Children’s Movement’s Goals are Ambitious

Thursday evening, students, parents, educators and members of the public gathered at Key West High School for a rally and a reaffirmation that kids are important to our community's future.

Members of The Children's Movement came to town to spread the message, one in a series of community gatherings held across the state the past two months.

To help capture the public's attention, these gatherings are dubbed Milk Party rallies, playing off all the attention sparked by the Tea Party movement, but with a far different agenda in mind.

Florida ranks near the bottom of the 50 states on many measures of such things as child health, the percentage of children who are insured (Florida ranks a dismal 49th out of 50 states on that benchmark), graduation rates and performance on standardized testing.

We must do better.

David Lawrence Jr., former publisher of The Miami Herald and a tireless advocate on children's issues, helped found The Children's Movement. This came several years after he led a successful campaign in Miami-Dade County to create public funding for preschools that serve 4-year-olds.

Lawrence, speaking at Milk Party rallies this week in Miami and Broward County, said The Children's Movement "starts from a moral imperative. But simply telling folks you are on the side of the angels -- even if they believe you are on the side of the angels -- won't cut it.

"You need to prove to people that this cuts across class and income. You need to prove to them that it is doable."

Lawrence has assembled an impressive roster of state business and political leaders who helped launch the movement earlier this year, and has gathered more support across the state at 17 Milk Rallies that ended with the Key West visit Thursday.

The campaign will continue, moving from these grassroots rallies to lobbying in Tallahassee, where lawmakers face more budget cuts next year.

But organizers like Lawrence and others have experience with how things work in the state Capitol. If enough people from across the state demand a better shake for our kids, those voices will be heard.

It won't be easy, but the first steps have begun and the campaign is committed to winning the battle on behalf of Florida's children, who represent our collective future.

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