Breaking News: Governor Carney Signs Cursive Bill! Take That Kate Gladstone!

At 2:27pm, on August 30th, Delaware Governor John Carney signed House Bill 70, which will make cursive writing mandatory instruction in all Delaware public schools beginning in the 2018-2019 school year.  The new (and old) instruction will require English and Language Arts teachers to teach cursive to students until the end of 4th grade.

So what happens next?  I imagine the State Board of Education will issue regulations based on the new law and from there the local school district and charter school boards will have to make sure it is part of the curriculum for the next school year.

As for the fierce opponent of the bill, Kate Gladstone, she will NOT be happy about this.  Ms. Gladstone travels to different states opposing cursive legislation.  Me, I write a blog.  She travels.  We all have our thing I guess.  But I don’t think Gladstone counted on the tenacity of little old Delaware.  She probably thought she could just roll over our state legislature.

Congrats to State Rep. Andria Bennett for getting this rolling again and to State Rep. Deb Hudson for bringing it for in the last legislative session.

Delaware Cursive Bill Goes To Governor Carney For Signature

How about those apples Kate Gladstone?  The Delaware Cursive Bill, House Bill #70, passed the Delaware Senate today with 17 yes and 2 no votes.  Two State Senators were absent.  The no votes were State Senators Gary Simpson and Ernie Lopez.  Now the bill, which would make cursive instruction mandatory in Delaware public schools, will go to the desk of Governor John Carney for signature.

This was a surprisingly controversial bill this session.  A prior attempt at this legislation came out in the 148th General Assembly but failed to get a full vote in the House.  This time, it went all the way through the General Assembly.  It created a good amount of discussion concerning the worthiness of the bill.  Full disclosure, I fully supported this bill.

One of the folks opposed to the bill was a woman named Kate Gladstone.  She made it her mission at the House Education Committee meeting to make sure the bill went nowhere.  Obviously, most of the Delaware legislators were not swayed by her unconvincing arguments.  Perhaps another state will listen to you when they follow Delaware’s lead on this Ms. Gladstone!

I want to thank State Rep. Andria Bennett who saw this bill through as well as State Rep. Deb Hudson who gave it a valiant attempt two years ago!

Delaware House Passes Cursive Bill With 36 Yes, 1 No, & 1 Not Voting

It looks like the anti-cursive police are done in Delaware!  The Delaware House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed House Bill 70 yesterday.  The only no was State Rep. Jeff Spiegelman and State Rep. John Kowalko did not vote.  State Reps. Kenton, Viola, and Hensley were absent.

When this bill was heard by to the House Education Committee, it was met with opposition by a woman named Kate Gladstone.  She spent the next couple of weeks after that trying to convince my readers why cursive is horrible.  Any disagreement with her kept it going.  I never thought I would see the day when I would see an anti-cursive rant on this blog, but c’est la vie!

Some legislators reached out to me for my thoughts on this bill.  Some felt this is a decision best handled by local school boards.  I agreed with that, however NONE of them stepped up at all to make this a reality.  I do not mind some decisions mandated by the state.

The bill did have an amendment added to it which changes the date of implementation to the 2018-2019 school year if it passes.  The bill will go to the Delaware Senate Education Committee.

Does A Critic Of Delaware’s Cursive Bill Have Something To Gain By The Bill NOT Passing?

Cursive.  Love it or hate it, I support Delaware’s pending legislation to make it mandatory.  But at the House Education Committee meeting earlier this month, where the bill was released by the committee, one opponent of the bill was very adamantly against the bill.  And she wasn’t even from Delaware.  This got my radar up, so I looked into this woman who had such a passion against the bill.  What I found shocked even me, and I’ve seen a lot of things writing this blog!