October 4, 2002
Insisting on Reading Results for Our Children:
No Child Left Behind Act Transforming Public Education With New Funding & Accountability;
President's FY2003 Budget Adds Even More

Dear Colleague:

As a result of the No Child Left Behind Act (H.R. 1), the bipartisan education reform legislation signed in January by President Bush, hundreds of millions of additional federal dollars are flowing to states and school districts to improve reading instruction using proven methods based on scientific research. As the attached editorial from the Cleveland Plain Dealer suggests, this new approach is poised to dramatically improve public education across the United States and give millions of disadvantaged children the chance to learn to read.

As a result of No Child Left Behind, federal funding for reading this year has been more than tripled since the last budget signed by President Clinton, from $300 million in FY2001 to $900 million this year. President Bush's FY2003 Budget, and the budget resolution approved by the House, provides this funding again next year -- along with another $100 million increase, bringing next year's total to more than $1 billion for states and school districts for proven reading instruction.

A list of estimated state grants and next year's funding under President Bush's request for $1 billion for the second year of the program is available at http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/01-2002/estimates.html.

These new resources are contingent on just one demand: they must be used to get results for our nation's children, too many of whom are being denied the chance to learn to read.

Unprecedented new education resources are flowing from Washington to schools across America. It's time to insist on results for the next generation of students. Accountability, not just funding, is the key to ensuring no child in our nation is left behind.

Sincerely,

John Boehner
Chairman

Insisting on effective teaching

Editorial -- Cleveland Plain Dealer - October 2, 2002

It's good to read about the U.S. Department of Education being stingy with grant money.

So often the news from Washington, D.C., centers on great slabs of fiscal pork parceled out across the country. In the case of this year's reading initiatives, however, federal officials are being careful about who gets taxpayer dollars. Indeed, they actually expect a return on the investment.

As a result, Ohio is one of nearly 30 states whose first application for reading dollars bounced back. "Reading First," as it is known, is President George W. Bush's grand effort to ensure that all children can read by the end of the third grade. A whopping $900 million is available this year alone, with nearly $27 million earmarked for this state. The only catch: Educators must demonstrate that the programs they use are scientifically proven - that is, that the approaches really do work.

Apparently, Ohio's first try lacked adequate details about the research base for the teaching and assessments the state plans to use. Ohio Department of Education officials say they since have filled in the cited gaps.

Elsewhere, though, the evaluation process has involved significantly more controversy. At issue is the government's aggressive advocacy of phonics-based programs - in other words, those that teach students to read by helping them learn the sounds associated with letters and combinations of letters. Some insist students need more holistic methods that allow them to enjoy immediately the narrative aspects of stories. Others do not question the sharp focus on phonics but worry that the department's suggested programs amount to a narrow endorsement of a handful of commercial offerings.

To be sure, the easiest way to ensure federal support is to buy into an existing program that meets stated standards. But options are hardly as limited as critics suggest. More likely, this debate is an extension of one that has raged for years between advocates of varying instructional techniques; the bottom line is that research has proved, decisively, that phonics teaching must be part of learning reading. It is only appropriate that the government insist on such elements in the efforts taxpayers fund.

The idea is accountability. The beneficiaries are American children. The U.S. Department of Education is doing the right thing.

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