A bill in the state Senate would remove a requirement to holdback Michigan third-graders who don’t meet certain reading benchmarks.
The changes would be made to the state’s “Read by Grade Three” law.
Democratic Senator Dayna Polehanki says there are many good parts of that law.
“The mass flunking is just riddled with problems that we’ve talked about in committee and it was a bad idea then, it's a bad idea now. And hopefully we can repeal this bad idea.” said Polehanki.
Critics worry pushing children who struggle with reading to higher grades would make the problem worse.
Supporters argue children would still receive the same reading support in the fourth grade without the stigma of being held back.