Sens. Cruz, Schatz Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Help Students Learn to Read

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced the Improving America's Literacy Act. This bipartisan legislation directs federal education funding toward instruction focused on teaching five essential pillars for literacy, based on the Science of Reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

Sen. Cruz said, "Decades of cognitive and educational research have established that instruction according to the Science of Reading is effective in teaching children literacy. However, federal dollars have continued to flow to schools and programs that use outdated pedagogical methods and fall short in teaching children to read, contributing to what has become a consistent and catastrophic decline in literacy levels across America. This bill will direct federal funding to evidence-based reading instruction. I am proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation with Senator Schatz, and I urge my colleagues to advance it."

Sen. Schatz said, "In the midst of a national literacy crisis, states have shown that investing in phonics can help boost reading skills. Our bill will promote the use of phonics in schools across the country so kids can develop strong reading skills and be set up for future success."

Read the bill text here.

BACKGROUND

Literacy rates in America have significantly worsened in the last couple of years. This past September, the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment levels of students in 2024 were released. In 2024, NAEP results show that "...33 percent of eighth graders are reading at a level that is 'below basic'-meaning that they struggle to follow the order of events in a passage or to even summarize its main idea. That is the highest share of students unable to meaningfully read since 1992. Among fourth graders, 40 percent are below basic in reading, the highest share since 2000." And for twelfth graders, the average reading score was three points lower than in 2019 and ten points lower than when the assessment was first administered in 1992. Only three states posted fourth grade reading scores that met or exceeded their 2019 performance: Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The driving force of targeted improvement has been the adoption of the "Science of Reading," a framework of five key pillars: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

The Improving America's Literacy Act ensures Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grants cannot be used on the three-cueing model, directing those funds instead to evidence-based reading instruction grounded in the five key pillars of Science of Reading. Additionally, this legislation strengthens accountability for improvement in literacy outcomes by ensuring that the Director conducts research to identify and evaluate the improvement in student literacy outcomes at the State and local levels.