By: Becca Nelson Sankey

A BUSH FAMILY ENDEAVOR

The Bush name has become synonymous with literacy since George H.W. Bush became president in 1989. Perhaps because of her son Neil’s struggles with dyslexia, Barbara Bush took a keen interest in literacy, starting her namesake foundation during her husband’s inaugural year of presidency. A few years later, Barbara became a vocal and crucial advocate for the passage of the National Literacy Act of 1991. She also authored Millie’s Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush, and C. Fred’s Story, the proceeds of which benefited literacy programs, as well as Barbara Bush: A Memoir and Reflections: Life After the White House. Two of Bush’s children, Neil and Maria, started the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation in 2013 to boost literacy and improve quality of life for Houston residents.

STAGGERING STATISTICS

The Barbara Bush Foundation literacy programs benefit more than 700 students and families in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to a news release from the foundation. Those programs include Teen Trendsetters, which pairs teenage mentors with first- or second-grade students who are, on average, half a year behind their grade level in reading, according to the release. The foundation’s family programs teach parents to read, on average boosting their literacy by two grade levels in the course of one year, according to their website. Ninety percent of preschoolers helped by the foundation finish the school year at the same reading level as their classmates and are ready to start kindergarten. Furthermore, besides just Texans, children and adults in all 50 states have benefited from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

U.S. literacy statistics are sobering. More than 36 million Americans are unable to read and one in four adults cannot read at a fifth-grade level, according to the foundation’s literature. Furthermore, illiteracy and low literacy are linked to higher unemployment, lower incomes levels, and poor health; students who do not read proficiently by the third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school; and fewer than 47 percent of children whose mothers do not have a high school diploma are ready for school (compared to 83 percent of those whose mothers have earned a bachelor’s degree). “You get one educated person in a family, and it’s like tossing a stone into a brook and it just ripples on down,” co-chair of the 2017 Dallas-Fort Worth Celebration of Reading event, Millie Cooper said. “I can see the personal effect (of education) in my own life.”

In North Texas alone, 70 percent of low-income fourth-graders cannot read at grade level, said event co-chair Angie Cooper in a news release from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. “As a mother and former school teacher, I have seen the direct impact education can have in the lives of children and their families,” she said. “I am honored to support the Barbara Bush Foundation and its efforts directly aimed at ensuring that every child is given the opportunity to achieve the American dream, while providing access to learning resources and programs critical for success.”

CELEBRATION OF READING EVENTS

Celebration of Reading began in 2002 and is held in Maine, Florida, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth. The Dallas event features a panel of New York Times best-selling authors, each of whom speak briefly and read from their latest work, as well as the personal testimony of a student who has benefited from a Barbara Bush Foundation program. “It’s usually a very moving testimony,” Cooper said. “They talk about why [the foundation is] important to them and the opportunities it’s afforded them.”

Past authors at the Dallas Celebration of Reading include John Grisham, J.G. Daniel, Daniel Silva, and Robert M. Edsel, Cooper said. The 2017 lineup included Leigh Anne Tuohy, an American interior designer best known for being the legal guardian of Michael Oher. Sandra Bullock won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Tuohy in the 2009 movie, The Blind Side. The movie was based on Michael Lewis’s bestselling nonfiction book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, partly about a homeless teen adopted by the Tuohy family who, with their support, played football for the University of Mississippi and eventually the NFL.