I wrote earlier in this series about the number that should end every education debate before it starts: roughly half of Minnesota's kids can't read at grade level. Not in a struggling district somewhere — statewide. And reading is the skill everything else is built on. A child who can't read by the end of third grade is behind in science, in history, in math word problems, in life. Every other education argument is downstream of this one.
So it frustrates me that the debate is stuck on a fight that doesn't touch it: "more funding" on one side, "vouchers" on the other. Both sides can be right about money and still leave the kid unable to read.
Minnesota already passed the law. Enforce it.
Here's what most people don't know. In 2023 Minnesota passed the READ Act, Minn. Stat. § 120B.12, and its language is unusually direct. The Legislature "seeks to have every child reading at or above grade level every year, beginning in kindergarten." By the 2026–2027 school year, every district "must provide evidence-based reading instruction" built on "phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency" along with vocabulary and comprehension — the science of reading, in other words, replacing the discredited guessing-based methods that quietly failed a generation of kids. And every teacher responsible for reading must be trained in it.
That law is the fix. It's just not fully enforced yet — and this series has documented, over and over, that Minnesota's real weakness isn't passing good laws, it's following through on them. So position one is simple: the state holds every district to the READ Act's deadline, checks that the training actually happened and the curriculum actually changed, and doesn't accept a binder as proof.
Publish the results — plainly, by school
Parents cannot act on what they cannot see. Every school's reading results should be published in language a parent can read in thirty seconds: what share of third-graders at this school read at grade level, and which direction it's moving. Not buried in a state data portal. On the school's front page. Sunlight is the cheapest accountability there is, and it tells a parent whether the READ Act is working in their kid's classroom or just in the district's press release.
Let families walk — inside the public system
Now the part that borrows from the voucher argument without adopting it. Minnesota already has public open enrollment — a family can enroll in a public school outside its district. But it's throttled by capacity limits, transportation gaps, and paperwork most parents never navigate. Supercharge it. Guarantee a real, transportation-supported path for a family to move a child from a school that isn't teaching reading to a public school that is. That's the accountability pressure the voucher crowd wants — a school that fails kids loses them — delivered inside the public system, without sending public dollars to private schools with no public accountability.
Tie a slice of funding to reading gains
Finally, make some of the money follow the reader. Not the whole budget — that would punish the schools serving the hardest-hit kids. But a meaningful slice tied to growth in reading, so that a school that moves its third-graders from 40 percent to 60 percent on grade level is rewarded for it, and a school that stays flat year after year while cashing the same check feels it. Growth, not raw scores, so it rewards the school that does the most for the kids who start furthest behind.
The honest concession
To the funding side: schools serving poor kids need more money, not less, and a growth-based slice must never become a way to starve them — which is why it's growth-based and a slice. To the voucher side: I'm not offering private-school vouchers, because I don't believe in sending public money where public accountability can't follow; open enrollment gives you the exit pressure without that. And to teachers: the READ Act asks a lot of you on a short timeline, and the training and materials have to be funded, not just mandated.
What I'd actually do
Enforce the READ Act — the 2026–27 deadline, the training, the curriculum — and verify it, don't assume it.
Publish plain-language reading results on every school's front page.
Supercharge public open enrollment with real transportation and a guaranteed path out of a failing school.
Tie a slice of funding to reading growth, so the money follows the reader.
Half our kids can't read at grade level. Minnesota already passed the law that fixes it. Enforce it, show the results, let families walk toward what works — and pay for what actually teaches a child to read.
First the facts. Then the fix.
Sources
Minn. Stat. § 120B.12 (READ Act Goal and Interventions), verified against raw text at revisor.mn.gov: the legislative goal of every child reading at or above grade level beginning in kindergarten; the 2026–2027 deadline for districts to provide evidence-based reading instruction focused on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, oral language, vocabulary, and comprehension consistent with §§ 120B.118–120B.124; and the teacher-training requirement (subd. 1). Statewide reading-proficiency figures from the Minnesota Department of Education's MCA results, as reported in this series' earlier article on reading scores and the workforce. Public open enrollment: Minn. Stat. § 124D.03.
The precise current statewide reading-proficiency percentage and open-enrollment participation figures are as reported in this series' earlier sourced article and MDE data; the growth-funding slice would be set in legislation. Corrections: campaign@madgettformn.com.