We know what works for kids -- commitment

Alvis ``Teddy'' Guillen starts his day at Miami Jackson High School when it's still dark, at 6:30 a.m. A ``big and tall'' guy, Teddy wears his red jacket with pride. He should.

Teddy, who studies acting at Miami Dade College, is among 82 mentors in the City Year program working in eight Miami-Dade public schools. They are 17- to 24-year-old college students who earn little more than $1,000 a month for the satisfaction of making a difference in a child's life.

On Friday, Teddy, who grew up in West Kendall, told a group of business leaders why City Year, part of the AmeriCorps program, matters. When he was in middle school, ``I became a bully.'' He was sent to a remedial school. Then he met a mentor and his life changed.

Today, Teddy, 21, has been trained to work with students like Kevin, a ninth-grader who never got beyond the sixth grade in Honduras before his family moved here. In just two months Kevin has gone from a quiet and hopeless teenager to a young man who is excited about learning English, engaged with his teachers and fellow students.

Kathryn Dinkin, regional president for the Southeast Florida region for Wachovia bank, is sold on City Year, as is the Beacon Council, which was a sponsor of the Friday event.

Wachovia committed $100,000 to City Year. ``There's so much need here,'' Dinkin said.

STEPPING UP

It's a testament to the program's short record of success in Miami-Dade -- it started here in 2008 -- that business leaders are stepping up to help pay for a program that the school district can't afford in this sour economy.

Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and former Herald publisher and children's advocate David Lawrence Jr. were among the dignitaries at the event, too. It's all part of the new bipartisan ``Milk Party'' effort that Lawrence is leading with the help of Republican and Democratic politicians throughout the state to shine the spotlight on Florida's most critical deficits: children's education, health and safety.

``Every child needs a mentor,'' Lawrence told the group. ``People think that it's an inner-city issue, but that's not so. We all had role models, favorite teachers. A kind word, a caring word can literally turn over a life.''

City Year has a track record that dates to 1988 when it started in Boston. This is a critical year to expand this program in Miami-Dade for the next school year. Organizers want to focus on the 11 high schools with a dropout rate of 50 percent or more, helping students in every middle school and elementary school who will one day get to one of those 11 struggling high schools.

That means 600 Teddys -- more than seven times the number of trained mentors and tutors now in place. This year, Jackson High was chosen by City Year to see what's possible, along with seven elementary schools.

WINNING FORMULA

Last year, every elementary with City Year tutors succeeded in helping students read and do math at higher levels than when they started. Schools that had carried the state's scarlet ``F'' for failing FCAT grades improved to an A, or at minimum a C.

We know what works. We know it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. We know all it takes is commitment for the long term. Commitment to one generation from birth to high school graduation.

The payoff? Fewer prisons and prison guards, more college students, entrepreneurs and trained workers for the high-tech jobs of the 21st century.

We know what to do. Now when will we care enough to do it big?

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