So WONDERFUL to hear you say that! There's hope!!
Half-way through Kindergarten, my daughter hadn't even learned all her letters, much less how to read. They spent all their time on self-esteem group therapy type of crap and 'reading' lines like "Brown bear, brown bear what do you see....I see Susie looking at me" ad nauseum. It was absurd!
I pulled her out of school and home schooled her from January to June. She learned to read, perfectly, by the end of February....and was ahead of most students in every class in her reading abilities (and therefore, in learning other subjects) for the rest of her school years.
I'm also very glad that at least Governor Gray Davis did something right in California....forcing all teachers to go back to teaching at least SOME phonics instruction (after seeing how badly, year after year, the children in that state did on reading tests).
He only did that after a major study showing California high school grads had a functional illiteracy rate of 60%. Too hard to ignore.