only providers of health care. it is illegal in canada for a doctor to charge a patient. now there are a number of private clinics in canada that have arisen. they are illegal. but the youth -- the use of them by private patient is good. when people are on long waiting lists, 18.2 weeks is the average wait, the people are getting mris, paying out of pocket. it is illegal. it's interesting in the providence of quebec, the canadian supreme court ruled in june 2005 that the ban on private health insurance and private health care in the providence of quebec, only, was illegal. because canadians are entitled to life, liberty, and the security of the person. as judge -- as madame said, access to waiting list is not access to health care. if you can hold up your card but

not see a doctor, what good is the card? >> host: you are on for sally pipes. >> caller: hi. >> host: hi. >> guest: hi. >> caller: i can't believe what i've heard. it is my sincere wish that you will have someone on with a book that opposes this womans views. i worked and retired from mental health -- community mental health and from the health insurance industry. this woman has not answered even the first man's question about what she would recommend be done. the only thing that she has said is a tax exemption. this is criminal that you would have this woman on to promote her book. and i would like full disclosure of who seeds being paid by. this woman on and not have someone with an opposing view.

this is criminal. she has not even answered the first question. >> guest: i'm sorry you don't like me or like my views. the polls show that 64% of americans want the health care legislation repealed and replaced. the elections were against the government in our health care system. so as i say, i grew up under a single payer system where government controlling all of the dollars and who gets treatment. i think it's true. the american people do not want this. there wasn't a single republican who voted for the affordable care act. which was passed and signed into law march 21st a year ago. i did talk about the ways to empower the doctors and patients changing the tax code, reducing state mandates about 2100 across the country, doing medical malpractice reform at the state level, and expanding -- removing regulations on health savings

accounts. i have given a lot of thought and a lot of solutions to how we do achieve affordable, accessible, quality care in this country without empowering government and reducing us to a system like canada for the national health service in britain where there are tremendous waits and people are denied care. >> host: "the truth about obamacare" it was selected as a main selection of the conservative book club. if you are interested, it's available in book sellers where you currently purchase your book. thank you. >> this event was part of the 2011 los angeles times festival of books. to find out more visit events.latimes.com/festivalofboo ks. >> massachusetts governor deval patrick discusses his life at

the press club. it originally viewed live online at booktv.org. it's about 45 minutes. >> in january 2007, deval patrick became the first african-american governor of the commonwealth of massachusetts. and one of only two african-american governors elected in american history. that was just -- that was just one triumphant step in a long and probable journey that began on the south side of chicago. from a chaotic childhood to a boarding school in new england to a soldier doing relief work in africa, to the board rooms of fortune 500 and now to a career in politics, governor patrick has led an extraordinary life. throughout the journey, he was guided by the advice of his grandmother. hope for the best, and work for

it. and now it is my pleasure to introduce governor deval patrick. [applause] [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you all for coming out this evening. i appreciate it very much. there's only one part of the introduction which needs to be corrected. i am not going to speak for 20 whole minutes. i'm going to speak for a couple of minutes. i think it would be more fun if we had conversation. i want to thank you all for coming. it has been a new and quite fascinating experience writing and now talking about this book. it's funny to me how many people expected a book by a sitting governor would be laying the ground work for another campaign or settling political scores. this book is not that. i am not running for anything. as for political scores, there's some staff who know i like to settle political scores in real time and not in print. so for all of you who thought that this would be a political

kiss and tell, i'm sorry to disappoint. why did i write this book? i am a very hopeful person. unrependant idealist. i've come to understand it as strength and real blessings. this book as much as anything is a guestture of gratitude to some of the people who have given me hopefulness and idealism. the featurers who gave me a reason to believe in brighter future who gave me a reason to believe in the power of kindness. the church ladies on the south side of chicago who gave me a reason to believe in the essence of faith. the voters who have given me a reason to believe in the politics of conviction. and many, many others. a friend of mine described this book as a love story. which for me was the most powerful compliment that i could be given. i wanted to write about the people and the lesson they taught me for two reasons.

first because they've done more than help me succeed. they've helped me want to be better. to be a better leader, a better husband and parent, and a better citizen. secondly because it's up to me to pass them up. we have a responsibility to do just that. >> as some of you know, i grew up on the south side of chicago. on welfare. my mother and sister and i shared a room cousins. we lived in bunk beds. i went to broken withing sometimes violent public schools. but we had a community. those are days when every child was under the jurisdiction of every adult on the block.

remember that? you messed up in front of ms. jones, she would straighten you out as if she was hers, and then call home. you got it two times. i think they wanted to get across they had a stake. membership in the community was understanding the mistake that each of us has. not only in the own dreams and struggles, butt neighbors as well. given the expectations that society has for poor black people in circumstances like mine, i am not supposed to be where i am today. my store is improbable. but it's the same time a distinctionly american story. it may not get told as often as we like. but it gets told more often than any other place on earth. it is a defining story. in 1970, i got a break from a program called a better chance. and for me, it was like landing on a different planet.

i saw for the first time the night before classes began all by myselfs. i remember they had a bless code, the boys were jackets and ties. my grandparents splurged on a brand new jacket. but a jacket on the south side of chicago is a wind breaker. first day, they are putting on the blue blazers and coats, there was i in my wind breaker. i want to point out i have figured it out. i struggled to mind my footing. there were teachers and other adults that reached out and helped. i went on to harvard college. i lived in chicago, new york, atlanta, i've done business all over the world.

i've argued, hitchhiked, served as the first black governor of massachusetts, first time running. i reflect on each of the experiences, each has it's roots. the lessons that given me a sense of the possible. i write about the transition on the health care about experience of trying to bridge the very different worlds where each one seemed to demand the other as the price of acceptance in the one. how important it was for me to understand that ultimately that was a false choice. i write about the ways the old ladies in big hats in church back home thought me to see that faith is not so much what you say you believe, but how you

live. >> i write about the courage and strength of my wife diane about her marriage to an abusive husband, and about the tolls of public office took on her, about how her triumph strengthened not just me, but thousands of others. they have contributed to my idealism. i wanted to defend and encourage that kind. i think it's what motivates people to make what seems improbable possible. that may sound corny to you. especially in washington, d.c., but, in fact, there is nothing at all corny about hope. there is nothing at all empowering or ennobling about the alternative about pessimism, as governor, it has been a sense

of the impossible that has helped us achieve many remarkable things about more than customary odds. in these exceptionally cynical time, i think people are hungry for something positive and affirming than the steady diet of no that they get. it has implications on both policy level and personal level. on a policy level, without a renewed sense of idealism, all of the risk of failure and disappointment that they entails. an essential part of the national character, the can do spirit will be in jeopardy. none the big challenges facing this country will successfully be faithed. securing marriage, expanding health care for everyone or funding our schools at the highest level in history during the worst economy in living memory. these would be a couple of examples of letting our idealism and our highest values guide us at home in the commonwealth of massachusetts. on a personal level, before

anyone can change their circumstances, people need a faith in their own capacity to shape a better future. they have to be able to imagine something better. and then apply themselves to achieving it. hope for the best and work for it. it's the way my grandmother described it. that's why i chose to write a book about personal values before politics. one the lesson lessons i write s forgiving. my participants split up. my father moved to new york with his band, which was a very popular jazz ban, but an acquired taste. he was a gifted jazz musician. totally committed. in those days, he would have

been described as a black militant. hoping for reconciliation, my mother worked hard to keep my sister in touch. i genuinely believed he regretted not being able to watch us. as i grew older and started to spread my own wings, he and i had a tortured relationship. i wrote about how disapproving he was my going to milton, how concerned he was it was going to make any white. not black enough. he was also convinced my mother was poisoning us with unflattering opinions of him with his life choices as a father and man. none of this was true. it was a powerful dynamic in our relationship as i was coming into adulthood. we finally found a way to reconcile tentatively, but meanfully. i want to roadway a passage about that. if i could find it in my glasses. it's come to that.

the summer before my first year, i worked in washington, d.c. i turned 25. my father happened to be playing in a local jazz club. i was three, but i agreed. i arrived near the end just before the break. my father was playing the saxophone, jamming with the skills. i look my seat at a little table. he nodded when he saw me come in. when they finished the number, they took the microphone and said to the crowd it's my son's birthday. i want to play the next tune for him. it was warm applause and approving glance or two my way from other patrons. then the place got quiet and he play an old standard. i can't get started. there was no vocalist.

by then, i had developed my own words. i've been around the world in a plane, i started revolutions in spain, the north pole i've charted, still i can't get started with you. he looked me straight in the eye. full of regret and longing. i gazed back, knowing what he was trying to say. life is too short to go on like this. let's find a way to come together. no words were spoken. the music gave us our language. we communitied more in those moments than before. it was clear how much we both wanted simple understanding. we weren't quite there. when i graduated law school, he did not attend the commencement. we were moving closer. seems my father never felt threatened by my choices again.

i had saved a place and so had he. i've given a lot of thought over the years to this idea of generational responsibility that old fashioned lesson each of us was taught by own grandparents. we are supposed too what we can in our time to leave things better for those who come behind us. i have taught about what that means and the context of budget deficits and health care services and educational policy. and i've thought about what it means as a father of two extraordinary young women and many young men who might as well be mine, and of whom i'm equally proud. the most important gift to give our heirs is the ability to dream about better life, a better community, a better country. that's a gift that i was given by grandparents and teachers and more than a few total strangers. and that's what i'm trying to pass on with this book. i hope you enjoy it. thank you very much for coming.

[applause] [applause] >> if you want, i'm happy to shout out to people. we don't have to write it down. >> okay. that would be great. >> i already wrote it down down- but -- >> you went through all of the trouble. do you want me to read it? >> what process did you run for governor in the first place? >> funny you should ask me. i had a question put me to recently at a gathering of sigh psychiatrist. someone said why did you run for governor? i said you are in a better position to answer that than i am. i ran for governor because in business one the things that i noticed, and i've spent most of my life in the private sector. one the things i noticed was the

incredible pressure to manage for the next quarter and get the short term results. sometimes i think sacrificing the long term interest of the enterprise. i have worried that's creeping into the way we governor. where we governor for the next election cycle or news cycle. we aren't making the kinds of decisions in our time that leave things better over time. that generational responsibility that i was talking about. especially if they don't have a short term political payoff. that had been bothering me for somewhat. very much related to that is what i describe as conviction politics. the idea that -- or the question that i had whether others were as hungry for me for someone who was running willing to lose. meaning that there was something they were so committed to doing, something they do believed in from a values point of view that they were willing to put

political capital in their own political future on the line. and to engage at the level of adults with other voters. we did it on the grassroots. i had a 1% name recognition that i think. and no money. but we spent a tremendous amount of time just walking neighbors and knocking on doors and buildings. and i believe in the grassroots and the power of the grass grass and we invited people to come to stake in their own political future. one the primary against the great guy, well established sort of -- how should i describe it? the sort of heir if you will. to the nominations and then one election and then the hard business of governorring began.

and then one again just this last year. what have we done? well, we are first in the nation in massachusetts. and health care coverage for arrears -- for our residents. first in the nation student achievement, first in the nation in clean energy initialties, we are growing jobs faster than 45 other states. coming out of recession stronger. we're the only state in 2007 who's bond rating has strengthened. we have a lot to do. but we are making hard choices, engaging -- some cases even upsetting some of our friends, in the name of generational responsibility. i'm proud of that. we don't have term limits. but i'm not going to run again. i'm no fool. i miss the private sector. i will say. especially on payday. but it's been a great run. thank you.

>> i'm also an alum of the better chance. native of south side of chicago. >> where did you do to school? >> st. paul. >> in new hampshire? >> where did you grow up on the south side? >> jeffrey manor. >> he knows something. when were you there? >> graduated in 2001. >> oh he's old. he was chaplain. >> i'm interested in knowing how your transition from chicago to new england affected your choices later in life. why yeah. >> or how it changed your perspective and how you deal with things now later in life. >> what a great question. you know, i'm still there. i live in a house that was on my paper route when i was a student. and we had for 22 years now. i've been in and out and

traveled and lived in other places. but boston which was a very fractured place around race in those days. but boston and massachusetts has been very good to me and my family. and i will say though, i tease the -- you know, i have occasions now in my current line of work to speak publicly from time to time. and we're doing a lot of work in how we transition our economy in massachusetts to the innovation economy of tomorrow. because we've got so many strengths that are natural for this. the concentration of brain power and all of the research and venture capital, what have you? i tease our business community who have new england waste. i talk about how, you know, when i grew up in massachusetts -- in the midwest, and you'll understand this, when you are new in the neighborhood, everybody brings a pie.

right? everybody. when you are new in massachusetts, you are the one who is expected to bring a pie. you are nodding your head. you understand what i mean the sense of welcome is different. you get past that and make friends for life. deep friendships. but you got to guest -- to get past that. in an economy and society that's much, much more fluid that's it's ever been. people talk about the globalization of our economy. capital is globalized. labor is not yet. it's more fluid than it's ever been before. we have to understand that our part of our job creation strategy and economic expansion has got to include a sense of welcome. and so i'm pleased that for the first time in 20 years young people and families are moving into massachusetts faster than they are moving out. and i think that some of our

sense of, you know, the notion that we all -- awful us. not just people, not just officials, business leaders, everybody has got to get the attitude of welcome right, i think is coming around. part of that. come on back. yes. 1, 2, 3. this is the shy side. so i should just talk to them. [laughter] >> yes. >> governor, thank you. it's great it see you tonight. >> great to see you. >> i had an interview with no labels. they asked me which politician do you admire most? my answer was deval patrick for a number of reasons, interning in your office in 2009 when we dealt with transportation ethics and pension reform, you know, on seeing the mentality and hearing the story about your grandmother who said, you know, we were never allowed to say we were

poor, we had to say we were broke. my question is i graduated george washington university in four weeks. >> do you need a job? [laughter] >> let's get right to it, shall we? >> no, i'm asking more as someone like as a mentor, what advice do you have for someone who is looking for a job, yes, but loves politics and in this day and age, the economy is bad and it's so much about who you know. what is the advise that you would give to someone that made it happen? >> well, so, first of all, thank you for the -- thank you for helping in the office and caring about it. and i would say that caring about it and caring about service is the right place to start. i do not think that that is or ought to be limited to government service. but service ought to be not just

about what we do, but who we are. this is about seeing the stake in each other. i think in terms of looking for a job, we should talk if you want to come home. does that mean we have to have two lines? one line for book, other looking for work. i see you nodding your head. look, we are always looking for talent. as you know, like everybody else, we had to reduce. we are always looking for talent. i guess the advice that i would give you is this, do something. don't worry about it being perfect. don't worry about what it leads to. do something and open your heart. things happen. i didn't start out wanting to be

governor of the commonwealth of massachusetts. if i had, my wife probably would have never married me. but, you know, you sense -- you begin to get a sense of yourself, what your strengths are, and how you want to contribute and where and then. then you move in that direction. the other thing, i'm going to say this as someone who's about to get a fancy degree. i remember being in the company of others who are about to get a fancy degree when i was in college. and all they seemed to worry about is how to keep their options open. as a result, they make almost no decision. they were constantly trying to figure out how to be in the right place at the right time and be introduced to the right this and so forth. instead of following some sense of their passion and taking advantage of what that fancy degree is supposed to give you.

when i -- when i got into college, you know, by the time i was applying to colleges at milton academy which has a whole apparatus to get you ready for admission; right? no one in my family had been to college. they didn't know what the process involved. i was fortune to have guidelines counselors and we worked our own essays in english class. i applied to five schools. there was one i wanted to go to and i got the letter. gram, i'm going to college next here. i'm going to harvard. she said i'm so proud of you. she said where is that anyway? [laughter] >> i think what she was trying to get across -- well, what she got across, whether she was trying or not, was that it was

the opportunity that mattered. not the prestige, it was the opportunity. that lesson lasts, i write about this in the book. and so whether you are, you know, working for a fraction of what you think you are worth in some governor's press office or, you know, helping out for a semester more at george washington, or flipper burgers by day by working on a campaign at night. bring your passion to it and other things will happen. :

>> i'm wondering how you continue to overcome that hurdle, and how you can advise other people on how to maintain credibility in both sections of your life without compromising either? >> it's a great question, and i try to write about this in the book, and, you know, you will be the judge about whether i have -- i have either described it properly or living it properly, but my view is decide who you are and be that all the the time, no matter what, no matter what. i had an event at random house this morning with abc, and there were a number of abc -- they were the program that introduced

me to millton academy and got me there, and portions of the proceed are going to abc, and abc brought a number of current scholars, and one young woman, a junior in high school now says how did you manage or did you have the experience of jeopardizing friendships at home by virtue of you going off to school? it was a very poignant moment because i understand that. it's still so fresh in my mind and heart. what i said to her then, i say to you know. for the friends. who make you choose, consider whether they are your friends in fact. you have to decide what your values are, what's your true compass or true north is, and then just be that all the time. i would say too in politics, remember, i'm new. i've done this two times, but i

think the public reads a fraud every time, every time, and if you would just, you know, say what you think, if you don't want to answer, just say i can't answer that. i'm not going to go there or i don't know, but be yourself all the time, and the people you really care about and who care about you will care about you for that, and it won't matter what community you're moving in. i know it sounds simplistic, but it's true. thank you, yeah? >> thank you for coming. >> thank you, thank you for coming. >> my pleasure. i read your book last night, and it was compelling giving me a ray of hope. >> thank you. >> i was most impress by your ability to succeed despite your failure and to never give up. my question is what motivated you and when you got involved

and faced failure? >> well, i don't think failure is in most cases permanent, and i think failure is not in every case ultimately. a failure is more of a set back. i've been blessed, but sometimes a failure is a blessing, you know? sometimes you need that. i remember -- i write in the book about living and working in darfur between college and law school and darfur was a very different place then. this is 30 years ago. [laughter] it was a very different place than now, but to get to darfur them, you know, they had no airport -- there was an airport, but it had no flights, no train. you know, what you did was go to the market, found a market

laurie going in your direction and negotiated for space up on top, brought enough food and water for the trip, and you were on track in the sand for five days to get out there. it's about the distance from boston to cleveland. on the trip out there, you may have read with a sudanese guy, and a truck flipped over, we were trapped and stuck, stranded in the desert for three days. i didn't know. people had broken bones and so on, i was bruised, but not broken. i mean, imagine, you know, imagine here if you saw a truck flip over and spread all the cargo and people all over the street? what i try to capture in the book is what it was like to have that great big thud, few screams, and utter silence. no sirens, no emergency workers, nothing but us and 120 degrees

for three days. now, you take your queue from the people around you; right? we were on the trade route, met by a lorrey going in the other direction and took the people who were hurt and me because i was the guest back, started all over again, and made the trip in five days on a different lori. some people say that's a failure. your objective was to get out there smoothly and safely, but that experience and being in darfur for that many months without mail or phone service, e-mail didn't exist. there were not any faxes, if my children tried this today, i would kill them. [laughter] but i think that experience made me feel so powerful because you figure it out. i didn't speak the language when i first got there. you figure it out, and when you

learn -- anybody had the experience of moving to a new city and having no friends and no place to live? you have to find a place to live. it's empowering when you figure it out. part of it is learning that you can figure it out. for me, i think those -- i don't think so much of setbacks. i get questions all the time about, you know, your bumping into this wall, bumping into that wall, but i've had so many experiences which were about convincing me that i could expand my own expectations of myself and meet them and go on from there. yeah? in the way back. still nothing on this side? okay. [laughter] it's written down? okay. >> okay, welcome. >> thank you. >> [inaudible]

>> you have a reporter's notebook. are you a reporter? >> yes, i am. [laughter] you talk about the rebounding economy and one area that's still struggling is local government. i was hoping that you could assess the situation among local municipalities and how costs are effected and tax revenues and solutions you would bring to that or because of your business background as well and extreme steps like bankruptcy or -- >> no, that's a dumb idea, and an unnecessary one not to put too fine a point on it. i think we have like everybody else had to trim what we call local aid -- this is the state transfer to local communities. we do local aid in a couple of different buckets. the single piece is support for schools. that has gone up every single year i've been in office, and

it's been higher each year than ever before in the history of commonwealth. that's a value's choice. unrestricted local aid has been reduced. every time we cut unrestricted local aid, we also proposed and the legislature proposed enactings that are at least as valuable or other ways to raise revenue. for example, we enabled local underperforming pension funds to come into the state pension funds which saves administration costs at the local level. we created a pathway for municipal employing to come into the lower cost state health care program. we have taken another step on that called planned design with labor at the table, by the way. we ended an exemption to property taxes that the phone company enjoyed. you know, you didn't have to pay property taxes on poles and

wires. the electricity company did, but the phone company didn't. [laughter] we ended that. we enabled cities and tops as they -- towns as they choose to add a penny or penny and a half to a meal or hotel tax in their own community, but, again, as they've chosen. in the next round, i mention the next step in health care cost control, which by the way, it's really a cost shifting issue. it's not the bigger issue we're working on which is system wide costs, but it really is about having municipal employees pay a comparable share of their health care costs as it's happening in the private sector and as we've done at the state level, and we also require in this bill, which has not been passed yet, but it will before the budget passes in june, requires municipal retirees to go into medicare,

which they don't all do today. those two things together are worth twice as much as the amount we cut in local aid. it's not that the cities and towns are off the hook from making hard decisions too, but we've been trying to be sensitive to the importance of strong communities, but at the same time cutting also and creating new ways for them to save or independently raise revenue, okay? yes? okay, you can be next. i see you back there. >> i grew up in massachusetts. >> excellent. >> i went to college here in georgetown. >> great. >> i really like enjoy traveling and been to a lot of cities, but i was attracted to massachusetts totally, and especially with the stuff going on in the last ten years, and you talked a lot about generational speedometer and wound --

responsibility and wonder what your thought is on my generation in massachusetts and what that will be? >> what your generational responsibility is? in simple terms, you do more than we did to leave it better for people who come behind you. i can tell you permly, i'm -- personally, i'm looking for -- i was going to say young people, but really every kind of person, even hannibal's age -- one of my best friends, i can't resist. [laughter] to come help out in the schools. i don't care if you're a teacher or not. help in the schools. we have, as i mentioned earlier, number one in student achievement and have been for the last five years, but we had a persistent achievement gap, and stuck in that gap are poor children and children with special needs or who speak english as a second language. a greater proportion than any of

us would like of children of color. we've been on a path of education reform for 18 years in massachusetts, and an achievement gap under any circumstance, as you know, is an educational and economic issue, but to let it go for 18 years, that's a moral question. those are our kids too. frequently what they need is not just about reading, writing, and arrhythmia tick, but help with their homework and a sense of safety and the sense that an adult has time to pay attention to them in a constructive way. bringing those kinds of additional resources into schools and helps teachers who have to do what whole neighborhoods used to do, i think is -- i know is part of the strategy to close the achievement gap. if you're looking for something to do, there's something to do. any kind of service, any kind of service is good, and it's good

for those served and it's good for you too, and as i say, make it a part of not just what you do, but who you are, and that's how the world will be changed. i'm confident on it. in the way back, yeah. >> i'm not going to say when i was in the academy, but i will say i am aware of you and diane and pretty much where -- [inaudible] with your particular challenge, particularly proud of overcoming in those days? >> you mean in mitton? >> uh-huh. >> you mean beside the jacket thing? [laughter] well, in some ways it comes back to the question i was asked -- who asked me about -- who went

to st. paul's? there you are. about, you know strait ling those different world -- straddling those different worlds. there was a point at milton when i could out lost the lost. [laughter] i knew how to use summer as a verb. [laughter] i knew what the old money and the new money destinations were by name. i had never been to any of them, but i knew what they were. [laughter] you know, i cracked the code, and by the way, this isn't unique to milton. it's going to a new workplace. it's going to a new school. it's figuring out the code; right? i think what was incredibly helpful to me and important to me is that there were a couple of teachers who made it a point

to help me crack the code, and it was actually a very loving gesture. you know, if you're not too defended about that sort of thing, it can be very helpful, but it also puts you -- it also jeopardizes, you know, your place in that other world; right? i can remember, and i write in the book about being home and trying to describe to some of my pals what -- that i had met an ambassador. you know, i'm not sure i could have explained what an ambassador was. it sounded cool. [laughter] their eyes just rolled back in their heads. they just couldn't connect. first time i came home on school vacation, i think it was christmas vacation, i had been away for whatever it was -- three months -- and i came into

the apartment, and my grandmothers and my sister were there and all excited, and my sister, and we're all talking at once, and my sister out of the blue said, oh, she said, he talks like a white boy. [laughter] i was devastated. my grandmother was without missing a beat said he speaks like an educated boy. she saved the day. this is what i describe in the book as you get a great education at the risk of a broken heart, but figuring out that the choice you feel you have to make is false, i think may have been my greatest try triumph there. yeah? oh, are we okay? you first, and then i'll read some of these. still nothing on this side. [laughter] on, -- oh, you're on here? oh, okay. >> what do you think of school

vouchers? >> what do i think of school vouchers? >> yeah. >> not much. [laughter] i just, you know, i think -- i just don't think -- i'm very open to trying things in public education, but i am not persuaded that a school voucher is going to enable a kid to go to milton academy, number one. number two, i don't think the solution is milton academy. i loved it, don't get me wrong. i'm grateful for it, but overwhelmingly children get their educational opportunities in the traditional district schools, and the question to me is not how we make a way for a few in special settings, but how we make the traditional district schools sing, and many do. nobody notices that. by the way, there's some great charters and some crappy

charter, excuse me, crummy charters too; right? [laughter] there's a variety of performance. the question is how do we allow the kind of creativity and space to try things, to meet kids where they are, not do the same thing in every district school so that those district schools can sing, so i have a lot of -- i try to focus there rather than -- i'm sorry, i'm just being candid with you. i try to focus there rather than on vouchers. read some of these? okay. after working in one of boston's turn around schools, i'm curious your views on steps that should be taken to improve boston's public school system. who is that? where did you work? >> blacksville elementary. >> did you? but you're here now in? >> yes. >> do you know orchard gardens? >> uh-huh.

>> correct me if i'm wrong, but it's a school in the boston public system. how should i describe it? it's the school where, you know, no matter what is going wrong in your school, what people would say is at least we are not orchard gardens; right? [laughter] right? orchard gardens took all of the elements of the achievement gap act that i signed last year which is the -- all the different tools to intervene in the schools that are not performing, every single one. he asked the teachers to reup 8 -- 80% said this is not for me and see you later. 80% of the people. he extended the school day, hired new people, and by the way, you know, our calendar is based on farming; right?

you get -- i'm not kidding. you get out in time to plant. you stay out long enough to harvest. that's where our school year comes from. the school day is about getting chores in the afternoon. he extended the school day, why? because some kids need help with their homework, and their parents don't even speak english at home, and so their opportunity to get that help is in the classroom. he brought in the program to help with the after school, and they do many of the direct interventions with family. if somebody is late, they go to the house. i mean, it's a much more active and engaged community right now. everybody is signed on. they have been at this now for seven months, and their achievement scores have gone up 60% in seven months. they have stopped allowing the children and their families to say, well, we're orchard, what do you expect? they just changed that whole

sense of expectation around this. sandy, this is what you guys are trying to do and have done at the bishop walker school. it's the whole, you know, it's a whole lot of really energized adults who love those children and make it absolutely clear what their expectations are of them and the children meet those expectations and rise to the expectations every time, and so what i, you know, one of my challenges to teachers and to others is not just, you know, do it my way because i don't know, but i do know there is something essential about a well-prepared, well-supported teacher in front of that class, and we have to create the kinds of spaces where people can try new things, and the last thing i'll say about this, i know i'm going on too long. >> okay, one more question. >> okay. i had a 6th grade teacher at the

school on the south side of chicago, and i want to call her out as an example of the fact that there are great things going on even in broken communities and supposedly broken schools. this 6th grade teacher, 40 of us in the class. we were a mess. neighborhood was a mess, home lives were a mess. she taught us to count and say the greetings in german. she took us in the first opera i had ever seen. i didn't know what they were singing about. i still don't know what they are singing about. [laughter] but i loved it. she took us to a movie that was just out then called "the sound of music," and she used the mew -- movie to teach us about the rise of naziism and the second world war and helped us imagine what it was like to be a citizen of

the world. she didn't have any of the resources that any of the teachers at milton academy had, but she met us where we were, and she raised our expectations of ourselves, and i -- i don't know, there's teachers here and gifted teachers here, but i think that's got to be a part of it. one more? >> one more. >> one more. what was yours? what is your -- >> the defining moment of your life thus far. >> oh, gosh, thank you for adding the thus far part. [laughter] i mean, i have eight that i write about in here. i think, you know, i guess i would say -- can i have two? [laughter] you know, the birth -- my kids are something else, you know?

strong, witty, engaged, young women. they had those a tributed as children that made them a pain in the neck, but as adults they are marvelous, and when they were born, that experience of them taking their first breath and they're going, and then they are gone like that, and, you know, the ways that they both leave and come back, you know, not just physically, but the ways they separate and they come back is -- i think particularly because i am so -- i kind of -- i'm so conscious of parenting because my father was around i think. they define me and enrich me. i think the experience of surviving that time in sudan was, as i said earlier,

incredibly empowering, and it has made me fearless about a whole host of challenges that might have seemed off limits or even improbable to coin a phrase. all right? thank you all for coming. i appreciate you this evening. [applause] >> to find out more about governor duval pass trick, visit mass.gov. >> in your book, you talk about one of the life changing moments, you're watching the hearing, and what happens to andrew breitbart? >> guest: i just graduated from college. i thought that i would learn an education about judaism, but i left feeling very empty because i just learned how to chant. i felt -- i was open for a spiritual experience. i didn't get it. i felt the exact same way in

college where i was an american studies major, and the stuff i read was inexrens -- income presenceble, and it was demoralizing, and i graduated less skilled, less motivated, and i was a waiter. >> host: you robbed yourself? >> guest: i did. my education was a lack of an education, and so i was waiting tables after graduating college, finished my lunch shift. >> host: your friends said you're better than this. >> guest: yeah, it was embarrassing and humiliating, and the best thing that happened in my life, the humiliation of having to work and gripped it and the people i looked up to and wanted to impress looked down on me. i started to pay for my own shoes. >> host: your parents cut you

off? >> guest: it was brutal. i dedicated the book to my father who cut me off and clarence thomas at the same time. both of their guidance in my life coincided. >> host: that's a good segue back to the hearings. >> guest: yeah, well i went for my wait job watching the hearings wanting to root for the take down of clarence thomas. i watched the tv, and the tv told me this was about a man, and the newspaper said he was a bad man. i remember pa patricia walking up the steps, these ladies saying this guy, we'll take a stand against this guy for sexual harassment. i watched these hearings like a spectator who wanted to see somebody mulled, you know, like a lion mulling, you know, a roman, and i watched day one, day two, i watched the entire thing. i went from wanting him to be

taken down to wondering where's the beast? what's going on here? i don't understand what i'm watching here. i don't understand the color commentary that's on the screen saying, oh, this is outrageous. i didn't understand the bumper stickers going by me on the streets says "i believe anita". what was that? i don't understand what was going on here. everything i knew and picked up at college in my american studies, cultural marxist, oppress or oppressed, black people are always right, white people are always wrong. i didn't understand how ted kennedy, thee ted kennedy, how howard, joe biden, and a series of white privileged men sat in judgment of this man who was the son of grandparents who were sharecroppers who raised him, he went to yale law school, he did everything right including allowing for