COLUMBUS, Ohio – The swirling lines from Linden Bateman’s pen have been conscripted into a national fight to keep cursive writing in American classrooms. Cursive. Penmanship. Handwriting.

Instruction on cursive is already mandated by the state for grades three and four, but the new law — a result of Assembly Bill 446, which Newsom signed on Oct. 13 — will broaden instruction to ...