Day 21: December 8, 2009

Sometimes you get surprised. My surprise came yesterday in the form of Marions United, a progressive movement for educational change. In a fairly conservative county like Marion County, I was astonished to find a coalition of concerned teachers, parents, students and others fighting for a stronger, more effective public education system. This group, now boasting 1,000 members, organized a three mile walk for us in west Ocala with the help of Progress Florida’s Ray Seamen. Many folks joined us in our march for awareness about the true state of education in Florida.

Before meeting the Marions United group, we had opportunity to visit Together for Children, a high quality daycare facility and voluntary pre-kindergarten program, and Phoenix House, a substance abuse treatment program for adults. The owner of Together for children, along with Lucy Frick of the Early Learning Coalition and Chair of the County Commission, Barbara Fitos, helped the Worst To First team understand child care challenges in Marion County. We learned that several day care programs have closed due to inadequate state funding and that over seven hundred children are currently waiting for day care spots. Parents can’t make a living without access to child care—that much I know.

Phoenix house, the next program we visited, delivers a powerful and effective approach to substance abuse. This program has been extremely successful in rebuilding shattered lives. Of the clients who graduate from the program, 88% have no new criminal violations. Additionally, the cost to house the residents of the program, compared to the cost of incarceration, is half. It seems Florida needs more programs like Phoenix House to divert young lives away from state prisons and recidivism towards rehabilitation and renewal.

After program visits, I made a quick stop to visit Sheriff Ed Deen, one of the last people my father visited before his death. Sheriff Dean is making us all proud as a peace officer.

Finally, at day’s end, we started the walk to end it at Speaker Larry Cretul’s office. I urged those with me to continue their fight locally and join our efforts statewide. The time in Ocala really convinced me that Floridians are ready to join hands and demand educational change.