My mom was a 1st thru 3rd grade reading teacher. When sight reading started my mom said "Hell no!" Back then schools were run by the community who were actually effected by them not DC.
Then in the late 80's I read an article that stated after 20 years of sight reading California had a functional illiteracy rate of 60%. IT TOOK THE LIBS 20 YEARS TO FIGURE OUT THEY WERE WRONG!
Khrushchev told Nixon sometime around the time of the Kitchen Debates "We will get you through your schools." This, sadly, has been one of their success stories.
My mom taught me to read before I started school. I still remember the page in the book we were using when "it all made sense"...there were pictures of a "pan", a "fan", and a "man", and that was the epiphany for me.
Then I went to school where the reading books were the Scott, Foresman "Dick and Jane" series — the "look-and-say" method. Nothing to learn there for me, I just continued sounding out unfamiliar words, but the ones in the textbooks I already recognized. Didn't figure out for a long time that the other kids were not as unfazed as I was. Years later, many of them could not spell their own language, and as for reading, they were stuck on comic books at best.
Just recently, my 7 y.o. grandson got into trouble sounding out a word that he is "supposed" to learn by sight only. Grrrr.....