Ga. Officials Admit Mistakes on ‘Reading First’ Rules

A former state education official who helped design Georgia’s reading initiative nearly a decade ago has filed more than a dozen complaints against the Georgia education department for actions that she claims effectively blocked schools applying for federal Reading First money from using the textbooks she now publishes.

Cindy Cupp, the state’s curriculum and reading director from 1997 to 1999, submitted the complaints to the state inspector general in March.

“In my opinion, the Georgia Reading First grant gave the right of selecting reading programs to the local schools and teachers as long as certain steps were followed,” Ms. Cupp, who publishes Dr. Cupp’s Readers , a K-1 series for teaching early-reading skills, said in an e-mail to Education Week .