Police and early childhood education
Missouri State Sen. Jeff Smith went riding with St. Louis police over the summer, and wrote an account worth reading — mainly because there’s no sugar coating.
The account includes this:
I met former Police Chief Joe Mokwa about 2 years ago and I asked him how we could reduce crime in the City. I expected he would ask or better equipment, higher salaries, and more beat officers.
“Early childhood education,” he said. “We’ve gotta get these kids ready to read by kindergarten. The ones that can’t read when 3rd grade starts end up across the street.” He nodded out the window to the city jail.
Still true.
(Pictured: A member of the St. Louis Crime Lab investigates the scene of a shooting on the corner of Davidson and Bircham Avenues in 2005. EDWARD LINSMIER/ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH)
Eddie Roth writes about education, social justice, public safety, transportation, legal affairs and historic preservation. He joined the Post-Dispatch editorial page in 2008 after six years as an editorial writer with the Dayton Daily News. But he is not new to St. Louis. Eddie grew up in Webster Groves and south St. Louis County. He's a lawyer who for many years practiced with a downtown firm, and was active in civic affairs, including serving a term on the St. Louis Police Board. He and his wife, Jeanne, and their three daughters, Emily, Julia and Alice, live in the Shaw Neighborhood.
When it comes to community organizing, he endorses Quentin Crisp's advice: Rather than keeping up with the Joneses, it's better to pull them down to your level. 
Amazing, a politican not calling for a gun ban or blaming the city’s problems on guns.
Isn’t that the parents job, to make sure THEIR children are doing their school work?
I totally agree with the officer, plus parents also can teach their
children respect for themselves and one another. Parents can also purchase
books on subjects that the children may have an interest in, that would al give the children more of a desire to read different books. God Bless