David Lawrence Jr. retired in 1999 as publisher of The Miami Herald to work in the area of early childhood development and readiness. He is president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and "University Scholar for Early Childhood Development and Readiness" at the University of Florida. In 2002 he led the campaign for The Children's Trust, a dedicated source of early intervention and prevention funding for children in Miami-Dade; he now is its chair.

He was named by Gov. Jeb Bush to the Florida Partnership for School Readiness, he chaired that oversight board for two terms. He is a national board member of the Foundation for Child Development. In 2002-3 he chaired the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Protection. In 2002, he was a key figure in passing a statewide constitutional amendment to provide high-quality pre-K availability for all 4 year olds.

He is a board member and former chair of the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade and Monroe. The David Lawrence Jr. K-8 School, a Miami-Dade Public School for ultimately 1,600 students, opened in 2006 across from the north campus of Florida International University. A fully endowed chair in early childhood studies has been established in his name at the University of Florida College of Education.

Before coming to Miami in 1989, he was publisher and executive editor of the Detroit Free Press. He came to the Free Press in 1978 from the Charlotte Observer where he was editor.He joined then Knight Newspapers (now Knight Ridder) in 1971. (During his tenure as publisher of The Miami Herald, the paper won five Pulitzer Prizes.)

He is a graduate of the University of Florida and named "Outstanding Journalism Graduate."He graduated from the Advanced Management program at the Harvard Business School in 1983. In 1988, he was honored with Knight-Ridder's top award, the John S. Knight Gold Medal.He has 12 honorary doctorates, including from his alma mater, the University of Florida. His national honors include the Ida B. Wells Award "for exemplary leadership in providing minorities employment opportunities" and the National Association of Minority Media Executives award for "lifetime achievement in diversity."

His writing awards include the First Amendment Award from the Scripps Howard Foundation and the Inter American Press Association Commentary Award. He served twice as chair of the national Task Force on Minorities in the Newspaper Business, was the 1991-92 president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the 1995-96 president of the Inter American Press Association.

His board activity includesThe Miami Art Museum, United Way and the New World School of the Arts (each formerly as chair), and the University of Florida Foundation. As a member of the Governor's Commission on Education, he chaired the Readiness Committee. He was the local convening co-chair of the 1994 Summit of the Americas. And he co-founded a non-profit vocational-technical school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

He and Roberta, a master's graduate in social work from Barry, live in Coral Gables and have 3 daughters and 2 sons. His honors include: "Family of the Year" from Family Counseling Services, "Father of the Year" by the South Florida Father's Day Council, the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Advocacy Award and the Public Policy Award of the Early Childhood Association of Florida.

Last year he was honored for "Lifetime Achievement" at the Dr. Martin Luther King Spirit of Excellence Awards benefit, and this year with the Elaine Gordon "You Made a Difference" Award. Nationally, he has been honored with the American Public Health Association Award of Excellence, the Lewis Hine Award for Children and Youth and the "Children's Champion" award from the National Black Child Development Institute.

In this interview, he discusses his current endeavors and his current concerns about education.

1) What are you focused on these days?

Many things, among them these three: (1) How to improve pre-K quality: Florida passed a constitutional amendment in 2002 that led to the beginning of "voluntary universal pre-kindergarten" for 4 year olds. The first school year was 2005-07, and 120,000 children are in the program, or more than half of all 4 year olds. But the program still has a considerable distance to go to achieve the "high quality" mandated in the constitutional amendment. (2) Reauthorization of The Children's Trust next year: In Miami-Dade County we passed a half-mill property tax in 2002 that comes up for reauthorization next year. The Trust, which I chair, invests more than $100 million a year in early intervention and prevention for the more than half-million children in our community. (3) A variety of other key initiatives that speak to building an early childhood movement for all children in our community: Those include a quality rating system for child care…work with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the school system and the University of Florida to align curriculum and professional development from pre-K through third grade in the country's fourth biggest school system…and "home visiting" to be offered to every first-time mother in our community.

2) What are some of the things that parents need to be good parents?

None of our work means much without parents. I start from the premise that parents so love their children, so want the best for them…but many parents don't know what to do. For example: If you don't know that TV is a bad babysitter, then you might well use television to park your children in front of the tube.

Or: If you don't know how critical it is to read with your child from his or her youngest days, then your child is missing a wonderful opportunity to grow. Those are just two examples of many. We have a first-rate website called Teach More/Love More in three languages, and 24-hour phone lines, too – all predicated on giving parents the information they need to help their children be successful. We at The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation also have a packet of high-quality, non-commercial information we give to every one of the parents of the 32,000 children born each year in this community. Again, these are all in three languages (English, Spanish and Haitian Creole).

That includes baby's first book!

3) What are some of your guiding principles?

That much of the power of each community is in convening the leadership of that community to work toward a shared vision for all children…that there is great power within each of us to make a difference…that we are building a "movement" for all children, and not a "program" for some…that it is about all our children, not "those" children…that, yes, some children are more at risk and will need more help, but the same principles of health and education and nurturing that raise our five children are the same principles for everyone…that this is a matter of public and private partnership, with much of the leadership coming from the private sector and, hence, transcending any particular administration…that the greatest power in America – in contrast, say, to France – is "local" and that our community, or anyone's community, can be an example for others.

4) How did you get interested in this in the first place?

I was a newspaperman who worked for 35 years at seven newspapers as reporter, editor or publisher. A little more than a decade ago, the then governor of Florida, Lawton Chiles, asked me to be on the Governor's Commission on Education and, then, chair the "school readiness" task force. I learned so much and thought it was all so important that I decided to retire to work fulltime on all this. I read a lot about such matters (still do), and continue to visit places like France and Sweden and Italy and China, and have come away convinced that the future of America is to a great extent linked to the investments we can make in families and children. I am not in "sales"; then again, maybe I am. Knowing the research is critical. So I speak all the time, for instance, about the dollar invested up front that will save seven or more dollars later on in money we won't need to spend on police, prosecution, prison and remediation…speak all the time about the tragedy that perhaps 30 percent of the children who start formal school are way behind, with so many of them getting further behind…speak all the time about the national study that showed that if a hundred children leave first grade as poor readers, then 88 will still be poor readers after the fourth grade. The evidence is everywhere to make the case for early investment. And all must be high quality because only real quality leads to real outcomes.

5) Have you had any angels in your work?

Absolutely! I am a blessed man. Blessed by a supportive family, beginning with my wife Roberta. Blessed by a Miami couple, Dr. Jane and Gerald Katcher, who underwrite the basic corpus of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation. Blessed by parents who insisted that each of us – all nine children – needed to make some difference for the better in this world. Blessed by the good people I work with every day in what might be the most interesting – and some days challenging – community in our country. Blessed to be able to lead an optimistic, idealistic life!

6) You don't come from a traditional early childhood background. Is that a handicap?

I don't think so. I work with people who know much more than I do about early childhood matters (though I have learned so much), and I am not discomfited by working with those people; indeed, I am energized by them. What I bring to the table is the willingness to ask a lot of questions, an eagerness to learn, a vision, and purposeful energy. Much of the power in my community is in collaboration – The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, the Early Learning Coalition, The Children's Trust, United Way, the Healthy Start Coalition, the Family Learning Partnership, the school system, the health department, higher education, and the list goes on and on. We like each other, believe in each other, are eager to work on behalf of children – together.

7) How can people learn more about what you are doing and what you are trying to accomplish?

We're all learning from each other in this world – or we ought to be. I do a lot of traveling in this country and abroad – all focused on early childhood and what I can learn from others. Though I work from a central vision, I hope I have ideas six months from now that I don't have today…and more new ideas six months from then…and so forth. Now, to be more specific, the easiest way for people to start learning about what we are doing is to go to our Teach More/Love More website, accessible via teachmorelovemore.org. I also am easily accessible via e mail: dlawrence@childreadiness.org. Go to the website, and click on About Us; that will give anyone a good outline of an array of efforts on behalf of children.

8) Any last words?

I love this country, believe in this country, believe what I learned in eighth grade civics a half-century ago: That is, everyone in this country is entitled to opportunity. Yes, entitled. We are an instinctively generous country, and we Americans want to be fair. Let us be "fair," then, to all children. What could be a wiser investment in their future, and our future? What could be more "American"?

Published August 6, 2007