Rep. Zupkus Issues Statement After Democrat Majority Fails to Support Reading Waiver for High Performing Schools

HARTFORD – Rep. Lezlye Zupkus, R-Prospect, issued the following statement after debate on the House floor in connection to SB 14, an omnibus educational bill titled “An Act Assisting School Districts in Improving Educational Outcomes.”

During debate Wednesday evening, House Republicans introduced an amendment focused on addressing “Right to Read” legislation, a costly unfunded mandate that forces school districts to choose from a list of commercial products for their reading programs.

School districts could apply for a waiver from the program, but even high-performing districts have been denied. House Republicans offered an amendment that would have extended the time period for compliance with the mandate.

The amendment also would have allowed the granting of a waiver if student performance data concerning literacy rates for the school district was above proficiency in reading or the district demonstrated a significant increase in its student literacy rate during a specified time period.

Democrats rejected that amendment 89 to 57, in a largely party-line vote.

“This one-size-fits-all approach to education isn’t working. Many of our kindergarten through third-grade students are reading at proficient levels in high performing districts across the state, yet those districts are denied waivers,” said Rep. Lezlye Zupkus, a member of the Education Committee. “The intent of ‘right-to-read’ legislation may have been good – we want all students to read proficiently – but we need to look at high-performing schools to see what they’re doing right and not punish them with costly and unfunded mandates. Instead, we should be focused on the districts that are extremely low performing, which truly need the attention.”

You can follow Rep. Zupkus’ legislative activity by visiting www.RepZupkus.com or www.facebook.com/RepZupkus.