For Kids' Sake

Fresh from our statewide Milk Party tour, and endorsed by all of the state's 10 largest daily newspapers, including the Sun Sentinel, The Children's Movement of Florida now is entering the next phase of its work – legislative action that moves toward making children our state's No. 1 priority.

We believe, in the words of our mission statement, that “the well-being and education of our children in Florida must be the highest priority of government, business, non-profit institutions and families…including in the way we invest our public resources."

The economic future of our state and the stability of the communities we live in depend on this.

Already, within our first four months of public awareness, we have achieved these starting points:

• Held 17 Milk Party rallies from Pensacola to Key West – 3,876 miles up and down, back and forth, throughout Florida.
• Appeared before almost 15,000 Floridians – including thousands in Broward, Miami-Dade and other places who joined us despite Tropical Storm Nicole and other bursts of drenching rain. It was a remarkable example of how deeply Floridians feel about the need to change this state's investment and spending priorities.
• Enlisted local leaders and significant grassroots support in every major region and city of Florida. We have harvested more than 100,000 email addresses of people who now are in close touch with the movement and have the ability to make Internet contributions.
• Built credibility and visibility everywhere. In city after city, we received major newspaper headlines and supportive editorials, and we were the topic of extensive TV coverage, including a national report on CNN that was seen by millions of Americans.

But this is only the start toward building a real movement on behalf of all children, bearing in mind that the same principles of health and education and nurturing and love that my children and grandchildren and your children and grandchildren need are the same principles that all children need, the same principles and investment that help all children succeed. A real movement is about everyone’s child – rich and poor and in-between.

We see conclusive evidence everywhere of the need. Take, for example, the national report from a group of retired senior generals and admirals that tells us this: 75 percent of young people from 17 to 24 cannot enter our military. They cannot qualify academically or they have a substance abuse, criminal justice or physical problem. I submit to you that this is a profound issue of national security.

We also see the need close to home. I so admire our school administrators and educators, and I know we are making progress in our school systems. But they know, and I know, that more than 30 percent of third grade students cannot read at minimally proficient levels and more than half of high school sophomores cannot read at grade level.

Meanwhile, we see study after study to remind us how poorly our state ranks in measures of child well-being. This is why we are building this movement.

Our priorities for legislative action are grounded in our first five areas of special concentration – focal points developed as a result of statewide polling and through consultations with civic and community leaders and with experts on the needs of children in Florida. We are working on final details of our agenda, but I can tell you that it will be specific, realistic and achievable. In addition, we will note how much each element will cost – and the total cost will not exceed one percent of state revenues.

Here are the areas of focus and, in general terms, what we seek:

• Access to health insurance and quality health care for all children. Florida ranks second worst in the nation in percentage of uninsured children, and at least 548,000 of the state's youngest, most vulnerable citizens do not have health insurance. We will propose the coverage of many of those children, along with an outreach program that widens access to the state's KidCare program.
• Enhanced screening and treatment for children who may have special needs such as autism, cerebral palsy and developmental delays. If we put knowledge in the hands of parents, children with special needs can be helped at an earlier stage, improving their lives and saving taxpayers money down the road. We will propose online, telephone and community portals to screening and referral information for parents concerned about their children.
• Substantially improving the quality of Florida’s pre-K program. Florida's constitutionally mandated pre-K program ranks 34th among 38 states in per pupil funding and meets few national standards. We will propose enhancing the program's standards, as well as pre- and post-assessments for all children in the program.
• High-quality, best-practice parent skill-building programs. Parents play the most central role in the development of their children, but many parents do not know where to turn when they need information and support. We will propose a statewide public awareness campaign and access to a toll-free telephone and Internet treasury of information and referral services for parents.
• High-quality, best-practice mentoring programs. Under former Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida once was the national leader in mentoring programs that connect children with caring adults, but mentoring has – wrongly so – become a lesser priority for Florida's leaders. We will propose a reallocation of existing funds and other moves to improve and widen the reach of the state's mentoring programs.

This is about making wise investment decisions for the future of our children and of our state. Somehow we can figure out how to pay for bullet trains and stadiums and prisons and roads, yet we fail to make fundamental investments in what we know will grow a healthy, well educated child and an able-to-compete state. Today’s ways of arriving at spending and investment priorities literally imperil Florida’s economic future, and they simply do not make economic sense.

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 $7 down the road in money we won’t later need to spend on police and prisons and prosecution and all sorts of educational remediation. So why do we do things the way we do?

Consider this quotation from an important book called Disrupting Class by Harvard’s Clayton Christensen: “A rather stunning body of research…suggests that starting…reforms at kindergarten, let alone in elementary, middle or high school, is far too late. By some estimates, 98 percent of education spending occurs after the basic intellectual capacities of children have been mostly determined.”

Knowing this, The Children’s Movement of Florida is concentrating on the early years of child development – where the return on investment is the highest -- and building the power to influence the decision-making process when it comes to these issues. A real movement, of course, is not about any one session of the Legislature; it is about building something enduring, long-term and sustainable.

In all this, we seek to be good partners with other children's advocates, with educators, with the business community, with faith-based organizations, with nonprofits, with everyone because surely our mutual mission is about helping our children attain their full potential and helping our economy and workforce develop and serve the future of our community and our country.

This is a movement beyond party or partisanship.

If we work together, we have the real opportunity to help all of our children. If we work together, we have the real opportunity to live and work in a place of peace and prosperity – as will our children and their children and the generations to come.

David Lawrence Jr. is president and co-chair of The Children's Movement of Florida, president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation of Miami, University Scholar for early childhood development and readiness at the University of Florida, and retired publisher of The Miami Herald.

Read the full article here.