National Literacy Institute<\/a> reports illiteracy costs American taxpayers an estimated $20 billion each year, or $130 per tax filer. Robin Henderson, chief program officer of School Smart KC, said about 290,000 adults in Kansas City struggle with low literacy. <\/p>\n\u201cOur students are not leaving third grade at or above third grade level,\u201d Henderson said. <\/p>\n
Leavens said interest in independent reading has declined, creating broader community impacts. <\/p>\n
\u201cInterest in reading, specifically reading independently, has been on the decline,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an astounding number.\u201d <\/p>\n
Henderson said literacy affects multiple aspects of community life. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s connected to everything, right? It\u2019s a health issue. It\u2019s a community safety issue. Literacy is foundational to everything,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Leavens said his own reading struggles in middle school inform his approach to student choice in book selection. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when I was growing up in middle school, I hated reading. I got in shouting matches with my dad about \u2018Where the Red Fern Grows\u2019 because I didn\u2019t want to read it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
His perspective changed when he chose his own book. <\/p>\n
\u201cI picked up Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger and it lit a fire under me for reading,\u201d Leavens said. \u201cKids need to have choice over the books that they read,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Guadalupe Centers Middle School faces challenges common to urban schools, including limited space and personnel for traditional library services. <\/p>\n
\u201cSpace is one thing. Personnel is another thing,\u201d Leavens said. <\/p>\n
Leavens said his father, who died in 2019, influenced his commitment to educational investment. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe valued education so much and he valued reading. He always believed in making investments. You always invest in things appreciate, that are gonna grow,\u201d Leavens said. <\/p>\n
Henderson said community support demonstrates broader investment in student success. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy to see that our community is wrapping its arms around one of our schools,\u201d she said. \u201cLiteracy is not just a school issue. It\u2019s an everyone issue.\u201d <\/p>\n
The donation collection runs through Feb. 1 through Rainy Day Books.<\/a> <\/p>\nCopyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A Kansas City middle school English teacher has raised more than $3,000 through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[42518,42520,42519,42521,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-87630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-chris-leavens","tag-guadalupe-centers-middle-school","tag-middle-school-reading-project","tag-national-literacy-institute","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}