To Read Or Not To Read? Why Is That Even A Question?

Anyone who has followed the state legislature for the past few cycles will have heard legislators sounding the alarm about our state's 3rd-grade reading proficiency. In the 2023 session, lawmakers passed a bill requiring schools to adopt a curriculum aligned with the science of reading--a structured learning approach that has been successful in improving literacy rates (read more the science of reading here). In the 2024 session, before there had even been a chance to analyze the results of the science of reading curriculum (spoiler alert: the 2023-24 IREAD results showed the largest single-year increase in 3rd grade literacy rates since 2013), legislators passed a bill requiring 3rd graders who don't pass the IREAD to be held back.

Given this seeming sense of urgency, it came as a surprise that the latest version of the state's budget bill did not include funding for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (IndyStar). The Imagination Library aims to support early literacy by sending age-appropriate books to children's homes from birth to the age of five. In 2023, Indiana began its relationship with the Imagination Library and approved $6 million across its biennial budget (IndyStar). Future funding, however, is now in peril. Instead of building on last year's IREAD scores and funding the mandate to improve childhood literacy, the Governor has indicated he will task the First Lady with spearheading an effort to get private investors for the project (WISHTV).

​Funding the Imagination Library would have helped the state walk the walk in terms of improving literacy rates with a proven program. Over 125,000 Hoosier children are reported to have signed up and joined the Imagination Library (WISHTV). It's no secret that kids do better when they get a head start on reading. Yet teachers and parents are now left with an unfunded mandate--a mandate to make sure their kids can read or else be held back all without the crucial funding of the state.

---