by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
In a bid towards building a strong political campaign, mayoral candidate Matt Carlucci, who was joined by children’s advocate and Jacksonville Jaguars co-owner Delores Barr Weaver outside of Hendricks Avenue Elementary School Wednesday, unveiled his plan to improve the quality of education in Jacksonville.
First on the list, if elected, would be newly bolstered early education and readiness programs.
“Many of our children enter the school house door poorly prepared to learn,” said Carlucci. “Many do not know their letters and numbers, how to spell their name, follow directions. Some can’t even hold a pencil. The gateway to readiness is literacy. There is no better investment than in our children at this early age.”
To insure readiness, Carlucci called for better coordination between the Duval County School Board, Jacksonville Children’s Commission, Duval County School Readiness Coalition, Head Start and non-profit organizations, with the mayor taking more of an active role than in the past.
“I believe that the mayor should be in a position to lead,” he said.
Carlucci said he plans to work from within the district to make Jacksonville the state leader in early education and school readiness programs. He added that by raising the level of funding for early education programs by $500,000 annually — nearly double what is currently available — federal and state money would likely follow. The money would come from general revenue and tax bases.
“I want to set better standards and raise the bar for our children’s level of reading and writing skills,” he said. “Dollars will be tied to setting a solid benchmark.”
Carlucci also added that dollars by themselves, whether coming from state or local sources, would not be enough to insure the success of these programs.
“Money alone won’t solve the problem,” he said. “Parental involvement is critical and the community should support those efforts.”
Weaver said she was excited about the prospect of early education and readiness among Jacksonville’s students. Her role in the actual programs, however, was not clearly defined.
“I stay pretty busy throughout the year,” she said. “But I will help out whenever possible and I would love to remain informed of the progress we make. Children are our most valuable assets.”
Carlucci addressed the fact the class size may or may not be related to the continued success of early education programs, but added that classes with few students were also at a risk.
“Actually,” he said, “many of the classes that I have worked with in the past that were doing poorly were smaller in size.”