A cross-sector coalition of Kansas City leaders is sounding the alarm about the city’s literacy rates, calling it far more than just an education problem.
Only 21% of third graders in Kansas City public and charter schools read at grade level, a statistic former Mayor Sly James and others say threatens the city’s future workforce, economy, and public health.
“We have to recognize that every child in this community can be my friend, my worker, or my murderer, which would you prefer?” said James during Lead to Read KC’s inaugural Kansas City Reads Business Breakfast recently held at The Medallion Theater.
The event brought together education, business, and healthcare leaders to discuss solutions to the literacy gap affecting thousands of Kansas City children and to advance an ambitious goal: making Kansas City the most literate city in America.
Dr. Jennifer Collier, Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent, challenged attendees to embrace this vision.
“I dare to believe that every child deserves the opportunity to become a confident reader,” said Dr. Collier. “I dare to believe that together, we can make Kansas City the most literate city in the nation.”
Lead to Read KC, now in its 14th year, serves 28 metro-area schools by pairing adult mentors with first through third-grade students. The mentors meet with the kids and read once a week over the mentor’s lunch break.
The former mayor James emphasized that waiting until kindergarten for literacy intervention is too late, citing research showing disadvantaged children fall millions of words behind by age three.
“We talk a lot and act little,” James said. “We don’t get it. We haven’t figured out that until we build the proper foundation for children, they never catch up.”
Shawn Creger, an Edward Jones financial advisor and Lead to Read board member, shared his personal struggle with dyslexia and made a startling connection to incarceration rates.
“The state of New York was trying to figure out what their prison needs would be over the next couple decades,” said Creger. “They went to 10 and 11-year-old illiterate rates and used an algorithm based on that [literacy data] to forecast their future prison needs.”
Michelle Wimes of Children’s Mercy Hospital framed literacy as a critical health issue.
“We want every kid—I don’t care what their age is, what their background is, what language they speak—to have readily accessible, easy to understand healthcare information everywhere,” Wimes said.
The event highlighted Mauricio Bernal, a Lead to Read KC alum now graduating from UMKC with degrees in civil engineering and finance.
“Those reading sessions gave me confidence and helped me see that anything was possible,” Bernal told attendees.
Paul Fischer of Burns & McDonnell noted that over 400 employees from his firm have volunteered with Lead to Read, saying, “Every single one of them has gotten more out of it than they put in.”
Rhea LeGrande, Lead to Read KC Executive Director and a former struggling reader herself, set an ambitious vision for the city.
“There’s not really a good reason in this world why Kansas City can’t be the most literate city in the nation,” LeGrande said. “My goal is that Lead to Read is something that folks do because it’s fun, not because there’s a crisis.”
Lead to Read will always take new mentors, and there is a shortage of Black mentors. The program requires 30 minutes once a week, typically during lunch hours. For more information or to sign up visit: leadtoreadkc.org.
