> and do so with relative competency

I dispute this on the grounds that students are going through American schools and many of them don't even know how to read.

92% of adults know how to read to varying level.[1]

The number, while high, is not satisfactory. Clearly, we also want adults to be functionally and not pass a super low bar of being able to read a sentence which 92% does not care to distinguish, but it is not fact true that "many of them don't even know how to read".

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States

In terms of not being able to read, I would count 8% as "many"? Select a group of ten random Americans and you'd expect one of them to be illiterate - that's appalling.

Right there you have 8%. But it is worse because it says they're able to "read to varying level", which includes 2nd grade level, or barely at all.

Over 20% of American adults have a literacy proficiency at or below Level 1. This is defined as "difficulty using or understanding print materials" and "may struggle to understand texts beyond filling out basic forms." So 1 out of every 5 Americans is functionally illiterate. I would say that counts as "many of them don't even know how to read."