During Mayor Gillum’s recent Summit on Children, there were some very bold statements made by participants about the status of children in our community.
Mimi Graham, the director of the Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy at Florida State University said “Tallahassee is decades behind our sister cities that have a Children’s Services Council that dedicates money specifically for early childhood.”
Courtney Atkins, executive director of Whole Child Leon, said counties in Florida with such councils “fare way better” than others.
These two statements were made by supporters of the creation of a Children’s Services Council for Leon County that would raise money through a dedicated increase in property taxes.
There are eight counties in Florida that raise money through taxes to support Children’s Services Council’s.
Are the statements made by Ms. Graham and Ms. Atkins true?
Tallahassee Reports decided to look into the statements.
Ms. Graham notes that quality of childcare is related to “higher cognitive performance, better language and math scores..”
One way to evaluate the accuracy of the statements is to determine how Leon County compares with the eight counties that have spent millions on children Service Councils when looking at Kindergarten Readiness scores and third grade FCAT scores, both maintained by the Florida Department of Education.
If Leon County was “decades behind” other cities, it would seem to follow that Leon County would be behind in these scores.
The table below shows the Kindergarten Readiness score for the eight counties with a Children’s Services Council and Leon County.
The Kindergarten Readiness score measures if a student is ” socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically ready to learn upon entering kindergarten.”
The table shows that 95% of students in Leon County were Kindergarten Ready. This was surpassed by only one of the eight counties that have a Children’s Services Council in place.
In fact, Leon and Hillsborough counties were the only two counties ranked in the top 20 in the state. The state of Florida average for all counties was 91%.
Kindergarten Readiness Scores (Early Child Observation System), 2013
| County | Percentage of Kindergartners Ready | State Rank Among 67 Counties |
|---|---|---|
| Hillsborough | 96% | 6 |
| Leon | 95% | 18 |
| Pinellas | 93% | 28 |
| Martin | 92% | 37 |
| St.Lucie | 90% | 45 |
| Broward | 88% | 54 |
| Palm Beach | 88% | 58 |
| Miami-Dade | 88% | 59 |
| Okeechobee | 78% | 65 |
How about FCAT reading scores for third grade?
The table shows that Leon County leads all eight counties that have a Children Service’s Council in 3rd grade FCAT reading scores. Leon County is the only one of the group ranked in the top twenty. The state of Florida average was 57%.
FCAT Reading Scores for 3rd Grade, 2013
| County | Percentage Passing Level Three | State Rank Among 67 Counties |
|---|---|---|
| Leon | 62% | 19 |
| Hillsborough | 59% | 26 |
| Martin | 58% | 29 |
| Broward | 57% | 33 |
| Miami-Dade | 56% | 35 |
| Palm Beach | 55% | 42 |
| Pinellas | 55% | 43 |
| St.Lucie | 50% | 53 |
| Okeechobee | 47% | 59 |
Do these numbers indicate that Leon County is “decades behind our sister cities that have a Children’s Services Council” as Ms. Graham states?
Do counties with Children’s Services Councils “fare way better” than others as Ms. Atkins states?
The publicly available data presented above is not consistent with these statements.
TR will continue to research data about the status of children in Leon County.
Fact-Checking Mayor Gillum’s Summit on Children Reveals Discrepancies added by Staff on
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I am very sure they already have someone in mind to run it and that person and their “friends” are the ones pushing for this. There are also the politicians or politician wannabes that intend to use this as a campaign issue. “Look at me, I support and love children, but, my opponent doesn’t.”
Hmmm…these children loving progressive types have a big problem. They always say “we love kids” while they are champions of the infanticide of abortion.
Guess it’s “family planning”
God speaks of people killing people and think they are doing God service. Abortion is one act that fulfils that scripture.
The Mayor’s Summit on Children started out as an “invitation only” event. I was initially told by Gillum’s office that I could not attend because I had not been invited.
A public records request shows that those invited included mainly the rich, the powerful, the Chamber types, and the Leadership Tallahassee types.
Sean Pittman was invited, although he has been a lobbyist for big tobacco which targets the black community.
Twenty percent of pregnant women are hooked on tobacco, which kills 480,000 people each year.
Since Gillum was anointed Grand Wizard of the racist Springtime Tallahassee Parade, he has acted more like an Emperor than a Mayor.
A doctor interested in humanity and health is not invited, but a lobbyist paid to lobby for big is invited. Is the invitation only summit a disguise for the “special interests club” using children as their cover? There is something surely amiss here indeed.
Whether the “decades worse” language is accurate, the only “62% of third graders are at level 3 (which is an abysmally low standard itself) is reason enough to be greatly concerned for Leon County’s children.
This kid needs a real job
Great reporting, I wonder if the facts will make any difference?
Probably not! This kid just does what he wants.
You want to make a bet that the people making those statements – Ms. Graham and Ms. Atkins – are progressive and registered Democrat?! Never known a liberal yet to be concerned with the factual accuracy of his/her statements, let alone to fact-check them. No, their modus operandi is to make factually outrageous statements in support of their cause de jur without concern for the truth.
So much energy wasted by Gillum for the sake of self promoting himself. Only questions remaining are who is the PR political hack behind this…Pittman or Yordon, what bar did they devise their scheme, and did the taxpayers pay their tab?
It’s not enough that our state spent millions on doing parents’ jobs last year… it will never be enough according to some. Say a lie often enough and people will believe it to be true regardless of facts that prove otherwise.
Mayor G seems to be following in the footsteps of his hero the Great and Wonderful O… this is what we get when we vote for the gift wrap without checking out the contents of the package.
More than an “Ooops” this is politicians/bureaucrats lying to us yet again.
It looks like these bureaucrats just want more money and using the children in the county as their vehicle to raise taxes as a way to get more money to advance their own careers. As Rosanna Anna Danna use to say. “You can not trust any of them.”
Oooops!!! Looks like you caught them trying to pull a fast one.