The United States literacy crisis is reshaping the way college students think, learn and engage with the world. Scrolling through TikTok and skimming through summaries of class readings is faster than reading a book, but as convenient as those shortcuts are, they’re part of a larger problem. Democracy depends on people who can read critically. Across the country, literacy rates are declining, students are reading less and disinformation is spreading faster than truth. At UT, we frequently discuss preparation for leadership, but what does that mean when fewer of us are reading the books, stories and facts that teach us how to think?

The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that average reading scores for fourth and eighth-grade students are the lowest in decades. Additionally, according to a Publishers Weekly article, the percentage of American adults who read for enjoyment plummeted by almost 40% between 2003 and 2023.

Literacy is more than passing a lesson or taking a test. It’s about our ability to evaluate information, challenge assumptions and communicate effectively with one another. The historically low scores reveal when reading rates decline, so does our capacity for civic engagement. This results in a generation less likely to differentiate between reputable sources and misinformation, participate in democracy and connect with experiences other than their own…