Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I introduce with my colleague, Senator Grassley, the Prescribe a Book Act I thank Senators Markey, Stabenow, and Warren for joining us as original cosponsors of this bipartisan bill. Literacy skills are the foundation for success in school and in life. Developing and building these skills begins at home, with parents as the first teachers. Children who are read to frequently at home are more likely to become frequent readers themselves in later years. Indeed, according to Scholastic's Kids and Families Reading Report, among children ages 6-11, 60 percent of frequent readers, those who read 57 days per week for fun, were read to aloud by a parent 5-7 times per week before they entered kindergarten. This highlights the important role that parents play in building their children's literacy skills. To help support the parental role in literacy, the Prescribe a Book Act would create a federal pediatric early literacy grant initiative based on the long-standing, successful Reach Out and Read program. The program would award grants on a competitive basis to high-quality nonprofit entities to train doctors and nurses to discuss with parents the importance of reading aloud to their children and to give books to children at pediatric check-ups from 6 months to 5 years of age, with a priority for children from low-income families.…”