House Oks Bill Pushing Phonics Use $9 Million Approved To Train Teachers

A controversial bill designed to encourage teaching phonics in elementary school passed the state House Friday evening.

“This is the little bill that could,” said Rep. Peggy Johnson, R-Olympia, who sponsored an earlier, more contentious phonics bill.

The measure, called The Successful Readers Act, would provide about $9 million in grants to help teachers learn how to better teach phonics. Schools with students who scored low on reading tests have first priority for the grants.

Another $5 million in grants would be available to train kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers on how to use volunteer tutors and mentors to work with students on reading.

The Senate already passed a earlier version of the bill, SB6509. Because of changes made by the House, the measure now goes back to the Senate.

Phonics is a way of teaching reading that uses sounds that letters and syllables represent. Supporters say it is the most effective way to teach reading.

The governor’s office, the superintendent of public instruction and key legislators had been trying to hash out a compromise on reading instruction, said Bob Butts, policy coordinator for the superintendent.

Marylou Flynn, the governor’s communications director, said, “We feel positive in the direction the bill has moved.”

But Terry Bergeson, superintendent of public instruction, remains strongly opposed to the measure.

“It’s a discouraging time for educators,” she said. “The desire by legislators to come in and micromanage is going to wreck the future of education in Washington state.”

Rob Fukai, Spokane School District 81 board member, said the Legislature shouldn’t dabble in curriculum when teachers are the experts.

Pat Mainella, elementary reading coordinator for District 81, said read ing grants shouldn’t be restricted to phonics instruction. Good teachers also use grammar and meaning in reading lessons, Mainella said.

Generally, she said, students in kindergarten through second grade should have a strong emphasis on phonics.

“After that, you start to look at word patterns more, and all the exceptions to the rules,” she said. “They have a way to cross check and make sure what they’re reading is accurate.”

But even those guidelines should be flexible, so teachers can help children who learn differently, Mainella said.

Rep. Bob Sump, R-Republic, one of the bill’s original sponsors, said lawmakers aren’t trying to tell teachers how to teach.

“We don’t want to go into the classrooms and micromanage what they do,” he said. “I only have the kids’ best interest at heart.”

Johnson’s earlier bill would have required schools with low reading scores to develop a phonics-based reading curriculum for kindergarten through second grade. That bill died in committee.

, DataTimes