Barton: 3rd Grade Reading Levels are the ‘Best Indicator’ of Who Will End up in Prison

On “WallBuilders Live” today, David Barton and Rick Green were discussing the importance and benefits of school choice in terms of improved scholastic performance.  While making the case, Barton explained that during Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Love” event earlier this year, WallBuilders was tasked with organizing volunteer opportunities for the thousands of attendees and one of the groups they partnered with was a church that had been asked to help improve the reading ability of local third grade students.

And the reason this was so important, Barton explained, is because the Texas Department of Corrections uses the number of third grade students who are not reading at grade level to determine how many prison beds they will need in fifteen years “because kids that are not reading at grade level in the thrid grade, they’re the kids that end up in prison.  That’s the best indicator they have found is where these kids are in third grade”: 

You will undoubtedly be shocked to learn that this is an ubran legend and not at all true.