More than 21 percent of Lubbock County residents cannot read.
Of Lubbock County's 254,862 residents, 54,000 adults in Lubbock County are illiterate, according to the Report on the State of Adult Literacy in Texas.
"We have a huge literacy problem," said Carol Keeney, executive director of the Lubbock Area Coalition for Literacy. "A lot of people are dropping out of school, a lot of people are migrant workers. A lot of people have learning differences where they can't learn in a normal school setting."
Amy Wilson, director of education at Sylvan Learning Center, said the problem of illiteracy begins at a young age but can have ramifications throughout a person's life.
"It's more of a problem than people realize," Wilson said. "We have a lot of kids come into the center whose parents didn't know that they were behind the normal reading level for their age. That's at least 75 percent of the cases we see."
Many adults who go to the Lubbock Area Coalition for Literacy have specific goals for their educations, Keeney said.
"At Literacy Lubbock, the number one request we get - and we'll get at least 600 this year - is to get a better job," she said. "Number two is 'help me get a better education to help my children.' These are the people who are courageous, motivated, honest and just want a way out."
When told of the 54,000 illiterate Lubbock County residents, Wilson had an immediate response.
"What happened?" she asked. "That's very disheartening. It's something we hope to address when people are in school."
One major problem is the state of Texas does not put much emphasis on adult education, Keeney said.
"Texas ranks last on spending in adult education," she said. "People don't realize what a problem we have. We have an immense problem, and the odd thing about it is, the answer to it is not that hard."
Keeney said the coalition can educate one student for a year for $350 whereas a year in prison, which is often the alternative, can cost $40,000 for one person.
Wilson said functional illiteracy is a problem just as troubling as total illiteracy.
"There have been studies about adults who are functionally illiterate," Wilson said. "Technically they can read, but they don't understand anything they're reading."
According to the State of Literacy in America report of 1998, Texas ranks 47th in literacy out of all 50 states, and 28 percent of Texas adults lack basic literacy skills.
Teachers try to get all students to read well, but there are circumstances that hinder this goal, Wilson said.
"All children learn at their own rate," she said. "It's difficult for teachers to individualize the instruction for each child's different rate and style of learning."
Wilson said she believes several factors would improve the situation.
"Smaller classrooms and, ideally, more parental involvement," she said. "More trained staff would help, too. That all boils down to having a student cap. If you have a mandatory student cap, you have to have increased staffing."
In Lubbock County, 12,196 people had less than a ninth grade education, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 18,349 people with a ninth to 12th grade education did not get a diploma. The majority of beginning adult basic education students at the coalition are high school dropouts with less than a sixth grade reading level.
Wilson said teachers have an increasingly difficult job when students have not learned what they were supposed to.
"It's hard when the students come into fourth or fifth grade, and they don't have the phonetic skills from the second or third grade," Wilson said. "It's very hard for teachers who are expected to have them at the fourth or fifth grade level by the end of the year."
The Lubbock Area Coalition for Literacy serves adults in the Lubbock area with literacy problems. According to the 2007 Community Impact Report from the Lubbock Area United Way, the coalition served 537 students in 2006. Of those students, 23 read their first book, three passed the GED, 22 read the newspaper for the first time, 14 learned the alphabet, 14 obtained work, eight passed the citizenship test and 24 read to their children for the first time.
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