A new lawsuit seeks to block Ohio schools from changing the way students learn to read.
The Ohio General Assembly has approved a two-year budget change that will require schools to use a phonics-based curriculum known as “The Science of Reading.” Gov. Mike DeWine supported the new approach, saying it would improve Ohio’s dismal reading scores.
According to the latest data from the Ohio Department of Education, about 40% of third graders in the state have low reading proficiency. And while COVID-19 has caused learning loss nationwide, 33% of her children were below that benchmark before the pandemic.
But the Worthington-based North American Reading Recovery Council filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Oct. 3 seeking to block the changes. Reading Recovery reading intervention programs would be prohibited under the new law.
Lawyers argue as follows.
- Ohio lawmakers violated the single-subject rule by including a reading curriculum requirement in the state budget.
- The Ohio State Board of Education, a group of eight appointed and 11 elected members, should set reading policy, not Ohio legislators.
- The change, in which the Ohio Legislature took power away from the board and gave it to the new Department of Education and Labor, is also unconstitutional.
- The ban on “three queues” is too vague. Three-cueing is a method of teaching children to read based on meaning, structure, and visual cues to identify words.
“The Ohio Legislature has mandated an unconstitutional, inappropriate, and illegal education policy directive that is undefined, ambiguous, undefinable, contradictory, and indecipherable,” Cleveland-based Ulmer & Byrne filed the lawsuit. wrote attorney David Eagly.
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said state lawmakers and the governor have the authority to make these policy changes. “The governor is obviously very keen on this moving forward.”
The legal challenge was filed after Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Karen Phipps blocked the transfer of power from the State Board of Education to the DeWine administration. That temporary restraining order expires on Friday.
Ohio had already begun implementing the reading change before any of the lawsuits were filed. Tierney said the state can move forward with the plan, but the situation is complicated by not being able to move forward with selecting a new Department of Education and Workforce leader.
Jesse Balmert is a reporter for USA TODAY Network’s Ohio bureau, serving the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.