The state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) has scheduled a meeting for Monday, March 11, 11:01am on what early literacy curricula will be approved under 2023 Wisconsin Act 20, the law that revamped early reading requirements. The DPI had recommended 11 curricula that it says meet Act 20 requirements after a council on early reading curricula (set up at the DPI by Act 20) recommended four. A member of the JFC objected to DPI’s recommendations triggering the committee meeting. See the background paper from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB), including the list of curricula, for the meeting here.
The DPI recommended three out of the four curricula recommended by the literacy council. The LFB paper included potential alternatives the committee could choose from including approving the 11 submitted by the DPI, the four approved by the council, the three that were approved by both, or outright deny the request. The JFC is not bound to select one of those alternatives, however. Whatever the outcome, schools are not required to use curricula from the finalized list of recommendations, but there is an opportunity to have some of the cost reimbursed by the state if a school decides to choose one from the list.
