Republican Legislators Want Wisconsin to go Back to Teaching Phonics in Public Schools

Friday, June 9th, 2023 -- 8:00 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) Legislative Republicans want Wisconsin schools to return to using phonics as a method of reading education.

Legislative Republicans are making another attempt at a bill that would require more reading education in grade school. State Senator Duey Stroebel says lawmakers want to see a return to using phonics as a method of teaching. "We put a significant amount of money aside to make this program work."

Stroebel says current reading scores in the state are unacceptable. "I think it's close to 70% of our fourth graders cannot read at grade level."

Republicans sent a version of this measure to the governor last session, but it was vetoed because it did not provide funding for the changes. State Representative Joel Kitchens says new methods of teaching have failed children.

"We need to reteach our teachers because our universities over the last couple of decades have not been teaching reading properly." A previous version of this bill was vetoed by Governor Tony Evers last session.

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