Effingham County near Savannah, as a driving force behind the legislation. “We would not be here today without the passion and commitment from my wife, Dayle,” Burns said at a news conference last month, adding she helped him understand the problem’s depth. “She pointed out the obvious that we’ve neglected our future, and that’s our young people,” Burns said. “We’re in a place in literacy that, she recognized and through her insight as a former educator and as we met with legislators from around the country, but especially from the South, that this is a problem.” Jon and Dayle Burns have been married for nearly 50 years. While Dayle Burns said she prefers to stay on the sidelines, literacy is an issue she knows well. “This is the one thing I know,” she said. “[Jon Burns] can talk about roads and pipelines. This is just my thing.” Dayle Burns said the bill is not intended primarily as a retention measure. “It’s about readiness,” she said, “and helping children to be really ready for first grade is monumentally important.” Testing results released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that since 1998, Georgia’s fourth grade reading scores have never reached the prof
