When I finished first grade my teacher sent a note home saying I was not doing well in reading.  My mother invested the quarter for the summer subscription to the Weekly Reader.  I was thrilled to take my 25 cents to school, my mother had bigger plans - I was going to actually READ it.  During the hot summer afternoons we would go to the cool basement - she would iron while I read the serial story titled "A Donkey Named Delicious" - and the rest of that little paper.   That summer of reading was a turning point in my life - when I got to 2nd grade that fall my new teacher called my mother and said that I was reading a grade ahead - not behind - the other students.  If it were not for that little Weekly Reader, and my mother who made me read it, I would have struggled for a very long time.  Something needs to be done to save this. I think the US Dept. of Education needs to step in and fund this program immediately! Come on Pres. O - put OUR money out there for the good of the children in THIS country - USA!!

Reading Rainbow should be continued;  it included children narrating books, and had contests about reading.  What a shame!  So many homes don't even have a book, or a newspaper--what is a child to do?

What no bailout?