Illiteracy is major Problem in Avon Park

 

One of our first objectives at the National Community Network and Coalition of Highlands, INC aka the NCNCHINC, is the battle illiteracy here in Avon Park, Fl. Once we get our doors open to the public, we would like to start a tutoring program on the first floor of our headquarters building. But this problem is bigger than us and we welcome other non profits to follow our directive.  Now I will explain why!

 

One of the most serious problems in Avon Park, FL., is illiteracy.  I know this is a national problem throughout the black community and abroad, but in Florida, we have one of the lowest graduation rates in the United States at about 71% in 2010-11, according to the U.S. Department of Education.  Meanwhile at Avon Park High school during the same period, which is one of the worst performing High Schools in Florida and our country 77.3% whites graduated and 74.7 Hispanics graduated, but only 65% of the black students graduated.  This is about 1 out of every 3 black teens dropped out of High School.  And this does not count those that never even made it to High School.  These statistics are alarming!

 

We must combat illiteracy in the black communities across America and there is even a more urgent need for this in Florida and as you can see, one of the most illiterate areas in Florida is Avon Park.  There is a direct correlation between illiteracy and crime. For example there is more crime in Avon Park, than it is in  Sebring, Fl.  But the statistics on crime in this area is not accurate because the police force allows criminals to operate freely anyway. And Sebring has its own police force whereby Avon Park doesn't, so there is probably even more crime going unreported here in Avon Park.

 

The lack of education, leaves people with less options as a means to survive.  It leads to more teen pregnancies, because often young girls are attracted to older men as a means to buy drugs, leading them to lives on food stamps, welfare and child support.  Everybody knows there is probably a drug dealer on every corner of Avon Park, because too many young black men are unemployable.  They say you even have to fill out a job application to pick fruit these days.  Also, it makes our town less attractive to new investments in light industry, because there is a lack of qualified potential employees.  And runs retail establishments away from us, because of the high levels of shop lifting, which is a major loss prevention problem at our retail establishments here in Highlands County.

 

Yet, Avon Park is a city that is growing as is Highlands County. And a serious dilemma, we have to pay heed to is that, too many of our locals will be left behind when development peeks.  Too many of our youths are in a mindset of hopelessness and despair and are giving up in their early twenties and even younger than that, when they have their whole lives in front of them.  I blame this on the corrupt political system here in Avon Park.  Because they are making it easy for our youths to make the wrong decisions.  It is too easy to simply sell drugs and steal for a living. It is too easy to molest children into having sex for a dime bag of weed,  The system is allowing this to go on.  They are not protecting our youth, by detouring criminal behavior.

 

Sure people must take responsibility for their own bad decisions as well.  But, I know that the main barrier that is a stumbling block that is preventing many of these kids from taking on the challenge of gaining a GED is the fear of failure.  Because of the mathematics requirement in the GED test, many of them are giving up before they even get started.  Though they believe they can learn to read, they do not believe they can learn to count, yet they all seem to believe they are about making money, by selling dimes of crack and weed to their neighbors. And this is a cocktail for failure for the next generation coming up, because the parents cannot instruct their children with homework assignments, due to their lack of mathematical skills.

 

The battle against illiteracy is a win/win agenda.  Though we do not have our 501 c 3 yet at the NCNCHINC, if it is God will, we will have it before the year is our.  But this work cannot wait on the IRS bureaucracy, we as a community must act now.  We need volunteers who a trained in General Education to come forward, to help tutor those who want a better life for themselves, which is most of them but they are afraid.  We need a strong business presence, to assist in the funding for these programs.  Like I said it is a win/win program, because decreased illiteracy means a more influential workforce, lees loss prevention problems, less drugs on the street, less teenage pregnancies, meaning less government dependence and overall less crime in general.  "It takes a village to raise a child," it will take a village to erase illiteracy from the map of repression in America and Avon Park. 

 

Frank Paul Jones - President of the NCNCHINC