The cost of all this, in economic impact as well as human suffering, is staggering. It represents billions of dollars lost in the American economy and, even more importantly, it shortchanges the lives and opportunities of millions of Americans. Many educators have understandably taken the default position of saying it can't be done. Stephen Kay, principal of Scott Lane Elementary School, in Santa Clara, California, is the nation's first educator to not only establish 100 percent literacy as an intractable objective, but also to create a unique, official warranty program to guarantee that his students will all learn to read. Today the social climate has changed.
People are no longer willing to see a quarter, a third of their kids fail to read.
We decided that it was important to finally take a stand on 100 percent literacy, for two main reasons. First, of course, is that it's desperately necessary, even though no one's figured out how to accomplish it before. Second, we're sure 100 percent literacy is an historic inexorability. Kay points to other social currents that have shifted in recent years as examples of what he means. The emergence of the designated driver and the increasing backlash against smoking are trends barely imaginable only years ago.