The Rotary Club of Jacksonville heard a presentation Monday about the importance of early literacy and how that achievement – or the lack of it – is impacting Duval County, the state and the country.
David Lawrence, former publisher of the Detroit Free Press and Miami Herald, was the keynote speaker at the club’s meeting at the Omni Downtown.
He leads The Children’s Movement of Florida, an initiative to make all children the state’s No. 1 priority in decision-making and investment.
Lawrence is a member of the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet and a former chair of the Florida Partnership for School Readiness.
He graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in journalism and from the Advanced Management program at Harvard Business School.
Lawrence shared some statistics about education that surprised many of the club members. His information included a report issued two years ago by a committee of former military officers that determined that three out of four U.S. citizens ages 17-24 cannot enter the American military because of issues involving substance abuse, criminal justice, health or academic performance.
“It’s a matter of national security,” said Lawrence.
He said he was speaking to the club on behalf of the 13,000 children born each year in Duval County and the 220,000 born each year in Florida.
Lawrence said that while the state has made some progress in education, the statistics are still discomforting.
For example, 31 percent of third-grade students in Duval County cannot read at even minimally proficient levels and two-thirds of Duval County’s 10th-graders cannot read at grade level.
“The future of Florida and of America depends on growing more and better educated people. If we are both wise and prudent, our responses must begin with the earliest moments of life,” Lawrence said.
The education of young people must begin at an early age and failure to do so negatively affects a person throughout his or her life, he said.
“A full half of this country’s high school students lack the written, spoken, thinking and problem-solving skills that employers seek. The answer cannot be found in fixing 4th grade, 7th grade or somewhere in high school,” he said.
“Instead, the fix can be found where the most extraordinary return on investment occurs: in the earliest childhood years,” he said.
He said he has visited classrooms of 3-year-olds who couldn’t identify a rabbit or most other animals on the cover of a book.
He also has visited classrooms of 5-year-olds who couldn’t count to three or identify basic colors. That will “put them way behind” when they enter school and join the estimated 30 percent of children in Florida who are enrolled in first grade without those basic skills, said Lawrence.
Lawrence said research also indicates that one-third of children entering kindergarten cannot pay attention in class.
“If you can’t pay attention, you won’t learn, I promise you, no matter how smart you are. If 100 children leave first grade not really knowing how to read, by the end of fourth grade, 88 of those 100 still won’t really know how to read,” said Lawrence.
The Children’s Movement of Florida was launched 14 months ago and communicates weekly with 300,000 Floridians.
The organization’s surveys have revealed key issues Lawrence said the people of Florida would most support.
They include health insurance for all children, including the 20 percent of children in Duval County who have none; screening and treatment for children with special needs including autism; improving the quality of Florida’s pre-K educational program; and helping people develop high-quality parenting and mentoring skills.
Lawrence said The Children’s Movement’s agenda for the next year focuses on an effort to help Florida’s children learn to read no later than the third grade.
Increased funding for education and the resulting return on investment also is a major part of the organization’s platform, he said.
“Could it possibly make sense that our state allots just $2,383 for a slot in the pre-kindergarten program, in which 160,000 4-year-olds attend, yet we pay upwards of $51,000 to incarcerate a juvenile?
“This sort of wisdom puts us on a path that inevitably will lead to our state being unable to compete fully in the 21st century,” said Lawrence.
“That world, our world, begins with children. I have the greatest faith in your willingness to make a difference,” he said.
“That’s the most powerful message I’ve heard at this podium,” said club President Howard Dale.
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