Two stories in the news in the last two weeks were, on the surface, about different topics. But break the surface and they were the same topic: preparing young children for elementary school.
Gov. Mike DeWine visited Toledo to promote his agenda to implement “the science of reading” in Ohio’s elementary schools.
Blade staff writer Kelly Kaczala covered the governor’s appearance, along with his education director, Steve Dackin, in the Toledo Lucas County Main Library (“DeWine touts literacy efforts in Ohio,” Wednesday). In the audience were 30 local business, government, education, and literacy leaders.
The concept favored by Mr. DeWine focuses on phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension as the most effective ways to teach children how to read. He wants Ohio’s education universities to train new teachers in these methods.
Mr. Dackin offered some sobering statistics: 40 percent of third graders are not reading at grade level. In grades K through 4, we have 3,000 students who are not at grade level.
There is no question that Ohio school children have fallen behind in basic literacy. If that trend keeps up, Ohio is going to have a growing percentage of the adult population who are illiterate, which undermines economic development in Ohio and makes the state less attractive to businesses and individuals looking to move.
The second story in the paper was the news that Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz wants the Lucas County Board of Commissioners to put a levy on the ballot to pay for universal pre-school education (“Lucas County exploring putting universal Pre-K on the ballot,” by Melissa Burden, April 11).
The focus of that story was less on reading than on the shortage of decent child care and preschool, as noted by an analysis by the group ReadyNation. It said that Ohio’s infant and toddler child-care crisis costs families, businesses, and taxpayers an estimated $3.85 billion each year.
Mr. Kapszukiewicz’s attempt in his first term to develop universal pre-school in Toledo without city funds sputtered out, and voters rejected a proposed city tax increase to raise money for universal preschool.
Now he wants the levy to be put on a countywide ballot. A countywide levy would have to overcome voters’ understandable resistance to tax increases, as well as convince a majority of people that they need to support yet another expansion of the role of government in raising children.
Mr. Kapszukiewicz points out that Ohio’s other large cities provide universal pre-school, and that Toledo should too. It’s something that needs to be considered, since efforts to fund this program through philanthropy have not succeeded. We have an alarming trend of children arriving at kindergarten and first grade without the skills to learn how to read, and it needs attention.
First Published April 21, 2024, 4:00 a.m.
