Start young. Make time to read and write with your children at home. Give them a pencil and let them write whatever comes to mind. Don't worry about spelling and grammar at first. Ask them to explain what they wrote and correct them. Introduce new words into their vocabulary. Provide your child with materials to practice learning, such as newspapers, books, pens, markers and papers. Encourage your child to write rhymes and songs. Create games that turn sounding out words and sounds into a fun exciting experience for them.
Give all children access to a quality education. Hire passionate teachers who understand its their primary goal to teach young students such basic skills. Provide higher salaries for teachers to attract college students into educational careers.
Fund literacy summer camps for students. Use state funds to send students who fall behind during the school year on their reading and writing. Focus on literacy through camp style activities like writing and telling stories around a campfire, for example. Take the summer to allow students to catch up to their peers. Children shouldn't move up a grade in school until they grasp how to read and write. Ignoring them is setting them up to struggle well into adulthood.
Create community programs. Fund literacy programs that use volunteer tutors as well as paid experienced teachers. Advertise for retired and part-time teachers to come donate their time teaching illiterate adults in their city. Keep a registry of adults who need help and match them up with tutors. Provide learning materials as needed.
Offer other financial incentives for adults to learn to read. Income is directly affected by being illiterate. Offer those who can't read a financial reward or jobs within the state government once they past a test. This in turn should benefit the state as well when the cost of welfare decreases.
Run a nation-wide campaign targeted at illiterate adults who may feel too embarrassed to seek help for their disability. Encourage adults who dropped out of school to enroll in classes at any age. Tell them it is never too late to learn to read in the advertisement you create.