October 18, 2009
By Myriam Marquez
First lady Michelle Obama went to Miami's Freedom Tower -- the heart and soul of exile -- to remind us about America's strength: service.
Days earlier in Washington, former Gov. Jeb Bush called for innovation and service -- mentors for struggling students -- during his annual education summit. And on Friday, two presidents, Obama the community organizer and Bush father the decorated war veteran, celebrated in Texas the 20th anniversary of Bush's Thousand Points of Light Institute, which promotes public service.
In my mind's eye stood a shimmering Erin Broskowski in her red jacket.
The energetic college grad spent a year as a mentor at Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary in Overtown, part of an 89-member red-jacket crew of trained mentors in Miami and 1,800 nationally.
When I met her in May, the school year was wrapping up, she was psyched about her experience at Dunbar, where FCAT scores improved, and pumped to do more in the future.
Students click instantly with their mentors, which City Year limits to 17- to 24-year-old students who earn a pittance (about $1,000 a month) to produce miracles.
The results of City Year's trained mentors' one-on-one tutoring sessions and after-school group activities lead to improved reading and math skills for the vast majority of students at some of the nation's worst schools. Mentored students earn a healthy dose of self-esteem through their hard work, which keeps them academically motivated, especially if they remain involved in City Year programs through middle school. By high school, they're focused on college, not the streets.
City Year, which began in Boston, has a proven track record.
And it has big plans to fix a 50 percent dropout rate in Miami-Dade's 11 most academically challenged high schools.
The fix? Start mentoring early in elementary school.
Then expand the program to all elementary and middle schools that feed into Miami-Dade's high-dropout high schools.
This past school year, City Year's 82 corps members helped 1,900 children, and 1,413 other volunteers served in mentor activities. In all, they invested 139,400 hours in these children, and the time paid off.
In most parts of the country, City Year operates with one-third of its budget coming from the AmeriCorps program started by President Bill Clinton, another third from philanthropic organizations and generous corporate donors and the rest from the local school district served by this results-driven program.
Everyone from Miami-Dade School Board members to the superintendent and business leaders hail City Year, but it has yet to get any funding from the district.
Surely the district should be looking to accelerate this program with a modest investment. City Year's success is needed more than ever.
It would take 600 City Year mentors -- more than seven times the number serving today -- to help students at all high-risk feeder schools. Yet that's not insurmountable. Because, at the same time, thousands of recent college grads are on waiting lists nationwide to spend a year working for Teach America, AmeriCorps, City Year and other community-service and mentor programs.
The timing couldn't be better.