Indiana lawmakers are again considering a bill that would require schools to include cursive in their curriculum.

The state Department of Education dropped cursive in 2011, leaving it up to local districts to decide whether or not to teach second and third graders how to connect their letters. 

State Senator Jean Leising says that’s not enough. She says she’s heard a lot of complaints from parents in her district who worry that their kids won’t be able to read cursive if they don’t learn how to write it. Leising says she agrees with them.

“I mean I use a Blackberry everyday, I use an iPad, I have a laptop, but I still have a yellow pad of sticky notes,” she said. “And if I write a note to my intern saying, ‘Call Susie Smith, now’ and the number, I expect him to be able to read that message.”

Leising is bringing a bill back to the General Assembly that would make sure all Indiana public schools and accredited private schools teach cursive. She attempted to pass the bill last year, and though it did garner the votes to pass the state Senate, it failed in the House.

Leising says she hopes having a new state superintendent this year could bring a different outcome. Lawmakers were able to hear expert testimony on the issue at a hearing Wednesday afternoon. The bill is scheduled for a first vote next week.