We’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: Mississippi is now the number one state in the country for teaching low-income and minority kids to read.   And Louisiana is number two, followed by Florida. This story is massively underreported because it’s embarrassing to the blue states that massively outspend them with nothing to show for it.

These are the 2024 demographic-weighted (on the basis of race and income) 4th grade reading score rankings from the left-leaning Urban Institute:

Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida now rank 1, 2, and 3 in the Urban Institute’s fourth grade reading ranking despite low spending levels. That should be a wake up call. The WSJ has reported that the southern states have gotten back to good old-fashioned phonics for reading comprehension – and it works.

Illiteracy is a tragedy and the blue states are spending an enormous amount of money for failure.