the pet -- the president drove a partisan reelection campaign on the attack. we would havece future callers obviously, one way to get to gridlock is to have a split government. to have the democrats in charge of something else. if you believe we need to get something done in this country, if you believe their policies that need to be enacted to us to kid us from our certain ways and to save us from the coming that tsunami, i think you need to take a look at actual solutions being put forward by the various candidates and a vote of is on that rather than relying on some hope and dream about the eventual meeting of the minds of the current president and republicans on capitol hill. so far that has not worked out so far. host: political editor.

confined it in hard copy as well. thank you so much for being with us. he is here as part of a series looking at online media sources. we will continue things tomorrow with amanda of the huffington post. we started things off yesterday with sofia. you can find this all on our website. thank you so much for joining us this morning. we will have to the center for american progress. and even telling in a study on the progress of china and india and their role in the labor force. the challenges of united states competitiveness. looking at the race that really matters. comparing united states, chinese and indian investments in the next generation work force. [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [no audio] [no audio] >> this is the center for american progress along with the center for next generation. they are releasing a report on united states investment in education and comparing

educational investments and that states compared to that of the hat states and china over the past several decades. to get underway shortly. our other coverage coming up, on c-span 2 right now, for the second and final day, the republican platform committee is underway. their meeting in tampa. with live coverage throughout the day on c-span 2. and coming up later today on the campaign trail, president obama has to the campaign stops, one in columbus, ohio at 1:00 p.m. and we will have that live for you on the c-span.org. and the president is campaigning in the reno, nevada. and next week will have live coverage along with your comments each morning on "washington journal." and after each day's session, the gop convention starting on monday and the democratic convention starting the day

after labor day in charlotte, north carolina. every minute of those conventions here on c-span. >> good morning. welcome. we will begin in just a few minutes. two reif reminders. first, please turn your cell phones, ipads, and anything that make noise, off. we ask that you ask for the microphone to come to you. stick your name and affiliation before the question. t bthank you.

>> this is the center for american progress. they are about to get under way. and compare the educational and assessment of the net states to china and india of the past several decades. and how those investments will impact the next generation's ability to fill jobs in the future. just about to get under way on c-span. >> good morning.

my name is neera tanden i am the president of the center for american progress. thank you so much for being here. we are very excited about today's events in today's report. i wanted to have a special thank you to the group that we -- the organization that we are cosponsoring this event with. we have worked with over the last year, the center for the next generation. this in your organization that is really dedicated to ensuring that we are tackling these issues that really ensure that our next generation will be successful. and i can think of no better topic than today's. today we are releasing this joint report titled -- the competition that really matters. about investing in the young

people to ensure that their competitive and their countries are competitive in the countries to come. we have a lot of conversation about economic competitiveness in our country and what to do to make our economy stronger today and in the future. the center for american progress has devoted a lot of resources to that work. we took on the subject -- because we recognized that other countries are not just looking at competitiveness today, but are looking at competitiveness for the next several decades. the have real strategies to do that. and front and center in the strategies is really looking at their human resources. the area in which they can affect human resources the most is obviously the education of their children, looking at children, not only in public schools and public education, but in pre-k as well. when we think about competitiveness and growth,

which recognize that other countries have an expansive view of that. and that is at the heart of what this report is tackling. both china and india have the strategies to ensure competitiveness. and it really means increasing investment in young people. in schools, pre-k, injuring flexible policies for their families. we look forward to a good discussion today in which we are able to highlight those facts and statistics. i would say that's both parties have to ensure that they are going after long-term growth. and need to look at human- resources in this time when have a lot of heat but not as much light around the policies that our country will take on in the next decades. i want to say a few words about

the authors of this report. we are excited about its results. and it is been a long-term after. getting data from china and india is not such an easy task. i really want to thank donna cooper, adam, and anna. they all co-authored this report. i now want to introduce matt james. he was the president of the center for the next generation. he has worked on a whole range of issues that are critical to economic competitiveness, from education to health care. he was an expert on the so many of these issues. also, he puts at stake in his work, children and their needs. and so, it is my great honor to introduce matt james.

[applause] >> good morning, everyone. this is a great day for us. big day for the center of the next generation. this is our first really big report. let me first thank neera tanden. in the very early days when the center for the next generation was operating literally in my family room, there were constant colleagues who helped me think for the issues about how to set up the center, how to get started, and we could not be here without their advice and counsel, so thank you. i want to also help donna cooper and adam. as neera tanden, this was not an easy report to put together. the quality of the report is fantastic. we are proud to be releasing this today. i also want to thank ann learly. i went home the day and said to my with, i think i just hired the smartest person i have ever worked with.

and i have worked with and what of smart people. she has been a terrific colleague and friend. we are just at the beginning of the work we will be doing at the center for the next generation. but we quickly explain what the center is about. as a partnership between me, tom styer, a businessman and the california, and his brother jim. nationally known and children's advocate. we can together to start in new center that will focus on what will affect the next generation. sustainability and family issues. we operated both here on a national basis, but also her home state of california. and the way to think about it is it is a strategic communications organization which will be trying to bring these big issues with partners with the center for american progress, but also as an organization that -- that

will produce some of the best policy and research materials. let me also think our bipartisan polling team of a linda, and bob carpenter. for their work in putting together a fascinating voter survey. it is clear from this survey that americans want their political leaders to be focusing on education and global competitiveness. they want to spend governor's spending a lot of time thinking about this. you know that. this is an issue that, after the next set of elections, they are hoping there will be a strong focus on a. we are here today to focus on what we think is the nation's greatest asset, our young people. and what the future holds for them. china and india are expanding opportunities for the young people. to the degree that there will

have millions of new people competing for the best jobs in an increasingly competitive economy in a few years. what are we going to do about it if? how can we maintain the competitiveness of united states? the competition that really matters to with these challenges and to perspective. china and india have embarked on an ambitious program to prepare more of their young people for the challenges and well-paying jobs of the global marketplace. by 2003, china will have many college graduates. by 2020, india will be producing four times as many college graduates as united states. part of this is related to the sheer human capacity of china and india. each with populations four times greater than the united states. but it is more than those numbers of people. china and india are investing in their future more than ever before. united states is just trying to

keep up. and frankly, we are doing a poor job of ensuring we educate and train all of our young children who want to compete for the great jobs. the united states, with a much smaller population, cannot afford to squander the towns of a young people if we hope to succeed. it is well-known that the nine states does not perform as well as students in other countries on standardized tests. a 34 to allow countries, we are 14th and reading, we are 25th and math. what is less well known as the two compare -- if you compare students from our wealthiest schools, they would outperform students from all 34 countries measured. but students from our poorest schools are very behind. so what exactly are china and india doing to prepare more of their gun people to graduate from college?

three things. first, they start early. by 2020, china will provide 7% of its children with three years of preschool. india plans to -- the nine states, half of her children receive no early childhood education. we lack a strategy to increase enrollment. and they educate their students for jobs of the future. science, engineering and math. china is already graduating over 1 million health graduates each year. here's of science, technology and mathematics. what had stage graduate your than half that number. what we are doing now is not enough. imagine what will happen in the years to come if we continue to decline. they insure that their students are taught by highly effected teachers. chon as improving the quality of

teachers and the numbers but they are training explosives. the number of teachers with for their degrees has increased. -- with advanced degrees has increased. it is not attracting a best and brightest on average. in united states on average from a high school students who choose to enter undergraduate programs for education s forat scores in the bottom -- -- they sat scores. if we are to make a commitment our competitors are making, with strong political leadership to move forward. and the will to make education a national priority again, which we have done in the past. for today, luckily, we do not have to look far to find a commitment to improving

education. i am honored to turn the podium to jack markell, governor of delaware. he is a national leader in areas of school reform. his tour of the national governors' association. and he is the code-share of the standards initiative. it is a pleasure to have you here today. [applause] >> thank you. it is great to be here. i want to thank matt james, neera tanden. i believe this is the defining issue of the day. i think this is really a terrific, terrific report. the fact is that businesses have more tauruses than ever about where to locate jobs. they tell us there are 3 billion people in the world looking for jobs and 1.2 billion jobs available. so, we are truly in a global

world for jobs. -- a global war for jobs. and companies are going to go where the talent is. and india and china are not the only two. this report outlines the need for comprehensive national strategy. and in the absence of such a movement, i believe we have some incredible work under way in our states. there are several efforts underway in the delaware. they begin to address the competitiveness challenge. release starts with the recognition. at least the belief and my partner that what we have been doing in our country of the last many years as the academic equivalent of having our kids learn to play basketball by shooting at an 8 foot basket. can get very good shooting at an 8 foot basket. but the problem is, when you get into a game and you are playing

against students with a regulation basket which is 10 feet. every state is required under federal law to administer a state standardized test. these tests to not have to do anything to do with each other from one stage to the next. they do not have to measure the same things, use the same measurement scale. so what we end up with as a result is something that -- every kid is above average. and the fact is, if we look a the result of the state tests and compare them to the national -- the nation's report card, or the international test, the results on state tests tend to be higher. you tell a kid that their profession is on a test that is administered only within their borders, but then have to go compete for college and jobs with those not in their borders, you are not being very honest with them. i think change is an order. one of the first things we did in our state, shortly after it took office, we raised the bar.

we literally said to parents teachers and students across our state, that even the students do not know less than any before, fewer of them will be judged to the profession. the senator a popular message to deliver. but again, we thought that it was one that was important, and when we thought was necessary. we are raising expectations for students. with higher standards and a world class curriculum. we are striving to transform the education profession with more meaningful evaluations and professional development in using data in a whole new way. i want to touch on each of these briefly. let me start about raising expectations. when it comes to raising the bar wer all students -- it focused on the adoption of common toure. we thought that was a necessary first step. i had the privilege of serving

with the former republican governor. the common core standards are few or higher and clear standards that will include the instructional river and make it easier for states to share research's. we are for august in delaware and making sure all educators understand how instruction should change. we are developing systems and accountability to make sure that those ships are under way. this is very difficult work. was difficult enough to get all the states to sign on. as with most things, it is most difficult when you get to the implementation mode. right now we are heavy duty into the implementation mode. across the country, we are learning what it will take to make it real. we are also raising the bar for students by extending our world language opportunities. i am especially excited about this. or the next five years, we are opening up 20 emerging schools and our state. these will be schools within

schools. or they can spend time after school learning new languages to reverse spending time with kindergarten students across our state. half of them during chinese, half of them during spanish. not only will they be learning those languages, there will be learning science, social studies and math and the target language. and frankly, there was a fair bit of pushed back a first. and so is not as an education issue, but as an economic development issue. in about what we have now in this country, with companies face all over the world, we do our kids a disservice when we leave them to think they can be successful just with english. we are really excited about this particular opportunity. the goal is that we will reach more than 10,000 students of the next 10 years. by fourth grade, and user could roentgens who will be starting in the next couple weeks, but the time they are in fourth grade there will be able to take their families to a country that

is the suburb spanish or chinese and navigate. by the ninth grade, there will be able to pass a test and there ap class. this initiative is on a well- known fact which is an students early years -- their critical for development and learning. it leads me to talk about early childhood investment. there is clear research that the most effective economic development investments are an early childhood education. beyond the research, to the extent that any of you have ever met a five year old kid, who was already a your to behind their peers, who was already has a poor vocabulary, it is a tragedy every time. we are tackling this head on in our state. improving access to and the quality of early childhood education programs. in 2011, we did have some additional money come on the table.

i essentially had room for one new investment. without it taking a lot of time, i started to focus on early trove of education. again, there's a lot of research. some of which is referenced in today's report. sometimes of the federal reserve bank in minnesota. we invested some state resources. we are fortunate enough to win it the early learning challenge grant. as a result, of the next five years will increase from 20 to 80. the percentage of poor kids in delaware who are enrolled in the equality preschool program. and my view, that is a true game changer. we are really excited about that. our efforts will focus on four main pillars. aligning the birth to 8 approach. strengthening the quality rating program. we of a trucking program.

we have a terrific program called our stars program. they know that there are external milestones that they have to meet to get a stars rating. we have and external reviewers. the very clear, transparent process. we are focusing on that as well. addressing health and development of the child. and for a lot of kids, this is one of the real challenges. many of these centers to not have the resources they need to invest in quality staff or in the materials. and our program will change that. we are also focusing on working with teaching professionals in a very -- and taking that to the next level. we know that our focus is on building a professional work force and that is to go beyond early childhood. and that is why we are also for august on transforming educational professional. today's report shows that the top performing systems around

the world are those that recruit and retain top performing educators. in delaware, we are focused on doing a number of things. number one, conducting meaningful evaluations of educator performance in developing new leadership opportunities for our most effective educators. we are committed to creating more opportunities and taking on more responsibilities to earn more compensation while still staying in the classroom. around the country, this has been one of the big challenges. teachers believe that to move on and get out of the custom order to earn more and build their career. we are focused on changing that. we are also adding some coaching initiatives were principles. this is important. when you talk to teachers, as i do all the time, and you ask them what they care about the medicare but common station, but the care about the kind of working in marmot in a school. do they have good leaders? some to our principles time is spent on being administrative

managers. there dealing with the folks in food service because of parent complains, what ever is. we have several initiatives under way to try to transition our principles to being more instructional leaders. medicinal pathways to get into -- we have additional pathways to get into programs. we are really focused on improving the level of professional development. a lot of teachers around the country feel that the money we spend on a professional development is often the money that is not well spent. we think we have to ramp that up significantly. which leaves us to the last area i want to talk about. it has to do with the use of data. is absolutely stunning how little good data the educational

community has had a. in terms of understanding how students are doing and giving good information on a timely basis to teachers and principals and other staff so that they can change their approach. we believe we are at the cutting indge in changing that delaware. it is focusing on transparency of performance and using data route to the system to determine what is working and to challenge our thinking about what is not working. this is possible because two years ago we introduced a new assessment in the delaware. before that we had one assessment a year it was typically administered in the spring. the results came back in the summer. it was of no use to the door to my front to say, ok, how am i doing? how can i improve the performance? that has all changed. is changed in the last year. we just finished a second year.

and it is offered several times a year. teachers can see, in real time, what kind of progress their kids are making. if you like about -- not only principles see it, but principles and others. the kinds of conversations that this opens up among educators is a very positive. specifically, we have just about every public school teacher in the delaware now sitting down several times a month with five of their peers. they said a table of five people and our drilling into what the data is telling them about student performance. i have sat in on a number of these. one with elementary math teachers. they are looking at the data. the data was telling them that the kids are not making the kinds of gains and getting the kind of performance they had expected. so they reached out. the reached out to a nearby school getting better results, and ask those teachers what kinds of approaches are you using that we are not using

here? it is very powerful. similarly, we ever superintends the together among themselves once a month and periodically they fit together. they say come here is how we are doing a high-school math, in middle school reading. and the data is clear. we are all looking at the same data. we are not making some progress we thought we were in middle school reading. what can i learn from this other superintendent? so it ties affected these professional development issues. many of our teachers are telling us that these hands on meetings that they have several times a month, it is among the best professional development they have ever done. we also have periodic meetings among our department of education and -- where we essentially share the data with each other and ask questions about what they are doing to improve.

the, the superintendent, with the local teacher union representatives from the district. so that everyone is operating off of the same set of facts. very careful conversation. we think this is very data oriented, very transparent. is incredibly useful. i have the opportunity for one week ago to sit down with delaware's teacher of the year. she is a fifth grade teacher in our smartest school district. she was telling us just how powerful the opportunities are to sit down and your colleagues and drill into this data and be able to talk with her peers about what they could be doing differently. we are proud of the work is underway in our state, everything from early childhood, but our use of data, to working with our teachers. we know have a lot to do. a think the report clearly says today, even the states were doing its best have a long way to go. and none of us can sit still. is very clear that all of these

countries around the world are doing the opposite of sitting still. they are investing massively into human capital. we know that identifying what comes after the state law is also very important. it cannot afford to do everything. which is what we are really trying to do everything to figure out what is working and not working -- it is critically important to we can do less of what is not working during an address the challenge of leadership in our department of education, examining how we can better organized the department. trying to transition to being a department that is really focused on -- if i think he has been terrific with the support of states. i have also come in that area, try to figure out what is not working, we signed an executive

order requires state agencies to hold meetings in all three of our counties a weekend hear teachers, parents and everyone else, what is not working with our regulations, to the extent that we are imposing regulations that do not have any benefit. we want to hear about it. we cannot afford to keep doing that. and finally, the last thing i think, maybe it is easier to do in the state of delaware size. we work really hard to keep everybody at the table. that includes the business community. includes the teachers' union. includes principles from the disability community. parents. it is really important. we do not have the luxury to of anything your pointing going on here to the extent that we are doing something wrong, the best way to fix it is for us all to talk together and figure it out. we have spent a lot of time on a collaboration and keeping people at the table. i think that has been a valuable. if that is my message to the one

to give the local cents from eight governor. i think a lot of great work is going on in many states across the country. had the privilege of serving as the chair of the national governors' association. i can tell you that the issue of competitiveness is not just me that think this is the issue of the day to release and a lot of time and our states try to compete to get jobs and the like. but companies have to decide first that they want to be in this country before their deciding that. with a lot of work to do together. i appreciate the center of the next generation working with the center for american progress, for letting this critical issue during a look forward to working of all of you. thank you for having me. [applause] >> thank you very much. we all appreciate your leadership on education. next up, we will hear from rick, . s

he is a renowned education economist. as we have discussed, this is not just about money. yes made a critical contribution by focusing on what political leaders and -- of the vatican widely used their resources for education. -- about how they can widely used their resources for education. rick? >> think you very much for having me. thank you for the two organizations that sponsored this great report. when i look at this report, i think that it is starting to move the discussion exactly the right way. the talk is not about tomorrow. it is about the decades from

now. about our children. not about what is going on today. it is about what we are going to look like in the future. i want to run through a few things. i should say also, as the governor believes, delaware is one of the top three states in terms of improvement on a measure of performance and math and science are the last two decades. he should put in a little extra weight on his comments. let me see if i can -- what i want to start with is a very simple thing. and that is that, the future of the united states, and the long run, it depends upon its economic growth. if we remain the same, we are pleasantly doing all right, but

everyone else will move past us. that is one of the arguments of this report. the second thing is, a statement that gets a lot of lip service. but i think it needs more than lip service. the only thing, in my opinion, that matters for a long run growth, is the human capital of the work force in the united states. that is what will propel us in the future. this report as many great contribution in of pointing out the broad investment and our youth that is going to make the difference in the country. it is not whether we regulate this in the marketplace or whether the tax rate moves by 1 or 2%.

what matters if we invest in our views and get the results. finally, i will put in a remark that runs through this report. it will not be so central to my talk. but it is absolutely clear that we have had a lot of discussion about distributional issues. and the only way that we are going to solve our distributional problems is by thinking about good investments and our youth and what that means. let me fill in a few details. other nations recognize what makes united states military wrong -- human capital. and in particular, was highlighted -- china and india are not very

good economies right now. but in 20 years, they look entirely different. and that is the message here. so, what we want to think about here is not how they are invested. but it is what they are doing. and in particular, it is their commitment to the future that we do not quite see in the the same regard in the united states. they point out, is a challenge to the united states future. it is not that our nation is going to fall apart. or we are going to go into a long recession. it is that we will not keep pace. we will not have the standard of at the forefront.

that is the key. underscoreto simply what investments in human capital means. let me talk about the value of increasing the skills of our work force. we have measures of the math and science ability of our students that we see beggarly, that the governor mentioned and so forth. what is recognized is that performance on these tests is an extraordinarily powerful predictor of what economic growth looks like in the future. extraordinarily powerful. this is the thing that matters. what is missed is the magnitude

of this economic effect. he said back and say, yes, we know education is important. let us do more of it. you are missing the point. let me put this in a simple table that comes from the work i have done with a colleague in germany on economic growth and impact on the future. in particular, i will say, what will the united states future look like if we could be at the level of germany, canada, or finland? which is up above us? or what would it be if we made the child left behind work? and will give you all four of those. what i will do is say, at the future looks like the past, the past 50 years, then we know that improving performance up to the levels of these other countries will change our growth rate,

which will change the future g.d.p. of the united states. and we can calculate and dollar terms, in current dollar terms what would the impact of these. here is a table you will not believe. i hope you can see this. the first row of this is calculating the present value of the added gains to our g.d.p. of the next 80 years. which is the lead time of someone thborn today. but it expected gdp. the columns are in germany, canada, finland, and i will get to nclb. and a second. these are levels of performance that are increasingly farther from us. the first member, i do not know that i have -- i have the wrong

thing. the first number on that chart, and the upper left hand corner says that getting up to the level of germany as a present value of a 43.8 trillion dollars. that is on a $15 trillion g.d.p. that we have today. we are talking about three times the current g.d.p. is the present value of getting up to germany. now, think of canada. when i was on to graduate school, we used to refer to it as the 13th federal reserve district. in this kind of like the united states. a little colder, but kind of like the united states. we could get our performance levels, which is an index of the quality of our labor force, up to the level of canada, it is $82 trillion.

and then finland, the eye of everybody in the world, but it is too cold, but except for being too cold, it is $112 trillion. compared to our $15 trillion g.d.p. today. now, if we could actually make nclb work, which is operational in getting everybody of two basic levels on these national math and science tests, that is what $86 trillion -- worth $86 trillion. the second corot of this says, what proportion o this -- the row of this -- germany is like getting an increase in gdp of 6% every year for the next eight years.

canada is 11.4%. finland is 16.8%. nclb is 12%. let me translate into another thing that might make sense. about half of our population works and draw salaries. what these numbers say -- double these percentages and it says, this is the average increase in the paycheck of every worker in the united states for the next 80 years. just getting up to germany is not too far ahead of us, but they are working hard at pulling away from us, is like a 12%, across the board, increase in salaries for every worker in united states for the next 80 years. and you get up to canada, there is a 20% pay increase. nothing else.

in my reckoning from california, that looks like it is worth it. worth doing something. well, we know that other countries are doing it. first, the report underscores how canada and finland are doing things that made us strong in the past. secondly, there is this other aspect of that canada and india had the world's most messed up economy for a very long period of time. and they said, we will make our economic institutions work, too. this will make these investments in human capital even more productive. they are doing that quite dramatically. what we are seeing is all these other countries that now

surpassed the united states in terms of the years of schooling, and her doing it with higher quality. so, very few people -- this is the room that understands it, but very few people understand that today, the united states has a lower completion rate of high school than the average oecd country, the average developed country. if you go out on the street, if we walked out onto page street and asked someone, they said we are probably first in the world and the amount of education. that is not true. either in quality or quantity. this report is really important in my opinion. because it says that we have got to think of a broad investment in our youth. we have got to worry about the families come and making sure that they are helping out.

because they are extraordinarily important in education. we have got to worry about a support network. early childhood development, and the school. in the past, we have done to the of the things. first, everybody in the united we have to doinsaid that more about our schools. but they are saying it calls for steepening what we are doing now. some have a slightly smaller class sizes. a little extra program for reading on thursdays and so forth. without thinking about ideas that actually create higher achievement and a better performance. i would go further

than the report and said that the central component, at least of the schooling part, is the quality of teachers. but that is not doing more. and it is making better choices. it is getting better people and. is keeping good people and getting rid of bad people. getting rid ofay agai bad people, people tense up. but it is ensuring that the quality of their teachers is higher. it is a need to do something different rather than more. we have tried the more strategy very dramatically and consistently over the last 40 years. and more has left us flat in terms of performance and outcome. we have got to do something different. and then, this is the line for

the governor. we just need political leadership. we need leaders to start saying, we have got to do more, and start saying we have got to do better. that is my opinion. [applause] >> thank you. my name is jonathan and i am with like research partners. i want to thank anne and matt. and for their commitment to these issues. his fund to return to build or committed. we wanted to conduct a survey with voters to see how they perceived america's standing in the world on education relative -- in combination of this report. the one thing i would differ with what he just said is that if you go out to a person on the street, they would want america to be the leader and the world. but they are not sure that we

are at the moment. we passed over 200 registered voters. the survey was conducted at the end of july. one of the questions we asked was a follow-up to a question that had been asked in 2011. we found a plurality of americans to come in fact, in the united states is falling behind other countries when it comes to other countries. we asked the question in another way, voters believe that other countries are surpassing the and i did states when it comes to education. we asked in a couple playful ways which i will show you as well, the majority of americans think that future innovators will come from other countries. the voters want our leaders to prioritize america's leadership and want to increase investment in education. the truly executive is. the next president.

there state's governors. more so than other leaders and congress. very interestingly, they are willing to pay more in taxes those funds are dedicated toward education. especially k-12 education. there would pay more for k-12, and college education -- the majority would. but for k-12 we saw people across party lines are willing to pay more in taxes. on the left side, we re ask the question from 2011, many believe the opposite is behind other countries. 20% believe it is ahead. 46% today say we are behind. 25%, ahead. 25% about even. we asked our schools in china and india catching up with us, about the same, are falling behind united states schools? 14% said their catching up.

46% said they are surpassing. 13% about the same. two the different approaches, very similar results. these numbers are very different across party lines. on the left-hand side, we ask, where will the next delegates come from? and where the sides as to the shores cancer come from? more people said the united states than any one country grid of 35% city at the state will produce the next bill gates. we explained to the was, the founder of microsoft. and the 31 prisons i believe united states will produce the doctor that cures cancer. 25% from china. 3% from europe. 9% from someone else. and on the right-hand side, where will the doctor who chores

cancer come from. in terms of the party that voters place on this issue, 78% of voters wanted the next president, whether barack obama or mitt romney need to make restoring leadership and education a top priority. 42% a top priority. 36% high, but not necessarily the top priority. these are consistent across party lines as well. among democrats, 90% would like to be a top or high priority. independency 83%. republican say 61%. the governors will come 85% of top or higher priority. 69% of republicans. terms of the next congress, 77 of% of democrats. 67% of republicans geared least two-thirds want to restore

leadership and have that be a priority. we asked this question into the different ways. they are willing to pay more in taxes if the educational programs for pre-k. we asked if they would be willing to pay more in taxes and reduce spending and other programs. the majority across these three different educational levels said they would be willing to. the dark blue bars as they are very willing to pay more in taxes. the light blue bar is somewhat willing. are willing to pay more. and 81% of democrats. and 57% of republicans. it is a little more consolidated around the democrats willing to pay more for education. but there is a desire there to

personally pay more in taxes if those funds are dedicated to education. you can see that the majority of voters would do so for all three education levels. the dynamic is very similar. 76% of democrats, 64% of independence, 55% of republicans say they are very or somewhat willing to pay more in taxes and reduced spending and other areas if those funds are dedicated to education and programs. that is where voters are coming out on these issues. i will turn it back to anne. >> thank you very much.

i am anne. i wanted to say that i am delighted to be back in washington, d.c. this is my home base. i am wearing my new hat. this is a new think tank based in san francisco. the edited to improving investments in families and children. and really gain in the political will. we are focused on looking at how we can use strategic communications to get people thinking about these issues. we are back to buy high-quality research. that is what we are doing here today. i am delighted to be joined by rick from stanford university, bob carpenter, one of the co- authors of the surveys, is what chesapeake beach consulting. and a longtime well respected

survey researcher, we are pleased to have him. i am in maryland resident -- i am delighted that she is here with us. before starting the discussion, and also want to reiterate to donna cooper who works very hard on nesthis. we really appreciate your looking into the data. and michael provided a lot of leadership and guidance. i appreciate their help. in. me start with maryla i want to go back to the report. i want to start by telling you

one fact that i want to reiterate. in china by 2003, we will have 200 million college graduates coming out of china. that is more that the entire united states labor force. with the other fact highlighted that was interesting was it like out the u.s. labor force, one thing that's happening that as people retire and we get new individuals, we're seeing we have a less educated labour force today. the new entrants are less educated than those who are retiring from the u.s. labor force. really, it changes in how we're doing things. marilyn was mentioning the commitment that at&t is mentioning to the type of people they need to hire into the air workforce, that they only hire people with some kind of post- secondary training.

they're doing this at a time when there is scarcity in terms of individuals who are unqualified for those jobs. marilyn, i would like to start with you and have you talked about what kind of commitment you think the business community is making it needs to make in the future as the look at what our global competitors are doing. >> thank you. at&t, like every company, invests in indication because we need a smart, skilled work force to be successful in an increasingly competitive market place. is tied to economic growth and development. investing in education may need the most important thing we can do to help america remain a leader in the global economy. we invest a lot in a vacation to increase high-school education rates and better prepare students for colleges and careers. a lot of companies are investing in education and, in

spite of those investments and in spite of all the good efforts going on in this country to improve education and work force development, we still are not able to find enough workers with the skills we need to fill the jobs that are available today. if you look at the graduation rates in this country in both high school and post-secondary education, those numbers will only get worse. then when you look at what china and india are doing, that is real cause for concern. that's why we need to do more. >> thank you. can you say a little bit more about the type of difference you are seeing in the other corporate communities investing in? we have at the business roundtable and others a stepping up to the plate. we had the governor of delaware today saying they want to make sure business is at the table. what are you seeing in terms of seeing businesses more like at&t

getting involved in a public way? >> we do need to do that. we have to engage a broader part of the business community. it cannot just be a handful of companies that are always the leaders. a cannot just be the business roundtable. it needs to be all businesses and we need to work hard to engage more of them. we have chosen to focus on a particular problem in this country, but other companies are looking at k-12 education, early childhood education. i think there's a growing sense of urgency in the business community, particularly around k-12 education and we need to be careful that it is not just k-12 because by the time we get those students out of high school, we need to make sure that post- secondary institutions are prepared to accept those students, a graduate more of them faster, and have them prepared to enter the workforce.

>> let me take up something you said. one thing we found in the poll was that there is a very strong commitment to k-12 education. 68% of voters said they would be willing to increase taxes in order to commit more. 57% of republicans said they would increase their taxes, but not the same robust numbers when we look back early childhood or higher education. do you see more in what this will take in terms of the political will on these issues? one thing we found in the report is sometimes we know what to do, but sometimes it does needs a little bit more in the analysis. >> just follow up on one thing that marilyn said, in terms of

the investment in education, we have clearly saw this in the numbers that jonathan is presented in terms of the willingness to pay more taxes across the board, whether it is democratic, republican, or independent. we're seeing slightly higher numbers from parents, which is not surprising. in terms of how we move forward from here, the public again, as john pointed out, the public believes that it should be a top priority for the next president and the next governor. when you think about high vs top and everything that a member of congress or president has on his or her plate, to make it a high priority and not a top priority is still a very important statement.

we were in the 80% of the public wanting a focus on education, it speaks volumes for what our elected officials should be doing. in terms of moving forward, it is really convincing our elected officials that this is a priority, not just for those of us in think tanks or those of us around the country but that the public is ready. those were likely to vote in the presidential election want to focus on education and they're willing to pay for it. that is the message that needs to be delivered to both sides of the aisle. on my particular side of the aisle, and we're seeing 60% or more saying that they will pay more in taxes for a commitment to education. >> it is a fascinating number. i want to highlight two things you just said. i want to highlight that this

survey was of voters likely to vote in the selection and that's important. the other thing you said is that parents were polling higher, not surprising. one thing that is so fascinating is the last few weeks, we have seen a big shift in the presidential debate where we have more people focusing on and talking about medicare. that is obviously critical part about who we are as a society and we want to make sure that the greater generations do not live in poverty. one thing that i think is frustrating is how do we have respect for that debate but also ensure we have the type of commitment to the next generation coming to our young people? -- generation, to your young people? how may we be able to build on that to get politicians understanding that parents vote

on these issues than they do care? they also care about medicare, but this is a high priority and they should be talking about it. >> let me send some additional numbers. the question on where we rank, as you will remember, jonathan pointed out that the u.s. is ahead, 25% said that. among parents, 21% said we were ahead, 55% said we were behind and 16% said we were about even. across the board, we're seeing parents believing that the u.s. in comparison to other countries is falling behind, a majority believe that. the question that we are catching up for falling behind, we see about the same numbers.

14% of respondents say we are catching up, 44% surpassing. 46% among parents and 13% among the same. when you look at making the commitment, how willing would be to pay more taxes if the funds raised were dedicated to kindergarten through 12th grade education programs? among all respondents, 60% were somewhat willing among parents, so a difference of seven points. how willing would you be to pay more taxes as well as reduce spending? among all respondents, 65%, very are willing. you see a greater commitment among parents. one of the tasks for those of us that do politics for a living is encouraging and convincing parents to get out and vote to

strongly deliver the message that they will hold their elected officials accountable. we look at the questions relating to the priority for the next president among all respondents, 78% said it was a top or high priority. when 88% of a particular voting bloc is saying something, it is incumbent upon any elected official, or someone who wants to be an elected official, to listen. 72% say it is a top priority and among parents 75%. when 72% of the public expresses a particular point of view, it's important pay attention. your state governor among all respondents, 77%.

again, a difference of eight points, 85%, are saying to their governor that they should pay attention. make it a top priority or a high priority. when you think of all that is on a governors played or on the president's plate, to have 85% focusing on a single issue of the top or high priority, that sends a pretty strong message that if i were a governor, i would be writing my state of the state speech right now. >> we heard from maryland about the business leadership available and interested in doing this. now the question is what do we do? rick touched upon that in his remarks so i would like him say a little bit more. i would like to highlight one of the piece of this report. ariana was their research associated.

one of the things that she brought forward that we have in this report is that the look reading scores, one thing that is happening is that we're doing quite mediocre with regards to international comparisons, but students who go to our most wealthy schools, looking a free and reduced price lunches, we call that a wealthier school. a poor school is where 90% is on free and reduced price lunches and you see a huge gap. the wealthy students are actually first in reading compared to these other countries where the poor students are the second to last, second only to mexico. really second only to mexico. really a huge difference, but not so much on math. we're all doing mediocre in terms of mouth. -- in terms of math. you look at what it would mean

if we've made a province in our math assessments and if we close the some of the inequities we have overall. do you see more and we did have a political will in the business world about what we would be able to see and do? >> we need to change this society. you introduce the discussion of medicare with the current debate and paul ryan but it is all about the balance between future revenues and future expenditures of the federal government trying to take care of the fiscal problems that we see. they all go away with a slightly higher growth right -- rate. we do not have those discussions. yes, we can improve the quality of our schools.

this meeting is in washington, d.c., and that gives you a sense out and as much to do with education in the u.s. i think we have had two terrific presidents in terms of vacation and policy. george bush and barack obama have been terrific with education issues. it is whether you can get the states to change dramatically. if you go to the countryside, outside of this district that we are in, you will see there is we adjust things. wisconsin was in turmoil about

how state laws should effect schools. there are one dozen other states under the radar that have dramatically changed their labor laws, pension systems, or what have you. none of the states quite know what to do. they do not have a lot of experience in this. this is all a great experiment. i happen to think it's a good experiment because it is moving states to consider, first and foremost, issues about the pay of teachers, the evaluation of teachers, and how they go together. that is, to me, the secret to changing anything. >> one of the of the secrets to changing anything is also investing nearly and thinking about early childhood. one thing that is fascinating

both in listening to marily and bob is that we see in the business community and the voting public is a commitment to k-12 but not necessarily to early childhood or higher education so it's important to recognize what we're doing. to make sure that 70% of our population gets three years of preschool population. 3, 4, and 5-year-olds will get it. only 50% of the kids in america get preschool. india has also recognize this commitment making sure that 60% will be ready to learn when they enter primary school by 2018. we have made a commitment in

many states with preschool indication. as we have seen, those have had to be rolled back. i think this is concerning. eric, , you could say something about the economic impact? extraordinarily important. will we do see that the kids behind in sixth grade were the ones behind in kindergarten. we have to deal with this issue from not only in equity-fairness perspective and also one where our country is going to go. its other resources that have been left behind. much of this discussion of preschool can actually be traced back to a colleague of mine, a nobel laureate in

economics from chicago, who has done a lot of work on preschool. i think this should run through all of this discussion. learning begets learning. when you start better off, you learn more in third grade acustar ahead. we know more in ninth grade, you do better in college and university. they can build upon this stronger base. we have to start early and do something that our nation has not done to the extent that all the other european nations have done and that is to try to ensure a solid starting point. the part of this in the statistics we have before was that middle class and upper- income parents know the story that you start early.

i remember a psychologist friend of mine said when we talk about headstart, it is really about health and nutrition because it is not appropriate for kids to learn things. the new look at every middle- class parents in the country making sure that their child is learning way before they get in any kind of school and you realize that this is not the right thing. you really have to start early. in particular, are most vulnerable populations have to be helped. >> i think this report is really sobering. i think we all have some notion that china and india, yes, there are big. when you look at the numbers, it is really startling. then when you realize where they're putting the investment,

starting early, we are not, then it does not take a lot of mouth to figure out where we are going to end up. i suspect the report is very important for putting real numbers, real data behind that rather than saying we sort of need to worry about them. this is real data, real numbers, and that is really alarming. >> i want to make the point that the public, while not perhaps as committed to spending money were being taxed for k-12 education is still supportive of being taxed for pre-k and higher education. when you see a number like 68%, the number willing to pay more in taxes for k-12, that is two-

thirds of the american voting public willing to be taxed to pay more for education or have the commitment made to vacation, it's important to point out that 56% of those same voters said they would pay more for pre-k. 55% said they would pay more for higher medication. i do not know of a single politician who would not take 55% job approval or 55% of the ballot or 56% and not be happy. while 68% is a great number, the 55% in the 56% for hire indication and pre-k -- higher education and pre-k are important because they're committed to spending more on their tax dollars across the board. k-12 certainly comes in first

but the other two are not far behind. i'm going to open this up on questions right after this. >> a couple of quick anecdotes. i'm are really a west coast person by birth, but i moved out to silicon valley and there are two stories that come up there. first is the importance of imported labor into silicon valley which is because many of the firms in silicon valley look more to h1b visas than they do to our k-12 system. that is key. the second is to try to keep my body going, i like to play squash. i play with some of the people around stanford. one of my long term squashing opponents was someone getting a

ph.d. in electrical engineering from stanford. we are in the middle of silicon valley and one day he comes on to the court and says, "i'm going back to india. the opportunities are better there for me than they are in silicon valley." that is the part that rings on when we talk about china and india, not only developing their own, but having the opportunities for educated people. >> are world-class education system is then importing back. ok. we have several questions. right there in the back? >> thank you. [unintelligible] you're talking about competition coming from china, india, 10-20 years from now, but what about now?

other european countries like spain, portugal, italy, are you ready for the fall and a high number of personnel coming to the united states? i'm not talking about college graduates only but doctors. these are people who speak at least two foreign languages. >> one of the things that is really evident is that in this particular report, we focused on the competitors, india and china, in the future. there's real competition in terms of what's going on when you bring up the issue of europe. one thing we are recognizing is that no matter where we look, the united states is not preparing our children for this today or tomorrow. even today, we are stretched in terms of how we prepare our young people.

i was looking at some data, not in the report, but looking at foreign languages, one of the issues you just mentioned. i took the red dye last night because my daughter started kindergarten. she is going to mandarin emergent school so i was curious about how many children in the united states was learning mandarin. the last time they collected the data, four years ago, very few kids were in a mandarin-emergent program. one in five kids in the united states learn another language and most of them learn spanish. we are behind in a plethora of issues including foreign languages. you make languages. you make a good point. we need to look at today and tomorrow. anyone want to add? >> we will take advantage as as

many highly trained europeans as we can. from a very parochial u.s. view, this is one of the ways we can bridge to a better educated labor force in the short term by borrowing people who are trained in better education from abroad. >> in the purple? >> hello. thank you. i'm from change the equation. one of the tenants machined -- mentioned at the beginning in terms of where china and india are investing resources and strategies was stem. we talked about early childhood and a little bit less about teacher quality, but i'm wondering what investments are they making that are really interesting in terms of science and technology education?

>> i will say something about this and then i will turn to rick. congratulations to change the equation. you're really focusing on math. what we know is that china and india right now the graduating over 1 million people in stem and we have under 500,000. they are investing tremendously making sure that their population is training in those subjects. india is making the same investment. we are making much smaller investments. one problem which is based -- we are facing is that because we do not start early, by the time our students and college, they are not able to participate in those subjects because they have not received the bass lines that they need in their earlier

education. marilyn, did you want to make a statement? >> we are proud to be a member of change the equation and we are concerned. at at&t, we care about stem. that is at the heart of our business. increasingly, we think those disciplines will be important to every industry and every business. stem drives innovation. innovation drives the economy. i think that's why it's so important. >> sort of a simple global answer. many other nations pay attention to whether the teachers know math before they teach it. we did not pay as much attention to that in the u.s. the stem problems often talked about our middle school math and so forth. i think it is third and fourth grade math where we are now preparing them and make it go even deeper than that.

you have to make a commitment that knowledge and results are important. >> in the blue than the orange in the back. >> good morning. >> if you would stand up? i will repeat your question. >> thank you for the preview of coming attractions of the next 30 years. i have two observations. i used to be with the university of maryland law. there are two observations i would like to offer and get your reactions, if possible. when we talk about quality in the present context, the danger i perceive is that we may have already yielded the ground to

those who were competing with us in that area that. we want to model quality within 30 years on what china, india, finland, canada, and others are doing. what process sees the ec in place -- what processes do you see in place for us? somehow the company has defined quality globally. it is an american company. i would like to hear some observations about how we can go about really thinking about 30 years from now not in an american context but a global context. the second observation i have is i have seen, implicit in what has been said, and i have not read the entire report, but we will lose part of the population regardless of what we do.

i would like for the panelists to talk about what assumptions have gone into this study. you talked about the results and the methodology, but what assumptions have gone into it when you started out on this process to define the study? thank you very much. >> let me turn to the panel to say a thing about quality. i know a number of people are working on an effort in the states to define some of our national goals of how we are preparing children in terms of being ready for post-secondary training, college, or post- secondary indication to the common core initiative to make sure that we do have anything across our states. marilyn, do you want to speak to that first? >> we are very involved and very committed to helping the status now implemented the common core standards in both math and

english language arts. as the governor said earlier, the really hard part now comes in implementation. we have states agreeing to it, but implementing it and then dealing with the results of the assessments when they come in 2014. for us, we will be the recipients of the outcomes of that, if you will. it will form our work force. we must adhere to higher standards, to higher quality so that we can remain a competitive force. >> to your first question, quality will be very hard to measure. in, for instance, the business community, it is in how they perform his or her job. to a parent, the quality of education is it so that their child has a little better than they had.

there are different measurements in terms of quality. when you think of quality, you often finishes the phrase, " quality of life." because china is going to have 200 million college graduates more than our entire work force, i think the american public, or the average american, would say that's a shocking figure, but what about the quality of their life compared to the quality of mind? while that 200 million is an astounding figure, how is it going to affect me? more importantly, how will it affect my child grandchild? i want to do what i can either through paying more taxes, encouraging my governor or congress member to be more out front and involved in pushing the education agenda at all

levels. ultimately, that will be my measurement in terms of quality because my child or grandchild is better off, better educated, has a better life than i did. the 200 million is an astounding figure, but you have to put it in a sense of the entire person's existence and how that will be measured and affected. >> anything to add? >> i have a slightly different take on this. for the first order of a kind of policy decisions that they were making, we have a measure of quality. we can measure the skills and thinking ability of people fairly well with assessments we have around. the much broader sense that

everybody thinks about quality of life, for me, it's not necessary that every person in this room knows in advance the kind of metrics. in a small area, it's important, but for the kinds of broad policy decisions and the broad competition in terms of development of the world economy in the future, i think we're doing ok right now. >> let me just say one thing about the assumptions that were made as we took on that record. one thing i want to make sure that is really clear is that global competition is not all bad. having china and india with an educated work force is a good thing. we want more people to be educated, to be contributing to solving the world's problems.

the cure from cancer -- for cancer comes from china, we will all benefit from it. one thing we do not want to see happen is for the united states to be in a lackluster economy with a poorly educated citizenry. that is where we have started and we looked at what is happening. i pulled out some numbers in terms of the world economic output, and from 1980-2011, china increase their world economic output to 14% of the world's economic output. the united states decreased its world economic output from 25% down to 19%. we're going in different directions and that the assumption is started with. how'd we begin to reverse that trend so that we can be competing with our competitors and we can continue to be going out? that's where it started. this'll be our last question and

then i want people to make closing remarks. >> is this working? . i'm sociologists and i work with the u.s. department of the education and also internationally. [no audio] some private it occasional indications are diploma mills. there is king of delhi university -- abdullah university and we have campuses in the gulf states and elsewhere. m.i.t. has done a lot of that. some of the opportunities to

learn and grow are now accusing internationally, even the you cannot get a degree. my question is to maryland. i like to ask you a little bit more specifically about the world of business universities. gallup university. how are you receiving this? does at&t have a university? is there an association bringing them together? can you tell us specifically attacked what kind of training at&t does provide in terms of its work force, the career ladder, and so on? and you could comment on my observations in terms of what that means? [no audio] >> i will repeat slightly her question. there are a few questions in there. one is the quality of higher

education in some of these countries are not as good as they should or could be, so what implications does that have? what is the implication of businesses that have their own universities and training institutions? and then the third -- and i forgot what it was. maryland? -- marilyn? >> we have our own internal education and training organization for our employees. we provide a really broad array of course work for our employees, everything from basic management courses too highly technical courses. that changes as the needs of our work force changes. i think that's one thing we need to worry about in terms of education generally in this country.

technology is changing our jobs, changing the nature of the work force faster than we can prepare people. how can you educate and train people for that kind of a workplace? at at&t, it is on going all the time. we can go and take courses to change jobs, to reskill so we are competitive within our own work force. i think we need to keep up. we talked to other corporations who have at their own work force and training programs. i do not know of an association that would bring us all together though. >> i will say a few things about higher education. i think higher education is going to go through an enormous transformation in the next few years. the best example, better than mit making its curriculum available is two stamford

courses in artificial intelligence and data base management that were offered to over 100,000 registered students around the world. all of a sudden, you see that maybe we do not monopolize this so that it is all here. part of this is also a story that there are students in other countries that are more hungry than our own, that they're out there trying to work harder. that is part of the china-india story. a very large proportion of them are not at the level of the even californians schools. like you see there that is 1.2- 1.4 billion people, so there

are a large number that are working very hard on their round two, in fact, get to a point where they can move in to u.s. universities and so forth. >> i would like to thank the panel for their contributions today and the ongoing work they do on these issues. please join me in thanking the panel. [applause] we can stay here and you can talk for a few more minutes. donna is the co-author of this report from the center of american progress. >> i will be brief. i want to thank you for your participation today and hopefully take this report and help us all raise the flag for public attention on this issue. when we started to do this report, i remember the first day i walked over to my colleague, adam hirsch, a chinese expert.

i said a bet we would find out that there were teaching the multiplication before they start school, and i was joking. two weeks later, we spoke with experts pointed out to me that the chinese changed their preschool curriculum. the goal was 3 digit multiplication by entry to kindergarten. but they tested 90,000 pre-k students in china and realize they could not do three digits, so they're bringing down their digits down to two. that is by the time you enter kindergarten. to this point, on what middle- class parents know, one of the things that we see around the quality deficit in both india and china is that they are mimicking what middle-class parents know in america need to happen for their children who have the skills to compete in the global economy.

one of the points we make in this report heavily as we look at the patterns that have served the middle and upper-class families well for a decade and what parents have focused on with the learning of their children, volunteering in children's schools, and focused on making sure they have jobs before they graduate high school so they have some job experience. the outcomes of that behavior are markedly different. even for the poor kids, where they are able to take advantage of early childhood, parental volunteerism, quality schools, and youth employment, they also do better as adults. it is not a surprise that china and india are mimicking our behavior. what is a surprise is at the pace at which they're doing this and the scale. tobacco one point that -- to

echo one point ann made, they have 1 million since graduating with stem degrees and that will rise dramatically as they get to their college completion goals. in india, they have increased 200% in seven years the number of stem graduates. in that same seven years, our number only grew by 24%. last year, in 2010, the number declined a little bit. our trajectory and progress may not be anywhere near where we need it to be. when you think about it, for every 100 kids that enter elementary school, 33 kids in america graduate from college. our assumption in this report is that we change it. not every kid has to go to college, but in order to get a job at at&t, every kid needs a

post secondary indication or credential. we look back in american history and saw when reagan was president there was a very telling report called, "a nation at risk." it's kind of frightening. when you read that report, you could be reading about today. that was a long time ago. from that report, the first president bush brought together the nation's governors for an education summit and it remained the goals we must have today. we have not yet achieved them. bill clinton raised the red flag again calling the nation to focus on improving the outcomes of our children. none of those presidents only did let service. all of them focused on investment, as did george w. bush and has barack obama. what we learned by doing this research is that china and india approach this very differently than us.

the have a plan. they do not just have goals. they have a plan. that plan started in pre-k and it goes through college. how many slots do i need? how many qualified teachers do i need? how do i get qualified teachers? i do i keep them? how many post secondary slots will need i'm successful all the way up? how many stem slots will i need it? india is opening seven more of the best technology training schools in the world in the next two years because they have a plan. what are report calls for is for the next president, romney, obama, however, to commit to have in the presidential summit on education. for the presidential summit on education, we need to look specifically at how we create goals and put plans behind them, how we expand access to early childhood education and insure

that its high-quality, how we ensure we have high-quality teachers in america, and how we ensure that the competitiveness is advanced. the olympics just ended one week ago, and we won the most gold medals. four years ago, china beat us by 11. maybe it's a sign that the u.s. is getting more focused on quality. we believe here that the competition there really matters is the competition of what happens when children go back to school. this weekend for the next two, children are going back to school and this is the call for the next president to go back to school. take us all back to school. improve american competitiveness by improving the outcomes are school delivers. we invite you to be a part of that challenge with us, to encourage members of congress and governors, the next president to lead american competitiveness for our children. thank you to the center for

american progress for being a great partner. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> all of this even later in the program schedule and you can find it soon in the video library at c-span.org. on c-span2, live coverage of the republican platform committee. gov. bob mcdonnell is the chair. they are meeting breeze second and final day today laying out the party policy positions. they come one week before the convention in tampa. discussions today focus on social issues, health care, government reform. it will run lead into the afternoon and all of it will be live on c-span2. taking a look at the twitter response, you can see it at #cspanrnc.

all of the election states should require signature verification and a fumble rent on the ballot. that is off of twitter. it is live again on c-span2 all day long and taking your tweets at @cspanrnc. >> i know there are those who criticize me for seeing complexities. i do. but some issues are not just all that simple. saying there are weapons of mass destruction in iraq does not make it so. saying we can fight a war on the cheap does not make it so. proclaiming mission accomplished certainly does not make it so. three days after september 11th, i stood where americans died in the ruins of the twin towers. workers in hard hats were shouting to me, "what ever it takes."

a fellow grabs me by the arm and he said, "do not let me down because since that day, a wake up every morning thinking about how to better protect our country. i will never relent in defending america -- whatever it takes [applause] >> c-span has aired every minute of every convention since 1984 and our countdown to the convention continues with one week ago until live coverage of the republican and democratic national conventions live on c- span, seized and radio, and streaming online at c-span.org. chris christie has the keynote address. also, senator john mccain and former florida gov. jeb bush. first lady michelle obama, killion -- julian castro and

former president bill clinton. >> from time to time, i watched the proceedings on the house floor, interviews with c-span of interest. i have the c-span app on my ipod check the schedule when see what things are on. if the timing is right for my government class, i can just get a live feed from the floor of the floor or senate, watch it for five minutes, and invoke some conversation. >> he watches c-span on comcast. created by america's cable companies in 1979 and brought to you as a public service by your television provider. >> president obama heading the campaign trail today taking off from the white house earlier this morning. if you stop today for the president. he will be in columbus, ohio, live on c-span.org. later this evening in reno,

nev., live at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. the president will be talking about education planning to criticize paul ryan's budget proposal for cutting $115 billion in the proposed education department budget. coverage tonight at 8:00 p.m. on c-span. 1:00 p.m., in columbus, on c- span.org. just a reminder you can check out the revised 2012 web site to watch the latest events on the presidential candidates, read

what they say on major issues, and watch major campaign ads all at c-span.org/campaign2012. university of denver will host the first presidential debate on october 3rd. yesterday, the university hosted a discussion on the political climate in colorado including the growing hispanic population and the increasing number of independent voters. among those per dissipating, senatorial campaign executive director and the republican presidential strategist. >> good morning. i would like to welcome you to the university of denver spotlight colorado event. my name is kevin. i'm the chief marketing officer and vice chancellor at the university. and weglad you're here are excited to share with you some insight. we hope this will give you a

deeper understanding of denver, colorado, and the university as we prepare for the first presidential debate at the university of denver on october 3rd. it's my pleasure to introduce the chancellor of the university, robert coon. [applause] >> thank you for coming. it's great to talk about all the different things going on in colorado in advance of this momentous debate that will be happening on october 3rd. i thought i would as say a few words about our university to begin. as some of you may know, but some of you do not know us terribly well. we are a private institution of about 12,000 students and we have been in denver for a very long time now. we're coming up on our 150th anniversary in just a few years.

we were founded in 1864 in denver. in this part of the country, i know that does not seem to be terribly old. for colorado, it really is. the city of denver dates its founding from just a few years before that in 1858. when d.u. was founded, denver was little more than a mining camp with 3000 people or so supporting all of the people rushing to colorado. we have been around for virtually as long as the city as denver itself, from the time when it was it you thousand people to the present when there are nearly or slightly more than 3 million people in denver. over the course of that time, over the evolution of the city, the evolution of the state,

there have been a lot of ups and downs, booms, and costs -- busts. we like to think that the character of the city, the character of the state, the character of the rocky mountain west has grown into the character of the university. you'll find us to be particularly creative, particularly open-minded, particularly entrepreneurial. particularly invested in our city and in the people of our region. really, that's a big part of the reason that we were interested in holding the first presidential debate. there really has not been one of these, only one really west of st. louis. when we really started thinking about this, we thought we had a chance of getting the debate because of the pivotal position that colorado occupies in this election year. a lot of that will be talked

about this morning. it is something that will be terrific for the university in many ways. first of all, terrific for our students. it is a singular opportunity to really engage our students, our faculty and staff, our alumni population distributed through the united states and all over the world. this has already begun. i can tell you the mood on campus is incredibly excited, incredibly excited. it is working really well for us. the visibility is tremendous. we know this will be watched by lots and lots of people, but the truth of the matter is that hosting a debate of this kind, there is something else fundamental about it. it is just the kind of thing that a university ought to do. we are fond of saying that we

are a great private university and hosting a debate of this kind is something that a university that is really invested in the broader audience, invested in the people of our city, the people of colorado, all kinds of people throughout america is simply the kind of thing that a university should be doing now. so we are very, very proud indeed to be the host of this event on october 3 and are looking forward to it with great excitement, a fair amount of trepidation as you might imagine. but in general, it's going to be a tremendous thing for our students and the people. thank you for being here today. and now, it's my pleasure to introduce someone that is really well-known in this town, please welcome deedee myers. >> thank you. thank you, chancellor. [applause] >> so throughout our 148-year history, we've enjoyed a close

working relationship with the city of denver. it's my pleasure to introduce roe weana allegra who will share a few comments from the mayor. >> good morning, everybody. thank you for being here today and i'm really excited to be here myself. i'm -- on behalf of the city, i would like to extend to you a warm invitation to come to denver and we want you to know how excited we are to be hosting the first and likely the most watched of this year's presidential debates.

and the city of denver are truly honored to play a role. welcoming the democratic national convention, the u.s.a. procycling challenge which is going on right now and the summit of the eight, with the fifth busiest airport in the united states and the 10th in the world, denver's become a gateway for our nation, as well as a global destination just this year, adding new international right nows to japan, iceland, and mexico. as you'll see when you arrive at denver international airport for the debate in october, d.i.a. is booming with construction underway on a $5 million expansion that includes a hotel and a rail station. the growth at our airport

reflects the strength and diversity of denver's economy, which is the third strongest in the country. metro denver ranks third of all major metro areas for its 2011 job growth rate. the city leads the nation in new construction jobs amongst 337 metro regions in the u.s. and our residential real estate market is the second best in the nation. while many areas are losing residents, denver is growing. we're some 30% larger than we were in 1990, largely because of our quality of life. our downtown is thriving with shopping and dining and entertainment. there's always something to do no matter what your interest. we hosted the only u.s. showing of the eves st. laurent exhibit earlier this year. we will kick off the only showing of a new vincent van gogh exhibition and as i speak, the back of mormon is on a

soldout run in denver. with 300 days of sunshine, we spend a lot of time outside too, hiking, biking, skiing, we're the healthiest city in america. we're also sports crazy town with football, baseball, hockey, soccer, anybody heard of peyton manning? it's no wonder denver's been named the number one city for 25 to 34-year-olds, a magnet for the future workforce and it's tops in best places to do business as well as among the nation's wired city. our mayor, who graduate waiteded from denver public schools works continually to make denver better to grow our economy, take care of our kids and deliver a world-class city where everyone matters. on behalf of mayor hancock and the city of denver, we stand ready to welcome each and every one of you to the mile-high city in denver. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, rowena, and thank you to the mayor. let's get on to the events.

first, i have the privilege of introducing the moderator, deedee myers. she serves as the white house press secretary during the clinton administration's first term. she is the first woman to hold that position and she is the author of the book "why women should rule the world." and she is a respected political analyst and commentator. please welcome deedee myers and the panel. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, kevin, chancellor, rowena, and thank you to all of you on behalf of the global group and thanks for sharing some time with us this morning. of course in the clinton campaign, i spent time with three of those high wire acts and they are a fascinating interfere to be sure. but of course, the backdrop for today is colorado, more broadly. it is a swing state. that's one of the reasons the

presidential debate chose colorado. if we're going to drill down a little bit on why colorado is a swing state and what people like us are interested in this topic might be looking for between now and the debate but only 78 days between now and the election and colorado is going to play promptly. -- prominently. we have a lot of expertise across the board. i'm going to introduce them briefly. you should have their bios because they are remarkable and well schooled individuals. i'm going to start far end with guy cecil. guy's executive director of the democratic snoirl -- senatorial committee and chief of staff for michael bennett of colorado and ran his campaign in campaign. one of the squeakers. they were still counting votes on wednesday morning on that is one. next to him is associate professor of political science at the university of denver. he studied political parties at the local state and national

level. dr. lisa martinez who is an associate professor of sociology of the university of denver with expertise with latina immigration. dick watkins, chair of the republican party. he's the chair of campaigns across the country and works for colorado senators over the years. next to him, dr. sam cayman, a professor of law at d.u. he studies laws and social science and he's an expert on medical marijuana which is a pretty important issue in this psych until the state. and finally, last but not least, dr. robert mcgowan. i'm going to toss questions around but feel free to comment on each other and then we'll take some questions from the

audience. dick, i'm going to put you on the spot for a little bit. for a long time, maybe a couple of generations, colorado was reliably red state. in 2008, obama won after a close election. and now it's a swing state again. what changed? >> one of the methodologies as the democratic national convention came to denver a few years ago, once colorado was a reliable red state. in fact, colorado had a generation of democratic leaders like dick lamb, roy rumer. and it wasn't as red as you might think. it's been a very competitive state because of that unaffiliated and the jefferson county suburbs to swing back and forth. and maybe it's gotten more pronounced in the last few years but that is the sliver that makes any campaign for any

senator competitive. >> it was a difficult year for democrats. what did you learn in that election about colorado that you might -- what advice might you give to president obama or his team or might have already given about how the democrats win in colorado? >> well, one, i think colorado really foreshadowed what outside spending was going to be about. it was the largest outside spending of any state in the country. and i think we're going to see a lot of that. colorado like a lot of the west really shows that demographics is destiny. and you have one, a growing hispanic population. it was about 13% in 2008. about 12% in 2010. it'll be bigger than that this time. and i think as large as our margins were, the president has an opportunity to expand even further the margin of victory

given the policies of the ticket. and dick touched on really is the independents, women and the suburbs of denver. if you look at why senator bennett won, it was to maximize our vote amongst the latino community and then really dialing in and communicating directly with women -- in the denver market. and the emergencies that were create there had were -- margins there were what created the victory and i think the same dynamic will happen in the election in 2012. >> we're going to see a lot of focus on demographic groups. one of the -- as guy just said, one of the key swing constituencies is the hispanic population. is it a swing and hue important is it to either parties to win the state in 2012? >> i think the latino vote is integral to what happened in 2012 and i think we saw examples of that in 2008. the state did go heavily for

obama but in particular, the data that i saw suggested it was something like 67% latinos came out and supported obama relative to about 31% who came out for mccain. going back to guy's point about demographics being destiny, when you consider that latinos are pretty much the fastest growing demographic group in the state, they're going to have a lot to say with regard to what happens in the future of colorado politics. >> so we know that there's key constituencies, women, latinos, undecided voters. what are we seeing in colorado so far about tactics? what's driving the campaign day-to-day? is it television advertising? is it g.o.p. efforts? is there a new tactic that we're seeing there? >> we're seeing a lot of television so far. between the two presidential campaigns, it's been something like $13.5 million in the denver

market which is one of the top markets in the country right now. and another $3 million in the colorado springs market. and i expect this will continue. the television ads are pretty well saturated. what we're also seeing is a real focus from both sides on voter turnout. it is relatively few undecided voters. they are already seeing everything they can see on tv. what the campaigns are doing is building a lot of field offices which is what they build on volunteers and knock on people's doors which is the most effective way to get a vote out. so the obama campaign is built 48 field offices in 28 different counties, not just in democratic leaning areas but also in el paso counties, which is where colorado springs is. the romney campaign is built nine field offices in nine

different counties and they're conning to build more. that's where a lot of out is going to be. >> between between now and then, we hope issues will be part of the discussion. for so much of this campaign, we've been hearing that the economy would be the single most important issue. in recent weeks because of mitt romney's trip to europe, the olympics and the selection of paul ryan as romney's running mate, the focus has shifted away from that, but dr. mcgowan, is the economy still the most important issue to colorado voters and how are they feeling about it? >> well, colorado is sort of a holding pattern right now in terms of -- sorry. i took the red eye. >> he was watching -- he went to the book of mormons. we all have our priorities. >> yeah. [laughter] but, you know, i think the business model in colorado's changed a lot.

we used to have larger corporations there. now we're starting to see smaller to medium size. but people, we didn't get the big bump that people expected after the last election. people are sort of holding back a little bit, taking terms with employment, hiring new workers. there's a big debate about outsourcing and that's part of the campaign too. so colorado's really in a holding pattern, i would say. >> so voters are feeling anxious and they're not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel? >> yeah. it's not that they're not seeing the light at the end of the tun, they just hope that there's not a train coming at them. people are unalternate about where the economy's gone and that has to do with employment, what kind of workers you're going to hire, investment and education which is one of the issues that we really need to talk about. and colorado is -- that's one of

the areas where that's going to be our future. >> yeah. so every election has its national issues. it also has its local issues. and i come to you, dr. cayman, on there is a prop 64 on the colorado ballot. it would legalize and regulate marijuana, the same way alcohol is regulated. it's become a pretty high profile issue and could affect turnout in -- first of all, talk about the importance of that issue and how you see it playing out in the election. >> sure. so there's 17 states and the district of columbia have now passed miracle marijuana law even though marijuana is prohibited at the federal level and is a serious federal crime. in now about a third of american jurisdictions, the voters of the states have said that medical marijuana is something that their citizens should have access to. in 2010 in california, we saw some initiative to fully

legalize marijuana to make it available for recreational use and we saw the obama administration come down quite strongly and say we've tolerated medical marijuana in the states. we won't tolerate legalization. it will be interesting to see if something happens in the presidential election year in colorado in a swing state. it was easier to come down pretty heavily against it in a non-swing state and a non-presidential election here some whether we get a similar confrontation between state and federal government, we'll be one thing. >> what's the polling showing? is it going to pass? >> it's currently leading but it's leading going with a few months to go in california. it's one of those things that it has support but it's not yet at 50%. so there's a majority, but enough votes are still -- voters are still undecided that it's not all clear. it would be sort of throwing down the gauntlet of state governments against the federal

government. >> and aren't there more places that you can buy miracle marijuana than you can go to starbucks? >> yeah, our state pride. [laughter] we had real explosion in our industry or in the city and in our state and colorado was one of the first states to take miracle marijuana regulation seriously. and it sort of was the regulatory model that we have has been put out as a model for other states that the federal government is unhappy with miracle marijuana but colorado is doing it best. and some people in the industry hope that would be enough to keep the federal government at bay for a while. >> that would be a fascinating experiment. let's get into some more politics. the biggest news in recent week, the biggest game-changer has been the selection of paul ryan as mitt romney's running mate. he has been outspoken on a

number of issue that are obviously going to be conventional -- consequencial around the country. how do you see the choice affecting the outcome in colorado? >> i think it was an important choice for governor romney to make because the campaign was slipping away from governor romney and we saw three national polls the friday before his announcement of congressman ryan showing him down seven to nine points. and in colorado, it was a great choice because it will force the discussion of some important policy differences. i was dubious about the romney campaign strategy of essentially being not obama. i don't think that's the winning strategy. what romney does -- i mean what ryan does is two things that inspires the republican base which romney needed and second of all, it will drive a very important discussion on the right issue. and i think it will -- there's been a lot of talk about how he will not help inspire hispanic voters, for instance, but if we

can get this campaign back on a true discussion of the economy in talking about how hispanic and african-americans kids are being failed in our school system, high dropout rates and there's a much higher unemployment rate among those citizens, then i believe that he will be an asset with those voter groups as well. >> guy, you want to jump in? some of those positions are really very conservative. and i don't know how that plays with swing voters in a place like voter. >> i think it does highlight what are some of the key difference is between the two presidential tickets and i would highlight three areas. the first is which we only glossed over in this discussion, issues around choice and around contraception. colorado has had two initiatives on personhood vote which is failed dramatically. >> and one on the ballot this year. >> that's right. and you've got one of the two that have come out. which is essentially outlaw's

choice. and when you look at the election in 2010, it was a critical issue, particularly for women in the suburbs of the denver market. and i think that's why you see the president at his most recent rally in colorado surrounded by women, focused on women's health security. two, i think the idea that adding ryan to the ticket is somehow going to improve the relationship of the republican party with hispanics defies logic. the reality is that mitt romney through the course of the primary made very clear where he stood on key issues that affect hispanics, not just in colorado but around the country. and i think it's going to be -- i think we're going to see a higher percentage of hispanic turnouts in favor of the president. and third which has gotten most of the attention is the issue of medicare. crossroads and other groups for basically three years now has been running on what is a lie and that is the president has

somehow cut $700 billion from medicare. the reality is that adding ryan to the mix here really does crystallize the fact that the discussion about medicare is not a referendum on the crossroads perpetrating but it's the choice about the two parties and about who do americans and coloradans trust on that issue? so i think on all three of those issues, we will see the difference between the president and romney crystallize the choice. host: is this a game changer for hispanics? or is it like sort of makes things clearer? >> i think the first thing that's important to point out is the latino population is quite diverse. so i think it's a case that democrats can't assume that they are going to align with the democratic party. having said that, i don't think the selection of paul ryan as romney's running mate will

necessarily sway latino voter who is were either perhaps on the fence. that is to say unless they were probably already aligning themselves with republicans and with romney, i don't think that ryan is going to have much sway in changing their perspective one way or the other. >> so talk a little bit about the parties in colorado. how strong is the party line? and where does the republican party line up? is it in line with paul ryan's conservative views or is it more diverse or to the middle or what? >> well, if you look at where the voters are, the most recent stats on party registration have republicans at about 33% of the electorate. democrats at about 32%. and 35% are calling themselves unaffiliated. >> is that one of the higher states in the country? >> it is. it's roughly a quarter. it's more than a third in colorado. so that's an unusually high

number of unaffiliated voters. they're not all independents but they're harder to pin down and there is sort of an independent streak to colorado's political culture. so the republican party itself in colorado is diverse. a difference between a western state, more libertarian style of republican and say more cultural conservative republican from colorado springs in that area. and i would tend to think the ryan message lines up more with the colorado springs style republicans might play in the denver area suburbs, but that's the -- time will tell on that. >> you know one of the other issues that's been big in colorado but left so nows the shootings in aurora. and that was a tragedy that, you know, kind of raised some questions about gun laws. it seems like that's not an

issue that's going to resonate. sam, this is an issue that you've paid a lot of attention to has anybody's minds changed about that? >> it's hard to know. we saw one -- a story that got a lot of national press was that gun sales went up significantly in denver the week after the shootings. so it didn't seem at least in colorado, to be the impetus for gun control laws. it has generated a fair amount of discuss discussion of the death penalty. people say if we're saving the death penalty for the worst of the worst, this is -- >> is there a death penalty in colorado? were we do but we don't use it very much. we've only had one execution in the last 35 years. this has got people thinking about whether we should continue to have a death penalty and if so, when and how we should use it? that's another issue. >> did that resonate at all in the political culture in the

election? >> crime and criminal justice issues have not been at the forefront in the last couple national elections. i think the fact that crime is down nationally has really sort of taken that off the front burner. there is a lot of interesting concern about -- concerns about crime and safety and also the death penalty recently whether that turns into an issue that voters will vote on, you know, we'll have to say. >> yeah. i'm going to come to the audience in just a minute with -- and ask you for questions. please be ready whatever you want to ask. dr. mcgowan, one of the issues that you both touched on is this election will be sort of a bright contrast between what is the role of government. what is the -- how do coloradans see the role of government in the economy and how do you think they view this election to that prism? >> well, it's an interesting

state in the sense that they view the role of government has being -- should be more passive versus active. we still have a very entrepreneurial streak and pull yourself up by your own boot straps and there's a big debate about should we provide incentives for big businesses versus small businesses and small businesses say well, you're chasing the big business but what about us? so it's a big concern in terms of the role that government plays and i think colorado, particularly with governor looper who is a businessman, background, is starting to present a pro-business image outside the state. going back to the aurora question, that's had a pretty interesting effect on the image of colorado. you have columbine and you have the aurora and i was talking to someone from aurora, it's a tough issue for them because it's a lose-lose deal. and how do you get people to

can't make a positive out of it and so it affects our image outside of the state more than i think people realize. >> but less so in the state where people live every day? >> yeah. i think that's the case. and businesses say i want to go to a place where it has a quality of life and that's always an issue. and also the medical marijuana issue as well. i gave a talk for the county sheriff of colorado and that's a really hot button for the law enforcement. and they are really concerned about this proposition 64. >> does anyone want to wager whether it passes or not? [laughter] no takers? what about governor hick couple? you mentioned he's created a pro business or a pro business democratic kind of -- will he play a role in this?

>> absolutely. no, look, if you look at the type of democrats that have been winning in colorado, both hick couple and looper and senator brings a different perspective on how we use government to support small business to reward interruptship and he fits right along that. i wouldn't be surprised. he might be speaking at the convention and he's taking a very active role and the obama presidential campaign. so i think he's nothing but an asset for the president's campaign and for democrats and our brand. >> sort of a role model for how democrats can win in purple states. >> yeah. >> i do not think that he will spend a lot of political capital for president obama. he will do the required thing, showing up at a few rallies. but my personal prediction on governor looper is he will seek

the 2016 democratic nomination. and by the way, he will not run for re-election in 2014 in order to vote himself to that. one final comment. i can't let my friend guy get away with this. it's no wonder that the obama campaign will trot out the issues of -- on abortion in this campaign because when you have an 8.3% unemployment rate in colorado and it's gone up in the last month and such a failed economic record, that is the only message you can try to reach is the undecided voters. but when the obama jean is bankrupt and's the only issue they can play, i couldn't let that one go by. >> anyone? >> it's a different perspective. democrats can walk and chew gum at the same time and talk about the economy and talk about choice. we saw just yesterday what type of republicans their party is

supporting with the candidate in missouri's comments about race, and the only thing i would -- not the only thing, but one of the things i would disagree is hispanic voters on pay attention to the economy and somehow that's going to change their perspective. my guess is voters in colorado don't want to see pell grants couple. they don't want to see rates on student loans rise. they want to see the reform that they have strongly supported in the state. they want to make sure that their parents and their grandparents have the medicare coverage that's been plomsed to them as a result of their paying into the system. so i actually think that on economic issues, that is a part of the reason why the president's campaign has also run ads on those that are still going to be successful and communicating with the two constituencies that will ultimately determine the election in november there. tha.

>> it hispanics and women. >> are right. >> what is the policy that has been met with enthusiasm by latinos around the country. >> it is the thing that people will remember when they go to the polls. it is what will help persuade them as to whether or not they're going to participate. the two art -- latino voters are concerned with the state of the economy. they want access to affordable and quality education. they want access to affordable health care. but another big issue that obviously affects latino communities is immigration. even though it might not affect them directly, personally, they know people. but the family members, people

that they work with, people that will go to their children's schools. pushing food production will have a significant impact on latino voters. still, someone suggested is not enough. there is still a need to push for immigration reform and this is just one way. >> and the president did this -- did preside over increased deportation do think that is a mixed bag? >> i do not know it has had an impact in train people the other direction. -- swaying people the other erection. it could just be the case that people will not show up. that is also an issue. >> anyone want to make a prediction about turnout?

there is a small pool of undecided voters. most everyone else has made up their minds. it seems the efforts are to try to inspire the bases. >> there is a history of relatively high voter turnout. >> yes, relatively high. it was already a pretty hotly contested state four years ago. it is right in the middle and it can go either way. >> we should pitch that to the governor as the new state model, the swing in as of the swing states.

-- the swingiest of the swing states. [laughter] yes? >> i am from le monde newspaper in paris. [unintelligible] >> why don't you start with the energy issue -- the policies and then we will get to the politics of it. the presiding there was a lot of discussion about clean technology for years ago, but i think the investments that we are seeing in alternative energies are starting to back off. it is still a lot about dependency on call.

alternative energy, i think it has eased up quite a bit. you really do not hear a lot of discussion, like colorado or nevada. >> is there going to be an issue for either side? is this something that the romney campaign will try to make an issue of? >> everything ties back to the economy and to the unemployment rate in colorado. call has not been under assault on the western front. governor romney actually went to northwestern colorado to a big coal mine in producing part of the state. energy in the state will tie into anergy overall. >> are there other clean energy technologies that will lead to clean energy is?

and as the state see itself as the kind of place where that is born and nurtured it? >> there is a difference between most of the congressional delegation that are advocates of the wind energy tax credit. there is a difference between them on that. >> breaking news, i pretty much agreed. in terms of the cost to the economy is an issue. i do not think it is a stand alone. the one thing that was mentioned was a natural gas and the increasing role is playing in the state. you have seen most of the congressional delegation in both parties eager to figure out solutions to support the natural gas industry in the state. you also have a reasonable number of smaller oil producing companies. these are not the exxons of the

world. these are mom-and-pop shops that are producing a clean energy. it is a great example of identifying four or five different solutions to solve the energy crisis. but i do not see it being determinative of who wins in the state. >> the -- bic, you mentioned earlier that most colorado voters will vote by mail. and absentee ballots dropped a few months after the debate. talk about what you think the stakes are as both candidates look to october 3. it is the first time we will see them on the stage together at any time in this campaign. >> the debate is crucial to the campaign. acrossnty clerk's colorado can begin dropping those male in balance the following week.

-- the mail-in ballots of the following week. voters will get a very good look at these two candidates at the university of denver before those drop. as you remember from the days of senator bennett's campaign, it is about a three-week election time frame now. >> and it highlights the field piece of it, too, which was mentioned earlier. that is the advantage that the president is building. you mentioned there are over 50 offices now, a couple hundred staffers. the permanent absentee ballot program is ripe for a campaign to have strong field programs, to really used to their advantage because it changes the way you view television.

>> how do campaigns tactically drive towards that day? a newsjust have such roadblock in the wake of the first debate. how do you strategically think about that? critics of lot of television and you put out a lot of mail the for the week of october when the ballots dropped. because a huge percentage will vote right away and then there is they'll all and then a rush at the end. -- then there is a lull and then a rush at the end. >> the communication, the phone banking to all of the things that we think of a more compressed time frame now take place over a month. if you do not like auto calls in colorado, delist your number.

television in november. you will not be able to buy a television spot in this state by the time october comes around. >> for the whole month. >> yes. >> the market is completely saturated. campaigns are trying to buy time. they are not going to be able to buy prime and broadcast if you wait too late. that is why campaigns are already reserving historic amounts of time. >> the only people who like this situation are the tv stations. they make a lot of money.

>> there will be no shortage of interest. in your research or the years, do debates change people's minds? >> to a very small extent. a few debates in history have been unusual wear for example, in 2000, there was the widespread belief that al gore kind of underperformance. you could see the polls shift after that in governor bush's favre. -- favor. and for the people watching the debates, it is mostly people that are the most passionate about politics. >> it affects undecided voters,

but perhaps over the course of a month. >> it can get committed to them out over the course of a week. if there is a bomb, it is probably there after a little -- if there is a bump, , it is probably thereafter a little while. >> my question is about women in colorado. those of us who follow politics closely know that one of the chief reasons why senator won was because there was a sharp gender gap. what did you see in the polling in, reuter? what do you see in the romney campaign in terms of targeting -- polling in colorado? what do you see in the brahney campaign in terms of targeting a particular gender?

>> comparing apples to apples, our campaign was really just engaging on television at this point in 2010. but if you look at the public polls, the gender gap is about where it was at this time. i expect it'll get pretty close in november, not in part, because structurally speaking the entire party has adopted the same position, for all intents and purposes. i understand governor romney put out a statement as saying that he believes in exceptions for rape, which is not congressman ryan's point of view. because of the movement that romney was a forced to adopt, a lot of those key interest in

contraception will be important. we overlook this because we do not think education is a driver, but this issue around pell grants and student loans, i believe, is a critical issue in this election for women everywhere. that is why you see the president communicating specifically about these things in colorado in a way that he is not necessarily in every state. there is an opportunity to continue to expand that gap, but it is about where it was at this particular time in 2010. ,> going back to the 1970's

republican women and democrat women decided a close election. but i think democrats are about to overplay their hand on this issue. yes, it worked in 2010. because my friend can back -- ken buck kept giving you a lot of ammunition. but if you look at it going back to the '80s, a pro-life republican can certainly win in colorado if there agenda is economic in nature. that is precisely where romney is. they will not give that kind of ammunition in 2012. i think voters are actually smarter than this. women voters are smarter than to just buy off on a strict abortion message. the fact is, economic concerns

are number one. every poll shows that in the al- nahda. -- in colorado. i keep going back -- the obama failed policies have truly failed hispanics and african- americans, and especially among young african-americans and hispanics. the unemployment rate is still much higher in those groups. the economic message is going to be the driving force, and not this very narrow silver bullets that the democrats think they can play in every election. >> i just did not think that choices are round contraception are a narrow little thing that is only being used for politics. i think for women, young women, hispanic women, african-american women, white women, the issue of contraception is not just about

women's health, although a critical piece, but symbolic of the nature of the politics of the person supporting it. as i mentioned, pell grants, i think there will be a host of issues, not just contraception and chores. but to minimize contraception and trees and say that we should not talk about that because people also care about programs or the economy -- i think is both. i think women in particular have a clear understanding that it is not just romney on the economy, but his positions on contraception and choice are to the extreme. maybe not on rhetoric, but on policy, romney/ryan is closer to ken buck than he is still a lot of -- and then he is to a lot of others. >> is the gender gap amongst

latinos the same among the world population or is it different? >> in terms of voter turnout? courts in terms of voter preferences. >> generally, -- >> in terms of voter preferences. >> generally, latinos tend to vote more on policy issues. in the selection, latinos are perhaps looking more critically at obama and democratic elected officials, but there are also serious issues in terms of republicans providing an alternative. you have some pretty vocal individuals on the margins of many people feel are shaping people's perceptions about the republican party in general. that is part of the issue. bring back to an earlier point about maybe latino's of not turning out with the numbers

commensurate of the election in 2008. >> i am from the japanese newspaper. my question is more for the general united states and not only colorado. many of the states seem to be divided. my question is, after this election, with whoever wins, are you confident the u.s. will unite to cope with problems and difficult issues? >> sepp, why don't you take this? you have written a book on this project -- this problem. >> is a deeply polarized broughcountry. by some measurements, we are about as polarized as we have ever been. republicans are all pretty conservative and democrats are

all pretty liberal. it does not mean that things cannot get done. there are certain moments of crisis when parties come together. and when there is one-party control of the federal government just a couple of years ago, democrats actually passed quite a bit of legislation and obama signed quite a bit of legislation. now that we have seen this settle back into a split party control, yes, people have a hard time coming to agreement. it is not necessarily in their electoral interest to work with the other side. it can work against them in terms of politics. i do not expect that to be resolved any time soon. >> i'm from the irish times. i know there is a high concentration of evangelical christians are around colorado springs. is that representative of the

entire state? is there a higher proportion of evangelical christians in colorado than elsewhere? for example, i know iowa has a high number. and will that counterbalance for the republican party the women and latinos? and also, on the gender gap, you keep mentioning that it was more or less the same as it was in 2008. do you have any figures on the gender gap, the percentages who voted republican or democrat? >> you are correct, a large proportion of evangelicals are in colorado springs. i do not think the camaraderie has a higher proportion of voters who are evan jaquawn -- the colorado has a higher proportion of evangelical voters who are in colorado. that could turn are to be wrong.

now county is the largest republican county in the state. in terms of the gender gap, i do not know. >> i do not know what it was in 2008. >> nationally, obama won women by 13, and i think mccain won men by one. >> you said that the obama campaign has 48 field offices set up and the romney campaign only has nine. can you say something about that disparity? does it say something about the strength of the republican party's infrastructure in the state? >> part of the reason for the

disparity is that the obama folks simply had a had a test -- a head start. and the obama folks have a lot of money they were not spending on a primary challenger and reusing it to build up field offices -- were using it to build of field offices. it is my understanding that the rashmi folks are using their considerable resources to build up more offices. >> governor romney did not receive the nomination until april. the romney republican get out the vote effort in colorado will be very well done. the two years ago, and i want to congratulate you guys for bennett's win in 2010 because it

was the turning of the tide in the state legislature. unseating two incumbent members of congress, which is the first time that would have been in a couple of decades. -- happen in a couple of decades. all large part of that is due to the republican turnout. i say that with modest to because i was the chairman at that time. but the people that ran the campaign in 2010 are running it in 2012. and believe me, i think the republican effort in 2012 will be superior to the obama campaign. it was not in 2008. they had a lot of advantages in 2008. but i believe it will be superior in 2012. >> did senator bennett's when asked what was going on in colorado? >> i believe so. the governor's race went totally off the rail with the totally

unqualified candidates. it was a very inspiring moment for me. and of course, our friend tom tancredo, who you kind of alluded to earlier, that really made it a lot of fun. the senate race was in contrast to everything else going on in colorado. and it took my good friend ken buck to make that happen. but you did a good job taking advantage of it, yes. >> i believe we are just about out of time. i can take one more question from the audience. >> you alluded to the races in 2010. are there down ballot races that you think will impact the president to raise? or vice versa that you think the

presidential race may impact down ballot races? >> they both look like they have something to say, shockingly. you might as well. >> surprisingly, i do not have much to say. i think it will affect down ballot races. i'm not sure it will be different in colorado than anywhere else. it does not seem to be affected by president raises more than a statewide races. i think there'll be an impact on a couple of house races that are competitive in the state. >> in 2001, -- in 2009, obama won in colorado. the word others -- were others trying to catch his coattails? >> if you look at where the

competitive seats are for the house and senate, there are parts of jefferson and arapahoe county that have the most competitive legislative seat. if mitt romney wins colorado, there is a chance we will win both houses. if obama wins, there is a chance they could get control of the house. >> it is hugely popular with is some of the number of voters, if they come out strongly and the obama administration does not do anything to antagonize them, that could be one that has some flynt. >> one of the concerns of the obama campaign is how to get the margins among those young voters, who if they vote, will vote disproportionately for the president. and are they also showing support for the initiative? and as the campaign targeting

those voters -- those voters? >> it is much more regular among those young voters. there is a huge push on line today young voters energized around that proposition. again, those are the voters that had a lot of enthusiasm around obama four years ago. >> is there must -- much advertising around it? >> i have not seen any. i imagine as to get closer to the election, there probably will be. >> it is interesting that the obama administration could dampen their enthusiasm again by stepping on this. >> they came out strongly against proposition 9 in california. a few weeks before the election they came out very strongly against it and ended up losing by 7 percentage point. >> adjuster dovetail on something dick was saying

earlier, in 2004, george gershwin in the state of california by about 5 -- george bush won in the state of colorado by about five. . there will be a separate turnout effort going on for those races as well. especially given how close those chambers are. it may affect the race. but one may affect the other. >> there is a lot that will happen in colorado both between now and the debate on october 3 and then between the debate and election day. it could all come down to one last question. are there any white guy and i would called voter suppression efforts going on -- any what guy efforts going on -- any what guy