The top local stories this morning from KERA News:
Literacy experts came together in Fort Worth Thursday to talk about getting younger kids to read and getting their parents involved in the process.
Arcelia León oversees literacy efforts for the Fort Worth Independent School District. She says research shows there are benefits for kids who read every day.
“Students who read 20 minutes a day tend to score in the 90th percentile of standardized tests by third grade, so imagine the impact we can make if we continue that momentum throughout those two critical summer months where kids aren’t going to school every day," she said.
There are several reading initiatives underway in Tarrant County. FWISD is working with several schools in the Stop Six neighborhood, an area that has struggled for years with high employment and low incomes.
Gleniece Robinson, library director for the city of Fort Worth library director, says it’s not just the schools that need to promote literacy.
“In each area or anybody with whom I’m having some conversation, I can talk to them about the importance of literacy. And for me, I talk about it not from an educator’s point of view.”
Thursday’s discussion was held at Tarry County College and organized by United Way of Tarrant County.
Other stories this morning:
- The Dallas Police and Fire Pension board is officially asking for some of DART's money. City Council and pension board member Scott Griggs authored a nonbinding resolution that would take a portion of sales tax sent to DART and funnel it to the failing pension fund instead. The funding proposal was approved 10 to 2. The transit agency says redirecting that bit of DART’s sales tax revenue — which totals more than $30 million dollars a year — would mean significant service cuts.
- A Texas House pensions committee this week advanced a bill to fix the Police and Fire Pension fund to the full House. The key figure in the fix is a small town-Republican: State Representative Dan Flynn comes from the tiny town of Van, about an hour east of Dallas. He talked with Rick Holter for our Friday Conversation.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
