WAVERLY— One day after the Legislature failed to advance a bill requiring local school policies addressing literacy and dyslexia, Nebraska officials say literacy isn’t going away as a top goal.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon joined Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen for a tour of Hamlow Elementary School in Waverly, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s athletic facilities and Southeast Community College’s new welding training facility. The visit is part of McMahon’s “Returning Education to the States Tour,” a mission to visit all 50 states.

Thursday’s visit nearly coincided with a bill in the Legislature to update a 2018 law — the “Nebraska Reading Improvement Act” — and require the State Board of Education and local school boards to update or adopt policies around reading interventions and dyslexia screening. However, lawmakers balked at a suggestion that students be held back in third grade if they couldn’t read. Parents would have been able to opt out under the bill, which fell two votes short.

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