A Senate committee estimates the loss of earnings of men ages 25 to 34 who have less than high school-level skills at $236 billion. Half of the heads of households classified below the federal
poverty line cannot read an eighth-grade book. More than a third of mothers on welfare are also
functionally illiterate. (Functional illiteracy is the inability to read and write well enough for everyday
practical needs.) So are 60 percent of the adult prison population and 84 percent of juveniles who
come before the courts. Businesses have difficulty filling such entry-level jobs as clerk, bank teller,
and paralegal assistant. A major insurance firm reports that 70 percent of dictated letters must be
retyped "at least once" because secretaries cannot spell and punctuate correctly. The military, too,
pays a price for functional illiteracy. The navy has stated that 30 percent of new recruits are "a
danger to themselves and costly to naval equipment" because they cannot read very well or
understand simple instructions.
What is the implied main idea of the paragraph?