Gov Cox Proposes Holding More 3rd Graders Back To Lift Deseret News

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox launched a campaign on Wednesday to boost the state’s stubbornly low third grade reading scores by hiring more teaching assistants and holding more students back who don’t read at grade level. This carrot-and-stick approach mirrors some of the policies that are reportedly behind the “Mississippi Miracle,” which took the state from the bottom of national elementary literacy rankings to the top 10 over the past... “We’ve implemented some of the things that have happened in Mississippi. We need to implement the rest of those things and get everybody pulling together,” Cox said at the presentation of his Fiscal Year 2027 budget. The governor announced his multipronged literacy proposal at the Kearns Branch of the Salt Lake County Library on Wednesday before surprising local children by leading the library story time with first lady Abby Cox.

In addition to trying to reverse Utah’s spike in chronic homelessness and the state’s shortage of affordable homes, Cox said his 2026 agenda will center around a “huge literacy push” aimed at young elementary... Published on Dec 4, 2025, 1:24:10 PM Total time: 00:08:29 The all-new Inside Sources. Hosted by Greg Skordas and Dr. Holly Richardson, two well-known voices in Utah’s legal and political circles. Gov.

Cox proposes holding more 3rd graders back to lift literacy rate Utah Gov. Spencer Cox launched a campaign on Wednesday to boost the state’s stubbornly low third grade reading scores by hiring more teaching assistants and holding more students back who don’t read at grade level. This carrot-and-stick approach mirrors some of the policies that are reportedly behind the “Mississippi Miracle,” which took the state from the bottom of national elementary literacy rankings to the top 10 over the past... Cox’s proposed investments would include $80 million for schools to hire paraprofessionals to provide behavioral interventions and reading support for kindergarten through third grade, and $500,000 for a public literacy ad campaign. Since 2022, the Utah Legislature has implemented new teacher trainings and resources to achieve the goal of 70% of third graders reading on grade level.

But reading scores haven’t budged, remaining around 48% in recent years. The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season will probably be remembered mainly for Hurricane Melissa and the devastation it caused across Jamaica and Cuba. But it was also a season of stark contrasts, with periods of relative calm and bursts of intense activity. The season managed to generate three Category 5 hurricanes - for only the second time on record, external. But then, during the typical mid-September peak, things turned “remarkably quiet” according to Dr Philip Klotzbach, author of the seasonal hurricane forecast. Also notable, it was the first time since 2015 when no hurricane made landfall in the United States.

This year there have been 13 named storms and five hurricanes, four of which strengthened to become major hurricanes. Holiday shoppers face growing return fees as retailers cut back on free policies A lot of holiday shopping is done online, but not being able to hold and experience the product in real life can often lead to ill-fitting items that need to be returned. But not everyone is offering free returns anymore, and that can add some unexpected costs to your holiday shopping budget, busting the holiday savings you planned. A new National Retail Federation report shows 72% of U.S. retailers now charge some kind of return fee — up from 66% last year.

Macy’s, Zara, H&M, and even Amazon now charge to ship items back in many cases. So it’s important to check return policies before you start shopping. KEARNS — Standing in front of rows and rows of books, with dozens of young children enjoying story time at the other end of the Kearns Library, Utah's first lady Abby Cox shared what... This year, only 46% of Utah's third-grade students have achieved reading proficiency. It's a figure that has "remained unchanged for the last several years," she said, and one the state is eager to improve. "We have led on holding social media companies accountable and having that awareness of how dangerous social media is for our children," Cox said.

"But what have we replaced it with? There's a big hole, and the hole is right here. This is what we fill it with. We fill it with books, because that's what we're having a problem with. ... The issues that we're having with literacy are a direct result of us not reading and children not having access to books and not being read to."

Adding to the list of "troubling" literacy statistics, Gov. Spencer Cox noted that 60% of low income households have no books in the home. As the growth in artificial intelligence threatens to outsource more thinking to machines, the governor said it's "incredibly dangerous" to continue to struggle with literacy. "Reading is one of the things that allows us to think and one of the things that makes us human," he said. The all-new Inside Sources. Hosted by Greg Skordas and Dr.

Holly Richardson, two well-known voices in Utah’s legal and political circles. Topics we cover on this episode of KSL's Inside Sources include: Utah's Republican Governor Spencer Cox and Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro, sat down for a joint discussion emphasizing a call for moral clarity in politics. Greg and Holly walk through their remarks and the main message to take away. Arturo Gamboa, the man who was first arrested in the SLC 'No King' rally shooting, joins Greg and Holly live on air after charges were filed in the case, but not against him. Gamboa reflects on the day of his arrest, his decision to carry a gun that day, and his message to the family of Afa Ah Loo, who was killed during the No Kings protest.

For decades, Salt Lake City has limited households to just three roommates if they aren’t related. Now, city leaders are considering scrapping that rule. City Council Chair Chris Wharton explains the proposed changes. Planning Director Nick Norris joins us to discuss enforcement challenges, affordability concerns, and whether dropping roommate limits could create new problems with overcrowding. In my public school years, I knew a guy who was a year older than me. We were in the same class because somewhere in the early grades, he had been held back a year.

I was aware of this, although I can no longer remember how I knew it. I didn’t know the exact reason he was held back, or the subjects for which he was held back. It never mattered to me. We were friends and that was good enough. The subject didn’t come up. This probably sounds very old-fashioned to today’s school-age generation (we were also paddled occasionally by the principal, but that’s another column for a different time).

I didn’t grow up in Utah, but schools here and in most of the nation have, for years now, automatically passed kids to the next grade, regardless of how well they mastered subjects in... My ears perked last Tuesday when Gov. Spencer Cox told the Deseret News editorial board he would urge the Legislature next month to implement “retention,” as it’s known, for Utah third graders who haven’t learned to read on grade level. (Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) First lady Abby Cox, left, and Gov. Spencer Cox speak with children following a news conference on the 2027 fiscal budget at Kearns Library in Kearns on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.

Gov. Spencer Cox’s new budget proposal for the next fiscal year is roughly equivalent to this past year’s — though the Republican governor said federal funding cuts passed in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”... “It’s a little bit tighter budget this year for sure,” Cox told The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board and journalists Tuesday afternoon. The $30.7 billion proposal officially released Wednesday morning is “flat,” Cox said, compared to the $30.8 billion budget passed by state lawmakers for the current fiscal year. The latest budget recommendation comes after five years in a row of cuts to state income taxes. And Cox’s proposal is just that: a proposal.

The budget is ultimately determined by the Legislature, which will meet early next year.

People Also Search

• Gov. Cox proposes holding more 3rd graders back to lift literacy rate ...
• Deseret News - Gov. Cox wants to remove technology for... | Facebook
• Gov. Cox Suggests Holding Back More Third Graders to Improve Reading ...
• 12/05/2025 - by Terry South - Toad Telegram
• Articles by Brigham Tomco's Profile | Deseret News Journalist | Muck Rack
• Cox proposes $30.7B budget with funding for homeless campus ... - KSL News
• Inside Sources - KSL Podcasts
• Are students helped by being held back until they learn to read ...
• Gov. Cox proposes raise for Utah's state employees next year
• More states reportedly threatening to hold back 3rd graders