Pre-K, character education critical for state's future, attorney tells Hoover chamber

Liz Huntley grew up as the daughter of two drug dealers in a housing project in Huntsville.

Her father went to prison for dealing drugs, and her mother got addicted to heroin and committed suicide. She experienced poverty, hunger and sexual abuse all before she ever got into first grade.

But something happened that changed her life, Huntley told the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce today at the group’s monthly luncheon at the Hoover Country Club.

Some businessmen in her grandmother’s community in Clanton got a grant and started a preschool at a church to get her and other black children ready to go to an integrated school across town.

“God used that preschool to save my life literally,” Huntley said.

Volunteers and teachers poured love and nurture into her and helped give her the confidence and skills to succeed in life.

Now, she’s a wife and mother of three children, an attorney in Birmingham and member of the National Black Lawyers Top 100. She serves on the board of trustees of Auburn University, University of Alabama Law School Foundation, Leadership Alabama, Alabama Readiness Council, Children First Foundation, Children’s Village and Cornerstone Schools of Alabama.

In addition to working in corporate law, Huntley regularly is appointed by judges to represent the legal interests of children in civil cases and serves as a consultant to government agencies on legislation affecting children.

She’s also a leader in the movement to expand access to high-quality pre-K education for all 4-year-olds in Alabama, and is the president and co-founder of the Hope Institute, a nonprofit at Samford University that aims to help schools build character in children.

Huntley said none of this would have been possible without God’s intervention and people being willing to answer the call to make a difference in the lives of young children.

“The investment in small children is so important if you want to do something about the future of what’s going to happen in your community,” she said.

There are many young children in dysfunctional families facing extreme difficulties due to no fault of their own, Huntley said.

“They don’t ask to be born into the places they’re born into, but they’re still human beings and they still have a chance at life,” she said. “You just never know, if you pour into them, what they might be able to accomplish in spite of that.”

And reaching them early and giving them early access to education can be a game-changer, Huntley said. Science has shown that 90 percent of a child’s brain develops before they reach the age of 6, she said.

“When children go through adverse childhood experiences, the damage to a child can be so powerful that it actually affects the neurology of the brain, the way that their brain is developing,” she said.

When that happens, there is no magical pill that can fix that for children, but the right amount of nurturing and love can reverse that damage, she said. High-quality early childhood education often provides that for children, she said. Studies have shown that 99 percent of children with access to high-quality pre-K education can read at grade level by third grade, she said.

That academic preparation, combined with character education, helps make a healthy, well-balanced adult that can contribute better to society, she said.

“Hitler was a pretty smart guy, but that didn’t make him a good guy,” Huntley said. “It’s important that we educate minds, but we also need to educate the hearts of our students.”

Huntley said she was recently at a meeting put on by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, and mayors of the biggest cities in Alabama all said the No. 1 challenge their cities face is the lack of a highly-skilled workforce and the tough time that companies have retaining good workers, from those in minimum-wage jobs to executives making six-figure salaries.

“What are we doing for our young people to make sure they’re the kind of people we want to be out there both running our companies and working for our companies and industries and in our government in this state?” Huntley asked.

Focusing on school readiness and character education is a no-brainer from the business perspective, but it’s also the right thing to do as human beings, she said.

Huntley received a standing ovation from Hoover chamber members when she finished her talk.