Not just try to be a contrarian but I have worked with people who graduated from UCB EECS with broken English. When I read their specs, I could barely understand and guess what they were reasonably successful, I’m glad they didn’t come to CC for advice. This is why engineering is a field where lots of immigrants are successful, yes even software engineering.
While I’m not saying reading and writing skills are to be ignore but if kids grow up in this country or born in this country, they should have a decent reading and writing skills.