COLUMBUS, Ohio -Gov. Bob Taft's proposed budget for the first time lumps most of the funding for his OhioReads initiative, once his top policy priority, together with other state reading programs.
Formerly an independent office, OhioReads is now funded under the Office of Reading Improvement. The classroom grants once specific to OhioReads have been renamed literacy grants and are being expanded to young children struggling to read as well as middle and high school students.
But reflecting tight budget times, the proposed amount of the grants -about $12 million a year -would not increase from the most recent two-year budget.
Schools with OhioReads' grants used the money to buy books and other reading materials and help arrange volunteer tutors for children.
Taft's proposed $51 billion spending plan still contains a stand-alone proposal to fund the volunteer aspect of OhioReads, although the amount would be cut from $4.2 million to $3.9 million next year, an 8 percent drop. The amount would stay the same in 2007.
OhioReads is not going away
it's just becoming its next generation Kelly Davids, director of the Reading Improvement office and former OhioReads director, said yesterday.
An October 2003 analysis of OhioReads by Indiana University researchers found no difference in the proficiency scores between schools that got money from the program and schools that do not.
-The Associated Press
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