Children's Home Society has earned a $100,000 grant to track data from the community school project at C.A. Weis elementary.

The Studer Community Institute’s Pensacola Metro Dashboard shows that 34 percent of children in Escambia County start their first day of kindergarten unprepared.

More than half of these children are two years behind their peers, according to Malcolm Thomas, superintendent of the Escambia County School District.

The fact was featured in a story written for the Pensacola News Journal that highlighted the “Be the Bulb Challenge,” which is offering $50,000 for the best ideas to improve kindergarten readiness in Escambia County. You can read more about “Be the Bulb” here.

The challenge is sponsored by Quint and Rishy Studer. The PNJ story, written by Thomas St. Myer, did a good job of explaining the Studers’ interest in kindergarten readiness:

“Research by Studer Community Institute and the University of West Florida Office of Economic Development and Engagement indicates one-third of kindergartners in the Escambia County School District show up for the first day of school unprepared. Quint Studer said that statistic negatively impacts high school graduation rates and job readiness in the county, and long-term that means the poverty rate will remain high.”

Enter the contest: CLICK HERE. The deadline to submit an idea is April 27.

Studer told St. Myer that right now he and his wife are just looking for ideas.

“What you have to do early on is keep it pretty simple,” Quint Studer said. “If the idea is good enough, and we truly believe it’ll have an impact, we can go out and make it happen.”