Kansas State Board of Education invests $15 million in literacy

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - The Kansas State Board of Education will invest $15 million in literacy over the next three years.

The money comes from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund, which as a requirement must address learning loss during the pandemic.

It is an effort to train Pre-K through third-grade teachers as well as people entering the field of early education in what state education officials call “the science of reading”.

“What happened in COVID is that the learning loss because of covid and literacy it got hit,” State Education Commissioner Randy Watson said Wednesday.

“We lost literacy with students because of COVID so we’re able to use this money to accelerate that back and also in the future help us make up the gains that were lost.”

The funding creates statewide access to a program, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling known as LETRS, that provides educators with strategies research and skills to best teach students how to read.

Officials said the investment will pay long-term dividends.

“We firmly believe we will see an impact on literacy the ability to read at a higher level over the next several years because of this we’ll make up the learning loss first and we’ll accelerate it into the future,” Watson said.

“One thing that the pandemic has shown us is we have to invest in this heavily over the next several years to address losses that the pandemic that the pandemic might not have caused with some of our students,” said Deputy Education Commissioner Brad Neuenswander.

“We’ll just be better at supporting students in the area of reading.”

Copyright 2021 WIBW. All rights reserved.