{"id":111697,"date":"2026-02-12T03:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T03:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/111697\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T03:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T03:28:18","slug":"gov-shapiro-signs-cursive-writing-mandate-for-pa-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/111697\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Shapiro signs cursive writing mandate for Pa. schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a> on Wednesday signed a bill<\/a> that will require a cursive handwriting curriculum in all Pennsylvania public schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely rusty, but I think my penmanship was okay!\u201d Shapiro said in his Wednesday announcement.<\/p>\n

The bipartisan legislation, House Bill 17<\/a>, was sponsored by Rep. Dane Watro (R-Luzerne and Schuylkill) with support from 15 other Republicans and three Democrats.<\/p>\n

Watro cited research that shows learning cursive \u201cactivates areas of the brain involved in executive function, fine motor skills, and working memory.\u201d He also said skipping over cursive curriculum \u201crobs students of the chance to master this age-appropriate challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the bill, Watro noted the Nevada Secretary of State had many issues with mail-in ballots from young voters without \u201cdeveloped signatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill went on to say that learning to read and write cursive will help young generations as they read historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.<\/p>\n

However, Pennsylvania\u2019s former Education Secretary Khalid Mumin said cursive instruction is not vital for public classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary Mumin encourages schools to determine the best paths for their students to learn to communicate effectively in writing and achieve success, regardless of the mode of writing used to get there,\u201d said education department spokesman Taj Magruder.<\/p>\n

A similar bill<\/a> was proposed by Rep. Joe Adams<\/a> (R-Wayne and Pike)<\/a> during the 2024-2025 legislative session. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t open a bank account without signing your name. You can\u2019t buy a property or get a credit card without having to be able to sign your name,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

Adams also noted a person\u2019s signature could act as a unique identifier that artificial intelligence struggles to reproduce.<\/p>\n

In total, 24 other states have laws that require cursive to be taught in public schools, nearly twice as many \u2014 14 \u2014 as there were a decade ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Josh Shapiro on Wednesday signed a bill that will require a cursive handwriting curriculum in all Pennsylvania…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,43630,43631,43632],"class_list":{"0":"post-111697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news","11":"tag-slfeatures","12":"tag-slnews","13":"tag-slsports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}