To play devils advocate, is this really a huge issue? As a construction worker friend of mine put it quite plainly, Most Americans don't really need to be able to read anything more comprehensive than street signs to do their jobs, a 6th grade reading level is pretty proficient, maybe a bit slower but it gets the job done
Edit: a lot of you seem to be taking this weirdly personally, just read further and pretend I'm not attacking you directly
Well if our democracy is predicated on the idea that the populace governs itself, then the populous is being governed by people with a sixth grade reading level.
I'm sorry? I mean, despite what you think, their absolutely are people out there like that, they exist because they felt they learned enough and stopped learning. Nothing is stopping these full grown adults from going back to school or trying to improve themselves at home, they just. Don't.
I don't mean I don't think people want to go back to school, I mean I don't think people are happy to just work and be able to do not much else. Like I'm sure most people like playing an instrument or dancing or something.
It matters because being a responsible citizen in a democracy requires having good enough critical thinking and reasoning skills so as not to be easily misled or manipulated by bad-faith actors. If you can't read well, and it's not due to something like dyslexia, it speaks to your ability to follow complex ideas and fact-patterns and themes which in turn means that you're more likely to make poor political decisions.