Credibility Crisis: Cooper Pretends His “Science of Reading” Veto Never Happened

Gov. Cooper in 2019: “This [science of reading] legislation tries to put a Band-Aid on a program where implementation has clearly failed.”

Gov. Cooper in 2024: “I’m sold on the effectiveness of the science of reading. . .We all agree this is the way to go.”

The kids are learning to read, and that’s a wonderful thing. But the kids could’ve been learning to read two years earlier if not for Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a program he now praises.

Reading literacy is improving in North Carolina because a 2021 law – the Excellent Public Schools Act, sponsored by Senate Leader Phil Berger – forced a change in early childhood reading curriculum. It moved public schools toward what’s called the “science of reading,” which adopts phonics-based learn-to-read techniques that data shows are actually effective. The bill also required North Carolina teachers to be retrained in the new curriculum so they could implement it properly.

Two years earlier though, in 2019, the legislature passed an almost identical bill – also called the Excellent Public Schools Act, and also sponsored by Senate Leader Phil Berger. It sailed through the Senate unanimously.

But Gov. Cooper vetoed it, likely because he was angry about an unrelated budget standoff. So the childhood reading curriculum that’s proving effective now wasn’t implemented when it should’ve been, in 2019.

Cooper’s 2019 veto message explaining his refusal to allow reading curriculum to proceed was this: “This legislation tries to put a Band-Aid on a program where implementation has clearly failed.”

Now that the curriculum is earning rave reviews, though, Cooper is taking credit for it. Here’s what he told WRAL this week: “I'm sold on the effectiveness of the science of reading. This is something that we all came together to do in a bipartisan way. We all agree this is the way to go.”

It doesn’t look to us that any reporters have pressed Cooper on why he delayed for two years the program he now praises.

Changes of heart are fine – desirable, even, especially for politicians who have served for decades. But pretending like this is one big example of collaboration seems designed to avoid answering for the two years’ worth of elementary schoolers who missed out on an effective reading curriculum.