Every competent adult understands that it is important for children to learn how to read.

The Alaska Legislature approved the amended version of HB 114 Wednesday evening.

Reporter Sean McGuire wrote that after the House approved the amended measure 21-19, the offices of Sen. Tom Begich and Sen. Shelley Hughes broke into cheers and applause. The Senate had already approved the measure unanimously.

There are many good ideas in this bill about early intervention to do more to help kids, etc., but one part of this belongs on the scrap heap of failed miracle cures.

It will soon be state law that any kid who does poorly on a standardized reading test in the third grade be branded as a loser.

In 2020, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the state should refuse to allow any poor readers to pass from third grade to fourth grade.

Flunking is one of the techniques that automatically leads to higher fourth-grade reading scores because if the worst readers aren’t in fourth grade, they won’t be counted on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which tests a sample of fourth-graders.

After many changes and four legislative sessions, the bill approved this week does not contain a scheme to require that poor readers be flunked.

That part of the bill was replaced with a less draconian plan, but one that I believe will still do more harm than good.

Under the bill headed to Dunleavy’s desk, third-graders who can’t read well, based on a standardized test, will have their parents called into school to decide their children’s educational fate.

The parents will have to sign a waiver saying they know the kids are failing and not prepared for fourth grade before the child is allowed to advance to fourth grade.

This is going to brand kids as losers. And punishing kids with a Scarlet Letter is not how you encourage kids to read.

I have no doubt this ended up in the bill only because it is popular with right-wingers who always want the state to demand more from schools. This is one of those simple solutions that won’t work and sounds like a way to improve accountability. Appeasing the right-wing and Dunleavy made it possible to get a unanimous vote in the Senate and a 21-19 vote in the House.

When the parents are called to sign a declaration branding their poor-reading children as losers, how many of the parents will call the kids stupid and blame them for the failure?

This is going to be humiliating for the 8-year-olds who will no doubt be informed of their poor performance and never be allowed to forget it.

Some parent will refuse to sign a waiver, demand that a child be passed and then take the matter to court, alleging educational deficiencies. Count on it.

The bill calls for schools to have reading specialists to help kids progress. What happens when small schools can’t hire reading specialists and the elaborate levels of intervention and help envisioned in this bill do not materialize?

The bill calls for a “statewide screening” every spring to decide who is a competent reader and who isn’t.

The teachers and “other pertinent district staff” will notify the parents or guardian about the reading deficiency and that the student is not ready for the fourth grade.

For a poor reader to pass, the parent must sign a waiver that says the child is not ready for fourth grade and the parent understands it. The parent will also have to promise that the child will take part in at least 20 hours of remedial reading work during the summer.

If a parent never shows up at school or refuses to sign the waiver, the decision about flunking third grade will be made by the school district.

Starting when kids are in kindergarten, parents of kids who can’t read well are to be called in at least 45 days before the end of the school year to be told their kids are falling behind.

The parents will be told that their kids don’t have the reading skills to succeed in the next grade and it will be up to the parents to decide if the children will flunk kindergarten, first or second grade.

If the parents or guardians don’t show up, the school district will decide if kids will be flunked because of poor reading skills.

It is only when a student is to move from third to fourth grade that the parent is required to sign a waiver.

It’s possible that kids in kindergarten and first grade can be flunked without them fully understanding or caring. But many children in second or third grade will understand that if they flunk, it’s because they have failed. That’s not what kids need to hear.

Children have no control over who their parents happen to be. They have no control over whether those parents have the time, talent and inclination to start the work necessary when a child is an infant to foster a love of reading. They have no control over whether the parents are drunk every night. They have no control over whether their parents have money.

I’m sure the supporters of this punishment plan will argue that it will force parents to become more involved as soon as they are told their kids are failing. Any parent who has to hear that to become more involved is not the kind of parent who will spend the time and effort the child needs.

The Legislature has failed with this unworkable plan that will not fix the problem of children going to school without the benefit of a safe, secure and loving home. It is founded on the dream that the schools will revamp society if certain parents are forced to sign a document branding their kids as losers. Supporters of this provision will claim that the waiver does no such thing.

But that is how the words on the waiver will be interpreted, a misbegotten exercise in education.

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