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1. Definition of Functional Illiteracy
2. Extent of the Problem
3. Why We Do Not See the Extent of the Problem
4. Seriousness of the Problem
5. English Spelling Confuses Everyone
6. the Solution in a Nutshell
7. The Obvious Solution Never Tried
8. Characteristics of NuEnglish
9. Spelling Reform is the Only Proven, Easy Solution to English Illiteracy
10. Learn to Read Now!
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A Serious Problem, Easily Solved
If the man above is a functional illiterate, he indeed has a long road ahead: 
like most Americans, he can read one or two thousand simple words he learned in the first three grades in school, but he cannot read well enough to hold an above-poverty-level-wage job and to thrive in our present complicated and technologically-oriented culture. Reading, of course, is the foundation of nearly all learning -- necessary for success in classwork, homework, and testing.
The good news is that ANYONE can easily learn to read English fluently in less than three months, when it is spelled phonemically with the revolutionary spelling system called NuEnglish! Before being willing to change to NuEnglish, however, most people must first be convinced that the problem is very serious and that NuEnglish will indeed solve the problem. That is the purpose of this website.
Below, in condensed form, are the important facts about the problem and its solution. The truth of each of these facts is proven in pages in the left-hand column.
The Problem
1. Definition of Functional Illiteracy: The most accurate definition of functional illiteracy is the inability to read and write well enough to hold an above-poverty-level-wage job.
2. Extent of the Problem: A shocking 48.7% of U.S. adults are functionally illiterate. Some of your friends or associates are probably functionally illiterate without your knowledge. An estimated 600 million of the more than 1.3 billion English-speaking people around the world are functionally illiterate in English. At least 31.2% of the functional illiterates in the U.S. are in poverty and are more than twice as likely to be in poverty as a result of their illiteracy as for all other reasons combined.
3. Why We Do Not See the Extent of the Problem: We do not see the amount of illiteracy and poverty in item 2 because functional illiterates are very good at hiding their illiteracy, because most functional illiterates have more than one employed adult in the family, and because most low-income families receive assistance from government agencies, family, friends, and charities.
4. Seriousness of the Problem: Functional illiterates must constantly endure serious physical, mental, emotional, medical, and financial problems. We would consider these problems a crisis if we had to endure them. Functional illiterates cannot perform many of the simple tasks needed to function well in our complicated and increasingly technological culture -- tasks that we take for granted.
5. English Spelling Confuses Everyone: English spelling is by far the most illogical, inconsistent, and chaotic spelling of any of the languages commonly considered as alphabetic. English spelling is not truly an alphabetic writing system.
The Solution
6. The Solution in a Nutshell: Dr. Frank C. Laubach went all around the world teaching adult illiterates in more than 300 alphabetic languages to read fluently. He proved that if we spelled English phonemically we could learn to read in less than three months.
7. The Obvious Solution Never Tried: Although there have been many proposed spelling reforms for English over the last three centuries, there has never been a systematic spelling reform of all English spelling.
8. Characteristics of NuEnglish: The new, breakthrough spelling system called NuEnglish is the only proposed spelling reform that has a perfect one spelling to one phoneme correspondence and that is scientifically designed to use the most-used spelling in traditional spelling or the spelling that people expect for all but one English pronunciation and shows the primary accent in each word (knowing placement of the accent aids considerably in quickly reading a word).
9. Spelling Reform Is the Only Proven, Easy Solution to English Illiteracy: The use of phonemic spelling systems that are almost as logical and consistent as NuEnglish have been proven to be successful in quickly teaching students to read in more than 300 languages. Spelling reform has been successfully implemented in 25 languages other than English -- in nations bigger and smaller than the U.S. and in both advanced and developing nations.
10. Learn to Read Now!: Anyone except the most seriously mentally handicapped can learn to read NuEnglish in less than three months -- perhaps much less! Most of those who learn to read traditional spelling require at least two years to learn to read English fluently.
Are You A Compassionate Person?
The proposed humanitarian project of Literacy Research Associates, Inc. and NuEnglish, Inc. (see ABOUT US) will definitely and permanently end English functional illiteracy if enough people respond to our request at the end of page 10. If you consider yourself to be compassionate, you will want to help the hundreds of millions of people who are functionally illiterate in English around the world and who desperately need our help.
Although it is possible for people to believe what they want to believe in spite of the facts presented in the ten pages listed in the left-hand column of this page (the proof of the ten statements above), even the most skeptical reader will have trouble dismissing the much more complete and authoritative information presented in the book Let's End Our Literacy Crisis, Revised Edition (which is described at the end of page 10 listed in the left-hand column).