Assemblyman Promotes Functional Illiteracy

Florida actually has a law on the books requiring schools to hold back third-graders who can’t read. One imaginative assemblyman wants to change that.

“A court challenge of Florida’s third-grade retention law may have failed, but that isn’t stopping one state House member from continuing his effort to rewrite the rules,” Jeffrey S. Solochek reports in The Tampa Tribune. “Rep. John Cortes, a Kissimmee Democrat with no education committee assignments, has refiled legislation seeking to end the practice of holding back third graders who don’t earn a passing score on the state reading test or receive a good cause exemption.”

“His effort last year did not get a hearing in its first committee of reference.” For those who think the modern Democratic Party has a stake in maintaining illiteracy, does this provide further material?