How is it possible that roughly 50% of Americans can’t read above a 6th grade level and how are 21% just flat out illiterate?

From https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/14phpbq/how_is_it_possible_that_roughly_50_of_americans/

Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.

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As a non-native English speaker, suddenly I feel more proud of myself.

You probably should. I know a handful of people for whom English is not their first language. I'm usually surprised and impressed when they tell me how long (usually not very long) they have been speaking it and their conversational English is quite good.

Especially since English syntax and usage can be super weird and inconsistent.