Hawaii’s history as one of the world’s most literate societies in the 19th century now sits in uneasy contrast with a modern reality: tens of thousands of adults across the state still struggle with the basic reading and writing skills needed to fully participate in family life, work and civic life.
Advocates say that without urgent, coordinated investment, low literacy will continue to hamper the state’s economy, strain health systems and perpetuate intergenerational poverty.
Jill Takasaki Canfield, executive director of Hawaii Literacy, noted that while Hawaii performs better than the national average of 22%, about 17% of adults in the state still face challenges with basic reading skills, with rates climbing to 25% in some communities. She explained that tens of thousands of adults read at around a third-grade level or lower, which means they can manage short, simple texts but often have difficulty with essential daily tasks such as filling out forms, completing job applications or supporting their children with homework.
Those state-level estimates are consistent with findings from the U.S. Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, which provides modeled state and county estimates of adult literacy and places Hawaii below the national share of adults at the lowest proficiency levels.
Nationally, ProLiteracy points out that roughly 59 million U.S. adults live with very low literacy skills — meaning they would struggle with many everyday tasks if not given help.
In Hawaii, modeled PIAAC data show broadly similar county-level estimates — Honolulu near the mid-teens, Hawaii County and Maui roughly comparable, and Kauai slightly higher — but small-area variability hides deeper neighborhood-level disparities.
“Because these figures are based on modeled survey data, differences between counties are small and fall within overlapping statistical ranges,” Takasaki Canfield noted. Community leaders and service providers, however, make clear that in many low-income neighborhoods and immigrant communities the need is far higher than statewide averages imply.
Pua‘Ena Burgess, who manages Hawaii Literacy’s bookmobile outreach, described that hyperlocal demand from the front lines.
Burgess said their team typically visits nine to 12 sites each month, with seven located in Waianae and Nanakuli, another one to three in Honolulu and one in Ocean View on Hawaii island. She noted that they serve about 8,000 children and adults annually, using sign-in sheets to keep track of attendance and visits. Burgess supplied program tallies showing that from July 2024 to July 2025, the bookmobile and related outreach made 7,656 visits, distributed 8,689 books and delivered 1,427 literacy activities or kits — numbers she and colleagues say represent just a portion of unmet demand.
Antoinette Anoc, a longtime resident of Kukui Gardens for more than 30 years, brings her 7-year-old son, Dominic, to the local bookmobile every Wednesday.
For Anoc, the visits provide more than books — they help build trust between families and education, keep kids out of trouble and offer a low-cost alternative to after-school programs, which can be prohibitively expensive.
“It brings the community together,” she said on Wednesday, emphasizing the importance of organized activities to combat youth violence and give children constructive ways to spend their time.
That day, 37 children ranging from pre-K to fifth grade visited the bookmobile, which is stocked entirely with donated books that kids can either keep or return.
Seven-year-old Borodus Kintin also visits weekly with his 5-year-old sister, Baireen, and 4-year-old brother, Presley.
Borodus likes books featuring his favorite character, Sonic, while Baireen said, “I like to read anything.”
“I like the bookmobile because I can read at home,” Baireen said.
Social, economic stakes
Literacy is not merely an educational metric — it’s a social and economic lever.
Brandon Kurisu, a longtime board leader and workforce advocate, framed the problem bluntly: “Low literacy is holding back Hawaii’s workforce and economy. Adults with the lowest literacy skills are twice as likely to be unemployed, and those who work earn significantly less and struggle to advance. This shrinks the talent pool for key industries like health care, tourism, renewable energy, and skilled trades, while perpetuating intergenerational gaps as children of low-literacy parents often start school behind.”
Kurisu emphasized that the state lacks enough recent, detailed, Hawaii-specific data linking reading levels to earnings and career trajectories, but a set of local and national studies point to large economic consequences when adults cannot access training, certifications or higher-paying jobs that assume higher literacy.
A University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization analysis of the Good Jobs Hawaii program found that participants who completed training experienced an average increase of roughly $1,800 in real quarterly wages — about $7,200 when annualized — compared with non-completers, illustrating the economic payoff when residents can move through skills programs that often assume basic literacy.
Hawaii Literacy also found that roughly 70% of adults with the lowest literacy skills are unemployed, and those who do work earn just 44% of what their literate peers make, translating to a lifetime earnings loss exceeding $800,000. Education and reading ability remain the strongest predictors of future income, with studies showing that roughly 90% of people who struggle with reading comprehension will need state assistance at some point and face a higher risk of experiencing homelessness. Across the country, low literacy costs communities more than $225 billion annually due to reduced workforce capacity.
What’s working
Hawaii Literacy and its community partners are deploying a range of approaches: one-to-one adult tutoring, family literacy libraries, bookmobile stops that combine free book access with tutoring and storytimes, English language learning classes, digital-literacy instruction and efforts to link adult learners to job training and workforce partners.
Over its history, Hawaii Literacy said it has served roughly 40,000 adults and youth through its programs.
Takasaki Canfield explained that the nonprofit focuses its evaluation on tracking learner skill gains, retention, goal achievement, the volume of services delivered, the quality of tutor support and the reach of community engagement, demonstrating strong progress in both literacy development and workforce readiness.
“We also track what learners achieve related to their goals, (including those who) earned a GED, accepted into community college, passed the written driver’s license exam, passed the USA citizenship test, improved understanding of forms and documents, enhanced communication skills, received promotions at work,” she said.
The bookmobile, in particular, is the first interaction with literacy resources for many families. Burgess said picture books, board books for toddlers, high-interest titles which usually involve animals or popular characters, and Hawaiian and Pacific-language books are consistently in demand — but often remain understocked because of cost and availability.
Where the program can administer pre- and post-assessments, staff report measurable reading gains — Burgess recalled a child who rose two to three grade levels in reading after sustained participation in keiki tutoring associated with bookmobile stops.
Barriers to learning
Despite program success stories, leaders say funding uncertainty, staff shortages and limited capacity to measure outcomes hamper scale. Takasaki Canfield said fundraising cuts and constrained staffing mean Hawaii Literacy sometimes can only track deeper outcomes at select sites rather than systemwide.
“We continue to collect and report impact data,” she said. “There are other types of data and outcomes that could be very helpful to be able to add as this is cross-sector, multigenerational work, but capacity at this point means that we have to track it only in certain program sites and neighborhoods where we might have funding or other resources to be able to do it instead of across the board,” she said.
Employer partnerships
Business engagement in workplace literacy has grown in pockets, but advocates say it must scale.
Kurisu pointed to national and local examples where employers who invest in on-the-job literacy and digital skills see measurable returns, including reduced turnover, higher productivity and meaningful wage gains for participants. Hawaii’s private sector — which depends on a pipeline of workers for health care, tourism, construction, and clean-energy projects — has a direct stake in expanding these partnerships.
“What’s missing is scale and urgency,” Kurisu said. “Raising literacy is more than a social responsibility, it is an economic imperative. Every dollar invested in literacy is a dollar invested in Hawaii’s future workforce and competitiveness.”
Hawaii Literacy reports metrics that matter to donors and corporate partners — numbers served, volunteer hours, learning gains, and learner success stories such as passing licensing tests or enrolling in community college — and said those data points help sustain business contributions.
But Kurisu and others say employers could do more to fund programs, host workplace classes and allow paid time for employees to participate in upskilling that begins with basic literacy and digital competence.
Source: The Garden Island
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