Honoring Read Across America

Floor Speech

HONORING READ ACROSS AMERICA -- (Extensions of Remarks - March 05, 2007)

* Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, in May 1997, a small reading task force at National Education Association came up with a big idea. ``Let's create a day to celebrate reading,'' the group decided. ``We hold pep rallies to get kids excited about football--why don't we do something to get kids excited about reading? We'll call it `NEA's Read Across America' and we'll celebrate it on Dr. Seuss's birthday.'' And so was born on March 2, 1998, the largest celebration of reading this country has ever seen.

* To commemorate this special day, I recently joined third-graders at Coal City Elementary and read to them some of Dr. Seuss' more famous stories, including The Cat in the Hat, which marks its 50th anniversary this year. As always, it was a joy to spend some time with the students and their instructors, Sandra Snuffer, Donna Thomas and Janet Smith. I was inspired by the students' interest in learning, and encouraged by our educators' dedication to teaching them the importance of literacy.

* Of course, as we all know, just as reading should not be confined to our classrooms, neither should our efforts to encourage literacy be confined to one single day of the year. As President Bill Clinton once said, ``Literacy is not a luxury, it is a right and a responsibility. If our world is to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century we must harness the energy and creativity of all our citizens.''

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* It's hard to believe, but 20 percent of the people you see during the course of a day cannot read, according to most recent statistics. In the Third District of West Virginia, this average is even higher, at 24 percent. This is a startling statistic that needs to change and we are deeply indebted to the organizations that devote themselves to this important cause--organizations like the Literacy West Virginia, which has councils in all of West Virginia's 55 counties. On February 21, I had the opportunity to meet with the Tri-State Literacy Council and its director Dee George at the Cabell County Library to discuss the great strides the organization is making in adult education.

* I am proud of my record of support for literacy programs and initiatives. Time and again I have opposed budget proposals from this Administration that would cut funding to important literacy programs which are intended to assist families break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy. And I will continue to fight policies that undermine the hard work so many are doing to improve reading levels in the Mountain State.

* I have also again contacted my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee in Congress urging them to provide $25 million in federal funds to the Reading Is Fundamental Inexpensive Book Distribution Program (RIF), allowing this important literacy initiative to continue operating at its current level. As the Nation's largest children's literacy organization, RIF last year provided more than 16 million new books free of charge to nearly 4.5 million of the nation's most underserved children in all fifty states.

* Literacy is the gateway to educational excellence and a key to success in our society. On Read Aloud Day, let us recommit to helping improve the lives of the men, women, and children in West Virginia and across America who cannot read.

* Because with literacy, to borrow from the great Dr. Seuss himself:

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose.

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