HR 7890: Science of Reading Act of 2026

HR 7890 in plain English: This bill is early in the legislative process and detailed text is not yet available. Sponsor: Rep. Houchin, Erin [R-IN-9] (R) · Status: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 623.

Stated purpose

The bill aims to update federal education law to exclude the 'three-cueing model' from federally supported reading instruction and to prioritize federal literacy grant funding for programs aligned to the 'science of reading,' which emphasizes phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and writing.

Arguments supporters make

• Research consistently shows that phonics-based reading instruction produces better outcomes for children, especially struggling readers, so federal dollars should back what the evidence supports.
• The three-cueing model has been widely criticized by reading researchers as an ineffective approach that causes harm to students who need explicit phonics instruction, making its exclusion a sensible correction.
• The bill preserves local control — it does not mandate any specific curriculum but simply steers federal grant money toward evidence-based practices, leaving final decisions to states and districts.

Arguments opponents make

• Federal grant funding rules can effectively force states and districts to abandon methods they believe work for their students, functioning as a mandate in practice even if not labeled as one.
• Some educators argue that skilled reading instruction involves multiple strategies and that a blanket federal exclusion of one approach oversimplifies complex classroom realities and reduces teacher flexibility.
• Tying grant priority to a specific instructional framework could disadvantage communities that lack resources to quickly retrain teachers or replace existing curricula, widening gaps rather than closing them.

Tradeoffs

Steering federal dollars toward one research-backed instructional approach may improve reading outcomes for many students but limits the range of methods schools can use under federal funding, creating tension between promoting evidence-based practice and preserving local instructional flexibility.

Current status in Congress: In committee.