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Minnesota, Reading Legislation, and Tarot Cards · The Reading Instruction Show

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  This is The Reading Instruction Show. I am your
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  host, as always, Dr. Andy Johnson. Topic of today's
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  podcast, Minnesota reading legislation and tarot
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  cards. Now, as of October 2025, 40 state legislatures
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  around the country have passed laws about reading
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  instruction. This means that the legislators
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  in 40 states have been convinced that A, there's
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  a reading crisis, B, the science of reading has
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  identified the cause of the crisis, and C, the
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  science of reading has also identified the solution
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  to the crisis. Which brings us to the Read Act.
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  In Minnesota, our solution is a special reading
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  law called the Read Act. The Read Act makes certain
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  kinds of reading instruction mandatory and other
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  kinds illegal. And I will confess unto you that
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  during the last two years here at Minnesota State
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  University, Mankato, I've been teaching illegal
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  reading instruction. And every day I expect masked
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  read agents to kick down my door, handcuff me,
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  and drag me off to a letters training facility
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  somewhere in Wyoming or Texas. The Read Act requires
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  schools to throw out perfectly fine reading programs
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  and instead spend taxpayer money to purchase
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  expensive new reading programs that have been
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  approved by the great state. Teachers are ordered
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  to read and follow the directions of these new
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  programs with fidelity. Infidels will be punished.
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  No deviations are allowed. Deviates will be disciplined.
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  Teachers are supposed to shut up and follow the
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  directions. The effect is that teachers are silenced
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  and separated from their expertise and experience.
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  And with this new law in place, teachers are
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  forced to attend state selected training programs
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  like letters, professional development. This
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  is done despite the overwhelming absence of scientifically
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  -based research evidence to support the notion
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  that letters, professional development, A, improves
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  students' reading achievement, B, improves teachers'
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  ability to teach reading, and C, is better than
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  other forms of professional development. But
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  yet, the great state has deemed it so, so it
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  is so. Nostradamus. With all the time and money
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  spent on this new reading legislation, one would
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  expect some pretty spectacular results. Just
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  like Mississippi, we should expect to see miracles
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  springing up all over the place like dandelions.
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  However, I've used my science of reading tarot
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  cards, which is an evidence -based method, to
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  look into the future, and I will tell you exactly
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  what's going to happen. In five to ten years,
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  people will realize that these incredible new
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  reading laws aren't producing incredible results.
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  Teachers will be blamed once again, but this
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  time for not following directions hard at all.
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  You've got to follow the directions hard. This
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  will result in greater teacher shortages as more
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  teachers leave the classroom before retirement.
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  Students' desire to read will decrease, and students
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  will leave schools less able to use reading and
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  writing for real -life purposes. And there won't
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  be a lot of dandelions. In 10 to 15 years, another
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  literacy crisis in quotation marks will be announced.
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  This one will be blamed on the public education
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  system in which 30 kids are crammed into a classroom.
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  Public school teachers who have been following
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  directions all along with fidelity will again
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  be blamed. State legislators will once again
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  be convinced that there's a massive literacy
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  crisis, even though they caused it in the first
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  place. However, the cause of this new crisis
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  will be identified as public education and lazy
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  teachers, and the solution will be vouchers and
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  the privatization of education. It just stands
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  to reason that since free market competition
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  works so well, For gas stations and strip malls,
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  it must work equally well for education. For
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  -profit schools would begin to appear just like
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  for -profit prisons, and they'll be designed
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  to maximize profits while providing the minimal
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  amount of required services. The wealthy will
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  continue to send their children to real schools
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  with reasonable class sizes and resources. While
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  the middle class and poor will send their children
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  to Lexia Elementary School or Harcourt Middle
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  School. I'll see you in 2036.