>> programs that are expecting constant cost burdens will not survive, poorly performing programs will not survive. or should not survive. here again in gay has done a terrific job in a number of areas, gmt bad, sm3 and so forth to incentivize schedule and

alternatively penalize the schedule slips. look into the supply chain in our missile manufacturing, and understand where we can realize better value in the supply chain, provide incentives to prime contractors to realize that value differentially reward them, subcontractor by subcontractor according to the performance that they realize. qualify additional suppliers where you find a supplier who has consistently underperforming or charging too much, and where it becomes worthwhile to qualify a second supplier. and so for all of the blocking and tackling it takes to turn a will cost estimate into a should cost estimate, meaning and amount of money that taxpayers should be expected to pay for that article.

next on here is promoting real competition. the word real comes from secretary gates. he uses it to contest something he calls washington competition but you can drive competition. he means real competition and we have a real competition in the ballistic missile defense program. i think the number, pat, correct me if i'm wrong, is $37 billion with the content over the next five years. it will be we competed and competition is not the only but it's one of the most important ways that would have of incentivizing value. some areas that are being competed in the near future are the test support tools, some airborne sensors, to clear in cape cod radars, the mda data

center which by the way is a small business set aside also, a whole other story in the mda does a good job of supporting small business, good for small business, good for it as well. and, therefore, an ever-growing fraction of the mda budget in this year and coming years represents work that was competitively awarded. and that's tremendous improvement and much-needed. the next item on here was improving tradecraft and services acquisition. of the $400 billion of the defense budget every year that is contracted out for goods and services, half of that is services. half is good. by the way, we did a good spark with service work as well. there's an enormous amount of

money and the defense budget associate with acquisition of services, and a lot less thought had been given, has been given over time to acquisition tradecraft in the area of services. we are trying to change that and improve that, and make sure that we are managing this part of our spend with the same energy and attention that we pay to the acquisition of ships, planes, tanks, satellites, and so forth. and we've taken a number of steps in that direction over the last eight or 10 months, and will be doing a great deal more simply because they're so much more value to be had in this category. and pat and mda were on this quite a while ago. they also, mda had a large advisory services spend, again,

a long-term investment that they have made and used doing -- used to doing business in that way. some 250, more than 250 contractors from each other legacy, sometimes extending back, quite a longer time for many cases. in all cases important advisory services. they were bundled into seven functional groups, and a replacement set of idiq contracts were awarded to replace the 250 plus contracts, each with a series of task orders targeted, task orders. in all, a very long, laborious

process that mda went through but that paid off for the capability, was able to deliver. so once again, a really excellent example of good acquisition tradecraft this time apply to services, and once again by mda. last, i talk about reducing nonproductive processes and bureaucracy. i'll just say something i said last year at this conference which is mda is managed a little bit differently, but not much differently from our other programs. i think it's all for the good. for those of you who remember, sdio, this is not the way sdio is managed. but this is very different. at the same time it is not an exact -- is not in the early stages of mda programs, exactly the usual acquisition system. it's actually from my point of view better from the point of the management's ability to have

insight into managerial control over missile defense. essentially general cartwright and i co-chair a board. pat and all the services are there which is important for reasons i'll get you in a moment. pat presents his plans and we have a real opportunity to dig in to them and offer him help and improvement. it's important to have, and on this note how close, it's very important to have on that board service representatives because, i'll just remind you that missile defense is quite immature program now, and the sustainment and of missile defense capabilities is becoming an important management issue. it used to be which concept where we interested in, then it was acquiring the capability. now we are fielding the capability, all our cocom's want

more than we have. we have to portion scarcity among each of them. each of the services that take ownership of these capabilities have to integrate them into their force structure, sustainment system. and that in the old days wasn't a necessity for the missile defense, but in the state it is. and we, therefore, take on a whole life cycle of missile defense. we have the right people at the table to do that. so actually a terrific example of portfolio management in defense. and i only want to say that because i'm so pleased with how it's working out, and if once in a while, it still differently, like the old sdio, it is not. it's quite a good way of

managing a program of this complexity. so, the point i'm trying to make, to get across here is, this is what a consummate of management of mda, that in most ways in da was already managing to better buying power a couple of years ago. i wish all our managers were, but soon they will be and we really need to do that. because the country is looking to us, those of you in am i so many of your from the government industry defense team. they are looking to us to give them what we have on the books what we say they need, and they do need, and not less for a not ever-increasing amount of money. not an unreasonable request, and

it's a goal that we can reach and it is our duty. i look for to work with my mda team and all of you who are part of it. and for those of you in industry or government who are doing this work, let me thank you for what you're doing for defense, much appreciated. thank you. [applause] [applause] >> dr. carter, would you comment on the impact of the stock work issues, particularly the impact on small business? >> yes. small business, large business, i just it everywhere. i said this already. actually the questioner anticipated something, a point i made already. it really is pervasive. you get to a couple of months of

this, by minor adjustments, when you're coming up as we are about more than half a year, it's just debilitating therefore anybody who have big plans this year, for anybody who had carefully laid plans versus what you want your managers to have, where everything was in dallas and you just had your crack team working on an objective and boom, in this extremely is force, sales, it knock you off balance and now you find yourself scrambling to make of schedule, figuring out how you will ever be able to pay for lost time and fully inefficiency associated with buying a third -- let's say you're just wrapping up to production and you're just about to enjoy a tremendous number of missiles at good prices, and who you are forced to buy a third of that number, or half of that number. and you and your industry

partner both something, they would like to be selling. you would like to be buying more, and it could be a wonderful thing for the taxpayer. frustrated by this so i had nothing good to say about it. i can only hope that it ends soon because it's not good for the taxpayer or the warfighter. >> according to your will cause, should cost, how does he manage to plant a multi-year cost? >> that's a good question. it goes beyond will cost and should cost. turbulence. program turbulence is one of the hidden killers in our business. i had this you as i, the departments management, is last year you raise an issue that didn't get anywhere, you have to wait two years to bring it back. you're not allowed to come back every year with the same thing.

we need the kind of stability that allows people to get a few years of momentum. i don't know whether the questioner contended the word multi-year as a term of art, but multi, multiyear contract is something we are very much open to. we do, we have the target of 10% savings. that's a threshold, by no means the ceilings on the savings that we aspire to or we can realize to multi-year procurements. and i'd like to see us do more of the. i'd like to see us do more buying at deal q. and not along where you have four or five similar products, buying well below eoq simple because the service can't afford to buy more. we should be facing, so they're more economical, make better use

of plans, tooling, and so forth. so in all these ways we need to look at our enterprise and see how we can use markers because it's good for all of us. >> your buying power point, the second part sounds like a task inside government, also a requirement. how will it be measured? >> it is certainly a requirement within the government, buffer industry here is how does. i'm asking people who are starting programs now, this is going to help us with things we start in the past, so if you're thinking about improving acquisition all you're thinking about is how to start new programs better. you are only touching a piece of the budget but still it's important peace. and as we do start new programs and we will be starting the ss

dx summary, new bomber for the air force, the army's ground combat vehicle. with the coming back to the president's helicopter this year and so forth. we need to know, and i'll be asking the program managers what is your time explaining to me why this is affordable in the services budget. and how you're going to make it affordable. example i gave on september 14 was of ssbx, this is the ohio class replacement. that, when first proposed by the navy, their cost estimate for the ohio class replacement was $7 billion per. and if you took that and he laid it in to the navy shipbuilding budget in the decade in which those 12 ships were planned to be built, you could see now that

it wasn't -- it's not happening. it's not happen. we're not going to build any other ships except the ohio replacement during the pre. you can see by the it's not happen. i'm not one to start something that i know now i can't finish in those terms. and so we had to go back to the design of ssbx and say it's got to be cheaper. in fact, we set the target at 4.9, seven, at 4.9. we're about halfway there and then to get to the question, how do you do that, you look at the design and you look at all of the elements of the design that drive its costs come in this case it was missile tube number, diameter, speed, et cetera, et cetera. and say, which i change those requirements in a way that does not compromise essential military capability with the aim of reduced cost.

how can i shape the design. will we found which is not surprising, people who designed ballistic missile submarines haven't done that for 30 years. and the thought of a lot of great things in the last 30 years that they want all them to be the new submarine. and if we had infinite money that would be a wonderful thing to do but we don't. so we need to control the appetite in the interest of affordability. so the answer to the question is it really is this kind of engineering task in which you take a design and to shape design until the cost estimate that corresponds to that design is something that you credibly can demonstrate you will be able to to afford when you get around to buying it. and that's just something we have to do what it is for the bomber, for the presidential helicopter, and so forth. it is in the early stage between the design and cost estimate.

>> what are your thoughts based on your initiatives for contractor the profit percentages in light of pressures from agency to increase margin? >> that's also a really an excellent question. let me frame that by something terribly important. i have said this many times. i said it up in wall street about a month ago. we don't make anything in the pentagon. our weapons, which next to our superb men and women in uniform, are what makes this nation's military grade, or made in private industry. that's our system. and, therefore, the technological health, vitality

and the financial health of the defense industry is a national asset. and, therefore, the interests of the taxpayer as a warfighter in the long-term investor are actually aligned. long-term investor. we recognize that. we recognize that in this sense. and, therefore, when i talk about better buying power i'm talking about reduction of cost, not profit. profits is the way that our managers can get the results they want. so in industry program manager who can reduce the cost of the program, thereby reducing the cost to the government, will

share those savings. that's exactly the kind of incentive we want to give. it would be very shortsighted to try to save money by reducing profits. it would remove the incentive for the kind of performance that you want, and it would ultimately remove the defense industry from the mainstream of finance and commerce, which would weaken it in a long-term and, therefore, weaken our defense long-term. so i don't know anybody in the management of defense or any of my predecessors who would have looked at their -- who would have looked therefore value, cutting costs is the way of controlling and getting better value to the taxpayer and warfighter.

it's very important that be understood. >> along those lines, reference to professional services in the request of obtaining more by for the american taxpayer done, what mistakes have been made in the past they need to correct going forward? >> all of them, i suppose, at one time or another. i guess the only way i can answer that is, what you saw on that chart isn't new to you all, or at least those who are defense department, the services, or related industry. that's just good tradecraft. we need to be able to practice that good tradecraft. as i put those points out, and as i implement them, we are trying to be very careful about being fact-based in our behavior

so that we are not making changes based upon one program. you know, that i happen to know or see, or i heard this for somebody told me about that. we are trying to be more systematic than that because i think it is fair to say that in the past there have been enormous wings and fisher will do this you're going to share we'll do it that way and so forth. i don't like that style at all. i want to proceed as carefully and deliberately as possible. we have a big job ahead of us we don't have time to wait. we need to get better quickly because the budgetary situation we find ourselves in. i don't think we are having any trouble finding ways that we can get better, but at the same time i want to proceed in a way that is fact-based, very important.

>> this person may not realize with a couple cooperative programs like the japanese, the question is, cooperative missile defense program be considered or what must be considered if we're to suggest cooperative development programs? >> for those of you who don't know, this was a government sponsored u.s./german/italian program that goes back now 16 years i suppose. it's applied core level surface to air missile protection for ground forces. and that, we decided a couple of months ago that we would not pursue them to ourselves, the united states, how come back to

the recent animal. and that we would continue through the currently running phase of our international agreement with the germans and the italians and then we would leave the program and the germans and italians could proceed to complete that if they chose to a couple points, widely make that decision? several reasons. it was not -- the program was performing okay. it had performed not okay in the past. so it wasn't -- it didn't stand out on performance grounds, and that gets you attention these days when you don't stand out on performance grounds. secondly, the army's requirements for air defense have come won't surprise you to

learn, change somewhat in 16 years. and the kind of capability represented by that program had less party for the army, and heretofore. dud rate had to do with affordability. if you look at the timeline on which they would be procured and fielded, you found that during much of that period, we would be sustaining patriot anyway. and if you like both of those profiles at the top of one another they were not affordable. for the army. so for all those reasons we were not able to continue to proceed with m.e.a.d., although the italians and the germans might. is this a statement about transatlantic or international cooperation? absolutely not. it's a particular, particular program. is this kind of program, even representative of today's styles of transatlantic cooperation? >> it's not really. is represented of 1990 stuff it

was greeted by government agreement and so forth. but today is a very different era. out this kb you two data points in that regard. one is if you look at the washington skyline and see how many games pop out that are not, what john calls non-heritage names, that is not american labels. we are doing a lot trans-atlantic we. sometimes you don't see it because it's in the supply chains and so forth. that even as we are intimately connected with the rest of the world and the rest of commerce, so also are we intimately connected in defense as well. so the volume of cooperative activity is a large, and that is a trend that will continue. and second, if you want to wonder whether we cooperative

engagement with our allies, go to afghanistan, turn on your television tonight. and so, m.e.a.d.s., there's a pattern, no policy associate with that individual program decision, one that we made on good grounds. and we are discussing with the germans and italians what choices they would like to make with respect to the same activities. >> last question and i promise i didn't did this on purpose, but it is, what are you anticipating to change so that program to build will not take -- >> this is a very good question. time and is another silent killer in our business. these things that go on and on and on. and you can bet your boots that a 15 year program cost 15% more

than a ten-year program, and an 11 your program cost 10% more than the tenure program because most of these things are level of effort because of funding limitations and several, i wish it weren't so but that is fact of budgetary life. many of them have that character and we've got to, got to, got do, have the capability sooner, and also to have a cheaper, got to hurry up the schedules. i'm inhabit now, summit comes in with what is the canonical 15 year program schedule, it seems like whatever is it takes 15 years to do. my answer to that is why exactly 15 years? why does every come in with a 15 year program tracks what's the magic about 15 years? the second thing, the real stopper like i say, it looks to me like you don't want is very much. no, no, no. it is essential. i don't know what your discount rate is but you seem to wait a long time to have. that tells me you don't want it very much.

no, no, no. we want much sooner than that. but we are trying to reel in the schedules. now, you can't fight physics, and so if you have a project as a substantial for a an invention, then it's reasonable to build in the time, to complete the applicant a margin for discovery in development and test, on the other hand, if you have a program that is reasonably well in hand or that you need soon and you must have reasonably well in hand in order to have it soon, why, that shifts the burden to the program manager. so i say if you're taking 15 years, not only does it tell you don't want all that much, it tells me you don't know what you're doing either really because you're going to grope around for five years before you get started. so go away and figure it out and come back with something shorter

and more doable. so we we doing a lot more of that. we just can't afford to do anything differently for two reasons. one is money, but the other one is we fall behind when we do that. the rest of the world doesn't take 15 years. you can go to places in the world now, i do not how often you travel to asia, but every time you go back to asia there'8 a new city built. [laughter] and so other people are turning the crank very fast. if you look at our enemies in afghanistan they are turning the crank very fast. we can't afford as a matter of defense, not just a matter of economy, to be on these long schedules. so yes, i am absolutely on the hunt for shorter schedules. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] [applause] >> thank you all very much, and let me just say. for those of you are in the

department and our my colleagues, for those of you are in industry, who are our partners in helping us makep these things happen, just once again, thank you for what you do. [applause] >> i don't get it. i've got a rules background of what are the rules innocent? he said there only two rules in the senate. he said exhaustion and unanimous consent. and if you get the centers

exhausted enough they will unanimously agree to anything. and i said i've got it. >> watch the woodrow wilson down on senate reform tonight at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> will feature the top winners of this year's c-span student can competition.

>> america's promise alliance reports that one out of every four public school students will drop out of high school before graduation. the group is holding a summit today on reducing high school dropout rates. speakers include leaders of government, education advocacy groups, and business leaders. our live coverage here on c-span2 expected to start in just a few moments. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> we are live again on c-span2 waiting for the start of this forum by america's promise alliance. they are reporting that one out of every four public school students will drop out of high school before graduation.

they're holding a summit today on reducing high school dropout rates here we are expected here from government, education and as a groups and business leaders. we will be covering this in three sections today, back at 10:00 with vice president joe biden who will address the group. and at 12:30 p.m. the governors of virginia and maryland will join the mayors from across the country to discuss what they are doing to keep high school students from dropping out. again, our live coverage expected to begin shortly on c-span2. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> president obama is on his latin america to and he will be visiting el salvador today. he will begin to do with immigration, narcotics wars and

contracting. he will meet with a salvadoran president. el salvador is one of the central america's largest rates of immigration, especially to the united states. about 2.8 million salvadoran immigrants living in the united states, $3.5 billion last year. the president continues his latin america trip.

>> back to the america's promise alliance summit on high schools dropout rates. scheduled to begin in just a few moments. a number of business leaders, mayors, governors and vice president joe biden addressing the room throughout the day. we will give a five minute warning a few minutes ago. we should be starting our coverage this morning. it will last until about 8:30 a.m. and back at 10 for the vice president's comments, and later the remarks of the governors from virginia, maryland, and the nation's mayors. live coverage on c-span2.

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>> again waiting for the start of this forum sponsored by america's promise alliance, and the report on high school dropout rates in public schools. three parts to our coverage today. this first group is supposed to get started momentarily, including speakers from government, education advocacy groups, and business leaders. back at 10:00 when vice president joe biden addresses the group. and again at 12:30 p.m. governors from virginia and maryland joined mayors from around the country to discuss what they're doing to keep high school students from dropping out. again, coverage is expected to begin momentarily here on c-span2.

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♪ ♪ ♪ >> good morning ladies and

gentlemen, and welcome. please take your seats. the program will begin in two minutes. please grab a coffee and take your seat at this time. also as a courtesy to our presenters, please make sure your cell phones have been turned off or silenced at this time. we shall begin in two minutes. good morning and welcome. >> this associated press story related to today's live event. the vice president joe biden is scheduled to unveil a 23 page college completion toolkit. they can't according to the ap features seven approaches for governors to consider including performance-based funding of higher education. you will hear that starting around 10:00 eastern time after the first portion of our coverage continues. and a note that we're also back at 12:30 p.m. as governors from virginia and maryland join

mayors across the country to discuss what they're doing to keep high school students from dropping out. live coverage of this education forum, live on c-span2. ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ >> good morning ladies and gentlemen. we shall begin in one minute so please grab a coffee and take your seats. we shall begin in one minute. as a courtesy to our presenters and for those around you, make sure your cell phone is turned off or silenced at this time. we shall begin in one minute. good morning and welcome. ♪ ♪ >> we have just been given the one minute warning from this forum sponsored by america's promise alliance. they are out with a report that

one in every four public school since will drop out of high school before graduation. this forum willy be hearing from you in government, education advocacy groups and business leaders about ways to combat veteran. there are three parts to coverage today. part two begins at 10 a.m. with the vice president joe biden will address the group. he is expected to unveil at this meeting what he is calling a college completion toolkit. this story from "the associated press" that the kit features seven approaches for governors to consider, including performance-based funding of higher education. then we are back at 12:30 p.m. for part three of the coverage with governors from virginia and maryland and mayors across the country discussed what they're doing to keep high school students from dropping out. all this live coverage on c-span2. >> good morning, everybody. everybody had your coffee and

you're all wide awake and ready to get to work? well, here we are. and once again i want to say how happy we are that you're here for the first annual building of grad nation summit. i had the pleasure of seeing many of you last night when we were joined by secretary duncan, but today we get busy and get to work. we've got a full day in store with lots of sessions. we have talked about this before, and we will talk about it throughout these today's that days that we are together. we are here as partners in the movement that is gaining momentum. people are coming to understand that we have a problem when a student drops out every six seconds. people are coming to understand that we have to turn that around. there's all kinds of chatter and all kinds of talk about it, and we see more and more news

articles about it. the other day i got a letter from a man who said, did you know that another student dropped out of school every 26 seconds? you all at america's promise need to get behind this issue and do something. he obviously has heard the message. now, some people might think that a letter like that is discouraging, if we not let people know what we're doing? it really gets me very excited because it means that we have helped to raise awareness to the point that people not only know there's a crisis, they are repeating the very statistics that we talk about. when john prepared this landmark study several years ago, the dropout crisis really was a silent epidemic. but it's no longer silent, and that's just one measure of the progress that we are making.

as we learn from our progress report last fall, the national graduation rate has risen three percentage point. that's not nearly enough. [applause] >> its progress. when we begin this campaign, we said our focus would be on 2000 low performing high schools. today, we have to revise that target because a number of so-called dropout factories has fallen to less than 1700. [applause] >> not enough, but its progress. in some of our largest cities like new york and philadelphia, we are seeing double-digit increases in graduation rates. great progress, not enough yet. guess what else we learned? the cities where we are saying

some of the greatest progress are the same cities where cross sector collaboration has been especially strong. and that's no coincidence. what we are doing is making a difference, but we also know, and that's why you're here, that there is a lot of work to do. and so while this summit is about progress, even more it is about how we build on that progress. where do we go from here? we now add america's promise alliance have increased our allies to over 400 national partners and their local affiliate, and they are all actively engaged in this movement. and if you're one of our new partners, thank you for coming on board. but we need to recruit more to join us, and you all can help with that. we need to continue to support education reform, for school districts and states to be

accountable for raising graduation rates and preparing students for success in college and work. for the implementation of common core standards that ensure rigor and relevance. and we need to hold ourselves accountable, too. to measure our progress and improve where we need to get better. now, that's something that you have asked for, and as a result, we've refrained our work over the past several years. this summit is an annual event. every year we will come back and measure our progress and make ourselves accountable for the results. we can't say this enough, the government cannot do it alone, schools cannot do it alone. what we can do is a national movement. and that is what we are building.

a movement that has the power to bring real and lasting change. i learned something about the power of the mississippi river when i read that you can find fresh water 100 miles out into the gulf of mexico. that's a measure of the river's amazing power. of when you think about it, that power doesn't come from the mississippi itself? instead, the river is a conduit we're the true power comes from the tributaries across our great heartland. it starts in the mountain streams of colorado and montana, and in lakes in minnesota and wisconsin, an appellation creaks in pennsylvania and west virginia and tennessee. last less tha..

i am very proud of him. [applause] >> good morning. co-chair of grand nation campaign i am so excited that so

many of you could be with us today. we need to start getting ready to work so get ready to stand. let's take a moment. if you are an educator and the audience, stand up. go ahead. if your a policymakers and the audience, stand up. if you are a business leader stand up. you work for a non-profit or community-based organization please stand. if you are a community leader please stand. and if you are from a foundation or founder of this great effort please rise. [applause] you see the extraordinary diversity that has come together and it takes a collaboration effort to make real progress to protect and

preserve our community. the next day is about building a graduation nation. we know the challenge ahead of us and we know we can build a successful movement where we focus public attention on the challenge and show people how to come together in ways that contribute to higher graduation rates and better readiness for success in college and work. today we are going to roll up our sleeves and get to work. we have a day in store with sessions you will find exciting and informative. we ask three things of each of you today. first, let us hear your voice. these are not passive sessions. the fed dialogues and we need your active participation. second, take full advantage of the fact that we have brought so many people here for united and common purpose, talk to as many

people as you can. we want you to meet today with a new set of allies. people and organizations you can collaborate with on new initiatives and effort you already have in place. and third, as these sessions unfold, think about what is next for you and your organization. how will you integrate read nation goals and strategies more deeply into your work and your organization? how can you get others involved? as you leave here today have a plan in mind. we will be reaching out to you to see the kinds of progress being made in your community and we hope you will let us know how it is going. thank you for being here and we look forward to a great day. thank you.

[applause] [applause] change in plan. that is with getting it right is all about. flexibility. we are privileged to have with us today someone who has been at the front lines of championing bose mentoring and education reform. first as a state governor, now as founder and chairman of a not-for-profit foundation. during his two terms as governor of florida raise its academic standards, require accountability in public school and created the most ambitious school choice program in the nation. florida students began making measurable progress with improvements in graduation rates and in the number of students scoring above grade level and reading. , math and science. and with third through tenth

graders in other states in reading and math. he also was a strong supporter of the florida men during a project. now he serves as chairman and president of the foundation for excellence and education which he founded, jeb bush is working state-by-state and across the nation. we are proud to consider him a partner in our work. ladies and gentlemen, governor jeb bush. ♪ >> good morning. thank you very much. it is a delight to be here. and thanks for the entire whole family for its commitment to the next generation of americans. i want to make two points about this summit and would you focus on each and every day. the first is that expectations

truly matter. in 1998 as a candidate for governor undecided as i was driving up by 95 to go to one of my conversation campaign events, it would be a lot more fun to visit a school saw visit 100 schools beckoned the day when campaign handlers didn't run the campaign completely so i decided to visit 100 schools to listen and learn and that mission turned into in an 200 school mission which turned into a 250 school mission during the course of my campaign and i learned a lot and listen the lot and have a treasure trove of stories and experiences that will last a lifetime. one of the saddest stories occurred when i visited the remediation lab at stanford high-school in central florida where students were preparing for the florida case collects exam. looking over a kid at shoulder i saw him struggling with the following question. a baseball game starts at 3:00

and ends at 4:30. how long is the game? this young man was probably 16 or 17 years old and couldn't answer that question. he struggled. i could tell he really wanted to but he had an incredible difference to the -- difficult time answering that question. this was back when we required students to take their course is basically, show up, take their courses and pass and eighth grade level exit test to graduate and less than 60% did. so we need to raise expectations for every student and not excuse away functional illiteracy as we do in quiet ways and subtle ways all across this country. as 16-year-old moving into the world we live in today full of opportunities and great challenges should be able to comprehend the question and answer took an hour-and-a-half

at the baseball game and comprehend much much more. in florida we created an accountability system that raised expectations for every student. we eliminated social promotion in third grade. we graded schools a, b, c, d and f 100% based on student learning and raise the level of aptitude required at high-school graduation tests. the results have been pretty impressive but there's so much more than needs to be done. florida students went from 29 out of 31 states in 1997 to 6 of 50 in 2009. florida's graduation rate has gone up in the last 12 years every year from below 60% to a little below 80%. florida and every other state needs to raise expectations, not

excuse away why students don't achieve lower ones. the second point of like to make is things of national purpose require involvement by everyone. if we were honest with ourselves today in a common core standards that were set up eloquently for an honest conversation about where we are as it relates to the next generation, if we were honest with ourselves we would admit that 1-third of our students graduate from high school ready for a career or college. and additional one third graduate with a diploma but have to take remedial courses if they go to college at all and one third of our young people don't graduate from high school at all. to me this is shameful and i know it is to you. it is dangerous as well for our great nation. transforming our education system should be national priority and will only become one if everyone is involved.

more volunteers in schools, more community and faith based groups actively engaged. more business involvement. more enriched after-school programs. more mentors and much more parental involvement. in florida, let's give it up for the parents. in florida, an attempt to make rising student achievement decor value of our nation we created as racial bowl of 200,000 mentor's involved with our kids with a focus on reading in our schools and one of the things i would suggest is secure release sincere you need to benchmark it so we did a survey and found at the time that we have 16,000 men force doing just that and with the help of general powell we announced our goal and went to work. state workers got more hours a month against schools with pay. businesses did the same. we that business leaders to adopt schools and funded an expanded network of mentoring

programs all across the state. we created a high-school mentoring program that helps struggling third grade readers with their work and develop leadership skills for the high-school mentors. we surveyed again after several years and found we had 205,000 endorse it engaged with our students. i know for a fact that it had an impact on the impressive learning game florida students have seen. today and tomorrow you will explore how to make rising graduation rates a national priority. my belief is we need engagement across the board. not another program. today is a good day to start. i wish you well and god bless you all. [applause] ♪ >> thank you for being with us.

our relationship with the alliance and the corporation for national community service is as old as the alliance itself. embodies what american promise is all about. serving in ways that build up the community. we are excited and privileged to have patrick covington with us today. patrick became the ceo in february of last year but his whole professional life has been devoted to serving others and empowering communities. ever since he began his career as it case manager, worker with migrant farm workers, patrick is a recognized expert on non profit sector leadership, bird and volunteerism. prior to joining the corporation he served as the anti 80 foundation as a senior associate foundation focused on issues related to a leadership development and capacity.

he served as executive director of the innovation network, and nonprofit devoted to building evaluation capacity of the non-profit sector and as a policy researcher at the urban institute. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome patrick covington. [applause] >> thank you. good morning lead to civil everyone. good morning, everyone. is great to be here. i want to give a special thanks to marguerite kondracke and the powells. this is one of the most important pieces of work that we do. ensuring that every student has

the opportunity to finish high-school is critical to this nation's success and critical for us to win the future. we also know that national service has a role to play. thank you. [applause] secretary duncan has said that national service -- there's no more true thing. americorps members and visiting members, senior corps, are out every day in schools ensuring that students have a caring, capable adult taking them through this trajectory, taking them through their young adult lives to graduation. i have seen this traveling the

country. as governor bush said, and liu see these things on the ground you can fully appreciate them. in san antonio and milwaukee, of birmingham, you see americorps members foster grandparents, working with kids who are troubled or struggling to get through, offering a beacon of hope, a path of one life into another. nothing is more touching. nothing is more inspirational. to see a young person working with high school students eager turtle saying you can do this. you can imagine a future for yourself that no one else sees. that is the role the national service plans. it provides a vision and

opportunity for young people in this country whose dreams have been shattered. to see themselves walking that long walk across the stage for high-school graduation. see themselves taking those first steps onto a college campus. to sit in a classroom with piers they never saw that would fit next to. americorps members, foster grandparents, every single day in communities across this country, holding the hands, holding the hearts of young people as they make this path towards college. we are very fortunate at this

time to have national service on the national agenda. to see everywhere the difference we can make. there is no more important thing that we can do. as we look around here today, as michael said earlier, educators -- we have members of philanthropy, policymakers. it is a okay to take a moment to pat ourselves on the back. most of us here are people of search accomplishments. it is okay to feel proud. at this moment in history, there is no more important thing that we can give our lives to, our energy to, our hearts to than ensuring that every student has the opportunity to successfully complete high-school and move on

to college. it is now my distinct pleasure and my honor to introduce our next speaker. melody barnes needs no introduction but i will bore you with the effects. melody was chosen by president barack obama to serve as director of the domestic policy council for his administration. the president served on the member of 2008 and previous to that she was executive vice president for american progress where she led progressive policy initiatives. she joined the obama campaign. there are some things -- she is a member of the new york state bar association, graduate of the

university of michigan law school and university of north carolina where she graduated with honors. previous to that she spent ten years working for senator kennedy as counsel for the senate judiciary committee. but more than that, ability has been and continues to be an extraordinarily leader, steward and driver of domestic policy agenda. she leads with intellect, with grace and with heart. it is my distinct pleasure and honor to introduce my friend melody barnes. [applause] >> good morning. i am happy to see you here first of all because you are going to help me win a bet with my parents. i was having a conversation with my parents last night, they were

asking me about my schedule for the week and i told them i was going to be speaking with you this morning and they asked me and we were chatting and just before we were about to hang up my dad said what time is your speech? have to get to bed early and i said it is at 7:3 and without this in a beat he said is anybody going to be there? i assured him there would be people because i know how deeply committed all of you are to this issue that you would get up at 7:30 in the morning and salinas. those preceding me said it is the important work that is to come. i would also like to thank the business partners for the summit. at&t, pearson and pepsico as well as general powell, michael powell, the 400 plus partners of america's promise alliance and the other three convene ears of the summit civic enterprises,

alliance for education and hopkins's everyone graduate center. i am so appreciative the organizers are going to give me this wonderful opportunity to kick off a very important day focused on one of the most pressing issues of our time. we are all here today because in order to give our children the bright future they deserve we have to build the grad nation that helps them succeed. our economy is growing more competitive and more connected than ever before. over the next ten years nearly half of all new jobs will require more than a high-school diploma. half of today's fastest-growing job opportunities require a four year college degree. in order to outag kate and outcompete the world we must prepare students to complete high school, complete college,

complete college and go on to pursue careers. but unfortunately too many students are not getting the world-class education they deserve. as many of the quarter of american students are dropping out of high schools, a fact we are familiar with. the quality of math and science education lags far behind many other nations. i remember when the peacea board came out earlier talking to many reporters and journalists and people who were constantly engaged in education and finding out people were stunned how far behind we had dropped in math and science and people are constantly stunned when they hear that 7,000 children are dropping out of high-school every day. on top of that and probably because of that america has fallen to ninth in the world in proportion of the young people we have with a college degree. turning this round is the right

thing to do for our kids and the right thing to do for long-term economic success. the best job program is a good education. for the sake of our children and, our economy and america's future we have to do a better job educating our sons and daughters. that is widely good -- we believe timely education reform is final. not just top-down reform. we believe students, and business leaders all have a role to play in making our education system of great one. these are not just words on a paper. not just issues we know about orion this stand because of research. i say this because this is something i have witnessed with my own eyes. i was on the board for a local

charter school. we had given up on, it touched the juvenile justice system. for some reason, parent, grandparent, cousin or someone involved in the legal system, that particular child in the direction of the school. what i witnessed a year after year are students who were not going to school, barely going to school at all, all of a sudden making cs 4 theys. students who said they hated school coming to school everyday and not just for a short day but for that extended school day. getting all the wrap around services they needed. students who at one point had no vision, no sense that they could finish high school talking about going on to college saying i want to be a lawyer, i want to

be a doctor and i was fortunate enough to see some of those students complete high school and see them go on to college and make good grades. in other words those lives being turned around by education and by all the people in the community who had surrounded them and reported them and those students starting to believe in themselves. similarly a couple weeks ago, i traveled with the president with secretary duncan and governor bush who was just here to visit miami central's senior high school where they implemented a number of different turnaround strategies even before they received one dime of federal dollars. because of their great work they raised the school's school or on the state report card from an f to c and they are expanding their efforts and starting to see their results. school climate is improving.

students suspensions are decreasing and in community engagement going on. they even started parent academy classes to increase family involvement and students success. there are other schools like that. take oregon. they have also shown what is possible. a new principle set high expectations for student achievement and with targeted professional development for teachers and a close look at student data to focus efforts they increased student achievement and reduce achievement's and reduce their dropout rate from 7.7% in 2002 to 2% in 2008. our goal is to build on these success stories across america and we have done that in part for race to the top. from less than 1% of what america spend on education race to the top has spurred more

changed, more collaboration and positive and productive activities than any other education program we have known. race to the top provides incentive to states that serious about reform and willing to advance comprehensive plans to raise expectations for schools and students. it also focuses on developing great teachers and principals fostering innovation and schools and taking on talent and transforming our lowest performing schools. with a fraction of what the country spends on education every year, raced to the top has led 40 states to raise their standards for teaching, learning and student achievement. also brought together parents and teachers and administrators, and local officials. we are starting to witness the results across the country. delaware and tennessee were the

first two states to be named winners and going to last summer. in delaware for example, parents, students and other leaders worked together to adopt core standards, launch an innovative residency program to start -- train stem and teachers and specialty schools to work with teachers to improve the use of data and foster comprehensive and collaborative planning around instructions. that is the kind of collaboration and partnership that race to the top incentivizes and the kind of collaboration that will ensure education reform is long lasting. as part of its race to the top plant delaware also instituted a new partnership to transform underperforming schools by providing additional time for learning, leadership and staffing changes and flexibility in decisionmaking. the vice-president visited one of those innovative schools

earlier this week to mark their commitment to improving student academic success preparing them for the future and i am sure he will be excited to tell you more about that when he visits with you later in the morning. race to the top fosters the kind of bottom up change we need at the ground level in order to move the needle on education. we need to do more at the federal level. a whole lot more. this month and we are calling it education month around white house, we often have a day or week but we decided what was important enough that we were going to focus the attention of the white house and the valuable real-estate of the president's schedule to talking about education week after week after week and this is only the beginning. traveling with the president and secretary duncan, talked about education around the country and what i heard on the road is consistent with what i heard

from teachers and family members and friends and even at the grocery store. i am not joking about that. i can be standing on an aisle at whole foods and have people come up to me and say let me tell you what needs to be fixed with no child left behind. i can stand in a clothing store and try on a dress and have someone come up to me and say i know you work for president obama and i need to talk to you about education reform. i am not exaggerating. what people are saying over and over again is no child left behind needs to be fixed. that doesn't mean -- [applause] that doesn't mean everything with no child left behind was wrong. we have to set high accountability standards. at the same time we also have to address those issues that are pulling the education system down as opposed to lifting every child up.

according to the no child left behind metrics, 37% of american schools are not meeting their annual target and according to new estimates from the u.s. department of education more than 80% of our schools may be labeled failing in the coming year. that includes schools like kenmore middle school that is just a few miles from this motel. i was recently with the president and secretary duncan and i am here to tell you, kenmore middle school is not a failing school. can more is an art communication and technology focused middle school with a 24 century curriculum. what is the inspiring teachers we met ten days ago, a history teacher named lila stevens who was using duke ellington's life to teach her kids about the historical and cultural implications of ragtime music.

she was assessing her students with traditional pen and paper tasks as well as portfolios and multimedia presentation and video and visual and performing arts work. it was a great example of how our schools can better prepare students for the rigors of college and tomorrow's careers in the most engaging ways. the progress being made at kenmore cannot be deemed a failure. similarly we know eight of ten schools in this country are failing so we need a better system that will appropriately measure student progress and refocus resources and reform on the schools that surely need our help the most and those that need a robust plan to close the achievement gap. that is why last week the president outlined his plan to reauthorize no child left behind to reauthorize the elementary

and secretary education act and fix the problems that must be fixed. in short, we have to make sure we are graduating students who are ready for college and career. i heard governor bush talking about this a few minutes ago. too many of our students are leaving high school. those leaving are high school and need remedial education. that means there is a job that has been left undone. we have to make sure we are putting outstanding teachers like lila stevens in every classroom and putting outstanding leaders in front of every school. we have to give those teachers and leaders the pay and support they deserve. finally -- [applause] >> we need to not only hold

failing schools accountable. [applause] >> as the president has said. in the twenty-first century is not enough to leave no child left behind. we have to ensure every child gets a head and they will only get ahead with an excellent digit cage in. that has to be america's promise to every child. and excellent education that prepares them for the rigors of the world they should be ready to face, a world they should be ready and able to tackle and to enjoyed and succeed and lead a happy and healthy life. is that is why our administration is committed to working with republicans and democrats in congress to fix no child left behind, reshape our federal role in education and make college and career readiness a reality for all students. that means first fixing no child

left behind accountability system and building on a new system predicate on a more challenging set of standards and better assessment. advancing a new framework for the federal role in education that is result oriented and focused on areas that will generate the greatest impact for students. that means rewarding excellence for more competition across the state and reforming and consolidating our existing investment in education from 38 disparate programs to 11 funding streams that will function more effectively for states and school districts. it means preparing, developing and rewarding effective features including measured teacher effectiveness through evaluation system that providing grants to states and districts that are willing to take on comprehensive changes in how they develop, support and reward successful teachers and principals. and bring in new energy and bold

strategy to turn around the lowest performing schools. promoting successful conditions for innovation and effective charter schools and providing more well-rounded education by funding the development and scale up of a effective programs in additional subjects. foreign-language bleaker turtle history, geography, the arts, economic and financial literacy and by supporting the successful and healthy development of students inside and outside school. democrats and republicans have worked together for many years for which there is a great deal of common ground and already we have seen great examples of reform in action around the country. after a trip to miami central senior high school president when to boston academy, a school within the boston public school system that puts innovation into

practice and taps into a strong community willing to share responsibility for the success of students. students are required to take more math, science and technology classes, go to school during the summer and have shorter classes that enable teachers to receive the training and support they need and to collaborate so they can support students in an olympic manner. with the help of the gates foundation and major companies like ibm, cisco and others the school incorporates technology into every classroom people and provides access to 20 first century curriculum and establishing philanthropic and business leaders that provides students, which they need. techboston is an example of parents, philanthropists and others all demonstrating a shared responsibility for the education of young people and

the results are phenomenal. techboston's graduation rate is 20 points higher than the rest of the city's graduation rate. 20 points higher. ninety-four% of the most recent graduating class went to college and 85% of those students were the first in their family to go to college. this can be done. this can be done. [applause] >> we can't take it when people say to us there are all these factors that will prevent students from going to college, that are going to hold our students back, that are the reason for students dropping out. those are reasons. those are excuses. you know it, i know it and we know we can do something about it and we are going to do something about it. we have to have a national education policy that

incentivizes partnerships and these kinds of high standards that make sure we can replicate stories like techboston all over the country. every child deserves it and we will make sure every child has it. [applause] >> building a grad nation requires all of us getting back to work and back. education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity. it is a prerequisite. we need to make the hard choices and investments necessary to ensure all our children are prepared to succeed. the president is prepared to work with parents, teachers, governors, private-sector, republicans, democrats, anyone and everyone to make sure we do it to ensure that we have a

bright future for our children and that they are able to compete and win. that is our commitment to you and most importantly, that is our commitment to our children and we look forward to working with you every day, every week, every month until we get this done. thank you for what you are doing. we look forward to your partnership and enjoy the rest of your conference. thank you so very much. >> thank you for austionor hat m ãcf1 o

that university of new mexico to keep high-school students from dropping out. >> i grew up in albuquerque. on the other side of town known for the high minority populations. i was able to give life without real effort. i managed to get some problem is

bigger than others. this would be a negative outlook. we were after graduating -- >> president obama's for shifts to el salvador, with gun trafficking. house of a door is one of central america's high specialties to the u.s.. base and home $3.5 million. the canadian parliament receive the administration's budget proposal, and jim faherty explains the report. it starts this afternoon at 4:00 eastern on c-span. >> it is even more valuable for

congress. committee hearings produced and web cast what are being gathered and archived in one place. find out more. read our video library blog and watch what you want when you want. >> tomorrow is the first anniversary of the national health care law. the cato institute mark the occasion for the disk -- lawsuits filed against it. the panelists talked about the likelihood of the supreme court accepting communications. the hour and a half discussion was moderated by cbs news legal correspondent dan crawford -- jan crawford. >> we're going to conclude this terrific afternoon of this session with a panel of legal challenges and we are privileged to be joined by two distinguished speakers who

present that side. the vice-president of legal affairs, founder and director, and constitutional studies. and the law constitution, with judicial philosophy. it was an invaluable day looking at the cases that the courts decided to determine with predictions on the future of the court. with the sector of government at georgetown university and before joining kato, roger helped five senior -- just want to make sure that was right. five senior posts in the reagan administration including state and justice and was a national fellow at stanford hoover institute. the bicentennial commission

presented him with the benjamin franklin award for excellence in writing. they're debating skills would be worthy of its metal. and it is quite a contentious controversial issue to achieve operating officers for the center of american progress and neera tanden has a decade of experience in the executive and legislative branch as well as in the campaigns at every level including the presidential level, local government and think tanks. as the ceo 0 of american progress she leads strategic planning for operations and overseas the health care program. most recently she served as senior adviser for health reform and the department of health and

human services advising secretary kathleen sebelius at work on health reform team to pass this bill. she developed policies of reform and worked on the hill and improved support of it. she has worked on other levels and campaigns, she worked on the obama/biden presidential campaign and the hillary clinton presidential campaign. she was a deputy campaign manager when it was senator clinton running for the senate in new york. we are very privileged today to have roger pilon and neera tanden to talk about what are really quite titanic struggles in the courts over the future of this law. the chief legal correspondent for cbs news, i covered the court since 1994 and there are

issues that very infrequently develop and form in the way this case is. it is almost like we know now that we have this kind of gathering storm off the shore and it is slowly moving toward one place and that is 1 of first place -- first street in the united states supreme court. as we said earlier there are several challenges under way across the country all of which will get to the supreme court at about the same time. we have a legal challenges that will be heard by the federal appeals court sixth circuit in june. there will be arguments by the richmond based federal appeals court fourth circuit on may tenth and now there's an effort underway to have the atlanta based federal appeals court here

on a very expedited basis by the full court challenge to that gargantuan case, the one that really is the big one where 26 states have joined forces to challenge litigation out of florida. there's an effort to have those arguments heard the first week of june. this is clear to all of you because -- you are all followers of this issue. with an eye of getting this to the supreme court in its 2011 term. that means the court could probably be hearing arguments in may of 2012 with a decision by the end of june of 2012 and every year much of the court controversial decisions take the longest to the side at the end of june. why is that significant? what will be happening in the

middle of 2012, we will be in the middle of a presidential campaign injecting the court in a quite significant way into this pretentious controversial political issue. you will have a collision of law and politics playing out as the presidential campaign unfolds and it is impossible to overstate the magnitude of what that could be like at least which we have seen in the political arena and are now seeing it unfold in the legal arena heading towards the supreme court which as you know is closely divided 5-4 generally with slightly conservative tilt that i think all bets are off on what they may do with this case but let's see what our panelists have to predict. first of all, why don't we get started since we did hear quite an extensive discussion of the issues and quite a scathing

critique of the law by the attorney who is challenging it, david rivkin. i want to start with neera tanden and get the response to that. let me give you the closing that he said for those of you who were not able to hear his comments. he doesn't really pull too many punches. he says the law even separates too controversial -- no limiting the principal. you heard this before. if congress can do this they can tell you they -- you have to buy broccoli and a gym membership. he said this basically is a jarring redefinition of the constitutional vision of u.s. citizenship. it ripped out all clauses of the united states constitution. what he was really trying to say was he thinks that this law is

unconstitutional. obviously these issues are complex. congressional power, its focus on the big ones. there are other issues still in play. most is the focus of where the rubber meets the road, whether or not congress exceeded its authority when it text this legislation specifically the individual mandate. >> is it all right -- >> okay. [talking over each other] >> let me just -- i think the issue of the gathering storm is a great way to put it because it was actually quite silent for a long time. having worked at the legislation from the beginning of the

deliberation, what was fascinating about the debate about the individual mandate is really in a debate that went on, for a very long time, the debate around individual mandates cannot become engaged by the end of the process. it will work down registration or a bipartisan basis. in the beginning of the process, midway through the process. it was put forward by senator grassland and signed by all the republican members of the committee, individual mandate was presumed to be part of the legislation and if you look at senate finance committee markup of the legislation as late as september of 2009 there wasn't actually -- there is no single

amendment offered to remain individual mandate or any discussion of its to that extent. obviously later it became more of an issue and as has been discussed what is fascinating about the debate we are in about the individual mandate the mandate itself has been until the discussion over the last two years has been considered a conservative idea. governor romney use the individual mandate from massachusetts, individual mandate as part of his deliberations and offering health care reform. remember him offering obama of versus mccain's health-care plan in september of 2008 and senator dole, senator casey and individual mandate with the individual proposal was part of universal health care put

forward. in 1994/1995, it has been gathering and obviously a discussion point. we end during the process, department of justice looked at individual mandate and the constitutionality before it was actually voted upon in the senate and -- [talking over each other] >> our earlier speaker said that did not happen. no one in the white house conference -- >> that is wrong. so people should ask them about that. i received information --

definitely white house counsel and constitutionality of it. there was a fire wall that directly asked the direct conversation. there was an analysis of this. that analysis took place in the fall, late fall of 2009. legislation had been going through the process but it was definitely before the bill was finally voted upon. i just want to provide the history of the mandate itself, i approach this as the perspective of policy and happy to defend its constitutionality but to go through why we have a particular mandate in the legislation we should step back and recognize healthcare is an area in which

we have a long history of federal roles so there are two important pieces of legislation to regulate the health insurance and health insurance markets and health-care overhaul. there is how arissa which provides provides incurrence -- insurance protection for large group insurers. deregulation of large employer plans that ibm and apple offer has been on the books for 40 years. there's also something called intala which grants a right to care. emergency room care for every american. it is a unique footprint in the marketplace. it is an area in which the federal government has said that

if you are sick, if your life is in danger emergency rooms have to care for you. that differentiates health-care from other arenas. we cannot have a law that says if you are in dire need of a marketplace good like airplane travel you have a right to airplane travel. we do say federal government has said that in this specific area we consider somewhat different from other marketplace good because it directly affects -- as a citizen we are establishing that private actors--not just public actors but private actors, any private hospital, private doctor has to take care of you in that situation. that is interesting and in part one of the drivers of the system

of the health care system because that is what creates the system by which in part health-care costs to shift. there is a debate whether they shift mostly to public sector in which we pay for taxes or the private sector it which you pay in terms of higher premiums but we have $50 billion of uncompensated care. people go to the emergency room, they don't have insurance to pay for it. that was one of the reasons and and one of the reasons why we have an individual mandate which again until late in the process was an area that had bipartisan support. another reason we had the individual mandate in the legislation was we wanted in essence to have regulations of insurance and there is bipartisan suprt