lives, to break cycles of poverty, to create new opportunity and to add to the tax rolls and income of our communities for, all for better so, thank you for bringing that issue up. it is now with great pleasure that i have the chance to introduce someone who has been a friend since his chicago days. mayor -- excuse me, secretary of education arne duncan. and as he makes his way up, i would like to just give him a more formal bro duction. secretary duncan was confirmed by the senate on january 20th, 2009. prior to his appointment as education secretary, duncan served as chief executive officer of the chicago public schools, a position which he was appointed to by mayor richard daley. a ceo from june 2001 through december 2008, he became the longest-serving big city education superintendent in the country. secretary duncan has openly declared his commitment to

mayoral involvement and leadership in schools, and that's true in one of the first meetings i had with him in his offices. he turned to me and said, mayor, when are you going to get control of your schools? the central focus to support the children of our city. we look forward as was mentioned

by michael nutter and secondary act reauthorization and funding opportunities for local school districts under race to the top innovation fund and profit neighborhoods. we have a lifelong public service here today who passionately cares about our kids. domestic couple secretary of education of every new and who i consider one of the heroes in the united states of america who is driving the most significant change in public education of the last century. i bring you our secretary of education of the united states of america, arne duncan. [applause] >> thank you for those kind comments that my mother wrote. and will keep my remarks brief. this is up pretty amazing group

of leaders here and we will start where corey ended. not possible to have a great city without grade schools and the more leadership you can provide the more we can help do that. the better for your cities and our children and the nation's education. my job is to be a good partner to you guys to empower you to help you be successful and have a conversation pal to do that better. there are a number of opportunities coming forward that will help drive change and reform at the local level. race to the top has a huge impact. 41 states adopting higher standards. 36 states removing barriers to innovative schools. every state with a log on the book that prohibited the linking of student achievement and teacher evaluation which was fascinating for me also involved -- we have seen a real game change at the state level as we

move forward on the next round of race to the top, $900 million from congress at the district level, not state law also an opportunity for your district to come to the table to put your best foot forward and demonstrate your creativity to innovate and we would love to drive the systemic change at the district level seen at the state level in the past couple years. race to the top has gone all the press which is fine. $4 billion for the country. school improvement grants have the $4 billion for the bottom 5% of schools. a massively disproportionate investment. doing some things very differently in those schools that have underperforming for years. that was by formula and we invest heavily and where you have schools that need to add a saturday every week and add a couple hours after school and have students working all summer. need to pay a great principle 30 grand more or 50 grand more or

science teachers $20,000 more. whatever it takes you can use our resources to do that. our goal is to eliminate the nation's problems. we have 2,000 high-school that produce half of our nation's jobs. 75% of our young children of color are teenage boys and girls and we are systemically producing job balance. we are perpetuating social failure through the school system and we have to get out of that business as fast as we can. those elementary schools, we think we have a chance for the first decade of social failure in the neighborhood we poorly served far too long. corey mentioned neighborhoods to build upon the extraordinary work of jeffrey kennedy with a wraparound services. baby college, making sure some school could get passage to and from school. $150 million to replicate that

work in some of our nation's most distressed communities and we look forward to doing that in many of your cities. we hosted a conference last week in denver. labor-management conference where we brought in from 150 district's superintendent, school board presidents and board chairs to talk about how we come together for collective bargaining has to have a focus on improving student achievement. too many places these relationships are dysfunctional and have perpetuated a status quo that doesn't work for adults for students. we had a list of 100 district. there's an appetite for folks who want to do things differently. we have to come together to challenge the status quo. everyone has to move outside their comfort zone. school boards, unions, superintendents', the department of education has been part of the problem. we are becoming an engine of

innovation that we are in so this is not time to point fingers or they blame but is a time for more rapid change, education has to change, better change, more systemic change than the country has ever seen and what we're doing across the country isn't good enough. we are being outeducated by countries around the globe. for long-term health we have to do better faster and have to find tools to do that. the wisconsin situation is playing out now. have to get questions on that. do unions have to contribute to the pension and health care costs? absolutely. just my own opinion scripting unions of their ability to bargain doesn't make sense to me. we have 150 district with $100 on a list at the table saying we want to see collective bargaining be part of the solution and drive student achievement. we have a dozen districts actually presented who are

giving remarkable breakthroughs, closing the achievement gaps, doing some pretty remarkable things around the country and doing it with labor-management clarification that is not the norm. we're trying to make that the norm rather than the exception. the final thing as we move forward with congress now we would love to reauthorize the no child left behind model that is broken in so many ways. we would love to have it done. we going to the school year with a new law. things can be pretty crazy. i think education is the one thing folks can put politics and ideology to the side and do the right thing by children and the country. lots of reasons why it might not work but today i am pretty confident we can pass this law and fix what is broken. you have done a great job shining a light on achievement's.

the idea of aggregating data is hugely important but we wanted to find ways to reward success. there is no reward in the current law. lots of ways to fail but the only reward for success is failure and there are great teachers and principals and schools and great districts and states that are beating the odds and raising the bar for all children and closing the achievement gap. we want to find more resources and learn from them and provide more flexibility. focus on growth and gain rather than absolute test scores and look at trend lines. not micromanage from washington. ahead to almost sued the department of education for the right to tutor my children after school. made no sense. 10,000 the children want to catch up and work harder and i got in the battle with a department that didn't want to let me tutor. we want to hold you accountable to a high bar, give you the room to be traded at the local level

and hit that higher barr. we want to see standards of 41 states have done that. a huge step in the right direction. college and career standards have to be the goal for every child. we support leadership that a local level and we want to invest in a well-rounded education. reading and math are fundamental, they are foundational with science and social studies and foreign-languages and physical education. all those things are critical for our students. somehow we have gotten away from that. the biggest complaint is teachers and parents and students in the curriculum, we can reverse that in our budget proposal asking for $1 billion for a well-rounded education. the challenges are huge. official constraints and fiscal issues i don't envy any of you. they are brutal. we have to look at these as an opportunity. time to rethink our investment

and the strategic in where we cut or don't cut. last thing we want to do is lay off great teachers were great veteran teachers. we have to keep talent in classrooms or the communities that have been underserve and find ways to work through these tough times to become more productive and give our children a much better education than it had been receiving. i will stop and answer the questions you have. appreciate the extraordinary leadership by see around the room and education. >> i would like to open up for questions. >> good afternoon. the mayor of fresno, calif.. one of the largest in california. before you joined us we had a terrific conversation about the skills gap in our country and as we struggled to address economic development and work force development it is more often the case we are finding jobs going unfilled and people looking for work who don't have skills to

meet the retard -- requirements of those jobs. is true in fresno where people don't have a big high school education or equivalency. my question is how do we bridge the gap between the department of education and funding for adult education and the work force investment act we find ourselves falling through the cracks to talk to work force investment acquisition and the focus is on work first which i understand and support but at the same time the barriers that folks are facing are so significant they're not ready for those programs and yet we are talking with district officials at the local level facing significant budget cuts. adult education with flexible funding is the thing that pools the cable first. i wonder what your thoughts are from the national level and how we might bridge that gap. >> i will give you one concrete example. we are trying to behave in a different way. we have a $2 billion program with the department of labor

around preparing young people and adults and community colleges for real jobs. $2 billion effort. $500 million over four years is a race to the top and the community college level. we only invest in concrete partnerships that lead to real jobs so we are trying to put a huge amount of resources behind places that are willing to work differently. i am a fan of community colleges. they are the unrecognized jam of the continuing and this is another step in the investment of increasing capacity and with your -- whether you are 15 or 58, going to reach full, great public/private partnerships led talked about when i walked in, individuals or families and community, they are not talking and it is not leading to real opportunities and we want to put a lot of resources behind places that create new partnerships. >> thank you very much for

joining us and the mayor's conference. i am mayor of davenport, eyewall. i want to ask what should the mayors be doing now immediately to make sure the kind of reforms your championing across the country that i have seen take place at those charter schools, phenomenal. what can the mayors do? what needs to be done immediately to make sure we get the trans formative education that you are leading the charge on in this country? what do we need to make sure congress helps out in this regard? >> at the national level the biggest battles this year, to get these projects funded. we would like $900 million for race to the top and obviously any budget request is a heavy lift these days so that is a big one. we have to fix this wall. if we don't the overwhelming

majority of schools around the country will be labeled failures so in the next couple years, too many failings schools. it is very misleading and demoralizing when every school is labeled a failure. those are our two work issues with congress this year. budget requests and reauthorize and the law. you guys support -- these are washington plays. i don't think they work. the mayor or governors leading this across the country demanding congress to work together and get these things done unlike can't tell you harm valuable your collective voice can be in those debates. >> once you add on to that, at local level, mayors here have control of school district appointment power over school board, and mayors who have no

direct authority. michael nutter was talking about what he wants to do for college ready kids. >> there are lots of ways to do it. mayor villarosa is trying to do creative things. mayor johnson is working hard to have an impact. the more you are rallying the entire city behind these efforts the business community and philanthropic community and nonprofit social-service agencies i don't think school districts can become world class by themselves. we need outside support and pressure and i can't think of anyone better to rally the community behind these efforts than a years. that is hugely important. think of early childhood education as the best long-term investment we can make. it is easy in tough budget times to cut back on pre-k because you won't see those results tomorrow but that is the wrong cut to

make. by high-quality child could education, huge the important. it is desperately important that we continue to attract talent into education so great teachers, great principles, attracting them and retaining them and putting in place the incentive structure is to get the best talent to be underserved communities to those pockets of poverty every city has. our country has been nowhere near creative enough in doing that. that is the effort behind our school improvement grant. how do we reward the most committed teachers and principals and get them to the communities that need the most help? being very public and transparent about your graduation rates and college placement rates, college perseverance, job placement, having that conversation, we try to elevate education as a national issue and put it higher and people's rate our. at the local level there is

nothing you can do to say that for seven years, every speech he gave, every speech to every community, business and non profit, you will always talk about education every single time. i think you guys can't do what is strong enough to do it. many urban school districts have been mired in mediocrity and using your pulpit and moral authority to drive >> reporter: is politically challenging. not something any mayor wants to do but your collective courage i can't overstate how important that is. cities have brought about rates of 40 to 60%. i don't see how that is sustainable in today's economy.

>> reporter: secretary rubella on massachusetts. a couple things i was happy to hear about. we have tried to initiate a program similar to what developers do when they say we will -- we have a program called train system and we think that is the way to go for these jobs in the new economy. we talk about all the various stakeholders including the private sector but what i don't hear a lot as we look at this beat down on public employees, those in wisconsin are suffering buyer's remorse and rightfully so. i am wondering how we get away from the notion that some have that it is day care for kids. how do we involve parents?

is there any way to actually connect parents who are not involved with their children aside from providing preschool and day care facilities? anything you can see that might be helpful? >> that is desperately important. i worry about the parents you have doing good job, seen as a challenge. a couple things. one area where our department is part of the problem. we have underinvestment and we are looking to double the budget to $280 million to invest in local programs where engagement leads to higher student achievement. we don't think we have the answers. a lot of what passed for engagement was not effective but a lot of programs are leading to students' learning better and we

want a lot more resources behind that and we want an investor. a lot of this is just hard work. food helps a lot. bringing families in. where you have great principles and great features they are knocking on doors, bringing families and, you can't just sit back, those parents york talking about by definition have difficult times in school. they had felt experiences. coming to school can be hard to overcome. there are adversarial relationships there. when the teacher or principal knocks on doors or willing to exchange cellphone numbers when you get out there it is a lot of hard work but where that happens i think parents will be engaged. one thing i try to do in chicago is make our schools community centers. 150 schools are open 14 hours a day with a host of after-school programs, family communities and counseling and some of our toughest neighborhoods we had

100 to 150 parents come every day for their own education so i sort of believe in the field of dreams. if you build it they will come if you really reach out. it is harder to work and it should be but that is reality. every parent not educated want the best for their child. they want the best for their family. if you can create the opportunity, very pleasantly surprised their willingness to meet us halfway. >> is there any sense of contract with parents or tie and public benefits to their engagement in public schools? >> the idea of contacting parents at charter school they do that routinely from all parental responsibility, the president talks about it all the time. we haven't talked about benefits or anything like that. other countries have done interesting things. >> michael nutter and mayor baker.

>> i want to recognize mayor kevin johnson who has provided tremendous leadership for the conference on education issues and has pulled together any number of meetings as you know. with you and providing mayors with direct access to secretary duncan and education. i want to thank him for those experts. i was very glad to hear you talk about race to the top with district focus. as mayors, probably every secretary including the president and vice-president we would like to talk about funding and competitive opportunities that go directly to cities as opposed to states. the line need to share with you in recent experience in philadelphia and the context of pennsylvania. the education and job money that was supposed to come to the philadelphia school district to prevent lay offs was recently

used by the state to supplement their annual contribution to the school district and so again we have these unfortunate examples where with the best of intentions federal agencies send money to states. it never finds its way to cities or comes to us after money being taken away with the right hand is given back to as with the left hand and was supposed to be in addition is now used as a plan. we have the state use its a are a dollars which are also supposed to come directly from the district. they use budget gaps and the state level and those funds now going away will have a commonwealth going virtually back to 2007 levels. i say all that in the context that the state passed a bill called act xlvi in philadelphia

which requires the city to -- in a maintenance of effort -- contact -- we can never lower the amount of money we send to the school district when the state can pretty much do whatever it wants. when the federal government on highway transportation side wanted allstate's to change speed limits, when they said was we can't tell you what to do but if you don't lower your speed limit to 55 we won't send you any federal highway transportation dollars. of a sudden everyone was enthusiastic about changing their speed limits in many states across america. the state cannot balance its budget on the backs of children. further creating the inequity that the level of your education for your child truly is a function of what zip code or county your parents must move to. i would encourage, mr. secretary, any other ability by

the federal government to stop states from doing what they are doing with regard to funding would be very helpful at the local level. >> got it. >> any other questions? we will go down. >> sort of what michael nutter is speaking to, i have four school districts in this city. we have no sex over anything about education. when you guys deal with the state's only, we might as well not do anything about education or anything else because these states have different priorities. it is not up to the governors so much when the general assembly's have different priorities than the governor and the battle begins. cities don't have a prayer.

if cities are not written in to these initiatives our work force goes to the state. education money goes to district or the state. the money for stimulus predominately went to the state. we are sitting there with the worst problems in the world trying to bad for money for even the ability to said at the table. we can't compete with the power of the state. we have no way to overpower them and say give us the money. most of the people we're dealing with at the state level have no relationships with the city. unless that changes, we will just be bystanders. that is my worry. all the time we hear about all these issues we are faced with. i have a 50% dropout rate.

>> let me just reiterate what is coming. school improvement grants, $4 billion going out by formula. played at the local level we need information. it was rewarding great talent big turtle districts have to want to do it. $400 million promised neighborhood $150 million. the recovery act and the real challenges, those issues and complaineds going forward, we are trying to play at the district level and encourage you to stepped up and you have four district's -- how many do you have? >> five. >> can you have 26. that is showing real creativity

and leadership and those are conversations worth pursuing. >> no ahead. >> i don't want to get into a competition that pedro and i can give anyone run for the money. connecticut has 160 districts. my question to you, mr secretary. thank you for your leadership, we appreciate it. you are a breath of fresh air. when you have this money is there any incentive getting back to what michael nutter talked about that you can put into this that allows us to go to our unions and say we need you to work saturdays and summers and agree with performance pay they don't agree with now. are there any incentive that have to be bargained and bargaining with nea local is difficult for a school board. reforms are not going anywhere when it gets back to the bargaining table.

the other one that i want to bring to your attention is especially in new jersey and connecticut that are two district. there are the haves and have nots. we are more a quarantine zone than a school district. we have new haven bridgeport, all the failing systems for the state pretty much. and i know that those schools system in connecticut doing as good as we want but there are two states of connecticut. is there anything you can do with federal funding that would address these states where there are such great disparities and also the bargaining issue? ..

>> i was talking recently to the superintendent in kansas city, 17 cemeteries in kansas city in 24 years. that's not the union. that's the board. no one wants to talk about the board function at what that does. during those 24 years kansas city lost half its population of students. they all fled the system. while adults were plotting, he came and had to close have the city schools. there was a big uproar. it wasn't like people left yesterday. nobody paid any attention. this is one where unions have to move absolutely. school boards have to move,

absolutely. our department, we all have to move. we will put in place incentives for all of us. i think that's the only way we will get where we need to go. >> we have parents involvement and the need for parent involvement, but still obviously parents that are not going to be involved. and that's where i think mentoring really does help those gaps. and i think we as mayors can have a significant influence and eventually, we and our city allow our city employees and our a week to go to do mentor work to be paid, just to go mentor children. we are finding that is helping fill the gap when parents are not there. so i think we philosophically and influentially can make sure even the we don't have the financial impact on the schools, we have a psychological impact by being able to do that. as well as encouraging students to stay in school.

young children and students look to mayors, not necessarily county commissioners or school board members. i think philosophically we can do that. i would like to hear your -- >> i love that. mentors, tutors, coaches, saturday after school, lunchtime, early morning, whatever it is, all hands on deck. we need more adults in these children's lives. you are giving them paid time off to go help out since a huge signal. i would love to flood our schools with positive adults who can take those children under the wing and work with the. i commend you for the. i would love to see more of that. i will give you one more thought. i think we need to look at boarding schools, public boarding schools. i'll give you just one example. i had 400,000 children in chicago. let's assume, this will probably be generous, let's assume 99% of them went home to a good family, good household where mom was on crack.

that would be generous. that means 4000 children, 1%, minimum. so i needed 10. i didn't get there. i was working on the. i always think what works for the wealthy often works for the poor. i think we need to be look at some great boarding schools in communities. there's a seats clear that i think is an amazing job. some thing we're working on going for here is how we create those types of opportunity committee schools, schools open 12, 14 hours a day, mentors, tutors, 24/7 i think we need to be looking at all these things adversaries about changing young people's lives. [inaudible] >> you have an opportunity. [inaudible]

[inaudible] is there any education initiatives at this time if we don't cut that pipeline of social disruption? >> we have to invest in alternative schools. iran to alternative schools. we've children unfortunate as young as 10 be locked up in chicago. working with them. i think what mayor booker has done which has been huge, getting the adults lined up for support services, building that link projected the same thing

for students getting them into schools making having social worker helping them. getting locked up that's a symptom of the problem. that's a problem something else crazy is going on at home. so what are we doing to intervene in that child's hold life situation, not just school situation to help them be successful. this is hands-on but it's putting an adult in their who will help figure out why the heck they got in this situation and now we will get them back on the straight and narrow coming out. it's not easy but it is absolutely the right investment to make or else they would just be locked up as an adult. no question. >> thank you, mr. secretary. i'll try to get all my comments and questions out. all bottled up because as i said before you got here, i spent 10 years as a public school teacher before being elected to this office. i think, negotiating local contracts, but the idea that i

think teachers would welcome change and concepts and ideas that would be there. i think the problem is that administrators are spending way too much time trying to keep their head above water, with -- i'm from taylor, michigan. we only have one district in our community, but our community is seeing a drop in the population of about 30,000 over the last three sentences. so we know kind of going through the histories, again, a lot of our residents have moved out and because of the education system within our community, and it's something we've been working on. my predecessors spent a lot of their time saying it's not our fault, go over and see the school district. we have tried to embrace a a little more. a few weeks back we had our first ever work session and school board and city council,

and brought the decision-makers to the table to try to figure out how to move forward. as you said i think some of the ideas are there that we're trying to put together. it's how we market the cities to get involved into how schools perform because we are looking at what businesses, what kind of educated workforce do they want coming out so that they can bring business into our community. but the structure is somewhat, you know, messed up it and i think what helps, what would help us i think in our process would be a roadmap to some extent moving forward. because spending 10 years in a public school setting and coaching for 20 years, high school athletics, you see a variety -- the biggest thing that we miss is our buildings are ill utilize. they sit and basically empty from 3:00 to 10:00 the power on, the lights on, nobody home.

but, you know, custodial walk around cleaning up classrooms. and they are vacant three months out of the year because we stay on a traditional school system. i think there are some ideas of trying to get going. and i would say if there's a possibility of trying to lay out some of the roadmap as to what those incentives are, that would be beneficial to us as we tried to get together and embrace some of the barriers that mayor baker was saying, trying to get our hands on a school districts is what we're trying to do to protect our community and tried use our resources better. so if we could have some of those we've talked about. i've talked about with our state treasurer as they lay out their budgets and some of the same concept. so anything you can do to those incentives, that would help us with the roadmap, we can all pull together and try to figure out what it is we want to do. let's be beneficial. >> will actually try to do that are sort of the afterschool peace as a whole, there's a

movement in town who does a great job. there are some cities, cincinnati and others and create things. there's lots to learn from. i would also start where you start is none of us have done a good enough job of listening to teachers, whether its management or boards or unions. and using some in their contracts recently right here in d.c. that 80% of teachers voted for. baltimore, 66% of teachers voted for. new haven 95% voted for. there's real interest in reform amongst teachers. what we're trying to do is make that the norm rather than the exception. with a bunch of contracts that are changing the game where bright young teachers can make $100,000. and when you say that young people, they pay attention. so there's an old way of doing business and it hasn't worked. that's really starting to change but we have to take that to steal very quickly and that was part of the goal of the conference last week was to shine a spotlight on what these

innovative dishes are doing to get and what that is doing to bring talent and retain that talent and districts. >> secretary duncan, when this generation, our generation grew up it was first grade through 12th grade. that was about it. how important today do you feel it is, you know, preschool through college, the hole three direction and innovation? i know if you're innovate and creating and pushing the sort of thing, but tell us what can we ask we do? >> i think you're hitting the nail on head. we see this cradle to grave. it is pre-k-12 on to hire him. the gulf has to be some form higher education. four years university, trade, okay children. if you start in kindergarten that is pretty late in the game. we have to get our three year old and four-year-olds often much better start if we are sure is not closing the achievement gap. pre-k, head start, changes.

so it has to be from our babies through a successful career and we have to look at every step along the education. often early childhood here, k-12, higher ed here. and folks fall through the cracks anywhere along the. the more guys -- the more you guys, counseled or whatever it might be, all those folks are talking trying to understand, to be college ready as a freshman, what classes are you taking to 12th grade, eighth grade, fifth grade, third grade, what does that look like? that's where we have to go as a country. your leadership is sort of aligning different sizes can be hugely, hugely helpful. >> thank you for being here, secretary duncan. i'm a suburb of detroit and we know detroit is challenges. now, one of the things, and we hear about the cities that have 10, 20 districts within their city.

these invisible walls that exist in school districts are often motivated by creating a niche that, as long as my job is taken care of i won't worry about the rest of them. our schools are funded by property taxes. so we are expelling children every year that come into our city just because their parents want a better school environment it as much as i understand what have to sport our tax base and you are expelling these children, my heart goes out because the parent is trying to find a way. they cannot afford to pay for a private school. somewhere along the line we're going to demand that serious discussion about these invisible walls of the school districts. because there are resources in schools. i'm fortunate. right next to detroit to have that, 89% graduation rate. next to our district they have almost a 60 dropout rate.

and i'm fighting hard to maintain a school district. and as many of us throughout the country that understand that, and what can we do on a national level? and i would to if you want to give the money to the states and make the states dissolve all the districts and run it, but we are going to have to on a national level address those invisible borders, the resources that i'm blessed to have in my community i'm forced by my oath to protect my tax dollars. and that includes putting children with this property taxes that are in that district. and so it's a challenge and it's a reality. and i don't hear anyone talking about that. >> may i add an exclamation put to the. silent desperation going on in the country is unbelievably the extraordinary things parents do. you know the story recently about a parent being arrested for sneaking her child into another school.

"the wall street journal"'s education writer, a new york resident whose parent snuck her into a bordering town with a higher performing school, was found out, was dragged ironically out of a journalism class and was made to sign a confession without allowing her parents to be called. this is something i know the town surrounding the wreck have people that will follow people home to see where they go home to. >> we put him at the bus stop. >> so, that urgency that many people saw in waiting for superman and many of the things on a daily basis, i would love to hear your thoughts. so two different thoughts. one is, school districts we have is that efficient, does that make sense? i came from illinois. we had like 900 school districts are in tough budget times, i have 600 schools, we have 600 superdense at one school. what do they do all day?

so that's a real conversation, particularly and budget times. everything has to be on the table that we have to have. i would go to record when it is i think for far too long our country, we have tolerated academic failure. so for how made decades in detroit that we had devastating educational outcomes. and i'll have an exact number but the dropout rate in detroit is 60, 65%, 70%. i mean, it is absolutely staggering. how do we allow that in this country to happen? quiet desperation, vocal desperation, whatever the word is, you know, our parents are desperate be fighting for something better and we are not giving it to the. and it's shame on us. we haven't been tough enough. we have been willing to make changes but so what is closing same schools, whether bring in new options, you know, in certain committees, whether it is moving staff that is not working and bring in other staff.

we are committed to working with us commuters. we have to be much, much more aggressive, courageous in this work. i will tell you, our challenges, we have never had more high-performing high poverty schools. so i can take you to places that are 99% poverty, 99% minority and 95% of those young people are graduating every single year. so it's not like we don't know what works. we just haven't been went to take to stay what does work. that's the conversation that we need to have. that's what you guys his leadership and courage and challenging the status quo, i can't say how important that is. >> mr. secretary, i'm from macon, georgia, and i was fascinated with you commenting about the possibility of public boarding schools. can you talk more about that? specifically, what age ranges you're talking about. if you have to intervene early enough, at what age are you talking about a public boarding school? >> with thing as too and this isn't an easy one. it is something that would have to part local level, but i would

say i just look at the seed school year, the one public portico i'm aware of that is starting to replicate a few different places. i think they sort things out about fifth grade, at about age 10. work with them all with a high school. i do think it can have a six-year-old at a boarding school. that doesn't feel right to me but at a certain point it's got to be voluntary. this is not about -- to have a long waiting list and families who want the best for the children. want to see them successful. i just keep coming back, if we are series of the getting better outcomes conversation about changing where we are at, we have to think very differently. and just like everything else, this is not the magic answer but i'm a big believer in choice. i'm a big believer in competition. having a range of different types of school for different children. having this is one piece of the portfolio i think it's a piece of the answer. >> our president has a question. >> thank you. thank you, mayor booker. and thank you, mr. secretary.

on half of the conference of mayors, you always come and talk to us and help us to navigate through the federal system, but also to talk to us about ideas. a comment to make and then i have a question. the work that we do as a mayors in long-term work, and it is heavy lifting. we all believe it public-private partnerships, and i continued that in my city i have done the work of bringing higher education together, k-12, and businesses, and our workforce investment. to look at the issue of educating our children and to have them meet the need, that companies are meeting so that they can have the skill sets. but we have to be innovative and use the resources that we have that belongs to the public

schools and so forth. but the private sector came in and said that they would be the laboratory for certain things that they have the equipment for and are equipped with teachers to do that inside their companies. the flexibility within school districts, as within the college system, to use some of those folks to teach within corporations, in the laboratory was very helpful. but when they go to the k-12 area, one of the things that is of continues frustration and i heard yours, that has to do with early education. the research has shown us that money and early education yields graduation rates. and i think we need to put money into that, and it can't be the first places to cut. the other is special-education. and i know, mr. secretary, you and i have had this conversation. our school districts pay the

lion's share of a federal program, and we need for the federal program to fund it completely so that it gets off the property tax roll. can you help me understand when the federal government will fund special education fully? it is law, so that this will release a more funds within our school districts to address the issues of educating our children speak up so i will take the second one first. when i am in chicago my unfunded federal special-education library with a 770 million. so i'm acutely aware of the challenge. the honest answer is we're not going to fully fund anytime soon. that's billions of dollars and that's just not reality today. we are asking for a couple of hundred million dollar increase in funding. so it helps but it is not going to get us to where we should be. i just tried to be on a so i

apologize for that but that is what we are at. the other thing i should have said on early childhood, that's an area where we have not invested enough. we have not been up there and we are asking for $359 for early learning child find to complete that out. so we are going to invest there. i will take one more. >> thank you come and i will keep my comments brief. i am the mayor right between san antonia and often. ipads undergraduate of san marcos. and graduate of austin committee cause. we have done the best it had everything in line to be annexed within a committee college district and we have struggled to outpace his committee has been it all. are school districts are involved. our universities is involved in our community isn't all. the thing where struggle with is, or looking for if you can

share some potential resources, a representative from the static we might be able to speak with about if there are any options beyond just austin committee colleges looking at san antonio committee colleges which is directly to our south. that's what we are in need of. it's part of our economic development plan but we struggle to make it happen. so we are just looking for options, resources that you may the -- that you may be able to direct to us. >> if you can e-mail us when we are done. >> i hope the secretary will wait for a few minutes for secretary solis to join us to be. i know kevin johnson would like to get some concluding remarks but i think it is for you and i to challenge the president. >> secretary, on behalf of all the mayors of the u.s. conference of mayors, we want to thank you. we realize that unprecedented access to you as a secretary of

education. you established the task force. any mayors in the room would like to be a part of the task force, please e-mail me. we talked to the secretary offered on a monthly or bimonthly basis. one of the byproducts of those meetings is we are take i.t. how important it was do not get bogged down with the race to the top at the state level. we wanted our district to be able to compete and this is something we're seeing come to bear in a short period of time. we want to thank you for the. i think our to take which they are number one, we can be helpful for you in terms of making sure that your innovative initiatives get funded. and secondly with the re- authorizations, we stand ready to be as helpful as we can. the other two things i would like to say, what we're trying to do as a mayors is we want to get mayors to understand there's a spectrum. it can be as simple as allowing city services. it could be at the other end of the spectrum were as mayors control the schools and the other thing we're trying to do is become a clearinghouse for best practices.

so as we can make it with your office we want to have a data port of where we have best practices so we can all see what other cities are doing around the country. we have been very selective on policies. we have support the president's agenda. we supported raised to the topic we're looking at actively supporting senior base laos which we don't think it's a good policy in terms of life. so we want to be helpful and i think the last question i think mayor booker was talking about. lebron james was impressed with you this week. he told he got a chance to meet with you this weekend. did you show him your jump shot? >> no, i was taking notes. >> secretary, thank you on behalf of all of us. we know we are treading upon your generosity but i would like to introduce secretary solis who is here and maybe, you guys are doing some joint operations together. >> we meet in philly on monday. >> so it is now my pleasure to introduce, coming in as i speak, secretary solis from the department of labor.

she was confirmed in 2009, favorite of that year. prior to the confirmation, secretary solis represent a 32nd congressional district in california, a position she held from 2001-2009. in congress are priorities include access to affordable health care, protecting the environment and improving the lives of working families. i will recognize the leader cash-rich author the green jobs act which provided for green-collar jobs, training for veterans, at risk youth. we are really delighted that the sector is able to join us today and talk about ways in which the department of labor is partnering actively with the department of education to prepare americans for the jobs of today. and her efforts to continue to support for a national summer jobs program which i know she was herself involved in the summer jobs program. before the secretary begins her

remarks, again, i'd like to thank also who is supposed to be traveling with her, is the department of labor assistant secretary, james notes as well. and now this is the time i tried to stall because she is missing her to. [laughter] >> she is supposed to walking. i can talk more about secretary solis if we would like. secretary duncan, what kind of programs are you working on with secretary solis that she might be talking about at this vote should she be had? >> i will let her go through a. let me say one final thing. the other thing i would love to do for you guys is provided the bully pulpit support were you guys are making tough calls. again, the could you guys are displayed without all the control you might want, with very tricky structural challenges. i just appreciate that so much. there are times when you guys are taking a tough stand are on a controversial issue but are willing to put your political capital on the line to do that.

i would love to find ways to support you in those efforts. don't hesitate to let me know on whether it is coming out in an op-ed or letter to the editor or talking on phone to reporters. i would like to give you the political coverage and do the hard things that mayor johnson talked about. so please don't hesitate to call on me to do that. and i would like to do everything i can to support you guys. i can't solve these problems. you guys can't get in my job is simple to help you. >> thank you, thank you very much. let's give him a round of applause. [applause] >> i had just been told secretary solis and secretary duncan are the same person so they cannot appear at the same place at the same time. [laughter] >> are there any other questions while we are waiting? secretary duncan has a generous offer to answer them while we are waiting. >> our school superintendent texted me and wanted to know if flexible will be allowed with

the grant and allow to be used for metered schools as well? >> so, what we tried to do, again this is controversy and hard on the school improvement grants come what we've said to the country, tell us who your bottom 5% of schools are. it's interesting, not that 95%, lots of folks didn't know who their bottom 5% were. under no child left behind lots of schools got labeled as failures, but 89%, their intervention was other. other that the status quo. so we have been pretty hard-hitting you. we said that great teachers matter, great principles that if they are there, fun. if they're not let's bring someone else and. we want to invest but not invest in status quo. we are happy to look at them come happy to support that. but these schools are arguably the worst in the country. so what we are saying is more of the same isn't going to work. as long as there's creativity, trying to get very different

outcomes to students, let's have that conversation. but as a country we can't continue to do quote unquote other neighborhoods for children who desperately need something much better. >> thank you very much. .. [inaudible conversations]

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[inaudible conversations] >> again we're here at the center for american progress this morning awaiting interior secretary ken sal slar. he will be talking about the president's new conservation strategy, america's great outdoor initiative. while we await the arrival of mr. salazar other programing coming up on the c-span networks today. live coverage continues at 1:00 eastern as white house press secretary jay carney will give his daily briefing. c-span will be live at noon eastern with fwormer

presidential candidate, mike huckabee. he has written a book. former governor from arkansas will answer reporters questions at the "national press club".

>> again awaiting interior secretary ken sal lar this morning at the center for american progress. a couple other programing items we have coming up for you on the c-span networks. at 1:00 eastern c-span will be live with a discussion on political unrest in the middle east that is hosted by the palestine center. again that start as the 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. and the space shuttle discovery will make its final launch today.

coverage starts at 4:30 eastern. that will be live again on c-span. [inaudible conversations]

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[inaudible conversations] >> good morning, everybody. i'm john podesta. i'm the president of center for american progress. i want to thank you all for joining us. it is a true pleasure for me to welcome and to introduce a good friend of mine, secretary ken salazar and historian doug brinkley. special thanks really to both of you for being here to participate in what i think will be a thoughtful and interesting discussion. we set this up as a kind of

a q&a so we can really get into the meat of the american great outdoors and the great initiative of the secretary and the obama administration to conserve our public land and waters, including full funding for the land and water conservation fund. i know that's going to be a challenge in this particular environment but we're going to all work to support that so that the vision in your new initiative can be brought to fruition. this also actually is the inaugural event of new public land program that we're doing here at the center for american progress under the leadership of christie gold and tom kenworth think, our denver rep for the center for american progress. we still have some colorado roots, secretary. the great outdoors has been a central part of our national character. from our very beginning land played a central role in our founding. it shaped the vision and philosophy of our founding

fathers and the laws they crafted to govern the nation. subsequent generations built a powerful national economy anchored by our unmatched natural resources and the unmatched american character. of course after centuries of development our growth began to threaten the very land and waters that made our expansion possible. so senator theodore roosevelt started a tradition followed i think by every president thereafter, setting aside of the most treasured natural places to be used and to be protect teched in a way that preserves them for future generations. as president roosevelt said, it is not what we have that will make us a great nation, it is the way we use it. i was of course fortunate enough to serve under a great environmental president, the only one i think who actually grew up in a national park. he used to remind me of that all the time and he took that advice to heart. president clinton recognized that our lands and waters are central to our

prosperity and to our natural, our national spirit and working with the a great group of people, including the vice president, bruce babbitt, dan glickman. and many others he protected more land in the lower 48 states than any other president before him including five new national parks and 19 new national monuments. i think he took care to protect existing public lands as well. he adopted a rule to protect roadless forests that dramatically flowed the development of over 60 million acres of national forest an achievement the subsequent administration really did all it could to try to screw up. although they tried mightily i think the heart of that rule is preserved undersecretary's leadership will move forward. i think those of us who served in that administration tried to focus, doug, on what teddy roosevelt called, the long look ahead. and i think secretary

salazar in the work that he is doing at the department exemplifies that spirit. president clinton i think was also one of the first presidents to make the case that environmental protection does not diminish but supports and enhances our economic goals as a country. he argued that protecting the public's health and safety doesn't come at the expense of our national bottom line and companies can thrive without hurting the air we breathe, water we drink, food we eat or natural landscape which we live. when it comes to a healthy economy and healthy environment i think the president got right and he believed that we can and must have both. that notion that environmental protection can further our economic interests is clearer today than ever before. it is tishg particularly true when it comes to protecting our public lands, millions of people visit the nation's park and preserves each and every year, generating tens of billions of dollars of revenue in supporting hundreds of thousands of recreation and tourism jobs in turn. overall every federal dollar invested directly into the

national parks generates at least $4 of economic value and the emotional and spiritual value of our public lands for this generation and for generations to come can't be measured. it just exceeds any capacity to measure the way we feel about those great public spaces. the vast majority of americans recognize these enormous benefits. they believe the treasured lands and waters should be protected but with so much at stake, the public often has important opinions and sometimes disagreements on the way public lands are protected and used. when i served in the government we sometimes learned that the hard way and that's why i think it is really, really critical and important undersecretary salazar's leadership the obama administration is taking a careful and effective approach through its great outdoors initiative. the administration held 51 public listening sessions across the nation to better determine local communities needs and priorities. the response has been

enormous. 10,000 americans participated in live sessions and some of them are here today and participants submitted over 100,000 comments overall. those comments will be used to craft the 21st century conservation agenda that speaks to states, tribes, grassroots groups and reconnects americans with the outdoor places and traditions that made our country and still makes our country great. i'm sure that our speakers have far more to say about america's great outdoors and the initiative of the administration. so let me turn the floor over to them. first it is my pleasure to introduce secretary ken salazar. secretary salazar was unanimously confirmed as secretary of the interior in 2009. prior to his confirmation, ken salazar served as colorado's 35th united states senator where he led efforts to create and implement a vision for renewable energy economy. secretary salazar also served as the colorado attorney general, as

executive director of the colorado department of natural resources, a as a water and environmental lawyer and as a partner in his family's colorado ranch. as a result i think he's been a true champion of farmers of ranchers of rural communities and of the natural environment. he is very well-steeped in lands and policy and environmental protection. we're incredibly honored and pleased he was willing to be here with us today to speak about his vision for how to move the initiative forward. we're also quite fortunate to have doug brinkley discuss the great outdoors initiative and the roll it may play in the obama administration's conservation legacy. doug is recognized as one of the best historians, maybe the best historian of his generation. and he, on topics ranging from 20th century presidents to war to conservation to the media. his new book. his latest book, the willedderness warrior, teddy roosevelt and the crusade for america, scaled best-seller lists when it won the national outdoor

book award, 2009 green prize for sustainable literature. he authored dozens of other works. he is tenured professor of history at rice university and fellow at golf briscoe center for american history. doug, welcome. i will turn the event over to you, secretary, doug. please join us at the front. [applause] >> good morning. thank you all for coming. great to be with you, mr. secretary. i wanted to start, what we're going to do is go for about half an hour here. i'm going to ask questions. then we'll be collecting the cards for 15 minutes from people in the audience, journalists, others that have written a question. we'll try to get to as many as we can. let's begin with america's great outdoors. what is it? how did this report get put together and what is it going to tell us about the obama administration's view of conservation?

>> doug, over the last two years, we have done is, worked with the president on our conservation agenda for the obama administration and we already have things that i'm very proud of. passage and signature by the president of one the very first bills in this congress was the 2009 omnibus lands bill which created two million acres of wilderness, 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers, three new national parks. that was the down payment. moving forward from that we've been doing a lot of things from the everglades to foothills national conservation area. but it is our view if we were going to have a sustained conservation agenda, that we needed to go out and understand stand the reality of american public what they were viewing as conservation. the america's great outdoors listening sessions led by will and tom strickland and so many other people all over the country listened to people all over the united states as given the

realities of today in 2010, 2011, what should we on doing for conservation? it is different than when teddy roosevelt declared large swaths of the american continent, american west, as areas to be preserved. we're dealing with a new reality and new populations and so the american great outdoors report is a road map that will move us forward in the conservation agenda under this president. >> what are the type of groups that you listened to or talked to? who did you talk to across america to bring together this report? >> it was an incredible assemblage of people. some who are here today. but it was ranchers and farmers and it was hunters and anglers t was mayors and governors. just everybody who cares about the outdoors. and it was very interesting. i ended up finding out that there is a much broader coalition of people. this is really a unity agenda that supports conservation.

there are yes, for sure democrats but yes, there are also republicans who understand that conservation is a way that protects the economic vitality of communities across the country. the outdoor industry recognizes that there's about six 1/2 million jobs a year that are created just from outdoor recreation. and so the great coalition of people that we listened to from all over the country. >> i've noticed, i travel the west quite a bit. and a lot of times you hear from ranchers in particular but also people in, you know, dealing with natural gas fields or mineral rights, that somehow the federal government's continuing to+++[:c

we look at land wilderness characteristics we believe it is important to protect the lands as well. if you do a quantitative comparison. less than 9% of all the lands of the public estate are in wilderness status and being protected for those wilderness values. everything else is open to a lot of different kinds of things. we're trying to strike the right balance. we believe under authority we have i have as secretary of interior, that protecting areas for wilderness characteristics is responsibility that i have and something we have the authority to do. >> as a historian, i want to ask you, what other interior secretaries have you gotten inspiration from? let me name two that i think

are two of the greats. stewart udall? did you know stewart udall personally and did you learn anything from his legacy as intier secretary. >> doug, when you delivered the book, quote wilderness warrior" to my office and you talked about people that infire me. stewart udall was one of the people inspired my. his last trip to washington, d.c. to see his son tom sworn in as a u.s. senator from new mexico he sat with me a half hour, he gave me a road map for things he would like to see accomplished in conservation. and things that he did not get done in the storied tenure he had in the 1960s as secretary of the intier. that is somebody i believe did a lot and somebody to follow. secretary babbitt, as john was saying in his introduction under the clinton administration. sometimes, history, history has an interesting, you know more about this than i do, i

history back at that time from 1992 to 2000 and start looking at some of the matters that were taken on by john, secretary babbitt and others to make sure we were taking on a conservation ethic, legacy for 50 years, 100 years on down the road. bruce babbitt and stewart udall were both good friends. are still good friends in the case of bruce. so i look up to them. >> both udall and babbitt were great supporters of the antiquities act of 1906. meaning this ability to create national monuments that theodore roosevelt had established. are you, i have read a little bit of press action coming out of tea party movement. are you willing to embrace and make sure that the antiquities act stays on the books and make sure there is not an overturning of the antiquities act? >> the answer to that is absolutely. i think when you looked at 100 years of exercise of

executive authority, president obama and this administration are going to not in the position to give up that authority. having said that, i do think one of the things that we are doing, so differently into america's great outdoors, is that we are listening to what chunts want us to do. and so, as one of the chapters within the america's great outdoors report indicates we will reach out to the american public and listen to communities across the united states to find out which of those areas they believe are the ones that are appropriate for monument designation under the ant tick quits act. certainly we hear from governors and congressional delegations where there is unity of wanting to have these very special places protected. >> one of those special places i like to personally see is a national park is the north woods of maine. of course you have to get a congress to go along for north woods of maine national park but i was wondering do you get

frustrated? i know you've been down to pelican island florida where u.s. fish and wildlife was sort of born. theodore roosevelt created first federal bird reserve. there are boardwalks of planks of all the wildlife refuges. you look at all the things clinton and babbitt were able to decide. do you get frustrated in the political climate and the fact so much has already been saved you will not be able to create a kind of a trophy list like some of those previous presidents did? >> you know for sure, trainingly it is not about the creating a trophy list but i am, doug, very excited about what it is that which can do. i will give you just two examples of new national wildlife refuges that we have created. one is in the flint hills of kansas where the last remaining of the tall grass prairie ecosystem, 1.1 million acres will go into national conservation program. another wildlife refuge. very interesting. when i went to the meeting where we actually dedicated the flint hills national conservation area, sat

around the table with about 30 of the stakeholders that helped us in the creation of the flint hills conservation area and yes, it included traditional conservation organizations like the nature conservancy and others that have been so helpful and kansas cattleman's association, the kansas farm bureau and so on and so forth. there was a recognition there in kansas that this was good for the economy. it was good for preserving the ranching heritage. it was good also for preserving the environmental values. we've done the same thing with the headwaters of the everglades where we have a new national wildlife refuge we're creating there and, the everglades, along with this wildlife refuge really today represent the single most successful world heritage ecosystem rest core operation program on the entire plan net and we have -- planet. we have lets of other ideas in moving agenda. so i'm very excited about

the opportunities to do some things in conservation have not done done. i would say there is one aspect to it perhaps most important than ever before. that we con exup the -- connect up the landscape. what happened historically both with the public domain as well as private assets is that, they have been checker boarded. so one of the things that we want to do is work in participation with private land owners, respecting private property rights to connect up these landscapes for wildlife and for other he can logical values that allows us to manage the landscape as a whole as opposed to managing it in a fragmented way. >> we hear a lot about the wildlife corridors that can be created what you're calling a checker board. i think the administration seems spot on addressing this. where concretely can we create a wildlife corridor? where in the united states can this happen. i think it can happen everywhere. we have wildlife and fish and important ecological

values and in every single state in every single community in our country. willingness of the local communities in a participation some cases with the united states government and other places where we can provide financial incentives for people to come together to create, that create the connection activity. if i may, to say a quick word about america's great outdoors and at least the way that i see it through my eyes. i think there are four essential elements to it. the first we want to create the next generation of great urban parks that will take us from, new york harbor and hudson estuary to st. louis and the arch and how that is connected up to the mississippi and to the dred scott courthouse but really serving the st. louis population. places likes a san francisco bay delta. great urban parks and that generation, great urban parks is one outcome. the second how we connects up these rural landscapes and the flint hills conservation area is one of those examples, headwaters of the everglades is

another. there are many others around the country. the third are rivers. i think we need to put a new focus on american rivers. both urban rivers and other rivers to make sure we are taking care of these places where the first, 300 years of civil -- european civilization in this country until the 1970s people turned their backs to rivers and they became the waste lands and the places to dump and other waste. what happened now in the last 30 years, turning our faces to them. . . we now have 21,000

young people who are working with us as part of our civilian conservation corps effort. they were not working with the department of interior until we took this initiative. they are helping us do the job with the department of interior on behalf a of the american people and two, we are creating the next generation of conservation leaders and i'm very proud of that and there are other agencies within the federal government that are helping us do that. secondly, we have a tremendous opportunity within the united states department of interior because we get so many people who come and see the very special places that we have, whether it's glacier national park where our glaciers are disappearing or the statue of

liberty at ellis and how we use the greatest assets we have as the custodians of america's national resources and as the custodians of america's heritage to educate young people about our country is a phenomenal opportunity. so secretary arne duncan has been working with fish and wildlife services as well as the john jarvis for the national park service so we can intergrate the national opportunities we have with our school system. >> are you worried about melting glaciers? i was up in the glacier bay national park in alaska where john muir went in 1879 and 1880 and a lot of the glaciers are not just receding but are disappearing up there. have you looked into climate change and why so much of this frozen alaska is melting? >> you know, doug, for me i think i have the greatest cabinet job in the united states

of america. john podesta would might agree with me. [laughter] >> but i get to go up to sea from shining sea and it's part of my responsibility of secretary of interior to see part of these places. there was a place where i was at arcadia national park in maine and was watching at arcadia national park as you have rising sea in arcadia. i was then in wisconsin at the apostle islands where lake superior is now 5 degrees warmer than it was 30 years ago and asking the scientists what that would ultimately mean to the ecosystem of lake superior. that went from there to glacier national park with our two senators from montana, bachus and tester. we flew around glacier national park and saw the disappearance of the glaciers and the scientists -- and i don't know whether they're democrat or republican but they're telling me that the glaciers of glacier national park will disappear from glacier from the year 2020. that's like in 8 years so when i

look at these issues, they're real. in the colorado river, where we have one of the largest rivers in america that is the place where most of our agricultural products are coming from, we're expecting to see a 20% decline in the amount of water that will be available for agricultural, municipal, as well as recreational uses on the colorado river. it's an issue that needs to be addressed and it's part of what we're trying to do at interior. >> do you bring these matters to president obama like will you -- after you go to these places maine and wisconsin and montana, report back to the president on a concern about these -- you know, the disappearing glaciers, the rising tides? >> yeah, we have an ongoing dialog about these issues and certainly it was reflected in the president's statement on the america's great outdoors as he received the report. and in terms of his push on both conservation as well as the push

to grasp a new energy future for america, for me, in my role as interior, one of the things i'm proud of is the fact that we have been able to move forward with renewable energy in a way that has never happened before. we just in 2010, have permitted 3,700 megawatts of solar energy in the desert to the southwest. you know, that's the equivalent of more than 10 coal-fired power plants that we are basically capturing the power of the sun to power our economy. >> you said what's the segue to renewable energy. how can renewable energy modes be used on public lands? how can the government raise monies and also help get us off fossil fuels using even wind turbines or solar. what's the interior's vision on that? >> we believe have a significant role to play because as we manage with the forest service 30% of the land mass of the

united states, we have appropriate places to site renewable energy facilities. if you take, for example, the southwestern part of our country in california and nevada, arizona, new mexico, and colorado, national renewable energy labs have all said that's where we have the greatest potential for solar energy development. we will make believers out of skeptics who say it cannot be done because we already had the groundbreakingings -- groundbreakings in the world and when it gets on the grid and people can start seeing how we can capture the sun and clean energy it will have a transformative effect and start making believers out of the concept ticks. so we have a significant role to play. recognizing that not every place of our public lands ought to be used for solar energy or wind energy development. so our concept is and our slogan is smart from the start.

that we have to -- where we put these in the united states. >> what happened today you released a 10-year vision program for our national wildlife refuges and people don't know we have over 500,000 national wildlife refuges and there are spectacular places saving habitat for all this wildlife and the u.s. fish and wildlife does an incredible job of managing these and often american people think of national parks being interior but these wildlife refuges are remarkable. what is the 10-year vision that you have, the plan you're releasing on how to use our national wildlife refuges properly? >> we want to move forward with the next generation of national wildlife refuges and with our vision for what the reality is that we're doing through our wildlife refuges, we have an

asset which belongs to the american people of 150 million acres. and these are some of the greatest pieces of land and water areas in the world from pelican island to the alaska wildlife refuge to so many other places around our country. 553 of them what we need to do is figure out where we're going in the next generation and how we're going to connect up to the american people. one of our challenges is to make sure that we are connecting up to young people and having them come out and understand what our refuge systems do and so there's a whole chapter on that as well. a planning document that will take us in the months ahead that will tie in nicely to what we're doing with america's great outdoors including the landscape level kind of planning that went on in the creation of the flint hills creation area and through that process one of the things we will identify are a number of different candidates for additional fish and wildlife refuge that is we'll designate and in the following years as

well. >> you mentioned the alaska wildlife refuge. it's very controversial because there's oil there. is the obama administration will hold the line that there will be no oil drilling in the refuge while the president is in office? is that a firm interior department position? >> yes. the president was clear on that during his time as a u.s. senator. he was clear about his position on the alaska national wildlife refuge during the time he has been president and so that's the direction that we are -- that -- i mean, that's where we are and that's our. >> we had the bp spill report, the reilly-graham report come out earlier this year. and a lot of your clock was eaten up having to grapple with that bp dismissal where are we in the gulf now for right now? what's going on with the wetlands and from a conservation point of view, what is interior doing in the gulf south that's making that particular ecosystem

stronger and more viable for long-term wildlife prosperity? >> we have approximately 35 national parks and wildlife refuges in the gulf and so we have a huge interest in making sure those are protected and preserved. i will say this about the bp oil spill, first it was a tragedy for the nation and there are a lot of lessons to be learned and we'll move forward with oil and gas development in a way that hopefully will bring about a new gold standard for safety and environmental protection in oil and gas development. but i would also say in many ways i think the possibility is here. that for the first time we'll be able to embark on a serious gulf coast restoration effort that is funded. that will allow us to take the mississippi river delta, which has been so degraded by the hand of man over 150 years and that we'll be able to restore the

flows of water from the mississippi river to have that delta rise again has been so degraded. we'll be able to take the barrier reef and islands that protect the gulf and make a lot more out of them than what they had been and we'll be able to -- be able as well with investments in places like the everglades and the very other important areas in the gulf coast. bp is liable. responsible under the law for natural resources damages as well as other damages. and the president has endorsed the recommendation by the secretary and penalties and others will be paid by the companies that have liability here. it should go into ecological restoration. i think what we have here is a possibility of turning this tragedy in the gulf of mexico into what will be one of the most significant ecological restoration efforts in the

history of the united states of america. >> would that restoration include perhaps opening up the floodgates so to speak of the mississippi river that's been channelized to allow sediment into the gulf marsh lands? >> we have identified a list of projects, several billions of dollars of projects some of which relate to the diversion structures off the mississippi river. because essentially the continued degradation of that entire delta which was there long before the bp oil spill is being caused in large part by the sediment-starved marsh lands of the mississippi delta and so there are projects, frankly, which have been designed and that we could move forward with as soon as we get the funding to be able to do it. >> we deal with the word "wildlife" a lot and sometimes

it becomes bureaucratic here in washington. specifically as a rancher and somebody who has seen all our treasured landscapes is there a particular animal species taken a great interest in your life that you've wanted to make sure that it stays saved or stays healthy and thrives? is there a particular type of wildlife that's thrown you personally in life. >> the grizzly bear, the grizzly bear is such an iconic species and i hate to think that the grizzly bear or other kinds of species will not walk this planet, this earth where our children and grandchildren can see it. there's lots of debate always about the endangered species act and what it does. but there's also tremendous successes whether it's the hooping crane on the south platte river or whether it's the grizzly or the eagle or so many

other species that has been saved from extinction. there's a lot that we can celebrate about it. we can do things better and, frankly, my hope is that we can do things better because at the end of the day species are protected by how we protect the habitat. and so when we talk about america's great outdoors and the connection of the landscapes and the corridors and focus on waters where most of our species lives, you are really looking at having constructive solutions and trying to get ahead. nobody wants to -- any species is endangered and so if we can get ahead to the right type of landscape scale, conservation and habitat protection, we'll be able to protect these iconic species. >> do you recall where you were when you first saw a grizzly. did you ever see a grizzly as a boy growing up in colorado or just on hunting trips during hiking?

did you ever personally see one in the wild? >> i've never seen one in the wild. i've seen many bears san^juan mountains but never a grizzly out in the wild. i hope perhaps this summer if i get a chance to go up into alaska and some of the areas where we do know there's grizzlies that i'll be able to see one. >> great. what being a rancher in colorado and being connected to the land -- what do you bring to -- to being interior secretary coming at it from a rancher's perspective? >> i think first there's the philosophical stems they bring to the land. as a rancher and farmer you know how you take care of the land will create your future. because if you don't take care of your land this year, in two or three or four years, you've

basically taken it out beneath your feet for your own survival so taking care of your land is essential to survive as a farmer and as a rancher and i think most farmers and ranchers recognize that. and number two there's also a political reality here that we need to bring ranchers and farmers together with conservation organizations and environmentalists move forward with the conservation agenda that is not as polarized as it sometimes can be. and the story i just told you about the flint hills and the national conservation areas here that was a statement of unity how we're going to protect the ranching heritage of that area as well as this wonderful ecosystem and that kind of template is helping all over maker today. and that's what makes me as secretary makes me very excitement about america's outdoors. >> and part of america's great outdoors is this notion of the urban wilderness and you've been

a very eloquent spokesperson on urban wilderness. the idea that many people live in congested cities and can't get away to the arctic refuge or glacier national park. how do we create -- how does the interior department create an urban wilderness and actually what is urban wilderness? what do we mean by that phrase that's coming in to vogue? >> my hope is -- you know, the president for -- in a very difficult time has proposed fully funding land and water conservation fund and we hope inthan sent vies some of these things to happen at the local level. and as we have had conversations before, doug, you know, i think it was during the most difficult times of american history where you had presidents standing up for conservation. it was abraham lincoln studying the lands in yosemite before the midst of the civil war and teddy roosevelt that you account in your book and john podesta's

book as well or franklin roosevelt in the middle of the dust bowl in the depression doing more for soil conservation and wildlife preservation. we're at those times as well today. and my view is that even though the times are tough economically, it's also the time for us to invest in conservation because ultimately it's good economics for our country. so specifically, urban wilderness, probably the best thing to do is -- to give you one example. my hometown, my home state of denver, you have two wildlife refuges. one that's 27 square miles that used to be an abandoned military arsenal and it's located right on the south platte river. not too far down the road, there's another wildlife previous area called the rocky mountain flat. there are rivers through the south platte that cut between the two rivers that are tributaries. it would be very easy with the leadership of the governor and the mayor of denver and i think

they are there with us to create an urban wilderness experience from those places that ties the 3 million people of the denver metropolitan area to these wilderness areas that are located right within the city. last week i was in new york with mayor bloomberg. we were talking about the future of the new york harbor and the hudson estuary but we own the united states of america own acres and we never connected it up to america and its future and the opportunity to connect up the 18 million people through the right transportation corridors and improvements into these wildlife experiences, i expect by the end of this year we will have in place in new york city the greatest and largest urban campground in america. we're going to do that right in the middle of new york. and if we can do that in new

york, we can certainly do it in st. louis. we can do it in lots of other places around the country. >> where is the urban campground in new york located? >> it's a place called floyd bennett field which is a very -- it used to be a military base. it's been abandoned and so there are plans underway to figure out what the future of that field should be. it's right next to jamaica bay. and it's a place where -- with the right kind of planning we can make it accessible and bring in kids from new york city and other people from new york city to experience the outdoors right in their own backyard. >> yesterday i was down in dallas and i was talking with a group of officers in the u.s. military. some who have been in afghanistan and also i interviewed general kean of our southern command in haiti which is tremendously deif he says. all you have to do to go to haiti to see deforestation.

many people in our armed forces love the public lands. many soldiers grew up hunting and fishing on public lands and also they used them for recreational purposes. they come home from afghanistan. they want to go out with their family. you don't go into the military to make a lot of money and so you're not going to be a big landowner perhaps if you're a career military officer but having access to these great places in america is important. can the interior department work with the department of defense in any way to get a connection between going when soldiers come back using the land, special programs between defense and interior? >> absolutely. and we have been doing that, making sure that there's opportunities for our military personnel coming back, for veterans to access our public lands and provide lots of programs for them. we are one of the lead agencies in terms of providing job opportunities for our military

personnel coming back from afghanistan and iraq. it's something that we take -- we take very seriously. it's also -- if i may note on rural america. 40% of our people who go into the military are actually people who come from the rural parts of the united states of america. so even though i think 16% of our population is rural, they provide 40% of the personnel who actually go into our military services. for people in rural america, there's a great connection into the outdoors for a lot of reasons. one is tradition and heritage but there's also a great sense of the economic connection. so when you go to communities that are close to a national park, frankly, many of of those communities exist because the national park is there. and thinking back to pbs series ken burns zane duncan where they spoke about best idea the national parks.

when they describe that program, you know, what we have here in the united states in terms of the park system and conservation is uniquely american and uniquely democratic because these places like yosemite and other places they are not referred for the kings and the noble men. they are reserved for the common person. i think that's unique here in the united states. it's a concept we need to continue to make sure everybody understands and we keep pushing forward. >> well, thank you very much, mr. secretary. and i'm going to now start with some of the questions. this comes from fernando clemente. and he asks, as a sportsman of new mexico, i would like to know how is the america's great outdoor program going to help us see that otero mesa will become a national monument? [laughter] >> otero mesa, let me say we had a lot of conversations with

senator udall and with senator bingaman who are very interested in that happening and i've had conversations with former governor richardson as well and so it's one of those special areas we want to hear more from the american public with respect to how it is that we protect those areas. and so that's part of what we're going to be doing through this america's great outdoor process. i will say fernando in new mexico, besides otero mesa, there's a huge opportunity we have to create a new national park at a place called vias condera which is the northern part of new mexico which is a wonderful historic place and we are hopeful that we'll be able to move that process along. so lotses of different projects in new mexico that we're looking at. >> and i think it tells me that in every state, it doesn't matter if it's the state of wyoming, or maine or florida that people have these ideas. and what we want to do is through this dialog that we're

having with the american people is to have all these ideas surface including this idea of otero mesa. >> very good. >> this is from matt sheldon. and he asks, to please discuss the wild lands policy recently announced. many republicans on the hill have vowed to kill the policy. can you discuss the misrepresentations out there about this policy? >> well, you know, as we manage the public estate -- from my point of view, we need to make sure that we're managing it for all of its purposes including wilderness characteristics. and that's part of what we do with the public estate. as i said earlier in our conversation here, it's less than 90% of the entire public domain that has a designation of either wilderness or a wilderness study area. we will inventory the parts of the public domain that have wilderness characteristics and our management approach we'll take that into account. i will say this, i think there

are people who have made more of this issue than they should have, including people who are doing -- doing it for whatever political agenda they want to serve. but it's interesting when you look at the bill that has been introduced, even in this house of representatives, that there are wilderness bills that have been introduced by a number of republicans because wilderness is not a bad thing. and they recognize it. somebody handed me this as i was coming on the way over. and i was just going through these things. representative darrell issa, the beauty, mountain, wilderness act of 2011. the wilderness protections act, representative simpson, idaho, central idaho development recreation act. it just goes on in terms of places that are being designated as wilderness including from republicans within the house of

representatives. and so i think that -- the one thing we can do is to tone down the rhetoric and to say, we in the united states have some very special places. they're not republican places. they're not democratic places. they're not -- they would be lost to all of us. yes. republicans can support wilderness and democrats can support wilderness. and i think we can find some common ground here. so i'm very hopeful and looking forward to conversations with even those who are critics of our wild lands policy. >> very good. how does the -- oh, this is from etan manual of the wilderness club. how does the department of interior plan to prioritize climate smart land management plans? p.s., great ago report. [laughter] >> you got a fan letter there. but they want to know just basically how are you going to prioritize climate smart land management plans? you touched on that but you

might want to elaborate a little more. >> what we are doing is developing climate science centers around the country and we do have support even in this congressional resolution that was just passed by the house of representatives. they're still considering support for the climate science centers and that's because there is a recognition that climate is having an impact on the world and on the united states and that we need to better understand it. so we have climate science centers that we're opening up in anchorage and working in other state and federal universities so as we begin to plan for the impacts that we're going to have for climate change. you know, doug, it's always interesting for me. when you talk about climate change a lot of times, you know, it gets very hot and very political right away. you go down into the colorado river basin and you're talking to people from arizona, from new mexico, colorado, wyoming, utah,

california, the states that share a colorado basin. conservatism progressive moderate west and republicans and they recognize if you talk to the water users and to the farmers to the ranchers to the municipal water providers, et cetera, that the biggest challenge that they face right now on the colorado river as we have entered into the -- the driest period of history on the colorado river, that the water supplies of the colorado river are directly related to the changing of the climate. you have a legal framework and water allocation that was made on the colorado river under some misassumptions that missed the mark almost 100 years ago by several million acre feat. you further reduce that by 20% what is that going to mean to the city of los angeles, and albuquerque? what's it going to mean to all the farming community that relies on the colorado river system? but what's it going to mean to the tribe and so they get it.

they get it and so what they're saying to us is we support understanding the changes that climate change is going to bring upon our communities in these seven states and we want to get ahead of it and so dealing with the science and making sure that we have a good understanding of the future is a very important thing there in the colorado river. and it's important to communities throughout our country. >> very good. this one is from reed oldridge. and it seems like he's from utah. he says i'm concerned about protection of public lands in utah, namely, number one, san rafael swell, number two, recapture canyon, number three, cedar mesa. any comments? also, are there any action on cedar breaks gaining national park or national monument status? >> you know, we'll have a conversation about all these lands as we move forward with the public lands issues in you

the in days ahead. in fact, i have a meeting with governor herbert who has started a public land use, lands policy within utah. some of these projects are projects and land areas that we will have on the table for discussion about their future. >> okay. we're going to wind down here in a minute but i do want to take -- i'm going to kind of morph a couple of them here by -- 'cause they're both similar. one from patrick fitzgerald and jorge madrid. and it's about how can the department of interior help support development of renewable energy on tribal lands? >> we have great potential of tribal lands for renewable energy and i think that's a recognition first that has to be made and then secondly, we are working both at the department of energy as well as with the assistant secretary for indian

affairs in my department to identify those areas on reservations where there is great potential for renewable energy. i'll give you just one. the navajo reservation which is such a huge expanse in arizona presents a great opportunity for both solar and wind energy and also very close to the transmission. and so we hope to be able to work closely with tribal communities so that tribal communities are not left out of the renewable energy revolution which i believe we're in the midst of. and it's in its infancy and it will happen that. and the tribal communities and the reservationses should not be left out of that energy opportunity for america. >> last question from chris sadderstrom who is with the conservation lands foundation and they are very pleased antiquities i mentioned in the great outdoors report as a key tool for protecting critical

landscapes and places of historic importance. can you comment on how this antiquities act and these monuments help local economies? they understand you're safeguarding these treasures but how do monuments help local economies? >> i think monuments like so many other iconic places of our natural landscape here in america are economic generators. we always think of the fate of montana that has a population of less than a million people and yet there are 11 million people a year that go to montana to hunt, to fish, to hike, to bike, to raft and to just enjoy the great outdoors of big sky country. and so all of these places are economic generators. whether they're wildlife generators objects part of our public landscapes within the blm and so we need to understand and

i think the people of the united states are understanding that there is a direct connection between conservation and the preservation of our lands and economic vitality. john podesta spoke to it in the introduction that's something president clinton recognized back in the 1990s. that when we take care of our place, then we protect our environment, it is consistent with also good economics. i remember a long time in colorado when we were working on economic development, part of the reason we want company to come to colorado is because of the quality of life that we offer there. well, part of the quality of life is what kinds of experiences we are able to provide to companies and to their employees in terms of the connections. >> i want to tell you you're always so thoughtful and answer everything that's always asked of you. and i'm amazed at how much knowledge you have about our treasured places in the united states and thank you for your public service.

and thank you for being here at the center for american progress. >> thank you very much, doug. [applause] >> thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated while our speakers depart. [inaudible conversations] >> our live coverage will continue as 1:00 eastern as white house press secretary will gave the daily briefing. c-span will be live at noon eastern with former presidential candidate mike huckabee. he's written a new book "a

simple government: 12 things we really need from washington." the former republican governor from arkansas will answer reporters questions at the national press club this afternoon. >> look for the complete schedule at booktv.org and get

our schedules emailed directly to you. sign up for our booktv alert. >> this weekend governors will talk about how to grow their states' economies. education, and cybersecurity as they gather in washington for the annual winter meeting of the national governors' association. we'll have live coverage throughout the weekend on c-span. >> and now vice president joe biden on spending cuts and president obama's 2012 budget. the administration says it will cut the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years. the vice president spoke at the mcconnell center at the university of louisville. he was will find by mitch mcconnell who introduces him for this one-hour discussion. [applause] >> well, thank you very much, everyone. and welcome to the mcconnell center and to our impressive guests.

this year marks the center's 20th anniversary and we're delighted to begin the celebration with our very first visit from a vice president of the united states. america got a close-up view of today's guests during the 2008 presidential campaign. and they got a senses of his good humor. his mastery of the issues and his lifelong love affair with words especially his own. [laughter] >> and they got a sense of why it's almost impossible not to like joe biden. but anybody who's ever studied the career of joe biden or sat across a negotiating table from him knows that there's a lot more to america's 47th vice president than a winning personality. you don't win a senate seat against a popular incumbent at the age of 29 and hold it for 36 years with charm. it takes vision, determination,

perseverance, and a healthy dose of confidence. it takes an extraordinary effort and joe biden has always given it his all. he set the tone early. as a 28-year-old member of the new castle county council, joe showed he wasn't afraid of a little hard work. in addition to his new political responsibilities, he had to juggle his work at the law firm he had just founded and raise a young family. and i have no doubt that he was the only councilman in new county who earned a little extra income as a lifeguard. [laughter] >> he also showed he wasn't afraid of a challenge. when no one would do it joe threw his hat in the senate in 1972. it was a biden family affair. his sister was the campaign manager, his brother was the finance chair, his older brother was the volunteer coordinator and his mother was in charge of

organizing dozens of campaign coffees. so he had a lot of help. still, nobody knew how to solve what became one of the biggest problems in the race because joe was only 29. many voters mistakely thought his dad was the candidate. [laughter] >> he won anyway and voters would send joe biden, jr., back to the senate six times after that. in a distinguished 36-year career, joe biden established himself as an undisputed leader on many of the most important issues of our day. as the top democrat on the judiciary committee, he was the leading voice criminal justice and the courts. as the top that democrat on the foreign relations committee he earned the nation's respect that for the central role he played for decades in our nation's foreign policy. and he earned the respect of his colleagues in the senate as well. on most days in the senate, the two of us wouldn't agree on as much as the weather but from our earliest days in the senate, i always remember being impressed by the junior senator from

delaware it wasn't until later that i learned the source of joe's determination. as a child, he suffered from a debilitating stutter. he was teased for it as school. and he was determined to overcome it. and with the help and support of others, along with his own hard work, he did just that. later in life, joe would recall how he used to stand in front of a mirror at night as a child and recite speeches and poetry trying to overcome his handicap. and when he's asked to name the most significant moment of his life he doesn't point to the day he won his first senate race, he doesn't say it was the day he became vice president. he says it was the day he overcame that stutter. despite all he went through, he recalls that early trial as a kind of blessing. even if i could, he said, i wouldn't wish away the darkest

days of the stutter. the impediment ended up being a godsend for me. carrying its strength in me. and i hope made me a better person. and the very things it taught me turned out to be invaluable lessons for my life as well as my chosen career. and it has been truly a remarkable career. from the new castle county council to the u.s. senate to the white house, joe biden, jr., has forged a uniquely american story and it's far from over. now that he's moved from the other end of the pennsylvania avenue i'm happy to say our working relationship is still strong. as evidenced most recently by our work together on a ballpark tax bill that preserved lower income tax rates for everyone who pays taxes. it was partly because of that work that the "new york times" recently referred to the vice president as the uberliaison with the senate. we still call him joe.

[laughter] >> i'm honored to present to you my friend, our very distinguished guest, the vice president of the united states. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. mr. leader, thank you. thank you all very, very much. it's an honor to be here. thank you. thank you. [applause] >> mitch, it's an honor to be here with you today. and thank you for that introduction. it's an honor to serve with you for 25 years. i was told i don't know whether it's true that this was one of the larger gatherings at the senator here. i don't know that it's true, but i know if it is true, the reason why. you want to see whether or not a republican and democrat really like one another. [laughter] >> well, i'm here to tell you,

we do. i'm here to tell you we do. you know, this beautiful, beautiful center, although my staff is relieved because i told them this was taking place outside in the 50-yard line. [laughter] >> and they're delighted it's inside. this is not just educating people about our history and our constitution but engaging in important questions about how it will inform our president. let me say a few things about mitch. mitch and i have worked together a long time. we worked together in the judiciary committee when mitch first came to the senate. we got to know one another. and the one thing -- there's many good things i can say about mitch, but one that i can't say about any other leader, democrat or republican, with whom i served, after being elected to that body for seven consecutive times, and that is mitch knows

how to count better than anyone i have ever known. [laughter] >> you think i'm joking. this is not a joke. when mitch says, joe, i have 41 votes or i have 59 votes, it is the end of the discussion. [laughter] >> and you know that's true. he's never once been wrong from what he's told me. [laughter] >> and a lot of the newer members of the white house, younger members who have come in to the white house with the president and through our campaign are very, very bright young women and men. but they don't know the senate like i know the senate. and they don't know mitch like i know mitch. and it's been an education. [laughter] >> it's been an education. [laughter] >> ladies and gentlemen, every state in the country should have -- should have a facility

as beautiful as this. but then again, not every state has a mitch mcconnell representing him. [laughter] >> and you started this in the 1990 when? 1990. while the rest of us are trying to figure out how we could get our high school to name is gym after us. [laughter] >> i told my colleagues anybody doubts mitch's persuasive ability just come down to this center. but it's also nice to see some familiar faces out there. from the days we served together, like don richie who's senate historian. don, where are you? i'm told you're here and i actually can't see you. don, how are you, buddy. i've known don for years. and don would come in to each of our caucus says democrat and republican caucuses and would do what you call a senate history

minute and he would come up with some unique aspect of something that happened in the senate he mitch and i are a general lover. i really genuinely mean that. and -- but i know -- i've known him for years. and don is the one trying to make me feel good. i was elected to the united states senate for the seventh time in november of '09 and vice president at the time. and i had to make a choice. for everybody else it was easy but i didn't like leaving the senate so don -- don stood up in the democratic caucus in an attempt to make me feel good, made me feel very, very old. [laughter] >> don stood up and said he wanted to point out to my colleagues in the democratic caucus, only 13 people in the entire history of the united states of america have ever served longer than me. [laughter] >> at first i was proud and then

i said oh, my god i cannot be that old. it is not possible. [laughter] >> but don, it's great to see you here. i understand you're hosting a conference today titled leadership in the senate. i'm extremely proud to having served in the senate and extremely proud -- they kid me in the white house and i'm proud of it and i think my colleagues -- still my colleagues in the senate. i'm still a senate man. i may be vice president but it's still in my blood. and i can't thank of two better people than don and mitch to tell you all about the united states senate is an institution if that's what you're going to be discussing today. look, folks, at the outset, i want to say a few words about the situation in egypt. a country in the midst of the most dramatic changes we've seen in the mideast in literally generations. obviously today it is a historic day for the of the people of

egypt and the president is going to speak to this issue in just within an hour our national television so i don't want to get ahead of him. that's not a good thing to do. [laughter] >> but all kidding aside. this is a pivotal moment in history. we have said from the beginning as a administration, that this unrest, that the future of egypt will be determined by the egyptian people. what the united states has said is what we've stood for and we continue to stand for, a set of core principles. the first is that violence and intimidation against peaceful demonstrators is totally, fairly unacceptable. secondly that the universal

rights of the egyptian people must be respected and their aspirations must be met. and thirdly, that the transition -- the transition that is taking place must be an irreversible change and a associated path toward democracy. and i would add one last point and i think mitch would agree. even in this contentious political climate in which we work, on this issue, the united states has largely spoken with one voice, democrats and republicans alike, speaking with the same voice. this unity has been important. and it will be even more important in these delicate and fateful days ahead. so i will not speak more about this today. i had planned on speaking more about it. but it's much more appropriate that we all wait and the president will deliver his statement on this in about an

hour. but what is the stake in egypt and across the middle east is not about egypt alone. it will not just touch egypt alone. you may remember that all this began when a fruit vendor in tunisia fed up with the indignity of a corrupt government and a stagnant economy literally set himself on fire. and in doing so, ignited the passions of millions and millions of people throughout that region. word spread across national boundaries and movements emerged led by people no older than some of the students in this room. using some of the same social media tools that the students in this room and many of you use, which i might add is a powerful example of our increasingly interconnected world. it's a vivid demonstration of the transformative times in which we live.

times that many of you will have the opportunity to literally shape. few generations ever have the opportunity just to bend history just a little bit. few ever have that opportunity. this generation, and we do. as we began the second decade of this young century, so much is in flux. the shape of our economy and home and around the world, the power centers of the world. the outcome of armed conflicts and a battle of ideas between modernity and traditionism that is raging as i speak. it reminds me of a line william butler yates -- it is true what mitch said. i used to stutter badly as a child all the way up to my college years when i had to stand up and speak. i had an uncle named ed finnegan

who was a genuine intellectual. a very, very bright fellow. he was a bachelor and lived with us part of my child and he loved william butler yates. my colleagues in the democratic caucus always kid me because i'm always quoting irish poets. i think i do it because i'm irish. that's not the reason. i do it because they're the best poets. [laughter] >> at least that's what i was told by my mother katherine eugene finnegan biden. [laughter] >> one of the volumes that sat on the bureau in a room with which i shared with my uncle was yates. and there's a great poem yates wrote called "easter sunday 1960" it was about the first rising in ireland in the 20th century. and there's a line in that poem that described his ireland of the moment but i would argue better describes the world in which we live today than it even did his ireland in 1916.

he said all changed, changed utterly, the terrible beauty has been born. ladies and gentlemen, all has changed in the last 15 years internationally. and all continues to change. the question is, what will be born of it? and quite frankly, the good and bad news is, it depends on you. it depends on us. back to that shaping moment in history. it depends on our ability to adequately understand and engage the truths of our time. but that requires us to dispel some of the myths of our time. what are the myths of our time? well, in my view, one myth that is prevalent today throughout the intellectual class as well as ordinary working men and women is that our political

system is broken. that it's dysfunctional and that it's incapable of making progress. then there's the myth that america has fallen behind our competitors and will not be able to compete with the major economic forces of the 21st century. already polls -- there's a polls with the "national journal" that gyre of americans believe china has already overtaken united states of america. that other economies are stronger than ours and our best days are behind us. a third myth is that we're going to be mired in war for generations. that we'll simply have to adjust to and the biggest myth of all in my view is that -- is that those other myths are inevitable. that we don't have the power to change them. but i'm here to tell you today,

as a kid at 29 years old i was idealistic and optimistic but i can say, i think, mitch, probably boggles sometimes -- mitch could tell you, i am more optimistic today than i was when i was 29 years old entering the senate from a working class family. because so much is in flux. rarely, rarely, rarely, rarely will people have an opportunity to begin to change the dynamics when so much is in flux. in our generation, mitch, we're growing up, we're faced with a lot. but the idea that we had in our ability to change the basic structure of the world and the superpower of our nation was beyond our comp henning. it was not possible. but i'm absolutely confident that these myths that i

referenced will not become the reality of the world we live in. and that we have the ability shape our destiny. we're not passengers of history. we're drivers. drivers of history. i'd like to take these myths one by one. and i apologize. this is more like a seminar or a lecture than it is a speech. people say our politics is dysfunctional. early in my career, after i lost my wife and daughter, mike mansfield took a special interest in me and i'd report to him once a week, mitch, go into his office which is where your office is, i believe -- no, it's not true. it's where harry's office is now. and he was -- i didn't realize he was just taking my pulse. but he'd give me an assignment. i thought he was really giving me an assignment. but he was wanting to see how this 30-year-old kid was doing after losing his wife and daughter and his kids are hospitalized. and one day i walked in and jesse helms had been on the floor and jesse was railing

against the disabilities ability that was on the floor and really taking on bob dole and just going at it and i walked in and sat across the desk with leader mansfield and i guess i looked perturbed and he said what's the matter, joe. i guess that jesse helms this guy has no heart. i can't imagine so on and so forth. and he looked at me and he said, joe, what would you say if i told you that -- this is 1973, that a dot, that's mrs. helms whom i still keep in touch with in north carolina, that dot and jesse -- i believe it was '68 adopted a young man whoever in his early teens i think he's 13 years old still alive and well whom i speak to who had serious disabilities. was in braces? i said i would feel like a fool. he said well, they did. he said, joe, everybody is sent

to this place is sent because their state sees something special in them. everyone who's sent here. and, joe, if you don't mind my saying, i think it's better for us to look at why they were sent than look at why they shouldn't be here. and then he said one last thing, i think mitch will tell you i've kept this. he said, joe, you have a right to question and you should question other senators' judgment. but you have no right to question their motive because you don't know what their motive is. that advice has served me very well. by the end of jesse helms' term in the senate to the surprise of everyone, maybe even mitch, jesse and i worked on funding

the united nations. we worked on increased aid with the lead of president bush for aid assistance in africa, jesse helms. jesse helms said if i had my life to do it over again, i would do it to end the aids epidemic in africa. jesse even had me promoting his book on television which i did. [laughter] >> the reason i tell you this is that i never thought when i arrived that would happen. i ran against the strom thurmonds of the world. i sat with strom thurmond for almost 30 years in the judiciary committee, next to him on strom thurmond's death bed, literally on his death bed i got a call from his wife nancy. she said, joe, i just left the senator's room. and i said how is he doing? and she said in southern style and i mean this on a complimentary way he's on god's

time. he asked me if you would do his eulogy. the idea that joe biden, a liberal civil rights kid who ran because of civil rights in 1972 would be doing strom thurmond's eulogy, which i did, and honestly did, is something no one could have imagined nor could i have. the point i'm trying to make here is, whether it was when mitch and i arrived and whether we expected we'd actually be able to work together, if you're open-minded, sticking closely to the principles that divide you from the other guy, but if you're open-minded, it's impossible not to see the other man's perspective. and we're the most heterogeneous society in the history of mankind. and without being able to see the other person's perspective,

it's difficult for me to see how this republic can continue to progress. so when democrats recently took a shellacking as the president said and we did, this last november, the pundits went on to predict with so little cooperation and bipartisanship in the first two years, that it will recall the lame duck session, that period of a couple months, less than that, when we still had massive requirements to deal with, that everything would come to a grinding halt. but i knew better not because i'm smart. but because i knew mitch for real. mitch and i come from the same tradition. we have significant disagreements, but we recognize the sincerity and the intellectual grounding of the other man's position and the necessity of finding common ground in a nation that is

heterogeneous as ours. and one more thing, never have we said something to one another that we haven't kept our word. as bitter as our disagreements may be. so after the election, a very bitter election, with very little bipartisan cooperation the previous 20 months, we still have a lot to do. but during what i referred to earlier as we referred to as the lame duck session, lots of people thought things were going to get worse. but i knew better and so did mitch and so i talked to the president. i said, i want to go sit down with mitch. and he said, okay. [laughter] >> good luck. [laughter] >> lots of luck in your senior year. [laughter] >> no, he said do it. so mitch and i sat down.

we started talking. i don't want to get him in trouble nor does he want to get me in trouble. we talked honestly and frankly about the big things that were left to be done. and we could not agree, even the two of us, on some of them but we agreed on a process. we agreed on a process. and we're able to reach the only major compromise, only truly bipartisan event that occurred in the first two years of our administration. the compromise on tax policy which we -- it not only was a compromise but it was a compromise that was useful for the economy. .. useful for the economy. look, i am not naive. just like we were told before the lame duck session started after the november results, we were told nothing would be done.

now we're being told that, for as much as you got done, with as much cooperation that existed and the system happened, it will not happen again. now there is a fundamentally new congress headed by republicans and a new breed of republicans. i do not mean that in a negative sense. like every party changes and grows. the senate is now equally divided or so. they say nothing can be done. i do not accept that. i do not except that because i accept as a basic premise that all the men and women elected to congress from liberals to conservatives, mainstream republicans and mainstream democrats, they all ran for office because they love their country. they all ran for office because we basically all agree on the

nature of the problems we face. when that exists, i believe, as my for policy staff is always kidding me about -- i have a phrase that i use not infrequently -- reality has a way of intruding on one's prejudice. i do not mean racial prejudice, on one tightly held view. we have a lot of work to do for this great nation. our politics are very difficult. but i respectfully suggest that the myth that there dysfunctional is just a myth. they are not dysfunctional. the second myth is that we will be overtaken by our rivals, that younger americans will inherit a world in countries -- for countries like china will dominate us. it is true we are going through the worst economic time at home

since the great depression. but so is much of the rest of the world. perspective is important. it is important to keep in mind our relative strength and the world has not changed. we are still -- let me emphasize -- we are still the strongest economy in the world by a factor of almost three. our economy is almost three times as large as china is, as large as the next three largest nations in the world. these countries and others have made significant progress, progress that was not imaginable 20 years ago, lifting millions of people at a party in the country. good for them, good for us, before the world -- millions of people out of poverty in the country. good for them, good for us, good

for the world. you remember those days, mitch. remember going up to the wharton school, talking about the there was no inevitability around the dominance of japan. we need to have some perspective here. our gdp is almost two 0.5, almost three times as large as china's. when it comes to per-capita gdp, it is not even close. ours is 10 times to 11 times as large as china's. the average income in the united states is $46,000. japan is $38. china is $3,600. most important to remember is our capacity to innovate remains unrivaled with any

country in the world. that is the single greatest strength of an open, divers, dynamic society that looks to free-market. that is america. that is who we are. that has been the history of the journey of this country. it is not borne out of chauvinism. it is a reality. so why worry is this? i raise this because you already think you have lost and you cannot win. -- i raise this because, eat you already think you have lost, the clearly there is no way you can win. there's already an in of -- there is already an inevitability. there was talk about the decline of america. i am confident that mitch as

well as me reject that premise. we had one more point. this is not a zero-sum game. the president and i want to see china progress. we want to see it grow. it took 30 years to get 20% of the population out of abject party. we would like to see it all out of poverty. china, when it grows, benefits not only the chinese people, but other nations as well. because, when standards of living rise, democratic values historic we have followed. stability in a china moving towards democracy being pushed by a system that raises their living. i will give you an example. south korea. ladies and gentlemen, is not to say that we do not have -- it is

not to say that we do not have to get our house in order. we have a herculean task ahead of us. our long-term debt is simply not sustainable. we all agree we have to act. but this is why there are two parties. we have different prescriptions on how to act on this. we agreed we have to cut spending and get the deficit under control. republicans want to cut the deficit, too. and so we -- and so do we. some had to decide how much and how? we have cut out programs we cannot afford any more. and the programs we created we think they're doing good. we talk about community action programs. the mayor in this city cares about those, i expect, like every mayor around the country.

but we cannot afford it today. what we are cutting is not just waste. we have to actually cut some muscle. we have called on a five-year freeze on discretionary spending, on un-related security. over the next three, you will see a red book where the devil is in the details. when i was a senator, i would hear a president, democrat or republican, say where is the budget? and i would say, let's see what the details are. the details are real. where we sometimes agree, as president obama made clear in the state of the union, when it comes to our jobs, there are three key places we do not think

we can compromise. we think we have to invest while we are cutting other worthwhile programs in some cases. those areas are education, innovation, and infrastructure. some people believe and many very smart republicans and democrats believe that it is not governments place -- it is not the federal government's place to be the engine behind education and innovation. to the extent that it is about it for structure, it has limits. but we believe that government has a place and a necessary requirement to make sure we invest in those three endeavors. it is a legitimate argument and one that needs to be debated and resolved. we believe, they believe, many,

that we can afford these -- that we cannot afford these investments. and many believe that we cannot afford to not invest at this moment. in our view, we cannot lead the world in the 21st century if our students rank 25th out of 34 oecd countries. and math, ranking 17th. we cannot lead the world, in our opinion, if we remain 12th in the percentage but of college graduates that this nation graduates relative to population. we'll be quick to lead the world if we're dedicating less than 2% of our gdp toward modernizing our infrastructure. when china and other countries have been investing up to 10% for the last decade.

2% is a 20% decline in what we have invested in gdp -- as a percent of gdp during the eisenhower administration with the highway program. we cannot leave it are incentives for research and development spending is weaker than 16 of our competitor nations. we do not think we can lead the world if we fail to innovate. lead in innovation, inviable -- and by technology, in renewable, in cutting edge research. there is a legitimate argument -- i disagree with it -- that we cannot afford that right now. the specter of the date is so much more debilitating than the promise of the investment. i get it. but i disagree. so that is what we will be debating, in part, about the

economy. to win the future, in my view, we cannot postpone investing in the future. in the free enterprise system alone, it has never in the past been the major investor in the most cutting edge and economically risky future innovations. to insure that all children have an education that allows them to travel as far, as high as their talents can lead them, that is what we should be doing now. our children are the very tight strings that -- kite strings that moves our country's interest along. it is international interest that every child qualified to attend college, should attend college, notwithstanding their

economic standing. just as we invest in fighter jets, just as we invest in intelligence services, we think it is in our security interests to invest taxpayer money in getting children who have the intellectual capacity and the promise to get too great universities like this if they can market their on their own financially. i think that is the only way we can lead in the 21st century. my wife, who is a full-time professor while the second lady -- she teaches 15 credits. many of you know that is not an easy burden. she thinks she works harder than you guys do because she has to bring those papers come to correct them. [laughter] is a constant battle.

my deceased wife was a teacher. my current wife is a teacher. i love the debate between the math and english and physics professors. i like to -- i do not have a dog in that fight. i have a queen in that fight. [laughter] we are in the cusp of being out- educated. to build a modern infrastructure and accommodate a population that is expected to grow by 100 million people in the next 40 years, that is the expectation of demographers here in the united states of america. go to your airport, go to the congested airports, try to get on a train if you can find one, get on my highway and the metropolitan area and you tell

me, without a fundamental change in our transportation that, how will we be competitive with another 100 million people in 40 years? to modernize outdated roads, bridges, air systems, and our ports, you can make your widgets in hong kong, get them to the port more rapidly, and export them at 20% less than it would cost you to send them out of the port of philadelphia, los angeles, houston, what have you. we are woefully behind the rest of the world. it is more than steel and concrete. it is also about making high- speed internet available to every single person at every recess in this country. we rank in the teens in terms of

being wired. we invented it. [laughter] i realize the joke that al gore did not. but we did it. [laughter] it became known as the internet that 1.7 billion people use a day, generating trillions of dollars in economic growth. it is above vehicles of the future, renewable fuels that will power them so that we can literally began to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. let me raise see what happens? if the worst happens in the transition in the gulf states, what happens if, all of a sudden, the access of oil is cut off? how much longer can we rely, put our future, our fate in the hands of the changing times,

whether it is the middle east, nigeria, or venezuela? that is why we have the goal of being the first country in the world of having 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. and that 15% of our energy comes from -- it is not an environmental issue. it is a security issue. a recent meeting with the advisor report to the president -- they are some of the most brilliant minds in america. they sat with us for ours describing some of the innovation promises in the future. for example, they described new building material that is lighter and stronger than ever seen before. one of the scientists describing

it to a set, "it would take an elephant balancing on a pencil to be able to break through a sheet of graph been -- of graphine the thickness of an umbrella. we are completing the genome for several different cancers. it can not only save billions of lives, but billions of dollars. these are all within the reach of this great country. they not only make our lives better, but create new jobs. the internet continues to do this in the beginning of the 21st century. the final myth like to dispel is

that war is the specter of our future. many of you remember, after september 11, the pundits said, "our way of life will never be the same." well, a week after the attacks, had the opportunity to speak to thousands of students at my alma maters at the university of delaware. i said to them when i say now. that will not happen. we cannot let that happen. while americans have had several predicaments before. after pearl harbor, when president kennedy was killed, during vietnam, the predictions have been wrong about what was going to happen with this country. granted, our lives have been more inconvenient by having to

metalrough more menta detectors. they were wrong, the pundits, because they continued to underestimate america, because they failed to realize literally the journey of the history of this country. we have a limitless reservoir of character and resilience and strength. we have demonstrated a generation after generation after generation -- and i might add, your generation is the more significant, talented generation in history of this country. the generation of students at this college, at this to anniversary -- it has been almost 10 years since 9/11. as you know, our way of life in doors. our country has faced great threats before, nazism and communism, 18,000 nuclear

weapons and that the united states of america during the cold war. today, al qaeda possesses -- poses a serious threat to innocence, here at home and abroad. but let's not overestimate their strength. bankruptemists' ideology failed to produce the progress that they seek. we are a broad range of people, not only the students in this hall, and are transforming the country by raising their voices, not by set deniability -- not by accepting an ideology or orthodoxy. we need to maintain a broader perspective. we need to broaden our focus. that is why our foreign policy

is aimed at restoring america's leadership and standing in the world. there are many forces shaping this young sentry, of which violent dexter mizzen israel, but just one. that is why we are closing -- working more closely than ever before with rising powers, like russia and china. that is why we built an and president coalition to encourage the iranian leaders to quit in enriching uranium. that is why we are working with partners -- i might add that the iranians are trying to take advantage of the situation in europe. the heavily this closed the bankruptcy of their system. i it -- they have only disclosed the bankruptcy of the system. i say to the people of iran, let your people marched let your

people speak, really sure people from jail, let your people have a voice. [applause] it is a bankrupt system. that is why we are working with partners in asia to bring about the complete and verifiable and of north korea's nuclear program. china is beginning to move. reality has a way of changing events. that is why we are working to stem the spread of weapons of mass destruction in failed state, to adjust to a rapidly warming planet, food, water -- these are the real problems that we face in the 21st century. and to encourage the inevitable transition to democracy wherever and whenever it occurs, whether it is in sub-saharan africa, asia, or egypt, it is true today that we are more encouraged to

fight wars in afghanistan and iraq. i have been to iraq 19 times. i just got back from multiple trips three weeks ago from afghanistan and pakistan. and afghanistan, we will bring this year a transition to responsibility over security in certain regions to the afghan devore man. in july, we will start drawing down our forces determined by the pace of the conditions on the ground. [applause] by 2014, security of the entire country will be in the hands of the afghans. in iraq, where the united states at about 150,000 troops on the ground when our administration took office, we have already brought home 100,000 combat troops.

the remaining 50,000 will come home at the end of this year. [applause] folks, we have reached the end of our combat mission. we have shifted our remaining focus to advising and assisting our iraqi counterparts and enhancing our civilian-led efforts to support partnerships along bear wide range of sectors, political, educational. two things are essential to meet the 20% share. the first is to sustain our economic strength in ways -- to meet the 21st century. the first is to sustain our economic strength. it is the key to our ability to lead the world. secondly, and equally important, we have to ensure that our policies match our values, that our policies match our values. they must usually be

reinforcing. the moment our nation declared our independence, we showed the world the values behind our revolution -- our revolution and the conviction that our policies must be formed. the line that i think is the most informed peace says that we must leave by the informed consent and by the decent respect for the opinions of mankind. our founders understood then and the united states believes now that our example, the example of our power, must always be matched by the power of our example. we must never forget that wisdom. let me conclude by saying that i am sure that the republican leader will disagree with some

of the things i have said today for some of the prescriptions i have offered for the future, near term and long term. but i know him too well. i know that neither of us would trade our country's future for the future of any other country in the world. that is not borne out of chauvinism. that is born out of the stark reality. i also know that we share a conviction that, when we find common ground like we did in december and i hope we will in the months ahead, that there is not a single solitary challenge this country faces that we cannot surmount, not one. we also share the conviction that we can sustain our position in the world and we can and must strengthen it. we share the conviction that america's best days are ahead. seeing so many young people here today only strengthens our conviction that our greatest aspirations are within our reach, that we