Everyone knows the value of reading. It is a line-long skill that all our Missouri students need. This year, I am proud to take part in a national program aimed at celebrating literacy with elementary school children. On Oct. 3, an organization called Jumpstart, in partnership with the Pearson Foundation, will host a mass reading of Otis by Loren Long, a campaign known as Read for the Record. The goal of this event is to break the world record for reading the same book on the same day.

I am very excited to bring Otis to classrooms in both Johnson and Ray counties. I will read to students at Sterling Elementary in Warrensburg in the morning of Oct. 3, and then head to Lawson Elementary in Lawson to spend the afternoon with the teachers and students there. I can’t think of a better way to spend a day than sharing a great book with wonderful students.

Jumpstart began this project in 2006 with the book, The Little Engine that Could. In the years since the first reading, this campaign has engaged more than nine million children, raised more than $8 million dollars for early education programs and provided more than 1.2 million books to needy children.

As an organization, Jumpstart trains volunteers, mostly college students and community members, to assist children at the pre-school level and in low-income neighborhoods in the development of language and literacy, skills they will rely on for the rest of their lives and skills that many young students in those communities tend to lack when they get to school.

For more information on Jumpstart, Read for the Record or any of their other programs, please visit www.jstart.org.

Here in Missouri, early education, as well as elementary, secondary and higher education, remains a strong focus for legislation. There were more than 140 bills introduced last session dealing with some aspect of education. This totaled 9 percent of the bills that received a committee hearing.

I look forward to the upcoming session, beginning in January 2014. I have no doubt that education will take center stage in a number of discussions. Until then, I look forward to meeting the students of both Sterling and Lawson elementary schools and sharing with them the love of reading.

As always, please feel free to contact me or my staff with any questions or concerns at any time. We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions and trying to answer any questions you may have. You can reach us by phone at 866-277-0882 (toll-free) or 573-751-2272, or by fax at 573-526-7381.