More than half of the approximately 750,000 Illinois students from low-income families cannot meet state reading standards. To be successful in school–and beyond–students need to leave 3rd grade reading at grade level.
In Illinois, however, just 40 percent of poor children–and only a third of African-American children–meet 3rd grade standards.
These results are egregious and intolerable, but the situation is about to get a lot worse for these children if the legislature eliminates the Reading Block Grant.
We know the future of the poor readers is bleak. It is also costly to taxpayers. At best these children struggle through school, though often in expensive special-education programs. Learning is difficult and behavioral problems frequently develop. At worst they drop out and end up in the juvenile justice system–and later, the adult justice system.
It is not surprising that more than 80 percent of inmates are illiterate, but it is surprising that funding for reading is at risk of being cut.
There is ample evidence that all boys and girls can learn to read well. Sometimes they need additional support, such as daily tutoring in phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary, at the early grades in addition to classroom reading instruction from skilled teachers.
The Reading Block Grant funds this direct instruction and provides money for teaching teachers how to teach reading.
Last year, the General Assembly passed a landmark bill that required this instructional support, made districts accountable for Reading Grant funds and closed loopholes.
In addition, during the past three years, Illinois moved briskly ahead to help struggling readers. Gov. George Ryan’s Illinois Reads and the state board’s leadership in placing reading diagnostic tools and reading kits in every primary-grade classroom, in developing and delivering high-quality teacher training, and in supporting standards-based reforms, were starting to make a difference.
These efforts made Illinois the only state to receive the Five Star Award from the International Reading Association. Progress was on the move.
By cutting targeted funding for reading, however, drivers of the budget process threaten to throw the engine of progress into reverse. The thousands of children with serious reading problems deserve better.
