Surrounded by children's advocates from around the state during Children's Week at the Florida Capitol, Lawton "Bud" Chiles III announced a statewide campaign on April 1 to push for better investments in children's health and education. The Worst to First campaign is organizing children's advocates through an online network at www.WorstToFirst.org, and Chiles announced he will lead a listening tour across Florida later this year to rally Floridians.
"We have witnessed a tragic decline over the last decade in support for the well being of Florida's children. This is a moment where success can only come through shared commitment to investing in our communities, not just with money but with our time and energy," said Chiles, president of The Lawton Chiles Foundation. "We have to change things. We have to build a force of people that will not be quiet until this state is leading the way for our children again."
The founding partners of the Worst to First initiative include The Lawton Chiles Foundation, Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions, Florida Children's Services Council, Early Learning Coalitions of Florida, Children's Forum, Florida Pediatric Society, Florida Education Association, United Way of Florida, The Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida, March of Dimes Florida Chapter, the Florida Juvenile Justice Association, Family Central, Budd Bell Clearinghouse on Human Services, and the Florida Guardian ad Litem Program. More groups and individuals are signing up every day at www.WorstToFirst.org.
"Building strong children is easier than fixing broken adults. If we invest in our children's success, we won't have to pay for their failure," said former state Representative Loranne Ausley, a long-time legislative advocate for children. "We can make sure all of our children are healthy and ready to start school and succeed, or we can pay the costs of illness, illiteracy and underachievement. It's time to put our kids first again."
The Worst to First initiative is built on three guiding principles:
- Providing our children with an education for the future
- Protecting the health of our children
- Investing in success instead of paying for failure.
"We strongly support any effort to draw attention to the dismal statistics surrounding the lives of Florida's children and provide leadership in our state to improve their opportunities," said Leslie Spurlock, executive director for Indian River County's Healthy Start Coalition and president-elect of the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions.
"We're excited about this initiative to bring attention to Florida children," Phyllis Kalifeh, president and CEO of the Children's Forum. "Investing in children builds stronger families and communities prepared to succeed in the new economy."
"If we invest in our children up front, our children will be born healthy, and enter school ready to learn and succeed in school and in life without ever experiencing the child protection or juvenile justice system," said Vivian Alarcon, CEO of Florida Children's Services Council, Inc.
Worst to First was founded with a grant from The Lawton Chiles Foundation, and is open to any groups or individuals working to ensure every child in Florida has the opportunity to fulfill their God-given potential. The web site, www.WorstToFirst.org, includes tools to organize advocates, support individual programs, and compile the latest research on children's health and education.
Worst to First is a long-term effort to improve investments in the health, education and well-being of children. A 2008 study by The Commonwealth Fund ranked Florida 50th out of all states and the District of Columbia on an index of Child Health System Performance, ranking above only Oklahoma.
As a state, Florida spends only 3% of its resources on education, 42nd in the country, according to Education Week's 2008 Quality Counts. Since 2001, the Florida Legislature has reduced its share of spending on K-12 public education and shifted more costs to local governments. State support for K-12 schools has grown at an average rate of 2.6 percent a year since 2001.
Florida's funding and eligibility rules for family support programs, including child care subsidies and income support programs, are lower and more restrictive than the national average. From 2007 to 2008, an average of 48,857 children a month were on the waiting list for subsidized child care. By the end of 2008, that number had risen to 57,225.
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