Reading or Athletics?

Luckily today, I had the opportunity to browse thru the latest issue of http://www.floridatrend.com/

To my surprise, not really, I read this note (summary):

"Duval County will add certified full-time athletic trainers to 17 high schools in the city - a move to cut sports injuries. The five year program, costing $1.5 million (that's correct) is funded thru grants from the city of JAX, JAX University, the Jaguars franchise and the NFL."

Can you believe that I was gasping for air as I read this?

Why you may ask?

Well, for starters...

* thousands of kids in this state (mine included) cannot read at grade level

* one third of 3rd graders in this state are retained

* learning disabilities like dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc. are not being diagnosed in time and science, research based intensive reading programs - Orton Gilligham - are not used and teachers are not being trained and certified to teach the program

* every third grader retained runs the risk to be Matthew Effected - read more here: http://ow.ly/TKcMK

source: www.edweek.org

What I find beyond disturbing is, how can Florida Trend, the city of JAX and everyone else support, promote, motivate, prioritize certifying athletic trainers when the businesses advertising and being highlighted in the publication will need to hire many of the retained third graders in the future. By the way, past athletic injuries will not be the reason to fire them, their lack of academic and job skills will.

I urge everyone to write to Mr. Corty ( acorty@floridatrend.com ) Publisher of Florida Trend and Mr. Howard ( mhoward@floridatrend.com ), Executive Editor and request their support of legislation promoting timely diagnosis and the use of science, research based intensive reading programs because these are the key elements to build a powerful job force. We all know the number of students benefitting from certified athletic trainers is minimal compared to one third of 3rd graders that have been and will be retained.