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Verizon Awards $1 Million to Racially-based Group
  MIAMI, July 23 /PRNewswire/ -- An innovative program designed to build
early literacy skills among Latino children will continue to expand and
assist more families, thanks to a $1 million grant from the Verizon
Foundation. The award was announced Monday (July 23) during a luncheon at
the National Council of La Raza's annual conference here.
    The program, Lee y seras(R), is a national early literacy initiative
designed to empower families and communities to foster literacy development
in children from birth to 8 years old. The program, and its accompanying
Web site (http://www.leeyseras.net), provide research-based, culturally
sensitive resources to help parents in their role as their child's first
teacher.

    "In today's workforce, and for the high-tech workforce of tomorrow, a
greater level of literacy is demanded than ever before," said Verizon
Foundation President Patrick Gaston. "Lee y seras is having a profound
effect on Hispanic children and their families by providing the tools they
need today to lead and succeed tomorrow."
    While early literacy is an important issue for all children, it is of
special concern to the Latino community. Consider:
    -- Nationally, 84 percent of Latino 4th graders are reading below
       proficiency levels. (1)
    -- The dropout rate of Hispanic students is four times higher than that of
       white students and more than double that of black students (24 percent
       for Hispanics, 10.9 percent for black students and 6.3 percent for
       white students). (2)
    -- Less than 25 percent of Latino 17-year-olds can read at the skill level
       necessary for success in college and the increasingly high-tech
       workplace. (3)
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