Now that Governor John Kasich has signed the idea into law, Ohio schools will be instructed to *not* let 3rd graders move onto 4th grade, unless they've demonstrated that they can read.
At a signing ceremony Monday in Cincinnati, the governor noted the law tells schools to spot non-readers earlier in elementary school and provide tutoring and other special help to get them up to speed.
JK: We will not lay any 'hold-back' in tthe third grade if you can't read, unless we have intervened aggressively in the kindergarten, the 1rst grade, the second grade... No one should view the 3rd grade reading guarantee as something punitive. It's something that's really fantastic. Until you can do what you need to do we don't want to just push you ahead, and push you deeper into the woods, and you can't figure your way out.
The new law provides 13 million dollars to local schools to help them pay for special reading programs. But some education activists contend that's nowhere near enough.
