checks for indicators for state accountability systems. the statute that was passed requires the states to establish the criteria that schools need to exit certain categories. nking member

>> background checks are a way to do that put they are out for public comment and we rook forward to reviewing the comments we will get from states, districts, civil rights organizations, parents and others. >> okay. and again, i want to make sure the department is not overstepping their bounds for what we intend for it to be through this legislation. can you assure we the department is not going to be contrary to what is in the statue. >> we have been careful to make sure the regulations comply with the law and listen to the feedback we receive from stakeholders and will continue to do so.

>> you received feedback? >> we have had over 200 meetings and comments from 750 individuals and organizations and two public hearings with over a hundred folks testifying at the hearings. we continue to gather feedback. the accountability regulations are out and state plans and data reporting regulations are out for public comment. that public comment period closes in august and we will review the feedback. >> have you reviewed any of it yet? any indications on the concerns? >> we had strong concerns from the rights community and organizations that are focused on kids who are at-risk and that enforcing the requirements into the law for what i would characterize as civil rights guard rails is critically important including the language

saying the academic indicators have greater weight and substantial weight. >> okay. i am just concerned. i want to make sure you are not overstepping your bounds by what we intended for it to be through this legislation. i want to a to assure me, the committee and the departments that the proposals align with the statute and that we will not have you back here trying to ask you more questions about what is going on. i don't want another example of the department of education overstepping their bounds. >> i appreciate that. we are being very careful to insure regulations we compose comply with the law. >> fair enough. just full disclosure. i want to make sure we are on the same page of the intent and what we are doing. >> understood. i want to underscore we are

careful the regulations we composed comply with the law. we are being careful to gather feedback, and i want to make sure on the proposal accountability regulations is a draft out for feedback and we will listen carefully to that. >> i yield back. >> mr. bishop. >> thank you for your time and testimony today. building on my colleague's questions, particularly the questions by mr. alan and mr. carter, i would reiterate what those said. i talk to educators and parents all of the time and they are concerned about the students' learning environment pertaining to this new law and are skeptical because they don't believe even though the law was

written in plain language that we will be able to implement it in a way that was intended. government agencies tend to take stance against the laws. i am wondering, you have the regulations out for comment, when you pleat those are you prepared to come back with the final draft and review them with us? >> i will certainly make myself available for committee meetings like this one. i think this is a collaborative effort and i believe a law was passed through a collaborative effort through the bipartisan leadership in congress and the president and the department and we want to continue that collaboration. >> i think that is a wise

position to take and one that i think is good for this committee as we have all a sense of uncertainty as to whether the law passed is the law that will pea implemented. i have confidence you are here in good faith and look forward to further dialogue. states are required to adjust the four year cohort and report data n on the adjusted graduation rate. it doesn't require states to use the graduation rate when identifying which high schools are available for comprehensive support based on low graduation rates. as mr. carter indicated, it is left to the states and in addiction -- addition, it

doesn't allow you to identify schools. how is your ought outline different? >> the key with graduation rate is to have a graduation rate indicate that is present in all schools. the only one present in all schools is the four year graduation rate. that said, the regulation provides for states' ability and their plan to create exceptions for schools that might serve new arrival english learners and students with severe disabilities and schools that might serve students who drop out and are returning to school. but the four year graduation

rate is a rate required for all schools to report. >> you believe language you are talking about the exception gives you the fact -- despite there is a prohibition that fits within that exception you are speaking of. >> yes, we are not prescribed a method but we are using a data point that is available for all schools for the starting spot. >> i yield back. >> gentlemen yields back. mr. thompson. >> thank you, chairman. mr. secretary, when you testified before the committee in february you said quote the law rightly shifts responsibility for developing strategies to support the highest needs students in schools, state and local decision makers and away from the one-size-fits-all man date of no child left behind and creates opportunities for states to reclaim the goal of a rigorous well rounded child.

i could not agree with your words more and appreciated hearing that perspective. yet your proposal requires state accountability systems to provide a single rating for each school. how is this proposalal not a one-size-fits-all man date that will stifle state efforts to reclaim the goal of a rigorous, well rounded education and can you commit to up holding your original commitment to this committee when you publish the final role or are you veering away from that original promise you made? >> we believe that the draft will reflects that commitment. we are going to take comment and try to respond to the comment we receive. on the singleal rating, states have flexibility with how they would approach that. they can use an approach like

some states or a categorical states as many states do today. they will need such an approach to identify the bottom 5% of schools clearly. but we also require that state provide information to parents and teachers about all of the accountability indicators. there will be robust information about all of the accountability indicators. this is a place where we will take public comment and try to be responsive to the comment we received. but it is clear that in order were the law to work, parents and educateers -- educators. >> the process worked that way with refinement.

i think we want to avoid a cookie cutter or one-size-fits-all. that describes what no child left behind came especially in the outer years when it was allowed to continue. we really, really need to make sure we are providing that type of flexibility. i think it really comes down to it. the colleges and schools and

national advisory committee on integrity is meeting to talk about their preferences. a little outside of the ballpark but i wanted to ask you since you are here. these actions are recommendations as you have the ultimate authority to decide the fate of the acis which is one of the largest accrediters serving 320,000 students. terminating the recognition of a crediter this large would be a concern. i am concerned the department is ill prepared to deal with this. does the department have the capacity available to process a change of accreditation to

schools that seek alternative accreditation? >> as you indicated, there is a potentially an appeal so i cannot comment on the specifics. there is an 18-month period in which schools can seek alternative creditor and the information we posed posted provides detail for that. >> you would allow the schools to give this sufficient time to find a new accreditor and make that transition? >> yes, we believe schools doing

a good job my their students will be able to manage transitioning to another creditor in that period. any time a creditor was to lose authority it is not just specific to acis. we will follow up with more information. >> that would be great. i would love to talk off line about how schools are doing great by students and some having problem with the accreditor. >> the gentlemen's time expired. i want to thank you again, mr. secretary, for your time here today and your engagement with each of the members. i would underscore there is a theme that was not lost and that is we would like to do

everything you can to make sure the department is required to publish, and not just semi consistent, but exactly consistent with the letter of the law. >> we will be seating the second panel here momentitarily. >> i ask consent to submit the letter of accountability to the secretary. >> without objection.

[inaudible conversation] >> i recognize our first witness. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate it. i will introduce the kentucky commissioner of education as the witness for the hearing. in september 2015, the kentucky board of education agreed to hire the sixth commissioner of education. he came to kentucky with a background in standard assessment and accountability. he started as a high school teacher in fayetteville and later was a science and math and program manager for the georgia

department of education and was associate superintendent accountable. he served as the senior vice president for achieve. a non-profit reform program based in washington. he holds a bachelor in chemistry from north georgia, a doctorate from as well. welcome to washington and thank you. >> i will continue with the introductions.

>> ms. harrison supports students in language acquisition. then we have the interim vice president. ms. hall was the organization director of k-12 development and was an analyst to the texas legislative counsel and the office of herb coal. quite a bit of geographically movement there. and david is in the blue ribbon district in arlington heights, illinois. he was the athletic director, principle and superintendent before this.

he is the president of the schools superintendent association. i ask our witnesses to raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? let the record reflect the witnesses answered in the affirmative. when you start your testimony you have a green light and down after four minutes a yellow light comes on and think about wrapping up. when the red light comes on please wrap up as fast as you can. when you finish, members will have five minutes to ask questions and we will begin now.

>> i am the officer for the commonwealth of kentucky. i am excited about the future of the education in our state under the law and to build on the progre progress. we have started the work holding 11 regional town hall meetings with a participation in excess of 3,000 people. kentucky told us what they value in schools and how they design success. we listened and reviewed the comments to shape our work under essa. it is welcomed departure from no child left behind. in kentucky we are working to move all children to higher levels of learning and determining the root cause of achievement gaps which we believe stems from education

gaps and access to opportunities. i commend the u.s. department of education for the quick response in drafting legislation and releasing them in a timely manner for public. when you examine the regulations they contain so many requirements. they stifle creativity, innovation and sovereignty of states to govern their own policy. the volume is in direct opposition for the desire to provide a broad view of school performance. while we understand accountability would start at the beginning of 2018, the proposed reg laze -- regulation

would use information from now and prior to this we will use or docume documents. we will reidentify new schools for the 18-19 school year with the measures of the new system. the proposed regulations claim to replace the success but requiring a single sum of score goes beyond what the statute calls for. they limit the state's ability to take the dashboard approach which is broader, fairer and more accurate representation of school performance and likely to lead to improvement. we found this leads to ranking and doesn't support collaboration. we also found in some instances it becomes more about adults

chasing points and trying to gain the system rather than the actual performance. i am concerned the proposal will exceed statutory authority and promote harmful consequences for students. when the department published the rule i urge you to review it closely and to encourage that it informs and conforms to congressional intent and avoids the negative consequences from the proposals in this area. kentucky is addressing the formal comments to us. now more than ever, what states need to implement the honest two-way communication, consistency and be trusted to make good decisions. we support a quality system of assessment.

measures will promote what is doing right for students. however, a compliance mentality prevails. even though our waiver allows kentucky to give the reference test in science, us-ed told us the science test wasn't aligned with the current standards and report reflections that are not true to the students' learning. we wanted to do what was right for students and not waste money on a meaningless test. we have new tests that will be implemented in the same hereof as the ssa. if this law truly represents a new day in education for america

states must have the support to take action based on quality and what is best for students and move away from compliance mentality. the commonwealth of kentucky looks forward to the revised rules that the insure opportunities for all students and promote pillars of equity, achievement and education. quality implementation is critical. no great education initiative ever failed have the vision stage. it failed in the implementation stage. >> ms. harrison you are recognized >> thank you for having me. i am a math teacher on a special assignment working with special education teachers in aurora,

colorado. i am in classrooms daily collaborating with teachers to best support students with disabilities. my entire career has been working with students behind their grade level. students in my school district speak over 130 different languages and free and reduced lunch is at 71%. every child, regardless of family income, ethnicity or home language, deserves to attend a school with opportunities. this belief is what drives me daily. it is also why i am here to speak on the promise of essa. not only for our students in colorado but across the nation. ncob had strengths like the use

of the segerated data to help close achievement gaps -- seg u it was a one size all approach that didn't work. the passage of essa offered a shift from the top down decision making to bottom up state and local control. finally, educators closest to the students they teach would determine what is best for their students. it required engaging stakeholders to assess community assets and challenges to drive school improvement. we were promised relief from the excessive focus on standardized testing that wasn't timely or meaningful to educators or students. in order to insure the appropriate intersection of

local, state and federal policy that is best for our students all stakeholders must be engage. including educators, students, parents and community members. as strong as i feel the legislation is about giving local leaders back their voice in their accountability process i am worried extensive areas dictated under the proposed federal regulation take away my voice. for example, the accountability regulations tell us that colorado must have a summit of rating system with three levels of proficiency overall and with each subgroup of students. i know this requirement is nowhere in the law and something we were supposed to decide at the state level. it upsets the balance to find legislation and returns to focus to standardized test by diminishing the importance of

the student and school support indicator. we shift back to a failing system that is overly focused on test. as an educator in a school with a high number of english learners i am concerned about the rules of obtainment for english language proficiency within a period of time after a students' identification. this should be determined by ed educat educators. some arrive with limited schooling and we must accept educator decision on this. i am concerned about the consequences for districts that fail to meet the 95% requirement for testing. while the law retains the

requirements insure students are participating in the test the proposed regulations dictate the actual consequences schools must face. instead of punishing districts we should help them find solutions to solve the lower participation rate and how to handle lower test participation rates was supposed to be determined at the state level and once again the department is taking away that opportunity. i ask that you honor your commitment to our students and essa by respecting the legislation to include educator voice at the local and state level as we know our students best. it is time to give those with actual teaching experience the opportunity to have a say. this work ahead of us is intensive but imperative so every child has an opportunity to attend a great public school

and succeed. >> thank you for that. i realize by the look on some of the witnesses face i should introduce myself. >> i am the chair of the committee on k-12. so welcome to each of you. ms. holly you are recognized. >> chairman klein, ranking member scott and members of the community, thank you. we have a long history of working alongside educators, advocates and policymakers to close gaps in opportunity and achievement. let me begin as we always do with data. in the years since we had federal requirements for annual testing reporting and serious accountability for the result of every group of children results on the national assessment

education progress, and high school graduation rates are up especially for low-income students and students of color. of course, policies themselves don't pose gaps and raise achievement. only the hard work of educators, students and families can do that. the smart policy is a source of urgency to address problems that would languish and it is critical we don't loose that. the data is clear that far too many young people are still not getting the quality education they need and deserve. what does this mean for us? in short, we need to pickup the pace of improvement not back off. thankfully the law you crafted contains important levers that can help including state-wide assessment, accountability systems that expect progress

from groups of students who have been behind and prompt action when any group is struggling and opportunities to learn for all groups of students. implementing this must be done to a way that is responsive to state and local context and builds on educators and communities. the need for state and local decision making does not mean from now on the u.s. department of education should recede in the background. indeed, the department has the authority and the responsibility to insure that the equitty goal of essa are honored. i will note the consensus reached on assessment regulations through negotiated rulemaking process is an important example of those confidant in the regulatory process and the need for clarification of the statute. looking for the accountability, public reporting and state plans

they clarify and bolster the law provisions in many way including the requirement that all indicators in the accountability system be segregated by each group of students. the school can't sweep the performance of some students under the rug. super groups can't take the place of individual student groups and progress among one group can't decline another. the priority of the outcomes so everyone is focused. schools can't return to the old practice and is opting out on test day. and the requirement that all schools receive a rating and parents get an at-glance view. it is important to have ratings in which public reportings of

dashboards and that is not true. these ratings can exist alongside the public data that goes into the ratings and measures beyond those ratings. there are areas when the proposed grades must be improved. for example, the definition of consistent under performance for subgroups is essential to make sure struggling students get the support they need. some of the options undermine the expectation that when any group or school isn't making progress those students must get support. instead had actions signal it is only okay to act in some schools where students are struggling and leave others to languish. the importance of the rules has been made clear in the recent months with states that begun implementation.

including educators that can't be desegerated and using super groups in place of individuals has been seen. we will work along side partners in the business and civil rights community to remain vigilant and we urge leaders in congress and the department to do the same. thank you. >> doctor you are recognized for fibminut five minutes. >> thank you very much. i would like to thank the chairman and ranking member and the entire work of the group to complete this act. this new law holds states and school districts accountable why allowing significant flexibility. tight on goals and loose on means correlates to students achievement. under essa the role of the federal government is one of

supporting and strengthening our nation's schools. it realigns the balance of authority so the federal government can attain the focus on closing achievement gaps and empowering state and leaked leaders to make the day to day decisions that trectly impact the school systems we need. state and local agencies have an opportunity to examine schools now with the inclusion of a non-academic indicator. this represents a dramatic shift from the focus on snap shot testing to a more comprehensive, well-rounded system to assess school quality. at the national conference on education, the schools superintendent association launched a research base, multi metric initiative to redefine what it means to be college-ready. under essa you have given us permission to dream, lead and transform public education in

this country and we will do just that. i applaud the department's proposed regulation to leaving the end size to the states. i am concerned about the regulation regarding two-year time frame for states to identify under performing schools. it is my belief that the determination of a time frame should be a broader context of a state account about system. i am concerned about 200.18 that requires a state plan to include one rating for each category. essa doesn't require each school to be rated by a single indicator. we should move away from reducing our schools and teachers down to one single letter or number. another concern is a proposed regulation identifying schools need in support of improvement for the start of the 17-18 school year.

states are developing their implementation plan now. how can they be held accountable for metrics not developed in the coming school years. it is unfair to students, teachers, parents and the communities to be judged by unknown metrics. i am happy they don't define the weight and lack of weight of indicators but i have concerns about the indirect weight to those education indicators. i support the right of students in foster care to have transp transportation to their school of choice but it is deemed when transporting children in foster care, it is the district's responsibility to cover transportation cost if no agreement is reached. it is troubling this proposal will create a new financial

burden for many districts especially in a manner that at such direct odds with what essa requires. essa's careful language requires a collaborative approach between child welfare agencies and the districts and if there are additional cost to the districts provides assistance for the child under three specified conditions. i belie i would suggest there is no need for the regulation is as the statutory language is clear. i would note i have strong reservations about the supplement not to the plan. i am concerned the proposal blurs the line between two equally important statutory provisions. supplement and compreability. i would urge the department to

use restraint in issuing regulations but playing a critical role through the sharing of best practices and technical assistance. the volume that will be considered and adopted means that states, schools and school districts will need a clearing house to chair what is working -- what isn't working and what why learn along the way. imagine the department being a repository with issues facing the u.s. schools. america's teachers and school district leaders will not let you down. i am confidence our public education system will be better as a result of this being the law of the land. >> you are hitting on your last comments there on something i

was trying to get out of dr. king but i ran out of time. that is, using this as a back door for comparability. >> it is a concern because compraabilicom comprability allowed us to not focus on salaries and we cannot dictate who applies to our schools. if that regulation ends up happening, the end result of that will be forced transfers and that is a huge concern. >> force transfers because isn't it true that the significant part of any school budget is

personnel cost. >> absolutely. >> if you are balancing that through compreability you are transfers students from one school to another. >> i had an an elementary school, title 1, and that school looked different and as a result the people that applied to be in that school setting had a specific school set. if i was forced to make sure the salaries for elementary schools for title and non title were the same i would be forced to move people out of the school that i needed >> you are hurting the title one student who were supposed to be helped. your testimony is the proposal here has a strong potential of hurting low-income students that

title one is supposed to help? >> it definitely could. >> and ms. hall talks about the ability to have indication and the retrieval-rich data as well. you were negative on the sum of the aspect of the collection. can you go into more detail there? i agree with you. >> when we are looking at the measures a lot of time they are not fully aligned to what is happening in our schools because of the nature of some of the standardized assessments we are using. >> examples? >> if you look at the assessment items that were used on tests

that were allowed to create assessments you don't get at that rich understanding that we want to see kids are showing. i support as a teacher a more local assessment. i err to being conscious the data received from the assessments can't be used to guide instruction and improve outcomes. >> thank you. you were critical in your testimony of the accountability proposal offered by the department. do you want to go into know more detail? more specifically were you witness to the first panel with dr. king? >> i was. >> want to comment on that panel at all?

>> i think it would be fair to say his interpretation of the regulations is different than ours. >> ours being who? >> kentucky in particular. we have been supported by school officers as well. for us, the accountability in particulary is easy to say 17-18 will be the first year because that is what is required. however, the fact that we have to identify schools in 16-17 or 17-18 keeps the old system for another year. in kentucky, we have two schools at the same time listed in the top five percent and bottom five percent because the systems were significantly enough different. it creates a distrust of the system and people don't pay

attention and we don't see the movement we need to see. >> final question, do you have reason to believe dr. king or the department of education know your kids better than you do? >> absolutely not. my kids are my kids. >> mr. scott, you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i guess this is for everybody. i want to know if there is a situation that is good policy to with hold school resources to help improve the school just because the school is actually improving one indiicator but failing to perform for the children? should we be able to withhold school improvement resources?

just because they are improving on one but failing in others? okay. ms. hall, the statue requires meaningful factor and assessment for participation rates require states to meaningful factor in the rates for the accountability systems. how do you require a school level consequence if they missed their participation rate? >> i think it is important to remember why that requirement is there in the first place because the value of the statewide annual assessments is to provide a common measure stick that applies for all students across classrooms schools and districts. if we don't have full participation because students

are opting out or history shows schools opting out low performers on test day we undermine the value and credibility of that information. when it comes to insuring that test participation is clear in the school accountability system it can happen in a number of ways including making that clear in the rating the school that was previously going to get for example an a could become a b. there are options allowed for states but i believe it is incredibly important to make sure that the value of the information isn't undermined by only having some students participate and if there is low participation that must be clear. >> thank you. mr. pruit, you have been working n on accountability, equality and equity.

two things. how do you ascertain the bottom five percent that have to be addressed? and how do you use the assessment to actually spur improvement? >> i would say to your second question first. the reason i am in support of the dashboard is it allows us to disaggregate school behavior. we allowed schools to hide other things by doing this in particular not guaranteeing a whole, well-rounded education for all students. so for me, the dashboard allows us to take a look across. i realize with the school report cards we had extra data but in kentucky people don't look past the sum score.

a dashboard really cast a spotlight for me on insuring we are focused on the right things. it is more of a laser like focus to see improvement as opposed to a scatter shot approach. for the bottom five percent, this is where the states i think need that opportunity for us to make that determination. for us, i have a 166 people on eight different committees who are focused on building a new system and part of that is us determining how we would actually identify that bottom five percent in a way that holds people's feet to the fire and makes sure kids are graduating literate, pneumerate and have a well rounded education. at the same time, i think we are at a point in kentucky especially where we need more innovative ways than just

applying numbers. >> thank you. do you think the multi centric approach is a benefit? i want to ask you what the draft regulations, including guardrails to insure performance of traditionally underserved students isn't masked so that your overall score masks those groups. what do you envision with a low subrate but by graduation rate? how do you make sure you are not surmerging the under performing group? >> that is a great question and one thing i love about the system we developed and the dashboard. you develop the architecture of the dashboard for each category.

you build all that up and as you p populate you can sort it by each category. if the lines are going in the same direction at the end, that tells you one thing. if they are both going down it says the state needs to engage. if they are going in opposite directions we need to dig into the data and see what is going on. i love the idea of developing that multi metro approach that research base and then populates the dashboard to drill down on the data. >> i thank the gentlemen and the gentlemen's time is expired. recognize ms. fox for five minutes. >> i want to give a strong thank you for our practicing

professional witnesses here today for your strong, positive commitments to educating the young people in your purview. i think it comes across very, very strongly that you care, that you understand the subjects and that you are really committed to serving the children you ufsh. -- serve. it is great to hear it. i hear it a lot when i am at home from people in your same positions. i know there is a lot of good going on in education in this count country. i want to ask about the foster care regulations raised. i know dr. king said the department released guidance on

that subject just this morning. did you talk more specifically about the current process between school districts and child welfare agencies and what imp pact -- impact the department's proposal would have on you. >> thank you for that question. i have not seen what came out this morning. but now we sit down with the child welfare agency and engage about how we can best serve that child. the concern with this legislation is it precludes the child welfare agencies from being in the conversation. if they don't, we will have to come up with the money. i think back to my first superintendent job outside of madison and i had a student who was homeless and we had to provide transportation. it was a very small district outside of madison and the

students home district was milwaukee. i paid over day for a student to be transported an hour and 15 minutes one way and that total cost was over a teacher at the end of the year. i am very concerned about the impact this proposed regulation could have especially on brothers and sisters and colleagues in small rural districts. >> thank you very much for that response. dr. pruit, you take about the restriction the department is putting on state flexibility to design quote consistently under performing close quote. i think it is pretty clear you have been talking about this already in the state of kentucky. but would you expand on that just a little bit. >> absolutely. as some of my colleagues mentioned already the fact we

are so focused on math and reading for such a long time, not to say we should not be still, but there are other factors that are equally as important. for me, personally and i think we are hearing this more and more in our state, it is the issue of opportunity. so for us, when we look at our persistently low-scoring school, we need to see what they are offering. the days of offering algebra one and algebra light and algebra low carb need to end. we need to start guaranteeing every kid is getting the education they need and every kid is getting a level of expectation they will only serve to help them be successful. for us, i want us to be able to really have an open playbook where we can say, you know, your kids are doing horriblely in achievement or some are doing

good in achievement but horrible in what they are offering. i want to have more of that latitude sthat we can take a god hard look at the school behavior i mentioned and guarantee every kid is getting the offering of the high expectation that education they deserve. >> thank you very much. for anybody who has taught we all know it is so important to teach at the level the students are able to perform. and every time i meet a great math teacher i say you are worth your weight in gold. thank you for doing that as well as having such a well-rounded per spebt spective. i yield back. >> i thank the gentlelady and

agree with her remarks. >> thank you to the panel. i can sense your commitment as well and your commitment to education and your commitment to making certain that had every student succeeds act is implemented in a way that provides that opportunity to students. i am not an educator but spent 16 years as a very involved public school parent and got to the point where my kids said mom, do you always have to be at school. ...

the high-stakes associated with the testing what i saw incredibly problematic and i share your hopes the new education law will better use for assessments, fewer better assessment. i worked very hard to get provision in the law to allow states industries to eliminate test and get education more time to plan and design instruction based on data from high quality and timely assessments. can you discuss how the department and state leaders and local school districts can work together to make sure assessments to provide useful information to teachers and families, including the statewide assessments that were authorized in the legislation by bipartisan members of congress? >> so i've had the privilege of working on some of our former assessments, i do think we

started out with the idea of making sure we really have educators involved in these conversations. and this goes at the local, state and the federal level. i think it's really important that we continue to look at how we are developing our assessments because it's really educated force that really no kind of what this actually looks like in the classroom and the type of information we would want back to be look at how we are doing. >> thank you. my state of oregon is an early adopter of adaptive testing and tremendous potential. ms. hall, do you want to discuss that as well? i share your perspective it is important to assess students. we need to make sure we are doing the right thing. >> absolutely. we appreciate your leadership on efforts to support states and to approach states to audit

assessments and eliminate low-quality, duplicative, underlying assessments. we know there are to many assessments and some are districts and that's a waste of money and worse, a waste of time both for teachers and for students. we appreciate your support on that. that said, it is important not to go too far, right? we do need that consistent measure from assessment that is aligned with state standards to be able to tell educators, help parents, help policymakers how every student is doing relative to state set standards. and that allows to identify both those students, though schools, those districts that are struggling to target resources and support to those areas because also must identify consistently students, schools,

districts that are doing an exceptional job, particularly with low income students, students of color, in which learners and students with disabilities. those are areas we need to both celebrate and we need to learn from. because they're getting the kinds of results all students of high level which is the goal, all of our work here. >> i don't mean to interrupt. another quick question. dr. pruitt, you talked about, i want to talk about the alternative, students with significant cognitive disabilities, the alternative has a very specific requirements. our intention is not to pigeonhole students but to provide a pathway to meaningful to pull the. county plan to develop high quality password for the students with the most significant cognitive disabilities and will you prevent this path with becoming a loophole that prohibits students with this goes from -- >> absolutely. we have to protect our students.

to our most vulnerable but we need to protect our diplomas to mean something. i do want to ever have a child walk across the stage in kentucky and get a diploma that is not even worth the paper it's printed on. we are going to work really hard with our special ed kennedy, our civil rights community to put some pretty hard places in their to say this is exactly what we're expecting with these diplomas. we were close with our district. but we are going to do our level best to ensure that nobody can game the system in such a way that the adults benefit with a student doesn't. >> my time has expired but i'm going to follow up in writing about the transportation. i yield back. >> mr. gunther is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. when we talk about discussing this, the three people have concerns with rule our practitioners and public education. they are not think tank. people who want children to

learn, they want to make the public school system and. we can talk about other stuff later but public schools, invest in the public school systems. those are where the concerns are coming from. i just wanted to point that out. like being equals 30 earlier discussion with the secretary said if we can't account which all these other things the law requires, the law allows you to set your own number but if we don't said from washington they will not be able to comply with everything else. it seems you guys don't know what you're doing at that is really frustrating. it just assumes a few smart people in a room in washington, d.c. figure out, and it works for everybody. the next example strength on the bottom 5%. sectors said you couldn't do it without a summative rating. you were saying i think in these the people across our great commonwealth can't figure out how to set up a rating system that gives you what you need according to the law but also gives you what you need to make sure kids learn better. i think that's the beauty of her country and what you guys are doing is taking new ideas and

bringing them up and that's exactly what we tried to do in a bipartisan way. my friend just said that she thought for certain parts to be in the. this is really a collaborative effort and we are afraid the rules are coming out and taking away what we wanted to have digitized and input. one thing that struck me because you into to my questions i was going to ask is that you said under the old system in new system because of the year you and one that was top 5%, the new system bottom 5%? how does that work? how does it to systems generate such different results? what's the details of that? >> in the old system actually they were in the priority, the bottom five. so because of the criteria, they had to stay in that going into the new system. the two systems overlap in such a way it didn't allow a reset button or refresh button if you will. so under the new system where there was a much greater

equality of the system, other programs and not just the achievement of the quality of the programs can what we found was the schools are some of our best performance when you look at them a broad range of criteria. so as a result they are stuck. they were probably come off of the priority list in the next year, but because they were stuck there to start with in the old system, it really has created a sense of distrust in the system by the fact is when you look at any list from it that you see these schools as distinguished and as poorly. >> when you that town hall meetings, talk about the process and people showed up for the town hall meetings, practitioners and parents concerned, well attended and well promoted and he did a really good job. so talk about the process and then what happens when you're the system that people don't trust? >> sure. we decided early to think we have to do is be out in the

field. if we really wanted to develop a system that reflected the value of kentucky, i need to listen to kentucky spirit i can't make good decisions sitting in frankfort. one of the reason why it's important states have the authority to do this because you can't make those decisions sitting in washington. we had 11 downfalls. at all of our town halls we never had less than about 200, and we had over 300 in several cases. we had well over 3000 people who showed up. get parents, teachers, superintendents, local board members, legislators, community leaders, civil rights members who came and told us what they valued. so we took that. we videoed each one. we took notes on each one. we posted the up for anybody to be able to see. >> what did you learn? i'm going to run out of time. >> we learned kentuckians want a simple system that makes clear what performance is not the

appearance of performance. we learned that the education of all child must be critical and not just focus on math and reading. and we learned that we got to cut down on competition between our district and presenting of our children, our commonwealth. so that we actually perpetuate a system or districts are willing to work together to ensure kids get what they need as opposed to i have to be better than you for me to get my veteran rating. rating. >> i guess if we have all these town hall, i may think, personally how could you rate the school if you don't have a similar rating? but you may -- that's the beauty of what this what's going to do so we've got people who really care about what they're doing, passionate. innovative and it helps everybody. mr. chairman, i ran out of time. i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. pruitt, i'm fascinated by not only reading your testimony

but you seem to be ahead of the curve as far as what they understand a lot of sutured doing, and to address have implement this new law. one of the things that i was interested in been reading your testimony was how are you having engaged the business community. what i've seen it is the business community obviously benefits from in educated society. and, of course, business communities make their decisions where they locate based on a skilled workforce, and educated workforce. so, in fact, in several areas in my district, people ask me, how do we recruit industry? i say we cut to educated workforce. how do we do that? it's a challenge, and as far as

your experience in the business community, what are you seeing and how is your business community address this incredible need to get folks back to work in this country? >> great question. you know, workforce is inextricably linked to education. and so we have, i think we are very lucky in our state that we have a governor and our legislature who is very focused in improving workforce, investing every of my that i have particular interest in as well. one of the things we liked about the rig is a duty of career and technical education. it's just come we are actually recognizing it as a major portion of the students educational experience. i think we are recognizing that since i graduated from high school is not enough. that should not be a terminal degree. or diploma. that we actually need to be trained students to go, whether they going to university or itu

technical college or correctly to the crew workforce. we have to provide all those opportunities laid out for students and do a good job counseling and. we've had a great relationship with our workforce and education in that we're working our kentucky workforce innovation board to have the business community tell us so that we can develop pathways for specific jobs that are needed in different regions of kentucky. so as we work, we are actually act asking them. which pathways are important so we can attract better business to our communities because level workforce that is able to meet the needs because we're not just randomly getting career tech credit. we are actually focused on giving the greatest necessary to be able to fill the job needs. spent i congratulate you on your work. >> dr. schuler, traveling throughout my district, which your clothes to in your district

-- close to in your district, area. one of the things of course dr. pruitt mentioned in his testimony educating the whole child. and i was shocked and asking questions. i always ask what is your biggest challenge. and everywhere i went they talked about the emotional health of these young people. and, of course, we're talking about how do you educate the empire person you're do you care to comment on any issues you are having and maybe how you all are addressing that? >> we just engaged in her district an entire community conversation about the exact topic. been talking about what does make sense, how are we insured and the emotional, mental health of our kids, and a recoding too much stress and pressure on them. it's been an awesome conversation.

so starting in two years we are going to start our high schools later in the day based on the research. we found a way to come back to take a short lunch period so kids are not there late at night. wheels that parameter limits on how long actresses and activities can last. and we are providing some divvies what we're asking our staff and our students not to do work, for weakens to year we said it will be a kid. staff, focus on your family. because we need people to step away a little bit but come back completely reengaged. i'm really excited about that, to see if it has an impact but we have to do something to ensure that we're providing for the whole child and that's what's been so frustrating i think the last couple of years, and white leaves a couple of us are up here today concerned none of that conversation is about a score. none of the stuff dr. pruitt is doing is talking about a score.

we have to provide access and opportunities to rebuild our communities. >> my time is expired. >> thanks much. the first one is for anyone so we will see the docs first. i have been here secretary king's testimony, but i wonder if any of you, let me start with dr. pruitt and work my way across the table, is there anything you said you would like to respond to? >> i think, i mentioned this earlier, i think some of his interpretations of what are in the regs were different from our interpretations. i was being kentuckians. i really don't think that he sees the timeline issue the same way we view. having a conflation between 16, 17 identification and 70-18. in ancient 17-18 was a pioneer which was new to me. i had not heard that before. my understand was 17-18 was the year that you started.

if it's a planning year that i think maybe we could have a little bit more time to actually engage more stakeholders and build a better system. maybe i missed that part but for me that was a bit of news. so maybe i have to go back and reread at the way understand it's actually have accelerated it, and in my opinion current regs would cause the current system to actually stay in place because it limits my ability to be innovative. it limits my ability to be able to do something new and special. >> okay. >> okay. i just like to emphasize again the importance of teacher voice. as you probably read in my testimony, i do work in some of our lowest performing schools in colorado, and with teachers on the ground daily come and what we would like to see is allowing our teachers to elevate their

voices on what to do to actually improve outcomes for our students in these conditions. once again, teacher voice. it's really hard for someone up here in d.c. to start dictating what we should be doing. it's really hard. thanks. >> i think we heard the secretary talked many times about the importance of stakeholder engagement and getting feedback through this entire implementation process. and i believe that there are many instances where the department has made good on that and is continuing to make good on that. we also heard the secretary talked about putting guardrails in place but still allowing states and local decisions in key places. and i believe that the regulatory proposal in many instances allows for that. one of the examples that he talked about was identifying schools that are consistently

underperforming, based on states set goals, not federally prescribed goals but those that are based on an analysis of state david. and i really appreciated that. >> this is the first time in 15 years that we have the opportunity as people in the field and in the states to develop an innovative, creative ways to address the goals of essa and i'm super concerned about the tight timeline, almost ending up not getting as that time to go and collectively engage stakeholders in authentic ways and plan for the implementation. we want to transform and lead. we can do that. we just need time to engage in a process. i'm very concerned a tight timeline is going to result in the continuation of what has been, and that is not what we want. >> i have a question. recently i did discussion with somebody who's very involved in the system. had been a teacher, now i think

he is a tutor. kind of interesting that you felt we would get more input from the teachers did when i was in the state legislature years ago i still think it's right, that would bar the use of calculators on standardized tests. part, i thought that was one of the reasons why our children having such a hard problem with math and that they were not developing the ability to play with numbers in their head. i wonder what your comments were on that, whether you felt like my friend that was one of the reasons why our kids are underperforming in math. while i don't like the federal government imposing something families on the state level we are to take those cavaliers the weight and force those kids to play with numbers in their mind. in 15 seconds, please. >> all right.

i support a balanced approach when it comes to calculators. it depends on what you were doing. inside you think it is important for kids to be flexible with numbers, but there's also some problem solving that is at a higher level that we might want to incorporate the use of a calculator to reach the more complex problem solving situations. >> gentlemen's time is expired. mr. scott, you are recognized for closing. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you for convening the hearing. a lot of issues were brought forward. one of which was the idf supplement not supplant. since then i indicated citizen brown decision, there's a constitutional responsibility to provide education, and equal educational opportunity. and supplement not supplant should be supplemental over and

above, not an unconstitutionally underfunded level, but what it should've been, at least the very minimum under constitution providing equal educational opportunity. then it should be supplemental because under the elementary and secondary education act of 1965 we recognize the challenges that occur when there is significant concentration of poverty. so we need to make sure that we do not excuse those localities that are not funding education up to at least the constitutional level. a lot of other issues that came up but i think the secretary indicated that were in the comment period and comments need to be made on regulations. now is the time to make those comments known. he also indicated that he's going to be seriously considering all of the comments, and there's no reason to believe

that he won't. so, mr. chairman, thank you for giving the witnesses, the secretary and our panel the opportunity to comment on the regulations. we did a lot of work to enact the every student succeeds act, a bipartisan effort, and we hopefully can continue to go forward in a bipartisan manner. >> i thank the gentleman. i thank them for the letter and spirit of his comments. we both sat at the final negotiating table, and the fact of the matter is a lot is the law. it was very clear on supplement and supplant. and on the testimony even yesterday as we've heard for several years now, to do so otherwise than what is in the current law is to have a high likelihood of hurting those very kids that we are supposed to be helping. so with that i want to thank each one of you for your

leadership, both locally and nationally, and i'm inspired and motivated as well, as the members here are by the work you provide. we do open and expect the leadership will continue. because it's going to be needed now and implementation as well as the oversight basis of what is a very promising law. as dr. roe said in the first panel, that is inspiring teacher at the local of is to continue teaching and maybe even come back to the profession and what a great sign that is and would continue to be. i agree also with mr. scott about engaging the need to engage stakeholders. as you said, dr. pruitt company think you'll mention the comment period is life. the deadline is august 1. those of you at the witness table who are represented by associations, those associations will be making comments for sure. but that does not prohibit any of you as individuals or your counterparts or appears from making comments as well.

we've all heard how often dr. king just today used the term feedback, and we should make sure there is no excuse on the table for him, for us, or for anybody in this process to not have that feedback. and so i didn't august 1 thing the deadline. the time is now, and as you all leave, hope you and your counterparts will all step up. with that see no further business before the committee, this committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

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[inaudible conversations] >> in about one hour, jake sullivan speaks at the truman center's annual conference. event also includes panel discussions on terrorism financing, conflict zones and refugee migration. see those comments live at 5:15 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. >> booktv has 48 hours of nonfiction works and authors every weekend. here are some programs coming up this weekend.

lead prosecutor in the o.j. simpson trial weighs in on the legal system and discusses her second career as a novelist. she's the author of the book blooddefense . we spoke with ms. clark at the publishing industry's annual trade show, book expo america in chicago.go to book tv.org for the weekend schedule. >> c-span road to the white house coverage continues sunday with remarks from hillary clinton at the us conference of mayors. that's taking place this year in indianapolis and you can see mrs. clinton's comments live at 4 pm eastern on c-span. then an interview with fellow candidate bernie sanders on his life and career in politics, senator santos sat down with c-span earlier this week for that conversation, we show it to you saturday at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. eastern. with the political primary

season over, c-span's road to the white house take you to this summer's political convention. watch the republican national convention darting july 18 with live coverage from cleveland will be going into the convention no matter what happens and i think were going to go in so strong and watch the democratic national convention in july 25 with live coverage from philadelphia. >> let's go forward, let's win the nomination and in july, let's return to a unified party. >> and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to philadelphia pennsylvania. [applause] >> every minute of the republican and democratic parties national convention on c-span, c-span radio and c-span.org. next, democratic party

officials discussed the planning for their national convention next month in philadelphia. preparations for security and protests as well as ways to achieve party diversity and unity. held at the national press club, this is 45 minutes. >>. [inaudible conversation] good afternoon. my name is thomas burke, i'm a washington correspondent for the salt lake tribune and the 100 19th president of the national press club. we are 34 days away from the democratic national convention. she's counting down. in philadelphia. it's been a long road here, especially for a certain presumptive nominee for the

party who may not have expected such a flight. they where happy to welcome to the press club philadelphia mayor jim kenney along with convention ceo leo daughtry and host committee executive director kevin washo. given the four-day extravaganza that will draw an estimated 50,000 people or more, it seems like a good time to talk to these folks here about what we will expect. by way of quick instructions, jim kenney became philadelphia's mayor in january this year. prior to his election he served as counsel in march where he worked with his colleagues to bring the convention to philadelphia. the mayor also served on the council when the city hosted this republican convention. the reverend leo daughtry is the chief executive officer of the 2016 national convention.daughtry is the first person to manage a democratic convention for a second time.previously she had served as ceo for the 2008 convention in denver where president obama received his party's

nomination. kevin washo served as executive director of the philadelphia 2016 host committee for the democratic national convention, overseeing all aspects including its operations, fundraising, community outreach and strategic partnerships. he assumed this role at her having coordinated philadelphia's successful bid to host the dnc. they will offer short remarks and then we will take questions. mister mayor, i'd like to start with you good afternoon and thank you, it's an honor to be in this procedures and well-known place in washington and also a mayor honor to be the new mayor of philadelphia since january 2016 and to have the dnc choose philadelphia at the place to make history in our country which will be made in the end of july in philadelphia. we are, we've been doing big events in philly for some time. the 2000 rnc went very well. we just had the pope which was a huge, huge,

unbelievably difficult to manage events which we did and we had made america for a number of years now and the parkway. our fourth of july ceremonies and concert on the parkway are large events, looking at 50,000 people or so. the pope had much more than that and we want to make sure that people are safe, that our delegates are safe, the press is safe and everyone who comes and our visitors are safe, we want to make sure people have an opportunity to experience the fun. this is a participatory democracy and the key is to participate so there will be events at the pennsylvania convention center which will be free for votes, events all around the city that are free and we want people to stay in philadelphia, not leave town but to stay in philly and enjoy it and we want to make sure that people have an opportunity to express their first amendment life rights as long as they would like and make sure everyone is kept safe and that process also. we look forward to hosting

the world, actually because we know there's so much international attention to this particular event and we're proud to put our best foot forward and show the world a good time and we're happy to be here in philadelphia and hope we will see you there. thank you. >> good afternoon. thank you for inviting me today. the role of the media is critical to our convention and it is incumbent upon us and we understand the importance of getting you as much information as you need to help us get our message out about what we propose to do as a party should the american people trust us with their vote. putting on a convention is like putting together a puzzle. a massive jigsaw puzzle, and if you know anything about

me, you know i love puzzles. so this is the perfect job for me. every piece has a specific purpose, fits in a specific place and the puzzle cannot be complete until all the pieces are in their places and four months, and for people like kevin on the host committee and me, our work has been going onfor years . and the puzzle is very near completion. we are thrilled to be in philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, sisterly affection and we believe there is no better place for us to start convention than in the birthplace of american democracy. in just 34 days, when democrats assemble in philadelphia, they will encounter a convention that looks like our party and looks like our nation. although the convention schedule has not been set yet, viewers and attendees can expect that the first evening we will accomplish our party's business, adopting the rules and platform and convention officers and then we will move into the meat of the

conventionculminating in the nomination of our vice presidential and presidential candidates for president . in the midst of all the excitement, we cannot forget that the delegates are coming to philadelphia to do the business of our party. as ceo of this convention and having also served in this role in 2008 and havingworked on every convention since 1992, i started when i was three , i am uniquely aware of what's at stake for the convention and ultimately for this election. while the convention doesn't kick off until july, we've already begun the important work of shaping a vision or our party through the national platform drafting process. our party'splatform is our mission , a statement of our principal as democrats. an unprecedented open process, we have asked democrats to make their voices heard and participate in the drafting process with written testimony, by

submitting video testimony, by giving us comments online via mail, all these additional ways and we've been thrilled with the overwhelming response we received from democrats across the country. our first drafting here will was held the week before last in washington dc where we focused on issues around the economy, foreign policy, education and equality. this past weekend we were in phoenix, arizona to discuss health and safety, the environment and energy and expanding and protecting our american democracy. issues such as voting rights, voter protections and campaign-finance reform. we have seen a productive and in-depth process with an exchange of views. through this platform and we are looking forward to sharing with convention the document, a statement of principles that embodies all of who we are as democrats. as we celebrate these ideals, the ideal that make us a party, that unite us as a

party, i'm also mindful of the distinct opportunity we have two juxtapose our convention with the republican convention, what i like to call the chaos in cleveland that will occur the week before. our convention will display a vision for a brighter future. there's will be rhetoric about that place with the least admirable aspects of human nature. fear, selfishness, hatred and exclusion. it is our job to show the world why our party offers a better vision. in fact, as far as i'm concerned, the only vision to move the american people forward. one that will continue to put our country on the path toward the future. back in philadelphia, my team is in high gear. it takes a lot of work to put together a convention that

looks good and feels good for our 6000 delegates and alternates and for the 20,000 or so friends that we have in the media. we have 15,000 hotel rooms and 95 hotels, or hundred buses, 12,000 square feet of media workspace and the list goes on. we've been fortunate to have the input of governors, mayors, senators, members of congress and the local philadelphia community as we have set our plans and we're expecting more than 500 dignitaries from around the world will be part of the democratic institute program this year. we know that the world is watching and we are committed to building a convention that is reflective of america and on july 25, that is exactly what you will see. so we look forward to your questions and to seeing you in philadelphia where we will make history again. thank you. >> that's great to be here

and on behalf of the host committee, i was actually thinking about this when i walked into this building, the last time i was here was 21 years ago, a sophomore at scranton prep high school so it's hard to believe it's now 34 days out from the convention that we're going to give a little bit of an update so it's an honor to be here . before i make remarks i want to thank mayor kenny for his leadership. the mayor was a huge proponent for the convention and the time with his team and leadership team has been fantastic and is going to be a huge success but also leah daughtry. leah and i have become fast friends over the last year and a half and to say that the dnc and host committee has a good working relationship would be an understatement. if you look over the past 18 months, many of the things we are working on together have been a huge success and we are focused on making sure the city is going to host the convention that the democrats are proud of and were going to be proud of the city to show off all the amenities we have to offer but the thing about perspective, i've been on in this project for 3 and a half years. we're down to 34 days. but it's going to be a great opportunity for the city.

in many ways, you can't put a price on the coverage that were going to get. if you haven't been to philadelphia in the last five years, you haven't really been to philadelphia. if you walk the streets you can see the vibrancy, the young people moving in, check out the restaurants we have, it's in many ways second to none. that's something we're excited to show off. in hindsight, the mayor mentioned this, we hosted the holy father for the royal reunion of families and that's something where the world media decided to come to philadelphia but if you think about it, the convention is topping the city had to go after and go after hard because it was a competition and it would have been easy for the leadership in the corporate community and the government say were going to take a pass for the 2016 convention and maybe look to the future cause we were coming off such a major event with millions of people coming in from the world meeting but it's a testament to the mayor's leadership and our host committee's leadership to say we're going to take on this big event, going to take on this challenge on the heels of the

world meeting and we are rising to the challenge and i think over the next four or five weeks, people that come into the city are going to see a great city and were going to be very proud of. a few stories i have, and why i think this is a special project. outside of all the things we will show off about the city in terms of keeping people in and our program work, this is also an opportunity to work with some of our sponsors to make sure they get to work on some of the things they care about and one example is summer youth employment, something mayor kenny champions on a daily basis. we were in new york a year and a half ago raising funds because you have to raise a lot of money for these conventions but raising money in new york and we sat down with some executives from j.p. morgan and they said our biggest program is summer youth employment. philadelphia has a strong record in summer youth employment, mayor kenny's record is in summer employment so what if we

teamed up with the city to find a good vehicle for that? about a year ago, we teamed up with j.p. morgan and philadelphia youth network to fund 100 slots for summer youth to make sure they have jobs in the city of philadelphia for the summer so that's the things we are talking about when were talking about the convention. it's going to be fantastic and the work that leah's team is doing is second to none but there's ancillary benefits i don't think people get to see on a daily basis. finally, the last thing i want to talk about in terms of the story, one of the things i think, 2000 when we hosted the republican convention was an event called political fast and everyone didn't get a chance to go into the hall and see a lot of the festivities but what we can do is build some of the festivities to the general public and we teamed up with our convention center and our friends at harvard and c-span and a host of other entities through the country and were going to bring in interactive political museum to philadelphia we can have philadelphians that want to

get the taste of the experience to experience it where they canceled these are things that we're excited about, some of the ancillary benefits that in many ways you can't put a price on but i just want to close and say if you look at over the last 40 or 50 years, there's only been two cities that have hosted both major conventions. new york and after the last week of july in 2016, philadelphia so it's a big accomplishment. and it's something i think we can use as a springboard going forward so with that, i'll sit down so we can take some questions. >> thank you very much, kevin. for the audience, the rest of tries to be nonpartisan, we have invited gop officials to speak. if you are listening online, you may as well have questions if you're a news organizations to questions@press.org. that's questions@press.org. let me start off with a question myself. we go to conventions where

you may see when you are at a convention, it looks like a fortress. how prepared are you for handling civil protests and also camping down or stopping before it starts any riots or protests that might turn violent? >> well, the r word is not something we use. we are prepared. we have a specific site for protests which is right across the street from the wells fargo center. the delegates will be able to see those folks, you have to remember a lot of this has to do with secret service and what they decide to do at the site because that's where the dignitaries they have to protect will be the we have not had a final report from them or asked from them as to what we need to do but again, in 2000, we had people in who were protesting in center city, they were impromptu protesters, some tossing over

of trash cans and planters and the like and you do your best to keep the peace and we are prepared. as i said, we've done big events before and we are not being restrictive to permits. we'd like people to ask for permits because then we know where they are, what time they're going to be there so we can prepare to keep people safe but we're ready and willing and able to have people exercise their first amendment rights. what's the sense of having democracy if you can't say what you think and protest when you want to? obviously the destruction of property or harming anyone is out of bounds , that's not part ofyour first member writes but saying what you want to say as long and as loud as you want to say it, were prepared to let people do that . >> i would just add that we are the big tent party so we pride ourselves on the diversity and welcoming the diversity of opinion and at

every convention i've worked on which is been since 1992, there are always protesters. there are always people with signs and i'vebeen one of those . some of our delegates joined the ranks of the protesters so it's not something that we are surprised at, it's something that we welcome as the mayor has said, we believe in the first amendment and we try to make it easy for folks if they want to set up shop and bring their signs, we prepare an area for the you to do that. our primary concern of course is that everyone is safe, even the protesters are safe and able to exercise their rights in a way that everyone can meet their goals so we're looking forward to having folks who want to come and express an opinion on whatever they want to express opinions about, come on and join the party. were happy to have you and as the mayor has said we are most concerned that everyone is safe, that everyone else abide by the law and other than that it will be like any other democratic convention where there's a lot of people expressing a variety of opinions . >> before you sit down, let

me follow up with a question. beyond the timing advantage you have over the republicans because of the cleveland cavaliers. >> go cavaliers. >> do you have any other advantages writing this that you believe will be key planning their convention? >> on, i think one, it always helps when the administration of the city and the planners of the city or of the same party because there is an interest beyond just the logistical. we also have an interest in making sure that our party puts the best foot forward so that one. obviously, i don't watch basketball but i watched this year. because go calves and that meant they'd have limited time to be in the arena and i think they got in yesterday, i've been in since may 28 so i got a little leg up on them so i think the other advantage we have is we've

got a great team. i've done this before. i've been the ceo before so i bring a certain level of experience to this, i know where the bumps in the road are and how to assemble the team that we need in order to pull off what i strive to be a flawless convention, at least logistically. so i got a great adventure and we have the biggest advantage of the world, a great candidate who actually has something substantial to say to the american people about her platform, and what she proposes to do if the american people trust her with their vote so i convention goes beyond being pure entertainment. it actually offers something substantive and weighty for the american people to consider as their thinking about their future . >> thank you reverend. the audience, please identify yourself and your news outlet when asking a question and wait for the microphone if you would read yes ma'am. >> hi, i'm jennifer wishart

with cnn news. this question is for reverend daughtry. you don't the rnc convention chaos in cleveland and i wonder as you're planning the convention schedule and nailing that down what, how you are addressing ways to promote unity among democrats . >> i think you already see unity starting to happen. i've worked on nine presidential conventions, again, i started when i was three oh when you get toward the end of the cycle, everyone's passions are running high. everyone has invested time and energy into their candidate so nerves are frayed and it's getting to the end and i think we saw a lot of that. once it has been the democratic party's history that once the nominee is established and we know who that's going to be that we rally the troops and folks

tend to come inside the tent. there will always be those who are not coming in the tent and they were never going to be in the tent and that's okay. there will come when they're ready to come in, the tent will be there for them so i believe this will follow the model that we have had and we have seen over the last many presidential cycles and democrats will rally, independence who can go either way will weigh their options, let's see what's out there and make the best decision i think for themselves and the country so i'm not concerned about it. i think you will see that happening. the convention becomes the crown jewel of that moment where it's on display. the unity is on display but it's already happening as you see folks rallying through the presumptive nominee and you see the language changing and the reality setting in, the five stages of grief are fully in process and i think we're going to be fine and we lookforward to a successful november . >> thank you. one second, bob. we have jonathan forrest.

>> jonathan from the philadelphia inquirer. the states records office has said that fundraising donors to the host committee should be made public, so far that's been resisted and hasn't happened. why is the city and the host committee resisted making those donors public? >> thanks. for the record, that's a host committee decision but the donors will be made public. we have to file with the ftc just like cleveland, just like every other pass convention committee. we have to file60 days after the convention . we will file 60 days after the convention with all of our donors and all the accurate amounts and that's the position we've taken and were going to file and make them public likeevery other convention in the past 25 years . >> i have a quick question, just a minute if you would.

coming in from the npr affiliate 8yy in philadelphia, i'm tom mcdonald. this would be addressed to you mister mayer. the congressman and three of his codefendants were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy today, do you have a response or reaction to that decision? >> thank you tom. obviously the jury has spoken. the criminal justice process went forward to read it's my understanding that the congressman who is been convicted cannot vote and i think the district there needs a voting member and you know, the jury has spoken and there's nothing more that i can say other than the district needs a voting member. needs a voting member. i think when the dust settles and obviously it happened today, you've got to give a person a day or so to collect their thoughts and figure out what they want to do and i'm not that person but the district needs a voting member.

>> any further questions? bob. >> hi, thanks. bob weiner, club member and mainstream radio network. you all and reverend daughtry mentioned the diversity that the democratic party will have at the convention. the republican convention invariably shows the three hispanics, for african-americans and probably a muslim or two that will be in the audience and the media focuses on that and they will probably have that many in speakers also so what are you going to do to counter the spin of the republicans on their diversity versus what you claim is the true diversity of the democratic party? >> you know, i don't think we need to do much because we will have as many people of diversity in one delegation as they have on the entire floor. the picture is very clear . when you see the republican

convention on television, that it's not a very diverse people. and juxtapose that with the picture of the democratic convention and every kind of american is present, whether , part of that is our parties rule. we have a rule about people division. half of our delegates must be female so it's guaranteed that that's what america is and we have a process in place that requires the state delegations to use their best efforts to ensure their delegates reflect the diversity of their state. if you do that, it becomes a very simple picture and all you got to do is put them up side-by-side and it becomes clear which convention represents or looks like america. beyond that, our commitment to diversity is obviously what you see on the

convention floor which is the people who run for delegates, who pay their own money, get elected but beyond that we have a commitment to diversity both in front of the camera and behind the scenes so of course our speakers will represent the broad diversity of our party in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, all of that but equally as important is what happens behind the scenes. who's running the camera? whose housing the delegates? what does thestaff look like because anybody can put somebody in front of the camera but who'sin the back making it happen?who are the workers and if you've got a commitment to diversity and you have diversity at every level on every part of your team , on every sector of your vision , if people come behind the scenes you will see the same sort of diversity behind the scenes that you see in front of the camera. our staff is 60 percent female with the percent minority so what you see is not just what we have people talking about, it's what we live and believeon every level , every aspectof what

we present . >> i probably shouldn't ask you your vp pick. let's go to the question that came in online to jamie. the question that came in online? >> this question is from david sark and see who's with the washington times and it's for mayor kenny. how confident are you that you will be adequately prepared for the convention in terms of security and how many applications from protest groups have been received and approved #ácustomá we will be very prepared and i'm not sure the number today but i could get it for you but i'm not sure exactly how many. again, i think it's important that people do apply for a permit so we can maintain their safety and make sure the space is available and that things work right and people have the opportunity to express their views but we are extremely prepared for this. we've done in the past and we

expect to be able to do it well in the future and the end of july. >> follow-up also for mayor kenney and other members of the panel and that is that ed rendell said that the convention was $9.5 million short on funding. what does the fundraising picture for the convention look like right now? >> just to clear the record, $9.6 million short means at the end of this thing were going to be $9.6 million in the hole, that's not the case. when governor rendell was talking about our finance numbers, we were just under 10 million away from the goal and i'll tell you right now thatwe are under that number now so there is no shortfall . were just talking about where we have to go like any campaign, any big endowment to raise money for our university, you're always raising money to the last minute so we don't have funding gap at all, it's just where we are accurately and where a little under 10 million right now. but we're in good shape.

there are nicely put hiccups. are there any problems you foresee right now or any problems you have had so far in the planning, execution of organizing the convention? >> the advantage of this being my second time at bat is that i knew where hiccups were likely. we had a first rate relationship with our host committee.