As President, I will make education my number one domestic policy priority. Success in school is strongly influenced by how much parents expose a child to language and reading before starting school. Children who have been read to for hundreds of hours are much more likely to start school ready to learn. Family literacy is an excellent way to increase vitally important parental involvement. Through intensive education of more than one generation, family literacy programs build on families' strengths.
Families come to school together.
While their children learn in nearby classrooms, parents work on their own reading skills. And parents practice teaching their children under the guidance of professional teachers. Parents learn that the most important thing they can do to prepare their children for success in school is to read to them early and often. The initiative is a grant program which awards seed money to Texas family literacy programs. I strongly believe that families are the backbone of our society and as Governor of Texas, I have supported efforts that help families either through increasing child care funding for low-income families, transitional assistance from those families on welfare who find employment, and offering affordable children's health insurance available statewide.