All the literacy programs in the world won't help if people don't stick with them. If there are in fact no weekend programs, that seems seriously stupid to me.

Illiteracy spreads, since illiterate parents are unable to help their own children become readers, a major parental function.

Does anyone know how much of this problem is real illiteracy, versus just not being able to read English? This is an important issue. There is a BIG difference between not being able to read at all, and not being able to read English, although the latter is still a handicap.

For example, multilanguage instructions or ballots will help people who just don't read English well, but would still be useless to truly illiterate people.