The gaps in prose literacy may be the greatest educational threat to humanity in the modern
era. Not despite the emergence of generative AI, but because of it. This paper asks whether
public education is doing enough to address the dimension of the AI revolution that may matter
most: the foundational ability to read, write, and communicate with the precision that generative
AI requires. The cost of inaction will not be measured in test scores. It will be measured in the
lives of students who graduate into a world they were never equipped to navigate.