As parents of four grown children, all with children of their own, we know that literacy is vital to a person’s academic, social emotional, and personal success. But we also know that learning to read doesn’t come naturally, so we have been intentionally supporting language and literacy development in our children and our grandchildren from birth.

As business and community leaders in WNY we know that a literate community in which people live, work, and raise their family is critical to our company’s success and the success of everyone who calls Buffalo and the Niagara region home.  But a literate community does not come naturally either.

Far too many of our community’s children are failing to read at grade-level by the end of 3rd grade: 73% in Buffalo and 78% in Niagara Falls are failing. Across the State 2/3rds of 4th graders are failing.  This failure to read proficiently makes it statistically more likely these children, hundreds of our children in this region, will not graduate from high school career or college ready and will not find employment that pays a living wage.

High-impact tutoring is uniquely positioned to help children learn the mechanics of reading, so they have the skills they need to read to learn in 4th grade and beyond. Over 150 randomized controlled trials – systematic studies of program effects that isolate the true effect of the program on student learning – point to the effectiveness of tutoring. Studies show that high-impact tutoring can lead to significant learning gains for a wide range of students, including those whose education was disrupted by the pandemic or who missed early learning opportunities and are now struggling in the early grades.

Fortunately, we have Read to Succeed Buffalo.  RTSB provides high impact tutoring for hundreds of Buffalo’s youngest students and is expanding tutoring to Niagara County in the fall.  But expansion requires investment from New York State, and the time is now.

Please join us in advocating for Assembly Bill A. 2625 (S.1820) that will deliver the funding necessary to ensure high impact tutoring can reach more students in WNY. Reach out to your local State legislator and Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, Buffalo’s own and the second highest ranking member in the Assembly, to make sure that the final state budget includes an investment to mitigate learning loss through this proven, research-backed intervention.

We all want and frankly need the children of our community to succeed.  But schools and parents cannot do it alone – especially if a young child is already behind in their literacy development for whatever the reason. 

High impact tutoring, provided by RTSB, is so much more than homework help or reading aloud to children.  While those are important supports, high impact tutoring, based on the science of how children learn to read and provided one-on-one to struggling students, is the game changer required to help every child, and our community, reach its full potential.

Peter Hunt is CEO and chairman of Hunt Real Estate Corp, and Mary Jo Hunt is a board member of Read to Succeed.