1. A Literacy at Work study, published by the Northeast Institute in 2001, found that business losses attributed to basic skill deficiencies run into billions of dollars a year. 2. Sociological research has demonstrated that countries with lower levels of functional illiteracy among their adult populations tend to be those with the highest levels of scientific literacy. 3. This correspondence suggests that the capacity of schools to ensure students attains the functional literacy required to comprehend the basic texts contributes to a society's level of civic literacy.