If you are reading this sentence, you are already better off than one-fifth of the county’s population. Statistics show that one out of every five adults in Newberry County can’t read English. The good news is, that is an improvement from the measurement 10 years prior, which had us at a 25 percent illiteracy rate. But we need to keep striving and stretching to do better.

Statistics also show that basic literacy is linked intrinsically to success for the individual, and success for a community.

The state has taken strides too. The number of South Carolina residents that cannot understand written English dropped by five percentage points between 1992 and 2003 to 15 percent. That keeps us regionally competitive, North Carolina has a 14 percent illiteracy rate in the study and Georgia stands at 17 percent as of 2003. Some states went backward, with Florida doing a reverse of South Carolina and moving from a 15 percent illiteracy rate to 20 percent. California’s rate ballooned from 15 percent in 1992 to 23 percent in 2003. But there are states that have reached the single digits for illiteracy rates, and seem to be staying there. This is something South Carolina should be striving for too.

Our neighboring counties are all over the map when it comes to illiteracy standings, with Saluda coming in at 23 percent, Laurens and Union at 18 percent, and Lexington boasting the best average with just one in 10 of its residents lacking literacy skills. What other places do matters. Literacy is not only about someone meeting their potential in life for their own sake, it is about how members of a community strengthen their area, state and country by making the most of themselves. Literacy rates are about competition.

In the quest to create a flexible work force, one that is not only knowledgeable, but teachable, Newberry County is making strides. At the end of 2008, the county won both a Palmetto Masters Award and Trend-Setters Award from the State Department of Education. Both relate to the county’s relatively wonderful GED pass rate. The first recognizes the county’s surpassing the state’s first-attempt pass rate; the second, for jumping past the state’s overall pass rate mark on the test. In 2004, Newberry County had the state’s highest pass rate on the GED, 75 percent.

Our efforts must not slack off. In an era of budget cuts and penny-pinching, now is the worst time to skimp on education. The future of our region and beyond is united to what kind of workers and work we build and recruit as a county, state and nation. In a global economy, we must compete with the low costs and wages available to businesses all over the world. To compete with that lower overhead, we need to be at our best and our brightest. We need to make the most of our American ability to strive and learn, our democratic drive to better ourselves. When we do that, as a county and as a nation, we better our competitive lot in life, both individually and as a community. Trend of success must continue