September 27, 2010
Sarah J. Wiese
This evening, September 27, David Lawrence Jr., president and co-chair of the Children’s Movement of Florida, brought his Milk Party Rally to the Ritz Theater in downtown Jacksonville. Lawrence, former publisher of the Miami Herald and member of Governor Crist’s Children’s Cabinet, founded this movement to make children the number one priority investment to the state legislators of Florida by urging voters to elect candidates who want to put children first and urge elected officials already in office to make children the top priority in the state. Their five initiatives are to develop access to quality healthcare, screening and treatment for special needs children, high quality pre-kindergarten, high quality mentoring programs and support and information for parents.
According to Lawrence, as a state, we are failing our children. Highways, bullet trains, and prisons are just a few 
examples of items higher on the state priority list than the education and health of Florida’s kids. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, we spend $20,108 a year per prisoner. However, the crowd at the Ritz tonight learned our children only receive one third of that amount towards education funding per student. Ninety percent of a child’s brain is fully developed by the age of five, but Florida only devotes three percent of its budget to early learning. Hundreds of thousands of kids have no access to healthcare, and 30,000 live here in Duval County. As a state, we voted for high quality pre-kindergarten with professionally indicated standards, and the V.P.K. program was born. This program has fallen short by most of the areas indicated to be of high value by leaders in education. This means Florida has invested $375,000,000 into a program that is inadequate. The message of the Children’s Movement is clear. We need to reevaluate and reorganize our priorities in this state to move education and healthcare for children to the top of the list in funding.
David Lawrence Jr. was passionate in his speech tonight, but he was not the only speaker. He was accompanied by 
Charlene Shirk, former co-anchor of Good Morning Jacksonville and MaliVai Washington, professional tennis player, Wimbledon finalist, founder of the MaliVai Washington Kids’ Foundation and Arthur Ashe 2009 Humanitarian of the Year Award recipient. Putting children first is also a passion of Washington’s. His foundation’s mission is to develop 
champions in classrooms, on tennis courts and throughout communities. Shirk happens to sponsor a child at the foundation, located in Jacksonville, which has strong community mentoring and peer leadership programs. Both Shirk and Washington drove home the points Lawrence made on a local level. Also present, the Mandarin High School Marching Band and Dance Team performed, with the final performance coming from the Jacksonville Mass Choir, directed by Deborah McDuffie.
The movement is on the last legs of its tour with its final stop in Key West this Thursday, but they are not through with gathering supporters for their cause. To be updated on events, news and volunteer opportunities, you can visit www.childrensmovementflorida.org or text MILK to 5633 to receive updates directly to your phone as they are announced. A debate between the two candidates running for governor, Rick Scott and Alex Sink, has been planned for 
October 16, 2010 at the University of Miami. Alex Sink has confirmed her participation. They are awaiting a response from Scott. Lawrence urges the people of Florida to contact Rick Scott at 954-915-3360 and show your interest in his participation in the debate. The Milk Party, a play on the Tea Party, is a non-partisan movement with a grassroots campaign. David Lawrence stresses, “Our only ideology has to do with investing in children and making them the number one priority in Florida.”
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