According to a report by the Detroit Free Press , the reading proficiency of the third-grade children in Flint has dropped from 41.8% in 2013 to 10.7% in 2017. Flint School board vice president Harold Woodson says that the literacy crisis in the Flint community did not begin with the water crisis in 2013, and will not be adequately addressed unless the state of Michigan begins to seriously reckon with how poverty ravages not only Flint but many other areas of the state. “We’re in crisis mode,” Woodson says. “We were able to put a nurse in all of our elementary buildings and we’re investing more in looking at the behavior of the children… But the impact from the lead might not manifest itself for another year or two.” Statewide, Michigan’s reading proficiency has fallen from 70% in 2015 to 44% in 2017, which indicates that there are places besides Flint which have massive reading proficiency issues.
Source: Reading proficiency in Flint down to a startling 10% years after water crisis began
