2008-2009 high school students couldn’t graduate in four years — the highest in the entire nation. But, upon parsing through other data pertaining to the well-being of children in this state, other numbers can perhaps illuminate why these students are struggling.

Nevada’s kids are up against a lot more than simply challenging exams, as 47 percent of kids in 2010 lived in households with “a high housing cost burden.” Almost a quarter of these kids were living in poverty with 36 percent being raised by parents who didn’t have steady employment. Marry all that to the fact that 17 percent of kids didn’t have health insurance in 2011 and you can see that Nevada moms and dads have a lot more pressing concerns than tutors.

(photo: jannoon028/ Shutterstock)