New York's newly minted budget commits $10 million to train thousands of teachers in literary science to revamp their reading instruction strategies as the state's literacy rates suffer — plummeting nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic.

State leaders are taking action to ensure teachers will help elementary schoolers become skilled readers after state Education Department data shows only about half of New York students scored "proficient" in English Language Arts exams last year.

"We're talking about something that one would think is basic, but was not being done the right way, and that is how we teach our children to read here in New York — teach them to read and to read well," Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday morning. 

When it comes to improving New York's literacy rates, Hochul wants to get back to the basics. Hochul announced the state's new initiative of the same name at the Albany School of Humanities on Friday. 

The $237 billion budget the Legislature passed last week has $10 million to implement the reading phonics program across the state and to train 20,000 teachers the science of teaching how to read.

The governor visited a first-grade classroom in the school as teachers engaged dozens of students in reading instruction with a focus on phonics and early intervention.

Education officials changed the approach to reading instruction in the 2000s — relying on the balanced literacy method that moved away from phonics instruction and let students rely on context clues to understand new vocabulary.

"It shouldn't be a game — you shouldn't have to find clues," Hochul said. "It should be right in front of you."

The governor said educators across the state have told her they knew the reading instruction method was not working, but did not know how to fight back.

In New York, local school boards of education and district administrators decide the details of how the state curriculum will be taught to students — not the state Education Department. The funding in the budget for the new training circumvents that rule, which reflects a coming shift in the state's literacy education curriculum.

Hochul said she hopes to see districts roll out the program starting this fall, depending on instructor readiness with the new teaching strategies.

"These are not long training sessions," the governor said. "This is not a two-year training process, so I'm hoping this will be rolled out as soon as next fall in many districts."

The funding will also expand microcredentialing programs at certain SUNY and CUNY campuses for teachers focused on the science of reading.

N.Y.S. United Teachers President Melinda Person said many of the state's 700,000 public school teachers told her they did not know specifics of evidence-based reading strategies.

"They respond, 'I just didn't know. Nobody told me about this new information until recently,'" Person recalled. "And I think that's really important because our teachers care so deeply about the success of their students. And when they know, they do better. They strive constantly to learn and to professionally grow because that is who they are."

Dinorah Dellacamera is a member of the state's Dyslexia Task Force and sits on the board of the organization Teach My Kid to Read. The Long Island mother of two has a son who was diagnosed with dyslexia in the first grade.

Dellacamera said she supports the budget funding new literacy training for teachers, but said the state must take a multifaceted approach to target declining literacy rates. She argues the science of reading must be taught to teachers before they acquire their state certification.

"We need to shift gears at the university level because we can't keep graduating teachers that don't have the necessary training and then having to retrain them all over again," Dellacamera said. "We have to stop the bleeding."

Dellacamera is pushing state lawmakers to pass legislation before session ends June 6 to mandate the evidence-based reading instruction be part of teacher certification programs and exams.

"If you're taking the bar exam, you're going to learn what's on that bar exam ... so if there are no science of reading-based questions on the [teachers'] exam, why would a college prepare you that way?" Dellacamera said. "Getting the New York State Department of Education to make sure that there are questions that reflect the science of reading and evidence-based best practices on that test, it would help colleges move toward that direction and would be a good start."

The state's dyslexia task force is scheduled to meet for the first time May 13. The group's work will continue for more than a year before issuing a final report  to best help students with dyslexia, dysgraphia and other learning disorders.