Florida children deserve more, Lawrence tells chamber

Retired Miami Herald Publisher David Lawrence read one too many studies on how poorly Florida—and even at times Coral Gables—rank on measures of childhood wellbeing in health and education.

So after 20 months of groundwork, he and others in September launched The Children’s Movement of Florida to advocate for the fundamental needs of children before lawmakers and other decision makers.

Mr. Lawrence, who in 2002 led the campaign to establish the Children’s Trust of Miami-Dade County and now serves as the movement co-chair and president, addressed his work for children at the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce’s Good Morning Coral Gables Breakfast on Nov. 18.

He began the chamber’s annual education program by citing evidence of challenges close to home. Calling Coral Gables Senior High School “in many ways a splendid school,” he reported that in its most recent reading scores, 53 percent of 10th graders performed below grade level—which beats many other schools in the county. He also showed a video stating that in Florida 30 percent of third graders have reading problems and only 3 percent of the budget is spent on children’s programs.

“If you look at study after study of how our state ranks in measures of child wellbeing, you will find that we perform quite poorly … At its core The Children’s Movement is about making wise investments for the future of our children and our state. It is about changing the priorities of decision-making in Florida,” Mr. Lawrence said.

And while he loves Florida and Coral Gables, “I’m nonetheless worried even about Coral Gables with all its great assets, worried because we are nowhere near where we need to be in health and education in America, in Florida, and even in Coral Gables.”

The program also featured newly elected Miami-Dade School Board member Raquel Regalado, who addressed the value of building relationships with community groups to help shape the school system’s direction.

She said the district is trying to create more K-8 centers and needs to embrace its diversity and focus more on its best practices with language programs and magnet schools.

And leading the way, students from several Gables schools made introductory and other remarks. Keba Williams of Florida International University sang the Star Spangled Banner. The Coral Gables Senior High School jazz band performed, and JROTC members led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. Lawrence emphasized the economic benefits of increasing funding for children. “Somehow we live in a state where we can find pretty quickly $2.7 billion for a bullet train … We can find $500,000 to build a baseball stadium. We can find hundreds of millions for prisons and roads anytime we need them. But we invest frankly the bare minimum and sometimes not even that to help children grow up to be successful adults … I argue the way we do things now will threaten the economic future of our state and simply don’t make economic sense.”

The movement will focus initially on providing health insurance for hundreds of thousands of lacking children, screening and treatment for children who may have special needs, raising the quality of Florida’s pre-K program for 4-year olds and high-quality parenting and mentoring programs.

Regarding early childhood education, “We know that 90 percent of brain growth occurs by age 5. We know that a dollar invested wisely in high-quality early childhood programs can save at least seven dollars down the road in money you and I are not going to need to spend on police and prisons and prosecution.”

Mr. Lawrence invited guests to help build the nascent, nonpartisan organization. “To make this work we need the chamber as our partner because surely our mutual mission is about economic and workforce development for the future of community and country … You and I need to work together to show our elected decision-makers that we can establish the clout to insist on change.”

Afterward attorney Karyl Argamasilla reflected, “It made you open your eyes to the needs not just in the community in Gables but also in the whole state of Florida. It shows you the positive things our education system is doing and shows you the flaws and where we need to be.”

Cheli Cerra, principal of Coral Gables K-8 Preparatory Academy, appreciated the focus on the need for more education funding. “We all need to work together as a community for the future of our children. At the end of the day everyone’s life, no matter what career you are, in has been touched by a teacher. This was a great event.”

Carmen Perez-Salmon, coordinator of special projects for G.W. Carver Middle School, said that her school is able to connect more with the community through the chamber and uses its speakers’ bureau. “It’s an invaluable connection and it’s a mutually beneficial relationship for both of us because the students get to participate in events such as this one and it’s very important that they get to interact with the business community.”

Kevin Orozco of the Gables JROTC enjoyed such an opportunity to broaden his perspective. “I’ve never attended anything like this. It’s a pretty good feeling,” he said. “It’s an honor to be here seeing all these powerful people involved in the community and city.”

Chamber Chairman John O’Rourke thanked the student participants. “The young people today, you guys rock. Our theme this year is about getting noticed and raising the bar and getting out of our comfort zones, and you all raised the bar for me and everybody here this morning.”

For more information on The Children’s Movement of Florida, visit www.childrensmovementflorida.org

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