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ECARE aims to get children reading
By: John Parnham
Pensacola News Journal – 2007

(John Parnham is a retired circuit judge and serves as community champion of the Every Child a Reader in Escambia Community Vision Board. He is vice president of System Solutions for Children LLC.)

The statistics are alarming! One out of every four children in Escambia County lives in poverty (25.8 percent).Almost 23 percent of the kindergartners in Escambia are not ready to learn how to read.

Approximately 28 of our third graders are not reading at a minimally proficient level, and failed the reading portion of the FCAT. Third-grade FCAT reading scores are considered a key predictor of a child’s success in school.

Escambia County ranks second in Florida in the percentage of the population living in poverty. As many as 12,000 of our children have no health insurance. Twenty-five thousand workers (16.35 percent) make less than $14,040 per year. Almost 62 percent of our children live in families with incomes so low they qualify for free or reduced school lunch. (August 2006 Indicator Report – The Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development of the University of West Florida.)

So, what is the problem?

Kevin Doyle, publisher of the Pensacola News Journal, summed it up this way. “We all know what the problem here is without doing further research…it is literacy. In this day and age, it is unconscionable for a community like ours to have such a serious problem with literacy. We should all be aware that literacy is the cure for poverty, education advancement and jobs.”

We also know a lot about illiteracy and its root causes:

Reading problems are not confined or defined by intelligence, race or ethnicity, and most children with reading problems have problems throughout life.

There is a four-year period of potential brain growth, which is the most critical time of human development. This time is from conception until about the third birthday. Most of who we are as an adult is determined during this period of development, including our potential to become readers. If we wait until our children start school to teach them the fundamental skills they need to learn to read, it is too late. Their brains will lose the physical ability to learn those skills.

Now, what can we do about it?

The good news is there is something already in the works. It’s called ECARE (Every Child a Reader in Escambia). ECARE is a business-led, community-wide “movement” created to eliminate early childhood illiteracy in Escambia County.

ECARE wants to give every child a realistic opportunity to learn how to read so they can fully participate in, and benefit from the education process. Its mission is to create a literate work force which is the foundation for economic growth in our community.

The magnitude of the problem suggests there is no quick fix. It requires a long-term commitment from everyone. The success of this movement depends on the level of participation of all Escambia County.

The alarming data clearly demonstrates that Escambia is at a critical juncture in  its economic  future; the effects of illiteracy are so significant that we cannot afford to wait for others to do something about it. We must act now!

All of us have something to contribute, and all must get involved. The reality is that illiteracy impacts everyone, not just those who can’t read.