Shriver: Education is vital to breaking the cycle

Mark Shriver

Save the Children, Senior Vice President

The Census Bureau released new data last month revealing a record number of Americans - 43.6 million of us - living in poverty. As stunning as these numbers are, the mainstream media buried the lead.

Of all the generations of Americans affected by this crisis, kids are disproportionately bearing the brunt of it. Today, one in five kids lives in poverty in America, a human calamity that threatens our moral standing today as well as our nation's competitiveness tomorrow.

Even worse, childhood poverty isn't dispersed geographically. It has an epicenter: rural America. In Tennessee, for example, one in four kids lives in poverty. It's no surprise that more than 40 percent of Tennessee fourth graders are reading below basic reading levels and as many as half of the state's kids are overweight or obese.

Without a reversal of these trends, data shows that these kids are much more likely to be high school dropouts, incarcerated, have serious health problems and be dependent on taxpayers for food or housing assistance.

There is a silver lining to this news. Even though kids are indeed bearing the brunt of this crisis, they are the one group that can lead us out of it.

Indeed, history has shown that the remedy to breaking the cycle of poverty is education. Just last month, for example, the Wall Street Journal reported that college graduates are twice as likely to stay employed during this recession as workers with just a high school degree.

The challenge is figuring out how to give kids living in poverty the boost they need to get on path toward economic security and a life of success.

In Tennessee, Save the Children's U.S. Programs operates one of the most innovative and ambitious education public-private partnerships in America. Our programs give more than 4,500 of the poorest kids vital reading assistance and our nutrition

programs help to curb habits that lead to obesity. We work in schools in 13 communities across the state including Franklin, Morgan, Scott, Campbell and Cocke Counties.

Through our literacy program, our literacy experts work with groups of struggling readers during the school day to provide tutorials in phonics, sight word growth, comprehension and vocabulary enhancement. Our fitness and nutrition program gives kids healthy snacks and physical activity to help curb habits that contribute to the obesity epidemic.

We also provide in-home early childhood education that give the very youngest Tennesseans - age 0 to 5 - the kind of emotional and cognitive stimulation that can ensure success for their K-12 education.

The most important thing is that these programs achieve results. The percentage of children enrolled in our programs reading at grade level nearly doubled over the course of just one school year.

We run these programs in 13 other states - including Alabama -- across the southeast and the west, making a difference for 70,000 American children, and creating a model for the rest of the nation.

These programs are successful because there are partnerships and rely on a principle of shared responsibility. We have the support and leadership of Gov. Phil Bredesen and former Sen. Bill Frist. Corporate America does its part, too, with leaders like Frigidaire, TJ Maxx, Toys R Us and others investing in the work of Save the Children.

Now we need more Americans to do their part from all walks of life: in houses of faith, in the workplace and at PTA meetings. We just need to have the vision to make it happen.

America has always been at its greatest when we imagine our nation as a better, fairer and constantly evolving place.

We imagined an end to fascism and communism in Europe and led the way to their defeat.

We imagined an interstate highway system, men on the moon and a massive worldwide computer network. Those achievements helped make us the envy of the world.

I believe we can see beyond poverty as a chronic human condition. That means imagining an America where every child has access to a quality education that ensures economic security and a more competitive nation in the global marketplace. We can make that dream a reality - in Tennessee and across the United States.

Mark Shriver is senior vice president for U.S. Programs at Save the Children. Readers may write him at mshriver@savechildren.org.

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