ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Something to think about…

According to statistics, there are 30 million people over the age of 16 (14 percent of the U.S. adult population) who don’t read well enough to understand this newspaper article or fill out a job application and the United States ranks fifth on adult literacy skills when compared to other industrialized nations.

As our society moves forward into the technology age and books are becoming available in every form, the importance of learning to read and being read to is critical, especially in the early years of a child’s life.

And unfortunately with all the budget cuts schools are facing, teachers are no longer getting money to spend on books for their classroom libraries.

So to ease that burden a little bit, the Central Baldwin Education Foundation is sponsoring a Student Book Drive through April 29 for Pre-K-12th grade.

Ashley Kucera, a CBEF member, said this is the first time they are doing the drive and wanted to do something in conjunction with National Literacy Month.

“We are really excited about this and are asking the community to clean out their bookshelves and bring in any gently used books or magazines they have finished reading and have no need for anymore. We know how important reading is and want to do all we can to help students be able to read,” Kucera said.

Items may be dropped off at Visions or Regions Bank in Robertsfdale and Loxley, Kucera said.

The National Coalition for Literacy and the U.S. Department of Education did a national assessment of literacy in 2003 and estimated that 93 million U.S. adults have basic and below basic literacy skills because they were not exposed to reading at a young age or had parents who were not literate enough to read to them.

The NCL also concluded adults who are literate are more likely to: read to their children and discuss school topics, be employed full time and receive a higher income, use the internet and email and vote, volunteer and access information about current local and national events.

In addition, because children weren’t good readers in the early years, they didn’t learn to read well when they were adults and that accounts oft the fact that more than 60 percent of all state and federal corrections inmates can barely read and write, according to the NCL.

“Adults need strong literacy skills to raise children who have strong literacy skills, to be goods employees, to keep themselves healthy, to be active in their communities and to advocate for themselves and avoid human rights abuse. Literacy is essential and without literacy skills, today’s adults will struggle to take part in the world around them and fail to reach their full potential as parents, community members and employees,” said the ProLiteracy website.

For more information, contact Kucera at (251) 947-2291