Governor John Kasich this week signed a bill requiring elementary students to learn how to write in cursive, following over a dozen other states that have begun requiring cursive instruction for students who type on phones and computers more than they write by hand.
The Republican governor on Wednesday signed the legislation, which requires the Ohio Department of Education to include materials on cursive in the English language arts curriculum.
“The instructional materials shall be designed to enable students to print letters and words legibly by grade three and create readable documents using legible cursive handwriting by the end of grade five,” the bill states.
Ohio’s move comes after several states objected to the absence of materials teaching cursive in the Common Core curricula. Other states, including Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, California, Florida, and Texas, require students to learn cursive as well.
The new materials on cursive must be included in Ohio curricula by July 1.
The only other part of the Ohio bill is a section requiring students be taught about “personal financial responsibility, including instructional materials on the avoidance of credit card abuse.”
The bill was introduced in February of last year and passed the Ohio House last summer. The state Senate approved it this month.