Weber Pierson’s math reform is smart, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough

Weber Pierson’s math reform is smart, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough

After years of reports detailing how California’s public schools badly lagged those in poor Southern states in teaching kids how to read — especially Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation — the Legislature finally embraced phonics in 2025. In a state in which the myth that school quality is a function of school spending is the starting point for most education policy debates, the law enacted in October was a rare triumph for genuine refor…