Someone at dinner yesterday said to me: "Reading is becoming a privilege." The rest of the dinner

[TBF]

50. Most people learn to read in public school -

not everyone - but the majority.

And think about what has happened to so many public schools across the country. They are underfunded, teachers are not paid well or respected in any other way, teaching to the tests has become the mantra in Texas, etc.

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. Our small elementary school had combined classrooms. I can assure you no one got out of Mrs. Bednarek's 1-2 room without being able to read. If they were really struggling, she turned them over to her SISTER, who was the special ed teacher in that little school. Somehow, they had the funding back in the 1970s for the testing to determine whether the child had some sort of learning disability - and they'd figure out how to help each kid. This was in the country with lots of farm and factory kids - not a fancy suburb.