True.
So it’s not your job to make sure that your kids know how to read and write?
Breh, Do you think this issue is occurring because lil Jimmy wasnt read enough Dr. Seuss at night? Most parents can only help their child become literate for only half a decade before they no longer have the bandwidth or their children's attention (mind you parents reading to their children to teach literacy is a RECENT PHENOM in human history, i cannot stress this enough).
From there, formal schooling takes place and for decades was the de facto means children's education was developed.
There's a myriad of reasons why these low literacy rates in BLACK CHILDREN are happening well before we hold the parents feet to the fire. Its reductionist and overtly simplistic to say "just read to your kids
". Sure, that
helps. But, its nowhere near a holistic solution.
For starters, these kids have been neglected educationally at all levels of schooling. School is a production based business, the kids are only there to pass the standardized tests, which informs how much funding a school gets. This means that kids are not getting individually tailored educational plans (unless they have IEP which can hurt more than help, not to mention the whole racial issue with IEP/alt schools..). Meaning kids who get left behind, stay behind.
I would also wager the lowest rates of literacy are *SHOCKER* coming from schools in low income areas where they dont have a 1/10th of the resources to help these kids.
Secondly, the bottom has fallen out as far as support systems for most Americans, especially Black folks. I know everyone on the Coli is balling but most people are struggling. Badly. If you werent fortunate to come from a good family with tons of support and access to resources and opportunities, its likely you are a single parent, working shytty job(s), making enough to pay bills and have around a $800-1K of spending money (if youre lucky).
In todays economy, that 1K of discretionary income is hardly enough to buy time/resources to reinvest back into your child. And the govt is no help with psycho republicans cutting programs and telling you youre a awful person if you need any Govt Asst or subsidy.
Once again, im not telling anyone to not have agency and try to fix the problem in house. What I am saying is, see the forest for the trees and realize that this is primarily a
systematic problem. 
