>> he managed to through the needle pretty well politically, you know, before the election he was able to delay it. and yet to say is going to fast for the southern portion, that was a pretty depth political move but i think the stakes are pretty high. >> it's also about labor. a lot of labor really, really worked hard for the president's reelection. a lot of them in very, very tough swing states. so-called swing states. a lot of them are also working

on proposals to take veterans that are coming back from afghanistan and having how much to hardhats, very, very important program. there's going to be a lot more people coming back from these conflicts in the united states. and so i think there's a lot, you look at all the security people in the united states, they're also saying this is good for u.s. security, to not be so dependent on the turmoil, we see it everyday in the middle east. so i think there is security for the u.s. in terms of energy security. there's employment for workers. there's workers being employed in the supply chain, read turning veterans that me job, training. and i think he is also in a number of things on the environment. this is not just the only decision he's going to make on the environment, and i think he has the ability to do both,

energy independence from the middle east and fulfill his copenhagen commitments. i think he has the ability to do both. >> you're right, he's got to balance it. if he approves the pipeline he's got to do something significant on his existing authority. he's got to give danielle something or else he will be held -- >> he also said we're going to increase in speed of permitting of oil and gas domestically which was a clear message is not against the carbon economy per se. he has to deliver something. >> on that we will have to have our closing statements. we apologize to jump been waiting at the microphone we didn't get to you. a couple minutes. tall, do you want to start? >> sure. a decision on keystone on any large issue made on practical and tactical grounds but also, we seen the play of symbolism.

daniel is very good that same keystone represent the equivalent of 6 million new cars on american highways, an army of new cars engaging america. and the ambassador was very diligent about saying this is an excellent chance to reach and a 6 million cars and take the venezuelan out and put good oil win. and so that is the symbolic background against president obama has a decision to make. coming from ottawa as a good, i often am reminded, i often say to candidates, it's the chicken come home to roost. stephen harper has spent his entire career as prime minister beating environmentalists. he ran against an environment was in 2008. he made up a carbon tax and 2011 so he could run against that and beat another liberal. he will do it a third time against another group of environmentalist. he spent his entire political career defeating environmentalists, and now he

needs a favor from one end that one lives at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. >> i think that canada could make this easier for the president. i think as we've said he has to deliver something on climate. he said that he will. whether that means rejecting keystone or not is clear, but if canada as david said, they would like to see more concrete steps being taken in canada so they can at least say well, we have concerns, hear how they're being addressed. to have to look like they're taking it seriously. is unilateral action which in canada sounds like keystone -- ultimately mean taking some really hush regulations on emissions from coal-fired power plants, that would cost a lot politically. is very controversial. because some regions depend on coal-fired. but that's an alternative step that he could take. >> well, we sort of start on

keystone from we have ended on keystone. maybe that's right. it falls to me to thank you all for being with us here in washington this evening. thank you all to our panelists for being here. it's great to the author. thanks are joining us. thanks to all be watching at home. thanks to our friends at c-span who are caring this program to our friends in the united states this evening. thank you all, and maybe we'll see back here in washington a couple years from now again. goodnight. [applause] >> on c-span2, the u.s. chamber of commerce host a forum on higher education.

>> if blockade is the principal naval strategy of the northern states, the principal naval strategy of the southern states is commerce raiding. one gun on a pivot right there between the mass, but again if you going after merchant ships, one is all you need. if you caught a merchant ship, the idea was come alongside, put a crew on board, take it to a port where a judge could adjudicate it, sell it at auction, you got to keep all the money. but, of course, because privateering depends entirely on a profit motive, the shipowner paid the men and the ship itself, supplies the food, he expects a return on his money. and the crew expected money. without friendly port with the to be condemned, and then sold, you can't make a profit on privateering. and, therefore, competitive

privateering died out almost immediately. lasted about three months, slightly longer. and maritime entrepreneurs found out they could make more money blockade running. >> historian craig symonds looks at the civil war at sea, saturday night at 10 p.m. eastern, part of american history tv this weekend on c-span3. >> you're watching c-span2 with politics and public affairs, weekdays feature live coverage of the u.s. senate. weeknights watch key public policy defense. every weekend the latest nonfiction authors and books on booktv. you can see past programs and their schedules at our website, ma and you can join in the conversation on social media sites. >> now, a forum on helping students transition to the workforce after graduation. students, educators and business leaders took part in the discussion hosted by the u.s. chamber of commerce. it's an hour 15 minutes.

>> can people hear me? garate. well, i'm zakiya smith from the lumina foundation. i've been there for about a month or so now. most recently i was at the white house. so the issues that we talked about just this morning i really, really relevant across all party lines and really looking forward to a great discussion today about the interaction between high ridge occasion and the workforce and what students and employers really see as necessary elements of a competitive higher education system. i am joined with a great group

of panelists, and were going to jump right into discussion, going to ask them some questions to get the ball rolling, and they will have some time for audience questions at the end. so i'm just going to do introductions down the line so that we know who everyone, who everyone is. and right next to me i have aaron starks, student body president of salt lake community college. next to him we have jeremy johnson, the cofounder of 2u picnics in we have aaron smith, the cofounder of the young invincibles. then we have kathleen shanahan, ceo of euro tech holdings. and then at the end we have no comella, senior director for education and the workforce, law and corporate affairs at microsoft corporation, also expected the federal government dealing with workforce policy. so all other biographical information, exactly what they do, it's in your information.

but i do want to start with a general question for all of the panelists to kick us off. and that's really about partnership. sheryl earlier talked about, some interesting partnerships between higher education and workforce. i want to stop asking all of panelists based on your work and what do you think are really great elements of partnership. i'm going to start at the inn at ask that we come this way if that's all right. >> i think a couple of things. one is that businesses don't have the answers, and we seek to know what you all know all times in the nonprofit committee. i'll give one example. recently we partner with her good friends at boeing in washington state where we are headquartered in redmond, washington, to develop something called in washington opportunity stem scholarship program. so we put money in, bowling for money and. the government is matching that money. in the first year we will put $100 billion on the table for stem scholarship's in washington state for folks who are going to

major in s.t.e.m. disciplines, and also come from families that are eligible for free and reduced price lunches. so again this is committee stepping up in concert with the government in washington state to develop what we think could be a model program around s.t.e.m. and it gets, it will get i think will be into where we're going to talk about federal resources, where we direct resources going forward and what should be the appropriate role of business in concert -- in concert with government. >> good morning. i would just like to add to my quick little bio beyond running my small business, i've been on the board of education in florida for seven years. florida is probably one of the top leading states in terms of reform on all sorts of fronts. so from a partnership perspective and a higher education engagement i think it's really important to have businesses at the table from a skill set apprenticeship.

we're probably in the state of florida i would take 15 to 20 programs tied directly to the community colleges where businesses are both engaged in the curriculum as well as really hiring most of the graduates, everybody from gulf power and the northwest panhandle where they basically created a program, most of those jobs are $70,000 plus a year, and many other schools around orlando that identified with the dizzy program and some of the blue video, all the stuff behind the scenes. then you go down to miami-dade where there's several programs in both culinary as well as arts and entertainment, as well as in health care. so all over the state we've made an aggressive sort of i would say partnership plan, especially of the community/college level, if the skill sets are not being taught between because they can come in and help codevelop the curriculum and then those

students can do apprenticeships in those businesses. that has been successful and continue to both investment in the program as will expand on that blueprint. >> so i would just add and i grieve many of the points, the exciting thing, that are actually many exciting examples of businesses and institutions of higher education working together to train young people, really from all different backgrounds, to get jobs that the workforce demands. i think the challenge has been and will continue to be to make sure that there's a real dialogue each wing businesses and students understand the challenges that really both sides are facing. i think sometimes young people leave school or they're looking for a job when they go into the workforce and they are surprised to see businesses want a certain thing, a certain set of skill sets and they don't necessary have that. or on the flipside i think

sometime, you know, businesses need to understand the range of challenges that students are facing to go to college, to afford it when we now that's become more expensive than ever before. in many cases young people are working a full-time job and putting himself through school. so having that sort of dialogue i think can really foster more successful business, student come institution relationships. but finally, we know there are models that are working. we need to figure out the best way to scale this up, and i think we'll all be talking about what are some of the techniques that we can look at to do that. >> much like -- some of the most exciting developments right now taking place as result of collaboration between different disciplines, i would argue and am a little bit biased because i happens to be exactly what 2u does but some of the most interesting developments in higher education are happening as result of increased collaboration between businesses and higher education.

i think that the reason we're seeing things like that is high rich keeshan is uniquely and -- uniquely well-positioned to do things like maintain academic rigor, to teach well. they have built practices to deep institutional knowledge over in some cases hundreds of years that is very difficult for a business to replicate, and just as importantly to replicate with consistent long-term integrity to make sure incentives are properly aligned. on the other side it's very difficult for those institutions of higher education to do things like develop technology effectively, to disseminate that information. it's very difficult for them to come up with new ways to improve logistics of sort of the overall delivery of academic experience. what we do as a company is essentially partner with great traditional universities to build out on one academic

experiences that have the same student out, as on campus, but where the student him anywhere in the world. and i would say that over the past five years, we've seen every year huge, huge increases in interest, and really development in this space because of the potential to unlock what is great about these traditional institutions and help expand access to them. >> great. >> i do like to begin by thinking of whe what here at the chamber for hosting this event. i share many of the thoughts this doing the students in attendance that we are excited for the future of education. business leaders alone can't do it. there are so me problems, taxation problems, economical problems are businesses alone can't do that, neither can student. so we are seeing a collaboration amongst different business entities, higher ed. institutions. in the state of utah, we began

by diagnosing the problem which i think is step one. we have come together with some of the most prominent business leaders in the state and formed a coalition of business leaders referred to as -- that's one branch within the u.s. chamber, but also within the salt lake chamber. we are all seeking the salsa solution to come up with, to come up with a solution that will promote economic develop and. we tried the band-aid approach. we know the needs for long-term change. anything a greater investment in education to using business leaders. i spoke with a student for came on stage and he said that there was a program in virginia similar to what we do in utah for business leaders are interjecting themselves in higher ed. so first promoting awareness that we can do this without business and business can't do this without students. traditionally we have relied on the legislature and that hasn't done enough. and so i'm grateful for strides

we are taking and still see there is a lot of room to make up. we have come in utah we have unique system where the students have formed, come together to form the utah student association. so each student within the state, there's 130,000 plus higher it students, 15% of the student fees, 15 cents, allows them to be a member of the utah student association. by doing [laughter] i better be careful. but 15 cents allows them to be part of utah student association. was that has given us is that each student body president in the state of utah comes together once a month. we work with political action committees. we work with the state legislature. we are working with businesses astronomical. we are seeing more ceos, more business leaders. we are seeing the lieutenant governor, the governor of the

state of utah say we can work with students got to make at's a congressman. and again, it's only step one of the a long process. >> great. i think like everyone is not surprising the same there's a huge need to work together between businesses and higher education community and with students, and certainly student activists are really banding together and sharing what's important with them. one thing was mentioned earlier, you know, one of the number one reasons that today they want to go to college is to get a better job, and that was postulated and we had a pool internally and many people said both that and becoming better citizens were dual goals. recently the lumina foundation with gallup conducted a poll and asked individuals across the nation whether they see the main reason to go to college, 67% said to get a good job. that is up from past years. so in increasingly people are

valuing this a reason, not the only reason that as a key reason, and i would go out on a limb and say if they didn't get a better job afterwards, they would feel some way about that education. and so one of the things that's been talked about result is this skills gap, or what other skills that are necessary, and earlier kathleen talk about the partnerships and actually getting out some of the skills and making clear what those are the people are looking for. so i want to ask now, what are the skills to get a better job, what are the skills that either students or looking to get, are they broader thinking skills? is this a conversation go often, it's on to train people to make widgets. what are the skills you're working for students, and what are the skills that you senior n your collaborations that are necessary out of these courses, and what did businesses see are necessary skills for success?

>> well, i think that to begin with, there are so me degrees offered that are not necessarily relevant to an occupation. i know in utah we really focus on s.t.e.m. a lot of our major corporations within the country are looking for students coming out of college who are trained and who are well-qualified and science, technology, engineering and math. and so we've really tried to make more, we emphasize those degrees and we're trying to provide additional instance for students to study those degrees so that way they will become more viable to the economy in the state of utah. but i think that's a trend that needs to continue on throughout the country. it would be very helpful for students to understand when they do choose a college, or if they do choose a university, and the first and foremost that in order for me to go to this school i

need to specialize in this. and by coming to the school, by specializing in either science technologtechnolog y engine in and out, i will begin get a job at one of these corporations or businesses because their parting with this school. goldman sachs is a wonderful example of that. throughout the past year they have gone from institution to institution. i know cuyahoga community college in ohio, salt lake community college, one of the 10,000 small business partners. what a great incentive for students to go and study finance or to study i.t., because we now have a relationship with them. >> i think one o of the areas tt business can be most helpful to higher education is helping with things like market research, choice to more effectively what suits are looking for and ultimately what is going down impact like being able to get a better job. i think it's pretty clear in the business world right now that if

you currently are a salesforce, like their people bidding for a time to even take into. you are instantly and level. there are many, many other areas that are much more complicated. i think getting better data around for students especially, around different areas that are currently and likely in the next couple of years to be very, very high-growth, high demand industry, is something that really collaboration between the business world and higher education can have a big impact on. but it's very difficult for either the business world to be able, you can spread information but you can't act on it through traditional higher education unless you are partnered with them. and for traditional higher education you're not an abyss of doing market research. so that collaboration is pretty credible. >> one thing i would add, and i really, i like aaron's point about s.t.e.m. i think that's critical.

but i would add to it that many employers are looking for critical thinking skills. they are looking for writing ability. i think, you know, even at young invincibles we interview folks, we talk to students and we want to make sure that they have that strong writing ability, editing a lot of employers feel the same way. so there's clearly a range of skills that need to be developed through higher education. i think i'm a big believer in learning by doing. i think students, it's very hard to expect a 19 year-old to know what they want to do with their life, and that's why we see part coming up, young people trying different jobs in different schools. so having as many opportunities as you can to actually try working with the business, different types of businesses, different types of jobs i think is critical. and so were i think we've been successful is when we give

students many of those opportunities so that when they do finally leave school they have a really clear sense of these are my strengths, these are my weaknesses, these are the connections that i have, and this is sort of the career i want to pursue. and so i think we can probably do a better job from the standpoint of just giving students more experience in the workforce. i think we can start there. >> 85% of college students anticipate they will move home. i think that's what new, moved 67% up that college students are looking for jobs versus sort of the theoretical expectation of what college is going to teach you. i think that, you come in florida and i'm going to use the experience that i know, and even my own personal expense, i was a biochem major, was going to medical school at my first job

was an elevator operator. i learned a lot. you sort of, if you do good at the first job you get, you get another job. so i think there has to be some relative transitional understandings of what the skill sets are and how they're going to be applied. and in florida we have a florida council on 100, the top one of this is in the state and would work closer with a florida chamber. we did a skills analysis on the business side and really that led to two, i think two interesting things that are being implement right now in florida. one is called smart choices. for every college in the state of florida this year, they have, by degree, the number of persons in the degree program. these are for your degrees, what their jobs are and whether annual salary is the and our goal is by the year 2014 and 2015 is really educate both parents and graduating middle school and seniors in high

school as to whether choices are based on getting a job with that, i would say state-funded institutions. so that would be the colleges, technical colleges, universities will all have the online in florida. right now it's called smart choices. you can go on to the florida college system you'll see what i mean it i if if you put in our t would say how many are in the are in system at what schools, how long it took and graduate and whether which i was to store. so to try to be responsive to skill sets that are driving the job. the florida business committee engages the legislature and with the institutions to establish that, and we are funding it and it's up and running and to think we've gotten some really strong initial feedback. and only other thing, i was out of florida state board of education meeting yesterday, and mckinsey gave a presentation. the mckinsey report that is out, i don't know how you can probably go to their mckinsey government website and get it,

but it talks about how basically students and employers have the same expectations about skill sets and jobs and what they need to do. the missing link is the institutions and the providers of the higher education because they still continue to teach based on how they have top for the last 20 to 40 years. and that is not working. and so the two drivers of change in those three parallel paths i would say distances, is, or the employers and the students. and i think we have to challenge the institutions to change their formula and their structure to be much more adaptive to real-world skill sets and jobs that are out there. >> picking up on kathleen's comments, where the jobs are, in microsoft today i just checked, we have roughly 6300 job openings. about 3600 of which are for computer science and engineers. we start them at 104,000 with

full benefit packages, merit increases, there are but $2000 a year jobs. we're not the only ones in washington state. if you look at expedia and amazon and the little coffee company that is headquartered there as was a number of other employers, we have the fourth most s.t.e.m. jobs in the country in washington state. yet we have the fourth least s.t.e.m. graduates of any state in the union. we know today we are producing 40,000 computer science undergrads a year, according to bls. we need 120,000 a year. such as to give you a little bit of from our perspective of where the jobs are, also our cortex, 40% are not engineers. they're not computer science folks. so when you look at what microsoft needs, it's a lot of what the panelists have talked about and i would add one, team building skills and working within a team. we do everything by team at microsoft. easy can't work within a team under their how smart you are,

or how fascinating -- you will not be successful at the end of the day. and so really important to look at what we're doing, not only at the college level but in high schools and all up and down the spectrum. we've only got nine states in the united states who represent, who actually look at computer science as a court agreed in high school. nine states. 41 states take computer science and look at it like jim. we have 42000 high schools in the united states. 2100 teach ap computer science. so it's certainly a a higher it issue but if we don't look at our feeder network and what we're doing to bring more people and, to counsel them about the right choices, to lessen the early on whether jobs are. because once you get to be a senior in high school or a freshman in college it's too late. if you haven't been the prerequisite, if you have been incented and really fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades to move into these s.t.e.m.

fields because you want to solve problems, because you the ability to solve problems, then wwe will continue to have these real challenge is moving forward. >> thank you. sounds like there's a lot of definite areas where we have a gap in what we are producing in terms of our college graduates and what's needed in terms our economy, especially in the s.t.e.m. fields. .. >> the system that they have with the state ui matching with

higher education, public higher education institutions being able to give you accurate information about what kind of jobs people get afterwards. and i'm wondering, and this'll just be open for anybody that wants to kind of answer, is that the type of information we need? you know, what other pieces of information do students need to make these good decisions if their goal is to get the whale-rounded -- well-rounded skills they need to get a good job, which institutions or programs are going to end help them reach their goals? anyone than -- anyone that wants to. >> sure, i'll speak to that. i i believe it begins in high school. i think there are a large majority of students that graduate high school still undecided to which occupation they want to pursue or to which degree. and so i would say that before students choose a college or a university, it would be helpful if they had in mind something that they would like to study.

college completion, utah's riced riced -- ranked sixth low's in the country. we have a resolution going through the state legislature right now that we would like 66% of our population educated by the year 2020. manager we're working on. students go into college or attend their universities uninformed and leave uninformed. the trend, i would say it's safe to say that the decade the common trend has been get a degree, and you'll be taken care of. doesn't matter what you get it in, but you will get a degree, and you'll be able to provide for your family. but the recession ended in 2009, and economic recovery has been so slow that you're now looking at students who forgo their academic career straight into their professional careers, and you're looking at a new student population that comes from their or professional careers and is now working on their academic

careers. so it's reversed. that data would be beneficial. it would be nice for a student to say, well, i'm thinking of going to the university of maryland. i would like to know what job placement is and what, what jobs i can get coming out if i study, take up a degree in science or engineering or math. definitely relevant information, and i think it needs to be more accessible from early on to students. >> [inaudible] one of the, one of the perks, you might call it, of capitalism is that society tends to move in the direction of what people want. and i think it's pretty safe to say that for -- want better information on student outcomes, what the information on themselves is going to translate into after they graduate. i would argue that one of the

sort of less often discussed but fairly well accepted sort of truisms to higher education is that in 15 years, half of the current institutions in this country -- and there are roughly 4,000 of them -- will probably not be here. the other half, and this is, you know, the orr side of capitalism -- the other side of capitalism, the other half are going to evolve. they're going to have to do more of what people actually want them to do, and what people want them to do is getting better at predicting student outcomes and give better information at how they're actually going to change people's lives. so the question is not if, but when, and what we do to help schools better, sort of better deliver that information and, in many cases quite frankly, care more about being able to insure that their graduates are actually doing the things that they want to do after they

graduate and are being successful. it's going to happen. of it's what can we collectively do to work with the universities and institutions that do care and do want to evolve to allow them to create better opportunities and to give better information on what those opportunities are for their students. >> that's really been the key policy question since we're in deals is, and we have finite resources, and those federal resources are going to go like this whether we agree with it or not, should the federal government subsidize everybody or pick winners and losers in terms of where we put our bets on federal student aid a year. we're spending 170 billion a year, not an insignificant amount of money. so what are the reasonable expectations not only for employers, but for society in terms of where those dollars are being spent and what the federal government should subsidize and what taxpayers should --

>> i think the federal government will draw, i mean, i think the federal government decision will be driven by if you empower students and their parents with data about where the graduates of those institutions end up, how long it takes them to find job, where the jobs are and what's their salary, that will then, i think, reverberate back around the public policy channel, and you'll have changes in terms of student aid, picking winners and losers incentivizing the colleges to get to where -- and colleges are supposed to be act chemic institutions -- academic institutions for the benefit of students. [laughter] not for the benefit of institutions. and that's been a big debate in higher ed. so i think there has to be a retooling of what's their purpose and how do you judge them against their success at that purpose? be and, again, you know, florida, we're the sunshine shade, we are the sunshine state when it comes to public policy. everything's in the open. there are no secrets. public policy is -- so it is a

very data-driven state. and we have on the precious-k-12 we've moved from 48th in the country to 8th in the nation in terms of reading, writing and the students. and that's really because we've put data out there. the teachers, the parents, the principals and the kids are all educated. so we've seen dual enrollment increase in high school because it allows kids to make earlier choices, to the comment earlier, in terms of what they'd like to go and try to study. and i think all -- and we have a two plus two system. if you finish two years of a college, you are guaranteed to get into two year obviously a university in florida. so we've driven our policy around what the system has demanded based on the data that's out there for both the students, most importantly, and the parents to have to make better decisions. and that's what's driven the smart choices and sort of where at least from a state perspective the state-invested dollars go and what's been the return on that from, in the last two or three years.

and i think that's going to be transformational in terms of both more people coming to florida schools, but also florida kids making a better decision based on what they know in middle school and high school. >> i think to that point the data piece is so exciting because it is transformational, it does speak to, you know, the potential of the market and for consumers to make smart decisions and help to guide sort of where our higher education landscape goes to. and i think it's also reflective of a policy environment where there are very finite resources, and we're trying to identify ways that the government can be helpful in creating change and helping to create smart consumers, you know, in a way that is financially sustainable. i mean, the one thing i'll say on the financial aid piece is that, you know, the status quo is really not working right now for students and families. we have community colleges in

this country where tuition has gone up 50, 100% in the last two years. we only, you know, have about a third of our generation who actual, you know, graduates with a degree that, i think, you know, many of us agree is just essential if our country is going to continue to be competitive. um, and that's not just -- and i'm not just talking about the traditional four-year degree, i'm talking about community college, technical degrees, getting a certificate, some form of postsecondary education that's going to prepare you. you know, if we are going to be successful as a country, we need to make sure that we continue to invest in young people in the same way that we, you know, built a very strong public k-12 system in the country, in the same way that we, you know, did things like the g.i. bill which helped a whole generation of americans attend school and really laid the groundwork for economic success. so i think it's critical that we continue to support students, but i, you know, i firmly

believe that we can do it in a smarter way, and that we need to think about, you know, reimagining how we look at financial aid. we, young invincibles actually put forth some specific policy ideas on, you know, making things more transparent, how to better align financial aid to the work force, how to make things like pell grants which are really a bedrock of our financial aid system strong and sustainable, and i know many of the folks here also have ideas, and i think there's a real opportunity. and in some ways the adversity that we face in terms of the budget is an opportunity to think creatively about our federal financial aid system, higher education reform and put some ideas on the table and start to get some traction. so i think this conversation could not have come at a better time given the challenges that we face and given where we need to go. >> i just find it remarkable that colleges and universities

haven't put more of an emphasis on this data from the beginning. it's sad that we are -- >> what would drive them to do that? >> what wouldn't drive them to do that, in my opinion. if i'm a student looking to prepare to have a family someday to provide for that family, why would i go to a subpar community college when i can go to a university or another community college that is placing 70% or more of their student population into the work field? >> unfortunately, though -- >> but then the -- >> most students don't have the chance to yet. i believe that what we've seen over the past three years and it's going to only accelerate is the ability to make those selections based on technology. once you can choose to go somewhere, similar price, it's not just the choice of your local community college or nothing, but the choice of going to schools around the country for the same price or just prices that you can l evaluate,

then p you start having colleges have real incentives to evolve. for the past 250 years in this country in our higher education system -- and what i mean by that is more or less since the beginning of it -- students have been landlocked. the vast majority of students go 50 miles from their home. we're about to see for the first time as a country and in many ways as a world what it's like if students can make those choices. and that is going to drive that revolution. >> and you've seen the growth within the past ten years, that's actually been part of the reason that federal student aid has gone up so much. students don't have to choose. it's one thing that i want to add to this element of the conversation. exceedingly, you see adults going back, and they more so than traditional students have a very clear goal of why they're going back, and it's the not because they want to find out who they are, it's because they want to get a better job. and so there are some differences in what students are looking for i would say across

when you look at different demographic groups of students, but increasingly that option to go online because it's convenient for you is there. and when you have more and more choices. so, essentially, our financial aid system for higher education works a little bit like a voucher, or a lot like a voucher where you can take it wherever you want to go. but in order for that to work well, you need to have good information be about what what's going to serve you best, who has the best outcomes this terms of completion, job placement and earnings. and that's not information we have readily available to students across the nation right now. so, you know, one thing i'm hearing from this and would love for people if you have questions or things that are ruminating in your mind, um, in many about 15 minutes or so, 10 minutes or so we're going to have some audience questions. but this notion that we should have those types of outcome data across the nation is really something that i know has been talked about right now in washington d.c. and we really have to drill down on what exactly is it and how

can we get it. florida has been a model that so many people have talked about as an exemplar in this area. let me, one of the last questions that i want to really touch on more specifically that's been alluded to is the issue of cost. and, um, another thing that came out of this lumina/gallup survey was when you asked vims who did not -- individuals who did not have postsecondary credentials with whether they thought it would be beneficial to them, the vast majority said, yes. this is not people that have gone to college affirming how great college is. it's people who do not have any type of postsecondary credentials saying i think this would be helpful to me. and you ask them what are the barriers, why have you not pursued it. number one, family. family conflict, i can't work this into my life. the second was the cost, i feel like it's just unaffordable. so how can we -- one, this information is helpful for helping people know where they're going to get a return on

investment, so that can be a little less daunting if you know, hey, i can major in this can and get a great job in the s.t.e.m. field, but what are some other innovative ways that we can help lower this cost burden? earlier the survey asked if it's institutional responsibility, the majority of the people here, clearly the federal government plays a big role in subsidizing higher education with $170 billion a year, tax credit, grants, subsidies for loans. and then the students themselves, you know, obviously pay the brunt of that cost when those other two things don't make it up. so what can we do to innovate in this area of cost for higher or education? >> before we jump into that -- >> sure. >> -- it's important to add that there are a couple of ways, and technology is driving this, that this could go, and some of them -- the most aggressive cost cutting would be to say let's just say let's try to have everyone take mooks.

they've grain gained a huge amount of traction -- >> very low overhead costs, right? >> entirely asin to now online. has a very low overhead. and that's where you need to be careful to not paint too bright of lines from a legislative standpoint. because what we could do and what would be really problematic as a country would assume that all skill sets are built in the same way. the reality is some of them actually have a lot to do with s.t.e.m. fields. that being said, leadership, team building, writing skills, very difficult to do if you're not surrounded by other students who can drive you with professors who know who you are, know what your strengths and weaknesseses are and can help you overcome those strengths. so we have to be thoughtful about, i would argue, leveraging technology as much as possible to increase access while recognizing that student outcomes ultimately really

matter. and there are some things you can teach very cost effectively so they're entirely asin to now adaptive learning technologies right now, and there are many things you can't, and we need to not throw everything in one direction or the other. >> that's fascinating to hear from someone that owns a technology company that's doing questions online. it's great though. >> we look at what's going on at carnegie mellon. their statistics class used to meet four times a week. it now meets nine weeks twice a week. because those kids have been moved into sort of a problem-solving, team-building exercise where they have still the access to their instructor, to online tools, but they have access to each other too. and so it's driving solutions, it's striving down costs by 20, 30% at carnegie mellon. when you talk to a university president and ask him or her what does can it cost to educate a student, they'll say how much

do you have? >> exactly. >> right? at the end of day? >> [inaudible] >> and so what are the ped pedagogies going forward? do we have to get more kids off the five and six-year plans and drive more kids to finishing school in four years to drive down costs? so to me, this is a cooperative venture where we look at different pedagogies, but we also look at different strategies in partnership with students, educators, administrators and state and local, federal government because all of these pieces are inextricably linked, and you really do have to look at it systemically moving forward. >> but i think there's also useful self-awareness on the institutional side of changes they knead to make. when you look at the year-over-year increases that go up, and if you were running a business -- frankly, the federal government doesn't go up that much. i mean, institutions go up 15, 18, 19, 20% year-over-year if

you go back ten years ago, and that's unconscionable that they think they can just past those costs on to students, and the students get this inordinate debt. and then they get out, and they're at the bottom of a pile trying to see how they're going to live a life. i find it unconscionable that institutions think they can get away with that. and i'm very excited about data-driven decision making. at institutions if there's enough peer pressure that every institution in the country over the course of the next three to fife years has to put out data as to where their graduates, how long it takes them to get a job, what's their first job and what's the pay, you will have a complete reawakening along with the online competition that those costs, hopefully, will be capped at where they're at today, but i think they'll go down. >> i'd just like to revert back to the previous question and that being the comment made that the data wasn't available. the day is made available to high school students, and i can

go to a high school and find out what percent of their student body is actually going to college after they graduate. so my comment was that we should have that data already accessible to students pertaining to which percentage graduate and then go on to get a job. um, it needs to start from a young age. it's a twofold problem. high school, it needs to start with academic counselors. you see the college life extended to six, seven and eight years sometimes at a community college because students aren't advised correctly. academic advisers are not sitting down and going over course plans. the path is not clearly marked. and so by the time you finish eight years of college, you've spent thousands of dollars in books, education, fee, different fees. but then i now have to transfer to university, and that's going to cost several hundred dollars more because if i've spent eight years at a community college, chances are i don't know what

exact university i want to go to. so cost efficiency is so critical, and how easy are we making it on our students? $45 to -- in a lot of places, i know in the state of utah to just apply to one university. that doesn't mean i'm necessarily in. and the typical student will apply to three and four universities because they are landlocked, as you said. and so i paid the price in books just to apply to different schools. how easy is that for students? so i think there are a plethora of issues that we need to focus on, but cost efficiency and data, i'm really liking this discussion because those are necessary elements that haven't been emphasized. >> so i'm going to, i think we've had a really good conversation thus far. i'm going to ask the audience if you have any questions at this time? there are people with mics that can, that can find you. and especially, um, we heard a lot about institutional responsibility, so it'd be interesting if we have some of those nonprofits or institutions here, if you have of questions

for the panelists, that might be fun as well. >> hi. i'm joe rust, student body president at purdue university, and we're hearing a lot of discussion about life skills and how we can connect those life skills to wizs. and i think ha's the issue we should be talking about. there's already a lot of students, i think, that have of the life skills that can be working for your businesses. i think that's where we need to talk about how do connect that data. teamwork, leadership, those are the things that where? that happens within student organizations, the co-curricular, you know, student leaders here involved with student government. these are students who are developing their leadership skills, their communication skills that make them really good team players when they get involved in the business. so i think the solution and something that we're doing at purdue university is to find a way to get that data, the data of what the students are learning outside the classroom to businesses, and it's something we've had demand from

our employers. what are your students learning outside of the classroom? what are their skills, leadership skill cans or communication skills? so what we're going to be looking at for the next few years is coming up with a co-curricular transcript that really shows what the students are learning with the organization and have their advisers kind of verify, yes, they have developed communication skills with the speeches they've given, or they have developed leadership with the projects they've been working on. so, and that's something we've seen in high demand from employers. that's something that we're responding with. and i think that is kind of our, kind of our solution to filling the gap from students on campus to employers. because employers will come to our campus, and, you know, with 30,000 undergraduates, i mean, how do you find the right students? how does one or two employers come and evaluate all the students that we have? and i think it's through that transcript process. not the data that after they've already left may help. so really what are some comments

you guys may have about that process? >> it's a good idea. >> i mean, i would just say i think your point really brings up an important thing to call out which is that this is, in many ways, an incredibly talented generation of students. we know that there are students out there that, you know, that are incredibly smart, you know, confident, that are tech-savvy, that are entrepreneurial, and for a variety of reasons they're not necessarily getting connected to the businesses that desperately want those skills. and so, you know, i think examples like you're talking about at purdue are things we should look at and see are there ways to scale that up to bring that to other schools in sort of a systematic way? it's also important, i think, to recognize that, you know, there are ways to connect young people who don't necessarily go through the traditional four-year track. there's some young people here from a program called youth build which, you know, helps young people to actually get a

ged and then to train them to, in carpentry or in i.t. and actually connects them to local employers. so there are sort of, there's all these talented young people out there that i think we can do a better job of connecting to them. but, again, i think the challenge is the scaling. and are there things we can to, for example, through the institutional aid that we give think -- through the financial aid that we give that either require or strongly incentivize schools to do more of those kind of programs. >> and i think we're always looking for differentiators. you know, what does differentiate one student from another? be their all taking relatively the same classes, done well on their gpas, so one would think that could be replicated elsewhere in terms of how you, in fact, support students in what they do beyond their classroom work. >> i would like -- so as we're looking for whoever has the next

question, if you'd just raise your hand, the connection between employers and universities in a very real way to create either work study opportunities or exinternshipships, are there ways that we can encourage of that? aaron mentioned kind of institutional incentives from the federal government. my cousin goes to purdue, and my sister went to georgia tech. and for six months out of the year she would work for exxonmobil, and she got a job offer right away afterwards as an engineer where their plant -- with their plant. so that model of kind of working and learning even for adult learners, um, some of the best work force programs are those that combine on the job training so that you can contextualize and understand how what you're learn anything the classroom has rell to a job. what are some ways we can -- >> just to that point, zakiya, because i really appreciate you bringing that up. we were talking about how the vast majority of traditional

students for hundreds of years have been landlocked around the physical location. that physical location has other sort of negative consequences as well, one of which is if you're on campus and have four courses, it's very difficult to do anything for a meaningful amount of time during your week. by anything i in particular mean internships, jobs, being able to actively engage in the work force. so what ends up happening frequently is most young people will do something, but it will be an on-campus job that doesn't have much -- they'll work at the library but work at starbucks. they'll do something that will allow them to do two hours here, two hours there as opposed to something that might actually be the vocation they would like to pursue, and it would give them a chance to connect with those people. so in november we announced something called semester online. i'm not sure if you saw it, but it is a consortium, ten of the top thirty schools in the country -- another ten announced

soon -- duke, emory, notre dame -- great schools who are coming together to offer for-credit, entirely online undergraduate courses. so they've offering the best courses at each of those schools, but originally for their own students because they wanted to increase access to the other incredible offerings. but then hopefully to a broader sort of section of students that are able to really perform well this those rigorous environments. but what that does, and i think you're going to see more things like it, is it also reduces the geographic restrictions. by being able to have different can timing for those live classes pause the live part you're talking about is important, you're able to be a student as at, you know, you're able to be a student at purdue and say, you know what? i want to take a summer plus my next she'ser and do a seven month internship where instead of spending half my her being trained and the other half doing something, i can actually get to know this potential career path.

i can engage in a way that allows an employer to get to know a student. so the extent that you can create opportunities like that through technology, i think you can make it much more simpleler to hire and much more effective for students to figure out what it is they really want to do which you can't do if you're landlocked to a specific area. really, really important. >> that's a great point. >> hi there. i'm emily rothberg with deloiotte global professional services firm and share the views that a diverse, skilled work force is critical. there is a staggering number of students in community colleges who require remediation, meaning that when they get there, they don't even have the basic math and writing skills. and so my question is, um, you know, what is the role of these colleges there, and i'm thug so state and local -- i'm thinking that the student that community college is seeing is maybe no

longer the traditional student, so the needs may be a little different. and i'll stop and take, listen to your answers. i would suggest that mentoring, that one important role that businesses play with the large work force as we have, is to spend time with those students on campus with nonprofits like posse and some others that support those students. >> the remedial math, obviously, comes to mind when you speak about these issues. 60% of high school students coming out of, in the state of utah, are coming into colleges and universities having to take remedial math which is unfortunate, but the way that we've countered that at the college, we've developed a program called the math emporium which takes you through all of your high school math in one she's her, and it's all -- semester, and it's all online. and you're not so landlocked, as he referred to. it's really nice to be able to work from your job on a break or at home, increasing these

efficiencies for students is secondhand to none. the emporium has really taken off, and we're suddenly seeing more students excited about math because if they don't understand, they don't have to come into the classroom because they have an online tutorial link that they can click and a virtual professor will come and walk them through the problem. the only time they're require today come into the college is to take a test that would test them, a placement test which would move them up towards completion. and so ideas like that are taking off. but going beyond that, taking the math 'em emporium and allowg high school students to start on it would be the next step. and really promoting our college classes, our ap classes, our concurrenten rollment classes at a high school level too. how nice is it when you receive freshmen who have 30 credits? >> i think the other interesting trend in community colleges, and clearly, there are challenges in

remediation in four-year schools as well, and you absolutely are correct whether he could benefit from a block calendar where they get all their courses done in x number of hours in one day or two days so they have more work opportunities. but the other thing about community college is the the trend towards certification. ten years ago community colleges issued 35,000 certifications. last year they did almost 700,000. they graduated roughly 425,000 students with aa degrees. so where community colleges clearly are stepping into the role is for the nontraditional student, for someone who can't wait two years who can take an industry--recognized certification and come out with a ce. ce -- credential in three to six months, that is an interesting trend line for colleges and, of course, leads to a portable job credential where that person can be in seattle, washington, or savannah, georgia, and the employer knows this person has the skills needed to fill that

job. so going forward i think community colleges will continue to do a lot of great things around the two-year level in graduating people, but they will also, i think, be an unparalleled source for folks to use their student aid to drive industry-recognized certifications to an even greater degree. >> and from a policy perspective, i'd just add that, you know, this problem of completion and particularly with the remedial programs, i think, points to some of the opportunities and the challenges around accountability, because if we say, for example, that we're going to give more aid to community colleges or restrict aid if you're not, you know, if a certain percentage of your students are not completing through those programs, that could be an important way because we know that some schools just do a much better job of making those students graduate. and there's a lot of innovative ways that they do that. but some schools are better than others. so can we support those? at the same time, we don't want to create a system where, yiewp,

we're incentive -- you know, we're incentivizing schools to not take students who might be at a greater risk of not completing that course maybe because they didn't get as well prepared as they should have in high school. so i think it's a balancing act, but we -- it's such a critical area, and i think as you pointed out community colleges are such an engine potentially of economic growth that we have to figure out what some of our options are. and i totally agree about the point on counseling. i think there's just -- students have so little idea of what to expect when they get to college whether it's a community college or other kind of college. and that's the role of counselors. and we, unfortunately, have been cutting back on those at the high school level, and it's a real issue. >> i think we have -- this is a really great point about remediation and the need to really have, i would say, boots on the ground is something that bill cosby said when he said put bodies on them. where possible, being mentors

and things like that, but there are also systemic issues in the ways that institutions are incentivized. and when you're developing those systems, aaron makes a great point, you have to be really careful, you don't went to incentivize the wrong thing. so you want to make these things work together and, um, one point that we always say is if it was easy, it would have been done already, so we're doing the hard work now. >> just on the mentoring point, because i do think that's important, i think technology can help in mentoring as well. it's not only the face-to-face interaction. there's skype, there's lots of different ways that, in fact, we could expand the use of technology to, in fact, mentor far more people going forward. we do a fair amount of of bringing folks in the classrooms but, of course, that is just one small example where we can actually use technology to reach tens of thousands, if not millions of young people. i know our company execs want to volunteer, i'm sure yours do, i know lots do around this room. ability to brick in these

folk -- bring in these folks might be something we think about going forward. >> couldn't agree more. we wouldn't have the student outcomes we have, the first generation now comes on campus, if we didn't have that live, synchronous component where you're using something like skype that looks a little bit more like the brady bunch -- [laughter] you know, where you see eight students at the top of the screen and actually engage with them. that's critically important and can be used effectively for mentorship as well. actually use it for virtual social work clinics, and it's been really effective there. >> so i want to get to one last question from the audience before we wrap up, so be thinking about your concluding remarks. >> >> yes. i wanted to say -- [inaudible] i'm currently trying to get my ged and trying to get my i.t. tech certification. but i wanted to ask for the students that are working and want the to attend college but cannot financially support themselves, what programs can assist young folks, young folks

and -- one moment -- what programs can assist young folks to attend college who really can't do it on their own from a business per perspective? >> so we talked about federal financial aid before and filling out the fafsa and making sure that that base aid of pell grants are there. there are other kind of a innovative programs that you all are aware of, maybe partnerships with businesses that provide support. >> yeah. there are also some interesting companies move anything that space that are trying to reduce the cost as much as they possibly can at least for introductory courses. straighter line comes to mind. which, if you guys haven't heard of, they basically for $150-ish per month can take unlimited college courses for credit, aca accreditation. there are companies or that are trying to address it. i think youth build is a phenomenal, phenomenal program but more focused on sort of high school completion. you know, we need more.

we need to do more to help students make effectively transition and gain information, especially first generation students, students who don't have the support system to help guide them through the college admissions process, the college selection process. you know, we have a responsibility and a mission as a society to do a better job of getting information into the hands of people who are able to use it. >> and i think, you know, programs like in the district with the college access program and city bridge, etc., there are certainly opportunities around yes which allows kids who graduate from certain cities to have their full college education paid for. again, what some on the panel have all said is how do we scale and replicate these to a far greater degree. in d.c. if you graduate from a high school, public or private, we essentially will subsidize, the taxpayers will, your going

to any state college in the country and getting in-state rates. so lots of different strategies either to pay for school or to drive down costs, and i think probably lots more information needs to be disseminated but also leadership in your respective communities and what you can drive. taking some of those good examples whether it's city bridge or college access fund or the s.t.e.m. scholarship program in washington state, whatever, these are clearly doable with the right set of players and stakeholders coming together. >> yeah. that's absolutely right. we have time for, actually, one more question. so -- >> good morning. i am neil isaac from kaiser university in florida, and one comment, my 29 years of working in higher education i would say it's so important to meet with 100% of your upcoming graduates. a career center can't be where you hope a student walks by and gets help. so at kaiser university we start meeting with all of our students at least a full semester to get their resumé, to start helping

them on the online career center. the second thing an innovative program, we started leadership distinction program with ten seminars in involving civic responsibility. they have to do community service hours, learn how to interview, learn how to write a resumé, job search using technology, etc. they get a red honor cord at graduation, and the kids love it. and we're giving back to the community. here's my question. my question is, um, not all colleges even keep placement rates. some colleges do. okay? it depends on the prommatic accreditation or if you're regionally accredited or nationally accredited. they all have different formulas for what placement means. how do you define an infield placement? how many employment verifications do you have to get to prove your placement rate? will employers return the employment verifications? will a graduate even tell you their salary?

so there's all thooz complications -- these complications, and you believe we should get to an apples to apples kind of a placement rate formula. >> i'll start it off, and i would love to the hear other thoughts because this is something i thought a lot about when i was in time in government. one of the most ineffective ways to get this information about employment outcomes is to have individual colleges collect it themselves. one of the most efficient ways is to use the systems already in place like florida has done where you have a repository of where people in the state are and to match it with your state record system of where students were and just match it. so that way you don't have to figure out like, you know, i don't know if i would tell my college what my salary is now, but social security administration has it, state ui has it because if i'm unemployed at some point, i sure want them to make sure that i'm okay. there are systems that already have this information, and there's ways you can protect privacy. there may be some recordkeeping

you want to do on your own, and you may want to tailor out to your own institution. you may want to ask specific questions that help you determine your program, but that's not going to help us on a broad level to figure these things out. some of these solutions are system wide that really make the process easy for individual institutions. i know kathleen has experience here, but -- >> no, i would agree with that. i mean, i think it's -- i don't think it's easy, but i don't think it gets tied to the individual name. it gets tied to the individual major. and so i think institutions are going to find it to their advantage in the near term to have that data and have it be out there because the decision makers in terms of where they go, the kids and their parents who help them pay for that are going to start expecting that information. so kaiser's a great partner in florida. they do a lot of tremendous output. you know, i'm a huge data person. i'm just let the data tell the story, be your advocate and make informed decisions. so i don't, i mean, i don't

think that it's easy, but i think that it's something that we need to get to. >> yeah. at the end of the day if some schools can do it and some schools won't do it, then it is another differentiator. and in my mind if i'm looking at where to send a student, i'm probably going to pick a school or an institution that, in fact, is more transparent and is more willing to provide that data. i would think twice about why an institution didn't do it, quite frankly, at the end of the day. and i know it's not easy, and we've got a mesh system, but it's doable, and it's proven to be doable. to me it's where do you want to see and place your institution moving forward, and how attractive do you want it to be. >> this idea of the institution having its own incentive, if you're doing great job, why wouldn't you want to tell that story? it's kind of the flip side of why institutions wouldn't want to tell that story. you would hope that if you were someplace that's doing a great job by your graduates, your

graduates are really successful, you want to tell that story through data, and students can help put that pressure on institutions by being mobilized to saying, hey, i want to know, it's important to me, it's important to my fam wily across the spectrum. >> i just wanted to -- back to this gentleman's question for funding about education, not to change gears too quickly, but i found that there are several universities and colleges that i've, i've applied to or i myself have looked on their web site and heard from their students and their student leaders, student leaders and sga ambassadors that there are sometimes 500-1,000 scholarships that respect even applied for -- aren't even applied for because students don't know about them. so it really poses the question, is the institution doing all they can to correctly market what they offer to students? and so just some food for thought there, but it's really unfortunate that we have all of this money tied up in scholarships that isn't being accessed and is unaware to the

student. so -- >> so i want to offer the panelists each kind of reflections from our time together here. we've heard a lot from the need for better information to help students make better decisions, so how do we get that information, what are the systems we need to have in place, we talked about the cost of college and why that is so high and what innovations we can do to bring down the costs through more innovative business models. we talked about nontraditional students and what they may be looking for, traditional students and what they may be looking for. so i would ask kind of your couple minute takeaway from this panel. if you wanted people to leave hearing nothing else, what would that be for you? anyone want to begin? >> to me, this opportunity to get involved in so many different ways and to make a difference. and your advocacy can be related to your own institution, to your state, to the federal government, to what you want to

be in terms of your career. but i would just implore you to continue your advocacy, continue your involvement because clearly we have problems to overcome and challenges to meet. and the only way to do it is to continue to maintain your leadership roles going forward. >> and i would echo that. you know, i saw -- i've been, as i said, on the state board of education in florida for the last seven years and seen just transformational changes in the k-12 system in florida, in the country as we head to common core with leadership, bipartisan leadership from presidents, legislators and governors. and i think college higher ed is at that same tipping point. i think the college debt issue has put it on the front spectrum, and i think that it has in the recent sort of business recession that we've all lived through has really sort of changed a lot of fundamental expectations of both what you put into college and what you get out of column. and i think that whole return on

investment, data-driven decision making is going to become as imperative as it is in pre-k-12 in the higher education system. and i look forward to it, and they need advocates and leadership, and i'm thrilled to be with a lot of young invincibles on this panel and, hopefully, we'll be a champion as you all continue to move public policy forward. so thanks for your participation. >> um, so some quick words on next steps. so this year, um, young invincibles, we're partnering with national campus leadership council who, actually, many of the student body presidents here actually belong to this group which represents student body presidents from across the country, over 300 in their network, and we're going to be doing something called the national student impact campaign which is all about empowering students to be leaders and drivers of some of the changes we're talking about. so whether that means doing a college affordability audit on your campus, so working with

students to say, okay, we've heard a lot of best practices up here, are your -- is your campus doing that? can we, can you, you know, as leaders on your campus push the administration to actually put in place some of these things that we know can help bring down costs? we didn't talk as much about one of the biggest drivers of higher ed growth and cost is state disinvestment. and we know that, you know, it used to be that states covered well over 50% of the cost of you going to college, and now, you know, maybe the student pays 9 0%, and the state pays 10%. and every year there are these fights where we know student aid is at the risk of being cut. and i think one of our goals will be to work with student leaders around the country to make sure that their voice is heard when those kind of, those debates are happening in state capitols to make sure that, no, actually, we do need to invest in our public universities and community colleges because

that's how we're going to keep school affordable. so that's an exciting new campaign we're doing. we can talk a little bit about it during the breakout sessions this afternoon, but, you know, you can find out more from young invincibles, and i encourage, you know, all of you guys to talk to one another because there's tremendous, tremendously interesting students in this room who in their own local community can really be great partners for you all. so that's all i'll say, and i'll look forward to the breakout this afternoon. >> thank you, aaron. economic really -- improving higher education is an economic and moral imperative for our generation. economic because at some point we have to actually make everything work, and a strong, stable middle class is the most effective way to actually build that. morally, the american dream

doesn't work if you don't have access to information in order to improve your lot in life. and is so my takeaway from this panel is that we as a generation need to be very, very clear about the importance of this issue, the importance of access to information to continue advocating on your campuses, but also to recognize that the reason that youth issues are often not addressed on a national level is because young people rarely organize. they rarely come together as a block, and beyond organizing on your individual campus, getting more deeply involved in the things like young invincibles, getting more deeply involved together on a national level will make sure ha this discussioning is actually -- that this discussion is actually heard and we are actually focusing as a society on these issues before our generation really are the ones in congress actually discussing it. because at that point finish and

i'm sure you've all seen the numbers -- it will be too late. thank you. >> i'd like to thank the panel. i think this has been a very informative experience, it's been a great experience, um, to come there utah and get a feel for how things are working on the east coast. it's always a pleasure to be back here. washington, d.c.'s beautiful. i don't think there had has beea time maybe in the history of the united states where students need to step up to the plate more and take action and initiative for their education than now. and so i take away from this discussion that we've had the importance for students to get involved at a grassroots level in their caucuses, to become county delegates, state delegates, to step up and be the voice for higher education that the administration, that our legislators and that our city and county and state officials need to hear. there is power in numbers, and rather than students sit back and let the discussion be had about them, be a part of the

discussion. there are folks in the private sector and in the public sector who would love to hear the student voice. and so, um, as legislative session is going on, i challenge each one of you to go up and be a presence at the capitol and work with the people who support you. >> great. well, i want to thank you all. i think we've heard that increasing higher education is really critical to the future of our country, for global competitiveness reasons and really national competitiveness for us to continue to be the great, strong nation that we are. we need people who are well equipped to be good citizens, and we need people who are well equipped to -- it's really hard to be a good citizen when you don't have a way of supporting yourself. so the idea that these concepts are not mutually exclusive is something i'm glad we were able to flesh out. i heard a lot of positive remarks about things that we all agree on and things that we can do to move forward, so i hope that in the afternoon sessions we're able to build on the

progress here, and i want to thank you all for coming and being with us today. [applause] >> this morning a look at federal, state and local energy policies and what government regulators are doing about climate change. live coverage here on c-span2 at 9:30 eastern. or watch it online at c-span.org. >> from the very start, we told the board that the approach we were going to take which was pretty straightforward, and remember, we were sent there to sort of fix gm, the board and i. that was the mission is go make this thing a viable company again. so we were all focused, and i brought the message we're going to design, build and sell the world's best vehicles, we're going to move quickly, we need your support, and we need your input. and so we changed a few things

about the board meeting. we shortened 'em considerably. we stayed away from the details or didn't get in the weeds on how you build a car, but the bigger questions of financing, morale, positioning, marketing, that sort of thing. the board was very supportive of that. and we kept them informed, and, you know, we just took off. >> leading general motors through bankruptcy and the government bailout, former chairman and ceo ed whitacre on "an american turn around," sunday night at 9 on "after words," part of book tv this weekend on c-span2. and look for more booktv online. like us on facebook. >> at his annual state of the state address, ohio governor john kasich talked about medicare, jobs, education and his proposal to overhaul the state's tax system. governor kasich made the speech at veterans memorial civic and convention center in ohio. it's just over an hour.

[applause] [applause] [applause]

[applause] z. [cheers and applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, governor john kasich. [applause] >> thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, mr. president. thank you, mr. speaker. thank you, members, my colleagues from the general assembly, members of my cabinet, the great people of lima. we love the way you welcomed all of us here today, am i right, members of general assembly? [applause] and, of course, my wife, karen. sweetie, would you stand and say hi? [applause] i believe that jobs are our greatest moral purpose. and when i say it, i have a

couple thoughts in my head, a couple videos that run through my mind. hi of a dad who goes home one day, mom's at the dipper table, maybe -- at the dinner table, maybe she just came home from work. kids are gathered around. dad says to the family, i've got some news for you. i lost my job today. maybe the kids don't all understand it, and maybe one of them begins to cry. think about the mom. the single mom. dad ran out on her. two or three kids, struggling every day. she hears word of layoffs. she says how am i going to make it? she doesn't tell the kids. switch that picture just for a

moment. put that same family at that table, and dad comes home, and he sits with his family and says, honey, kids, i got a job today. and the kids start to squeal and clap. or the single mom who gets the oldest daughter and takes her up to her bedroom and said, you know, honey, i thought it looked pretty badded for us -- pretty bad for us, but i got a promotion. we're going to make more money. of things are going to be better for our family. it's what i think about every day when i get up. and my mission has been to create a growing economy that allows people to realize their hopes and their dreams and their purposes. because it's through our work ha some of our life has meaning.

it's about our mission, it's about the purposes that the lord set out for us. and my mission is not just to give some people work, b my mission is to make sure that everybody in our state has the chance to realize their hopes and dreams and that their families can to much better. because it's not good enough for some to do well while we leave others behind. and so we must work every day the to make sure that -- to make sure that everyone has a chance in ohio. when i came into office, i came in and built a team of really great people including members of the assembly that would put ohio to work and reclaim our rightful place in the united states of america as one of great states. ladies and gentlemen, tonight i can tell you with great confidence we are succeeding here in ohio of turning our state around, and it is fantastic. [applause]

today we are up 120,400 jobs. 120,400 families that have a better life. we're number one, number one many job creation in the midwest and number six in job creation in the united states of america. [applause] our budget is balanced. in two and a half years, at the end of this fiscal year, this is pretty breathtaking. we have gone from 89 cents in our rainy day fund to a $1.9 billion surplus. [applause]

and our credit outlook has improved. when they've downgraded countries all over the world, in fact, even downgraded the united states of america, ohio's credit outlook has improved. and as you know, lima and allen county, right where we are tonight, of course, are shining examples of a community that is coming back strong thanks to the hard work of the people here, thanks to their creativity. and you've learned about it today from manufacturing to advanced manufacturing to the ability to move things through this area because of their strategic location, we're doing better here in allen county. the unemployment rate has fallen from 10.8% to 7% in the past two years, and right here in lima 2200 new private sector jobs have been created. [applause] lima, lima is winning. [applause]

and ohio is winning. [applause] took a lot of effort, it took a special partnership with you, the general assembly. the first thing we had to do was to restore confidence and respect in our state. i mean, we had to balance the budget. no more smoke and mirror, no more moving things around. we needed to have a structural balance, and it had to be done for no other reason than common sense. hey, folks, i know many people have lost their way in washington, d.c., but you can never spend more than what you take in. over time it makes no sense. if a state can't manage its money, if it can't balance its budget, what can it manage? how can people have confidence in it if we can't get the common sense things right? well, in the process of balancing this budget i hope you all note we didn't just cut, we

reengineered many of our programs. thanks to the great work of greg moody and john mccarthy, we reformed medicaid. for 25 years this state wanted mom and dad to have the resources to stay in their own homes if they were able and not be forced into a nursing home where they could stay in their own homes where they would be more independent, more healthy, more independent at a much lower cost. for 25 years this was, this effort was made to fix this. we did it, didn't we? we got it done, and now mom and dad can stay in their own homes, and they can be healthier and more independent. [applause] we won that battle. [applause] we moved to coordinate care. you know, 4 percent of medicaid recipients drive over 50% of the cost. their care was not coordinated. it didn't make muchceps to them. and -- much sense to them.

and you know how complicated it is for all of us to be in a position to be able to understand health care and the ins and the outs. we're now coordinating the health care of that 4% so their care is not just coordinated, but logical and where they are healthier. and the whole country now is looking at our program. we have slowed the growth of medicaid to 3.2%, unthinkable in many places in this country, and we're now one of the great leaders in this country for medicaid reform. other states are looking at what we have done in ohio to not cut people off, not to reduce their benefits, but to make the system work better. and that's the way you move to balance a budget. we've also reengineered state government. we've used the private sector techniques of sigma and many other reforms. joe testa over at the tax d., joe figured out -- tax

department, joe figured out that many businesses have been overpaying their tax bill. and do you know what the government did? never told them. kept their money in a drawer somewhere, kept the secret from them because after four years that money became the property of the state of ohio. well, joe figured it out through his team's efforts, and we have returned millions of dollars to over 3500 businesses who had overpaid their taxes, and joe just getting started. it is time that the government treat taxpayers with respect and help businesses when they pay their bills. [applause] we've reduced the number of state employees to the lowest level in 30 years, and do you know how we've done it? teamwork. we don't need to fill all the positions. we can get people to think differently. we have a way to go on all that, but we're making progress. and we needed to lower taxes,

and we needed to make our state more competitive. ladies and gentlemen, this is not ideology. this is just the way the world works. you know, it is necessary to grow an economy and to create jobs by reducing that income tax. i just want you to know i talk the to these ceos all the time. i talk to them in the state, and i talk to them around the country, and not long ago i talked to them in this other parts of the world. and when you tell them that you are reducing taxes and retuesdaying the taxes on income -- reducing the taxes on income, they get it. it sends a message and a signal that ohio's open for business. and at the same time, we killed the death tax. the driver behind that? bill backshelder. and you know why? the heirs of our entrepreneur, the openers of these small -- owners of these small businesses shouldn't have to sell the farm and sell the small businesses to pay the death tax for their

parents who built something. they should be able to pass this on to the next generation. [cheers and applause] we also created jobs ohio because the government agency that was created 50 years ago for the purpose of business development, it became antiquated and slow. you know, in the 21st century you must move at the speed of business. you cannot move at the speed of the statute. you must be out there every day understanding what the job creators are saying. and jobs ohio has allowed us to think about diversifying our economy and, in fact, we are. think about ohio when you leave ohio. you say to people, what do they do in ohio? well, you know, they're all manufacturing. well, we love manufacturing, agriculture, we love farming, but jobs ohio has led us to think about things like

biohealth, automotive, advanced manufacturing, polymers and chemicals, financial services, number two in property and casualty in the country, i.t.. there's nothing that's happening more exciting than in the area of i.t. aerospace where we're now beginning to work thinking about flying unmanned vehicles. in the area of agribusiness and, of course, energy which has us all excited. and logistics. you see, if you have many different areas that you target, when one part of the economy goes down, it doesn't mean it sinks your state. and so job ohio has been able to work to diversify us, and it's clearly working. and now that we're funded, we think we're even going to get more to -- more out of jobs ohio than we've seen so far. we also move inside the direction of common sense --

mary taylor, stand up, the lieutenant governor of ohio. [applause] mary's husband is a small businessman. he knows about the regulations and how they can kill small buzzes, particularly the smallest businesses that are really fragile. mary runs the common sense initiative. and let's just talk about our philosophy in one area. oil and gas. we believe in having an environment where we can prosper the oil and gas industry, but we also believe in the process of doing it we cannot endanger people, and we cannot endanger the environment. and if you use common sense, you, in fact, can protect the public safety you, in fact, can protect the environment, and you can create jobs, and we are doing it in ohio. thank you, mary, for your efforts at bringing common sense. [applause] for me there was always something unique about ohio, something special.

i can't help but smile when i think about coming to ohio as a kid, as a little boy seeing cleveland. cleveland rocks. [laughter] literally. [laughter] been to the hall. lake erie, every time i fly up there i look at that lake, and i say, boy, are we lucky to have that right here in ohio, and we've got to take better care of it, and we have to tell people more about it. you know, i loved ohio then, but then my father took me to columbus to visit ohio state university. a lot of dads, a lot of moms took their kids to visit ohio state. i fell in love. you know, i sensed ohio's excitement then, i felt its opportunity, i knew ohio was going to be my home, and nobody was going to drag me away from this place, because it's just so, so awesome. but, folks, we have all seen our

state drift over time. we've seen it get old. we've seen it begin to misfire and fall behind. but like a great old home, i knew ohio could be restored to its grandeur, to its greatness. you see, ohio is a land of hope and opportunity, realized dreams for our families. we're safe, we're friendly, we're filled with the potential to pursue our passions. we take care of our neighbors. you know, ohio is a place where we can work, contribute, build a better community, we can be a shining example of how when people get together, they can get it right. and not just for ourselves, but for our children, of course, most especially. but, folks, the rebuilding has to continue. we can't rest on our gains, we haven't tapped all of our potential.

there are too many challenges that haven't been met, and we move forward with this vision in mind and, therefore, we must continue to build our economy, continue to build the new and exciting 21st century jobs, we must rebuild our roads and our highways and our bridges. we must provide for our children the opportunities that we all have had. we immediate to lift -- we need to lift the poor, we need to lift the beleaguered, and we need to have america follow us, because i think they're beginning to. and perhaps one day they may even join us here in the great state of ohio. [applause] this is our vision, and our budget is the next step in that vision. but i would ask all of you to keep your eyes focused on the mountaintop. don't get distracted or discouraged by the twists or the turns or the detours along the

road. i really believe our legacy depends on what we do. you know, ohio is getting it right, and it's being noticed. as most of you know here and some that are watching may not know, i recently traveled to davos, switzerland, for the world economic forum. i really wasn't that excited about going until i got there. because i had the chance to meet with scores of job creators, ceo s. you know, they all wanted to meet with me. and you know why? because they couldn't figure out why we were figuring it out. all over the world things aren't working. there's so much dysfunction. there's so much falling apart. and they asked me one simple thing: how are you getting these jobs created? what are you folks doing in ohio? and not only that, they're saying how can you go from 89

cents to a $2 billion surplus from eight billion in the hole to a surplus somehow's it happening? because this is something we have to pay attention to because we may want to come to ohio. it was so fantastic to be there and to be a person that could represent everyone here. .. >> why don't we just spend the surplus? things are good, just go ahead and, you know, take your foot off the gas. well, we are going to keep our

foot on the gas here in this administration, and we hope you will join us. and when you look at the great companies around the world, companies that continue to innovate, continue to embrace change, companies have leaders with vision. think about this, folks your the ones that are the most exciting and the world today, apple, cardinal health, amazon, google, the cleveland clinic, ibm, and right here in northwest ohio, marathon. these companies strive for change every day and the state of ohio must do it as well. we cannot rest on our laurels. these companies -- [applause] these companies don't fear big ideas. we must not fear big ideas. we must embrace them. oh, yeah, let's debate the. and that's the fun part of being in the government, debate them

without a personal attack, debate him on the merits, but embrace them, because at the end of the day, big ideas, it will renew us. it will restore our youth. it will give us excitement. we will have a spread in our step because big ideas renew people. the only thing that can stop us, ladies and gentlemen, is the fear of change, the fear big ideas. let's not go there. we are starting to hit on all cylinders. our program of innovation and commonsense policies we believe does create success. just like the first budget helped us to dig out of the hole and set the stage for growth, this allows us to shift into higher gear. our budget is designed to come together and create jobs, and let's not forget, to provide help for the most vulnerable. first and foremost, ohio's taxes are too high, and they are

particularly punishing your small businesses. we punish our small businesses with too high of taxes in our state. [applause] >> flat out, end of story. they are the engines of job creation in our state. and let me be clear, this is a comprehensive program to cut taxes by $1.4 billion. i'll talk about a few the specifics. we propose lowering the sales tax from five and a half to 5%. we also propose broadening the base. and in doing so, we will be able to provide a 50% tax cut to our small businesses, a 50% tax cut. for example, if a business has $40,000 worth of income, they will only pay taxes on $20,000. what a shot in the arm. and remember something, these are the people who create nearly

50% of the jobs. you know, when we think about job creation we tend to think about all the big companies, the big operators. but over 50% of jobs that are created in our state and across our country are those small businesspeople. a 50% tax cut for them will spur economic development in our state, and we've also propose cutting the personal income tax by 20% over the next three years. and look around the country and see how many states are trying to wipe out their income tax. yeah, it's a race to see who can create the best business climate. you know, and we did all of this with the income tax to avoid driving some of our best and brightest out of our state. and in case you don't believe me, talk to your friends. see how many people escape ohio to go to place where the taxes are lower. we don't want to drive our best and brightest out of our state. we don't want to drive them out because they take their chair

gary -- they take their charity and ideas and their innovation. we need to stop it and it will breathe new life into ohio's economy. we've also propose modernizing the severance tax so that all ohio and benefit from the oil and gas discoveries in our state. i know many of you are concerned about that. since we started talking about it, i think the amount of money invested in our state and our reserves is about $4 billion. people are coming and. the state of north dakota has a severance tax of eight or 9%. they're exploding. they can't find enough workers out there. the problem is oil companies pay to times of tax, 20 cents, on a $90 a barrel of oil. it's not sustainable, and i want us to think about that. what does it all mean. maybe to business owners said it best in regard to this program. kathleen dooley said quote these tax cuts mean a lot to us. what means more to us at the mt.

carmel brewery is that our government is behind us. and cindy woodward of the early express in dayton said, the real thing this means to me is it brings hope because with someone in power who cares about small business, who understands that we are the engine that fuels the economy, and i haven't felt that way in a while. look at our tax cut plan, and keep that family sitting around the table in mind as we move forward on this issue. i'd like to talk about another job gratian program, our plan to improve the infrastructure, our roads, highways, bridges. we within 600 miles a 50% of the country. it is an incredible economic advantage when i talk to ceo, i said you want access to north american market, you want to be in ohio. we've got the size, the skill, the people, but we got the location. we can move things to look through our state because we're improving our infrastructure.

the fact is we make things here, you've got to be able to move them. but here's the problem. we have significant infrastructure needs under the current system. we fall way short of funding those needs. so we figured out a creative way to leverage one of our greatest assets, the turnpike. by don against the tolls of the ohio turnpike, we are going to be of the race one and half billion, and when combined with other federal, state and local funds, we will have $3 billion, $3 billion to fix our roads, our highways, and our bridges. and we will bring some projects that were going to be executed 20 years from now into a six-year window. and at the same time do all of that, we estimate that this will create a minimum of 65,000 jobs for people who help to rebuild our state. [applause]

folks, jobs ohio just went into the market and get a bond deal at 4% money. members of the legislature, we're going to debate all these different things, let's try to move it as quickly as we can. because we have a window out there, ma we have the wind at their of cheap money. we got it going get, and as quickly as we can move it. i know what's going on. i know the debate about where is all the money going to be. we work through all this to make sure you get what you expect, and we will work together and we will get it done, and we will capture some of that really could money to help put people to work and make ohio and even stronger state. in the 21st century when we job opportunities, we need to make sure that we have the skills to take a finish of them, and nothing is more important than our k-12 education system. we're going to reflect on the school forms -- school reforms that we've achieved before we

get into the details of what we're doing next. we enacted third grade reading guarantee. i really want to thank you all for that. look, in my opinion, you can't have a kid that can't read, a student that can't read at the third grade level pushed to the fourth grade. you just can't do it, okay? [applause] now, it's not good enough to just go testing. you got to start over. you got to make sure that they have the skill starting, preachy, kindergarten, first, second, third grade. we will intervene and will help to make sure that these children can pass, generally have good quality. because in the early years when you go to school, a young child learns to read so that later in their lives they can read to learn. and the studies indicate that if a child does not have good reading skills by the 10th grade, going to drop out.

it's like going to the country and not speaking the language. thank you for what you did on this. we also have created the a through f. report card to an also a building by building comparison. so look, not only do moms and dads know how their schools doing, but also inside the school, school boards, teachers, administrators. we can figure out where we're strong and where we are weak and then we can fix it. that's why we need this a through f. and want to thank the legislature for giving it to us. and we delayed it for you because i thought your request was reasonable, and so we're going to move forward with this program, and we're going to moderate. and i want to thank you for what you've done there. we've also expanded school choice for parents with children in failing schools. and in our new budget we have proposed expanding school choice for kindergartners who live in poverty. it is an expansion to this program, and we're excited about it.

[applause] >> we know about education. you got have appeared in the unlock your future. you don't have it, it's not going to work. you're going to fall behind. you think about ged's and that's great, we've got to take your cf that problem but we got have good education. we have proposed a plan, i want to be clear about this, and i will put this out so you can read it, we have proposed a plan to every boy and girl, regardless of where they live. our plan provides a total of one point you billion dollars in new funds over the next two years. that means that by the end of the next budget cycle, ohio will actually be providing our k-12 system more in state aid than they received at the height of the one time federal stimulus money in 2011. that is an unbelievable amount of money according to anybody's calculation. [applause]

when it comes to school funding, we have one common sense guiding principle your ohio must help those schools that do not have the resources to help themselves. schools better poor, or schools that have growing student enrollment, they need more help than those who are getting richer, or those better getting smaller in terms of student population. every school deserves help to meet the individual needs of its students, because on top of the basic formula we know that we've got to schools with children or disabled, students who are poor, students who are going to speak english, students who are gifted, or students who have limited access to early childhood programs. this school funding plan does all this. under our plan, ohio's poorest in urban districts get more money than ohio's wealthiest districts.

they get a bigger share of overall school funding and the wealthiest districts. they also get more per pupil before funding guarantees are factored in. additionally, the poorest schools in ohio received $1.1 billion while the wealthiest received less than half of that. the very poorest district will receive $7500 per pupil, $7500 per pupil in the very poorest district, and the wealthiest will receive $110. it's an objective plan that applies equally to all districts based on the property tax wealth and residents income, as well as the individual characteristics of the students they serve. and most important, this is driven by the needs of students, not by the needs of adults. this is driven by the needs of students, not by the needs of adults. the simple fact of the matter is --

[applause] now, this plan also guarantees that no school district will receive less state formula funding than they did last year. no one receives less, even if they have fewer students or growing wealth. you see, we would believe it would be destabilizing for schools to suddenly allocate funds strictly by the formula where all dollars follow the student. and districts only receive funding for the student they are teaching. we are not moving on this now, but we're in a period of transition, and over time, ohio must begin to look at this guaranteed funding to find a way forward that delivers resources in a way that helps our boys and girls the most.