U.S. Senator Patty Murray has introduced a new literacy bill that
puts a priority on literacy education during the reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
The bill, Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation act
(LEARN for short), calls for using $2.35 billion to support school-based
literacy programs to help students in early childhood education
programs through grade 12. The bill also calls for increased teacher
literacy education training, tracking data and starting new intervention
programs.
I just got off a conference call with Senator Murray, during which
she repeatedly stated that literacy education should be a priority in
this country, but instead funding for it keeps being reduced.
According to Murray, more than 8 million students across the country in grade 4-12 read below grade level.
“That is absolutely unacceptable,” she said, adding later, “Here we
are in the 21st century and we know literacy is not a luxury, it is a
necessity.”
According to Murray, Washington would
receive about $34 million under the LEARN Act. During the 2008-09 school
year, the state received $17 million in federal literacy funds, and $6
million during the 2009-10 school year.
Nationally, Murray said there was $541 million in federal literacy
funding in 2008, $147 million in 2009, $200 million in 2010 and none in
2011.
When asked about how the government can afford the program she’s
proposing, Murray said it should be part of the ESEA (known as No Child
Left Behind during the Bush administration). By introducing the bill,
Murray is trying to make it a priority within the entire national
education framework.
– The Bellingham Herald
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