ongoing budget and revenue dispute between yourself and the republicans saying that it had flared up with the governor declaring he thinks in the other replican leaders will have to fund education and social services to levels that he finds adequate. republican leaders say they have no plan to bend to the governor's wishes. tell us about this fight that has been going on reported in the associated press the . . . fight that sel much. we actually have money to argue about. the rest of the states have deficits. it is pretty clear in montana that if we do not invest the money from the state to the local school districts that the school district will turn to raising levies which will rn up the property taxes of local property owners to go up. and higher education, if we do not find higher education of the

levels i have suggested, the on the other ways to raise tuition like they're doing in every other state in america. it is the middle class that is the strength of this country, i have a master's degree in soil science. neither one of my parents were farmers and did not graduate from high school. i want every family to be able to afford the american dream and that is higher education which is the best path to a higher- paying job. host: our next call from florida on our line for independents. as in boots.loots guest: hey, cowgirl. caller: we have a small cattle ranch. 40 acres out here is huge. host:-- guest: you can run 25 or

30 cows on that. caller: eye injury during a diussion last night and i was gratified by what you have done that it is working for montana. one of the things i have not heard which is similar to the caller from abilene which is education. how do we extrapolate what you to other states in the nation? i do not remember it was truman are eisenhower, but one of them said that it is amazing what we can accomplish of we are not so worried about it gets the credit. give us some of your ideas. let us enjoy the success that montana has had a steady when your ideas are. share some of them in terms of applying them to our national situation. i would love to hear some of that. thank you so much. guest: montana is a real estate. we have high schools with only

25 or 30 people in the entire high school with all four grades. how can we have the best biology and chemistry teacher? how can you have someone teaching algebra and trigonometry let alone a mandarin? i have said to our high schools and universities that we need to partner. we are streaming class's from our universities directly to our high schools. we have something called the old credit. in order to graduate from high school have have a certain number of social studies, math, science, and other curriculum. what we say is that if you take one of your math classs as a college credit that when you graduate from high school you will already have a few college credits and we will give you credit for both high school graduation and for that college. all over montana, these students who are eager to achieve that a higher level are taking university credits already been there are sophomores, juniors, seniors in high school. this is a digital generation. the people my age, we have a tough time turning on the

intern, the people who broke with the internet, they do not have any problem at all looking at a screen just as though it was a teacher in the classroom. this digital generation more so than any can learn in a classroom where the teacher is maybe 5,000 miles away. you can have a kid in a little school in the montana studying mandarin or studying civil engineering. that is why montana will get ahead and why we will have the engineers who will change the world. host: louisville, kentucky, on our line for democrats. caller: i appreciate what you do, governor, and thank you very much. this was a constitutional thing i believe that started and i would like your thoughts on it. guest: montana has something similar to the state bank. for the last three decades, we

have been collecting the tax on our significant coal reserves. as people line the colt, a 15% tax is collected and goes into a permanent fund. it is nearly $1 billion and they love it to businesses who want to start in montana. we are not the only money. we partner with private banks. we are the last money in the in the first money out so we can keep moving the money and give businesses starting and growing in montana. we cannot throw that money away. we are tightfisted. if you do not have a good business plan, you should go somewhere else. host: hollywood, fla., on our line for independents. you're on with montana gov. brian schweitzer. caller: i want to think c-span for all that you are doing. i live here in florida, in hollywood. when the oil was leaking in the

gulf coast of florida, our university students were measuring about 1 million barrels per day. if united states on its own oil wells and sold it at international market prices at $90 per barrel, that could help to meet the unquenchable thirst that our government needs in taxes. any other surplus could probably going to education, o turn health care into a treasure trove, as well as securing social security for many years to come. 1 million barrels per day times $90 per barrel. you do the math. do before the people, by the people to pay off the taxes and possibly our government does not even need to ask an american

working person for taxes ever again. host: governor schweitzer? guest: we consume 20 million barrels per day. you talk about 1 million and then we will still imports two- thirds of the oil we consume. it is clear to me that we need all sources of energy. we need wind power, solar power. we need a call from plac like montana. each one of these ergy systems as a challenge. wind has a reliability problem. solar, the sun does not shine at night. new clear has a problem with a radiation. oil has a problem ofot having enough of it -- a nuclear power has a problem with radiation. we have these energy sources that together we can create energy independence. nick call from detroit and i have the solution for michigan

and detroit. here it is. harvard university recently completed a study and they said the wind energy potential of montana alone could produce enough electricity that we could run every light truck and suv as far as america. we are now proposing that olli montana produced electricity because there is wind in the southwest -- midwest, in the southwest. if we converted our fleet to elector, we would have an energy storage system support in every garage or in front of every office building there would restore electricity in the battery of a car. when you are not driving it, you plug it into the grid. at any minute commute to be selling electricity back into the grid and some other business needs it, you lose it bitter row-- you use it. if there was a disruption, every

american would have stored electricity and they could use it for the functioning of their house. this is about creating jobs in america. the entire world was made -- waiting for america. the future will be a different kind of energy, one that is not dependent on oil produced by dictators. host: what you say to those who will talk about how it is not about the production of the energy either by wind, solar, nuclear, or whenever that is the grade in the united states that is not built to transport this energy from one area where it isroduced to other areas where it is needed. it does notatter that ntana is the largest wine producer in the country if you cannot get that energy outside of the state of montana then it only serves to benefit one state. guest: it is an energy grid that is balkanized.

most of them do not want any electricity coming in and they do not want to send any going t. their business plan is pretty simple. it is like having a big barrel full of fish. you fired into the shotgun and you get a fish. you do not have to change anything. lot of these regulated utilities have not change their business plan or how they move energy in the last 50 years. they will not change until we forced them. we need a national plan that ties all these grades together and creates a new grid system so that we can move long-term electricity from one part of america to the other. the problems with these alternating current lines is that they are relatively inefficient. these lines would be an interstate highway overlaid across all of the grid in america is that you could very quickly and efficiently deliver electricity from the place for the sun is shining to the car that needs the electricity. that is something that is big

enough that we need congress involved in. when the states asked congress to take action, we know it will take a long time. in washington, d.c., they have been confusing motion with action. host: speaking of a fish, our next caller is from truck crete, montana, on our line for democrats. -- troaturt creek. it is below zero. my horses have icicles off their manes. caller: i would like to know realistic to leave when you think about programs like when authorization -- weatherization

being continued for our seniors in montana and people of moderate to low and come. if you think those programs will continue to be sustainable. guest: in montana, as you know, we have a vista volunteers and they are going town by town and are helping people to wh eatherize their homes. they check filters, advice to decrease energy consumption. she probably knows that i challenged the state of montana to decrease energy consumption by 20% by 2010. behavior. s this the

maeke sure you don't have the lights on in the coke machine. it lowers our footprint and decreases the cost of doing business. we sold 20% of the cars in our fleet. the cars we had left are more energy efficient. we have the highsest standard of 35 mpg. selling the ones that were not efficient. you can save a lot of money and decrease your carbon footprint. help your neighbors out. if you have someone that is

disabled, stop and check on them. make sure they have insulation around their windows. make sure that their door jams are tight. check this filter in their heating and cooling device. you can save 20% just with that. host: you wereart of the meetin with the president at the white house after day, correct? tell us what was discussed in the biggest concerns. what kind of response did you get from the president? guest: the president and the governors were focused on creating jobs and getting the economy going again. we talk about streamlining, regulation, processes so companies can get started. we talk about creating a new energy economy so we can break this addiction to foreign oil. we talked about an education system that is relevant.

we talked about creating an economy in the united states that is dependent on technology and manufacturing. i was very heartened. this president is focusing right now on jobs and the economy. it could not come at a better time. host: you said earlier that the governors arlike ceo's of 50 different companies and the solution to increase in jobs in montana might not necessarily be the solution to increasing jobs in ohio, wisconsin, or california. guest: the model that we have in ery single state is the same. a feeling that the budget, you will see 85% of the money we spend is on three programs -- educat medicate, and incarcerate. we need to have good teachers in front of the students. there are a certain number of disabled people and elderly people that need the protection

of society as a whole. there are certain number of bad guys that we need to put behind bars to keep our communities safe. every governor is faced with the same three expenses. with the government can help, they can help to streamline regulation. the can be a good partner. sometimes they're not a very good partner. in the case of montana where 30% of the land in montana is owned by the government, they become our governors in transmission, pipelines,. they are so fa away from managing those resources on the ground. they do not listen to us when we manage those resources on the ground. there will always be a pocket -- tug and a pull. host: ft. worth, texas.

thank you for rating. -- waiting. caller: i have some relatives in missoula and they say it is beautiful. i know you get a lot of your money from coal and your population is less than 1 million so you probabl gain a lot of money from that. you do not have to spend money on the programs with more populous states. striving to be energy dependent and e u.s. having more oil reserves than the rest of the world combined, the obama administration is saying that they've been lying to get off of energy. we know that we have to invest in different forms of energy because the wells will not be

there all the time. we need to get the better technology and we need to use our own oil. if we started this two years ago, i think we would be a lot closer. gas prices could be moving lower. they say they're focusing on jobs now, but for the last few years they have been pushing the democratic agenda in washington. host: we will leave it there. guest: united states of america is not number one in oil reserves. we have some oil, t we emperor import 2/3. we have other energy supplies

that are better than a place else. oil > -- oil? yes, we have oil. we cannot keep up with the increasing demand for oil which is why we have to switch to electric cars and natural gas is. we cannot get off of oil tomorrow, but if we start today, therwill be millions of jobs. the sooner we get going on the future, the better. that is why i say in montana that we're going to help produce the energy supplies for the country but we will do it on our own terms. we will not be an energy colony for the rest of the country so that the east and west coast and into montana and do whatever they want to do just to get the energy. if we have our own scientists and engineers to develop the energy supplies we have in montana, we will be proud of

what montana looks like 50 years from now. host: madison, wisconsin, on airline for republicans. go ahead. caller: good morning. how are you? guest: he called my office the other day and i didn't take the phone call. caller: as something for the news of -- i was flipping throh the news. it was great to be talking to a governor. how you stay accessible to your people? how do you avoid alienating your voters? that is my question. host: how do you keep your legislators in the state during legislative seon? guest: how do i be accessible t the people of montana? they know where i live.

91% of montana knows the name of my dog. i do not spend that much time in the capital. i am on the road. i am poking in and out of businesses and schools. a governor, unlike people in washington, d.c., after have jobs to do which is to run the business of montana. the shareholders are in every town across montana. the best ideas are from the people of montana. the economy was ticki along and the rest of the states were spending all of this money that was coming in. i d not think it would stay that good. for every good year in montana, there are two bad. we have had five gd years in a row. we should negotiate with their public unions and we did. i sat down with them d i said he now, i do not know how big this recession will be, but we need to cut. i will cut my own salary by

$11,000. i will ask them if they book a two years without increasing benefits or salary. we cannot be successful in montana unless you, the people who do theork that matters coming teacher children, take care of our disabled people, make sure bad guys are behind bars, if you did not do that work, we cannot be successful in montana. so, but they agree not to take a salary increase? it was a tough negotiation, but they agreed and i think them for their service. -- i thank them. we did not demagogued the people who work for montana and tell them that they could not collectively bargain. it is a mistake for a ceo. imagine if you're the president of general motors, general electric, or bowing and after three days on the job, you call a press conference and say, "we are paying our people to much and they are doing too little so i'm going to cut their salary and we may even lay them off."

how do suppose the morale would be? if any ceo in america would do that, their stock would drop by 10% the next day. i will not give any governor's advice on how to work with public employees, but in montana we work together with our public employees. weighten our belts together and that is why montana continues to tinker around. golden -- host: golden, colorado. caller: what happened to the wilderness bill? montana is my absolute favorite place in the whole united states. my sister lives there. my daughter is going to go to montana state. the reason i love it is because of the environment. i was up there in the 1980's and i saw what burlingtonorthern bid to make sure that build and not go through.

i just want to know what happened to it, if you are protecting it, if the timbre is being eliminated, are reselling those jobs to japan? at is happening? guest: in montana, the most valuable land we have will never have a road built on it, will never have a transmission line, and the only way you can get to it is to walk. there's only a few places left on the planet that are so while than spectacular that they are not and will never be developed. imagine 100500 years from now this entire planet will be developed and we will not even know what the benchmark was. what look like before humans did all the things we do on the land? that is why the spectacular places we have in montana are so cherished and treasure by the people of montana and like

people all over the rld. right now, there is a discussion about quitting more wilderness in montana. it is a trade-off. the timber industry said if we were going to put land with a permanently than th like to have an opportunity to harvest more timber now. that was a negotiated deal. it is a bold move. the wilderness bills in the past have been about killing fields for montntana politicians.

>> another address now, the president's weekly address followed by the republican's address. >> over the last month i've been traveling the country talking about americans about how we can outeducate, and outbuild the rest of the world. doing that will require a government that lives within its means. but it will also require investing in our nation's future. training and educating our workers, increasing our commitment to research and technology, building new roads and bridges, high speed rail and high speed internet. in cities and towns throughout america, i've seen the benefits of these investments. the schools and colleges of oregon are providing intel, the state's largest private employer, with a steady stream of workers and iege nears. in parkville middle school, engineering is the most popular subject thanks to the

outstanding teachers who are inspiring students to focus on their math and science skills. in wisconsin, a company is putting hundreds of people to work manufacturing energy efficient lights. and in the small community of marquette in michigan's upper peninsula, widely accessible high speed internet has allowed students and entrepreneurs to connect to the economy. one small business, a third generation is now selling their products on line which has helped them to double their workforce and make them one of america's 5,000 fastest growing companies in a recent listing. each of these places reminds us that investments in education, innovation, and infrastructure are an essential down payment on our future. but they also remind us that the only way we can afford these investments is by getting our fiscal house in on the other hand. just like any family, we have to live within our means to make room for the things we absolutely need. that's why i've called for a

freeze on annual domestic spending over the next five years. a freeze that would cut the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade. just to be clear, that's lower than it was under the past three administrations. and lower than it was under ronald reagan. now, putting this in place will require tough choices. that's why i've frozen salaries for three years and proposed cutting program i care deeply about, like community action programs in low income neighborhoods. i'm not taking these steps lightly but i'm taking them because our economic future demands it. still, a freeze in annual domestic spending is just a start. if we're serious about tackling our long-run fiscal challenges we need to cut spending wherever we find it, in defend, medicare and medicaid, and through tax breaks and

loopholes. i am willing to consider any serious ideas to help us reduce the deficit no matter what party is proposing them. but instead of cutting in education and innovation we need to outcompete the rest of the world. we need a balanced approach. we all needs to be willing to sacrifice burks we can't sacrifice our future. next week congress will focus on a short term budget. for the sake of our people and economy we cannot allow gridlock to prevail. both democratic and republican leaders in the house and senate have said they believe it's important to keep the government running while we work together on a plan to reduce our long term deficit. given that, i urge and expect them to find common ground so we can accelerate and not impede economic growth. it won't be easy but. there will be plenty of debate and disagreements. both sides will have to compromise. that's what it will take to do what's right for our country. and i look forward to working

with members of both parties to produce a responsible budget that cuts what we can't afford, sharpens america's competitive edge in the world, and helps us win the future. thanks, everybody. and have a great weekend. >> i'm rob portman. i'm proud to represent the people of ohio as a new united states senator. what i heard in my travels to every county in ohio over the past couple of years and what i continue to hear across our state is a zeep concern over jobs and the future of our economy. there's an understandable frustration with washington's failure to address even the most basic problems. people are looking for leadership to help create jobs and opportunity and instead what they see is the same tired political responses. we were told two years ago this month that the way to grow the economy was through bigger government, more spending and more borrowing. the stimulus plan ended up costing over $1 trillion when you include the interest on the money that had to be borrowed to pay for it. it was a grand experiment that failed.

it not only failed to produce new jobs and economic boost the obama administration promised, the trillion dollar price tag combined with higher levels of spending across government added up to a record deficit again this year. and a national debt that is now dangerously close to the size of the entire u.s. economy. this growing red ink is hurting the economy today and mortgaging the future for our kids and grandkids. so we've had to relearn the lesson we all know in our hearts. you can't spend your way to prosperity. as american families have tightened their belts over the past couple of years and businesses have had to do more with less, the federal government has taken the opposite path. spending more, growing bigger, and becoming more involved in our economy and our lives. this historic failure to control spending directly affects our economy and the ability to create jobs. it pushes up interest rates, crowds out private investments and leaves us with bad choices, higher taxes, more borrowing,

or both. left uncheck, this could lead to the kind of financial crisises we have seen in greece and other countries. at the same time, job creators tell us washington has added to the uncertainty by adding other policies that stifle job growth, including federal regulation, a tax code that exires. unpredictable rising health care costs and an increasing reliance on the middle east and other parts of the world for our energy. it's time to change course. there's an urgency about this that the american people get even while many in washington seem to be in denial. we must rise to the challenge and work together to meet our economic and fiscal problems head on by putting in place pro-growth measures and spending restraint and we must do it now. this means enacting new tax policies that take away uncertainty and encourage innovation and investment and make us more competitive. it means real health care reform that truly reduces cost,

helping families and small business afford access and addressing the biggest cost driver in entitlement programs that everyone acknowledges are unsun stainable. it means sensible regulatory reform that reduces a burden on employers that drives jobs overseas. it means a national energy policy that uses our own resources that stops our dangerous dependence on foreign oioioioioi and it means stopping the red ink that threatens to swamp our economy. once a year presidents are required to submit a federal budget that sets out a vision for the coming year. it is a leadership opportunity and a solemn responsibility. there is a lot of anticipation surrounding the president's budget release last week. after all, president obama had repeatedly described the dire fiscal condition of the nation and he promised action. in last year's budget proposal he established a fiscal commission that issued a stern report in november calling for

deep spending reductions to stave off a fiscal and economic disaster. the president himself has rightly pointed out, quote, what we have done is kick the can down the road and we are now at the end of the road and not in the position to kick it any further. and yet, the president's budget did exactly that. he rejected the dire warnings and recommendations of his own fiscal commission and not only kicked the can down the road but made the road more perilous by advocating deeper debt and ignoring bipartisan calls for entitlement reform and pro-growth policies including tax reform and regulatory restraint. instead of making the tough choices, all americans know are necessary to get our fiscal house in order and strengthen our economy, the president's budget locks in the higher levels of spending over the past two years and dubbles the national debt. as the democrat co-chairman of the president's commission said it goes nowhere near where

they'll have to go to address our problems. having chosen to duck the tough choices for the coming year and beyond, the president and democrats in congress are now objecting to any reductions in spending congress can control in the current budget year. despite the fact that this year's $1.6 trillion deficit is at record levels and over the past two years under democrat leadership this type of spending has increased 24%. and over 80% if you include the stimulus. our goal as republicans is to make sensible reductions in this spending and create a better environment for job growth, not to shut down the government. getting our debt and deficits under control is the first step we can take and the single most important step washington can take to get our economy moving and create the jobs we so badly need. in ohio, and around the country, people are looking for common sense leadership to get us back on track. they know what we americans are capable of, the innovation, in

vention and millions of jobs that are within our grasp if washington will act with resolve to create the climate for success. but they know that we risk the american dream becoming a fiscal nightmare if we do not act, and act now, do do what's right. thank you for listening. >> as the nation's governors meet here in washington, use the c-span video library to learn more about the state's chief executives. watch their speeches and appearances, see inaugurals of new governs and hear state of the state addresses all free on line. search, watch, clip and share any time. >> we'll be bringing you the second and final panel of the national governs association meeting going on here in washington, d.c. it will be starting live at 3:00 eastern. they plan og discussing global lessons to improve k-12 education.

before that second and final panel of the nga, we'll take a look at the mayors conference which took place last week here in d.c. a number of those mayors held a news conference to talk about cuts to the block grant program that passed in the house last week. that measure would cut more than 60% or $4 billion from the program. >> good morning. thank you for being here with us. before we begin, i would like to have all of the mayors present here introduce themselves and the cities that they serve.

[introductions]

>> thank you for being here this morning. we're here as mayors representing our cities. we are nonpartisan. and we're here because we're disappointed about programs that are critical to cities like the community development block grant that's being cut. there are other programs that are critical to cities that are also on the cut list. but we take great exception to the community development block grant. this program was promulgated under president richard nixon. this program comes directly to

cities for us to have control of the funds and to ensure that the funds are used for those folks who most need and to help with projects for the people who are in need of housing, whether that is affordable housing, section 8 how's,, and so forth. it creates jobs, not just for people within city hall, but for the private sector and for nonprofits. this program is important to our citizens. and if the members of congress have not thought about the impacts that these kinds of cuts have on the members of our community, they need to know about them. therefore, it is going to be our responsibility to educate

them and to make them aware of what the impacts are not only on the cost sides of the city level but also on the side of the people who are affected. because the impacts are devastating. and, thrfert, -- therefore, as we stand here today, knowing what happened in the house, we see that our only hope is in the senate. and so this morning we have met to talk about what we're going to do. and how we're going to effect that kind of discussion. we on the local level balance our budgets every year. we also are very transparent. what we believe happened in the house was not transparent and

so we are here to raise voices for the people who are affected by these cuts. because it's going to affect not only those who are beneficiaries of our community development block grants but to the rest of the people of our community because the costs now shift. ladies and gentlemen, every year the people of our communities who work in our communities send money to washington, into that treasury. nothing comes back to us but for cdbg. the community block grant brings back some of those funds into our cities that we can help with some of the social issues that we deal with on a day-to-day basis. and so these drastic cuts are unacceptable to the mayors of

america. and today, as nonpartisan mayors, we have raised our voices and with that i'm going to also call on our second vice president, michael nutter, from the great city of philadelphia. mr. vice president. >> madam president, thank you very much. and to all of our mayors who are here, all the members of the u.s. conference of mayors, i can only think of one word to describe what the house has done with h.r. 1. outrageous. it's outrageous and unacceptable. h.r. 1 is un-american. it attacks senior citizens, it attacks children, it attacks working people, it stops jobs and economic in cities all across the united states of america. i have no idea what is going on in the minds of some who have now gotten elected on rhetoric and are now trying to gonch with that same rhetoric. you cannot run a country while

attacking its own people. and certainly that should not be going on in the united states of america. and that's what h.r. 1 is saul about. it attacks the cd fwnch g program, it attacks programs for seniors, for children. it takes and takes and takes desperately needed funds away from the ones who need it the most. this is literally un-american. what is going on. the u.s. conference of mayors will not stand for this kind of activity. we have to do a better job apparently of educating members of the united states congress about the programs that they fund and support on a regular basis. many of the members it is clear to us by now have no idea what these programs do, how they affect people, how they rebuild our cities and put americans back to work. and if that then is our job, in addition to running our cities on a regular basis, to then educate members of congress about what they are doing, then that's what we will do. but we will not stand for this kind of attack on our own

citizens. as h.r. 1 does. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you madam president, second vice president. ladies and gentlemen, the greatest generation of americans, world war ii, helped to build this country. we are now facing a crisis in our cities and towns. we have to take a stand. this generation has to take a stand. and i'm not just talking about mayors. we just sat and listened to a lot of different mayors in a meeting. one of the mayors that spoke up was mayor fox of charlotte. he spokes of 3,000 children that go to bed at night without a bed, without food. people who are unemployed. we are in the worst economic recession this country has seen in decades. over 9% unemployment. at a time when our most vulnerable in our society can't

seem to find a job, can't seem to heat their homes, we have this continuing resolution which cuts cdbg funding, the life blood of cities and towns, 66%. that is devastating to the people that we are talking about this morning. to the young people who we talk about wanting to have an education in the future, to the citizens that need access ibility. ladies and gentlemen, we have to engage our members of the house, our members of the senate, governors, private sector, public sector. and not only say this is irresponsible and can't stand, but furn it around. we're in a critical juncture right now. i just want to say one other thing and then i'll give it back to the president. i know there's been a lot of talk about the deficit. deficit reduction.

ladies and gentlemen, we have to prioritize in our country today. we have to make some difficult decisions. we have to ensure that we don't balance our budget on the backs of those who are most vulnerable. that is what this h.r. 1 continuing resolution does. we can't stand for it. so we have to engage everyone in our community. one of the best things about cdbg funding is that it leverages other funds and jobs, private sector and public sector, small businesses, nonprofits. we have to make sure we're engaging every element of our community so that we don't see the de station that's been proposed by the house. that's why i'm here and that's why we have to get activated as mayors across the country. thank you very much. >> thank you, mayor.

>> to me, this is about hypocracy. it is hypocritical for elected officials in washington to say they value cities, they value the economy and they value jobs, and then to create a stimulus package, send it to the states where it never reaches the cities. it's hypocritical to say you value the economy and cities and jobs and then go make drastic cuts to great programs like community development block grants which we know have great discretionary opportunities to go exactly where they're needed in our communities. we understand tough choices. there isn't a single mayor up here who isn't making tough choices right now. we're out there weighing the value of police officers and firefighters and libraries. but it's also about priorities and the priorities in washington need to be about cities and jobs and the economy. and if these proposals go through, those are not the priorities. >> thank you.

>> who are we today that are before you? we're the united states conference of mayors. you've described us as the city fathers and city mothers of this great nation. and what do the city fath ergs and city mothers in any family do? they try to look out for the best interest of their family and the members of their communities. as mayors, we are on the forefront, we're where the rubber hits the road. and what other group knows better than the needs of our communities? so we're here to tell you today that as city fathers and city mothers, we're going to get our families together. the folks in our communities that represent all these organizations that work day in and day out for the average people in this country, whether it be day care providers or housing interests or other individuals. we're going to get them

together. we're going to take the leadership as the united states conference of mayors because who else can and should but us? and we're going to bring them to washington and we're going to have a major march or meeting in the halls of congress with the leadership of congress. we're going to take this fight to save and protect community development block grants to the white house and to the halls of the congress and we are not going to let them destroy this fundamental basic program that has served this country for over 30 years, and you can take that to the bank and you can tell congress, democrat and republican alike, president and otherwise, that this will not be allowed to stand. and that's coming from the city fathers and city mothers of this country who really know what's best for their local communities. thank you. >> our last mayor and then we're going to questions.

>> we're trying to get mayor gluba to come out of his shell a bit. as you can tell there's quite a bit of passion on this issue, and mayors are united and committed to this,, for one reason. i'm proud to be a part of this group because behind me are wlage who make tough choices. we balance our budgets. we take care of our citizens on a daily basis. and the one big problem with cutting cdbg is the belief if you simply cut a budget in washington somehow the problem disappears. it does not. those 3,000 children beneath the bridge will still be there. who is going to pick up the slack? this is simply a cost shift. from the federal government to handle societal problems to the cities, will take care of. but at the disadvantage and

damage of our budgets of our citizens. this will have direct impact on our citizens. cities have been the most responsible level of government in dealing with the crisis. we have continued to balance our budgets, we have continued to make those tough decisions. this is an atrocity because it simply ignores the fact that you can't simply wish away problems. we will stand together, we will fight this because this is one of the most basic principles that we believe in. and it also does affect our citizens on a daily basis. it will affect their daily lives, quality of life and levels of services we're able to provide. >> now we'll be open up for questions. i'll go to you. >> is the mayors willing to see a federal government shut down? >> we are not here to talk about the federal shutdown. that's their business. we're here focusing on cdbg.

>> i'd like to ask anybody is if there's anybody, i know you're nonpartisan. i'd like to identify themselves as republican and directly address boehner and mitch mcconnell and given the gist of what you say to their face. >> mayor from the city of minnesota we are nonpartisan and that is the beauty of standing together here as the u.s. conference of mayors is that we are nonpartisan. and so this issue is an issue that has been debated in congress many times and has had bipartisan support. as mayors serving our citizens, we serve both democrats and republicans. but i will open it up to any of the mayors here and to see if they're willing to speak. because as we stand together, we don't know who is a democrat or a republican.

and we don't care. >> i'm mick corn et the mayor of oklahoma city. what specifically is your question? >> whether any of you would identify yourself as a republican and if so directly address your message to baber and mcconnell. >> you heard from three republicans during that last series of tire raids from mayors. and i don't know that we need to address anyone specifically because as far as we're concerned they represent communities all across the country. but they've got to hear from us. and it's a little bit lame for us to hear that they've got tough choices to make. let me tell you, you be a mayor for a day and i'll tell you about some tough choices. so this is about priorities and the priorities need to be about the economy. and if they start cutting community development block grants, they have lost their

sense of priorities. >> i'm the chair of the democratic mayors. and i can tell you that mayor corn eth and i stand side by side on these issues. and we can walk the halls of congress together on that because this is something, it's about children, it's about programs that ironically was started. community development block grant was started by a republican president. and this has been a program that all of us, all of us can take you and put your hands right on the results of these programs. so we stand together on this. we may talk about other issues, but as mayors, pot holes don't have a d or r on it. and community development is about the people of this great country and we stand together on that. >> house of representatives has done but president obama has also in his 2012 budget proposed cutting community grants. >> talk about the 2012 budget because the issue of urgency is

the continuing resolution that's before us right now. that's a huge cut. because then if that money is cut, then the 2012 budget goes to that baseline. there's nothing left. it's gone. >> you have no opinion on the 12 budget? >> we need to fight this budget and win this one. >> we're not going to get distracted by 12 while we're living in 11. that's the issue. 62.5% cut is something you have to pay attention to. and we'll deal with 12 when we get to 12. we're in 11. so when someone has a bazooka pointed right at your head, it's a little difficult to focus on what you're going to have for breakfast tomorrow. we're focused on the here and now. this program is under attack. and many, many others. as our president indicated and the mayor indicated. but at 62.5%, we have to stay

focused on where we are right here at the moment. that's what we're doing. >> is this the first time in the history of the block grant that there has been a strenuous effort to eliminate that funding and what what happens in that case? >> this is not the first time. we have gone down this road many times before. and i believe that our executive officer can tell you how many times. tom, how many times the conference of mayors have fought this fight on the community block grant? >> the most serious. i think it's important to stop and look at every president since nixon and if you -- president reagan proposed cuts and we won. president bush would try to

eliminate the program and with the help of his secretary of h.u.d. mr. jackson, we saved it. so this is not the first time. but this i think is more serious and more critical than ever. >> one of the criticisms of the program is that it's difficult to measure, it's the result. and that's not the republicans saying that. that's what the president says in his budget. what's your response? >> it's very interesting that because it is a flexible program and we always want to ask the question, and we have asked the question, where do you start the measure? because we can talk about mayor fox can tell you about the 3,000 children underneath the bridge. and if we can get those 3,000 children. that's today. what about next year when we have to look at something?

it's very organic. so we're -- and it's a flexible program and we need to make sure that we have -- we address these issues. >> we have to account for every dime. ok? every dime of this program gets accounted for. it's spint well. this is a 36-year-old program. never an issue, never a scandal. no one is doing anything. all our brudges and our cities go somewhere and people use them. so, i mean, all this talk about, well, this measure, that measure. we could talk about jobs. go talk to a senior citizen who is living in a h.u.d. 202 developed building. ask them what the outcome was from the funding. ask the child care folks what's the outcome when kids are in a safe secure environment because they got funded with cdbg. some of these folks don't even know that the streets, buildings with probably funded

with cdbg dollars. the great thing about this program is tremendous flexibility, we fill out more forms than we know what to do with at home. so we know what's going on. and some of folks go to ground breakings and ribbon cuttings don't even know that some of those activities are funded by cdbg. we know where every dollar and dime goes with this program. and the members of congress need to figure it out themselves. >> can i just add, i just want to add to that. we know over a quarter of a million jobs in the last six years have been retained or created by cdbg funding. we know that there have been over 14 million people that have been affected their lives have been affected by cdbg funding. so we can talk about about data and we can also talk about the lives, infrastructure, that's

been affected by this program that allows for innovation, for the chief executive officers of our country in and around the country to leverage and be creative. so i wanted to make sure that was noted as well. . .

know the impact of it when it is gone. >> and to the point that they want to measure -- we have formed that we have to fill out. they are extensive forms. if they want to create measurements, hey, bring it on. yes, sir? >> [inaudible] -- energy efficiency block program. >> right now, we are focused on the bazooka. [laughter] right now, this is in our face. anyone else? yes, please? >> i just want to give you a small example of the leverage of funds for community development block grants. the poor and elderly who are homeowners are in danger of

losing their homes because they can no longer afford to maintain their homes. their roots are caving in. we took $27,000 of community development block grant money and we established an account at lowe's home improvement. we had over 1000 volunteers go to that home improvement place, buy the materials, and they have renovated 87 homes of the poor and elderly at a value of over $1 million in improvements that not only improve the homes of these people, 87 families, but leverage the money from $27,000 worth of money to $1 million worth of profit and kept the tax base and people in their homes. with that small, the money, wheat or leveraged greatly with being able to do that. when you start talking about

accountability, those are the kinds of things that keep our community thriving. when you start to talk about taking this away, it is totally on american -- unamerican. >> anyone else? thank you very much. it is nice of you to comment with us. have a good day. [laughter] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> we are taking you live back

to the hotel in washington, d.c., with the national governors' association is being held. and next, the second and final panel of the day. >> gov. mcdonnell is completing his a legislative session hand must signed a letter to end that session. the chance to be there to end the session, -- first, a bit of housekeeping. the proceedings of this meeting are open to the press and all attendees. please take a moment to turn down your cell phones. we are also on c-span at this moment so i would ask folks to do whatever you need to do for your c-span appearances. let me introduce a couple of folks. first of all, to my right, the staff director for ngaecw committee. please ask her.

she is wondrously accomplished, she and her group of folks do a tremendous job to assist us to make the opportunities to make the policy choices in our states. the following if you open remarks, i will ask the governor to introduce our panelists. after the remarks all governors will have the opportunity to ask questions. we have asked our panelists to limit their remarks to seven minutes each, so if we could listen to what they have to say, they have come here from a great distance, we would be glad to have a solid discussion this afternoon. the committee will vote on its policies. we have a couple of very, very small tweaks to ongoing policies. we look forward to getting started with today's discussion. without further ado, let's get started.

everybody knows that times are tough and our states. we all know that we have challenges and the public education is the way to solve the problems. public education at all levels has been affected by our current economic challenges but not our desire to make it better or to measure every family that send their kids to school knows that they have an opportunity if they work hard and play by the rules to make a difference to become economically independent and move our economy forward. with the reauthorization of the act pending before congress, it is going to require us to continue to have a robust voice at the table in this federal- state partnership. we know that we have high standards and high expectations for our young folks and high expectations for our educators. we look forward to working to make that happen. no investment will have a greater impact on the future performance of our nation and on the quality of life for our

children and grandchildren than the one we make in education today. literally, each and every day in our states, kids go to school and it is our responsibility to do the best we can to make sure they have a good opportunity and getting more people to dedicate their lives to public education to help us improve it. public schools have a unique and powerful role in our society. they are a common ground. they are a source of history, identity, community, continuity, and pride. they are unifying institutions that reflect the diversity values, goals, and characters of communities all across our country. they are a vibrant crossroads for community engagement, sports, scallops, the arts, and everything in between. our public schools face significant challenges. education is a high-stakes enterprise. states know logger compete with just each other.

we are competing globally. education and the advancement of our society are link. this is just as true as at the leading edge of human endeavor, at the clinic frontier of science and technology. educational excellence is the common good that we can and should transcend state and national borders. now, today, we will hear from two experts about models of extrication now excellence us that the united states -- models of education all excellence outside of the united states. we will listen to them and then we will have a robust discussion as it is always happening in this committee for the years that it has survived it pretty quick thank you, governor. i want to begin by thanking the ngastaff. i think you are going to enjoy being here. we have allotted a lot of time for questions and answers so

please be actively listening. the first panelist is andreas schleicher, a special adviser on education policy to the secretary general for the organization of a development that fills up a business card very fast. he is responsible for developing and analyzing education systems to compare the relative performance of students internationally. he directs -- governors, you have a book in front of you known as the program or international student assessment. the second speaker needs no introduction, mr. secretary, welcome and thank you very much for being here. i think republicans and democrats alike would say that our secretary is someone who is committed to the premise that every child can learn and we are not looking for just incremental gains in education. we are very excited to have arne duncan here. he got to live in australia for

four years, played basketball, and got paid for it. our third panelist is sir michael parker, the expert partner in a global public sector practice. prior to joining, he held high- ranking positions within the british government, advising tony blair as well as the secretary of state and a professor at the institute of education at london. thank you all for being here. we know you all have been very busy schedules and we look forward to hearing your remarks. >> [inaudible] it is now my pleasure to call on mr. andreas schleicher. >> thank you so much for your interest in the global educational benchmarking. i briefly introduced a program for international student assessment. to look at what students around the world are able to do and

then show you where the -- and then show you where the united states comes out and how they got there. we started with a small group of countries, but since then, most of the industrialized world is a benchmarking the quality of their educational systems. one of the things that makes this assessment special is that it does not only look at whether students can reproduce what they learned in school but to really try to look at whether students can extrapolate from what the have learned and apply that knowledge and realize [unintelligible] career readiness. we also collected on the social background of students, schools, and data from parents, principals, and leaders to explain the differences in performance that we observed across countries. now, to the results. the first thing that everybody tries to do is outlined

countries -- to do is to line up countries. when you look at this, you can see shanghai, china, new zealand, japan, others doing very well. canada, north america, these are countries that have consistently performed well. the united states comes out around the average. there is significant variation among the states. you can see that the northeastern states, around where the netherlands. the south is more like spain, considerable variation among the states. one thing that is important with this distribution within the united states is you have about 87% of students who now make it to the most basic level of performance. actually, that carries a price tag of around $72 trillion in

the long term over the life cycle of those children in school today. that is in terms of economic output. that is our best guess. i want to introduce a second dimension that we pay a lot of attention to, and that is the achievement gap. while in other countries, the achievement gap is actually quite small. when you look at this, everybody wants to be there where the performance is strong and with the achievement gap is small. no economy can afford to be there where performance is low and there is a large disparity. actually, when you see how countries come out, you concede there is a fair amount of countries in almost every culture and continent that achieves both pretty raising performance for all and achieving quite strong equitable distribution. some countries have taken part

since the year 2000 and now i am giving them a colored bubble. the size tells you how much countries spend per student. if money would be everything but success, you would find all of the large bubbles at the top and all the small bubbles at the bottom. money only explants about 15% of the performance variation that we see across countries. if you look at how countries spend their money, you get much more of the story. if you look at some of the countries that do really well and spend very little, they spend their money quite differently than the united states, often focusing their researches on getting teacher quality at the expense of larger classes. they focus more resources on the classroom. it is more how money is spent and how much money is being spent. let's go back to the year 2000.

this is how the world looked again. the first thing you see is the bulls were a lot smaller. education in the year 2000 was a lot cheaper than is now pretty you can ask yourself as education becomes a much more expensive are around the world has become so much better? the answer is not everywhere but there are some great examples. i want to start with korea. correa did already well in the year 2000 but korean educators are concerned that excellence was not very well developed. there was not a strong performance portion of students doing very well. correa has been able to double the proportion of students -- korea has been able to double the proportion of students doing well. in 2000, you could not find a chilly on this map because education was in such -- you could not find chile on this map because education was in such

bad shape. you can see everybody is now doing almost three-quarters of the school year better than the year 2000. portugal. portugal has a lot of small schools with very low performance. they were able to turn those schools around in the equivalent of one school year. look at hungary, germany. in the year 2000, germany was considered very low performance in the area of literacy in terms of equality and equity and were able to make very considerable progress on both. what you see here is that success is possible in a fair amount of countries.

there is a long list of countries that you could look beyond the systems. there is a long list of countries that have also seen improvement. i just want to conclude with how those countries have actually got to where they are. the two directories that we have seen around the world. in the past, you could see that education systems educated a few people very well. the economy only needed if you will educated workers. -- the economy only needed a few well-educated workers. there is a very strong focus on excellence. such that all students are expected to do well. accountability students are insuring that there is a low tolence for failure in the system. in the past, when you could expect students learn to last their lifetime, you could focus on cognitive skills on learning

in schools. that made it very easy, the reproduction of the subject matter. basically, it is no longer enough because content is evolving. learning to learn complex ways of thinking and memory. it explains the success on paper because that is very much what it tries to emphasize. teacher quality. when you focus on routine cognitive skills and when education is about reproducing pre-fabricated knowledge encapsulated in schoolbooks, teacher quality is not that important. austin, teachers are a few more years educated than the students -- often, teachers are a few more educateyears educated thane students they are teaching. that has much less to do with salaries then you might think. if you look at japan or finland,

the reason why everyone wants to become a teacher is not necessarily because of the salary. it is because of the work environment. but that of course brings me to the work organization. if you want a high level knowledge workers, they do not like to work in bureaucratic educational systems. i think that is something -- another important dimension we have seen. therefore, it transforms the work organization. it is now at the core. teacher improvement, a teacher evaluation. this differentiated career path. often, the differentiated pay structures as well. [unintelligible]

one of the provinces and canada has seen a rapid improvement. -- one of the provinces in canada has seen it a rapid improvement. ♪ >> first of all, you need to bring to the task a sense of urgency, a sense that this is a very high priority. and then you need a plan. and then you need to enlist people to your cause at, teachers included. and then you need persistence. ♪ for out of 10 ontario students are immigrants. we have a student population that is extremely rich in its diversity. >> yet i am going to stop it here. you concede that students with an immigrant background in the

province reached the same high level of student performance than anyone else. ontario is now ranked no. 5 in the world with the most successful education. what i wanted to show you is the level of improvement seen around the world. the most successful systems achieving both, high levels of overall performance and closing the achievement gap. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much. my two fellow panelists are a lot smarter than i am proud i am going to keep my comments brief. i see my job very simply. my job is to make every single one of you the best education governor your states have ever seen. we have to work together and get better faster than we ever have in this country. our country has a 25% dropout

rate. that is 1 million young people leaving our schools for the streets every single year. that is more than unacceptable. it is economically unsustainable. the president and the vice president met with ceo's this week. co after c o said they have high schools -- c o after ceo said they have high-paying jobs. it is our collective responsibility to fix the plants to our citizens, folks from your states, have the ability to fill the jobs that are on filled today that pay great weight is to allow folks to provide for their families. we have gone from first in the world to ninth in college graduates. we have to educate our wake to a better economy. it is not so much that we have dropped. we have a flat land. many countries have passed us by

a pretty i have spent a huge amount of time looking at that data from around the country. one more data point that he didn't hit that i wanted to; fantasize, you can look at the data nowhere near where we should be. you can also add to be that it down to the state level. if you look at each state as its own country, our highest performance states, mass., it is 17th. we do not have a single state in the nation in the top 15. our worst performance date would be the 93rd country. anyone who thinks the status quo is good enough i think it does not begin to understand the huge urgency we have to educate our way to better our economy. i am actually optimistic. i am convinced we can do it with your leadership. we have a 41 states that raised

standards. for the first time in this country, a child in massachusetts and a child in mississippi will be held to the same standards. that happened because of all of you. parents commit district superintendents, finally deciding that we will stop lying to tilden and stop dumbing down standards because it helps us look good politically. we are going to raise the bar. we have 44 states working together. we know our standards are much too simplistic. we have 44 states whose leadership now coming from washington. we have 61 districts around the country we are investing in debtor compensating teachers and principals based upon achievement. we are awarding excellence in this country. we have extraordinary teachers, great states. we need to reward excellence and learn from it and incentivize

it. that has to change. we did in labor management conference last week in denver, colorado. we were worried we might have about 30 or 40 takers. we had a waiting list of over 100. there is a huge appetite out there for people who want to work together and used collective bargaining. we had about a dozen districts present to their peers with a have used collective bargaining and labor management relationships to see huge gains in student achievement. we are going to hand out a lot of materials on that to you later. there are a lot of folks out there that relies these relationships have been dysfunctional. there is a set of folks that can help lead the country to where it needs to go. we need to scale this opt absolutely as quickly as we can.

we want to invest very significantly in community colleges. we think it is a huge pool and under-utilized. we want to put $2 billion behind those community colleges. we want to build great partnerships with the local business community that leads to real jobs. health care jobs, green energy jobs, manufacturing jobs. we think community colleges will play a huge role in that. finally, for the first time in this country, we are challenging the status quo. we have over 1000 schools in every state of the country this year that are turning around. this is a huge courage. we are investing very heavily there. this is $4 billion for the s.ttom 5% of schools a

if students need to be there on saturdays, use our resources to do that. if you have to take an additional $50,000, do that. if you want to hire great teachers, $30,000 more to get them to go to an inner-city community commit use our resources to do that. i would urge you to find a way to go visit those schools. it is tough work. it is hard. it is controversial. this is the bottom 5% of schools in every state. it is that one out of 20 that for simply not working for children. we are seeing great breakthroughs. in the first years, we are going to have some bumps along the road. i think at the end of the day this is going to change the trajectory of these young people and the entire community. two areas that we want to assist you guys. these are brutally tough budget

times. budgets are not going to get much easier in the next year or two. we have to be thoughtful about how to make the tough cuts that all of you are faced with. there are smart ways to make tough decisions and there are dumb ways. we want to get out a series of ideas to you in the next week or two that are simply ideas. we want to think about where you are facing very tough budget decisions, the best way to do it and drive student achievement. how to leverage technology to be much more effective in how we deliver instruction? as technology is transforming, how we interact socially, how we do business, transforming countries are around the globe, technology has yet to transfer how we deliver education. i think there is a huge potential. andreas schleicher has some really provocative data that talks about countries outperforming us around the globe. often, they pay their teachers more but have a higher class

size. i would challenge people to think collectively about raising the class size. let me give you an example. i have two young children at home. if a school district in to me as a parent and said you could go with this fantastic teacher and have 28 children in your class or had a mediocre teacher with 24 children in your class, i would tell you in a heartbeat what i would choose. let me go one step further on that experiment. if that great teacher takes an additional five students, that is more students having access to a great teacher, let's say about $10,000 attached to each tooting going forward. that is $50,000. if you pay detrick $25,000 more and have $25,000 to back to the state or district for more money. you have teachers not as strong to keep their class sizes smaller, you save significant

resources. we have to talk about those things on the table. we have to do a much better job of giving you flexibility of the scarce resources coming from us. there is a number of districts doing some really innovative things. georgia's department of education, consolidating the number of funds, the louisiana starting to work with 31 school districts and moving money in very giveaways, cincinnati at the district level is consolidating school wide title one elementary schools and is being flexible in the use of money, and in the rural communities we need to do much more progress we have a program that only about half of our rural districts are taking the advantage of it. a couple in nebraska, when in the state of maine. we will give you a document talking about the flexibility that you already have today that is not being taken the advantage of. where would you finally to become a much better partner going forward. two big pieces on our agenda for this year, one is we want to stick to the no child left behind law.

we want to not only provide you flexibility with the current law, but we want to become much more flexible moving forward. why i think this law got fundamentally wrong was very loose on the goal 50 different state 50 different standards most of which got dumbed down. i tell folks all the time that when i ran it in chicago public schools, i almost had to sue the department of education. i won, thankfully. we have a high bar for standards for students in the vast majority of states moving towards it. we cannot micromanage 95,000 schools. they do not have any interest in doing that. we have to empower local educators to give them the room to make the difference and be less descriptive it. the law led to a narrowing of

the curriculum. so many other things got cut. how do we fix all those things? first, we have to reward excellence. again, great schools, great teachers, great principles, great districts. we have states doing a great job raising the bar for our children. we have to shine a spotlight on success. all the answers are out there. we have done a very poor job of learning from those great models, replicating them, sharing great practices. we want to continue to invest in those great cases making a difference. we have to focus more on growth, gains, and testimonies. how much are you improving? how much are students learning each year? not just focused on some tests corps or some efficiency level. in terms of raising standards, we've made huge progress, 41 states there. all of that leadership goes to

you and your predecessors. there is a huge movement there that we appreciate. we have to have a well-rounded curriculum for every child. reading and math are foundational. science, social studies, financial literacy, environmental literacy, foreign languages, dance, drama, art, music, physical education, all of our children deserve a well- rounded education. we want to invest $1 billion in places that would to think differently. this cannot be just at the high- school level. students need to get a real sense of what they enjoy and give them a better sense of self-esteem. we want to give you a number of different documents in the next two weeks to get you thinking differently about productivity, efficiency, and the student normal. we want to do much more it's moving forward. we want to give you a document

on the labor-management conference that we had. finally, a governor is doing a great job of driving this college completion agenda. we are going to give you a token so you get a better sense of what you can do to help you significantly improve college completion rates. the last thing i will say is the president has drawn a line in the sand. by 2020, we have to lead the world in college graduates. all of it has to be towards their goal of leading the world in college graduates. if we can get there, i think our country and our economy will be in a much better place. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, secretary arne duncan per the we now want to hear from sir michael porter -- secretary arne duncan.

we now want to hear from sir michael. >> of when to begin by congratulating you -- i want to begin by congratulating you. [inaudible] on the timing of your election. it may feel like a challenging economic time, but in education, this is one of those rare moments. this is one of those rare moments where you have a huge opportunity to transform education in this country. there is a great partisan agenda across the country that the secretary has just outlined. there is a growing knowledge base that andreas schleicher has referred to. i want to go more deeply into what it takes to transform

education systems. the first in a want to say is it matters a lot. andreas mentioned the trillion dollar cost. what this slide shows is the impact of the achievement gap. basically, the achievement gap is equivalent of a permanent national recession. if america close the gap on other countries and then close the gap between its to from minorities, it would be like pulling out of a permanent national recession. the second thing to say is the good news. what andreas schleicher shows, systems at every level, whatever their background performance can improve significantly within this the view of six years. all of them are improving by is significant amount of a school- share equivalent within a

relatively short period of time. this is perfectly doable. the other piece of good news is that as you improve performance, to match the best performance, you have to narrow the achievement gap. singapore is often written off as a small state with only 4 million people. actually, it has significant minorities. what you see here is really narrowing.gap [ there is even more good news. it is from the studies we have been able to do using the data. we can show what it takes to achieve top performance. here are the six things that come through again and again in the research. the first of all, you have to set challenging standards and common standards that are being set by states around this country are absolutely vital to facing the next decade here. then you have to develop teachers' affectively, make sure

you are recording the right people, making sure they do not just have a good teaching and training at the beginning but continue to learn through other careers. you have to make it highly selective so you are getting people who have real potential. you have to select from a group of people, excellent school leaders and make sure they develop to take on the awesome task of managing and leading a school that is seeking to achieve high standards. that failure needs to be tackled because it costs the students in those places. finally, you need data-in form policy at every level in the system. if you look at the race to the top proposals that states have brought forward over the last couple of years, you see that many of these teachers are represented by the emphasis on

standards in really good data systems, the emphasis on strengthening german capital, the emphasis of giving with school failures. all of those things are what the global knowledge base would tell you you need to do if you are going to match the best performers in the world. one of the things about this strategy is you need to know how to improve depending on your base. the secretary pointed out the huge range of performance among the states and districts here in the united states. you can create a universal scale of every education system in the world from work led by stanford university and we have been drawing upon. you can identify the different strategies required at each stage of development. most of the states in the united states are either fairly good or the majority of them are good to great. and there it are also aspects that change, but the most fundamental one is while

accountability is really important at every level, and teacher capacity building is very important, the balance between them changes as the systems developed. you have to emphasize focusing on improving the classroom performance of each teacher and all the teachers collectively. that is where the improvement comes from as you get into the good to great category. it is absolutely vital. if you look in some of the debt in the united states, you find that teachers improve for the first three years and then for the next 37 years they plateau in performance. that is not much of a career prospect. taking a system from good to great requires a really major reshaping of the teaching profession, really focusing on the caliber of entering teachers and from those groups the people

principles. really, focusing on those who are already teachers and principals and improving their ability to do their job day to day. then, of course, when you have good teachers, it makes sense to a dole responsibility at the school level so those well- developed and motivated people have the discretion to for example move their budget around to do some of the things that the secretary was mentioning. class size would be a good example. give them the responsibility of managing the resources in order to achieve high standards. conceptually, it is very simple. to do it in practice, it is tough. the top system in the world to this absolutely relentlessly. let me give you some examples. for example, taking examples from singapore, finland, and

korea, government regulations supply teachers so immature it gets really good people. -- so they get really good people. it is the top 5% of the graduate distribution going into those areas and making sure they get a good teaching experience. they have government funds for teacher training to make sure that constant process of improvement and scale is happening all the time at every school for every teacher. the government thinks about making sure teachers work in a good, professional working environment. they look at for example how teachers are paid compared to a group of other professions. in singapore, they constantly adjust teachers' pay in accordance with what is happening in the private sector and other parts of the public sector such as civil service. this involves determination and persistence over time. as the secretary will tell you,

this country needs over 1 million new teachers in the next five years to seven years. one way of looking at that is it is a huge threat, or a huge opportunity to transform human capital in the system over the next two yearsdecades to three decades. if you look at the top third of the distribution in the united states, only 9% of them currently planned to teach. still, 91% do not plan to be teachers. when the top third are recruited, what you find is for those top third graduates, first of all, they do believe they can change the world through their job. they are motivated and see the ability to make a difference. and they are not sure that their colleagues are the kinds of people they choose to work with given the choice. more importantly, only 3% of

them think that by doing well they will get promoted. that is a big problem. it is not just about recruiting people. it is about their prospects of being recruited. so, summarizing, getting the policy agenda right is very important. as you can see here, is that the challenges that the u.s. faces compared to other systems. all these things should be on your agenda, state-by-state. many states have chosen to put them on the agenda. all of these issues are very important. and focusing on the quality of principles makes a huge difference, too. finally, coming to political leadership, system leadership, whether it is a state or district, what we find in the top performing systems in the world is the strategic leaders in the political leaders generally are sayinstaying a

significant period of time. good luck with your reelection. what you find is the urban superintendents in this country average 2.8 years. when we look at political leaders, there is a seven-year average there. in england, education secretaries i have known for the last -- they have managed 24 years between them. no wonder we have struggled in the last few years to keep matching the best in the world. finally, while getting the policy agenda right is very difficult for the reasons i have just given, that is only about 10% of the challenge. the 90% is systematic implementation in the delivery of results, on what you want to do, having a plan to get it done, building the routines making sure you are driving that agenda through all the crises

that affect every government. finally, that you build a relationship inside the political system and beyond the system to get the job done. this is a picture first climbed in 1950 of a mountain. the guy the first climbed it was a frenchman. when he got down, he wrote a beautiful book. the last line of the book is there are other [unintelligible] into lives of people yours is to get from base camp, where you are now, to the summit of educational achievement in the lasnext few years. i look forward to seeing you on the summit. thank you very much. [applause] >> we have assembled a very informed panel. i would like to start the questioning. does anyone have a question for sir michael? if you are going to start up the

mountain for us teachers, what are some relatively low-cost changes the governor should pursue to attract individuals into public education? what are some first steps we can take to begin this process? >> it is a great question. the first is, i think, teachers for america is being remarkably successful in attracting top people in. many of them stay longer than two years. that is one thing i would definitely seriously considered. a second thing is i would really look vigorously at teacher education. i think many of the teacher preparation programs are old fashioned, outdated, not attractive to people who are top grit to its and do not train people for the experience they are going to have when they go into the classroom.

some great gift from louisiana about the different impacts of different types of -- some great data for the weekend about the difference in tax of different types of education. thirdly, i would take out the secretaries challenge of making sure that i built a great career opportunities for top teachers even if that was at the expense of significantly increasing class sizes. this evidence is overwhelming that getting the quality of teachers in and then trending the matter is more important than marginal reductions and class size at. >> anyone else on the panel would like to respond to that? ok. >> a lot of times when people compare -- look at the data, comparing with the u.s. stands, rank internationally, we are testing all of our children and

other countries are not. give us your perspective on that. >> if you look today, most nations have a larger fraction of the students at age 15 in their schools than the united states. that has really changed. in the past, the nets did was far ahead of everyone making education universal. >> other questions? >> between quality of teacher and class size -- i realize it takes dollars to fix either or. is it desirable to have both? >> of course. smaller classes are a better thing. if you look at relative spending patterns, you can spend your money only once.

you can hire better teachers, give students more time to learn, give teachers more time to teach, more time for professional development, or you can have smaller classes. the best performing nations put the priority on the quality of teachers. money is just one perspective here. the career diversity the country's provide, that is equally important. if you look at all those things together, class size is the most least effective way of improving learning. >> first, i want to say that i think this was the best panel nga panel i have ever been on. i think it is a very important eye opener for all of us. we have been working with sir michael barber and secretary arne duncan who has just done a tremendous job across the

country. my question for secretary arne duncan, an issue across the country with a lot of kids, too many kids, who were on a path to drop out. your thoughts about the best way of reversing that -- i am talking about a lot of kids who are already in high school on a bad path. a bunch of us are working with jobs for american graduates as one example to get people focused on job skills so they will stay through their high school diploma. what is your thoughts about that population? >> it is a complex question and a great question and i think is at the crux of doing better education. we cannot sustain a 25% dropout rate. it is absolutely staggering. we need to deal with it honestly. i will get to the high school -- a huge predictor of high-school

dropouts, look at kindergarten attendance rates and the students missing 25 days or 35 days of school. i promise you those are students down the road that were going to drop out. in the kindergarten teacher or first grader teacher can tell you who the students are who do not have the support of homes that are showing up three days or four days a week. just like all of you guys, showing up to work every day makes a big difference. if you have 90% on a test, that is an 'a'. 90 percent and attendance, you are missing a month of school each year -- 90% attendance, you are missing a month of school each year. that is to meet a huge indicator. mentors, role models, home visits, nonprofits, social service agencies, school districts cannot do this

together by themselves. they have to involve the entire community to give those young people some help. as you get older, i think every single middle school and high- school student should be involved in some sort of extracurricular activity that ties them to school. i see a lot of folks and limiting sports or robotics, band. i think those are all dropout prevention programs. students that are tied to school, sports, the debate team, academic decathlon, robotics -- i promise you those students are coming to school every single day. third, raising standards is a big one. many students are not challenge. i seen some states raised challenge. i promise you it will not lower the dropout rate. that is very helpful. finally, the kids at the high-

school level, i talk about relationships. there needs to be some adult in that high school building from freshman year on who is with those children every single step of the way so there is no way that child can fall to the cracks. when someone drops out, it is always the symptom of a problem. no one grows up wanting to drop out. they drop out because they cannot cope with what is going on. we have to address that very aggressively. >> just to reinforce that point, the best systems in the world are very careful that when a student drops behind their peers, they do something about it and quickly. they do not wait for the problem to fester, both i. often, the gatt becomes difficult to close. doing something about students falling behind early is very

important. secondly, lots of research -- just one adult in the school with the child or a young person has a good relationship with and feels that that person will back them through thick and thin it makes a massive impact on dropout rates it. >> i think raising standards is very important. if you look at the most essential education systems, they are all very focused. there is another that is very important, raising the stakes for a student. if you think why students in china, singapore, or finland study hard, it is because their high school degree has a real impact on the kind of employment that they get and the kind of universities that they get. the united states -- and thought of it is focused on teachers and providers -- a lot of it is focused on teachers and

providers. >> we will make available the presentations of our presenters to your office is back in your states. governor clinton? >> thank you. one of the things that we did in new hampshire was raised at the age from 16 to 18. a used to be kids could drop out at 16 in new hampshire -- it used to be that kids could drop out at the age of 16 in new hampshire. they could get jobs working in the mills or on farms. so, we raised the cost of attendance age. it has also forced us to then have a discussion about how do we ensure that those children stay in school? what do they need to know in third grade, a kindergarten, middle school? at a time when high dropout

rates are at epidemic proportions, we have reduced our rate to 1.7%. we have a goal of zero dropped out by 2012. the question i want to ask is the role of technology in the delivery of education going forward -- if you talk with heads of education from ibm, cisco, apple, as we know from our own kids, they will say technology is no longer the vehicle by which kids learned. it is the environment by which kids learn. technology allows the better teachers to communicate with more students in a variety of ways, breaking down the traditional classroom walls. how do you see technology being used in a creative way to improve the delivery of the quality of education? >> i just keep coming back to there are lots of reasons why education was far too slowly and

technology has transformed so many other parts of our society. education has not have that impact here so we need to stop being so slow and rigid with education. it does a number of things. it provides students to access to great teachers, access to much higher quality ap classes, and it enables students to move at a self-pace. some students need to be allowed to fly, and technology allows them to do that. there is a small set of schools and districts that are getting much better results. we have to get some information on those it. i think these rooms with many more students, teachers floating between workstations, students working, online tudors, delivering content to students 24/7 on the cell phone,

delivering education six hours a day five hours does not make any sense. i would like to see that increase over the next five years and critic we are going to see online text books pretty soon. it is going to save billions of dollars for you and will give us a much more efficient way to deliver content. >> >> so many teachers in our state say there is so little that we can do because we have these mandates of how we can teach. we're not allowed to apply discipline in any form. the only thing we can do is send them out of the classroom. how is disciplined and support relating to the countries that performed so well? >> teachers have extraordinarily tough jobs. they're working with students

that often come from difficult home and communities situations. there is more demanded of them today than ever before with less resources. we have to do everything we can to support teachers. the students with discipline problems are the ones that need the mentors and role models. we have addressed that on the front end. i love programs where you have. juries -- peer juries. there are lots of creative things you can do. there are usually a handful that disrupt things for the other 25 or 30. as a community, what are you doing to help those three or four students be successful? some places are doing phenomenal work. i think suspending is the worst thing you can do. you need to keep them in school and learning and give them the support to be successful.

there are a number of techniques great teachers are using to maintain control. we need to do a better job of teaching that. there is not enough of the hands on teaching that goes on when things are challenging. there are lots of theories of education. there's not enough of teaching students in diverse student bodies. >> discipline is a strong predictor for the quality of education. you can see that around the world. we see some countries where the discipline climate has improved. there are some factors that are very important. it is closely related to student engagement. you are talking about this correctional teachers in the high-performance schools, teachers have more discretion than is the case in the united states. there is a different balance

between accountability in the system. teachers work collectively to address disciplinary issues. it is interesting. >> the evidence shows that poor discipline is a big thing. enough people going into the teaching profession. -- is a big thing putting off people going into the teaching profession. the whole school -- if you have a good school leader and defense, most of the discipline problems go away. it should not be individual teachers and classrooms on their own. the quality of school leadership makes a huge difference. the degree of challenge, if you increase it, it helps to deal

with the discipline problems. a lot of it comes from people being bored, not going -- not knowing where they're going. >> do the great teachers have the ability to customize education within the classroom? >> indeed. that is coming back to the issue of student engagement. the level of individualization and personalization is very high in some of the best performing countries. it is not correlated with class size. you do have some of the teachers in larger class size settings been able to personalize learning situations significantly. students feel the teachers support them. those things are strongly related to its outcomes and the disciplinary climate in the classroom. >> i think we have been a big part of the problem.

federal government, state, local bureaucracy. the biggest beneficiaries of the greater flexibility are going to be great teachers. hold them accountable. give them room to move. get us out of the way. i want you to challenge us to make sure we're doing that. i think you would give teachers more creative freedom, you see happier teachers and students performing better. i think a lot of the discipline issues will go down. we have been far too constraining to our great talent. >> one thing that really interests me is the thought that high school degrees matter. for kids to continue on, they need to know that. as we look and see so many kids -- it seems to push everyone to

get a four year university degree. i think there is a certain percentage of kids who say that is not for them. they want to be a welder or a plumber. i think we devalue technical, vocational education in this country. a certain percentage go to a four-year university. they have a degree and not know what to do. in our community colleges, one of the fastest-growing segments of the community colleges is people who went to get a four- year degree and a going back to community college to learn how to do something. what do we do in our high schools in terms of same not everyone wants or needs to go to a four-year university? a technical education may be different but is not necessarily loesser. >> the goal of every single high school student -- every high school should be to have all of

their students' career ready. it may mean two-year community college, a trade, vocational training. we have to do a better job of putting the options on the table. we need to invest in community colleges. far too few of our students have been prepared for either. 40% of students going to four- year universities are taking remedial class is. they are not ready. we need more students who are career ready. the skills they need are similar. we're not producing enough students with the ability to do either one. many young people are working and going to school. they are graduating at 28 or 29. they need to have work skills and be able to pursue an education. we have to get better. many said they do not need a four-year degree. they need someone with a

technical degree or some training beyond high school diploma. >> technical and vocational education is often viewed to be inferior to a college degree in america. that is not the case in other countries. they are equivalent. it is a matter of choice. it is not a matter of quality. some european countries have 60% of students choosing technical qualifications. it gives them a similar wage to college degrees. it is about the status of the type of education. >> what is clearly vanishing is jobs for unskilled people. some of the international data is showing there was a big premium for getting a college degree and around the world in terms of lifetime earnings. there is now some evidence that

good vocational training, the premium on that is increasing faster. the number of people with college degrees has increased. i think both of these are good. it has to be high-quality vocational training. it has to leave it to a lifetime of learning. even plumbing is being transformed by technology. you have to keep learning, whichever of the routes that you choose. >> thank-you for all of your comments. education is the key to our prosperity in our states. we do live in a global economy and world. it is important that we raise the bar. i appreciate you talking about raising our standards, having accountability, having excellence and our teachers, giving us flexibility. you covered a lot of important points today. in looking at other countries, what did you find when it came

to accountability and standards and student performance in the area of social promotion? what did you find is the most successful model and other countries and not putting students forward who were not ready to go forward? that affects remediation students graduate and are not prepared. >> the evidence shows clearly you can succeed with the vast majority of students. most countries reach higher levels. social promotion is that these students receive additional support. schools have the ambition and resources to address weaknesses. every teacher is trained as a researcher.

diagnosis is what counts. giving students the help they need with support. we cannot let students bill. we have learned it reinforces social disparities. if you give a teacher at the option of not worrying about a student one year, you are lowering the chances for the student. they put the accountability on the teacher. they give the schools and teachers a lot of resources to personalize learning. is that going to cost a lot of money? it is a choice the systems make. they have large class is in the morning and smaller groups around that. some countries have private tutoring. it is just another form of ensuring that students have access to the kind of education

they need. the combination of leaving no excuse for failure, no tolerance for failure, with individualized support is what leads to that. >> the social promotion debate can be a disaster. the only way to get at it is to have the teachers skilled enough and the school system robust enough to make sure that if a child falls behind, something is done right then with necessary resources. it is about the skill of the teacher and the capacity of the school. either of the waiting until the end of your options will not be successful in the long run. >> thank you to our panelists for next for a presentation.

i wanted to ask about early childhood education. i wanted to talk about how i see it from the vermont perspective. i look at our huge budget challenges in our state. the second fastest area of growth in our budget after health care is corrections. more non-violent offenders locked up. we pay a lot to lock them up that could send you to an ivy league college. 90% of them have difficulty reading. many have drug and alcohol addictions. most of them dropped out of school. most of the evidence seems to suggest that for every dollar spent on an early child to education, we have a greater

likelihood of success with them as they go through the education system. that would be the logical way to bend the curve on corrections spending. since we do n have the resources to spend on early childhood education, is there a chance -- this is a plea for resources. in addition to the great efforts you are making to get dollars to a underserved schools, what are the chances of the governor's getting some jumpstart money to get started on early childhood in a big way? we do not have the resources to bend the curve with the up-front money. >> but could not agree more that we do not need another study telling us this is a good investment. we got another study from vanderbilt university showing massive improvement of early childhood education. we need to invest.

we will continue to invest. part of the budget request to congress is an additional three and a $50 million to invest in early childhood education. we can do a race to the top of the state level. there are many areas where our department is part of the problem. we have a great partnership with hhs. we think there is a huge unmet need. if we're serious about closing the achievement gap, we have to do it with our babies at 3 and four and not wait until 5. we need to do a better job of articulating this. you can use a title $1 to enhance headstart and early childhood education. half-day does not work for children and families. montgomery county uses title $1 to have full day early

childhood opportunities. they have remarkable achievement. i would look at you to -- urge you to look at the flexibility we are providing. we have governors scaling back on early childhood. that is one thing i cannot support. >> sir michael, you brought it up briefly. in a successful school, good -- could you speak in more detail about administrators? the school system is fairly independent of the executive branch in terms of policy and management. you can have good teachers. when i look at the department of

education in terms of the administration and bureaucracy and with leadership in the particular schools, there seems to be a problem. i wonder if you have any success stories. you mentioned good teachers. it is also about bringing up good principals and administrators. >> the biggest influence on student achievement is a great teacher. the second influence is the quality of the principle al. recruiting good teachers is important. when teachers drop out, it has to do with their leaders. getting good principles has many payoffs. week published a report in october looking at eight systems

around the world on how they selected, trained, and continued to develop school principals. it is becoming very scientific and systematic. they are identifying potential leaders early in their career. offering the opportunities to develop in the schools with mentors. they are being very careful about the selection of principals. there's nothing worse than getting the wrong principal in a school. it takes a long time to change that. there needs to be real support for the principal in the first year. they can become part of the network and build the collective capacity of the system. i can show you lots of examples from ontario. there is some very good work in new york at the leadership

academy. also in boston, australia, u.k., singapore. there are really good leadership development programs. this is a coming theme in school reform that nobody can afford to neglect. >> my interpretation of the scores is that we have had our kids doing academic equivalent of practicing basketball by shooting at an eight-foot basket. they do pretty good shooting at a 8 foot basket until they get in the game when they play against kids practicing with the 10-foot basket. in addition to the tests, we all have our own standardized tests in our state. these do not have to have anything to do with each other in terms of what we're testing for the scoring.

if you look at standardized test scores around this country required under federal law, that are significantly higher than the scores on nape and tisa. we tell our kids that they are proficient based on a test administered only within our state borders. then they have to go outside the state orders and compete with other folks for college and jobs. in delaware, we have bitten the bullet. we have changed our assessment. we have also significantly changed the scoring for what is proficient. as a result, a 76% of kids in fourth grade reading were judged to be proficient in the past. we expect that figure to be significantly less them because

we changed the scoring. the kids are not going to know any less. we have finally said that we think this is the time to be more honest with our kids. we are expecting significant push back as a result. we have been trying to lay the groundwork with parents and students and teachers throughout the state by having this honest conversation that what has been considered proficient in the past will not be considered proficient in the future. you are talking about how the stakes for children are higher in europe than here. i wanted some response on whether that is a good approach. >> what you say is also reflected in the perceptions of students themselves. there is the perception of students of their own competence.

that and the marks in school are often higher than what they can actually do. the standards in the united states are well aligned with what the systems are doing. if they get implemented in the form of accountability systems, you should expect that to diminish. the biggest challenge is the level of schools. many students think they are doing fine. they are told by their teachers they're doing fine even if they're not. that will be a significant challenge. >> the conversation we're having is that you cannot raise the standard the to do not also lift the kid's game. that is what the entire race to the top implementation is about. it is about infusing into the schools the various changes we're making. >> this is an important point for the country. a light bulb went on for me five or six years ago in chicago.

we were making great progress in having more students meet the illinois proficiency scores. then we have data that told us you have to give it 20 on the act to have a chance of being successful in college. almost none of the students were getting 20. they were not succeeding in college. we stopped paying attention to that. we looked at the advanced cut score and not be proficient. we were setting the students up for failure. we were lying to children. we were telling them they were doing well and ok. you are creating complacency and a sense of self-satisfaction. we're doing the children to fill your. the consequences are devastating. raising the bar, a big part of my job is to give you the political cover. go from 80% of students

hitting the mark down to 30, that is a tough thing for you. whatever i can do to make the case and give you the room you need and to reward the excellence. if you look at what states have done historically and what that has done for children is devastating. >> i think this is a critical issue for the next couple of years. the quality of the implementation, the way it is communicated to parents, the professional development for teachers. it is easy to see the adoption of common standards through legislature. that is only the beginning. what really matters is those standards being used by the teachers' day to day in every classroom across your state.

that is a huge implementation challenge. there is an organization in d.c. working with states on what the implementation strategy should look like to make that as effective as possible. you need a development strategy. you need a feedback loop to check on where it is working and where it is not to address the issues. i think many governors will face that challenge in the next year or two. >> we have three things left to do. the second is to recap some policy standards that have been sweet. because of his extensive leadership as the acting vice chair of this committee and almost one hour and 45 minutes of his leadership, i want to give him the last question. [laughter] i have never been so effectively praised.

each one of you talked about rewarding excellence. it seems like the devil is building consensus around how we measure excellence. it feels like of which can get some consensus around that, it would be easier to move toward rewarding it. -- it feels like if we can get some consensus around a, it would be easier to move toward rewarding it. >> other countries have differentiation of pay for teachers. very few use student performance as the only measure. some use it as one of multiple measures. some give school principals considerable discretion on rewarding pay. there are different forms of measuring and rewarding. over the last 10 years, this is one of the areas that and

changed most. educational systems that recognize and reward excellence. teachers complain most about the lack of public recognition for good work. it is not getting more money, it is also getting recognized for better work. >> these are huge issues. i appreciate your raising them. i think we should absolutely recognize with compensation teachers, school principals, security guards, custodian's. no one goes into education to make a million dollars. they go into it because they have a huge chart for children. it is almost symbolic. it is the recognition. it is providing them the room to be role models. it is giving them more opportunities. that is what drives them to do the work. kate is part of it but not all of it. -- the page is part of it but not all of it.

we have lost in the book that prohibit linking teacher's in student achievement. to think that a student performance on one test on one day reflects the teachers value is ridiculous. looking at peer and principal evaluations, looking at leadership. you have to have multiple measures. just as in any business, you look at multiple measures. we should not let perfect the enemy of the good. for decades, we have done nothing in the area. we could wait another five decades to perfect a system. tennessee and delaware can help to lead the country where we need to go. we need to get in the game. i hope five years from now we

will be a lot better than we are today. we have to start to do this. >> five minutes from now, there will be another committee meeting. for the governors and folks in the crowd, this is what nga is about. leaders who have direct knowledge of relevant responsibilities to interact with us in a way to help us to a better job. i want to thank nga and our panelists were being here today. [applause] we will now move to the consideration of our policy positions. the committees will consider amendments to three existing policy positions. you can find those in the binders in front of you. the policy process began this last fall with the staff

advisory committee. they make proposals for amendments, discusses them, and the niches consensus on the changes and has prepared them for your consideration today. given the large class of new governors, all three policies were reviewed with a light touch. states were encouraged to make only technical edits to the policies. all the policies can be reviewed again at the annual meeting. if you are interested in making additional edits, inform me or joan. >> on the vote of these amendments, there is a symbolic measure. i talked about getting our iga funding. i am going to vote against any increase in any federal programs until we get that. >> i appreciate democracy.

>> i suggest we vote on the policies in block. is there a motion for that? >> i move the committee approved the following policies as amended. >> do i have a second? >> second. >> all those in favor, please say aye. one nay. i hope it has been as informative a process for everybody in this room and the governors as we have tried to make it. joan and the staff of been a great job of putting the right panel at the right time in front of us. thank you for being with us today. [applause]

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>> tomorrow, the governor's association meeting continues. we will take you live to a panel looking at cyber security in the state's role in protecting against hackers and terrorists. tomorrow morning, they will be discussing the future of medicaid. much of the state concerned with medicaid concern how much funding they will receive from the federal government. the federal budget will be a major focus in the capital as

congress returns this week. lawmakers are gearing up for a long-term fight overspending. house republicans have offered short-term bills they think would be difficult for the senate to refuse, saying that avoiding the government shut down would still cut $4 billion from the government. the bill would keep the government running until march 18. you can read the entire story online. up next, we will go to alaska gov. sean parnell who calls on the obama administration to end the policy against drilling new oil wells. he urged more production in alaska to generate u.s. jobs. he gave these remarks at a news conference at the national press club. this is about 45 minutes. >> good afternoon. thank you for joining us at the

national press club. i welcome the opportunity to speak with members of the press corps and beyond. recent events in north africa and the middle east have made it clear the strategic importance of oil to american national and economic security. gasoline prices at the pump are surging. when you think about the cost of goods bought and sold, those will be going up as transportation costs increase. this is the moment when the government must reexamine the no new wells policy when it comes to development at home. u.s. imports more than 63% of our oil. that leaves as vulnerable to economic shock and disruption of supplies. it drives down the economic recovery. the revolution that began internees to spread to egypt and other countries.

it is central to the harsh truth that we have needed to face for some time. we have allowed our national security in the economy to become more tangled in the middle east and north african oil. we are dependent upon an open, free-flowing suez canal. the canal is through an unstable region. it has been supported by our tax dollars for decades. think about the early 1970's and the opec oil embargo. americans were waiting for hours to buy gas. people were bringing chance to fill up. days of rationing. what a waste of our national productivity. americans fighting over gallons of gas at the pa. in a few short months, the price per barrel rose by 130%.

the power of opec became clear and indisputable. one of the often forgotten and outcomes of the embargo is the transatlantic pipeline system. americans knew we needed to develop domestic energy to balance the power being wielded by cartel oil. for 40 years, the oil coming from alaska has allowed our nation to stand with some degree of energy independence. it seemed a smart strategy of the time. in hindsight, building a pipeline on american soil in alaska was brilliant. it is certainly a fallback position if everything were to go awry in the middle east. i see secretary donald drums rumsfeld everywhere with his memoirs. for years, he talked about known and unknowns, etc.

sometimes alaska feels like we're the unknown known in the capital. we do know our oil supply line from the middle east and africa is at risk. our military is stretched defending it. the national debt is $14 trillion and counting. our economic recovery is completely dependent on access to affordable energy. what could possibly go wrong? 30,000 ships pass by human each year with millions of tons of oil. to the south of that is sudan with political instability and civil war. further east, pirates seizing oil tankers with $200 million of crude in one of the biggest raids in the area today.

the oil and gas journal quotes industry leaders same piracy in the indian ocean is spinning out of control and threatening to destroy the flow of oil around the world. iran is sending warships to the suez canal on the way to syria. the shortest shipping link between east and west hangs by a thread and american tax dollars. egypt controls the suez. what could possibly go wrong? that is another known. as of the poll revealed that 85% of egyptians hold an unfavorable attitude towards the u.s. 80% of egyptians have no confidence in the u.s. 92% believe the u.s. is one of two nations that are the biggest threat to them. the other is israel. i have traveled and studied in egypt, jordan, and israel. i have spoken to egyptians to hold americans in high regard.

we cannot ignore the overwhelming numbers that you our nation so negatively. america does not have a seat at the table of the fledgling democracy in egypt. when we think about what can arise in the months ahead in egypt, think about a population that is anti-american in these numbers. the next leader that stands up in egypt will have to take some act to demonstrate that he is with them in this or that she is with them in this. for over three decades, the u.s. has paid its share to the egyptian and israeli military under the camp david accords. it is helped to foster peace in the region between these two important nations. beyond that, the american tax bill has been estimated at trillions of dollars over the past three decades. that is half the size of our national debt.

cheap oil with the big military price tag is coming to an end. for the past 30 years, americans also have a domestic buffer for the uncertainty of the middle east. we are in oil-producing nation. millions of american jobs are directly tied to our energy sector. oil and natural gas will be part of our national energy profile for decades to come. our own federal government should foster more oil development at home. some of you may have heard that the alaska legacy oilfields are past their peak production. alaska ships over 600,000 barrels of oil a day through the pipeline. alaskas oil patch is not dry. far from it. it contributes 11% of national oil production. it has supplied oil to the nation for more than 40 years. there is much more available if the federal government will

allow us to access it. alaska and the gulf states have been blocked from developing america's oil by misguided federal policies, much of it aided by misinformation and political agendas. with the middle east and north africa a powder keg, and with real americans soon having to pay $5 a gallon at the pump, the federal government's policy will soon be revealed as our nation's achilles' heel -- much like what happened during the opec oil embargo in the 1970's. the president made it clear he wants to increase taxes on domestic oil production. we know anything that you tax more, you get less of. less domestic production is the functional equivalent of creating more dependents on an unstable foreign oil stream. the federal regulatory side is not better. the department of interior and the epa appear to be driving u.s. foreign-policy in the middle east and north africa.

the state department is forced into a reactive role because of the increasingly hostile stance that the interior and epa and taken to domestic energy exploration and production. these are agencies that can lock down domestic oil with no responsibility for consequences. they can force america to depend more heavily on foreign oil at the cost of lives, tax dollars, and economic opportunity. they do this by delaying leasing, permitting, and attending sweeping lockups of land without congressional approval or authority. the department of interior has aholic with ashopping holida stolen credit card. they evaluated millions of acres of alaska and elsewhere as

potential wild lands. that designation if implemented would lock up alaskan oil without congress having any input at all. putting such a sweeping initiative in motion overnight without congressional direction and without consulting the affected states or public is unfathomable bowl. large areas of alaska are already off-limits to resource development. in 1980, congress passed the alaska national interest conservation act. it set aside 57 million acres as wilderness. the interior is now shopping for more. aroundrun that. it is contrary to the land management mandate for multiple uses. the interior has set aside a

portion of alaska larger than the state of california for polar bears. picture the size of land from new york to georgia. that is a sweeping area of land for critical habitat. that could lead to endless lawsuits and prevent development. let's say you want to protect the eastern monarch butterfly's habitat. it migrates. you protect the entire habitat. you set aside every inch of land east of the rocky mountains. any construction in the habitat has to go through the interior. the rational site for polar bears has been challenged by alaskan native groups. if allowed to stand, it could have a chilling effect on our ability to produce more american energy, making us more reliant on foreign oil.

over at the epa, this is the agency received about a $3 billion increase in its budget last year. it produced 42 significant regulations in the first 18 months of the current federal administration. each package cost our economy $100 million or more. in alaska, an oil company can buy federal leases, spend over $3 billion in permitting and capital costs, apply for an air permit from the epa, and five years later still not get it. the the same air permit is issued in the gulf of mexico in a matter of months. federal inaction in that one case alone by the interior and epa has delayed the creation of jobs.00 it is not just alaska.

the federal agencies will not call a moratorium. this raises the question of if it looks like a moratorium, maybe it is. the epa and fish and wildlife and the corps of engineers to lead another development in the alpine unit on the north slope. they refused to allow a bridge and pipe across the river. the effect is to halt future exploration and development of petroleum in alaska. federal land designated national petroleum reserve alaska but we cannot access it. here is the reality. the most promising federal land for exploration in alaska is blocked by a federal agency action. these all languished under the

federal no new wells policy. the department of interior and the epa are driving u.s. foreign policy. they're driving greater dependence on foreign oil at great cost to americans. as alaskans, we're frustrated to watch fuel prices rise. we're frustrated to watch inflation take hold and our debt spiral out of control. we wonder why the federal government has become openly hostile to a sector of our economy that has created hundreds of thousands of jobs, kept the country on an even keel during the recession, and produces a commodity we all use every day. like many americans, we're asking our federal government whether we matter. do we matter? turn with me to a fact that it's lost at times. america is only one of five arctic ocean nations. these five countries sit on more than 70% of the undiscovered oil

resources. alaska has 2,000 miles of arctic ocean coast line. we're seeing a global shift from onshore exploration offshore and arctic drilling. our storehouse has a lock on it. as i mentioned, exploration and air permits languished at interior and the epa gathering dust. energy companies must consider many regions for investing capital. they will not wait on u.s. policy. they are exploring the western siberian basin, the east greenland rift basin, no. greenland, north of norway, russia, and canada. only america's arctic is left out. we are an arctic nation. our entire puller neighborhood is being explored at this juncture, everywhere but

america's arctic. if the department of interior and epa continue the policy of not repeating -- permitting exploration, what is the result? the other arctic nations are moving ahead without us. even china had a ship in the arctic ocean exploring possibilities. only the united states, is sitting on the largest untapped ablenically recovered resource, is sitting this one out. in conclusion, every aspect of america's recovery depends on affordable energy. there is a limit to what we control and a limit to what we know. we do know that more domestic oil production better secures our nation and grows our jobs at home. we do know that more private sector work generated here as a positive multiplier effect on

our economy as capital dollars and wages circulate at home rather than being sent overseas to pay for foreign oil. we also know our national security is at stake if significant portions of our supply come from unstable areas and regimes. alaska is one of the keep storehouses of petroleum and other natural resources. these resources will be left in the ground to the federal government policy continues. that federal policy means greater gasoline prices at the pump for every american. it means more costly goods at the supermarket. it means more job opportunities are migrating overseas rather than being created at home. i spoke with a shipping company that operates drill ships. they're going to send two to alaska before the permitting process declined the opportunity.

they also operate ships in the gulf of mexico. they are sending 3/4 of their ships now to nigeria and brazil because they cannot get permits to drill in the gulf. rather than having an uncertain policy in this nation, we need to focus on developing and driving responsibly here in a more secure environment than offered overseas. alaska stands ready to create jobs, improve our nation's energy security, our economy, and national security. i am here to say, what alaska help put america back to work. let's take positive steps to slash our dependence on foreign oil. if we are willing to do that, we will no longer be depended upon generations of international -- gyrations of international dictators. we will no longer be subject to

being a spectator of what happens to us rather than making it happen for us. i am here to urge more domestic extortion and protection across this nation generating jobs for americans. thank you. let me take a few questions. >> do you see any prospects for getting increased domestic oil production in the coming months or years? will it take a change in administration in washington? >> i think will take a change of mindset in the regulatory agencies. that can come from the president. he can look at what is happening overseas and say that we can take control of this at home and have more exploration and production at home. it will take regulatory agencies that are given a mandate of no more delays, make a decision, and move.

it has been difficult to watch the national petroleum reserve locked up, to see the arctic locked up. it is not just happening to us. it is happening across the nation. >> i know you are working on changing the tax shah structure at home. can you talk about whether you think the legislation was a mistake? >> this is an example of what i think the president ought to be doing with the international picture. in alaska, the federal lands have been locked up. i am working to open state lands to development. that means lowering taxes, creating more certain and consistent permiting systems. it means building roads to create access to resources on state land. i have taken my own advice and said here is what i know and

here's what we can control. when it comes to acees, that is alaskas will tax regime. it is an acronym for alaskans fear and equitable share. i believe alaska needs to make itself more competitive. we're working to lower taxes. the legislature is meeting. they've had hearings the last three weeks. they were taking amendments on the bill on wednesday. i hope the state house committee will be able to move that bill to the state senate to create a more competitive environment in alaska to create more jobs. >> would you say the legislation is not working? it had a lot of support at the time. >> it did. alaska can become more competitive. we're working to make it more competitive. i am proposing adjustments to alaskas oil tax. >> i have two questions.

you mentioned you have some frustrations with the regulatory process. there is a clear concern on the part of the administration about what happened in the gulf this summer. how do you reconcile the urge to speed things up with what is a concern on the part of the administration about regulation? who are you meeting with and talking to while you are here to move those things along? >> your first question had to do with -- state your question again? >> there is a concern on the part of the administration about regulation and being careful with resources. on one hand, you are asking to speed things up in alaska. they have a mess on their hands.

>> alaskans are familiar -- intimately familiar with messes created when oil is not developed and shipped responsibility. think back to 1989 and the exxon valdez. deepwater horizon was a significant tragedy to americans and our environment, no question. the fact remains that america develops its resources in a more responsible manner than virtually any other place in the world. alaskans do not want to slow the nest where we live. last week, the mayor of the north slope borough at the northern tip of alaska, in years past it has been difficult to get him to agree to something offshore. offshore alaska is 150 feet of water. we're not talking about deep water offshore drilling. they're different safety factors.

the mayor in his testimony before a legislative committee last week said that shell oil has earned the right to drill offshore. that represents a significant change when an alaska native leader of the north slope community is willing to step forward and say that. i am telling you that waiting five years for an air permit is unreasonable and has nothing to do with acting speedily. it has everything to do with the federal government and willing to make a decision. that is what i am trying to get at here. >> are you meeting with anyone at the white house? >> i will be participating in the meetings. we will have a chance to meet

with the president as well. are you suggesting something similar is going to happen soon? our economy is confronted with that. what little economic recovery we can point to now, people will have to start -- stop driving cars. what i am is suggesting is that our dependence on foreign oil leads to destruction of our economy and our individual lives. the theme i am trying to strike

is let's look at what we know and can control, that is our domestic oil production at home. >> there are calls to release some of the oil. there are calls that have come out this week. if we had more domestic production, we would need less from them. >> pensions have been a topic of discussion in wisconsin and indiana and other states.

>> there are expenditures that are eating us alive. one is medicaid. alaska went from a defined benefit to a defined contribution system. we still have significant liabilities. it is effectively a $10 billion unfunded liability. that will eat us alive over time.

>> is that a reliable solution for alaska? >> we are negotiating agreements. we are working our way through that agreement. that is the direction we are taking at this point. >> at what point does the state acknowledge the gaps? >> i do not acknowledge that underlying premise. here is why. the alaska gas line is one of the president's 5 top green projects. every day out of the ground we are getting 8 billion cubic feet of gas. the oil goes up the pipeline and the gas goes back into the ground.

effectively, no new wells have to be created. we just have to ship what goes -- what comes out of the ground. last summer, we closed and open season. the companies can nominate gas into a pipeline. that is the first step in securing commitments for a pipeline. it is the first time in alaska history that has happened. countries are negotiating agreements with the pipeline project to come to terms with how to build a pipeline. they are still within the pipe -- within the timeframe that was anticipated under the alaska negotiation. we have that opportunity still. i will not be wed to one project. we need to let the private sector work, as i have seen us

move to this historic place in commercializing alaska gas. i would like to see the president stepped forward and to mention it more. >> in the $40 billion pipeline, how does that compete with places like new york? >> i remember seven years ago when everyone said america was going to be awash in imports and we could not get new gas facilities licensed in any significant number. pipelines are built on long-term economics. shale gas is a short-term situation. it has great environmental risk compared to a natural gas pipeline. it takes capital to keep punching holes or shale gas.

with a pipeline, you make the investment and you operate it. there is room for both. companies can use the shale gas as a buffer or supply and pricing. i think there is room for both in terms of demand. >> what is your out like -- what is your outlook for the -- pipeline? can you keep it going? you have to have the oil from the federal land to get it back up to capacity. >> that is a huge issue. for those of us who have boilers in our home with hot water, if the flow of hot water slows down, the valve starts to leak.

that oil in the pipeline helps keep that pipeline working in an environmentally friendly manner. it helps keep maintenance costs lower. projections are that oil production through the trans alaska pipeline will drop to 300,000. there is some point where it is no longer -- companies are no longer able to keep up with the maintenance costs. additional oil into the system is incredibly important. i am hoping to open up state plans to make our investment climate more competitive so oil from state lands can flow through. i am also calling on the federal government to open up land like the national petroleum reserves in alaska and like the arctic intercontinental shelf to keep the pipeline full. that oil is transported by

tankers to refineries on the west coast. it is used throughout america. >> would you object if congress wanted to put a restriction on it so that it could only come from the west coast and cannot be sold overseas? >> by overseas -- my understanding is that functionally that is what is happening right now. i am have not about where else it might head. >> i know it is still early on to be thinking about the presidential race. if your predecessor decides to run, can you envision yourself supporting our? >> you are going to get me into ethical trouble. i cannot speak on political races. governor pay land is qualified to serve and can do that if she

-- governor sarah palin is qualified to serve and she can do that if she chooses. anybody else? i appreciate the time. thank you very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> i am a freshman here. very interested in politics. >> did you get a picture with her? >> thank you. i appreciate it. >> you and senator murkowski are doing a good job. thanks for answering my question. frank bailey is out with a

manuscript. i know your campaigns are separate. rga was --ing thatrg during the campaign. do you know anything about it? >> i read the news story about it. i remember the commercials for it. it being therer at all. you are welcome to wrack my brain. >> at the time, it was kind of an issue, too. >> on my campaign, the rga came

in. i drew the public officer position. >> have you been in touch with the former governor at all? do you hear from our? >> as the nation's governors meet here, use the c-span the library to learn about the nation's state chief of executives. all free online. watch, clip and share any time. >> tim kaine talks about the losses of his party in the elections. this is about one hour, 15

minutes. >> i am pleased to introduce a new visitor to the pnc meetings since we were last together in washington. d.c. mayor vincent gray was sworn in and he has accomplished big goals he set out during the time -- during the campaign, focusing on economic development and a collaborative approach to school reform and restoring fiscal responsibility to city government. he has tirelessly advocated for the residents of the district for more than 30 years. his dedication to children and their families has been a hallmark of service. it can be summed up by his singular governing philosophy. it works best as one city. welcome mayor vincent great. -- vincent gray.

[applause] >> good morning. we say a special welcome to govern kaine, the chair of the democratic congressional committee. let me wish you a happy birthday. i also want to welcome the vice chairs of the committee and all of the state chairs who are here and the chief of staff, bill daley. the chair of our state committee for the district of committee -- or the district of columbia. --

for the district of columbia is here. [applause] the folks of the district of columbia, please stand up and be recognized. [applause] i am delighted to be here. i appreciate it mentioned by governor kaine about what we have done for the children of the district of columbia. we are working hard on it. i introduced legislation to do what was a fairly bold moves, to create pre-kindergarten services for everyone in the district. we introduced the legislation and we said we would get ourselves six years to get that done. we said we were going to create

higher education incentive grants and other programs associated with it. i am pleased to stand here today to say this program has been so popular that it has not taken us six years. in september, we became the first city in america to say we have a seat in an organized education program for every child between3 and 4 years old -- between 3 and 4 years old in the district of columbia. we have seen an enrollment increase in our traditional public schools in the district of columbia and we are on an upsurge. we are some really challenged budget fairly. we just closed a budget gap and

we are facing a $500 million budget gap next year. since we are so strapped, there is a nasty rumor going around that you cannot spend your money in the district of columbia. we want you to spend every dime you have in your pocket in the district of columbia. we take credit cards. we take checks. and given the challenges we have, we will take an iou from everyone in this room because we know you are good for it. as we face the challenges in the district of columbia, we also face the challenge of disenfranchisement. the word, "indivisible with liberty and justice for all" --

when our liberty and justice going to come to the people of this city? [applause] we just saw the republican majority take away the limited vote that our outstanding congresswoman had in the congress. she could vote until early january. what did that mean? it meant she could pass a vote to break a tie. that has been taken away from her. that on the heels of us paying $3.60 billion in federal taxes per year. us sending our sons, daughters, and relatives to fight the measure -- to fight democracy -- fight for democracy in other places and the comeback and they

cannot get the rights they thought to get in other places in the world. [applause] it is time, ladies and gentlemen. we ask our democratic friends, our democratic militants to stand with the 600,000 people in the district of columbia. it is time to eliminate this kind of injustice in the nation's capital of the democratic world. there are 119 democratic capitals in the free world. we are the only one that does not have a vote in the national legislature. it is time for that to end. [applause] i have to be candid with you. it is not that we want a vote. we believe not only should we have a vote in congress. but given our commitment to this nation, we should be working

toward becoming the 51st state of this nation. it is right and it is just. i welcome you to the city. i asked you to do great work on our behalf. i look over to joining you in charlotte in 2012 when we come together for our convention. i look forward in 2012 to be able to say, we have stood up. we have made a concerted effort and we can show some progress toward eliminating the injustice we suffer every day in this nation's capital. thank you and i was you -- i wish you a successful meeting. [applause] >> thank you, mayor gray. [applause]

thank you very much, mayor gray. and thank you for reminding us -- 119 capitals. you reminded us of the unique position of the district of columbia. we are pleased to be joined by someone who is no stranger to some of you, the honorable bill daley. he was the head of the office of corporate responsibility for j.p. morgan/chase. he has extensive experience in the business world. he can do the demonstration well-positioned to help the president in a challenging time carry out and push through his agenda to win the future. in his political life, he was the campaign chairman for al gore's political -- presidential run in 2000.

he served as special counsel to president clinton in 1993. join me in giving a warm dnc welcome to bill daley. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much chairman kaine. let me wish you a happy birthday. from what i heard, i heard about the reception at the white house and the open bar at the white house. it was so impressed -- i am impressed with the turn out here today. obviously, the democratic party could not be in better hands that it has been under tim ka

ine's leadership. he is a leader. he is someone who has proven leadership in the political realm and as governor of virginia. i know the president is appreciative of the leadership and the time and energy he has given. you know how hard he works. we are all grateful for your leadership. let me also recognize mayor gray. you would have thought i would have learned never to follow a mayor. [laughter] it is not a good thing. some things are just stupid. the mayor is giving great leadership. the passion with which he spoke about this city and the need to bring quality and representation to the people of the city -- we all continue that fight. the president feels as strongly

as he does for the people of the district. we will be joined by our outstanding secretary of labor, secretary solis later this morning. last, but not least, let me knowledge the hard work of the north carolina -- the dnc officers. that we acknowledge my friends from illinois. i have to do that if i plan on going home in two years. [laughter] obviously, i thank all of you for what you are doing to win elections and the links you go -- lengths you go to make policy. making the case is not just about what happens in washington. it is about winning support and driving change across the country. that is what you help the

president do every day. that is what you help democrats do every day. when someone tries to knock us down, you have kept the fight going. i think about what happened last december. a lot of talking heads, the conventional wisdom in this town -- whenever the conventional wisdom in this town says something, take your money and go to las vegas and bet against them. they said the president's agenda was done. in just the span of a few days, think about what we were able to accomplish. we got a deal to expand middle- class tax cuts and tax credits for college students and small businesses, something that is already making a difference in our economy and helping to create jobs. not only that. there was a treaty to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world and go after loose nukes, a bill to take care of 9/11

first responders, and the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. so that gays and lesbians can buy for their country openly. [applause] your efforts are important to keep his agenda moving forward. we have got to keep up the fight. at this time in our country, there is not a day that goes by that i am notawed -- not awed by the number of the competing problems the president has to address and there is not a date i am not -- a day i am not impressed by the leadership he provides. the question is, how do we succeed in a global economy that is more connected and more competitive than ever in our

lifetime? how do we ensure that new jobs and businesses are taking root here in our country? how do we win the future. as the president has said, this is going to depend on having the most skilled workers, the strongest commitment to research, and the fastest, most reliable way to move our goods and information. we have to out-educate, out- innovate, and out-build the rest of the world. it is important that you carry this message back to your communities. in education, we have initiated the most ambitious reforms in decades. we launched race to the top. it says two states across the country, if you raise your standards and look for innovative ways to improve performance, we will show you the money.

40 states are pursuing their own vision of reform. at the same time, a lot of people said it was not possible to end subsidies to banks for college loans. but the president and our colleagues in congress got it done. we are making college more affordable to millions of students and revitalizing our community colleges. next is an ovation. [applause] thank you. community colleges play an enormous part to the -- in the future of this country. we must strengthen them. they must be the bulwark of the future jobs in the country. next is innovation. last week, president obama this is it intel in oregon. they have one of the most advanced plans for building microprocessors. that plant is a window for our future, proving that we can be more than consumers of things. we can manufacture in obeyed the

products here and sell them around the world. that is why we are backing more research, extending tax credits for businesses that in debate on our shores and pushing clean energy standards that will create jobs, in our dependence on foreign oil, and by climate change. we have to out-build the rest of the world. we cannot expect to grow on a 20th-century infrastructure. from high speed rail to high- speed internet. we have to invest company-- invests in -- and that in companies that move equipment quickly. we have to reform our government, including making sure our government lives within its means. we have got to stop spending on things we do not need so that

we can make investments in the things we do need. this involves some difficult choices. we had to cut back on some things we would not ordinarily want to cut because we do not have the money to pay for everything. the president's budget includes more than $1 trillion in deficit reduction. the president also increases investment in clean energy, infrastructure, and job training programs. he has extended tax incentives that will spur investment in hiring. it would be a mistake to balance the budget by sacrificing our future. [applause] that is where i would like to close. there have been two tough years for our country. in hard times, it is easy for people to lose faith. we have still got the world's

largest economic, the best universities, the most productive workers, the most innovative entrepreneurs. we can point to two years of incredible progress. two years ago we were in a crisis worse than any of us have known in our lifetimes. today, our economy is growing and we are adding jobs. we pass reforms to prevent future financial crises and to stop people from being exploited and denied coverage by passing health care reform. we are fighting hate crimes with bills that have been held up for many years. we have succeeded because you have had the president's back. while the president was making the case in congress, you were making the case in your communities.

you motivate your friends and neighbors to call their representatives and not on doors and spread the word to their local papers and facebook. those actions made all the difference. with your continued support, there is no telling how much we can accomplish in the next two years. we have elections to win. more importantly, we have big things to do. thank you. together, there is no stopping us. thank you and god bless you. [applause] >> thank you bill daley. we look forward to working with you to support the president and the agenda of with the next two years. your strong leadership will be a key ingredient in the reelection of the president in 2012. i would like to abolish the hard

work of the vice chairs of the -- like to acknowledge the hard work of the vice chairs of the dnc. jane is our vice chair. mike honda travels all over the country advocating for important causes. congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz is what our most effective advocate. she carries the democratic message as well as anybody in this room. our treasurer is a key reason to finances- why the dnc

are so strong. linda, it is great to be with you today and work with you. raymond, thank you. it is great to have you here. donna brazil has been part of the meeting for the last couple of days. we all know donna. her efforts on behalf of candidates and committees at all levels -- she has been in sixth in states for the dnc since election day. she is a spectacular boys for us. give a bid around-- applause she is a -- donna is a spectacular voice for us.

if a big round of applause for the vice chairs. [applause] i am going to start and andy is going to finish. our finance department is fortunate to have a strong base of supporters who believe in the president, the party, and our principles of governing and who are willing to put their money behind their beliefs. we worked on the field, data, and charts -- and targeting in places where we felt we could lend some expertise and some manpower. we were able to do that without taking a single penny from lobbyists and other special interests. that is important.

[applause] thank you. something that is important to be present in our efforts to increase the grass roots control of the party. we continue to out-raise the rnc. our goal is to support the president and democratic candidates by strengthening the dnc and the democratic party. we want to be in the best position going into the 2012 elections. governor kaine and others are working to improve our lives. the assault -- i am will do whatever i can to help this president. i don't know about you, but i am fired up and ready to go. [applause]

>> thank you, jane, you have done a terrific job this year. in the the citizens united world of funding, the other side has done well. in federally regulated fund raising, we had a terrific year. we raised $122 million. bells were contributions that averaged $55 each -- those were contributions that averaged $55 each. we always go back four years for the comparable period. in 2006, we raised $69 million. raisedoesn't end, we $122 million. -- in the doesn't 10, we raised 200 -- in 2010, we raised $122

million. jane and her team and the team governor kaine put together did a terrific job. as soon as we are done, go to the website. it is $10. we had 1,067,000 separate individuals giving us money last year. that is up 61% since 2006. [applause] 400 it the thousand of them had never given to be -democrats- 450,000 -- 450,000 of them had

never given to the democratic national committee before. in terms of the fund raising team, we are doing great. where we are right now, we have a $15 million bank debt. we have about $1 million in payables. we are a little ahead of them. we have a lot of work to do. we do not have as many billionaires. we have to do this. the year is off to a great start. we have whittled down some of our payables. we are a doing very well. the first contribution of 2011 was from my mother. in november, she was 90 and about two turn 91. we thought this was a good buy. she was still here for a thanksgiving. we were thrilled, but a little

surprised. christmas, new year's eve, she was determined to get one more calendar year max out for the dnc. she left us on january 3. darned if she was going to stick around long enough to see nancy pelosi and her battle to john boehner. -- her gavel to john bain [applause] a. -- to john boehner. >> thank you. the whole finance team is here and they have done superb work. we now have a great visitor. it is someone you know and you know well. it is secretary hilda solis.

secretary sillies has been a public servant. it says since first -- secretary hilda sully's has been a public servant or 30 years -- secretary hilda solis has been a public servant for 30 years. she led the battle to raise california's minimum wage. she served in congress for almost one day. her priorities for expanded access or affordable health care, improving the lives of working families. she was a recognized leader on clean energy jobs. she authored the screen dogs act that provided funding for veterans -- author d green -- act.hored the green jobs

there is nobody better who could be u.s. secretary of labor and hilda solis. we are pleased to have her with us today. give her a warm welcome. [applause] >> all right, folks. we are ready. thank you for inviting me. thank you for being so gracious for that kind introduction. i understand it is your birthday. happy birthday. in addition, i want to thank the dnc officers and my colleagues on the hill with whom we work in

tandem to get good things done for our country. two years ago this week approximately, i was sworn in to office by our newly elected president at the time, president barack obama to be the first latina cabinet member in our history. [applause] aside from that, coming in was tough. as you know, we were in the the of a recession. we were losing a hundred thousand jobs per month. the president took strong and decisive action. we passed the recovery act. we we want the health care system. we reform the financial system. we got out of that mess. we got america back to work. we added 1.1 million private-

sector jobs in 2010 alone. i _ private sector because we get a lot of criticism -- i underscore private sector because we get a lot of criticism say that we do not create jobs that lead anywhere. it has been across industries and regions and a first committee. do not let the pundits tell you that is not the case. i have to report on that every month. we are taking steps necessary to establish america's leadership role. clean energy, rebuilding american road bridges -- american roads, bridges, and railways. each of you know that there is a lot more work to be done. i have travelled across this

great country and have met with many workers of every age and background. unfortunately, some have jobs. some are still looking. some have given up. i know we all understand their frustration and their pain. i know that all of you have put in your time and energy to help build the this democratic party. we know our country is strongest when we are united. i have travelled around the country in the lead up to be november election to remind the team knows why it matters to both -- it matters to vote. and also to remind our women that they will never be second- class citizens in our party. [applause] and we need to be excited here. in places where we talk directly

to latinos, union members, and women, guess what? places like nevada, colorado, and california, even with the wind in our faces, we were able to win. [applause] but we know of our work is not done. not every corner of america came out. people now have to be reminded. the american public needs to know. we need to be out there reminding them that the election do matter. they've really do. as your secretary of labor -- they really do. as your secretary of labor, i have been following elections in indiana, colorado, florida, and different places around the country. even in my own state of california. we know many states are facing tough budget decisions.

we know there is room for shared sacrifice, shared sacrifice. we have seen our brothers and sisters and public employee their willingly give uppe fair share. they have offered to negotiate in good faith to help their states stay afloat in been in these tough times. the governors in wisconsin and ohio are not just asking the workers to tighten their belts. they are asking them to give up their uniquely american rights as workers. [audience booing] these are our neighbors, friends, and families. they teach our kids. they risked their lives to keep us faith in our communities. all they are asking for is to be

treated with respect and dignity. [applause] guess what, folks? all they are really asking for is the opportunity to sit down at the table like grown-ups and to work together to solve problems. that is what collective bargaining is all about. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, we know that sitting down together and working through our problems does not cause budget problems.

as i recall, that is how you solve budget problems. in every family across this country, when times are tough, we do that. we sit down at the table and we talked and we discussed and we negotiate. during these tough times, these governors are not finding that as a solution. admittedly, i am a little bit by is. at some of you know, i come from a union -- admittedly, i am a little bit biased. at some of you know, i come from a union households. my mother worked tirelessly in a toy manufacturing plant for many years trying to make a good life or her children. there were seven of us. i thought there went back to mexico and came back later in life and work hard as a firm worker. he worked in carpentry and the

oil industry. he ended up a shop steward in a union to help immigrant workers who could not speak english understand that they had protections here. any person who works in this country has a right to be protected. every administration, republican and democrat, has opted to uphold those laws. that is what i am doing today. [applause] all my parents wanted, like many of you, was that they wanted to be paid an honest wait for an honest today's work. -- an honest day's work. that is what it will -- was the workers in wisconsin wants.

but it is not what the other party wants. that is why the work that you do is so important to america's working families. while the other party is working to take america back to the days when we did not have collective bargaining and shared responsibility, democrats have a different plant. in the state of the union address, president obama set out his plan to win the future by out-educating, buy out innovate out-, and out- -t -- innovating and out-building the rest of the world. what is really exciting, the reason i love this administration is that president obama and i share a vision. that division is good jobs for everyone. [applause]

-- that vision is good jobs for everyone. let me tell you what i mean by good jobs. jobs that support a family by increasing income and narrow in the wage gap. jobs that export products and not paychecks. jaws that rebuild a strong middle class. jobs -- jobs that rebuild a strong middle class. doubts that allow workers to organize and -- jobs that allow workers to organize and collectively bargain. new protections are offered to workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. he provided job training opportunities to help them

upgrade their skills. he took the bold step to save the american auto industry, one that is earning record profits bringing back manufacturing jobs. guess what, folks? we are not done yet. our 2012 budget is designed to help win the future for american workers by guaranteeing that we are in a position to win in the global economic. that means cutting back on whistle spending. it means spending the money that we do not have on investment programs that will promote innovation and job creation. these are policies that will move all of us forward. maybe it is become -- it is because i come from the congress. i am also aware that the president also proposal to move forward will make clear to the

american public-the president's proposal todent's move forward will make clear to the american public that we will provide the kind of educational tools and job training opportunities that will insure everyone in america had access to those jobs. the president's vision is one where business and labor working together to grow our economy together, to create the jobs together and to win the future together. [applause] it is an america where our factories make things again and where everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion has a chance to succeed in this country and to be treated with dignity and respect.

the approach of the other side is different. they would rather cut everything. blame the worker. divide our people and to draw lines in the sand. where we say yes we can, they say, north you can. had we listened to them, they would not be a gm or a chrysler. they would not know what imported from detroit means. they say workers and managers cannot work together to solve problems. we know that the only way to solve problems is by getting both to the table. they say the gap in pay between men and the women cannot be closed. we say equal pay for equal work. [applause]

they say immigrants and their children cannot contribute to our economy and our communities. we know many already have. i am even one of those. but guess what, folks? we can do better. we can help support this administration to pass the dream act and immigration reform. [applause] i am a democrat because i know america to be a place where many dreams can become reality. i am one of those products from an immigrant family whose family struggled to come here to fight a better life, a better way to

be part of the american culture. i am lucky that i am one of those, along with my siblings, to be able to have those opportunities. i am proud to say there are many who came from my background who are seeing those successes and getting back in so many ways and so proudly to our american culture and our society. i will close by saying to you because i is on. we work together. we help those -- the fight is on. we get the win. i am fired up. i do not know about you, but he also fired up. i and the president are depending on you. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you secretary solis.

another round of applause. wow. that will send us out into all 50 states and six territories charge up. the next on our agenda is a report on the finances. the chairman will offer the committee report. >> thank you. i am be co-chair of the budget and finance committee. i am from the great state of california. this morning, i am proud to present a report on behalf of the budget and finance committee. i am a little nervous. yesterday, we had a spirited meeting in the budget and finance committee. we focused on the roles and responsibilities of the budget and finance committee.

we look at the issue of contacting, diversity at the democratic national committee at all levels, and making sure minority vendors play a major role at it and benton in 2012. reports by the reporter dnc staff. it was the latino caucus that brought this to our attention in st. louis. i want to thank them for their leadership. we had spirited discussions and we came up with a list of recommendations that were approved unanimously by our committee. moving forward, we want to help the dnc do what they do well. we want to make sure we do it in a more inclusive matter and include a burst that are --

diverse these that are vital to the democratic party. mr. chair, i would like to say i am proud as a coach here of the budget and -finance -- >> as he pointed out, did 3 caucusus were critical in bringing us to the table. the involvement will continue as well. i would entertain a motion to accept the report. is there any discussion?

all in favor? any opposed? the report of the committee is expected. i am going to make a few remarks before we move into zero business and new business. i want to welcome everyone here. we have a number of new members, new state chairs and vice chairs and other new members. i want to welcome you to this first meeting. i hope it has been an exciting one. we have a lot on the table and a lot of challenges and a lot of reason to feel optimistic about victory in battles ahead. i think we have to knowledge it was a tough night -- we have to acknowledge it was a tough not. did not go the way we wanted. we won some very close, late breaking statewide races that came our way, but we lost seats, and it was more than seats.

i thought about what congressman cleaver said the other day in the executive committee, we are not about numbers, we are about people. you can talk about numbers, but when i think about the midterms, i think about people. i think about really good public servants that i know who have not returned either to state legislative bodies, governors' offices, or to the senate or house. most of them did not return, not because they were not doing the right thing, they did the right thing. when people do the right thing in a political climate where it is tough to make political, unpopular choices because they need to move the nation forward, obviously we want to see those people reported. we don't want to see them not rewarded. in the mystery and complexity of life in politics and elsewhere, sometimes if you do the right thing, there can be a -- a backlash.

the empire strikes back, as they say. i cannot help but think that even people who are back, like the speaker, who did a magnificent job in two years, speaker nancy pelosi, who is still there and still fighting for us as our democratic leader in the house, but not in the same position. there are lessons learned. there are some challenges in the midterms and also some bright spots. the challenges were independent voters who supported the president significantly in 2008 did not support democratic candidates nationally. independent voters moved pretty significantly in two years. that is something we have to work on. our young voters, who don't have a great history of midterm turn out, but who had an amazing surge in 2008. we saw young voters do better in 2010 that a normal midterm,

but we hope it would be better that -- better still. we did not get to where we wanted with young voters and with women voters. the democratic party has had a spectacular tradition of winning it women voters by a pretty healthy margin. there are some challenges that we have to grapple with as we are digging through the data and working through -- working with our candidates and having discussions with the president and our congressional leadership for the next two years. there were a couple of bright spots. you have to mention them because there are some thanks involved. turn out of some of the board democratic constituencies was really good. african-american voters turned out very well, because they understood what was at stake in terms of partners who would work with or fight against the president. a piece of data that i found remarkable in this story, and i am just going to use this as an

example, wisconsin voting. we had a horrible election night in wisconsin. we lost the governor's race and a spectacular senator, members of congress. in 2010 it was a tough night. 2006 in wisconsin we had a great night. we won the governor's race and congressional seats. in most democratic jurisdiction in wisconsin, the biggest place where we put up democratic margins is the city of milwaukee. the voting turnout in 2010 in milwaukee was almost 50% higher than it was in 2006. democrats voted very well in that city and in cities across the country. we have to acknowledge that the ever american and latino votes were strong. voting in washington and oregon was a very strong.

after election night, the colorado senate race and the oregon governor's race and the washington senate race in the illinois governor's race and the connecticut governor's race and the minnesota governor's race, all the late breaker switch doorway, which tells me it is filled politics that matters. there was good field activity because of state parties, organizing for american volunteers, and because of strong upturns. there were bright spots, but you cannot sugarcoat it. it was a tough night. after that i just remembered a wonderful line that i always remember after anything tough, because it tells you, progress is not always a straight line. william faulkner, they may have killed us, but they have not whipped us. if he ever needed proof of that proposition, all the pundits

said it was horrible and nothing was going to get done. we ended up with the president and congress at the end of that lame-duck session that got more good work done -- the 9/11 responders bill, what a spectacular thing that the other guys try to block, but we made it happen. the start treaty, the compromise that would extend unemployment benefits and adjust payroll taxes. with respect to the tax cuts on the wealthy, the president said we are wrong to come back and talk about that one again, right in the heart of a presidential election when everyone is paying attention and we have an opportunity to have an effect on the election one way or another. you played a big role in those achievements in the lame duck. the one i did not mention is the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell".

that one went through so many twists and turns, and folks were so frustrated. it was part of the defense authorization and could not happen, the republicans blocked it, even in the middle of december it looked tough, but you all kuwaiti and in wonderful ways. we put out the call, can you help us with petitions that we can deliver to key senators to get them on board. within 72 hours, we had nearly three-quarters of a million petitions that we could deliver to members of congress. we also have to say, great activism by so many wonderful activists, and the american public saying we want you to do this, and the military saying we want you to do this. we have seen the president continue sense with a strong state of the union, with a compelling and compassionate and tremendously moving presentation

to a grieving nation in the aftermath of the terrific shooting in tucson. things can look bart one day and how quickly they can turn. that can look good one day and turn as well. we will go for a lot of cycles and a lot of ups and downs, but the challenges we face in november have not deterred us or slowed us down. they have not made us trim our sails. the have energized us and we are battling with a great president to do good work. if there is one thing the election has done, it has enabled us to paint in contrast the choice that is before the country. you heard hilda's police do it better than anyone, but the president has said the choice is better -- we are optimistic and hopeful. the other guys will be doom and gloom. we are winners in this country and in this party. we will be about the future,

looking forward in tackling new challenges rather than just going backwards and fighting about the battles of the past. we will focus every day on the economy and make stronger. on the economy, and get into these discussions as i travel around, and i am sure you do, too. i don't just talk to democrats. i have a lot of friends who are republicans and independents. at the end of the bush a administration, the gdp was shrinking by 6% a year. that is what this president inherited. that is unparalleled since the great depression in american history that we would shrink by that degree. now the gdp is growing again and has for the past year. economists are rising -- revising up for the gdp estimate.

we have gone from a shrinking economy to a growing economy under democrats. [applause] in jobs, and we are not where we want to be, but the president came in at a time when jobs had just fallen off a cliff. we lost 750,000 jobs, more than that in january 2009 when he was inaugurated. we have now grown the private sector economy. under the other guys, we were losing jobs, and under democratic leadership, we are gaining jobs. [applause] for your argument with anyone who wants to know what what democrats have done with the economy, if you put a dollar in the stock market the day that george bush was inaugurated in 2001, what was it worth when he left office? 78 cents.

eight years declined by 22%. if you put a dollar in the dow today -- today barack obama was inaugurated, it is worth $1.50 today. that is what democrats do. we grow the economy, add jobs. on the other side, we are climbing out of the ditch that they may. we are battling for green energy and inclusion. the other side is the party of the past. they said they got power that would focus on jobs. let me tell you what they have been focused on. even look at republican governors all over this country, what you see is a massive education cuts. i was in texas last week, wisconsin, an illinois the week before. one thing i see in a lot of the state's i go to where republicans are at the helm is

massive cuts to education. our were going to out educate and continue to grow if we are cutting that talent expansion that is public education? we cannot do it. that is certainly not approach jobs strategy, and yet that is one they are pursuing. other strategies they are pursuing, in the house there is basically an effort to focus on issues and take away the rights of women. you saw last week, the house voted to completely defund planned parenthood. cervical cancer screenings, education, health care, protecting women's choices, contraception -- what does that have to do with jobs? going after women, what does it have to do with jobs? they are trying to redefine what ports of -- what forcible rape

means. they all had their names on the bill, and we are not going to let any of co-sponsors for get what they were trying to do to american women. [applause] you heard the secretary talk about wisconsin and the other states. i was in madison a couple of weeks back. let us set state government aside, if it was the company, what ceo do we admire the comes into a company and as the ceo, which is a public war on their own work force right out of the gate? there are ceos to do that, but there are no ceos that we admire that do that, because ceos we admire no that is about a partnership. the way you did this is work

together. you don't come in and wage war on your own employees. these are the people that teach our kids. these are the people they care for parents and grandparents in nursing homes. they are trying to keep our streets safe and provide fire protection. the notion that we are going to go after t