That is why Gov. Olene Walker, trying to address one of Utah's basic educational shortcomings, asked the Legislature this year for $30 million to fund a reading initiative for students in the first three grades.

As Walker says in television and radio ads, helping children learn to read well is the job of both parents and teachers, but most children learn the basics in school - or not.

Parents are rightly concerned that simply spending more money on reading instruction will not mean that all children will learn to read unless schools make sure each child, including those with learning disabilities, gets personal help.

Legislators appropriated only half the funds Walker requested and left it up to individual school districts to come up with the other half by raising taxes or taking money from existing programs in order to get the state funding.

Twenty-eight of Utah's 40 school districts opted to raise taxes. All districts must come up with proposals for how they will raise and spend the additional money.

We share the worry of some parents that schools will not allot enough for the very slow learners, but will concentrate instead on the children who are lagging behind - but not too far behind - and will show the greatest progress in a short time.

Walker wants schools to devise methods of teaching all children to read well, including those with dyslexia, attention deficit disorder and other reading impairments. True, these students' progress will be slower and bought at a high cost in one-on-one attention and patience, but the rewards of helping these children are just as great.

Joseph Torgeson, a Florida State University researcher who studies reading programs, says schools and teachers shouldn't assume that all children even know what the letter "b" should sound like. He stresses phonics as the most effective teaching tool and says children should become good at sounding out words in the first and second grades. If they don't, they probably never will become good at reading.

That's very basic stuff. Exactly, it would seem, what Walker had in mind.

Davis School District's plan to buy a computer reading program might be a good idea for children who already have mastered the basics but probably won't help those who haven't. The Jordan district's allotment of 92 percent of its additional funds for reading specialists goes more directly to the heart of the problem.

The governor's reading initiative should not just help children who can already read to read better, but to make certain all students have mastered the basic skills. Only then will no child be left behind.