Many years ago, Bobbi and I had an experience that has stayed with us ever since. We were spending a cold January Sunday in downtown Chicago, seeing movies we knew would never make it to our local theater back in Vail.
When we arrived for the first movie, we saw two young Black boys, perhaps nine and eleven years old, selling candy in the theater vestibule. I decided to buy a box of M&Ms, partly because I’m a chocoholic, but mostly because I admired the fact that these youngsters were up early on a Sunday morning trying to earn some money.
I asked the older boy how much the candy cost. He answered, but I couldn’t understand him. I asked again. Same result. Then a third time. Bobbi tried speaking with the younger boy, but neither of us could understand him either.
I grew up in Chicago and knew they were speaking English, yet their speech was so heavily influenced by their neighborhood dialect that communication outside their immediate community was extremely difficult. Eventually, I handed the older boy a ten-dollar bill, took the M&Ms, waved off the change, and went into the theater.
Afterward, Bobbi and I kept talking about those boys. They had qualities that should serve anyone well in life—initiative, responsibility, and a willingness to work. Yet we couldn’t help wondering: if they struggled to communicate with people outside their neighborhood, what chance would they have in life when they were adults?
That memory came back to me when I read about Arkansas’s recent education reforms. It reminded me that the ability to read, write, and communicate effectively is the greatest predictor of success later in life.
American student achievement has declined significantly in recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called The Nation’s Report Card, reading scores are near their lowest levels in decades.
Against that backdrop, Arkansas has reported encouraging results through its LEARNS Act. Governor Sarah Sanders believes the program could serve as a model for other states because it focuses first and foremost on literacy.
Arkansas adopted the “science of reading,” emphasizing systematic phonics instruction, regular screening of kindergarten through third-grade students, and intensive intervention for struggling readers. Students who fall behind receive individualized tutoring and literacy coaching. The state also ended automatic promotion to the next grade. Instead, students are expected to demonstrate reading proficiency before advancing beyond third grade, recognizing that children must first learn to read before they can read to learn.
The reforms extended beyond literacy. Arkansas raised the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, guaranteed raises for existing teachers, and created performance-based incentives tied to student growth, teacher effectiveness, and leadership responsibilities. The state also expanded school-choice options for families whose local schools were not meeting their children’s educational needs.
In addition, the LEARNS Act sought to refocus schools on core academic subjects by restricting the use of state funds for programs associated with critical race theory and certain diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Arkansas law now prohibits instruction that assigns collective guilt, responsibility, privilege, or victimhood based on race, ethnicity, or sex. It also limits classroom instruction involving gender identity and sexual orientation for younger students while emphasizing greater parental involvement.
The Arkansas experience highlights two broader lessons.
The first is that literacy matters. While higher teacher pay, performance incentives, school choice, and other reforms may all contribute to improved educational outcomes, the strongest evidence continues to point to early reading instruction as perhaps the most important driver of long-term academic success.
Reading is the foundation upon which virtually every other academic skill is built. A child who struggles to read by third grade faces increasingly difficult challenges in history, science, mathematics, and nearly every other subject throughout his or her education.
The second lesson is that one of the great strengths of America’s federal system is that states can serve as laboratories of democracy. When one state adopts a different approach, the rest of the country has an opportunity to observe the results. Successful ideas can be adapted elsewhere, while unsuccessful ones can be modified or abandoned without requiring the entire nation to follow the same path.
Whether one agrees with every aspect of Arkansas’s approach or not, the state’s improving academic results suggest its reforms deserve careful examination. If the goal is better educational outcomes for children, evidence should carry greater weight than ideology. Arkansas chose a different path, and the early results suggest that path deserves the attention of policymakers across the country.
Quote of the day: “Too much of what is called ‘education’ is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.” – Thomas Sowell