Advocates: Keep children a top priority

David Lawrence looked out into the audience of his peers: fellow child advocates and sponsors of Children’s Week. He spoke into the microphone clearly and directly, at once urgent and passionate, outraged but dedicated to changing Florida’s approach to children.

“How naive am I to believe that in God’s world, our world, our country, our state, everyone’s child can have a real opportunity to dream of a full and good life?” Lawrence said. “Does anyone think that we are anywhere close to that now?”

Lawrence, the president and co-chair of the Children’s Movement, was speaking at Monday’s Children’s Week advocacy dinner and reception. The event involved the week’s partners and advocates and featured the announcement of former Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon as the recipient of the 2011 Chiles Advocacy Award.

The week began Sunday when paper cut-outs of children’s hands were hung in the Capitol Rotunda to remind legislators of their presence in the state. It continued Monday with a dinner and luncheon recognizing and awarding children’s advocates. And it continues today with interactive and informative children’s advocacy booths in the Capitol Courtyard.

The dinner, however, was more than just an awards ceremony. It was a call to action.

Lawrence based his frustration in dismal statistics. In the state of Florida, 220,000 children are born each year. Of the 90 percent that go to public schools, he said, 28 percent cannot read at the minimally proficient level by the time they reach third grade. One out of every five children in Florida fits into the full federal definition of poverty. Sheldon emphasized Florida’s need to keep children a priority. The award he won honors the late former Gov. Lawton Chiles and his wife Rhea, and their dedication to Florida’s children and families.

“No Child Left Behind” should be more than an educational initiative, Sheldon said. It should be the state’s mantra every day.

“No child — no adult, for that matter — should be left behind in the name of maintaining some kind of a business decision that says that investment in one area is a safer thing to do than investment in another area,” he said. “Reductions in services to children are not what economic recoveries are made of.”

“What’s wrong with us?” Lawrence asked, and begged the question how a state that wants to thrive could simultaneously cut funding to its future workforce and population.

“We want our state to be competitive in the 21st century, but I frankly see no way we could be unless we invest fully in the future of children,” he said. “We ought not to put up with waiting for better times to invest in children.”

Lawrence’s voice rose as expressed his frustration with current spending priorities. “I promise you that I am neither political nor unpatriotic when I note that somehow we find $400 million every single day of this year to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said, “and a country that can afford that, can afford to do right by our children.”

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