catholic relief services to let us know if we needed any assistance at all during this process to get in touch with them. ahead of os ea and deputy took preemptive calls to us to say things don't go fast, if you're having anything be blocked out that they would assist in moving forward. they said that's not only a team on the ground in the philippines, but they also set up a special emergency coordination unit here in washington. i will say they were wonderful, including on the ground. i know she traveled with you, but you should direct your come up mauricio that with us as well during our visit there and she was supportive of the efforts we have come a new of the provided and was looking forward to assistance of long-term. i will say that was very positive. the u.n. as well use whatever

shelter models of the cluster key model into the future. the u.n. is thought that time, particularly unicef and osha are particularly strong right out of the gate. i would just reiterate this type of the dvds. i would also say as he spoke about the misrepresentative green mentioned, you sound like we've been in the same areas in pakistan and tsunami penalties stiffer and emergencies emergencies a sitcom for that i think there's been a lot of learning that has gone on. frankly this nominee was the first time we really worked closely with the american military setting up temporary bridges to get to violence and locations that were completely transfigured as the geography had changed. in haiti as well, the military came up in the philippines. i know in haiti the u.s. military tried to do with a lighter footprint, with a letter president never going in providing assistance.

in the philippines from a came in, there is joy for most of the people we talked to roll around. it is very, very impressive. even in the media outlets, the fact we had an aircraft area and was seen as bringing assistance back and forth, it was seen as assisting countries and capacity was impressive at that time. so from on the ground, people frankly were questioning their own governments. on this question in the u.s. resolve to provide assistance. so i will say that. s.,.com is all about the aspirin the united states, we've had much are reaching for the ds for providing assistance to this case. we raised over 15 million in private contributions to the catholic church as the united states has initiated a national collection, which resources were coming. solidarity of the american people has been up most. in addition to that, s-sierra s. is a member of an international organization.

that group came together and we had an international meeting in the philippines with their local church partners. i'd be remiss if i didn't talk a little bit about her local church partners. it's responded to this disaster cardinal mccarrick and i were there week after the disaster that he celebrated mass in the cathedral without a roof in the rain at that time. it's not only the material assistance we are seeing in the united states, but the spiritual. it is that solidarity. as representative green appropriately said, is that kinship. after the mass, people coming up who can celebrate frankly with two archbishops for the philippines, who were so taken at an american cardinal at combat the archbishop is fit to travel to the location where he'd been stationed before and

the archbishop apollo was also present at the time. archbishop john do. we also met with the cardinal and manila who is organizing a day of prayer for the people in the philippines in raising assistance as well there. when we talk about assistance coming to notice in the crs report, we don't mention crs is focusing on food assistance. the reason is the local catholic church was focusing on food assistance. we were providing a shelter, water sanitation, but the local church was twinning with local parishes that did not get devastated by the super cyclone. they actually provided assistance to various dioceses. so nasa, the individual dioceses in the philippines are reaching out. as mr. franks also mentioned, the solidarity of the resiliency, strength of the filipino people after being through such disaster.

i will say after this massive cardinal mccarrick of the weird journalists and others in tears after this if they were struggling to find family members says we were going by, as they buried people. people at the side of the road. it was a very emotional time, but the church was there immediately. when we arrived essay the cathedral you mentioned, we were greeted by a young man of biking shorts and a t-shirt. turns out he was the monsignor of the chapel. the only way he could get around to find out who is missing and connect with different people is to write on a bicycle. they were going around the island trying to locate people by bicycle, register people come and tell people aftermath crs would be there to provide distributions and register people. right away they are setting up yemeni systems on the ground, locating people and identify ms. mr. green mentioned earlier, the most vulnerable people in

the community to make sure they were assisted. he apologized to the cardinal and the way he was dressed in the cardinal when nothing gave him a big hug. it was a very wonderful woman as we saw that type of church response and solidarity that will continue in. the holy father has also spoken of that as well. i will say the immediate response has been mentioned in misrepresentative green mentioned, we have focused on the shelter and getting now. we've assisted 16,000 families. over 80,000 people. but we were out there, people were an open-air and it was raining on them. even our aid workers. one of them turned to the archbishop and said archbishop, have you ever slept in your office? the archbishop looked at him and said what is your last? because now. it was the type of thing were afterwards joining together. even church structures people are were around the walls because many were subindustry. we are looking to the future.

the church has said it wants to rebuild it institutions, but the people come first. so they're looking at how to help the people get the necessary shelter. the archbishop apollo mentioned 72 out of 74 churches have lost their roots. they are still sheltering people in those facilities. his personal hospital minutes he looks like it was hit by a bomb. the floors are slanted now. everything completely ruined. he wasn't there trying to recover his possessions. he was getting assistance and aid out there. the church has been stronger. you've also talked about the issue of protection. we've been focused on sheltering in place. the reason why we focus on sheltering in place is a design we have is using these very solid tarps for protection, but also the recovery of debris so they can use that in the rebuilding of their homes. the sheltering in place is another way we find providing

protection for people, particularly women, children and elderly severe transit to a camp where they might be more vulnerable. sheltering in locations where they're part of the community come with the church can continue to keep touch with them, where they come back and forth to the church. we see that is one way and apollo talk with mom as presenting issues of trafficking and violence against children and women. we are also working closely with the local government, department of social welfare in those areas to make sure those people stay safe. our second focus area has been modern sanitation, suit and looking a wash. we've got ladders and communities that don't have access. we been accessing and trying to provide greater access to the water facility, which is coordinated. our water engineers save over chlorinated at this time. like the cloud fogging tracks, it's better to have over coronation. in the watch area, we are also

focusing on protection they are in that we are separating facilities for men and women here we found this in haiti in the camps as well do we need to make sure there is a separation between jabber facilities in bathroom facilities for men and women and children so they were protected at the time with adequate lighting, which has been a problem in a serious, but we've been providing hygiene kits to people so women cannot flashlights and are organizing a buddy system so individuals don't go alone and are an open-air, the areas they can be somewhat protected. we've received some cash for work and cleaning debris in various areas in trying to be used to brion moss at the coconut knocked out. it is a key area we are looking up for rebuilding and preventing epidemics as nancy lindborg mentioned earlier. in addition, we are looking for the follow-up.

as we look at longer-term, we are looking a shelter for the longer-term. the thing that better assailant in haiti and durable solutions, one of the key problems we think will run into as this comes down to slam titles, whose property is set. most people have lost everything and so we are supposing at the start this rebuilding process there's going to be many people that have no title ii the land, no historical memory and that will be a key issue. we also look at livelihood. many people there as you know also harvested coconuts. 50% of the coconut harvest is completely lost. those trees take five years to rebuild. we are trying to generate in the emergency phase opportunities for livelihood so people can, you know, regenerate isolated. i just say it's too late to to the future, our recommendations

for you to commend yourselves another act is that the u.s. government and military for a tremendous first step in the response. it has been fantastic and i appreciate the fact that not only at the emergency response, but the future but there continue to be going the ongoing funding for the relief. we need to focus on that as we move into the future. showing solidarity at the time where we are in the holiday season and being thankful for the things in this country and come into christmas, a very big holiday in the philippines. many people will be without that. as you rightly said, many people and children because there are no schools have been sent to a stern family structure. there is concern we have another side that that is probably more for an opportunity for children and women to be to be lost, be traffic or exploited.

we look at ways the church shares information from one diocese to another, where people are coming and make sure they check in. we do find education is a key way of protecting children. if you get children into school, it's a daily mechanism for teachers and outside people check are they withdrawing? are they fed properly? do they need other things? behind the greatest protection is to make sure the schooling us back and get kids back in school. whether they are moving to family site for schools and apollo would be key for the future. but the support for recovery phase, shelter is going to be a key area. we were lucky the church actors have been trained in disaster risk reduction. they knew how to register, how to do triage in certain areas. we need to continue processes is philippines continue to be hit by bigger and bigger storms would need to focus on the

science of communities. i would also propose we strengthen the emergency response capacity of the local mission. i know ms. steele has been strong the development aspect of supportive of the construction efforts that have gone there. i don't think they have the team and staff to respond to a three to five-year effort that's going to be there and i would say we look at mechanisms to assist her in her step in responding over the longer-term in assisting filipinas and developing. i will say it has been mentioned before, the filipino community has been quick to respond. it varies billion, very proud people and caring people and the government now is winding up in moving forward. recent leadership from the u.s., which i think they would welcome, they would be positioned well for the future. thank you. >> thank you so very much for the tremendous job catholic relief services is doing.

we were fully briefed by joe curry while we were there and tom o'reilly took his bitterly around. we got to see the operation upfront and was extremely impressed. thank you for your leadership, for briefing us before we left. i did a great fan of world vision my entire life. >> i have a written statement. before this i want to see thank you. i've never been part of one of these events before and i'm amazed to see everyone come together and be across panel or however you describe it, to support across the congress. it's great to see people come together in something we do focus on not just the

when navarrette wherever disasters occur. i will not see a few more words about a recommendation. protection is focusing on

safety, dignity and rights of people impacted by disaster. the october 2012 guidelines for proposals of the usaid requires that proposals must demonstrate protection mainstream in all sectors of the programs. our potential partners must integrate throughout their funded programs regardless of sector. it is important for usaid to ensure these guidelines are followed for the start of the program to the end. maximizing integration will maximize protection for specially vulnerable people. it will also minimize difficulties in cost-benefit integration protection retroactively. prior to engaging in collaborating with people impacted by the disaster should be identifying assistance and protection needs and ensuring they are not. they're mean for participation in all stages including assessments, design, implementation and monitoring is essential to the success of the program and can prevent harm. we want to make sure we are not

doing programs to people, but programs with people and we want to urge the u.s. government to ensure that it's happening across the board. in disasters, children are often the service because a separation from family, disease and other threats. there are numerous ways to reduce this risk, including prioritizing opportunities for adults to a living from supporting comprehensive registration of children coupled with symmetries the reunification efforts commensurate children have safe places to play, and recover. monitor an increase in explicit images of filipino online and on sky. restoring schools, increasing training for national police and other security personnel and minimum standards for child protection. strengthening existing formal and informal chat protection mechanisms at the community and local government levels. and finally, prioritizing clean water, proper sanitation,

hygiene education to preventing or responding to disease outbreaks. basically what we do together right now is the front-line response. we want to make sure people are safe, people have access to basic services and this continues on through an evolution. women and girls would potentially be at less risk, especially in evacuation centers of comprehensive plan to improve security for revenue growth is developed and implemented with cooperation of national police and other security services. opportunities for women to earn a living, especially those in households are essential for protections for abuse and exploitation. the context for recommendations include the typhoons disrupting sources of income for over 5.6 million men and women. i read that this morning i didn't realize how many people had lost sources of income. i beg you looking at a million, 2 million people. this morning it was 5.6 million women and children for women and men. it was astounding.

the filipino department of health are warning several diseases are becoming huge public health threats as a result of the typhoon. in addition to the health risks, ngos including world vision, multilateral institutions and the ilo have identified the effect to providences in the philippines as having 3 million children engaged in child labor. when economic opportunities for adults decrease, the health challenges arise in the risk of children abused and exploited often increases. i've can find most of my time to share recommendations in context for them. congressional oversight, this is important for you guys, and engagement is an important part of the response to disasters and although she per transaction. during the question-and-answer period i would be glad to unpack recommendations and give examples. details are written in my written testimony. mr. chairman, thank you for

leadership in this opportunity. i welcome questions and those are the numbers that subcommittee. >> mr. bluesky, without objection or full state will be made part of the record. just a few opening questions. mr. callahan, both of you really, one of the things we noticed from questions are raised here with schools may not open for months. this may be the end of the school year. as you pointed out, schooling not only provides educational challenges to the child, but it also serves as a place for protection. it also can be a way of observing whether or not some ptsd and other problems might be manifesting, which could very well. we met with the man, who is the same man that carried the 3-year-old dead little girl, who just broke down. he said that at night if you

really listen, you can hear the cheers of young children who get scared very easily but if there's a thunderstorm or some other, another typhoon. very much on the edge. i think your point, about a three to five-year recovery, we need to look at that, working with them to make sure there is a broader horizon as to how sustainable recovery efforts would be. if you could elaborate on the ptsd issue. secondly, the risks to relief workers and health teams. one of the usaid leaders but not with told me when we were talking about the fever that he had it. he said i had malaria six times. from our work, my work in africa and elsewhere, so often the case of the health work hours and

relief teams or they have experienced many diseases. and with a possibility of an epidemic manifesting very shortly. it does raise questions to their health concerns as well. not only do they do so much to help others, they themselves become sick. i'll never forget on a visit to comment camp and therefore, mr. saint kitts and i met with the director who were shaking. he had malaria. they said go lay down. we contact to someone else. he says no, it's my job. just an extraordinary, just courage on behalf of others. so i'm worried about the health workers if you could speak to that. the cash for work, how long, mr. callahan, you map a transitive do a vision that occurring. your point is well taken but the coconut trees.

they do take five to seven years to revitalize the industry. what will the people do? are there some viable livelihoods for those 5.6 million people who have lost their livelihoods as mr. palusky just said he had on the traffic inside, do you think were doing enough? now is that the greatest risk arises. the parish i.t. is a good one. i've not heard that. finally on the issue about the pregnant women who will need a safe venue to deliver their children, is it time for a blood drive, perhaps by the diocese, you know, around the area? if the blood is not available, women will die in a solid necessary. we need to prioritize that as well. >> may be to jump on and i appreciate your comment to the

risk of the workers. one of the things we try to do right away his nature they have an adequate place to stay. there is a look at trying to get some containers and spaces for some of the relief workers to stay. we been very fortunate people volunteer to be there during the thanksgiving holiday season and we've got the next trip going in to celebrate christmas in the philippines. some people who have been risking themselves but also very generous with their times and showing solidarity with the people they are. we do try to rotate staff and an out and take care. unfortunately, many of us know if staff members who similar to the situation in darfur have died of cerebral malaria. it is an issue we continue to monitor, but appreciate your concern there. you also mention an issue of trafficking, are we doing enough? i would say my answer to that always is no. i don't think you can do enough in the trafficking field.

one woman, one child that is missing. we saw this in haiti. i thought in india when we went to one of those are the sites after people came out to me and said, do you want a child? we need to continually do more. the fact this committee has raised this issue that you've highlighted them to put a on it is an opportunity for us to raise the issue. i know ms. steele is interest in this area and that is something they can hide light rays that with the filipino government. i would also say the issue of the children, two things that we found have been helpful in haiti and in syria. one is a child friendly space that you can go and have children in areas where they can have safety, where they can play games and where they can do things that they feel like children again and feel protect it. that is one area that can help. there is recognition among the

church actors that we talked to already been people in the communities. trauma is the issue not only for children, the caregivers, for the clergy they are. was sitting in the super cyclone. we talked to people sitting with polls, holding up the wall says the roof was torn away and someone came to assist them and was whipped by the wind, thrown against walls. i think the poster mattock stress -- we have got people into different countries in syria with the latest, we're beheaded direction and counseling for them. similarly in haiti. we are trying something out in syria with other shows for children so they can express. usually there's trying a puppet show so they can express what they've gone through. children are also resilient. if we do this at an early time, hopefully that can be of assistance. as they laugh at the pregnant women, it is the key issue.

we supplement their and some of newborn babies there. big concern. we did a 2.5 hour drive to or much, which has been generated electricity. i think it is a key issue. as i said, the church is looking at the rebuilding of its institutions, both health clinics, schools, and that is a priority as to how to protect these women. it hasn't been solved as of yet, but we will continue to raise it. >> kinder to mirror near what you said it on a different front. world vision has seen it is important to have a front-line response but the intervention such as food, shelter and water. we've done that. we have a bogey at 18,000 children in child friendly spaces right now. we are planning to scale that up. i want to say to 40,000 children. we see the character child friendly spaces helps deal with

the trauma, ptsd. it also helps keep children safe. but it also helps to convey important messages such as health messaging, water sanitation messaging. we've seen this as a key mechanism for the front-line response. for that reason, we prioritize the life-saving intervention group. secondly, the risk for the health team as a survivor of bangui, i experienced then key in sri lanka. we understand it is a horrible thing. remember shaking. it hurts. we have prioritized as an organization staff care. ..

see it happening for, let's say the short to medium-term response. we want people to have that availability of cash to start their lives again. and as far as trafficking, i would second my colleague, mr. callahan, saying no. we're never doing enough on trafficking. for that reason, world vision we came up with recommendations we would like for the group to urge usaid to urge the filipino government and the u.s. government to push for more child preace programming. we see trafficking as a problem now. it was a problem before. we have been working in the

philippines on a long time for trafficking, child labor. in fact i found out before the meeting we held through community groups we actually responding to at the point in time to get over 30,000 children out of under-age work. so children who are working in factories, sweatshops and places. they shouldn't be working. set up committees, community-based organizations for helping children to get out of that. but at the same time to identify when children are at risk. we're pushing hard for the committees to be be alert and be able to respond. so that's all i have to say. >> you and your testimony -- >> mr. chairman, just offer a word. okay. okay. just a courtesy. i just want to hollywood hearing. i won't be here in another hearing and i just stepped out. i thank my colleague for his leadership, and the ranking member. i just want to be able to work

with the committee collaborate with some of the committees i serve on and just leave the points on the record. that is the response of the united states the international response. i know, part was usaid. the identification of the deceased. the reunification of families, which i know may have been raised. i know, the issue of disease has been raised. specifically raising those questions since the pain of those individuals was clear. and then the continuing support that the united states private sector can give to the philippines. i thank you for allowing me to place that on the record. and with that, mr. chairman, i look forward to working with this committee. and my deepest sympathy to the people of the philippines and yield back. >> thank you very much. >> if i i could, you mentioned in the written testimony last week filipino authorities arrested two men for youth trafficking as the men tried to take a 16-year-old girl out to a

flight. as we meet here today it's an issue i've been pushing within the organization for security cooperation, we now have an action plan, which i think will be adopted promoting the idea of training flight attendants, bus people, people on trains to spot a traffickers and notify the appropriate individuals. i mentioned several times during the trip to officials, i'm not sure philippine airlines has any intension on doing it. which flies frequently in and out of there as does united. nancy has done work as a flight attendant and she makes the point that traffic persons need to be moved somehow. and very often internationally it's by airlines. and often if you have a trained flight attendant or flight attendants who can spot a trafficker and trafficked people

the telltale signs, inform the pilot. when the plane land, arrest or at least separate and find whether or not there's a trafficking in progress. she told me that there was a pedophile ring coming out of haiti and they noticed there was something wrong. they finally investigated it, and i.c.e. stepped in and law enforcement stepped in and broke up a huge pedophile ring operating the cover under a terrible natural disaster. where it's been done, it is cost-free. t a matter of training situational awareness, and seems to me one collective. train flight attendants and all people. you mentioned how important it is that the police with well aware. they have got to move the individuals sometime, somewhere. and they usually use some kind of public transportation. you might want to speak to that. and also, because again i think now is the critical phase when

in a sense, sealed by the typhoon, with only the military coming in with c130 and the like. of it hard for traffickers to move anyone. now the roads and the bridges and the water route and the air routes are wide open. and now is the time to move absolute earnestness to mitigate the possibility of young children, women, being trafficked. you might want to respond. >> first of all, i think it's great to see the initiative taken and the pushing to help stop trafficking. as far as different initiative. it sounds like a great many possibilities. we want to concentrate on a high level with government and with corporations. whoever is working. people working airline organizations. also for us it's almost important at the community level. the local policeman, the local

mom and pop owner. the community members to be able to identify when there's a potential of trafficking and reduce the risks. so we encourage it and happy are to see at the high level and medium level, and of course at the lower level where we've been working far long time that we want to keep on reinforcing and working in the area because we see it as a area of high-risk especially now. i just you earlier presented legislation that would have a found address us. which i think would be a great opportunity. in the case of -- i would think the most vulnerable area, would be, as you suggested the water route. we came through there was crowds and crowds of people. it would be easy to move people in. the overloading the ferries at the time. people are sit on the stairs and you hear the disasters and wonder if you're going part of one. thing the transit points

highlighting some individuals that could, you know, pick them out, you know, i would think in some of these cases particularly post emergency it would be a very challenging but people that can go and -- we actually found in haiti we had a group of sisters that were chasing people "across that bridge" and stopped people. they had a relationship with the border guards. if they came and identify something, the border guard would not let them pass. and we did not have one case where they approached someone that they weren't trying to transport someone. they took the child to the safe house the sisters were running a and protected them. there are mafia rings that go through there. i think there's a need to have some civil society along with the officials border guards, transport officials, and others so there with be a combination-type of effort. >> our hope is we raised it with the two cab innocent members.

the philippines use as a model themselves every best practice practice imaginable including the training of airline flight attendant to stop traffickers. because we know they're privileged and ready to exploit. >> we see important on the private sector, the local level and the police department and with municipal authorities. the training of those has a huge impact on let's say stagnating or limiting or mitigating to a large effect of trafficking. woe would like to encourage that even more. i point i think it's important to underscore this. the philippines know we're in this together on combating trafficking. with the super bowl coming to new jersey in 2014, governor

christie and the attorney general and law enforcement, state police, homeland security, at the state level are working overtime knowing that venue becomes a mag innocent for the exploiters of women and children. and why should we think if it happens if n the glare of the super bowl, a typhoon area has to be even a greater danger area. so we need work even more with the philippine leadership so they will do more to mitigate trafficking. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you mentioned earlier we have million children in child labor. sometimes it's a polite way of saying something akin to involuntary servitude. i would like for you to

elaborate on the conditions the children are having to work in. and say a applicability more about it so i can get some sense of what we're talking about. also, you mentioned the gratefulness of the filipino people. one of the things i hear is with reference to our foreign aid is that people are not always thankful. there seems to be a notion perhaps they're not thankful enough perhaps we should do less. we do it because dr. king was right. life is an inescapable networking of -- what is happen to people in harm's way can impact us tomorrow. we are all blessed and therefore for the grace of god especially those of us who along the guflt -- gulf coast. if you can talk about the children. and finally, i would like to

mention they were helpful and knowledgeable about the issues we had to deal with. and smoke up and made some great points about that are important to the people. not only in us but our ability to message these things that we saw. i want to give my expression of appreciation to both of them. i yield back. >> thank you very much, mr. green. people caiment up to us thank us for being there for the assistance. not just whether we were in the churches but even in an airport. people would come up. we had the opportunity they had

a basketball game the two professional teams to try to raise money for the effort. the two teams happened to be the next morning on the same flight we were flying on. and each one, a they came by, shook our hands and thanked us for being there and being there to assist them. so the recognition was there. everyone we talked to recognized the work of the united states. i'll mention a comment about the children and pass it to chris. he was mentioning some of that earlier. but i think your comment about child labor and servitude, it really, you know, for me is a matter of symantecs. there are certain tries for child labor that are quote, unquote, legal for child and others that are illegal. many of us feel that all industries should be illegal for children. but you would have them being in some. it's one thing if it's a family

type of activity. in many cases it comes more to servitude that a family takes loan and the child is going to help pay it off. we see in the philippines, we see in brazil, and africa countries. the issue of servitude continues to be a big one for us as well. >> thank you. within the philippines we have seen there are certain industries that children are involved in child labor. there's different, i mean, you think of a sweatshops. you think of the garment industry. we've seen a lot of corporations, a lot of well let's say i don't want to say corporations. i'll say companies throughout the country that there is child labor. it goes to the local level. we've by trying to focus on identifying and the industry and stop people from coming in and

exploiting people. not even on the child traffic or the child labor level but on the trafficking level. we've seen people come in to the philippine from the the middle east and other areas around the world to get domestic serve vapts. they use it as an opportunity especially around times of disasters. when people are desperate for work to say we have an opportunity for you to work in dubai and lebanon. and people are desperate. thinking it's a great opportunity. world vision is working with the local community members with the municipality, the police department to make them aware of maybe these people are legitimate. but please make sure they're legitimate organization and you're not just fall victim to be in a trafficking victim. we continue to work on the area and continue to hopefully highlight some of these challenges. especially around domestic servitude we've seen especially with filipinos.

one point to that. >> i was recently on a visit to the ball kin and cypress and we found that fhfa the middle east we have centers now that some of our local partners have in lebanon. where they have somalis, they have sudanese, they havelessly lane can, they have all the people that have been trafficked from ore areas, including pill find know. and they're in the centers and there's the attempt to try to reunify them or bring them back home. and ethiopian woman we finally got back to ethiopia. these continue to be areas where obviously when they're trafficked or put in to this child labor at times. it becomes in to more of a servitude. if transported across international lines. once you take their pass port. they're afraid they might be arrested. you need opportunity people they can trust typically in our situation it's gone to local safe houses. they've been rehabilitated there

and try to work with the local embassy. there are the rings that continue to be out there. if i can follow up on that. i worked in lebanon for two years. i was seeing some of the program that world vision are working on together. and you do see people from the philippines, somali. but ethiopia primarily and different places throughout the world. and people get trafficked. not only trafficked to the country but the passport are taken. if they don't pay back their travel loan, they're not given permission to stay in the country or not given back a pass port. they sit in jail until they are able to pay back the loan or the fees the prior feels they are owed. it's a vision cycle. we were working with the people in the prison because they were victim of trafficking and they weren't able to pay in order to get back home. we're hoping question mitigate

some of the things from happening to places like lebanon, middle east and globally. thank you. >> is there anything else you like to add before we conclude? >> i would just say i think we were up off to a good start here. i appreciate the attention, you, mr. chairman, and representative green have brought to the case by going out to the area. i think as we mentioned before, i just put that one last emphasis it's not over. the disaster hasn't disappeared. syria is getting worse and worse. we've heard today 12 sisters were just kidnapped. we have central africa republic. it's important we don't forget the philippines and let the country go down. 13 million people were affected. it needs a significant three to five year response. i think the filipino people and the filipino church and the government are ready to put

their shoulders to the grindstone. i think we can do it with them they'll achieve it. if we threat go, frankly, shame on us. >> as we've heard in testimony before ours, i would like to say amen. definitely. it's you have to respond immediately. with this people affected it's going to be a marathon. i would encourage anyone you can talk to to keep the eye on the long run. thank you very much. on that note, the hearing is adjourned. i thank you for and the organization the important work you do. thank you. hearing is adjourned.

and probably most important, really, really make sure that we

give and figure out how to enable all kids to have the opportunity to not only dreamed the dream, but achieve them. >> well done. thank you. let me ask you want me ask you one or two and then we will go to kimberly to start. let me ask about the common core standards. you told the national association writers, you think the obamacare compensation is bad. the implication of the common core is far worse. who is to blame and is anyone stepping up to fix it? >> i'm not a big believer in blame. i'm a big believer -- and let me say what. i'm a union leader. i could easily say, this one, this one, this one. but if we're not rolling up her sleeves and actually engaging in this then we are in the same debate about who cares about kids. i care about kids. no, i care about kids.

no, i care about kids. that's the debate we've been having during this period time. let me just say, this is what i think has happened. we get education policy by precedent. and i think the governor and the state chiefs were right about saying let's figure out a set of standards that are aligned to let kids know -- they move pretty fast about it. we were engaged within and brought a lot of teachers who critiqued the materials and things like that. this is what didn't happen. the public wasn't involved. parents were involved. the districts were involved. and so it felt like, because of the speed at which it went and because the federal government incentivize this through race to the top with a lot of other what i would say bad things that happen as part of race to the top, a leaking toxic.

so what's happened is that as a starts rolling out in a lot of communities in a lot of states, a person like john mccain will say the districts, you must implement. but new york state has been through a tax gap, a lot of other budget cuts. and so the things that teachers actually need to do, work together with each other, use the standards as guidelines not as straitjackets, have to return them, that didn't happen. and a couple places it did. in a lot of places it didn't. the big mistake that i think both the federal government made and people like doug king made is the lead with testing. king would save you, i just was sick and tired of telling people what to do and then not doing it. you are the state chief. that's not your job to tell people what to do.

your job is to help navigate people through this. so consequently, last year in new york there were in k-12, and elementary schools there were these tests and a lot of people were not prepared. and then john keane and other said was the test results will be 30% less next year, issued anywhere right now. so be prepared. so then the question is how do they actually know the exact number. seven creates huge distrust because you can actually forget what the cuts were for, how to align it. so between the lack of preparation of teachers, the lack of communication with parents and you are using my data, yo using my kids data andw did you know exactly how much the scores would tumble? and industry what's happened is

because people have a field test of the test, they don't have enough funding for actual real confrontation. the state of something called engage new york, a curriculum, on the state website and some of the stuff is really rooted good, and some of the stuff is not. but easy to teach, think about it, they should just say here's the website, here's 500 pages, just do it. it just belies that this is a huge shift actually about not rogue memorization but critical thinking, helping kids persevere, helping kids get through it. so that's what a lot of ways of saying it wasn't done in a way that teachers really trusted, parents really embraced it, and that you could actually try, adapt, think about this as a huge new instructional steps. it was basically done by just don't do it. >> kimberly? >> do you anticipate that labor

will come out early in support of the? >> look, hillary clinton is someone that my union has supported for every single job that she is either run for or sought. when she ran for senate in new york state, we were out there and very supportive. when she ran for president in 2008 we're out there and very supportive. i think it's far too early to talk about any of this. first off, the last i heard, she hasn't even decided whether she's running or not. so i just think it's too premature. there's a lot of work we have to do between now and 2014, 2015. and so we are really spending our time trying to figure how to reclaim the promise of public education, how to make sure that quality health care is something that all americans have, and

getting through the ups and downs of obamacare. i'm glad the website is working better now. but about affordable college, making sure that there's retirement security for all as opposed to going in the direction we're going. there's a lot of work to do between '14 and '15 before we get to 16. >> i wanted to get your thoughts on detroit yesterday. curious what you heard from your members in michigan and elsewhere about concerns they may have about their pensions. curious what your thoughts are with effect may be beyond detroit. >> i think the ruling is very troubling morally, and, you know, if i put my lawyers had on, which i do occasionally, i think it is wrong legally.

and, obviously, it would be appealed. but let me talk about why i think it's wrong morally first. the pensions, defined benefit plans, are deferred wages. and whether you look at the people in detroit, or the people in illinois, because we've also seen the illinois state legislature basically hugely cut pensions in the last 24 hours as well. was pensions are is, people actually pay into the pension. in detroit, in illinois, people have paid approximately 9% a year into their pensions and 80% of those in illinois don't have social security. so this is their only retirement security. in detroit, the average pension is about $19,000.

so and as i said, people contribute to it. so what's happened is that the deferred wages that people expected to get, and neither do much for retirement security, alall of the sudden they don't have adequate of time that they can't compensate for it. so what's happened in this country is that instead of, as people are getting older and older, instead of having more retirement security, we have retirement insecurity. i heard people at the aarp joke that the new name for retirement is to get a job. and if you're in your '70s or your 80s, and, frankly, if there in the sandwich generation like i am, where you are now paying for your parents and also paying for your kids. my sister and i every month if my father a check. because my father worked as an engineer and had very little

retirement security because of that. he got laid off at one point or another, and so the pension that he has is really meager. we give them a check every month to try to make up for that. so what does this mean now? in the united states of america, the average amount that someone has saved if they are the breadwinner, many between ages 45-54, is $12,000. not $12,000 annually, but they have essentially $12,000 their social security. my concern is what i going to do about this 10 years from now? without health security was an issue? whatever going to do about this as a country in 10 or 20 or so now? what other countries in the world have done is that they actually made retirement security a collective

responsibility as opposed to an employer responsibility. and so what we're seeing is that we're seeing less and less people have it, not more and more. that's what i say we have a big moral issue. the second piece is this. on the legal issue, the banks in detroit were able to work out what they need to work out before the bankruptcy. so it's the people of detroit who served in detroit who are now subject to the bankruptcy. when the people who actually created some of his recklessness with the swaps and everything else, worked their deals before them. that i think is both a moral and a legal issue. the last issue is this. what's the issues that this race is about federalism, it raises issues about the import of contracts being inviolate under the u.s. constitution. so that's why i say that there's

a bunch of different issues. and so i'm really troubled by. we can't have a race to the bottom in this country. we've learned a lot that austerity, austerity, prosperity and trickle-down economics actually don't create a pro-growth, pro-middle-class economy. and no less than the new pope has now started speaking out about this. when our country had a burgeoning middle class, it's because we had a shared prosperity. now what we're seeing is the opposite. >> can you tell us roughly how many members you have in detroit and how many have been illinois? >> i could if i -- i'm going to give you a paris-roubaix just. in detroit, we have come in detroit itself we have about three, 4000 members.

in michigan we have about 15,000 -- i think about 15,000 members. and in illinois we have said probably somewhere around 40,000 members, maybe 50,000 members. [inaudible] >> 19,000 is the average retirement that somebody gets. and in wisconsin, the average retirement that a public employee gets around the country is about 24, $26,000 to the other thing, think about it, every time a retiree, every time someone spends a dollar of the pension, it creates about $2 change, i think $2.37 in economic output in making the. are we going have a pro-growth,

pro-investment, pro-middle-class economy? are we going to keep having this kind of trickle-down austerity economy? that's the real question here. in both places there's going to be a lot of lawsuits. the last thing adults say about illinois is this as well. about why i think illinois in particular is political as opposed to economic. last year the union in illinois, led by the illinois federation of teachers, the unions in illinois actually negotiate with the state senate, a pension package that created roughly the same amount of savings. that package went nowhere. and instead this one, which actually is taking -- remember what i said about most of these

folks have no social security. this is now basically cutting any cost-of-living increases that retirees had going forward. and i'm sorry, illinois number is about 100,000. >> thank you. we're going to go to paul. >> on the same subject, generally been do you have an idea on some of the countries and their collective responsibilities? what is your idea? everyone is worried about social security crashing, and a lot of people just being left on the side of the road. what would you do? >> actually, i would -- i actually think two or three things, and we have done this report. the afp did a pension report a few years ago. where we also said that

employees have to take a share of retirement responsibilities. so we agree that we have to actually pay into our retirement. most of these plans that you see that have been cut right now, it's because the government took a pension holiday. at the very same time as the crash on wall street. because of all the budget cuts. so you have a double whammy going on at the same time. the employers have always paid in and done their responsibility. right now in america, we have to have a three-legged stool, social security, whatever your personal savings may be, and i would argue for a defined benefit pension plan. and, in fact, there's a group of people, you know, people like kkr, people invest a lot of pension funds in wall street,

unions and retiree advocates who are getting together and talking about how we should have more professionally managed funds like those investment plans. they are actually far more efficient and effective than defined conservation plans. if i could change the world, i would actually the link mentions from employer responsibility, like they've done in other places -- turn 11. when it employer has the kind of legacy clause like jim for which are right now in terms of the public sector. but in the absence of that, we need to figure out how to actually help people. get to a certain percentage of the income when they are working

that they have in retirement. so that they actually can live a life in retirement that they ought to deserve. >> is this like a national 401(k) program? >> there's a bunch of ways of doing it. one is expanding social security as opposed, which is, center warrants ideas will. and, frankly, there will be more and more of a push towards that as people have more and more retirement insecurity. the second is that some of us are actually looking at whether some of these big defined benefit plans that states have, can you do what australia does, for example, where people can actually then buy-in or participate in? so it would be more efficient and more effective way of doing things. but the last thing is we have to have a national conversation about retirement security.

it's not a conversation people want to have but if we don't have that conversation right now, what is going to happen in 10 or 20 years from now we've basically right not 80% of the population -- the private sector does not have a pension. so that's what at the same time what we said in the support, if we can get to this report, is there shouldn't be -- people should pay into the pension. there should be this three-legged stool. and so we would be happy to get it to you. the last thing we do, this is something i've spent a lot of time doing, is that pensions, there's about $1.5 trillion worth of pension investments that are sitting in wall street investment houses right now. what happens if we could actually use the patient capital of pension for investments in

infrastructure? for building america again? for creating jobs again? and so we've actually been working with the clinton global initiative and with many of the teacher funds to do this. and made a commitment about two years ago to cgi that we would find $10 billion worth of assets to do these kind of investment, and we are actually halfway there. there's been new york city system have invested in infrastructure. the california systems have done the same thing. we've also done we training or the trade to the jobs of tomorrow, and we've also done a whole bunch of work in terms of energy investments. so there's a lot of things you could do with this patient capital in terms of really helping reinvention the infrastructure. >> we're going to go next to sean higgins and then david. >> one of the issues that's come

up in the detroit bankruptcy is that cities are museum, its collection is to -- something advocated sound is off to cover the city's debt. i was wondering as an educated if you support that or oppose it? >> let me just say that the educators in the city have been under a different kind of emergency manager for a long time. it was done in a much more come it was done with a lot of conversation back and forth in terms of the educators and the city. and, frankly, frankly our members in detroit have hugely sacrificed in the last two contracts in terms of taking pay

cuts and other things, amounting to roughly about 10%. and they've actually not missed a beat and the city's school system working with the educators now, there's been a lot of problems but this new emergency manager has been working with the educators more and they are seeing some real tournament. such as want to give them some props in terms of what they have done and are trying to do. you know, i grew up in rockland county 20 minutes away, or 30 minutes away, depending on traffic, from new york city in the mid '70s. and watched new york city roughly go through the same agonizing process and make the difficult decisions.

they could've made the decisions to declare bankruptcy, and it did not. it could've made a decision to sell its great assets, and it did not. it made a decision, including the unions who, you know, use our pension fund to help by city bonds. we made a decision for long-term viability with lots of sacrifices through the '70s. and that decision come if you think about what's going on in new york city right now, this is a city that it loses its life. there's a vitality right now, the likes of which you don't see in the rest of the world. and so watching the detroit

decision, one has to wonder when you look at michigan, and look at the inequities in michigan, with the great wealth of certain pieces of it and then was happening in detroit, i do wonder why these decisions are being made this way. detroit can be a jewel in that state. and i would caution against selling the kind of assets that that art collection is. >> the problem of bullying continues to grab headlines. we've had so many high profile tragic cases, not only pulling a students the bullying of teachers. and we've seen school districts

-- acknowledge the existence or the reality of these cases. in part we understand because of the danger of losing federal funding, and because of the expense of the programs they need institute. what are your member's feelings, what is your feeling about this issue of what needs to be done? is there a federal bullying legislation needed? >> so, i'm a big believer in trying to figure out policy that works as opposed to simply some kind of top down policy that's going to set on the books and people are going to look at it as a mandate and did nothing about it. so i don't know, i don't think that answers your question, but i think that -- so, let me start this way.

i'm gay, and i have had lots of -- you know, i was very -- i never talked about it for a very long time. and then i started in the middle of 2007-2008. i actually talked about it and then talk about it publicly for the following reasons. after i talked about it from the pulpit that one day, i had some, what seemed to me to be teenagers, young women, come up to me, pull my sleeve -- this is 2007 -- and safety me, crying, thank you for coming out, thank you for being a role model. thank you for showing me that i can be why want to be.

so i'm like, dinner, i expected this when i grew up in the '70s, but you know, 2007 is not 2013 when it's cool to be gay, but it was not as if it was -- it wasn't -- you didn't have to be closeted at that point. certainly in new york city you didn't. that said something to me about, more about bullying than pretty much anything else in my life. it said the fear of being yourself is something that we actually really have to be mindful of every single day that we teach. and that's the same for teachers and that's the same for students. so the question then becomes, what do you do to actually help kids not have that fear, not have that anxiety? and then what do you do with the bullies? we've learned a lot. we've learned that actually --

the bully movie that was put out i thought was extraordinary. so i think the first is education, education, education. and intervention, intervention, intervention. and having the funds for things like conflict resolution in schools. having the funds for things like teaching teachers how to see it, what to do about it. and having some of the funds for intervention. some of this is stuff we can do. some of this is stuff that it had guidance counselors or social workers in schools it would be important. some of this is how kids see a trusting adult. as part of our interventions at aft, we have a little rubber band. everybody has a little rubber band for very different things. ours is purple and it says see a bully, stop a bully. the latest research seems to

suggest that actually if you confront a bullet and tell a bully to stop, most of the time that will work. so we have to educate. we have to confront. we have to actually pay attention to the interventions for both those who are bullied and those who bully. and so to the extent that we need some policies to make that a reality, great, it is the policies without that don't happen, it's going to be worse. and so i've been -- we've worked with the administration about this. we are big promoters of the bullying movie. we've worked with the rfk foundation about this and a bunch of other foundations. the cartoon network, forgive me just out. we've done a lot of that stuff, and the second piece of your question in terms of teachers. let me just do a day in to

teachers for a minute. you know, we are in a really odd place in the united states of america. you see this in terms of teachers results. teaching is so respected in other places. we are who unlock a future for kids. and yet we are still in a space where we did demonized and denigrated. and where somebody attempts to split the union from teachers. why is it that teachers are more densely organized than pretty much any other employee in the united states of america? because they see that it's a voice for them, and we need to do a better job as unions to make sure that our members are mobilized and active and things like that. when you take surveys of teachers these days, you see the line going upwards to a trajectory upwards in team -- in

terms of them want a voice. we need to stop the professionalization, and actually start getting teachers the autonomy and the authority that they need as well as the tools and conditions that they need, as well as the respect and pay they need if we really do believe that they are the key to our future. and what we're seeing right now, unfortunately, is teachers just get piled on, piled on, piled on the anything done to to come any new idea, just throw it at teachers. and when they say, i can't do this and the five other things you've asked me to do, then people say, well, that's an excuse. we can't do that to them. i've watched this in schools, a charter school, that steve barr and i cocreated in new york, which actually had some of the best scores in new york city in this last grading -- the last

grades they can appear i don't believe in the great systems i don't talk about this a lot, but it at higher grades. but what happened in a school? we did a different kind of contract. we have a great relationship between teachers and principals. great teachers, great principle. they get paid more and their day is -- they don't have a set day, but they have a set number of classes. but they actually teach basically the same materials every day. so the actually get to spend time at night thinking about deeply what they're going to teach, how they're going to teach it. they've got a waiver so they give only one of the five regions in the city, and what has happened is they've been able to really focus on project-based construction. when you talk to the teachers and kids in the school, and the

schools, 39 of them, they have persisted in college rates that could knock your socks off. 90% of hispanic kids who graduate from these schools, stay in college. 85% of academic and kids who graduate from these schools to in college. what they do is project-based learning. creating real trusting relationships, real engagement with kids between teachers and the most each other. when you look, when you talk to the teachers, the teachers state. they don't have the attrition rate you see in other places. they talk about how important it is to actually teach, and juicy a collaborative relationship. >> we've got about 15 minutes left. were going to go to melanie, molly, carolyn. >> the partnership summit, what

are the biggest obstacles, dickerman comes to organizing and reaching collective bargaining contracts? what do you think needs to be done? >> i think austerity, austerity, austerity, austerity, has actually really poison a lot of environments. but that's all know the topic. but i also think that we don't in america, you know, they are more into john wayne and john dewey. john wayne gets headlines, not john dewey. you take a place like abc school district in southern l.a. county. even to austerity it is the extraordinary well because -- actually that's i got the solution for the union.

they solve problems, not when arguments. that's what they talk about. and what they've done is they have done is through the transition of a retiring superintendent, and i retiring union president. so this has really been, become take into their culture. is look, we've talked to this historic you guys a lot. and no one wants to write about it except in orange county. the same in terms of cincinnati, new haven. montgomery county. there are actually places where through thick and thin when people have real respectful relationships with each other and they start thinking about how to solve problems rather than when arguments, you see real collaboration and you see really working through a bunch of issues because teaching children is complicated.

so arne duncan, i give them a lot of credit, he wanted to do this labor-management elaborate, but you have to actually change the culture to make this the norm, not the exception. and that's what i think we need now. this one refocused -- focusing on the common core. so every interested party has an interest on focusing on that. but it has to be about not what the next step is that really how to actually help students. >> i have sort of a double barrel political question to you me just to send toggled 2016. what you're focused in 2014? is it governors, congress can whatever? you mentioned the warren plan. you think this sort of liberal populist direction for the democratic party can win elections outside massachusetts?

is this an active debate within the democratic coalition right now? >> when you poll the public on things like education, jobs, people want good jobs. people want the american dream. if you look at doug sosnick recent blog post, i think he was -- which i think was not in atlantic but in the politico? sorry. i think it's totally right, that one of the great unifying factors in this country was if you work hard and play by a sense of fairness rules, you

should do okay. and our guidepost was our kids, the next generation, do better than we are. and that's changed. and people are really anxious about that. they want to work hard and want to do okay. and so i think that there is -- were look at the elections the just, in 2013, christie one in new jersey. that's true. but so did minimum wage expansion. terry mcauliffe one in virginia. walsh in boston. the bellagio in new york. someone -- toledo, the person -- >> could you speak up a little bit please? >> sorry. there is something going on in the country that is about, yes,

working hard. nobody wants a handout. but let's level the playing field so we have great public education and we have ways for people to enter or we enter or reinvention the middle class. you may call that populism, but, frankly, when you hear pope francis start talking about that, too, i think we've had a lot, a lot, a lot of years of trickle-down economics and austerity based economics. and it hasn't turn the country around. and so this level of populism, progressivism, i think is something that people are yearning for. we will see but i don't see that the republican party, at least in terms of the congress, i don't see that it's getting lots of hugs and kisses from people around the country.

i see that there's a lot of anger and a lot of anxiety that our lives are fundamentally different than what we thought they were going to be. and so this notion of shared prosperity, investment in education, investments in infrastructure and trying to figure out an economy that works for all i think is important. take tomorrow, fast food workers. 100 places with a fast food workers are going to be staging strikes. and who's the fast food workers now? it's no longer, you know, 18, 19, 20 year old did try to get into college or in college and doing this as a job. when you go to mcdonald's, when you go to wal-mart, you see people in the '60s and the '70s. this is wrong. and so i think there's a sense -- we will see your but in terms

of my bailiwick, public education, on december 9, there will be over 60 events, 60 cities, counties, towns, and more coming on every day of parents, community groups, clergy, our union foundations talking about how to do bottom-up reform, solution driven reform, community-based reform that actually helps kids be more successful in schools. so we are seeing this community work and this bottom-up organizing in public education, as well in economic issues, job issues. >> seven minutes to go. >> you mentioned we should never race to the bottom in this country. in the context of what we saw in detroit, does it raise the specter because other cities

could resort to bankruptcy court to get out of pension promises they made to workers? and secondly, how do you put this in the broader perhaps context of the fight to labor has fought in these figures with collective bargaining in pension and perhaps the erosion of the social contract that other employers have enjoyed, which is been part of the deal for decades and whether that is being unraveled? >> i think that you are seeing ebbs and flows of this. in 2010, if you asked me that question i would have quite a different answer than i have right now. so, i mean, what i've seen around the country is some places like california actually start writing its economy. they passed a budget amendment

two years ago and you're seeing a huge change in terms of the california economy right now. jerry brown actually took the opposite direction and said let's have a pro-growth, pro-worker, pro-public education strategy for moving our economy a long. you are seeing the same thing in some ways in massachusetts. you're seeing it in maryland. so you are saying some states make different choices. i think that what's happened in detroit is a disaster. and i think it's a disaster because when you have a city going to bankruptcy, what does that say to the rest of the country? what is that same to the people who live in the city right now? as i said, new york made it very

different decision 30 years ago in terms of a city as a public good. it's not a private entity. with private assets. it's a public good. but the other question that you raised, which is the most important question i think, is it isn't -- it is an american value that if you work hard and play by the rules that the promises that have been made to you will be kept. and the unraveling of the social contract is an unraveling of the democracy, the locking democracy in america. and that i think is very, very, very troublesome. and particularly right now when you see this huge disparity of income where wall street hovers around 16,000, the highest that it's ever been.

and yet he had the greatest income disparity that you've had well before the great depression. so not a surprise, but the labor movement, people are starting to take another look at it. they are starting to say wait a second, we actually need to have a collective voice. the number of people in labor has actually gone up this year. my union is actually growing. so -- >> would he be going without the nurse is? >> well, we are the second largest nursing union and have been organizing nurses for about 20 years spent i mean, is the teacher portion growing as will? >> the teacher portion, even with what happened in wisconsin and what happened in indiana, the teacher peace has stayed with us. and that's after 300,000 teachers were laid off since the great recession.

so i'm not getting a distinctive answer as i would like but at the end of the day, people understand that it need a collective voice. and so what we're doing in my union and what i know what the afl-cio made a centerpiece for its convention is that you need to tend to be. we islands. we have to be about making sure that there's economic opportunity, there's educational opportunity for all the people that we serve, that there's good public services, that there's good public education, that there's affordable higher education, and that there is quality health care. and that's our mission. we look at our mission. that's a we focus on every day. and that when you do that you are lifting the goals speed we will go over about five minutes so we can do the two last questions. >> what do you see happening in

congress of education was, even major ones or smaller things? >> the first thing i'd like to i to say in congress, and is comprehensive immigration reform. i mean, if you look at what the senate did, there's a path of their that a lot of people compromise on to create a path to citizenship, plus ways of making sure that we take people out of the shadows, we grow our economy and would make sure that our borders are secure. and so first and foremost, the house of representatives needs to focus on that. and i was part of the faster families yesterday. i have been arrested on the whole process of trying to get the immigration form and whatnot. in terms of education, this is an issue.

pre-k is an issue about showing whether results actually really matter and whether research actually matters, or whether the congress lives in an evidence results. we have seen -- i mean, pre-k actually works to help level the playing field. the president has put a bill out there. the house of representatives actually had a bipartisan bill that aligns -- the house of representatives in the senate, a miller-harkin bill that actually has two republicans from new york state. i give them huge props for being a part of it. data pre-k bill should sail through. if people want to actually make a smart investment, that pre-k bill should sail through but for the ideology of what the federal government should be spending. and you see it, and what's sad about this is states like

oklahoma, you know, have shown us that pre-k really works. we are fighting for it. i don't really know what its prospects are. i don't feel as hopeful as i wish, you know, as the evidence should dictate, but we are fighting, fighting, fighting for that pre-k bill. number two, i think we could see a bill about career tech ed. i think we could see a programs reauthorization. i think this is one of those examples when you actually see business, and higher education, k-12 and labor coming together like you did around peak tech. ptech got a lot of -- ptech

schools, to me in your, the colleges of new york city, the new city department of education and our union asked to put together, got a lot of attention because the president mentioned it in the city and in the present went to see. but this is a fantastic school. it's a school where ibm has back mapped from what interposition from the skills required for the interposition in ibm is, and we put a secure program together that also is aligned with the common core and critical thinking. and everybody who goes to the school, everybody loves it. so it is actually helping to we envision what career tech ed should look like in this new economy. and, frankly, there's a lot of really great career tech ed schools to the country. toledo has one that's a terrific school that's been aligned with

gm. aviation high school in the city that's aligned with the aviation industry. transit taking nuke city. so i do think there's some steam and the headwind that can actually push perkins through the gate, but it has to be formulaic. meaning we have to have formula funds, no more competitive grants. we can keep on doing winners and losers in the nation when all communities really should have high quality career tech ed spent last question. mr. thomas. >> you know, it seems to me at least that like politics, education is pretty local. and today's teachers do you think are trained well enough to handle situations like zero-tolerance policies that are so bizarre that they produce incredible incidents and bad

publicity? kids being held up and suspended for childish things that are completely, goes along with david bullying. the lack of parental involvement in the inner cities to the extent that produces what we have today, because there aren't any pets sometimes. there may be grandparents but that's about it. how do you do with those kinds of things on a local basis? it's all well and good to talk about national policy but they don't really deal with what this is about. >> one of -- i often close my eyes and think about what it was like to be a student, what it was like to be a high school teacher, what is like to be a local president before answered any of these questions. because the policy from 30,000 feet is really different

than the reality in a schoolhouse, in the schoolyard, in a school hall. answer those experiences are the hard connections to me. biting your question you actually answered the complexity of what public education is. we are the first responders to poverty. we are the first responders to all the social issues in america, and we don't actually -- our educators, whether they are the bus driver, the school secretary, a guidance counselor or teacher. they never get, even in the good times, the training and the support that they pretty much need to deal with all of the situations that we confront. but in the times of austerity and privatization and hyper testing, that's why they're so immortalized. but this is the amazing thing

about schoolteachers. people go into teaching because they want to make a difference in the lives of children. and if we actually honored that hard connections, if we honored it and use it as the value that it is, it's invaluable. then we could turn a lot of these things around. because our job, regardless of whether a child has spent or one parent or has their grandparents, our job is to help all children succeed to their god-given potential. that's our job, but that's part of the reason why it can't just be our job. and it has to be a community responsibility. and that's why we are focused on this whole notion of reclaiming the promise and this notion of let's not just focus on teachers as important as they are, but also the wraparound services, engaging curriculum. that's about critical thinking but also having things like music. and food. i mean, so that's why we talk a

lot about wraparound services. notches healthcare services but breakfast, lunch and dinner. and as you see come you guys to talk about this before about the congress. one of the worst things the congress is doing right now is cutting the snap program. so when have the kids in public education, half of our kids come to school, our poor, in the south and the west is more than half. so that's why, look, i'm a big believer in we have to be the best you can be as schoolteachers. you heard what i said before that if somebody can't teach they shouldn't be there. we have to prepare teachers like finland prepares teachers. we have to value them. we have to actually have the common core, but do it right. delete testing at least for a while, but also make sure we of

art and music and the tools that teachers need to the. we have the parents involved and engaged in welcoming safe, collective and private and we have to have the wraparound services because we are the first responders to poverty. and whether that is breakfast, lunch, and dinner like i saw at the school in cincinnati, or whether it's what we're doing at mcdowell in terms of is wrapping services around all the schools in the eighth worst county in america. when you do those things, schools and succeed. and more important, the nation succeed. thank you. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. >> [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> today, a look at admission false for medicare patients in hospitals and the effect it has on patients out of pocket cost. it's also by the alliance for health reform and aarp. live coverage at 12:15 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. and on c-span3, the national conference of state legislatures.

you can watch coverage at 12:15 p.m. eastern. later on c-span, kentucky standard rand paul will talk about jobs and the economy at the detroit economic club. his remarks come after a federal judge ruled this week that the city of detroit can proceed with this chapter nine bankruptcy. that's life at 12:35 p.m. eastern. >> as you walk in the our tables out in front with lots of pamphlets. prior to entering potential. the pamphlets are all have the government is trying to take away your right to own guns, your government is doing this and obama is doing that and obamacare's terrible. so those were the guys i want to talk to because they were the cries with leaflets, the i just to spice to them, the city where you? i said i'm an academic. i'm a researcher and sending research on these organizations, these ideas and trying to understand the guys about.

the and studying men who believe this stuff. a bunch of them looked at me suspiciously and said, asked the question. but i just had look, here's what i am. i don't get it. but here's my job. i wonder step how you guys view the world. i want to understand your worldview. look, you will not convince me and i will not convince you. that's off the table. what is on the table is i want to understand why you think the way you do. >> downward mobility, racial and gender equality. michael kimmel on the fears, anxieties and rage of "angry white men" sunday night at nine on "after words." part of booktv this weekend on c-span2. >> a house panel question federal energy regulators about safeguards to defend the electric grid against cyberattacks. the federal energy regulatory commission also took questions about epa regulations and the use of coal-fired plants.

this house energy subcommittee hearing is two hours 15 minutes. >> i would like to call during to order this morning. we're going to be evaluating the role of ferc in a changing inches landscape, and i'm delighted that the commissioners at ferc are with us today. we appreciate very much your being here. i certainly initially would like to congratulate cheryl lafleur who has been appointed the acting director of ferc, and i enjoyed our meeting yesterday, ms. lafleur, and we look forward to working with you on many issues facing our country as we adjust to this changing landscape that we all are very much involved in. i would say that i think the

transcending issue that certainly encompasses everything we're talking about today does relate to the way the changing landscape of energy in america, with this low price natural gas we see a transformation from coal to natural gas. ..