A cornerstone of Mississippi's 1982 Education Reform Act, the Assistant Reading Instructor Program sought to improve basic skills acquisition by placing assistant reading instructors in primary grades. The program has not been effective in meeting its objectives. On standardized tests, students who had assistant reading instructors in the primary years scored about the same as students without assistants. Retention rates in the primary grades remained about the same. Dropout rates remained constant in the lower grades and increased in higher grades. Contrary to Mississippi state law, the State Department of Education has not enforced preconditions to program funding and has not developed a statewide uniform training program. The districts and department failed to develop implementation and accountability plans and failed to perform annual program evaluations. In violation of program intent, some districts routinely use assistants as substitute teachers. From 1983 until the close of the 1993-94 school year, the state spent $340.11 million on the program. Policy options include: (1) make the program work as originally intended; (2) convert the program into a Teacher's Aide program; (3) divert the money used for the program to other educational programs; and (4) abolish the program and redirect the funds. (Contains 11 exhibits. Seventeen appendixes present related legislation, data, descriptions of other programs, and methods for computing some of the data.) (RS)