a city reader

'When you learn to read you will be born again...and you will never be quite so alone again.' 
                                                                              -Rumer Godden, late British writer

When you read that quote you realize it's sinful not to make sure every school kid learns to read well. If parents aren't confident or competent enough to see to it, then of course school is where it all has to happen. There's no other place. The Governor and the Mayor and the Schools Chancellor and the teachers have to be focused on reading above all else. Even the kids who don't show up every day have to learn to read well. Ten years the law says kids have to be in school. That should be enough time. Ten years. But it's not working for so many city kids. Something's not being done.