Times of Northwest Indiana
The Indiana General Assembly did part of the job of reforming education when it toughened high school graduation standards. It shouldn't balk at implementing reforms upstream as well.
The Senate Appropriations Committee, concerned about the cost of curtailing social promotion, refused to pay the estimated cost of holding back third-graders unable to read at grade level.
Senate Bill 258, supported by Sens. Frank Mrvan and Earline Rogers, now stipulates that the Indiana Department of Education may develop and implement a plan to hold back third-graders who can't read well -- with public input and proof that no extra cost is involved. The full Senate and the House should approve this legislation.
Gov. Mitch Daniels, who with Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett has championed this plan, disagreed with a Legislative Services Agency that put the cost of this initiative at $49 million a year.
"The fiscal (impact) of that bill is zero dollars and zero cents," Daniels said recently.
Schools already are being paid to educate those students, Daniels and Bennett figure, so there shouldn't be any extra cost.
If the rule were in effect last year, 18,929 students statewide would have been eligible for retention. Indiana Department of Education statistics show nearly one-fourth of the state's third-graders fail to meet state standards for reading each year.
All too often, students are promoted so they will remain with their friends in the next grade level. That does them a disservice, because they can't read well enough to understand material in other subjects as well. Reading is truly fundamental.
And yet many local school superintendents say state law shouldn't require students to be held back if their reading isn't up to par.
School City of Hammond Superintendent Walter Watkins' reaction to this proposal is similar to that of many of his peers: "Our responsibility as educators is to utilize every resource available to move students forward to academic success, with retention as a last resort."
No one wants children to fail. But when other intervention hasn't worked, retention is a resort that must be visited to keep students' academic performance from worsening each year. That shouldn't be optional, any more than parents should help decide whether their children have earned a high school diploma.
Promoting students who haven't mastered skills in elementary school compounds problems later on. Ending the social promotions is a good way to show Indiana is serious about providing a quality education for its students.
Businesses need to weigh in on this proposal, just as they have with other education reforms. Those third-graders will become employees when they grow up.
Employers should strongly support this controversial proposal.