With Oklahoma ranking last in the country in student reading scores – and things being so bad that we’re having to turn to bottom-10 companion Mississippi for guidance – I’m for any logical or rational plan to increase literacy among Oklahoma kids.
I guess that’s why I’m all for a proposal, warts and all, being floated by State Sen. Adam Pugh and State Rep. Toni Hasenbeck – two lawmakers who are running for State Superintendent – that would bring back an older law requiring teens to prove they can read at an 8th-grade level before they can get their driver’s license.
Via Oklahoma Voice:
Teen drivers could be required to meet certain literacy requirements under two bills proposed by Oklahoma lawmakers.
House Bill 4153 and Senate Bill 1538 would each require minors to meet eighth-grade literacy standards and require Service Oklahoma to withdraw driving privileges if the child drops out of school…
Under both bills, youth would need to either pass a statewide reading assessment or an approved alternative test to prove they meet literacy standards before they can be licensed to drive, according to the bills.
Yep! You're telling me we can get more teen drivers off the road and hopefully motivate more kids to learn how to read in the process? Take the wheel and drive! Where do I sign?!
Seriously, why would we not do this, and even better yet, extend it to all adults? Imagine just how peaceful and better our roads would be if we got 20% of drivers off them! In fact, I say we add a basic civics test, too. If you can’t name the lawmakers who help make our roads so bad, should you really be allowed to drive on them?
Even though this seems like a sane law, as is typically the case, the fun-hating woke liberal crowd is kind of poo-pooing the legislation, saying that it unfairly targets bilingual folks and broke kids who can’t read but still have to work:
Neither Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, nor Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin, were available to answer questions about their bills Wednesday, including whether the measures could affect youth who are learning English as a second language, or why they now want to reinstate a requirement that was eliminated several years ago…
Okay, so the woke people have a point. If you ask me, a good fix is to simply require that teen drivers be able to read at an 8th-grade level in any language. That’s probably better than nothing!
The bill’s authors have also addressed the working-teens problem:
If a minor is employed more than 24 hours a week, they’re eligible to apply for an exemption to continue being able to drive to work, Pugh said during committee.
See? That’s not a bad fix. Sure, we don’t want anyone to fall through the literacy cracks, but those fast food places need to stay open. Otherwise, how will all the literate people eat?
Anyway, we’ll keep our eyes on how this proposal moves through the Legislature – and whether Oklahoma lawmakers actually manage to pass something that improves literacy and traffic at the same time.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
