Ten years ago Vision To Learn began its journey by providing five children with glasses at Napa Elementary School in Northridge, California. Our Founder, Austin Beutner, shared his thoughts on the progress since then.
Why did you start Vision To Learn?
When I learned that children were going to school in my community without the glasses they needed, I couldn’t believe it. Los Angeles is the biggest city in the world’s 5th largest economy, the state of California. It’s just not acceptable that children would go without something so basic and so necessary.
![Girl on playground with new eyeglasses](https://visiontolearn.org/wp-content/uploads/girl-on-playground-with-new-glasses.jpg)
Since Napa Elementary, Vision To Learn has visited close to 5,000 schools as well as Boys and Girls Clubs to provide more than two million children with vision care and almost 350,000 of them with glasses. How does that feel?
It’s remarkable, truly remarkable. All of the effort would have been worth it even if we had only been able to help the five kids that first day. It’s great that we’ve been able to reach so many more.
But it’s easy to get lost in the numbers of kids we help. A Johns Hopkins study of Vision To Learn’s work in Baltimore shows the profound impact glasses have on children. The research was published in The Journal for the American Medical Association of Ophthalmology by the Center for Research and Reform in Education and the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Children who received glasses did better in school and the impacts were greater than more costly measures such as lengthening the school day, providing computers, or creating charter schools. The children who showed the biggest gains, the equivalent of an additional four to six months of learning, are those who are often the hardest to help — students in the bottom quarter of their class academically and students with learning differences and disabilities.
Each child has their own story. Maria (not her real name), a 10-year-old girl in East Los Angeles, brought a handheld magnifying glass with her every day to school which led many to think she aspired to be a scientist. Then teachers saw her using it to navigate her way around the playground. Imagine trying to play kickball while holding a magnifying glass. She’s just one of many school children who have been helped by Vision To Learn.
Vision To Learn operates 50 mobile clinics and has about 200 people working across the country. How do you manage such a sprawling organization?
It starts with great leadership from Ann Hollister along with our local program managers across the country. We’ve put in place systems and training to make sure we learn from mistakes and replicate success. The best ideas from Des Moines are shared with Honolulu and Newark. And vice versa.
We pay careful attention to operating efficiency and costs. Vision To Learn’s program costs less than $150 per child for everything—vision screenings and eye exams as well as providing and fitting the glasses. The cost of a single patient visit for eye care at most traditional, brick-and-mortar clinics or hospitals is three to four times greater than that amount.
Ann can tell you our clinical teams saw an average of 18 kids per day last week in Philadelphia and why it costs $122 to help a child in Atlanta compared with $145 in Washington, D.C. One common misconception is the glasses themselves. Frames and lenses all together are less than 10% of our costs.
Far and away the biggest investment we make is in people. We have a great team across the country who believe in the mission along with a well-managed hiring program to make sure we have properly trained and licensed clinical staff everywhere we work.
What about sustainability?
We recognized early on the magnitude of the challenge as millions of kids need glasses and don’t have them. Philanthropy can only get us part of the way there. Fortunately, most of the families of children we help are eligible for Medicaid which will cover some of the cost for a child from a low-income family to be provided with eye care and glasses.
Navigating Medicaid is a bit harder in practice than many policymakers recognize. Vision To Learn has led pioneering work at the federal and state level to make it possible. Our team has helped update rules and laws in many of the states we operate to allow our clinical teams to help kids at schools.
Vision To Learn is a great example of a public-private partnership that works.
One of Vision To Learn’s partners, Justin Turner of the Dodgers, was recently honored with the Roberto Clemente Award for community service by Major League Baseball. What role do he and other professional athletes and their teams play in Vision To Learn’s success?
Our goal is not just to provide kids with the glasses they need but to make sure they wear them. The athletes and their teams help kids feel excited and proud to wear their glasses. I remember being at Castelar Elementary School like it was yesterday. A couple of hundred kids all proudly wearing their Dodger gear and celebrating loudly as their classmates walked across the stage while Justin presented them with their glasses. As the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette wrote on their front page when then-Steeler JuJu Smith-Schuster joined us at Pittsburgh King K-8, “They’re the cool kids now.” We’re grateful to have the support of so many great local partners across the country.
Vision To Learn has been recognized by the U.S. Senate, California Teachers Association, Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and the Obama White House. What’s next?
Our mission is to make sure every child in every school, everywhere in the country has the glasses they need to succeed in school and in life. I’m confident we’ll reach that goal within the next decade.
And while we’re at it, we hope to build on the cost-effective model we’ve created and provide more help to children at schools. In addition to eye care, why not dental and hearing exams? Maybe we can provide a comprehensive physical exam for every child entering kindergarten? The best place to provide services to children in high-needs communities is where they are almost every day—their local, neighborhood public school.
Mr. Beutner shares more thoughts about Vision To Learn in A Decade of Progress.