Edward Becerra: Giving Books, Transforming Lives

Education Begins in the Home hands out thousands of free books to help students succeed

“Reading is the key to success in school, and school is the key to success in life.” Edward Becerra, the founder and director of Education Begins in the Home, lives by this mantra every day.

“I began Education Begins in the Home in May 2015,” he tells North County Informador, giving away some 300 books—three per person—at an all-day community fair at the Crown Heights Resource Center.

His goal? To change the statistics. After retiring from a phone company and the County of San Diego, Edward began volunteering. He soon heard that 68% of third graders were not reading at their grade level. “That’s two-thirds of our kids,” he notes. “The 68 becomes higher when you separate Latinos from that main grouping.”

Never having been in the field of education, Edward wasn’t sure how he could help move the needle. He says he talked to several people about reading and education, including Marjorie Pierce, the manager of Neighborhood Services for the City of Oceanside. She suggested that he should give books away.

But Edward had some questions. Where was he going to get books? And where would he give them away? His determination and love of education helped him overcome these barriers.

Education Begins in the Home Partner Organizations

  • Oceanside Promise
  • Empowering Latino Futures, which awarded Edward the Recognizing Greatness the “Community Spirit” Award
  • San Diego Council of Literacy, which awarded Edward the “Collaborative Award for Literacy” in December 2023

Book Categories

  • 0–5, pre-K
  • 6–10, elementary school
  • 11–15, middle school
  • 16+, high school and adults
  • Books in Spanish
  • Resource books

Book Donations from:

  • Skyline Elementary and Solana Pacific, Solana Beach
  • Martin Luther King Middle School, Oceanside
  • Del Dios Middle School Escondido
  • Point Loma Cabrillo State Library
  • Mission San Luis Rey Montessori
  • International Society of Latino Authors (ISLA, under Empowering Latino Futures)
  • Authors Ramona Moreno Winner, Georgette Baker, Victoria Lopez, Dwayne Douglas Kohn

Email: Educationbeginsinthehome@gmail.com

Education is the Key

Edward’s parents instilled in him the importance of doing well in school and talked to him about going to college. “It wasn’t if I went to college, it was when I was going to college. Education was a foundation for me,” he tells us.

After the Crown Heights Community Center and other community events, Edward started working with Oceanside schools, and then visited Escondido and Vista, where he told family and community liaisons, “We are the best-kept secret in your cities. If you invite us to your school, we will come and give your parents and your students free books.”

His organization began to grow. Soon, he no longer had to worry about getting books to give away.

At one of the Oceanside street fairs, Edward asked Gail Wells of the Friends of Oceanside Library if she could provide some free books. They began giving him 10 boxes of books a month and continue to donate today, under the new head volunteer, Blake Kern. Others have joined in the effort.

The Road to Success

Edward remembers how he started first grade with little knowledge. Today, he says, kids need to start preschool already knowing the alphabet and how to count to 20.

According to statistics, he says, 62% of pre-K students are not ready for kindergarten. To help close the gaps, he talks to parents about reading to their kids at home, teaching them their colors and numbers.

“That’s why we named our program Education Begins in the Home,” says Edward. Education “begins at home with them before they even start school.”

He says studies show the more parents read to children before they’re four, the better the student will be. “When a young child sees their parent reading, they become readers. We’re promoting reading. We’re promoting education,” he tells us.

Edward says Jose Cruz, the CEO of the San Diego Council of Literacy, in a radio interview a few years ago stated that 60% of the low-income families in San Diego County do not own a book at home.” Edward aims to change things.

“We’re very close to a quarter million books given away at almost 1000 events,” he says. “If schools invite us, we will bring their families free books. We’re now offering five free books to every person coming by our booth.”

Always focused on education, he says, “The more kids read, the more likely they will go to college and do well.” He tells, parents, “there is no app to replace your lap. Read to your child.”

Edward’s four daughters all have a college degree, but his son followed a different path, working with his hands for San Diego Gas & Electric. “There are so many opportunities beyond having a college degree—joining a union, joining the military and getting advantages through the GI bill. There are many opportunities if college is not for you,” he says. But reading is the basis for them all.

Spanish and Bilingual Books

Because Edward’s parents wanted him to be able to compete against his English-speaking peers in school, they never spoke Spanish to him. Still, he learned it in high school, with relatives, and through Mariachi music, his favorite genre.

Now, he is concerned not many books in Spanish are donated to his organization. “I’d say that 75% of the events I go to, after I tell the families that we’re giving the books away for free, the first question that I’m asked is, do you have any books in Spanish?” Often, he does not, which he says is sad.

Today, Edward believes that bilingual books are the way to go. “By getting a bilingual book, you can read the book in your language, whether it’s English or Spanish, and then see how it’s written in the other language and learn from it.”

It Takes a Village

“I believe it’s very important to recognize the people that have supported me in my effort,” says Edward, thanking Friends of Oceanside Library for its support.

Also, Joe Zuniga, of Decorative Services printing company, has provided 150,000 free labels for the books, so that people know they are from Education Begins in the Home. Today, Joe is helping with a new Reading is My Superpower campaign.

Edward also thanks the volunteers at North Coast Church. Mary Bishop, the community service coordinator, helped organize teams to sort and label the books monthly. “We can easily go through 2000 books, label them, and sort them into the four age groups that we hand out,” Edward explains.

In late 2015, Lisa Montes, who worked with the community through MiraCosta College, introduced Edward to Kirk Whisler, the president of Latino Literacy Now, today called Empowering Latino Futures. Education Begins in the Home is now part of the organization and has expanded its efforts.

He also thanks educators. In 2019, he invited teachers to his home, where he stores the books. “Teachers go out and spend a lot of their own money to buy supplies for their classrooms. They buy books to hand out to their children. We wanted to reach out to teachers especially and offer them as many books as they would want to take,” he says.

Edward is part of the Oceanside Promise Group, where community members seek to improve the education rates of students in the city. As a member of the Early Education Effort, Edward helped develop a one-page, bilingual reading list for parents to become involved in helping their children improve their reading levels.  

He notes that low reading scores are not just a local problem. “It’s possibly all Southern California. It could be a state-wide statistic. So, that just motivated me even more,” he says. “It just encourages me to continue my efforts to put books in the hands of our kids.”

Education Begins in the Home is always looking for volunteers, especially retired teachers who know about books and have experience talking with children. Volunteers can reach out to his email, as can schools or organizations that would like him to give out books at their events.

Edward is excited to change the path of thousands of kids through reading. As he says, “A child who reads will be an adult that thinks.”

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