According to this article [ht MA], cursive handwriting is on its way out. To be honest, I won't miss it. From the article,
As schools swap out old state standards for new Common Core academics, educators are warning about an overlooked casualty of progress – cursive handwriting.
They say that, because Common Core standards don’t call for cursive instruction, public schools are more likely to drop or, at least, de-emphasize it. Their fears are not unfounded.
• At least 41 states do not require public schools to teach cursive reading or writing.
• Kentucky leaves cursive instruction up to schools and districts; Ohio also leaves it to districts. Before Common Core, Ohio’s elementary standards recommended teaching cursive in grades 3 to 4.
I don't know who these "educators" are who warn about the demise of cursive handwriting (the article quotes some). From my experience, cursive is hard to learn, and much less important in the 21st century than is keyboarding, and from many adults, the cursive is next to illegible.
My experience as an educator is that students who use cursive to write exams or course notes can indeed write down their thoughts every-so-slightly more quickly than their classmates; my experience is also that students who hand-letter (we called it "print") their exams or class notes never have problems with legibility.
Despite its name, it is time to drop cursive handwriting from the curriculum.
One question, though: how do people who don't use cursive handwriting sign their names? It must happen. Do they just print them?