they've passed this bill, but can't get through the senate so what are they going to do? >> puts the house in position of throwing rocks at the white house for all the way down pennsylvania avenue. it's a long enough reach that you can't really hit the white house with the rocks. i think ultimately, they're going to have a crisis point here in the next few weeks and i don't think they have a way out of it yet. >> february 27th and they're supposed to be here in washington this week and then out the next week. for president's day week. >> i don't think time is a problem. i think coming up with a plan that both the republicans and senate can pass that will get democratic support is the problem and you know the democratic position, this is reminiscent of what nancy pelosi thought to do with republicans on things. in the last congress. i think their position is we're going to stand strong until the republicans come with something clean and then we'll give them our votes to get it passed. that puts speaker boehner and

mcconnell in a bad position because they're going to have to fracture their confidence. this is what happens in washington. it's finding something that ewan fies your side and defies the other. the house republicans felt good about this plan. >> building stronger communities through schools. that's a hard panel to follow from the first one i have to say. that was an amazing panel and we heard great information. and we will do the same here. by name is robert and i'm the president and ceo of the freeman foundation for educational choice. we're honored to be here with senator scott. i'm excited about the panel for three reasons today. one, it features representatives from every sector of k 12 education. public, private and charter. two, it's going to focus on the transformtive power of educational options at the community level for individuals and the community. and three, frankly, it's a panel

full of gift eded people who have been there and done that. people who worked in communities and made real change. one of those gifted people is seated to my right. john mary. sr. john mary is the executive director of catholic education at the united states conference of catholic bishops. she is responsible for supporting the bishops in the development, management and communication of priorities plans and policies for catholic education. she is the go to person when it comes to catholic education and understanding private schools in america. which is not a surprise given that she's been a teacher and administrator at the elementary secondary and higher ed level. we're also joined by dr. steve perry. he is the founder and ceo of one of the top public schools in the country. capital preparatory magnet

school. mostly low income families mostly children of color, graduates 100% of its children and has done so every year since 2006 sending them to four-year colleges. that is worth -- dr. perry is a regular contributor for cnn and msnbc. a best-selling author. a tv host and as soon as you will hear him talk you will see him be one of the most passionate voices for education reform and for real change in communities around the country. next to dr. perry is nina reece, who i've had the honor of knowing for almost 20 years now. she is the president and ceo of the national line of public charter schools. she has over 20 years experience in d.c. most recently is the senior vice president for strategic niche

initiatives for knowledge universe. she has also served as the first assistant deppsy secretary for innovation at the department of education. they never had a secretary for innovation to change before. and nina was the first. that was of course right after she was vice president of dick cheney's deputy assistant policy director for domestic policy so she has a huge history and finally to her right is may ashton, who serves with the board chair and ceo of the network for the newark charter school fund. previously she served as education, sorry, executive director for the new york program, senior adviser for new leaders for new schools and executive director for charter schools in new york city department of education. so, we're going to do the same

thing rick did. first of all, on your seats are a bunch of the social media. please get involved. choosing excellence and the panelists have their twitter handles on your table, so please use them. i'm going to start real quick following up with senator scott asked. at the end of the last panel he said we need to have a grass roots conversation about what's happening to our kids today. so, i'm going to throw this one to you. what's really happening to our kids and families today? how bad is it? >> first of all, thank you and thank you senator scott and all the folks who have assembled here this morning. to have a conversation about the most important issue of all time. which is education. the enlightenment of a generation and opportunity to transform the lives of individuals for whom opportunity hasn't been there. what's happening is the very life force of a generation of young people is being robbed from them and given to the employees of the status quo.

we don't have a school system that is put in place to help our children. we have a school system that is kept in place to ensure that grown people keep their jobs and i have seen too many beautiful children like those here from richard wright and chavez -- who if you had the opportunity to talk to them, they'd tell you the stories of struggles in their communities, but those are not going to hold them down because they're at good schools at choice schools and their lives are being changed every single day. we cannot continue to pour good children into bad schools and expect good things to happen any longer. the biggest challenge to our community quite frankly is not the adversaries, that's not the biggest challenge for us. it's our advocates who are weak and unwilling to fight. they're too apologetic.

they have an issue with calling a failed school a failed school because the local mayor says you're calling a failed school offends her more than having a failed school. if we don't hold our allies accountable, then we ain't never going to get out of the hole that's been dug for us. i'm sorry, you got me warmed up, brother. >> that was the intention. so, that was the intention of course. >> sister, please pray for me. that's why they sat me next to her, so she could put her hand on me. >> so, sister john mary, you're part of the catholic school sector. why do you support parent options? why shouldn't we just have one sector, just a public sector? i'm going to ask that for nina and dr. perry. why should we have competition may be a bad thing or is it a good thing? >> i don't know if it's on. yes. thank you. i think charters have paved the way for options for parents that are very important so in the

catholic community, we educate 1.9 students in the catholic schools schools, but there are many catholic children in the public sector. and therefore, we are as interested in excellent schools as we are necessarily just in catholic schools. and so that's why we're interested in parental choice because it's part of our dna. as a school system is. we exist because we wanted to give parents the right and the choice to be, to choose catholic schools, hence, we are supportive of it 100% from a vantage point of continuing to do that. that's why we're interested in parental choice. also, to piggy back off of dr. perry, is we're very concerned about children. the hope of our society is in this room right now. these are the kids that we have and we through catholic schools, we offer hope through schools, through education.

it is an act of hope. and so we're making a statement to the kids out there, that we care a great deal about who they are and not just what they learn, but who they are by giving parents the opportunity to choose the best school that matters to them. so, that's why we're interested in school choice. >> nina. >> there we go. >> to thank senator scott for hosting this great event, i have been involved in the school choice movement for a very long time, so when ever you have a senator interested in the topic and able to attract so many individuals, both from congress and from the field to an event like this we greatly appreciate it. so, in terms of why school choice and why charter schools by way of background, i'm extremely proud of the fact we have charter school laws in 42 states and here in washington, d.c. we're serving a little over 2.7 million students every day around the country.

and one of the reasons why charter schools are so important is because they're serving the needs of low income families where they are. a huge proponent of all forms of choices and as governor jindal mentioned earlier, upper income families, when they want to make a choice, they can move and go to a school district that can serve their needs or enroll their children into a private school, but dm a lot of inner city settings that option is not available and we don't have enough school voucher programs to meet the needs of low income family families. right here in washington, d.c., we now have such a bustling school choice movement that close to 50% of the students in the district are attending charter schools and as a result of it, the quality the overall quality of the traditional public school system has also dramatically improved over time. so i'm a believer because i think it empowers families, but i'm a firm believer in the impact of charter schools on the traditional system and in makeing sure we're transferring them as much possible through the

traditional system so the overall system is improved at the end of the day. >> let dr. perry answer that, then i want to follow up. >> can i just jump in? main street mache ashton. i have an identical twin sister. we failed kindergarten. that's possible. in the traditional public schools. and at that point, my parents took us out and put us into private schools, catholic schools and that made all of the difference. i just believe every parent wants to best for their parent and as a four chair we believe that parental choice is widespread but not for low income and working class families. if you are, if you have resources, you do two things. you move to a community where the traditional public schools are great or you put your child into private school. and i believe that children in low income and working class communities deserve that same access to quality education.

and it should not, should be a right. whether you're in southeast washington, d.c. or in newark, new jersey, you deserve an access to a quality education. so -- >> i think it's worth noting i'm a school choice advocate, not a charter school advocate. raggedy schools are raggedy schools, no matter the destination. there are some raggedy charters that need to be shut down this evening and some that need to be shut down a couple of years ago. simply because a charter school struggles, it doesn't mean charter schools struggle. we need to get past either charter or traditional. we need to get past either private or public. we need to get down to what education is about which is providing different instruction to children so you can meet them where they are and take them to where they need to be. we spend too much time having a

conversation about the ends of the conversation, of the issue. that's not what this is about. it's about what's at central. what's central to it which are the children. i know we've forgotten somewhere along the way that education was supposed to be about children, but it is. it's not a jobs program. it's not a tenure conversation. you hear so many times people talking about well the traditional schools need more resources. for what? to do what? if i give you more money are you going to be worse? or better? because it's not the issue of money. the overwhelming majority of charter schools and catholic schools function on a fraction of the amount of money traditional schools get. if that were the issue, the best place to send a child to school would be the prison. that's where we spend more than anything. so, if the issue were money, we would have those parts of the conversation. what the issue is quality of

instruction and quality of leadership. simply because you have a certification that says you can be a teacher doesn't mean you should. this is a calling. and just because somebody called you with a job offer, that doesn't mean you were called. our community specifically african-american latino and poor communities, we have been trying to find a way to claw our way out of poverty through education for quite some time. and for a long time the catholic schools were there for us. you see, what's interesting is a baptist will go to a catholic school just to get out of the raggedy school that's at the end of their street. now, they have to wait until they get out of church somebody around monday evening, but when they get out, they're going to go to school. children will lie, families will

lie about a child's address and if race is considered they'll lie about their race, so ja kim will be a white kid if necessary to get the child out of the circumstances that are literally robbing him of his life. this is america. a place where you can go into a store and find so many different types of a gum that your head would spin and we're supposed to only choose from the school that's closest to our house? it's an absurd notion. you cannot under any circumstances think that the best indicator of a school's compatibility to a child or the family is because it's close to their house. you know, it's interesting that people call themselves liberals and say they're pro-choice but they're pro-choice when it comes to having a choice, but anti-choice when it comes to where you send a child to school. it's interesting to say somebody calls themselves a liberal who's so focused on making sure social programs are in place, but the

greatest social program of all time is education, but that's not what they want. what they want to do is maintain the status quo. so, i submit to you that if you're not willing to fight, then get out the way because there's a fight going on. >> she's praying. she is pray inging for me as we speak. >> right here. >> so, sr. sister, dr. perry talked about it being a calling. so, your schools is a calling. what makes your schools unique in the catholic sector and what do you offer that others don't? >> in the catholic environment, we offer jesus christ preached in the gospel and so that is the fundamental reality of our schools. but what we believe is that the individual the human person within our schools is of inest

mall dignity and because of that, we owe them within our environment an excellent education that will help them flourish as an individual person as a human being. and therefore, all the things that make up good education are part of the conversation for our schools. and good teachers, community excellent governance, good use of resources all of that is part of the larger question because it matters to who the children are. we believe that education has two ends and the church's teachings have been clear for many years. both the flourishing of the person here and now as a citizen of this world and their eternal end as a citizen of the world to come.

and so, the mission and the vision of our schools, we try to lock, keep that very much within our minds because it matters to the children in front of us, so that's what makes our schools different. >> i'm going to assume that's exactly the same mission at the charter schools, right? what makes the charter school sector unique and different? what to you offer? >> again it's a diverse community, so depending on the state law that allows for the creation of charter schools you're going to have very different types of charter schools. one of the things we do at the national alliance is grade laws based on their strengths and last year, we produced a document that looks at the movement and quality of the movement. how innovative is the space in the different states. the thing we base it on whether as an entrepreneur, you're able to open a school and come up with different types of curriculum, different modes of delivery and different ways of

attracting families and running your school. the more freedom you have to do that the more, the stronger your law is, so to speak, so here again in washington, d.c. and states like louisiana they have some of the strongest charter school movements because you're able to create online charter schools. you're able to create charter schools that are focused on math and science on bilingual education, character building and what not, so depending on the strength of the law we're agnostic as to what type of education is provided so long as the school is held accountable to raising student achieve m and held account bable to making sure all of the students, regardless of race, background, are graduating and going on to college. >> that's great. go ahead. >> i'll just add i think you asked earlier, like what's happening in our schools and in our communities and in many schools and particularly in urban and working class communities, our kids are dying. they don't have hope.

there's teachers who don't believe in them. they don't see going to and through college or having a career in family as something that's real to them, so this problem is urgent. it's real and we have to have a three sector approach to it. sometimes, i hear you know, it's all about having great charter schools or having great traditional public schools or put more money to it. we need a three sector approach. we need great charter schools, great traditional public schools, great private schools, independent schools, but as dr. perry said, if they're not quality, then they need to close. we need to have a no excuses, no time, no patience for schools and for organizations where people who don't put children and students interests first. that's a great question. last couple of months or last six months, two schools in indianapolis have closed. parents did not want it even though the schools were poorly performing. so is there a distinction between the idea that we want accountableility based on test scores and performance and yet

parents still don't want them to close. should parents be able to go to poorly performing schools? >> i think it's on us as reformers to think thoughtfully. if students are going to go to worse off schools, that's not a better choice. this panel is about engaging community in the process. we've got to be more transparent about what is a quality schools. it's not just test scores, family engagement teacher sats fak, so i would argue there's not great transparency around what is a quality school and the more we can engage parents stakeholders and policymakers into the discussion about quality, i think the more thoughtful we can be about closing schools and providing students and families better options. >> she looks at me, i have to say yes. >> and i agree from the vantage

point that we use a phrase, principal subsidiarity. the local level in the catholic school, the community should be vested in that, in that environment. and that means parents, it means administrators, the pastor, the bishop, it means a vestedness. the other point that i think is really important is is that in doing so that relationship between the school and the family is a partnership. it's not just a consumer experience. it's an actual partnership where the school takes on the obligation to educate that child on behalf of the parent in local paren tes and i think that element of relationship related to education is extremely important and may be sometimes, missing in this conversation. that the parents have an obligation to communicate well with the school it's not just

one way and so when we talk about accountability it's a relationship accountability. not necessarily just you know, a gavel accountability. so i think that's a very important part of a good school. >> can i take that real quick? so if the chart erer school movement were to operate the same way as a traditional system operating where after years of poor performance, it keeps its doors open, we would be no different from the other system so it's important we're firm on accountability and advocate for closure when a school is failing. having said that the reason why these families are not reacting it could be perhaps because the schools which they escaped are not as safe or high quality as the school they're currently sending their children so, so as reformers, i think it's extremely important for us to come up with sensible options whether through giving the governorer nance of that charter to another charter school and really explaining to families

why is it they would be better off in another school in that neighborhood. making sure other opgs are available is important to us. one last thing as a parent myself we often think of this as something that only impacts low income families but as a parent who is exercising choice right now, it is extremely confusing to really understand if a school is a high quality school and whether it is spending your tax dollars effectively. it's opaque. so, from a public policy standpoint, the more information that's out in the public domain, whether academics or quality measures, it would be better for our nation to understand what makes a equalquality school and what types of schools are likely to put you on the path to success and college and later in life. >> great. >> i'm pro vouchers. 100% pro vouchers.

and most people are pro pro vouchers. they just get caught up in the politics of what the words have come to mean in the political theatre that is education. if you're pro section 8, some of y'all might be using it. if your pro food stamps or most recent it ration there of if you're pro student financial aid, if you're pro medicaid pro medicare, you're pro vouchers. you are for public money being used for either public or private goods or services. further, we don't have a problem with sending brigham young xavier university, notre dame, boston college or any of the other jesuit schools federal student financial aid. we don't have a problem with that. we see this part of the thing. that we do to educate at this next level, but then you'll hear

people say inging they're against prek to 12 vouchers because they might go to a catholic school. isn't notre dame a catholic school? so, why would you have a problem, why would you be okay with notre dame the university receiving a voucher, but not notre dame high school or elementary school receiving a voucher? it's because notre dame university, university or the university of notre dame doesn't have as good a lobbying group. as the prek, to 12 folks do. we need to do a better job of making it plain to the community what's really what. too much of the education conversation is held in the minds and mouths of wonky politicos. love you guys in your khaki

pants and blue blazers, love you, but you don't make sense to the rest of the world. your little echo chamber conversations don't mean anything to people. people don't get you, so you wonder why people don't sign on. it's because you're talking over people's heads. you don't respect the humanity of the people you're supposed to be supporting because if you did, you'd take to time to make sure they understood what you said. you would have them ask you questions. you would teach them. too much of the conversation goes over the heads of our community and as a result, they just sit there, i don't understand what they're talking about. so making it plain is this. every child has a right to go to a good school. that's period. and that we've found, the federal government through the the courts have found on every single time, that if you put children from one community in a disadvantaged circumstance because of education, that is wrong. that's bad. so, they need to be given

choice. we need to fight to make sure our community understands that if they got a scholarship like they're trying to fight for for their child who can barely play basketball, but they'll pay $1200 to put him in aau program, if we can explain it simply, a scholarship, just like that college scholarship you want could help your child go to a school whether it be from prek or in 12th grade, then they understand terms like a voucher. just a scholarship. further, you hear people on both sides of the political conversation talking about how they want to save money in public education or as a whole. what you're paying for it twice not because it's a charter school or magnet school because it's a school you paid into that the children do not attend. all these children who are here attending charter schools, if their school, their neighborhood school they were supposed to go to receives one dime, then

you're paying twice for them. i'll say it again. in connecticut for instance if a child is slated to go to a -- so, my neighborhood school will be snow school. snow school elementary school up the street from me. the one that kept me back in the third grade. well, my sons don't attend snow school. they attend my school. capital prep, in hartford. so snow school gets $13,000 per pupil. capital prep gets 12,000. we're paying $25,000 that's why third grade didn't work out. for my sons to go to one school. a school, snow school, they've never set foot in. for any reason at all. if they were vouchered they'd only be paid once. if it was a scholarship we'd only pay once the reason why we're in the situation that we're in is because we're trying

to keep the other school open so that the grown people can keep their jobs. but what even they neglect to understand is that the number of students doesn't change. it's static. meaning if there are 1,000 students that need teachers, there are 1,000 students who need teachers no matter where you are, so, if you can halfway teach, then you're going to have a job as a teacher. we need to make it plain to our community they're being played by the system so that the people who don't utilize these urban schools who send their kids to suburban charter or catholic schools, which is always funny they send their own children to catholic school, but they don't support private schools. we need to make it plain for all communities, so our community can fight with us as a posed to us simply fighting and them not understanding what we're fighting for.

>> as one of those khaki suited policy people, right, dr. perry talked about grass roots politics. so -- has done some incredible work and grass roots activism. what are the big challenges did you face and in particular, maybe even dealing with people in khaki pants and blue blazers. >> i agree what dr. perry says. sometimes, the policymakers or funders think this is an intellectual debate. well, let's talk through it. we can talk our way through the problems. and what it really is is personal, one-on-one relationships. we've got to spend the time and the other challenges. it's an urgent problem. so, people want to give money, get organized and come out today and then it be done. but this is a long-term battle. it's a long-term fight and we've got to invest in, it just takes time, but it takes a one-on-one

con conversation. as we think abts organizing, engagement, louisiana or alabama, kentucky or even in new york, new jersey we have to start with the one-on-one conversations and the reality is that there are petter people who are messengers in the community. we can't have the fly in pilot helicopter type of people who say believe in these policies and come fight with us. it has to be from the parents and from the community, but it takes the trusted relationships, it takes time and it takes real support. >> looking at the charter sec sector, what are some example of great grass roots activism. >> you have emily kim from success academies on a later panel. she and if families of her school rallied 20,000 community leaders and parents to walk to albany to ask to make sure that one of the schools that the mayor was trying to close would stay open. to me that's a great example of

an effort that started with one school families for excellent schools assisted and brought the other leaders to the forefront. we have two leaders in the room today. darlene chambers from the ohio charter school association and mary car michael with the south carolina charter school association in the back. these two can probably tell you more about what they're doing, but one of the things that you notice when you get to a lot of these communities is the sense of learned helplessness. a lot of people have come to these communities to offer hope. and they have left. and that's often quite frankly an unfortunately what happens with school district leaders who go in with a lot of hope. they may have the school board's support at the time. when they're in office, they offer hope, create a safe community, but unfortunately, the average tenure of an inner city district superintendent is less than three years so when they leave, they take those ideas and the next person comes with new ideas, so i think understanding where they come from and making sure whatever

infrastructure you have in place is going to stay there is important and one reason why charter schools or any form of choice trumps any systemic reform is because these schools are going to stay and families are choosing them. they're not beholden to them because they're assigned to those schools. >> you know we often overlook the most obvious grass roots efforts. the waiting lists. parents are voting with their feet. they are saying i don't want this school to which i am assigned. and so some of the largest school systems in america are losing ten, 20, 30% 40, 50% of their entire student population. there are no other cities there's no other movement that's clearer than that. our school in hartford has 4,200 children on the waiting list. one school. 70 available seats. but because of a weak school

board, because of a weak mayor, and because of visionless leaders in the community, our school is not allowed to expand with vouchers, we wouldn't have to go through this. each wup of those children would just leave and we'd just open another school. we'd open as many schools as the community has asked for. when the community says so resoundingly they want something and the politicses sayians stand in the way because literally, a blogger or a union person sends something mean to them or says something about them they're so weak in their conviction, yet they say they're for children. these same people do not send their own children to the schools which they legislate over. we have what we refer to as micro activism. micro activism is what we overlook when we have the conversation about grass roots movements.

these families, our families who seemed a long time to be uneducated have found a way to understand which schools are the best performing schools. they may not understand the test data, what stem means, what the theme is but if you look at the schools with the longest waiting lists, you will find they're the best performing schools, so the streets are talking. the drums are playing and our community wants out. we, we the powerful people, are not letting them out. we need to fight on to make sure that, when they do their part that we do our part, that we put in place policies that will allow them to have the choices they're asking for. when you have cities with school after school with waiting lists on it, that is the clearest example of the grass roots and then we go around and blame the parents for not wanting to participate in the process, are you kidding me? some of these parents are so erased and guess who they're mad

at? us. they shouldn't be but because we don't explain to them is p reason you're not a waiting list because the charter school doesn't want you that's not why. it's because the weak school board and the overzealous union members have put a cap. they've put a limit on how many of you can get out of this school. until we begin to make it abundantly clear who is to blame for this we keep getting the blame, so when i'm doing bus duty. i'm a principal, don't worry we have a snow day. why i'm in d.c. today, mind your damn business, i'm working. when i'm out doing bus duty and parents come up and stop and say, my child has been on your waiting list for six years.

that doesn't feel good. i'm not proud of that. to know somebody has waited their child's entire academic career on a waiting list in a school they don't want to be in. many of us would open more schools if we could just get to the children. we have a grass roots movement. give it voice. fight to make sure that once the parents have done what they could do which is to vote with their feet once they have moved out of these failed school systems and sought an opportunity, then fight to make sure that voucher rs real, the choice is real, so that they can get the children out of doldrums of the system that uneducated them. >> as a proud catholic school parent for my children for many years, i don't know of a more grass roots based or community based organization than the catholic church when it comes to

edgeucation education, so how have you been so successful at getting parents to come and my school was filled with a wide diverse income group. there were a lot of people in poverty that were there. that were choosing. so, how have you been able to create this success? >> i think the product and i use that word widely. parents want an excellent education for their children and catholic schools have over many years, graduated their students at 98%. 87% go on to a four-year institution and do very well. and so, the reality of what's going on within the school itself, to piggy back after dr. perry, that parents really want that and they'll do what they can do and need to do to be part of that. we have approximately 6500 schools in the united states and according to the most recent ncea data, 41% of those are in

urban or inner city settings. and so, i think part of our challenge still although we have a very good brand and parents want our product, is is is to help with those structures that do actually give parents more voice and give them an opportunity to state why it's important why they are the ones involved and they're the ones choosing the school that matters most to them, including faith-based schools, including the opportunity to have a full education for their child. so, i think one, parents recognize a good education when they see it and they want it and that's been helpful as far as attracting people to the public school but i think we need to do more structurally to give our parents a voice related to parental choice and we use to term specifically parental

choice. we don't use school choice. because we believe that's what this is all about. it's much, much more about the parents choosing and having the right to choose than it is necessarily supporting a particular institution. >> as we -- go ahead. dr. perry. >> one of the things i think is also important to do is to point out the hypocrisy. you know, we're having a conversation around school choice as if it isn't typically engaged in by other people. i'm often disappointed by members of the congressional black caucuses and latino caucus, who themselves as parents, exercise school choice. who in in cases do not send their children to the neighborhood school in the hood that they represent because some get really lucky and through lotteries, get their kids into

school and it's just awesome how lucky some of these folks are. if we don't call out the hypocrisy of individuals who themselves benefit from choice but then pull the bridge of choice up behind them, then we're not going to get to where we need to be. in america, in this country, your fate should not be decided by a lottery. but in many cases the reason why there is a lottery in many states is because the law is written such that when there are more applicants than there are seats, there needs to be a lottery. but if there were more seats or more options then there were applicants there would be no many hotries in most states so then we would all get to enjoy the same benefits that the people we elect to represent us

enjoy. with all due respect to our president, he wasn't always the president. he didn't send his children to public schools. at any point. nor did he attend them. i'm not against him for that. i'm saying i want what he wants for his kids for all kids. i'm saying i respect and support this brother, but i want him to respect and support the other children in the same way that his own children have been respected and supported. >> so we only have a -- we only have a short period of time left, so i wanted to get everyone o answer this one last question. we have lots of people in the audience. here's what i'd like to say or ask you. you all have been involved in grass roots and schools for a long time. what one piece of advice would you give to reformers and in particular, the young reformers and young scholars. the young ones out there. what one piece of advice would

you give them about getting involved? start with mache. >> well you know thanks again for having me. i think the one thing i want to impress upon as we had this debate is is what i often hear is that parents and low income and working class communities cannot make great choices. and i just think we have to just go away with that idea and really meet parents where they are. every parent wants what's best for their child or for their children. and we've got to assume the best and give them the tools and resources and the advocacy tools to fight for themselves and particularly, i see the children here in the room your voice matters. you can be the voice for the voiceless. i hope, was hoping that a child would be up on the panel, maybe later this afternoon we can hear from the children because they actually know what's happening in our schools. >> thanks, robert. i completely agree.

i would just leave you with one bit of advice. as a congressman kathy rogers mentioned, there's a program at the federal level that supports the charter schools. it has huge bipartisan support, but doesn't have enough funding in it to keep up with the pace of growth. as dr. perry mentioned, there are a lot of families currently putting their children's names on wait lists. we have over a million names on these wait lists. there is a quick and easy way, nothing is easy here in washington, but there is a way to address this, by chaeting more seats and one way congress can help is by putting more money into this program. so if you want to engage at the federal level, tell your members of congress to put more funding into the program. that's the quickest, fastest, easiest way to get rid of this wait list and to make more opportunities available for families.

>> you know, both chavez and richard wright are here and if i miss any other schools, i'll meet you afterwards, but your, this is not a day off for you either. you're here to learn how to make it possible for your brothers and sisters and cousins and them as a group, to get off wait list and get into good schools. so many of you have watched your family and friends who didn't have access to the same quality loving relationship you have with your educators you've watched their lives crumble in just your short lives and you're seeing them fall down even worse and that's not cool. so, i talk to you like i do my own kids and let you know that on the one hand, you are special. but don't ever think that you are so special that you're different than them. they deserve what you have. and you do not have the right to

sit still or to be silent as they suffer. so, you have to fight for a school choice. you don't have an option. since it's been given to you, since you are partaking in it, you have a moral obligation to fight to ensure that for every seat that one of you is in that you get ten more kids in behind you. because as far as i'm concerned when we were younger, if you somehow got into the party and you didn't pay, you supposed to go around and open the door for your brothers. >> thank you. >> sister. >> i'll do a shout out to the students from bishop ireton and archbishop spaulding and i know we have one other catholic school here. kano. thank you. just thanks for being here today and dr. perry has pretty much laid the moral gauntlet down, so i don't have to do that, but what i wanted, what i want to

say is that in dealing with advocacy and the whole question of advocacy respecting the local community and the parent is fundamental in any reform that we're about. the parents i agree, do know what they want for their children and they're looking to us to help give them a voice to be sure that the legislature knows what they want for their children and so that partnership i think is critical to success in reform and so, the other thing is education, education, education. there's so many people we know who really don't understand what parental choice is all about and therefore, we think they do and so, i think it's important for us to keep remembering there's a lot of people out there who could be with us and help us, but may not fully comprehend what it really is all about and so education, advocacy, implementation, those are the three things. >> ladies and gentlemen, we're three minutes over on the panel.

there's a box i'd like to give our panelists one more round of applause. come back at 12:15 or 12:00, immediately for lunch. >> thank you.

>> this forum on education policy is taking a short break. coming up next, the luncheon keynote with secretarynext, the lunch with rod paige who served under president george w. bush. later comments from another former education secretary lamar alexander who held that position in george h.w. bush's administration. here is a look at some of the discussions earlier today at this event. most of the k-12 education is driven by states and communities so there is this question of how much the federal government should be involved and i'm wondering how that comes to the school choice conversation. what role, if any should the federal government be playing. >> well i'm someone who believes the best decisions for education will come at the local level. and it really is with local school boards, with parents, in

communities. that is where the best decisions will come. and yes the reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education act, it was at one time termed no child left behind is up for reauthorization. it is overdue. and this congress, new congress, here in 2015 believes moving forward on education priorities needs to be at the top of the list for this congress and it will be done in a way that is empowering local communities to make those decisions. and as you mentioned -- okay, as you mentioned there is a limited role for the federal government. there is some low-income dollars that the federal government has that we prioritize or send to the states. but within our reauthorization we want those dollars to follow the student. and so we give the states the options to allow those dollars to follow students for example. we do encourage an expansion of charter schools. what federal government has done

so far is basically said we want more charter schools in america, but this time it is really giving more tools to allow those charter schools to be improved to allow for things -- really focusing on those charter schools that have proven themselves to be successful and in lifting them up as models. also perhaps allowing for those that want some kind of a waited lottery to do so to focus on poverty issues or those with disabilities and allow more options there. but we want -- we also want to hold charter schools accountable and ensure that those that are not performing well are held accountable. so those are some things. but it is empowering local communities and school boards to make these decisions. the only other issue i might put on the table is i'm really excited about encouraging schools to look more at blended learning. and i think that -- and i've just introduced some legislation

along with senator rubio and hatch in the senate focused on promoted this blended learning which is the next generation of really focused on individualized education so we know in real-time how each student is doing day by day, empowering the teachers and the schools and i visited one here in anacostia and in this tough neighborhood in washington, d.c. and this school district embraced blended learning and the teachers were just engaged inspired about coming to work every day and the the students were anxious to learn and the principal could look on her wall every day and know how every student in that school was doing and in a short amount of time this school in anacostia had seen tremendous growth. and it comes down to empowering local communities and local school boards, giving them more choices and allowing them to

decide what is best for the kids in that community so that they can reach their full potential. [ applause ] >> congresswoman, i would like to hear further you talked about charter accountability, which is charter schools have to get permission to open from an authorizer and they can shut down if they are not serving children well. and given your own services as a mom with a child with special needs, it was found that some don't put a high premium on test scores and that doesn't show up when you introduce them about what is important and how do we make sure that schools are serving kids well, how much of that should be a question of student achievement on reading

and math and how much needs to be about something else. >> that is a great question. and i think it is important that we're looking at how parents and school boards make sure that they have the the information so they can make the best decision possible. and sometimes transparency as to what is really happening in a school can be difficult to get. and i think it definitely goes beyond a test score itself. that is one measurement. but there are other issues that need to be taken into consideration as we make those decisions. but ultimately it is about transparency, so that parents can be involved in making that decision and that the administration of that school will know what is really going on and if the children are getting the education that they need. >> senator a piggy-back on what the senator was talking about there. one thing i realized through the d.c. opportunity scholarship program was the level of parental satisfaction was over

90%. and when you think about why that is, part of that is because of the environment that their children are in. a culture that is conducive for learning and high achievement but also encourages each child to maximize their own potential. and when you factor in on top of the actual academic progress being made by a student. part of the academic achievement seems to be the environment and an environment that seems to be best for the child. and the parent seems to be very excited about a place where their child gets a quality education and where the child is safe -- the environment is solid, the teachers are loving and invested. so i think that is why it is so important, the other characteristics of a successful program that goes beyond simple

academic achievement. >> so governor, you've been wrestling with this on the ground. curious how in louisiana you've struggled that the schools of choice are good schools without taking away the availability of parents with schools that aren't just about test scores. >> and charter schools, they have the flexibility, and they have to earn their students. and the reality is that patients will -- the parents will vote with their feet. if the schools aren't doing well and the parents will not enroll them and if they fail to report year after year they are shut down. and that doesn't happen with public schools. there is not that accountability. when it comes to transparency and accountability, i think kathy was right. but parents make a decisions

based on a number of factors. i met with moms in new orleans that said this is the first time that their childrens are going to charter schools or parochial schools, this is the first time my child has gone to a school where they are wearing a uniform or their child is safe. or the first time my child has brought home homework or my child is thinking about going to college after they finish school. so there are reasons and factors that parents use in picking a school. i would like to talk about the whole issue of tests. the reality is the reason we have tests i think it was a rightful response to the fact that many schools, serving disadvantaged low-income minority schools weren't doing a good job and we have to correct that. but the pendulum has swung too far the other day, where many schools were testing and pre-pretesting and we have crowded out arts and music and social studies because all we

are testing is math and raegd that dominated -- and reading and that dominates a school day. and we knead to bench -- we need to benchmark the tests so the schools have a diverse resources and there is not a top-down approach approach. and people can take different tests and compare how the kids are doing across different states or countries and secondly we can give schools waivers so when schools have done a good job, they can come back and say can we waive these tests like a.p. tests or character assessments. but if we are teaching a year's worth of work in a year's time we shouldn't be held to the same micro management so you can have accountability with flexibility. and in terms of the federal government's role. i'm so proud of the senator, he has so many different great pieces of legislation that

gives military families more choice and we call it back-pack funding, title one or other funding where it does follow the students. legislators will vote for funding that kids that may want technical education or special needs and they get extra dollars but the dollars don't go to educate the children. we fund our schools based on seniority and staffing costs as a result the dollars that the senators vote for don't benefit the kids because as the result of no child left behind, i hope they do restructure the department of education. they should be involved in civil rights and transparency and de-regulation and that is about it. everything else should be done at the state and local level, quite frankly. [ applause ] >> and i won't start a whole new topic but i do think that means you need to get rid of common core so i won't begin that as

well. >> senator grooms, one of the conversations that we talk about a lot when it comes to school choice is whether school choice is really for those families who are trapped in schools that are just not working for those children or whether school choice is a mechanism for helping all families educate their children better. for instance it is useful to know that about 70% of the nation's families give their child's school an a. or a b. so 30% of families that are frustrated. as you thought about this and worked on this issue and curious about whether you think this is for the families that feel trapped or school choice is something that is more universal. >> school choice is for everyone. freedom only works every time. and if my child is at what many would consider a great public school but if he's not learning learning, it is not helping him. and if a family is trapped at a school and they want to go

somewhere else and they can't and they know it is not working, then i hear from the school district, well you got to give us more money. that is the problem. the 12.5 we spend on the money is not enough. we need more money. and we appropriate the money and the children are still at that school and the s.a.t. scores are bad. momma knows the child is not learning to read and they are still stuck there. but if we allow freedom to work, if we give that child in a rural area who has basically no choice, they are at a school, they are at a school that is failing, momma knows the child is not getting opportunities she would want her child to have, we give that child an opportunity and he goes somewhere else, he may drive 50 miles to the nearest town to a better public school even within the public school sphere. if we allow choice some choice is better than no choice.

the more choices, the greater the freedom the more quality our nation becomes. so when you give the choices, we have the freedom to work and the schools that are losing students, they have to do something a little bit different to retain those students. so the poor performing schools, they do better. the good schools they do even better. because when we're competing for dollars, when you are competing for the back-pack funding you'll do what is necessary to grow your school and to create educational choices and opportunities. so school choice is for everyone. it is not just for those that are in bad schools. it is not just for those that have really good schools. if your school is not working it is not working and you need another choice. and senator how do you respond to those who say look i hear what you are saying about freedom, but it feels like charter schooling and school

vouchers are an attack on traditional school districts, like you are trying to dismantle soming that is important to america -- something that is important to america? >> which senator? >> both of you all. we have too many senators. >> i introduced some of the school choice legislation in our state back in 1998. i've introduced bill after bill after bill. and i hear from my good friends involved in -- public schoolteachers, what are you trying to do? are you trying to destroy public education and a lot of horrible statements. no one wants to dry-- destroy public education. we just want to make sure it is a choice. we have seen it work in states where they have tried it. and every change in our state, whether it is creating the legislation to allow for charter schools, you are destroying public education.

well we created a charter school and, wow it worked and we weren't creating them fast enough and we created a charter school district. sand we went in and created choiced in the public and it worked. and then we went in and made it where you could have opportunity scholarships for exceptional needs children, our first choice program that involved the private sector and i don't think we got too many naysayers now. every time we can expand choices in our state we've proven it works and benefits both the -- for public schools and for all schools. and when parents make that choice, when they are empowered to make that choice. >> all schools perform better. so there are some with power and money and they never want to give it up. that is one thing you learn about government. those with power and money never want to give it up. it has to be a grassroots fight

and freedom is worth fighting for and i thank those that are here today and listening and understanding and understand that freedom works and let's fight for it. >> senator scott how do you respond to those kind of concerns? >> i think there is no doubt, that education is improving and the large part of the improvement is because of the competition in the education space. and let's just focus for a few minutes on the public school options and forget about the private school choice. frankly, if you think about the advent of magnet schools, charter schools home school, online schools, virtual schools. five of those options i named were within the public footprint. so the reality is there is a way to improve education that includes public school options. but, indeed, the most powerful tool the parent has is the

choice. i say let's not relegate that simply to the public footprint. i'm a big believer that whatever the parent says works for her, very often a single mom already working two shifts like mine was, let's give her the peace of mind to choose the quality of education that she has determined is best for her child. and when that happens i believe that that competition will drive even better results in the local neighborhood school. and when that happens, kids get a far better education. i think their expectations in life sky rockets and we all benefit from that. remarks earlier from today's forum on education policy led by senator tim scott of south carolina. as you can see, they remain in a break right now. but coming up next, the lunch with former education secretary

rod paige and later lamar alexander. while we are in this break, here is a look ahead in congress. >> joining us on the phone congressional reporter from the hill to talk about what else is happening in washington. so mike, what is on the agenda in capitol hill. we'll start with the senate this week. >> they need to pass the funding bill for the department of homeland security. big issue and contentious issue because of the immigration amendment the house passed last month when it sent it over to the senate and you saw mitch mcconnell struggle with this, bringing it up not once, not twice, but three times and from vulnerable democrats and it didn't work. and the house bill as passed is not going to pass the senate and

now mcconnell is faced with what do we do and how do we pass the department of homeland security funding bill and how do we handle the push-back against obama on deportation and that is why the house attached those amendments. so there is nothing planned in the senate right now as it stands because they don't know what the next step is or they are not telling us. so we are all waiting and seeing what mcconnell is going to come up with. how does he thread that needle. he is walking a tight rope here to satisfy the conservatives but pass something that will not get a veto due to the immigration language and of course the dhs bill -- the funding expires on february 27th because there is a timeline. there is a tight timeline because they are not supposed to be in next week because of the presidents' day holiday. so we expect the bill will be back on the floor we just don't know what it will look like. >> and the homeland security on

the state of the union saying you can have this zooeb over executive action on immigration but don't tie it to homeland security funding. what is the argument here by the administration and is it working with their own party with the democrats? >> well they are saying that the dhs funding has nothing to do with immigration and why are you tieing this to something that that -- they are framing it as so vital in the attacks in paris and pointing out that the isis threat that's been rising and of course this is all in the national headlines reaching our public. so they are using that urgency so say why are you playing around with the department that is to protect the homeland. the republicans understand that argument and that is why the house passed it six weeks in advance and they didn't want to play with the department of homeland security funding and they knew it would be a issue

and they keep saying over and over we won't threaten the shut down of this agency but we need to do something on homeland security. and they did something in september and it angered republicans that they didn't hold obama's feet to the fire then and they are received stress from the flank and immigration has put them in a tough spot and this is no exception and they are caught between the republicans and the party who are running a hard line on this and guys like boehner and mcconnell who would like to pass something and get it on to the president. >> and this is playing out in the wall street journal's editorial today. they wonder, can the gop change? and this is what the wall street journal says. that this restriction's caucus can protest all it wants but it can't change 54 senate votes into 60 without persuading

democrats and it is too soon to say -- it is not too soon to say that the fate of the gop is on the line. precious weeks are wasting and a rump minority unwilling to compromise is playing into democrat hands. this is no way to run a majority and the only one to win is president obama, nancy pelosi and hillary clinton. mike willis how is this playing out between leadership and the rank and file then? >> there is real tension there, particularly in the house. we've seen it all year long. the republicans picked up 13 seats, boehner picked up 13 seats. he thought he would come in and roll over obama's agenda in the last two years of his presidency and instead they had this tough vote for speaker where more than 20 republicans voted against him for speaker so there is a lot of tension there. and then they brought up a number of bills they thought was low-hanging fruit and they would

just pitch -- softballs they would hit out of the park and instead they've seen the revolts. you've seen it on immigration and the anti-abortion they had to pull because they didn't have enough support and then a border bill, a couple of weeks ago they had to pull because they didn't have the support of conservatives. so these are traditional conservative issues and they've had to pull the stuff off the floor. so it is sort of obama, pelosi and reid have to sit back and not do anything. just watch the republicans struggle and handle the headlines on their own. >> and what is else is on the agenda. health care and the authority to fight isis for the president? >> i think we should mention first, in the house we just mentioned the senate. in the house there is a big vote this week on keystone. and that is a contentious veto we've been seeing.

they have nine democrats on the bill so it is bipartisan. and that does put pressure on obama and house democrats to support it. but it will pass the house on wednesday. and then obama will veto it. so big veto, biggest veto from this president. only the third veto of his presidency. and the house and senate will have the democratic support to sustain the veto. so this is all political messaging. keystone has been around for five years and an enormous proxy change on climate and everybody is playing to their base here. but it is an interesting debate because there are amendments on there. the senate passed the climate change amendment and it is not a hoax and there are some in the house weary on that matter. and then of course there will be democrats who support the keystone bill and that will make obama's veto look a little bit

worse for having a bipartisan bill and republicans will bring this obstructionism. how many bipartisan bills will he veto? so that will dominate the house. and i'm sorry what was your question? >> and what else is on the agenda and will the president send over to congress his outline for new authority to fight isis? >> we don't know that is going to come. they are anticipating that. boner said er -- boehner said on thursday they expect that to come over. and that could dominate the whole congressional dialogue because of course that splits the parties -- that is not a bipartisan issue. you will hear liberals screaming if it allows for boots on the ground and conservatives screaming if it doesn't allow for boots on the ground. that is an interesting debate but nobody knows what that language will look like. everybody agrees we need a new

resolution. the old one is 13 years, 14 years on and everybody agrees that those are outdated and need some freshening up. but tons of disagreement about what that should look like and when that hits whenever it hits, that is going to be a tsunami. >> mime willis, congressional reporter with the hill with the week ahead in congress. thanks very much. we appreciate it. >> the education forum continues to break for lunch. we're waiting for the keynote speaker, former education secretary rod paige. this is live coverage on c-span 3.

thank you so much -- how many of you have had a good time so far. [ applause ] besides me, haven't we had some amazing panelists to listen

to? excellent, excellent. the truth. let me do this. before i introduce dr. rod paige, who is an appraising american with a fantastic story, i've been peppered with questions from different students. and so often we're really talking to a lot of the adults and talking about the students. so i've decided to do something impromptu which is to take two questions from two students who have asked a question that i think are relevant to many in the room and then hopefully at the end of today's time, if there are any students that have questions at the end at 3:15, i'm happy to have a chance to talk to some of the students who may have questions and if you have questions, i'm happy to answer them. but lamitra, will you come up here and ask your question.

let's hear it for her. whoop, there it is. >> good afternoon everyone. my name is lamitra johnson from the school of journalism and media arts. >> holler. >> so i was curious and i wanted to know that being as how successful mr. tim scott is now, in his bio i was surprised that i read he is more accustomed to failure than he is success and i want to know who or what was your biggest encouragement to change your life and fix yourself? >> thank you ma'am. good question. ly tell you that myuyou -- i will tell you that my inspiration in life is my faith. that makes me who and what i am. and second the most important person that helped make me who i am was my momma. i grew up in a time when sometimes your mom had to express herself. i'm not sure if you are old

enough to know what i mean by express yourself. we had a tough time. i will tell you though, you and i were talking earlier and i thought something that was very important for all of you here, especially students. have you heard that old saying -- bird of a feather -- >> flock together. >> one of the challenges i had in school was that i was hanging out with the wrong kids. anybody like that? anybody that can share that story. and hanging out with the wrong kids i was going the wrong direction. and i learned some very valuable lessons about what not to do by doing it with the wrong people. and my life turned around when my mother started providing some tangible expressions of love. and that helped tremendously. but i will tell you, every day i

wake up i am in awe of the blessing that i have. but make no mistake about it, all success seems -- seems to be preceded by amazing failure. at least in my life, i've had to fail forward. and sometimes we as kids -- i'm a big kid now but we as kids define our lives by the times we failed and we don't live -- live with a level of expectation that allows us to succeed later. so we have to fail forward in order to succeed. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> and the second question where is my ninth grader alexis. she had a good question as well.

alexis, you want me to read it for you. she said i can read it myself. i'm kind of attached to this microphone though. >> okay. my name is alexis thomas and i'm in the ninth grade and attend richard wright public charter school. shout out to 40. my question is if you could or had an option, what would you like to do outside of being a united states senator and why. >> thank you, ma'am. what would i do if i wasn't doing this. i think the honest answer is i would become like an evangelist. i like to preach a little bit here. i said... my momma wanted a preacher and she got a politician. let us pray. so one of the things i do enjoy

doing, every month i speak at a different school in south carolina because i believe that is the greatest impact i can have, is speaking to the next generation. and that really speaks to my own heart. so if i could do anything in the world, besides this let me speak to the voters i have some voters from south carolina, i'm not looking for a new job sir, ma'am. if i could do anything else, i would be a speaker. would you go -- i would go around and speak to schools and nations about a hope and opportunity and how hope is faith and opportunity really has a lot to do with a powerful education and financial literacy. so i would be a speaker. thank you very much. so at end of the day, if kids want to stick around and have a serious conversation about your future and how to get there, i'm happy to hang around and talk to any of the kids about your questions. now if they sound like questions

from reporters i won't answer them. but the kids that want to stick around and have a conversation, i'm looking forward to that. let me start my introductory remarks about dr. rod paige. what an amazing life. if you listen carefully. you'll have a glimpse of why i'm excited about having dr. paige present to you today the sum of a school principal and librarian, dr. paige. this is going to be the longest introductory in the history. i want you to notice three things. a school principal, a librarian that produces a doctor. does that not speak to the power and the necessity of education? he rose from humble roots in segregated small town mississippi all the way to the

united states department of education. the secretary of that department. paige championed student achievement and employed raised standards of educational standards. he forged standards to systemic academic improvement when he was the dean of college education at texas southern university. at tsu he established the university's center for excellence in education and also known to have a knack for inclusive leadership. first as a school board trustee and then as superintendent of the houston independent school district. now that school district was the seventh largest school district in all of the united states. he was appointed superintendent

in 1994 and he was the first african-american in the district's history to serve in that position. in 1999, dr. paige was named one of two educators in the country by the council of the great city schools. two years later paige was honored as the national superintendent of the year by the american association of school administrators. following his time as secretary of education dr. paige served as a public policy fellow at the woodrow wilson international center for scholars. in 2006 he authored the war against home. and in 2010, he published a black/white achievement gap why clothing is the greatest civil rights issue of our time.

dr. paige is the eldest of five siblings and has a son and a daughter. dr. paige resides in houston because he couldn't find a house in charleston, south carolina. not so funny. with his wife, stephanie allens paige. please help me welcome dr. rod paige. [ applause ] >> thank you, senator. thank you so much for that warm welcome. but he left out part of my history so i have to share that with you to begin with. i was also a football coach. jackson state university of cincinnati and then again at texas southern. it was at texas southern where i learned humility. we were playing one game and at that time we had the largest crowd, third largest crowd ever

at the dome. i think the largest crowd was sandy koufax pitching performance and then a billy graham event and the next was a texas southern university football game. and this is the game where i learned humility. at the end of the game the scoreboard had our scores on the wrong side of the scoreboard. you didn't get that. they had the biggest score, we had the smallest one. so i felt really bad about that. i was a little dejected. and i as walked out of the stadium, i knocked a little old lady's purse on the floor. and so as a gentleman, i picked up her purse and i said, excuse me, ma'am, no offense. and she said that's right,

sunny. and i didn't give a damn about your defense either. so i hope you got that one. did you? i'm not altogether certain that i was deserving as an introduction as the senator gave to me but i want to thank him for that. but i want to begin by thanking him for sponsoring that event. i think we owe him a round of applause for this event. let's give him a round of applause. [ applause ] >> senator we thank you for your leadership of this event and although i'm a citizen of the state of texas, i have to tell you as i was watching the election results i can't tell you how happy i was when it was announced that you were the winner. god bless you, senator. thank you for your compassionate, yet powerful leadership. thank you. and i'll borrow a phrase from the kip schools and just say

plow on. also want to thank the founders of this great organization. american federation for children. and the founder and participating founder of the modern choice movement in the united states of america the late john walter. we should always keep him in mind. and also the work of the alliance for school choice and the freeman foundation. i would like to thank his leadership and also the membership of the men and women who do the work and is the wind beneath the winds of this great organization. to you also plow on. 50 years ago, thousands marched across the bridge in selma, alabama, in a determined effort

a determined quest for freedom. a few days ago over 250 -- over 2,500 school support providers marched for freedom of school choice. this march was led by two american heroes. first that great warrior for children, and dominos civil rights leader dr. howard fuller. and second, an american federation for children heroic combatant who is present with us today, kevin chavous. [ applause ] >> his great 1920 book the

outline of history, a.c. wells the distinguished author futurist essayist and teacher and socialist advised the world that human history is becoming more and more race between education and catastrophe. let's take a careful look at the current education system and see how we're doing in that great race. almost 32 years have passed since the current generation of school reform was ushered in by the alarmists entitled a nation at risk. even so our public school system today has established insofency. and with well intended reform school efforts and a growing high of the population, in our

great cities, is falling short because of education inadequacies. even though the years following a nation's at risk, are complete with efforts of skill and well-meaning educational theorists and practicists, student under achievement, primarily that of urban achievement is still with us today. those school opinion polls newspaper editorials, talk shows, american [ inaudible ] in the very concept of public education, evidence abounds that the public views of an educator's attempt to prove that the public school system and the public education of our children are a little like macbeth. a tale told by an idiot full and sound of theory but will signify

nothing. the disastrous performance of american school youth on the recent protests emphasize this repetition. all of this points to one failure. present public school efforts notwithstanding, today's public schools are not equipped to address the serious problems associated with today's socialization and diversity in our schools. present public school reform efforts in the main are failing to reach a growing segment of our population. bottom line is that public school reform efforts thus far have failed. and they will continue to fail if we don't find an appropriate way to manage this crisis. the current failing of public school reforms cannot be contributed to a lack of effort. during the middle and late 80s and all through the 90s and the first half of the first decade of the 20s, school reform was dominated by education

theorists. political leaders and researchers and a long liz of other agencies, governors, corporate america chiming in, the judicial process took shots at it and the list was long, but despite all of that effort, here we are with an education system sma some described as in crisis. even education secretary arnie dungeon described it as educational stagnation. it issin disputable how it is not working. and continuing as we are presently working is clearly unwise. to be sure there are some signs of progress and some glimmer of hope that things are getting better. but it is indisputable that american's children are still lagging behind their european and asian neighbors. and furthermore the gap between minorities still exist.

these signs of progress and the glimmers of hope can only be described as random pockets of improvement. so how do you explain this lack of progress after all of this effort? i'm glad you ask. it is said that opinions are like back sides. everybody has one. well i too have one. and would you like to share mine with you. my opinion, that is. [ laughter ] >> since the pup lickation a nation at risk, everyone has been heavily influenced or has been sabotaged by forces i describe as guardians of the status quo. these forces are well-financed highly organized and extremely

motivated. so far, we have failed to match their intensity. they have three very clear strategic goals. more money less accountability and no competition. these three guiding principals under pin all of the efforts. those that are part of the momentum must understand these principals if they have any understanding of the success of the american schools. so where do we go from here? here is where my opinion comes in. what we need to reform america's schools is a total restructure of school operations. my suggestion is to design our school operations around the principle of universal school

choice. completely removed the power of government to dictate where a child attends school. and give that decision power to parents and children. [ applause ] >> now i've been asked why i support universal school choice and i need to explain that. last week roger jonah, a journalist from the dallas morning news prepared a article that ran in the dallas morning news yesterday and he asked me why i support universal school choice. now this question had never been posed to me because i naturally support this, but now i had to frame a statement that would run in the dallas morning news and because education school choice is going to be a subject highly discussed in the now-sitting legislative session in texas, i needed to make sure that i had this precise. so i gave some thought to it. to figure out when did i come to this conclusion. where did i get these thoughts

from. and i resurrected my memory and found out where it was and i will share it with you. i support universal school choice for two reasons. the first reason is i believe chaining a child to a school that is not serving him well is a miscarriage of justice. this was brought to my -- i came to this conclusion with howard fuller. have you guys ever heard of howard fuller? i'll tell you about this. i was a superintendent of schools in houston and at the foundation i was making a presentation about school choice. hi just become superintendent of schools in houston and i was working to try to improve the schools in houston and my reasoning for school choice then had to do with making schools work better and so my presentation was all about making schools work better and that came off this class of

universal school choice and at the end of my presentation of q&a, there was a booming voice coming from the back of the room. a tall, black gentleman stood up and he said that is not the reason. he said the reason is, it ain't right. the reason is it's not fair. the reason is it's not justice. well i was almost intimidated by the size of that voice. but then i had a chance to think about it, and that is right. it is right. it is not right to chain a child to a school that is not supporting them well. it is not right to have a child go to a school that is really crippling him. so that reason became imbedded in my mind and i worked through many years with that as the reason. but i want to bring us back to my original reason.

which i think howard was right but it is right to look at this other reason. look at the other reason. as superintendent of schools in houston, i came to the opinion, that reforming a major school district with 200,000 students with the largest employee base, the third largest employee base in houston, texas. 35,000 employees and a very complicated system. i came to the conclusion that the system could not work efficiently imbedded in a monopoly system. a system of monopoly did not serve this organization well. so i believe the school choice is a necessary condition for effective and efficient school operations. all of the talk now about

reforming schools are going to go nowhere unless they are free from this grip of monopoly. all parties, teachers parents, students and the public at large would benefit from the innovation and creativity inspired by universal school choice. for example, a texas policy article entitled teachers win the case for school choice pointed out that school choice is primary -- primary effect on teachers would be to increase teachers' salary. think about that. to increase teachers' salary would be the basic impact of school choice. it would be the primary effect on teachers. and they have the research to support this. it held that a universal school

choice would lead to an average raise in pay of $12,000 for the teachers in houston. think about the impact of raising teachers' salaries. think about the positive impact of paying teachers more. it would increase the de-- the demand for good teachers. increase the demand for becoming a teacher for young children. enhance teacher quality. it would be a powerful force for school improvement. it would help solve many school problems. i need to share an example of my experience and show you why i came to that conclusion. during the early part of my superintendentsy, houston went into an economic decline. it was due to the changes in the

oil market. because houston was basically petroleum, economically-based community. when prices go down then at that time it was stark. and on the southwest side of houston, that was a big group of luxury apartments. these apartments were there for up and coming young people without children who were basically middle class and above. they were living a good life driving their luxury automobiles. great jobs. but when the economy went down, and stayed down for a long time, these jobs went away and there were no people to put in these apartments apartments. but the real estate people are

not just going to close down apartments. they had to find a market for them. guess where they found the market for them? government-supported housing. so they moved government-supported people into these luxury apartments. thousands of them. guess what happened to my schools because of this? guess the stark change that took place here. now all of a sudden we have a whole different population in these schools. and by the way, there are more children than we have schools in this area because the people who lived here before didn't have children. so my principals were doing their best to pack these kids into these limited schools. the fire department was issuing tickets to my principals for over-crowded schools. so we had to have a solution to this problem. after a lot of thought, we came up with a solution. i proposed that the school board -- and i didn't have any

idea it was going to cause the problems i had. i proposed to the school board, i said we are a school that is certified by the texas education agency. and they said yes. and i said in this area where we are there are four schools that also are accredited by the texas acredit agency. yes. well those schools are private schools. now here are our options. we can take these kids and bus them 17 miles across the city in drive time to put them in schools where there are seats, adding 45 minutes to their time to get to school and 45 minutes to the time to get back. or we can have these children go

to these private schools. and we could take the funds that come to us from the texas education agency and pay the private school people to teach these kids if the parents choose to do that. i don't have to explain to you what the newspapers did to me about that. but you know what? we did it any way. i convinced the school board. we did it any way. so what did we do? we solved a problem for their parents, we solved a problem for me because my biggest headaches came from the transportation system. 13,000 buses rolling every morning and evening delivering 56,000 children to and from school every day and every day somebody ran into somebody. i got threats coming from transportation and i did not need to add that transportation problem to my list of problems. so then this choice issue -- this charter issue assisted me in solving problems.

so it is not only an advantage for children. but it also makes available to the school operations itself choices during this period of time, i came directly from texas southern university as a professor in education. i didn't come up through the traditional route to become a superintendent of a major school system. i didn't have all the practice they have in big schools. i had to seek methods of making schools better. aid goal to make the schools better. the idea schools would not

deliver educational services to children. i want to make a lie of people who thought public schools couldn't work effectively. my whole goal, how do i operate an organization that works better costs less, takes care of employees and guarantees results for children. so part of that study called for taking classes at apqc american product quality centers that taught american ceos how to be ceos. reading books to get ideas from. several reports that make sense. one was kettering foundation, a book called is there a public for public schools. i determined there was no public for public schools because they didn't create their public.

i don't want to go into details but creating a public for public schools made a big difference. the rand foundation report, high schools of character pointed out to me that as i look around the country, i ask the question why do these choice schools work? why is it in my school district the specialized schools work why is it magnet schools are working so well? why is it schools of choice are working so well? concluded because the people that work in those schools are there because of their choice. students who are in those schools are there of their choice. the things they study are things they chose to study. this situation of choice became more and more a situation i thought made perfect, perfect sense.

as i look around about forces that are driving change in our society, there's two you cannot escape from. one, technology. the second is choice. this is an idea whose time has come. we can continue to limp along as we're doing. if we really want to make progress, we have to embrace the power of technology and choice. in his 2000 book, a guy who was author of the 2000 democratic party platform and famous speechwriter for al gore put it best. he termed our generation as a

choice generation. he said that we are in the midst of a choice revolution. the principle driving the choice revolution is that all americans should have the opportunity to make choices for themselves and their families. choices like the privilege of how to save for their children. choices like the privilege of how to prepare for your future. choices like what school your children should attend, which is now reserved only to the wealthy. the time for choice has come. today's new technology and globalization provides people with more and more choice in our daily lives. more individual power more personalization, more customization based on their choice. as they enjoy these expanded opportunities of choice by themselves, they will not tolerate being presented with

situations where there's no choice in where their children attend school. my parents had a choice of three tv networks when they wanted to watch tv. their children have hundreds of choices. they can tivo tv and watch their favorite program when they want to, not waiting until when the program is put on. if they don't like fox news, they can go to msnbc. at lunch between mcdonald's, wendy, whataburger, kentucky fried chicken. even services like the post office, which was my father's only choice, has given way to fedex, ups and dhl. this is a choice revolution. as people enjoy more and more choice, the notion that they are being told how to live their

lives, that they are having others make choice decisions for them is becoming more and more repugnant to them. this is a time for choice. choice defines our generation. in our fast paced world everywhere we turn choice and decision making power is thrust into our own hand. this generation will demand the right to choose the right to carve their own way the right to be an individual, the right to choose what is chosen in school. university school choice will put real muscle in the school reform movement. so right, not right to chain a child to a school who has not served them well. the other part is school operations, school reform will not work embedded in a monopoly.

universal schools could answer many of our problem. i propose to this august body, school perform, choice pioneers to tie -- strategically tie school choice to school reform. '6 point out that for those people who want to reform school should be our natural allies. teachers should want school choice for many reasons, if not only the reasonable they will be paid more, it would increase the environment's movement toward giving them more power. it will make our situation work better. they are national candidates to join our army. let's strategically recruit them and explain to them why that's a good idea.

so the reason, why do i support universal school choice, using the term it ain't right. using my own term schools can work better embedded in a monopoly. so a quote from the book, "it is only a matter of time. with ever growing pressure from a rising school generation, government will come to realize that they will have to embrace the choice revolution. they have no choice." use humphrey bogart's words, maybe not today maybe tomorrow, but soon. and in the words of that great vocalist spiritual singer andre

crouch, soon but very soon. this world is simply moving too fast regardless of the status quo to keep the doors closed to choice. god bless you and god bless the united states of america. [ applause ] >> now you see why i was so excited about who we had as a speaker. you can tell without any question his love and his passion has been centered not on the topic of education but on the kids, improving a system that produces better outcomes for children.

thank you, dr. page. let's give him another round of applause. [ applause ] our next panel starts at 1:30. here is what i'm going to ask us to do. for the next 15 minutes, let's take our trash that's on the tables, we have a dumpster so to speak trash can out on your left-hand side, unless your back is to me then it's on your right-hand side. then if you get back in your seats around 1:15, i want to take the 15 minutes before the next panel starts -- shhh -- i want to take 15 minutes before the next panel starts to answer a couple more questions from the students in the room. so 1:15 let's get back in our seats. we'll have a chance to answer questions. please, if you will help us clean up by taking your stuff over to the