The Greenville Literacy Association ranks in the top 3% of the community-based adult literacy organizations in the nation, both in the number of students served and in the number of active volunteers.

In South Carolina:

• 560,466 people without a college degree are living in families whose combined incomes are less than a living wage
• 44,182 people speak little or no English
• there are fewer than 4.5 million people living in the state
• the average reading level of a prison inmate is below 3rd grade
• it costs taxpayers $70,000 for every inmate per year
• working-age residents with college degrees are 45% more likely to participate in the workforce than those with less than a high school diploma
• 431,470 people have not completed high school or received an equivalent degree

Nationwide:

• nearly one in three U.S. high school students drop out before graduating
• the National Institute of Literacy states that 43% of people with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty; of these people, 70% have no job or a part-time job

Dropouts:

• increase in number by 8,100 students each year; forty-five students every school day
• are eight times more likely to be in jail or prison than high school graduates
•  earn $1,000,000 less over a lifetime than college graduates
• earn $9,200 per year less than high school graduates; they are eligible for only 12% of new jobs
• who lack a high-school diploma, earn a mean monthly income of $452, compared to $1829 for those with a bachelor’s degree