So in your opinion, it's ok to just be, your object is not to improve yourself as much as possible? What do you think would happen if everyone in the US thought that way? Our economy would collapse in two seconds and we'd be conquered by China or Russia.
First our economy is collapsing. Maybe not fast but we are headed for another depression. Lots of people can't even put gas in their cars or afford fresh foods unless they work two jobs. And why is this? Because everyone in the US thinks they need to super educated and then should make a lot of money. In turn because everyone wants so much money our factories go overseas where they can get cheaper labor. Then all these people who make lots of money or work two smaller jobs to make it, make the cost of everything go up (because the numbers are based on 2 incomes or 1 big salary) so people who are working those unskilled jobs can't afford the necessities and now they want more money too which makes those companies look for cheaper labor too. So what did over educating the kids in the US do again. It caused them to think they deserved and needed more money and in turn caused our companies to leave for cheaper labor.
You can learn without being able to read, just like you can survive in the US without being able to speak English, but you can't be as effective. Everyone in the US needs to be able to speak, read, and write the primary language so as to be able to communcate with each other as a nation, not as a bunch of separate fragments.
Secondly, we as a country have already started to separate ourselves in two fragments. The US is eventually going to end up like Canada. Some of our states will primarily speak Spanish while others speak primarily English. Canada just happens to French and English. I personally feel like everyone in this country should be required to speak English fluently, but this country is comprised of a bunch of bleeding hearts that don't want to hurt anyones feelings so we just let them be, as long as we can step on as many English speaking citizens as we can on the way. Dividing a country weakens it and this division can be in anything, unfortunately our country is divided at several points. This has nothing to do with accountability to parents who homeschool though this goes back to the general welfare of the country. If you have read what I have said you know that I am not for bigger government but in this case if I can't understand the person next to me and he can't understand me in a time of emergency then it is just going to cause more problems and possibly cause both of us to get hurt.
So really does it matter if we teach everyone to read and write or not if our country is going to be divided on language. Until you get a central language there really isn't a debate on this subject and going on that theory then it doesn't matter if a child is taught to read because no one will know unless they speak the same language as that child; otherwise they can get an interpreter and have it read to them.
Everyone that I have offended remember this is mostly my opinion.