Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes’ Efforts Fail as Kansas City Suffers Worrying Crisis Kansas City faces a literacy crisis despite Patrick Mahomes' efforts; falling reading rates raise alarms in local schools.

In Kansas City classrooms, the numbers reveal what words alone can’t soften. Just 23% of third graders read at grade level, less than one in four, far behind the statewide mark of 43%. For educators, it’s not an abstract data point but a daily reality: children falling behind at the very stage when reading is supposed to shift from a skill to the foundation for all learning.

Seven-year-old Julian Munoz knows the challenge all too well. At Crossroads Academy Charter School, reading was once a mountain he couldn’t climb. His father, Gabriel Munoz, recalls, “It seemed like he couldn’t quite understand the rhyme or reason to world and letters put together.” Julian isn’t alone. Over 60 percent of the 240 students at his school require help with reading. Literacy coach Shannon Reasby says,