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Co-Founder Of Literacy Non-Profit Decries State Of Adult Education In Illinois

(CBS) -- A non-profit that promotes literacy says the state of adult education in Chicago is alarming and the current budget mess only makes matters worse, reports WBBM's Keith Johnson.

Stacy Ratner, co-founder of the Chicago Literacy Alliance says, "882,000 of our adults, so about 30 percent of our total adult population, have what's classified as low basic literacy skills."
She says they could benefit from literacy or basic education services, but those services are being cut.

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"We're hearing stories every day of adult education and literacy organizations being forced to cut programming and in some cases possibly close down altogether," Ratner said. "Adult students are not being served because it is so much dependent on state funding. We try not to say there's a crisis, but the current state of adult education…really does qualify as a crisis."

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