While DCist realizes that despite being the capital of the world’s lone superpower, the District has been facing and will continue to face serious social service inequalities. But the fact that only 37 percent of D.C. adults read at a third-grade level is shocking. This figure stands in stark contrast to the laudable statistic that in 2003, the District had the highest rates anywhere in the nation of adults 25 years and up with a bachelor’s degree (46 percent) … Maryland came in second (38 percent).

To chip away at illiteracy levels, Mayor Anthony Williams has launched a new program with the State Education Department called the Lifelong Learning Initiative, which also has a whole slew of corporate and media sponsors.