A few schools across the country have gone further - we believe too far - and have eliminated some of those courses in favor of only two "R's," readin' and 'rithmetic .

Educators in Utah should guard against "narrowing the curriculum" as described by the Center on Education Policy. That dangerous strategy would hurt children who are performing adequately in those two basic subjects and are ready to move ahead to other and more challenging work. Courses in a variety of subjects beyond reading and math should be available to them, including music, art and social studies.

On the other hand, children who can't read well enough to go on to other subjects - because reading is a prerequisite for everything that comes later - may need to catch up. The foundations for math, too, must be firmly laid.

But playing a remediation game of catch-up to ensure that students can read as well as add, subtract and multiply before they leave elementary school is expensive for the school and demoralizing for the children. A better method is to provide early help for disadvantaged students - whose parents don't have the time and resources to give them educational support at home - who make up the majority of students scoring at the bottom of the scale.

Sadly, the Utah Legislature did not see fit this year to fund all-day kindergarten for low-income children - a proven way to ensure they have an opportunity to enter first grade near the same level as their peers who aren't starting with two strikes against them. Lawmakers also failed to provide extra money to help English-language learners and other disadvantaged students in the early grades.

Without a leg up from the state, disadvantaged children are almost sure to fall further behind. At some point, in order to raise their test scores to the levels required by the federal law, their teachers must focus on math and reading.

To do so at the expense of a broader education for all students would be a mistake.