12/16/2001 - Updated 10:49 PM ET

Reading: Nearly $1 billion for literacy programs

One of the key components of the education bill is a huge boost for literacy programs: up from $300 million last year to nearly $1 billion in 2002.

"If we did nothing else, this would be worth it," says Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del.

Much of the money will go to help states develop reading programs for pupils in grades K-3. One priority: to ensure that children who have trouble reading get help early.

"The quality of reading programs in schools is very sporadic," says Cinthia Haan, director of the non-profit Haan Foundation for Children, which helps disadvantaged children with reading. She estimates 20 million children read below grade level.

"I'm excited about this education bill. It's a way for us for the first time in 30 years to really change the direction that some of these kids go in life," Haan says.

Schools that have more than 15% of students from homes below the poverty line will be given top priority for the funds, which will be awarded competitively. Schools can use the money to train teachers on how to recognize reading problems and how to help students overcome obstacles to literacy.

The bill budgets $260 million to continue family literacy programs, $75 million for a new program designed to help preschoolers in high-poverty areas, and $250 million to fix school libraries.

The library funds were included by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who regaled colleagues with excerpts from outdated books he found in some school stacks. A 1959 volume, Women at Work, advises female students to choose from among seven occupations: librarian, ballet dancer, airline stewardess, nurse, piano teacher, beautician, author.

Reading programs are a top priority for President Bush. His wife, Laura, is a former librarian; his mother, Barbara Bush, promoted reading programs when she was first lady.

But Haan cautions: "We have to ensure the programs have met scientific rigor and have been proven to be effective. There are a lot of wishy-washy programs out there, whether they are fads or personal philosophies."

G. Reid Lyon of the National Institute of Child Health and Development agrees: "The cycle of failure can be reversed if, and only if, schools have the ability to offer students effective access to the best reading programs."