(AP) — An Omaha state senator is preparing legislation that would bar students from entering fourth grade if they fail reading proficiency tests in the third grade.

Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh says that if students don’t have a strong foundation in reading, “They cannot succeed in all of their other areas of learning.”

Lautenbaugh’s targeting of social promotion is one of several education proposals he says he plans to introduce in the 2014 legislative session.

Some educators think the idea of holding back a third-grader only because he or she didn’t pass a reading test is misguided and simplistic.

But Lautenbaugh says he thinks “the cost is greater over the long run of letting kids that are set up to fail proceed onward and fail.”