Children's Movement visit focuses on improving education

PANAMA CITY — The Children’s Movement of Florida rolled into town Tuesday morning for a “Milk Party.”

The intent of the nonpartisan group’s “party” was to lay out its vision for putting children at the top of the state’s priority list in terms of improved education and health care access, as well as a heightened emphasis on early childhood development.

Group co-founder and President David Lawrence Jr. told a rally filled with area educators and children’s advocates that he and others were trying to build a long-term movement that was “not about the next session of the Florida Legislature,” but stood committed to sustainable improvements in state children’s health and education.

He said the movement represented a coalition of Republicans, Democrats and independents putting partisan differences aside and children first.

“What we’re trying to do is the farthest from ideological,” said Lawrence, former Miami Herald publisher and president of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation.

This was the group’s second stop on its planned multi-city Milk Party bus tour, which started in Pensacola on Monday and concludes later this month in Key West.

Lawrence said he and other movement members were focusing on five major issues, including access to high quality health care, pre-kindergarten opportunities, mentoring programs, parental support/information and screening and treatment for special-needs children.

Of the movement’s 27-person statewide steering committee, three are Bay County residents: Panama City Mayor Scott Clemons, former House Speaker Allan Bense and New Horizons Learning Center mentor program coordinator Margaret Tidmore. All three Bay County committee members, as well as Bay District Schools superintendent Bill Husfelt, were at Tuesday’s rally.

Clemons noted the 2010 political campaign season was in full force, with candidates and their ads flooding the airwaves. He asked the crowd how many of those campaign ads were going to address education reform and the kinds of issues being tackled by the Children’s Movement.

“This is real education reform,” Clemons said.

The group is not pushing for statewide tax increases, but it is advocating for an increased allotment of state resources toward its priorities.

Clemons said state legislators could face tough votes in coming years on children’s issues, with senators and representatives facing decisions on whether to shift funding from other priorities.

Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, who attended Tuesday’s rally, said supporting the state’s children is an area of common ground for Republican and Democratic legislators.

“The commitment to making children a priority is there,” Coley said, while also acknowledging that legislators may be faced with some tough decisions in coming years.

The Children’s Movement of Florida hopes to host a gubernatorial debate on children’s issues Oct. 16 at the University of Miami. Democratic candidate Alex Sink has agreed to the debate, and the group is working to secure Republican Rick Scott’s participation.

Lawrence said before Tuesday’s rally that he wanted to see visible and accelerated progress on the group’s main issues starting in 2011 and extending into the following years.

“This is not a one-year wonder,” Lawrence said.

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