Communities step up to close gaps in funding for programs, initiatives

Just this week, 1,500 volunteers from four public school districts in Houston took to the streets, knocking on doors - trying to get school dropouts back in classrooms. This is not new. The community has done it every year since 2004. School officials say the dropout problem in Houston has reached epidemic proportions, with as many as 45 percent of HISD freshmen failing to graduate in four years.

Alief and Spring Branch ISDs will hold their first "Reach Out to Dropouts" campaign this week and Aldine has a similar effort under way for the second year. Alief has gone one step further by opening a night high school so students with jobs can return to classes while staying employed.

When Baytown volunteers started a local citizens group to help quash crime in their city, the organizers didn't expect the type of response they got. There was so much interest a new meeting place had to be found to accommodate the number of citizens wanting to be involved in the effort. The group established a Web site that already has 500 subscribers and gets approximately that many hits daily from non-subscribers. The Web site alerts citizens to criminal activity in their areas. Both the mayor and police chief are involved with the group.

Volunteers in Jacksonville and Cherokee County decided to take on illiteracy and provide assistance to students trying to get GEDs. Facing a 40 percent illiteracy rate in Cherokee County, the Jacksonville Literacy Council accepted the challenge of teaching citizens to read and understand English as a second language. Funding for both efforts is coming through either grants or donations.

The Longview Independent School District is making plans to open its doors to adult learners. Classes offered will include subjects such as parenting, computer science and conversational Spanish. Not only will the classes increase and improve skills among the adult members of the community, but the programs should also result in an improved quality of life for everyone in the community.

Longview modeled its program after one in the Waxahachie ISD. Waxahachie's adult education program started in 2002. In the beginning, there were only five adult classes, but now the program boasts more than 50 different sessions including cooking, welding and paralegal certifications for adults.

A charity group in Richardson is offering more than a hot meal, a bus pass or a tank of gas for people down on their luck. The group has an Adolescent and Children's Clinic that works with the Richardson school district to identify at-risk children who cannot afford healthcare. More than two-dozen doctors and nurses volunteer their time in the evenings to provide healthcare for children as well as preventative care for senior citizens. Stretching themselves even more, the same group also provides assistance with home repair services for homebound senior citizens who can't afford projects to bring their residences up to code. More than 200 volunteers and donations ensure these services are available to members of the community.

When some campuses in the Corpus Christi school district failed to meet federal standards, school officials came up with an innovative way to ensure student progress. Without additional staff, CCISD officials devised a co-teaching program that is now in place in 38 of the district's 62 schools. Each classroom has an instructor and a co-teacher who supplement math or reading lessons with one-on-one instruction. Introduced in 2004, the program now has trained 255 instructors in the co-teaching model.

Perhaps one of the most innovative examples of visionary economic development efforts comes from city officials in Corpus Christi. Realizing the importance of an educated workforce as it relates to economic prosperity for any area, the city budgeted this year for a city education director. This individual will work with both the city and with area schools to ensure that students graduate with skill sets that are attractive to local business and industry as well as to industry that the region hopes to attract.

Out of the tragedies of 9-11 and recent weather-related disasters has come an increased awareness of the important role that first responders play in communities. The Lamar Institute of Technology Foundation in Beaumont provides scholarships for students who plan a career as a first responder. Local money is invested in students who will eventually serve that same community as firefighters, law enforcement officers or paramedics.

Enough said...efforts like this are extremely impressive. Less funding but more initiatives than ever! Texans should take a huge amount of pride in what local communities are doing for the betterment of this state.