other steps to what you mentioned. >> how much is occurring at the patient or surgical consult via technology, if you would, telemedicine type approach that might -- that to me is one of the partnerships that we seem -- have seen be moderately successful in south dakota and others are doing that too. i think there are some limitations to that. and i guess to the chairman's question, there are things that the barriers that we could knock out of the way that would enable better use of technology to deliver care to these. obviously you got to have a surgeon there at some point if you have got to have that kind of intervention. it seems like there are a you've got to have a surge in their and their things that could be done on the preventive side.

>> i would have to do more homework on that and get back to you. i don't have a sense of what kind of penetration there is true there is more than just a case report of that being out there. it is emerging. i don't know that we've got clear data to answer your question. >> i will not speak to the surgical issue but in internal medicine and critical care and pulmonary medicine and infectious disease, a great deal about reaches now being done in the rural parts of kentucky the a telemedicine programs. the technology needs to be improved. the standardization is to be improved, but it does work. in one of our communities recently, every day member of the critical care icu team met on video with a team in a small community hospital taking care

critical patients and arranged a transfer, determined what diagnostic studies would be helpful, and began to move that trend before it became a catastrophe. before son was seriously hurt because the could i get care. the movement is out there and i need the tools and technology and standards to get this to a place that makes it what it should be. >> i apologize for missing your comments. there is a simultaneous hearing of a committee of homeland security and government affairs and the 10th anniversary of the creation on the department of on the anniversary of 9/11. i apologize for missing what you said. my colleagues would probably tell you that might focus on health care reform has been to extend the air to those who don't have it but also how we realize better health outcomes

for less money for this amount of money. if we don't do that, we cannot extend coverage to people don't otherwise have it. i have a focus shared by senator baucus and senator insey and others. is it possible to reduce the incidence of medical malpractice incidents? is it possible to get better health care outcomes? one thing we put into the health care bill was a $50 million authorization to incentivize states to experiment boldly on different approaches. it could be safe harbors, it could be court reform. the university of illinois put it on steroids. they are seeing it as possible to reduce the incidence of medical malpractice and

defensive medicine and get better results. the last two years has proven yes, yes, yes. could you comment please? >> senator hatch raised this issue moment ago. we did not dig into it at the time but there's a disconnect from the conversation we are having about improving the value and how we purchase health care. there is this whole aspect of defensive medicine. there is no way we can actually fully achieve the value we wish unless we actually have evidence-based clinical care matched with evidence-based tort. if we don't have a tort reform, positions and -- physicians and hospitals will continue to have to defend their profession with defensive medicine. that is the missed opportunity. if we are setting standards for better performance, what are we setting posting standards as the standards that are used?

if we are using them for public payment and performance, why aren't they using them as the basis for the performance we use? i wish medical malpractice never occurred but it does. we're all human and when it does occur, people deserve to be compensated. if the best evidence was followed and everything was proper, then we just understand that that is part of our own human frailties. we desperately need to look at everything you have proposed whether it be held courts, safe harbors, evidence-based toward reform as a necessary adjunct to this value proposition. if we don't, we're going to be forever struggling with trying to contain that cost. it is a significant costs. i don't know of this $50 billion or more but it is not chump

change. >> i spent my time as a naval officer in vietnam. i am struck how we take the idea we used in airplanes, a checklist and apply them to the delivery of health care. the other thing we did in naval aviation was if we have a problem, one of the systems or whatever, we did not hide it. we just broadcast throughout the navy. this happened on this flight and this mission. this is what we have done badly and frankly, that is the smart thing to do with respect to these issues, defensive medicine and medical malpractice. one of the abuse of what they're doing in illinois is putting a spotlight. they are not hiding vista. there's a media disclosure and people are hurt. it is really smart approach.

i'm very encouraged. any other comments? >> you bring up a good point. it is about a system of care and not necessarily individual performance and the checklist, you made is exactly on point. we need to look at those incidents, near misses as the faa looks at accents for aircraft. how can we learn from mistakes rather than try to hide them because of concerns about litigation and how can we use them as learning opportunities? we need to nurture that environment and for the most part, we don't have that. >> this has been a great hearing. i would like for each of you to submit to us your suggestions and what we do about sdr, that is short-term, mid term, long term, knowing that we have to act.

there are gray areas here and there are all kinds of solutions you can come up with. we do need some help. i tend to think the more you give us some suggestions and solutions, the more likely it is that you will like them. [laughter] please let us know what you think. we really need your help, i mean that, thanks very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> the farm bill under consideration in the house includes cuts to the food stamp program. on today's "washington journal," conversation about those cuts. also in the house, members voted yesterday to repeal the health care law, president obama signed two years ago. we will talk about that. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> throughout july on cspan radio, a historic supreme court oral arguments focusing on election issues. >> throughout the briefs, they

were independent, professional run, the candidate knows who is helping him and wife. we think these are all code words for saying we are effected. because we are effective, the speech should be choked off. >> saturday from 1985, the federal election commission political action committee at 6:00 p.m. eastern on cspan radio in washington, d.c. at 90.1. >> shreveport in march -- april the little rock -- oklahoma city in may -- which is taught in general -- and this past weekend in jefferson city. for the continuing troubles of the cspan local content vehicles every month on book-tv and american history tv and next month, look for the history and literary culture of our next stop -- louisville, kentucky,

the weekend of august four and five on c-span 2 and 3. >> health secretary kathleen sibylla's outlined the next steps for implementing the health care law yesterday at george washington university school of public health and health services. the supreme court last month upheld the health care love 5-4 with chief justice john wright writing the majority opinion. secretaries a bilious makes reference to house republican efforts to repeal the health care a lot. this is 20 minutes. >> please join me in welcoming [applause] >> good afternoon everybody. i am delighted to be back in george washington. i was telling the dean at that i had the pleasure of being here a number of times and announcing a number of important new initiatives here in this

auditorium. i think it is a perfect venue to discuss the affordable care act and the importance of the supreme court decision. i want to recognize president steve knapp and thank him for his hospitality and dean goldman for her leadership here at the school. you will have a great treat. some colleagues i have worked with for a long time are members of the panel that you will hear from. certainly, the other keynote speakers. i will tell you a little something about them that may not be immediately obvious. we all have kansas connections. i am a former governor, former insurance commissioner. in kansas, my husband is a federal judge. tom married a kansan.

sheila burke, longtime aide and assistant to senator bob dole, the senate majority leader from kansas. you may have thought we were here for our health care expertise, but it is really our kansas connections. over the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of commentary about the supreme court decision and what it means for politicians in washington. we have heard speculation about who is a winner and who is a loser, what it means for november. with congressional republicans, today holding their 31st vote to repeal the affordable care act, it is clear that some want that political discussion and political battle to keep going. i am really glad to have a chance to be with you today to talk about what the healthcare law means for those outside of

washington, the hard-working families that the law was really designed to help. to do that, we need to set the stage and remember where this country was when this law was passed two years ago. back in 2010, the urgency around health care challenges was growing. this was related both to the health care of our nation and also the economy of the country. despite spending more than any nation on earth, we were moving toward 50 million uninsured citizens and really mediocre health results. our health expenditures were consuming an increasingly greater share of our gdp, threatening our global competitiveness. families, businesses, and governments were all struggling under the burden of rising costs. between 2000 and 2009, insurance premiums doubled. the share of small-business owners offering employee

coverage dropped from 70% in 2002 to under 60%. medicare costs continue to rise, putting the trust fund on pace to be insolvent by 2016. one business owner who wrote to me early in my term summed up the frustration many americans were feeling. he wrote, "i am near the breaking point. with guaranteed annual increases at 10 to 15 times the rate of inflation, eventually, we will go out of business or be forced to cancel our employees' insurance. either way it is a lousy set of options." at the same time, the private health market was becoming more consolidated and less competitive. some americans had dependable access to coverage in public

plans -- more children, the seniors, disabled, veterans, even the poorest adults and pregnant women -- through medicaid. employees of largest companies usually fared pretty well. that left a lot of hard-working families in a broken market where insurance companies made a lot of the rules. totally legally, insurers could cap your coverage, raise your rates, or cancel the coverage with a very little accountability. if you were one of the 129 million americans with a pre- existing condition like cancer or even asthma, you could be locked out or priced out of the market altogether. that was a fairly successful business model for many insurance companies. in fact, in 2009, the five largest insurers made $12 billion in profit. but that did not work very well

for a lot of the people who were left on the sidelines. the healthcare law was passed in large part to address the twin issues of cost and coverage. that is exactly what has begun to happen over the last two years. the law's first principle is pretty simple. if you have coverage, you can keep it. for the 260 million americans with insurance today, the main change is that they will get more security. the law puts in place new insurance rules, and many of those are already in place, prohibiting insurers from capping the coverage or canceling it without cause if someone gets sick. preventive care is now free for 54 million americans with private plans. there are new limits on how much of your premium insurance companies can spend on overhead costs like ceo bonuses. as a result, starting this

summer, about 13 million americans will get rebates from their insurance companies. you heard me correctly. insurance companies are actually sending money back to their customers thanks to the 80/20 rule. the affordable care act does not cut medicare benefits. in fact, the program is more robust than ever. new benefits have been added for seniors. the law has begun to close the insurance gap in medicare prescription drug plans, saving over 5 million beneficiaries with the highest medication costs, about $600 apiece. we have brand new efforts and new surveillance tools in fraud and abuse areas. we have already returned in the last two years about $5.4 billion to the trust fund, and that does not include the new $3 billion settlement just

announced last week. yesterday, our department announced that so far in 2012, more than 16 million seniors and persons with disability on medicare have already taken advantage this year of at least one free preventive service like a wellness visit or a cancer screening. we also know small business owners were at a very difficult place in the market. they are beginning to see relief thanks to the new tax credit which covers up to about one-third of their insurance bills for employees. all americans with insurance will benefit from no longer having to pay the extra $1,000 per family that is estimated to cover the cost of uncompensated care for americans with no coverage. the law is beginning to provide some better coverage choices for middle-class families. we have about 3.1 million young

adults, and some of them might be here, who were previously uninsured prior to 2010 and now are covered under their parent's plans. we have 70,000 americans around the country taking part in new high-risk pools that were previously locked totally out of the insurance market because of their pre-existing health conditions. at the same time, the affordable care act has begun breaking the stalemate in washington on addressing health- care costs. there was a lot of agreement for decades that our health care costs were too high and they were continuing to rise. while there was a lot of agreement that we had to do something about high costs, there was not a lot of action in congress. the ideas put forward by those who favor repeal would limit government health spending,

lower government health costs, simply by shifting costs to seniors and patients. but there is an alternative vision that is part of the construct of affordable care act. it really captures doing on a national scale what some of the best health systems have begun to do around the country. that is bringing down costs by actually improving care. prior to the passage of the affordable care act, many of the financial incentives in our two large public programs and medicaid and medicare right now include about one-third of the country. almost 100,000,000 people are participants in one of those two programs or sometimes in both. the financial incentives actually many times penalized care improvements the way we pay providers in hospitals. over the last two years, we have begun to change the incentives in the health-care

system to reward providers for improving care. we've had an enormously enthusiastic response from doctors and hospitals across the country. just on monday, we announced that a total of 154 health organizations serving 2.5 million americans have already signed up under the law to form the so-called accountable care organizations. these are structures where providers share the savings when their patients stay healthy. there are many more of those strategies underway -- lowering hospital-based infections, medical health homes, bundling care -- all designed to keep people healthy in the first place, out of the hospital, and lower the opportunities for

return. all of that progress has been going on in the last two years. when we have, as we have again today, people talking about repealing the law, i think it is important to remember what is really at stake. this has nothing to do with the fortunes of elected politicians around washington, all of whom already have excellent health care. it is the health and economic security of middle-class families around america that are really at stake. repeal actually could subject those families once again to some of the worst insurance abuses. we know it would automatically raise the price of seniors' medications and add financial barriers to their preventative care. it would end the tax credits that are currently helping small businesses cover their employees and force millions of young adults to once again begin

their careers without the security of health coverage. it would mean that, too often, the best quality of care would continue to be out of reach for most americans. what we know is that the supreme court decision, there were four justices who actually voted to strike down the law that would accomplish those goals. but the majority of justices have allowed us to move ahead on full implementation of the act. with a slight change in medicaid, which now makes the program a voluntary program and removes the penalty phase of medicaid so that the department of health and human services could not take all of the underlying medicaid funding away from a state that chose not to participate, medicaid expansion will operate very much like other expansion has operated over the past number of years, where states voluntarily

come into the program and we have given a very generous framework of state federal participation and the opportunity to ensure the largest number of low-income adults in that program that states will indeed decide to insure their populations. most of you know that two major parts of the program do not take effect until 2014. the new marketplaces will be set up in every state where families and small business owners actually get to make, for the first time, a comparison of health plans and choose the one that is right for them. there will be new rules for insurance companies. no one can be discriminated against because of a pre- existing health condition, and you cannot be charged more because of your gender in an insurance plan. others who cannot afford

coverage can qualify for a tax credit, averaging about $4,000 per family. members of congress and their families will get coverage through the same exchanges, alongside their constituents. over the past two years, we have been working on implementation because setting up these new markets cannot happen overnight. we have partnered closely with states to set up the new consumer-friendly market places. far from what is reported as a federal takeover, the law really gives states maximum flexibility in shaping their own market. states can decide, for instance, to fully operate their marketplace, to partner to run pieces of the exchange, or to have us do it all. the law contains a provision that if states come up with their own way of covering the same number of people with the

same kind of quality and no cost increase, they can present a plan and take over the whole system. the president has asked congress to move up that provision from 2017 to 2014 so states can have the flexibility in year one. yesterday, i received letters from 12 governors saying there are already fully engaged in planning to establish their own marketplaces. we anticipate more to be fully ready as we move through 2012. in the months to come, we will keep working with states to meet them where they think it is appropriate and have all of the exchanges running in every state by 2014. another key change that is coming in 2014 is that states will begin receiving a very generous federal match to expand medicaid coverage to uninsured adults can at 133% of poverty.

those of you who do not walk around with poverty tables in your heads, that means for an individual who makes less and $15,000 a year and for a family of four, the income is less than $31,000 a year. we are talking about some of the poorest working families in this country. here is what states are being offered. for the first three years, the federal government pays 100% of the newly insured enrollees. after 2017, the federal government share is reduced, but never less than 90%. the lowest it gets at the end of 10 years is a 90/10 share. the states also have flexibility in setting the benefits for the newly covered folks. their expenditures will be

offset by reduced spending on uncompensated care for the uninsured. this has unprecedented federal support, access to affordable coverage for low-income residents and steep reductions in costs for the state, the citizens, and the health care provider. we think at the end of the day, this is a deal that states will not want to turn down. as i said, we have been through this before. when congress expanded coverage for kids in 1997 and offered to pay 70% of the costs, not 100% of the costs, states were initially skeptical. only eight states began covering eligible children in the first year. but within 2.5 years, all 50 states decided the benefits far outweighed the costs and

committed to participating. the 2014 medicaid expansion offers states a better deal. we are hopeful states will take advantage of it to cover the needs of their families to ensure their doctors actually get paid. earlier today, i sent a letter to all governors, many of them my former colleagues, laying out this information. we will keep working closely with states to make sure the hard-working families who are looking forward to this new day have access to affordable coverage. now that the supreme court has issued their decision, i am hopeful we can stop refighting the old political battles and trying to take away benefits millions of americans are already enjoying and instead move forward in implementing and improving the law to provide more security to americans who have insurance, more choices for those who do not, and lower

costs for everyone. thank you all very much and i will turn the podium back over to dean goldman. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> this morning, the new america foundation considers oil as energy analysts and economists and scientists discuss the global oil market. live coverage begins at 9:00 a.m. eastern on cspan 3. later, a senate confirmation hearing for steven crawford, nominee to the u.s. postal board of governors. that begins led the 2:00 p.m. eastern. this weekend on book-tv, growing up in the shadows and secrets of the rocky flats nuclear weaponry facility from full body burden.

that a saturday it 7:00 p.m. eastern and sunday on after words -- peter collier on the life of jean kirkpatrick. >> she was way -- she was a mcgovern with that magnolia accent. she saw the dominoes start to fall during this time. 1979, she was in full-fledged opposition to carter which she saw as carter ism. a particular crucial and this respect in 1979, she sought the fall of the shah and nicaragua and experiences for her and people like her. >> the political woman behind the coal board doctrine, sunday night at 9:00 in the 10:00, marine sniper on license leading the military. hotels, hospitals, and jails, all part a book-tv this weekend on c-span 2.

>> when you think about cyber actors, let's put that into five groups -- you have nation state, cyber criminals, packers, activists, and terrorists. all not all those are nation states. when you think about deterrence, you're not talking about just nation on nation deterrence, you have other non-nation state actors you now have to consider. in one of these attacks, you may not know who was doing it, who is attacking your systems. either way, the outcome could be the same. you lose the financial sector or the power grid for your systems capabilities for a period of time. it doesn't matter who did it, you still lose that. you've got to come up with a defensive strategy that solves that. >> washed national security agency director general keith alexander says present and

future cyber threats online at the cspan video library. >> mitt romney told the annual naacp convention yesterday that if you want a president who will make things better for the african-american community, you are looking at him. from houston, his remarks were 25 minutes.

>> i do love that music. and the piano. hearing sweet hour of prayer being played, that was a wonderful thing. good morning. and thank you for the generous introduction. thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. and for your hospitality. this is an honor to address here and when i value very highly. i appreciate the chance to speak first even before the vice president. i just hope the obama campaign does not think you are playing favorites. now, you all know something about my background. maybe you wonder how any republican can ever become governor of massachusetts and the first place. when you are in a state with 11% republican registration, you do

not get there by just talking to republicans. you have to make your case to every single voter. we do not count anybody out. we do not make a habit of presuming anybody's support. support is ask for and earned. with 90% of african-americans typically vote for democrats, some may wonder why a republican may bother to campaign in the african-american community. one reason is that i hope to represent all americans of every race, creed, sexual orientation. from the poorest to the richest and everyone in between. there is another reason. i believe that if you understood who i truly am in my heart and if it were possible to communicate what i believe is in the best interest of african- american families, you would vote for me for president. i want you to know if i did not believe my pollard -- policies would help families of color more than the policies and leadership of president obama, i would not be running or president. the opposition charges that i and people of my party are running for office to help the rich. nonsense. the rich will do just fine weather i am elected or not. the president wants to make this campaign about blaming the rich and i want this to be about helping the middle class in america. i am running for president because i know that my policies and vision will help millions of middle-class americans of all races.

it will lift people from poverty and will help prevent people from becoming pour in the first place. my campaign is about helping the people who need help. the president will not do that. my course will. when president obama called to congratulate me on becoming the republican nominee, he said that he looked forward to an important and healthy debate about american oppose the future. i am afraid his campaign has taken a different course than that. at campaigns and their best, voters can expect a clear choice. with that hope the debate about the course of the nation that i want to discuss with you today. somebody had told us in the 1950's or 1960's that a black

citizen would serve as the 44th president of the united states, we would have been proud and many would have been surprised. we might have assumed the presidency would be the last door of opportunity to be opened. before that came to pass every other barrier in the path to equal opportunity wycherley have to have come now. it has not happen quite that way. many barriers remain. in some ways the challenges are more complicated than before. across america and within your own ranks, there is serious debate about the way forward. if equal opportunity were it and accomplished fact, then a bad economy would be equal for everyone. instead is worse for african- americans and almost every way. in june while the overall unemployment rate remained

stuck at 8.2%, the unemployment rate for african-americans actually went up from 13% to 14.4%. americans of every backgrounder asking when the economy will finally recover. you in particular are entitled to an answer. if equal opportunity -- [applause] if equal opportunity in america were an accomplished fact, black families could send their sons and daughters to public schools that are for the hope of a better life. instead for generations the african-american community has been waiting for the promise to be kept. today black children are 17% of students nationwide. they are 42% of the students at

our worst performing schools. our society sends them into mediocre schools and expects them to perform with excellence. that is simply not fair. frederick douglass observed "it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." [applause] yet instead of preparing the children for life, too many schools set them up for failure. everybody in this room knows that we owe them better than that. the path of any quality often leads to a lost opportunity, college, graduate school, and first jobs should be the milestones marking the passage from childhood to adulthood. for too many disadvantaged young people these goals seem unattainable. the lives take a tragic turn.

many live in neighborhoods filled with violence and fear and nt opportunity. they're impatient for change is understandable. america should be better than this. they are told even now to wait for improvements in our economy and in our schools. it seems to me these americans have waited long enough. [applause] the point is that when decades of the same promises keep producing the same failures, it is reasonable to rethink our approach to consider a new plan. i am hopeful that together we can set a new direction policy starting with where many of our problems to start, with the family. a study has shown for those who graduate from high school and get a full-time job and wait until 21 to marry and then have their first child, the

probability of becoming pour is 2%. of those factors are absent, the probability of being poor is 76%. here you understand the deep and lasting difference that family makes. your former executive director had it exactly right. the family he said "remains the bulwark and mainstay of the community. that should not be overlooked. any policy that up was the family is going to be good for the country. that must be our goal. i will defend traditional marriage. [applause]

would you may have heard, i also believe in the free enterprise system. i believe it can bring change were so many well-meaning programs fail. i never heard anyone look around and an impoverished neighborhood and said, there is too much free enterprise in this neighborhood. what you hear is, how do we bring in jobs? how do we make good honest employers want to move in, stay in? with the shape the economy is in today, we are asking that question more and more. free enterprise is still the greatest force for upward mobility, economic security, and the expansion of the middle class. we have seen in recent years what it is like to have less free enterprise. i will show the good things that can happen when we have more free enterprise, more business activity, more jobs, more pay checks, more savings accounts. on day one i will begin turning this economy around with a plan

for the middle-class. i do not just mean for those who are middle class now. i mean for those who have waited for so long to join the middle class. [applause] and by the way, i know what it takes to put people to work to bring more jobs and better wages. my plan is based on 25 years of success in business. it is a job recovery plan. it has five key steps. first, i will take full advantage of our energy resources. i will approve the keystone pipeline from canada. low-cost, plentiful coal, natural gas, oil, and renewals will bring over 1 million manufacturing jobs back to the united states. [applause]

second, i want to open up new markets for american goods. we are the most productive major economy in the world. trade means good jobs for americans. trade has to be fair and free. i will clampdown on cheaters like china and make sure they play by the rules and do not steal our jobs. [applause] third, i will reduce government spending. i hope everyone understands high levels of debt slows down the rate of growth of the gdp -- of the economy. that means fewer jobs are created. if our goal is jobs, we have to stop spending over one trillion dollars more than we take in every year. [applause] to do that i will eliminate every non-essential expensive program i can find. that includes obamacare.

i will work to reform -- [boos] you know, there was a survey of the chamber of commerce. they carried out a survey of their members -- about 1500 surveyed. they ask them what affect obamacare what have on their plans. three-quarters of them said it made them less likely to hire more people. if our priority is jobs -- that is my priority. that is something i would change. i would replace it with something that helps people with lower costs, good quality, the capacity to deal with people who have pre-existing conditions -- i will put that in place. i will work to reform and save medicare and social security. people keep talking about that those programs are on the

pathway to insolvency and nothing gets done to fix them. i will fix them and make sure they are permanent and secure for seniors today and seniors tomorrow. i would do that by means testing the benefits. higher benefits for lower income people and lower benefits for high income people. [applause] i will focus on nurturing and developing skilled workers that our economy so desperately needs today and the future demands. this is the human capital with which tamara's bright feature can be built. by the way, too many homes and schools are failing to provide children with skills and education essential for anything more than a minimum-wage job. [applause] finally and perhaps most importantly, i will restore economic freedom.

this nation's economy runs on freedom. on opportunity and on to per newers, dreamers to innovate and bill businesses. they are being crushed by high taxation, unnecessary burden some regulations, hostile regulators, excessive health care costs, and destructive labor policies. i will go to work to make america the best place in the world for innovators,s open up energy, expand trade, cut the growth of government, focus on better educating tomorrow's workers today, and restore economic freedom and the jobs will come back to america. wages will rise again. we have to do it. [applause] i know the president will say he

is going to do those things but he has not, he will not, and he cannot. his last four years in the white house prove it definitively. if i am president, a job one for me will be creating jobs. let me say that again. my agenda is not to put employs a series of policies that give me a lot of attention and applause. my policy will be to create jobs for the american people. i do not have a hidden agenda. [applause] i submit to you this. if he won a president who will make things better in the african-american community, you are looking at him. you take a look. finally, i will address the inequality in our education system. i know something about this from my time as governor. in the years before i took office, our state leaders came together to pass bipartisan measures that were making a difference.

and reading and math are students were already among the best in the nation. during my term the took over the top spot. it revealed what good teachers can do if the system will let them. the problem was, this success was not shared. a significant achievement gap remained between different races. i promoted math and science excellence in schools and proposed paying bonuses to our best teachers. i refuse to weaken testing standards and raise them to graduate from high school in massachusetts, students now had to pass an exam in math and english. i added a science requirement as well. i put in place a merit scholarship for all those students who excelled. the top 25% of students in each high school in massachusetts were awarded a john and abigail

adams scholarship, four years' tuition free at any massachusetts public institution of higher learning. [applause] when i was governor not only did our test scores improved, we narrowed the achievement gap. teacher unions were not happy with a number of these reforms. they did not like our emphasis on joyce three charter schools, which is a great benefit to inner-city kids trapped at underperforming schools. as you know in boston and harlem and los angeles and across the country, charter schools are giving children a chance -- children who otherwise could be locked in failing schools. i was inspired by a kid in philadelphia. right here in houston is another remarkable story. these charter schools are doing

a lot more than closing the achievement gap, they are bringing hope and a real opportunity to places where for years there has been none. charter schools are so successful that almost every politician can find something good to say about them. as we saw in massachusetts, true reform requires much more than talk. as governor, i vetoed the bill blocking charter schools. my legislature was 87% democrat and a veto could have easily been overwritten. i joined with the black legislative caucus and their votes helped preserve my veto which meant new charter schools including some in urban neighborhoods would be opened. [applause]

when it comes to education reform, candidates cannot have it both ways. talking up education reform while indulging the same groups that are blocking reform. you can be the voice of disadvantage public-school students, or you can be the protector of special interests like the teacher unions. you cannot be both. i made my choice. as president i will be a champion of real education reform in america and i will not let the special interests get in the way. [applause] i will give the parents of every low-income and special needs students the chance to choose where their kids go to school. for the first time in history if i am president, federal education funds will be linked to a student so kids can -- parents can send their kid to any school they choose. i will make that a true choice. i will ensure there are good

options available for every child. should i be elected president, i will lead as i did when i was governor. i am pleased to be joined by the rev. jeffrey brown who was a member of my kitchen cabinets and massachusetts. i will look for support wherever there is good will and share conviction. i will work with the to help our children attend better schools and help our economy create good jobs with better wages. i cannot promise you i will agree on every issue, but i do promise your hospitality to me today will be returned. we will know one another. [applause] we will work a common purpose. i will seek your counsel. if i am elected president, if

you invite me to next year pose a convention, i would count it as a privilege and my answer will be yes. [applause] you know, the republican party's record by the measures you rightly apply is not perfect. any party that claims a perfect record is not no history the way you know it. always in both parties there have the men and women of integrity, decency, and humility who have called justice by its name. for everyone of us, a particular person comes to mind. somebody to set a standard of conduct and as better by their example. for me that man is my father, george romney. [applause]

it was not just that my dad helped write the civil rights provision for the michigan constitution, although he did. it was not just that he helped create michigan's first civil rights commission or that as governor he marched for civil rights on the streets of detroit, although he did those things, too. more than these acts, he was the kind of man he was and the way he dealt with every person black or white. he was a man of the fairest instincts and a man of faith to do every person was a child of god. [applause] i am grateful to him for so many things. above all, for the knowledge of god whose ways are not always our ways, but his justice is certain and his mercy in doris forever. -- endures forever. [applause]

every good cause on this earth relies on a plan bigger than ours. without dependence on god, dr. king that said, our efforts turned to ashes and our sun rises in the dark night. unless his spirit pervades our lives we find only cures that do not cure, blessings that do not less, and solutions that do not solve. of all that you bring to the work of today's civil rights cause, no advantage accounts for more than the abiding confidence in the name above every name. against cruelty, arrogance, and all the foolishness of man, this spirit has carried the naacp to many victories. or still are up ahead. [applause]

so many victories are ahead. with each one of them, we will be a better nation. thank you so much. god bless every one of you. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> convention continues this morning, vice president joe biden will speak to the gathering in houston. you can watch all our road to the white house coverage at cspan about ord/campaign 2012. >> hitler had no plan and his

arms were not coming to his eight. that is when he collapsed and he realized finally that it had come to and handed it was only a question of suicide. >> in new look at the second world war from adolf hitler's rise to power to his dark, chaotic final days. >> is an objective was not to be captured alive by the russians. he was afraid of being paraded in front of the russians. he was determined to die. eva braun was determined to die with him. >> more on "q &a" sunday. >> the house gavels in net 9:00 eastern and will work on a mineral production bill in the senate begins at 9:30 with debate on a package of small business tax cuts. on c-spa