Patty Murray: “today Senator SESSIONS and I are pleased to introduce the Striving Readers Act. This bipartisan bill will help America's…”

“today Senator SESSIONS and I are pleased to introduce the Striving Readers Act. This bipartisan bill will help America's middle and high school students gain the literacy skills they need to succeed in school and graduate ready for college and the workplace. I want to thank Senator Sessions for his work on this issue and for shining a light on his State's success in raising literacy achievement. I also want to thank our original cosponsors Senators Akaka, Bingaman, Dodd, Kerry, Lincoln, Burr, Cochran, Domenici, and Lott for partnering with us. Finally, I offer thanks to our staff, Kathryn Young and Liz Stillwell, who have worked on this bill, and the Alliance for Excellent Education, the International Reading Association, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals for their work. Our bill addresses a serious problem. Today 8 million middle and high school students across the Nation cannot read well enough to succeed in school. This contributes to their likelihood to disengage and drop out. Those that do graduate too often falter when they begin college or work and then need remediation. All around the country educators and stakeholders are working to improve literacy, and this bill gives us a way to support their efforts. We know that literacy is at the base of every academic subject, and it is crucial to student academic success. Our bill will engage and reinvigorate those students on the brink of failure.”