Former professional football player Deon L. Butler lived a dream, as a wide receiver with the Seattle Seahawks and San Diego Chargers. But the Central Michigan alum doesn’t consider his being drafted to the NFL — or his subsequent years in the game — his greatest accomplishment. That is reserved for something many of us take for granted: reading.
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At a literacy rally in Harrisburg last month, Butler talked of his struggles with reading and undiagnosed dyslexia well into his 20s. He says his career in the NFL was cut short in part because he couldn’t read his team’s playbook. He hired a tutor so he could read to his daughter, and is now a literacy advocate because he recognized that success, even on the playing field, depended on his ability to read. Everything depends on the ability to read.
The root cause
Illiteracy lies at the root of a litany of social issues — critical challenges that we face as a society. Consider the prison industrial complex, the ongoing and rapid incarceration of Black, brown, and poor people: the literacy rates of the incarcerated are abysmal. National studies consistently show that the majority of incarcerated adults read below a sixth-grade level, and as many as 70 percent struggle with basic literacy. If you look at shootings and violence, at cycles of poverty and disinvestment, literacy sits quietly — but decisively — at the root. When nearly half of adults in Philadelphia read at or below a basic level, we are not simply talking about education. We are talking about the architecture of inequality.
This is why you can’t talk about eradicating gun violence without talking about education. You can’t talk about improving education without improving literacy. You can’t talk about Philadelphia not being one of the most impoverished big cities in the nation without confronting the literacy crisis that undergirds it all.
To that end, a group of educators, administrators, activists, and organizers — from the ground level all the way up to leadership within schools and districts — have come together to form the PA Literacy Coalition, an initiative of national teacher training program Teach Plus PA. A summit held in Harrisburg on March 23 brought these voices into the state capitol, organized and energized under the leadership of Teach Plus’s Pennsylvania Coalition Manager Rachel Garnick. Her leadership is the leadership of the future — energetic, love-based, inclusive, and laser-focused on solutions.
We need teachers. We need reading captains. We need organizations like the PA Literacy Coalition bringing the fight directly to the halls of power.
According to Garnick, “comprehensive early literacy language was passed as part of Act 47 of 2025, Pennsylvania’s School Code update. This law requires schools to adopt an evidence-based reading curriculum, implement educator professional development aligned to the Science of Reading, and use a universal screener to assess students for reading challenges three times per year. This was a major step forward and one we’re proud of.”
The PA Literacy Summit opened with a dynamic presentation from Dr. Kymyona Burk, former State Literacy Director for Mississippi. Burk spoke eloquently about what has come to be known as the “Mississippi Miracle,” a process through which Mississippi went from being ranked at or near the bottom of literacy rates among low-income fourth graders in the nation to now being in the first in the nation for this same critical data point in children’s educational journeys. The miracle isn’t really a miracle at all. It is a concerted, bipartisan effort engaging all stakeholders (policymakers, educators, children, families, etc.) to advance educator training, teacher coaching, early identification measures, individual reading plans for K-4 students, and parent communication.
The Science of Reading
The “miracle” is also about a recommitment to the Science of Reading. The simplest way to understand this return to pedagogical form for educators is that the Science of Reading re-embraces phonics as a central part of literacy instruction, which has in recent decades leaned almost exclusively into language and comprehension instruction. For those of us of a certain age, the idea that phonics was removed or diminished in early childhood education is anathema. But rest easy. It is making a stellar comeback. Right now.
As educators from across the Commonwealth spoke about what works, they also emphasized that the Science of Reading is essential. This evidence-based approach to literacy instruction — grounded in phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension — has been proven to improve reading outcomes. And yet, because of market forces, shifting trends, and the influence of large curriculum publishers, evidence-based practices have too often been sidelined.
The miracle isn’t really a miracle at all. It is a concerted, bipartisan effort engaging all stakeholders to advance educator training, teacher coaching, early identification measures, individual reading plans for K-4 students, and parent communication.
Set traditional literacy aside for a moment, and understand this: We are living in a world of multiple literacies. We need AI literacy to understand and navigate the technological transformations reshaping our lives. We need financial literacy to recognize exploitation (a la cryptocurrency schemes) dressed up as opportunity. We need political literacy so that fascism cannot convince poor, struggling people that their enemies are their neighbors, even as their labor and resources are extracted. But none of these literacies is possible without the foundational ability to read and write.
Until some future moment when technology can instantly impart literacy — and we are not there yet — we need people. We need teachers. We need reading captains. We need organizations like the PA Literacy Coalition bringing the fight directly to the halls of power. These are not lobbyists. These are practitioners. These are people doing the work, asking legislators directly for what is needed.
And what is the ask? $50 million dollars.
Act 47
The Act 47 legislation “was accompanied by a $10 million appropriation, but that funding alone is not sufficient for full implementation” says Garnick. “Experts estimate that a statewide transition will require approximately $100 million.” For Garnick this is why, “…. the Pennsylvania Literacy Coalition is now advocating for a $50 million investment in the current state budget to ensure Act 47 is implemented with fidelity … not just on paper, but in practice.”
Fifty million dollars in a political economy where hundreds of billions can be mobilized for war, where billions can be cut from SNAP and Medicaid, where enormous sums can be directed toward surveillance and enforcement. There is no way to make that make sense in the context of our national literacy crisis. The only way to help people see these contradictions is through literacy.
This funding is critical to the potential for PA to make a Mississippi-like miracle of our own. The funding would support the core components required to successfully implement Act 47, including: Educator training in the Science of Reading (from superintendents to classroom teachers); High-quality curriculum adoption aligned to evidence-based practices; Universal screening tools to identify and support students early. The Coalition “strongly recommends that districts begin with comprehensive educator training before transitioning to new curriculum and materials. Ensuring educators have the knowledge and skills to deliver effective instruction is the foundation of successful implementation” says Garnick.
For my part, I spoke briefly about the role the media must play — about the responsibility to document, amplify, and advocate. That is what this is. That is what this moment requires.
Garnick is characteristically optimistic. “The Summit & Day of Action was both energizing and deeply affirming” she says. “It showed just how much momentum is building behind this work across Pennsylvania. In just over a year, we’ve grown into a coalition of more than 70 cross sector organizations and hundreds of educators, advocates, business leaders, and community members, all united around one goal: ensuring every child can read. We held more than 60 legislative meetings and heard strong bipartisan support for not just passing literacy policy, but fully funding it.”
We must all come to terms with the fact that literacy is not optional. It is not ancillary. It is fundamental to human survival — and to our ability to navigate, resist, and transform the political moment we are living through. The PA Literacy Coalition needs us, and we absolutely need it to continue in this vital work. Maybe together we can generate a Pennsylvania Miracle.
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