Read It and Weep.

FIGHT FOR READING FIRST

CHARLOTTE ALLEN's "Read It and Weep" (July 16) hit the nail on the head. For once a journalist did her homework and described accurately and cogently Bush's Reading First initiative. Reid Lyon and I were tasked to develop legislation that would reflect President Bush's determination to change the paradigm of how reading is taught in the United States. As Texas governor, Bush learned from Lyon that if the findings of science were applied to reading instruction it could make the difference between success and failure for generations of children in our public schools. No Child Left Behind became law with bipartisan support on January 8, 2002. Reading First was a signature part of that law and was carefully guided through the legislative process by Margaret Spellings, then an assistant to the president for domestic policy and now secretary of education.

When the inspector general's reports on Reading First were released over a period of several months beginning in September 2006, the new Democratic leadership had a political club to beat up the Bush administration. Although neither the inspector general nor the Justice Department has ever issued any charges, Senate and House Education Committee chairmen Ted Kennedy and George Miller were not deterred from using the report to gain what they saw as a political advantage. Both of these leaders had worked closely with then-House Education Committee chairman John Boehner and Senate education chairman Judd Gregg during the writing of the Reading First law.

As Allen notes, Reading First has been a smashing success. The Office of Management and Budget has given it a thumbs up, noting that it is the only program in the Education Department to be designated "effective." Thousands of teachers have now become advocates of Reading First because they see their students reading.

As it stands now, both the House and Senate appropriations bills are recommending that for 2008 this "dazzlingly successful program" will be cut from $1.1 billion to $400 million. Rather than cut the program, Congress should consider expanding it. Hearings should be held that would call in Reading First state directors from the top tier of successful state programs and let them tell Congress what a powerful tool Reading First has become in reversing the tide of illiteracy in America. There are scores of stories just like the one Allen described in Richmond, Va.

We weep to think of the thousands of disadvantaged children, exactly those children Ted Kennedy and George Miller claim to care about, who will now lose their chance to realize their full potential if this law is gutted. Reading First should receive bipartisan support, even more than when it became law in 2002. And Secretary Spellings should fight for the president's signature program now just as she did to create it.

ROBERT W. SWEET JR.
Strasburg, Va.

CHARLOTTE ALLEN states that "Voyager was developed by Reid Lyon, a friend of Bush from Dallas who was chairman of child development and behavior for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) from 1991 to 2005; Lyon subsequently sold the program to ProQuest, an educational company based in Ann Arbor." Unfortunately she has her facts wrong. I never had any professional interactions with Voyager staff nor did I have any financial interest in the Voyager program. Voyager was developed by Randy Best. Likewise, I never had any financial interest in any reading program during my tenure as the chief of the child development and behavior branch at the NICHD, and this practice continues today.

REID LYON
Dallas, Texas

CHARLOTTE ALLEN RESPONDS: Reid Lyon has never had any financial connection with Voyager. The Voyager program was founded by Randy Best in 1994 and sold to ProQuest in 2005. That same year Lyon became an executive vice president of the American College of Education, a for-profit education school founded by Best. I regret the error.