Milk Party for the good of children

It's no secret that Florida is failing its children.

Only 3 percent of the state budget is spent on tots who require health screening for learning disabilities and special needs; pre-kindergarten or school-readiness programs to make sure little ones hit the ground running in the earliest classrooms; and for ensuring kids have immunization and other medical care before entering the school system. That money also goes to older children in the school systems.

Meanwhile, $2.7 billion dollars approved for a bullet train linking Florida's two coasts and a strong prison system demand more of the state's budget than do programs for children.

These were the arguments Key West parents and local government officials heard during a rally at Key West High School Thursday night. Following a performance by the Key West High School bands and a stand-up comic, the message was delivered.

Sponsored by the Children's Movement of Florida, the "Milk Party" was designed to explain to residents and officials how state lawmakers neglect the state's youngest citizens with misdirected spending priorities.

In Monroe County, which displays the symptoms of statewide neglect, one of every four public school third-graders can't read with even minimal proficiency, retired Miami Herald Publisher David Lawrence Jr. told the audience. Lawrence is a founder of the movement.

"The situation is growing worse," he told the crowd. Lawrence, one of nine children born on a farm who migrated to Florida as a youngster in 1956, tried to underscore what he sees as a danger to Florida's future.

"Our state shows up on list after list as either mediocre or miserable in the rankings that tell us how well we invest in our youngest, most vulnerable children," Lawrence said, noting that at least 15,000 people had attended other "Milk" rallies he's addressed in various Florida cities in the past month.

"We're a lot better (type of) people than frequently we show," he said. "It takes years to build a movement, and I'm deeply heartened [by the response].

"But as a state we're failing our children -- especially our youngest children."

He urged the audience to join the movement that hopes to take root and grow strong enough to get the Legislature and other state child care agencies to increase their spending and efforts to provide healthy starts and academic and social support for the state's children.

The Children's Movement has not yet finalized its strategy to change hearts and minds in Tallahassee, said Martin Merzer, the movement's communications director. By law, the group cannot lobby state lawmakers directly, he said.

"We're a [nonprofit], we are not allowed to lobby," Merzer said. "What we're doing is creating a movement. What we're asking people to do is stay in touch with us and we'll have concrete steps that we'll ask people to take soon."

Unlike the national tea party, the Children's Movement has no connection to any political party and does not have any corporate sponsors with agendas, Merzer said.

"We've even had political candidates ask us to let them speak to our rallies and we said 'No,'" he said. "This is a grass-roots, nonpartisan movement."

The movement's steering committee is made up of 12 Democrats, 12 Republicans and three independents, Merzer and Lawrence said.

One top issue the movement wants to address: affordable health care for kids.

"There are more than 800,000 children in Florida who have no health insurance," Lawrence told the audience. "Yet if we need a prison, we can find the money to build a prison."

Jennifer Duiyser, who brought her two elementary school-age kids to the Milk Party, said she's heard from Keys parents who can't get medical care for their children.

"I get calls from parents all the time who cannot find doctors or health care because they don't have money," said Duiyser, who works the front desk at the Monroe County Health Department office on Simonton Street. "The Legislature has to send money to the right place; it's not how much it spends, but where it spends it."

Duiyser's two children attend Sugarloaf Elementary School. Duiyser said she reads to her children every evening and helps them with other schoolwork.

"We need to make sure the money is spent on good teachers, for classroom supplies, and things the schools don't have," she said.

Maisa Mitchell, who moved to the Keys from Argentina, said she's "concerned about education in the Keys and why it's so terrible."

Her daughter is 14-month-old Jada Isabella, one of those "youngest children" whom Lawrence said the Legislature is neglecting.

Mitchell said her native country does a better job of taking care of poor children.

"In Argentina, we have students who go into very poor neighborhoods to help the poor children learn by tutoring them," she said.

Lawrence wrapped up his speech with a rousing call for new members.

"We've visited 17 different cities, and zigged and zagged 3,876 miles around the state. Our No. 1 priority is to create a powerful, enduring movement."

To find out more about the movement, go to http://www.childrensmovementflorida.org.

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