Books will write the future
Technology andinnovation are shaping the jobs that our nation’ s children will pursue. Yet where there should bean abundance of opportunity, we’ re seeing the threat of a growing skills gap in the U.S ., where 1.2 million students drop out of high school each year. That gap could worsen if we don’ t address a critical, and early, obstacle: childhood illiteracy.
Literacy is the firstcritical step along the path to success—the beginning of a lifetime of learning that people need to build skills and thrive in a fastc hanging marketplace.
Research shows themost significant barrier to childhood literacy is a lack of access to books. Today, more than half of U.S. public school students live inlow-income house holds, and two-thirds of children from low-incomefamilies lack access to books. Seventy-four percent of children in greater Houston are considered economically disadvantaged.
Children with access to books benefit in a myriad of ways. They build stronger vocabularies and more meaningful connections with the larger world. Numerous studies confirm that the number of books in a home predicts and that children who grow up with books in their homes reach higher levels of education than those who do not.
As an innovative firm that employs tens of thousands of people across the United States, KP MG understands the very real impact of skills gap sin the workforce. More importantly, we see an abundance of opportunity to help.
Through K PM G’ s Literacy program and our collaboration with the nonprofit social enterprise First Book, we target Title I schools to provide children in low-income communities with new books. In addition to refurbishing and libraries, we read to children and give them books of their own. For many of them, it’s the first book they’ ve ever owned. It’ s a simple but highly effective way to help kids build a love of reading and show we really care about their future.
Through our Houston office’ s Power of ,15,000 new books will be distributed to children this summer at the Children’ s Museum of Houston.
If the childhood illiteracy issue is not addressed, the ripple effects on our country’ s future economic prosperity, productivity and competitiveness will be immense. We intend to advance meaningful dialogue and action by challengingourselves—and our colleagues in the business community—toworkwith the public sector to close the literacy gap.
“If the childhood illiteracy issue is not addressed, the ripple effects on our country’s future economic prosperity, productivity and competitiveness will be immense.”