Republican legislators plan to force more Iowa schools to offer after-school and summer-school reading programs. House Speaker Brent Siegrist, a Republican from Council Bluffs, says teaching kids to read is the primary function of elementary school.A new state law requires the testing of third graders to check for reading proficiency. If kids fail, Siegrist says schools need to plow new resources into programs, like summer school, which raise reading skills.Siegrist says the reading initiative is a priority for Republican leiglsators. The Iowa legislature starts it’s work for the new year in three weeks.
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