cost in protecting our national it can end up saving you money, so do not deplete us. it is nice among us to find a consensus, and at least make progress toward those areas terry >> what confuses me is that we have been talking about some of these issues for a long time. the uncertainty of not knowing the rules, and not knowing where the federal money is going, if -- going.g eric >> >> will business start dropping insurance? we would like to have businesses pay for insurance, subsidized the insurance of their employees, but we do not know how they are going to go you know what, i will ask michael employee to go on the national healthcare act, and we will subsidize them to a certain amount, but now it is there is possibility.

no one really knows what the impact of that will be, but from a financial standpoint, i'm eager going to see a lot of businesses do that, and it will change the whole framework of health care in the united states. recognizing people going to a 30 hour week? upthere are people growing to only a certain amount of employees, and others reduce the hours. >> there was a story on the news in ogle the city about a man who was building a storm shelter. we had a terrible storm in may of last year, so hit a storm shelter company, and he had grown into 70 employees. with the new mandates under the affordable health care act, his health insurance costs were going to go up $250,000. he dropped his employees back to $50,000, and then all of a

sudden it got delayed, and he had to let all of them go. that stopped his business from growing. , of whate first affect you're talking about a moment ago. we believe that governors should lead the way. governors have to find solutions to the problems. a lot of issues not being solved, we have to solve the problems coupled with a balanced budgets, work on education, and growing the economy and creating jobs and health go policy and infrastructure and energy, and climate sosiness that we can be competitive with other foreign countries and the states in our nation. haveto the governors, we great solutions for health care issues, for education, for the work first -- force. address the issues that are

important to americo when we feel like there is a lot of inaction in washington dc. ayako whatever the chair says. [laughter] we thing within all of this, are making progress. every day this country is getting a little bit better. not as fast as we would like, and we can see all of the mistakes we are making, but every day the world gets a little bit better. i see a level of integration , we have a states lot of different companies that are widespread when they put things together. systemsnevada spaces is working in 18 different states, if i remember correctly, different pieces.

they build and deliver space systems, they're taking over the workingea, and they're with vendors all over the country. we need to work together to get that project done with my fellow governors. we sometimes forget how well we work together. i'm going to guess there's not a state in the country that does not have a manufacturing presence. that ability of the country to work together, the ability of us the infrastructure issues, whether it is education, transportation, we often have a infrastructure, but the ors will sit down together and work it out.

matterwhat it is, no what the industry, we will try and change whatever the rules of regulations are, and celebrate the process. instead of doing it sequentially, what would take seven years, will take one year. we should recognize that we are being offered a chance to work with the white house on a direct basis and these agencies, and be more effective. >> what are you expecting the financial impact of marriott -- legalizing their 10 will be on your state? >> more significant than most of us thought, but still early to see if the record -- if the restaurant business recognizes flow through. we're not sure with the repeat business is going to look like. one of the things that we are

focused on is to not see this as a windfall, it is just something to look into. thatwe have a lot of kids live off the track and we will need resources to put them in the right direction? with thet people attitude that marijuana consumption is harmless. we're trying to regulate it as vigorously as we do our call. -- alcohol. we want to have the same sort of attention, not to take all of the windfall money and become dependent on it. >> we did a number of special reports about the business of marijuana. leading, the highest rating program safety had ever seen.

at this andoking saying what is going on in the country? do you have an estimate in terms of the financial impact? full 12he first months we think that the tax revenue will be about $140 million, and the business itself only be about $1 billion. that is better than expected, but where to take it with a grain of salt. up, i know you are meeting with a number of aboard people for the rest of the day, and you're going to the white house tomorrow. as you go around the horn, and come up with one important solution or change the mower impact that you would like to come from the white house and congress this year, or the next two years, what would that be?

you,ke to hear from all of hopefully you have an answer to that. i will begin with you, sir. >> we have to raise the minimum wage. there is a principle the bible, if you work hard, and you're raising children, you should not have to be in poverty. pope francis talked about an economy of inclusion not exclusion. if we want consumer purchasing power, 77% of our economy, raise the minimum wage. toit is a terrible mistake follow the pentagon's recommendation and cutting the national guard. the guard has been really instrumental in fighting these wars in both iraq and afghanistan, and now that we are seeing dramatic cut backs in the military, the regular army has

increased her medically. the size of the guard has stayed about the same. we need to keep the garden not dut guard -- rthe guard adnnmd not cut the guard/ . it is something that the governors are united on, and we do get is critically important, and we want the president to know that it would be a terrible mistake for him to cut the national guard in his budget. would needhe board the federal government to give us more flexibility to toreciate the way we want run our programs in this country. there is a difference between nebraska and new york, between carolina and new hampshire. more flexibility in every program. >> i'm an old appropriations chair, i still think the biggest deadweight on our economy is the federal budget deficit. i think the economy is strong

enough now that the president needs to get deadly serious about solving that problem, getting into the entitlements discussion, and provide the leadership we need there. it is absolutely going to continue to kill us unless we face up to it. >> overall, it is more about than just talking to the president. the of the uncertainty is dysfunction that occurs in washington dc right now. we are almost always going to default on our debt. both out and the real world like what happens in states, because somehow we have one aside budgets to get things done. we need to do more of that washington dc, not just yelling at one another. >> can you point to one or two things that are the issues in terms of the barriers? is it just too much red tape?

why can we not move forward with solutions, and unlimited this uncertainty -- eliminate this uncertainty? undersecretary of the agriculture out last week seeing how could we actually work off of federal lands. it is a different world with an intensified rhetoric, and not wanting to work. we figured out a way to actually cut back, make record investments in college education, and leave $300 million in the bank. we found some of the common ground as we were looking forward. i do not think washington dc right now collectively is trying to find areas of common problem -- around to move forward. muchthink there is too

playing of who is king of the hill, and that gets in the way of finding solutions. we has governors go back to our own hell, and we have to solve hill, and we have to solve problems. we are partners with the government, and we have to be treated as such. we have something to say, we have examples, we have opportunities. the concept of federalism as states being partners, kuwait: government, is not present in this congress. flexibility,re especially in the revelatory and permitting areas. that is something we would like to see. >> thank you for dinner. [laughter]

we ate a lot. not elegant, maybe not 20, write a worse, that is what we do -- maybe not a donkey, maybe an elephant, but write it worse, that is what we do -- ride a horse, that is what we do. i do not see the reality of the lipservice and approach --in ap proach. we see undue regulations, and we see a dismissiveness toward what states are trying to do. we live in our state, we cannot the buck in terms of budgets, we cannot kick the can down the road, we have to get things done. taking great

environmental steps that are being dismissed by the federal government at their peril. echo, i think the federal budget deficit, and the uncertainty surrounding the debt death or windhe if the budget will be -- if /when the budget will be passed is not good. >> i spend most of my days sorting out overregulation and these issues when we know our own backyard, because nevada is 78% federal land. we knowe energy policy, with the propane shortage it was a great wake-up call. we need to have a national

energy policy that embraces all of the above. it is a national security issue as well as an economic issue. with transportation, we are all wondering what is next. >> education is the best economic development tool we have. whether it's preschool, high school, quarter of all it is -- colleges, all of it. familieso support the of the military, as we wind down in afghanistan. i think everybody here has done a good job in that area, we want be supportive to get these folks back into their day jobs and communities, that we support them all the way home. write-down the things that we heard around the table, get more

flexibility, and we are worried about national debt. if things are going well in the --te, it was a call and ask give us a call and ask how that is working out. see if it was something that they can assist us with as president. >> communicate. >> by this time he has been communicated with fairly thoroughly, after listing to all of our advice. -- listening to all of our advice. this is a big country, the issues are complex and difficult. the one thing you hear from all of us is that we can cut this pieceso 50 bite-size come and as well as to assist with implementation. >> become part of the conversation. >> flex ability, transportation,

let us unleash our energy resources. claritywe need to get from the white house on the issue of addiction and mental health, based on previous comments that have been made on drugs and other things, and alcohol. the addiction issue and the mental health issue for our state is another very serious challenge for us. i'm worried about the next generation and the brain capacity. to me that is something we cannot ignore. >> it is interesting that that was a big piece on the agenda. >> i would boil it down pretty , give us the flexibility , and the predictability from the government. -- before you, with a new policy that is going

to affect us. allow us giving them but because i am completely different than , orouri of our wisconsin -- wisconsin, and this is not one size at all because our needs are different. that wehe initiatives want to embark on to our -- grow theeconomy, i would ask for president to push for the marketplace fairness act. we're losing sales tax revenue to internet sales. house,it through the have the president signed it, that is revenue that we can put toward higher education, to our kids, to our roads and bridges. to be competitive economically. to the president and to congress, we are a strong and resilient people.

we have challenges in education, and infrastructure, health care. the best frost said, way out is always through. we have to work together and we will get there. i would thank the president for showing more flexibility than either the past two administrations. i would ask them to lift more women out of poverty given making sure we rage the minimum wage. -- raise the minimum wage. factorse of the biggest for women living in poverty, so i would ask him to get the job done. >> i would repeat all of the things that i agree with that said noeady been , i think it's time to get a deal done with the interest

rates. some of thatney, tax money, can go into a loan fund for infrastructure that helps us to invest in our bridges, and roads. appreciate the president and vice president meeting with all of the governors. there are a lot of great ideas, good solutions to problems, continued to ask for flexibility. we have innovative solutions to problems facing americans. where a blending those solutions, give us the flexibility. as we see in federal rules and the best way to help people get out of poverty is to give them a good paying job, in the skill sets that they need. producing state,

i would like to see something move. >> i want to say that i do not know that we came up with the solutions to fix all the problems, but getting everything on the table, making specific suggestions is the beginning. thank you for having me, good luck in your meeting tomorrow. thank you everyone. [applause] we will take a five minute break and move to the governors only session. >> here at the national

governors association winter meeting held in washington dc, we will be taking your phone calls and just a moment. give your thoughts on whether -- thenk it makes governor makes a better president than other political leaders. let us know whether you think governors would make good presidents. we will be showing you one of on how tog panels improve childhood education. we will take you live to one last session as to the challenges states are facing with prescription drug abuse. you could also weigh in on

facebook. they do make better presidents because they have to make executive decisions every day. ronald says no, both reagan were -- and george bush were governors and they just ride the economy -- destroyed the economy. taking your phone calls,

different numbers than we just had. two governors make better makedents -- do governors better presidents? you can let us know what you thought about the governor meeting, who impressed you, who you thought did not impress you as much. let us know what your thoughts are. the numbers are up on your green. -- your screen.

the governors are going to a governors only meeting before their next session. we will have another session from this morning that we taped earlier. the governors talking about how to help kids in the early re-school years and elementary school years. and prescription drug abuse. erwin is on the line. what do you think? >> i am very much in favor of that because i feel that if they can run a state successfully, canhave a budget that they raise to take care of their feel they are more able to.

if they can take care of the state, a can certainly take care of the government of the united states. governors meet all the presidenthat would, just in the state. >> anyone that it particularly impressed you? washen i was amazed with that they were all sitting together, reasoning together, and working out their problems. this is something the house and the senate does not do. bothvery discouraged with parties sitting and doing nothing. a cover -- a governor at least

takes care of his state, and works with the house and senate within that state to solve their problems. if they can reach across the aisle, and come to a decision that is best for their state, can they not do that in the house and the senate? i am fed up with both parties, and i'm 73 years old. votedalways reported -- republican, but i am sick of age side laming the other, and not willing to work together to accomplish the goals that america needs to see. we're to move to the democrats line. mark is calling us from the -- mississippi. pleaseike we lost mark, call back. we will move to andrew on the independent line.

>> thank you. i would agree with the previous caller that it was great to see that all of the governors were moving into more of a bipartisan , trying to work toward a better goal. the problem is mostly that we need to all work together, and the whole country is wanting to work, which seems ok, but it also seems that we should have -- the people of our states, to say that we do not need to opt out of the program, but we can have it still there.

that should be the people's choice. with the last caller, i am my mother's caregiver, i do not receive any income for that. i'm just helping her out. the money is always tight for anyone. it was good to see that people aisle.lking, across the it should be something that instead of opting out, it should be opt in or out. careecifically -- health specifically? >> yes. >> would your governor make a better president than the senator or congressman from your state? believe she is passing a

bill in march about cell phones being illegal to use while driving. that i wouldn't know if they make better presidents, statesould agree that should be able to make their own decisions. but it should be something that the people can vote on. we are a republican state, i am not anything. we should all work together of where weis something all but had -- butt heads. >> george on the republican line. do governors make better presidents? i have seen germany going

, and outside president would make a better president. someone with different experience than politics. think about do you governors making better presidents? >> most definitely. thank you spaceman -- c-span. to governorifically child, who is now passed on. -- chiles, who has now passed on. they are tremendous leaders. i cannot thank you enough, keep the good work.

>> who do you think would be the best from grassroots? >> charlie crist. >> vincent is online in illinois, republican line. thank you for taking my call. i think it is very good that betterrs could be presidents, but we have other talents too. the problems that i see, i am not exclusively republican, i vote for the man rather than the party. we are not facing the bigger issues. the most serious and dangerous issue that we have going today is the american dollar crisis. if this american dollar crashes, we are going to be talking about

all of these other things, we will be talking about chaos in this country. show even ajust small amount and steady amount deficit,ion from the even if it was small. then they would realize that we are not completely crazy. >> thank you. big ideas from vincent. we will even at his phone call -- leave it at his phone call. if you want to weigh in, try us online. we have the question on our facebook page. one ofgoing to go to

the earlier sessions that was held in d.c.. taking a look at education and the workforce. early childhood education. one of the guests was arne duncan, and the superintendent of the schools in maryland. this is one of the earlier sessions today from the nga.

>> good morning. we will call the meeting of the national governors association to order. we want to thank you for joining us. todayonored to be joined by the committee's vice chair the vice governor of garment -- nevada. these are open to the press and all attendees. as a consideration, put your cell phone on vibrate. the briefing books were sent to governors in advance, and can be found in the blue binders in front of you. my right is the deputy director of the nga, and he is

available if you need assistance or have any questions. today we are honored to be joined by the secretary of education arne duncan. lillian lowery, and jeana ross, to discuss early childhood education. 2007 when i won my first election as governor of kentucky and was sworn in, i.e. has as many of you had done -- i had, as many of you have done, about early childhood education. and i committed to reinvestment to expand that program. numerous studies show that 80 to

the brain development occurs between ages four and five, and every dollar that we invest in early childhood manyfold returns to us as that child develops into a productive adult in our society. however, come january of 2008, we were all hit in the face with the great recession. the biggest recession in our lifetimes. many of us had to start scrambling to just keep our budgets balanced, much less tried to invest a lot of additional funds anywhere. so we in kentucky had to look for other ways to improve preschool and early childhood education and development. the first thing that we did was an early childhood

advisory council, and we created it i executive order and placed it in the governor's office. we did that because we wanted to raise the level of the attention and the focus on early childhood in kentucky. adopted a readiness definition for kindergarten. we brought together the public , and came upector with a standard definition that determine if to a child is ready to begin kindergarten. this last school year, for the first time, we implemented a test.ide kindergarten there is no pass or fail, but a quick snapshot of each child as can regard, to find out where the weaknesses might be, so we

can devise individual approaches for each child, to address those weaknesses and make sure that everyone is able to move ahead thecompete, and move into educational system and be successful. beyond the parent, one of the most critical factors in a the role ofiness is effective, high-quality teachers and school leaders. the focus on early childhood professionals, we began to work to strengthen district impassive --ure leadership networks district capacity to leadership networks. we also started planning for a more comprehensive vision. kentucky all starts with --

allstars was announced last year. it is a statewide quality rating system, supporting families through services delivered through public-private partnerships, and data systems throughout the continuum. this land was boosted recently by the successful receipt of a race to the top early childhood challenge grant. you andetary, thank your department for that program. it is going to make a huge difference. finally, as we have come out of this recession, and as all of our revenues have started to grow. my proposed budget for the next two years includes a significant expansion of outlook -- public pre-k.

i could sit here and go on and on about kentucky, but every governor here has been making strides in this area. all of us have been called on to do more with less. we have stepped up and met that challenge to not only preserve but expand this very broad and -- important program. one of the most dramatic history, itn recent is a bipartisan's gory. it is about governors bringing creativity and commitment to their budgets to remote school readiness for all children. some governors chose to bolster pre-k programs through investment. to concentrate on reforms in the absence of available funds. whatever the method, they forged

ahead to bolster early childhood education. we attributed this growth to governors and state legislatures. they were the ones that were convinced of early childhood education, and stepped in to fill a void in a gap left by federal inaction in the 2000's. many governors did not let the great recession stop them. 2011, governors in war than 25 states push to increase pre-k investments. policyes not count the reforms they had outside the state budgets. to increase the number of children proficient in reading by the third grade, and to align early education with k-12 systems.

as you can see through this te early childhood investment has more than doubled. governor strong and leadership has yielded numerous advances in the innovations and successes to improve the quality and access of early childhood education or our nation's younger students. referenced governors early education in their state of the state addresses. governorssand 12, 22 -- in 2012, 22 governors. in 2013, 28 governors. haver in 2014, 21 of us committed to improving or expanding early education in our

state. as we speak, 42 states have now convened the general assembly, and 39 of those states are considering more than 300 bills on significant early education state policy issues. ultimately, early childhood education has been more than just a smart strategy for school readiness. it has been a significant political capital, and resources to increase the prosperity of all of our people. a future workforce that is knowledgeable, skilled, and literate must begin with improving how we deliver early childhood education. today, through meaningful dialogue and insights through our distinguished guests, governors will discover how states and the federal government and partner in a manner that respects, supports, and first state led innovation

in early childhood education. i would like to turn it over to >> thank you, governor.oval it is a privilege to serve your review and a privilege to be here at the table with my fellow governors. thank you, governor, and so many governors.fellow strengthening early education has been a critical step to strengthening the cause of students in nevada and your respective states. last year we took some dramatic steps to reform early education governance in nevada. we established an advisory council, transferred our state early education office and head start program for our health and human services department to our education department. we are also including nevada's first ever english language learner program to pay for many services, including pre-k in

targets cools. we are also making sure we are providing early education programs of the highest quality. this year we are implementing a pilot assessment program to measure school readiness, increase school in kindergarten. as governor i have increased funding to increase the -- increase kindergarten sizes in nevada so that the return on early investment will not be lost due to students not receiving the attention they need to succeed. as governors we continue to invest in early education because we all know how important it is. i welcome the opportunities to engage with my fellow governors on strategies to promote school readiness for all children. i am interested in learning from all of your successes as my own state works to expand in this area. we have all heard that imitation is the greatest or most flattering and i am eager to learn about best practices throughout the country. today i am honored to be seated next to secretary duncan, who

will ask us a president's vision to expand access and increase quality or our youngest learners. after his remarks we will open the floor for a discussion between governors and the secretary of house states where the federal government can work together to grow early education programs. following that discussion we will hear how states are leading innovation in early childhood education, from the maryland superintendent of schools and the alabama commissioner of student affairs. they will each share steps for governors to accelerate early education innovation in their states. governors, you will all have an opportunity to participate in a brief question and answer session following the presentation. it is an honor and privilege to serve with you, governor. i will turn it over to you. >> thank you, governor. arnie duncan is the ninth u.s. secretary of education.

a position he has held since he was appointed by barack obama in 2009. his tenure has been marked by a number of significant accomplishments, including oversight of the race to the top program for k-12 and early education. in early education, school improvement grants, and the launch of a comprehensive effort to transform the teaching profession. prior to his service as secretary, mr. duncan served for eight years as the chief executive officer of the chicago public schools, where he won praise for uniting education stakeholders the hind in education reform agenda that included opening more than 100 new schools, expanding afterschool programs, closing down underperforming schools, and increasing early childhood college access. the secretary graduated magna cum laude from harvard university. on behalf of the nation's

governors, we welcome you this morning and look forward to your presentation. >> thank you for the opportunity to be here. i want to keep my presentation brief. appreciating your education leadership generally, my team and i have basically no interest in politics. we just want to see this country do better in education. we think that the dividends for the country are huge. please challenge us to be a good partner. we want every single one of you to be the best education governors your states have ever seen. if that does not happen, we are part of the problem, not the solution. i look forward to a candid conversation. first, if you could just turn to part d in your binders. we will try to take a quick snapshot and a look at who is making rapid progress. we always talk about three targets, early childhood education, k-12, and higher education.

looking at those quickly, these have seen rapid improvement. not necessarily the top performers, but we do have that data as well. on the early learning side we have states listed that have made new investments in tough economic times. obviously the focus on early childhood education is never just about access, which is important, but it has to be high quality. acouple of states are doing fantastic job there. the next slide is k-12 education . this is known as the nation's report card. a test that everyone takes. it cuts across what is going on individually in each state. again, these are not the highest performers, but the states that have made the most significant progress in the past couple of years. the final slide is higher education, where we have seen increases in the number of people receiving degrees. as you know, the president has set a goal for us to be leading

the world in 2020. we have flatlined as a nation, stagnating. one dozen other nations have passed us by. there is no upside for that. a couple of states are working hard to break through there. as you know better than me, the cost of college is killing far too many hard-working middle-class families around this country. containing those costs is usually important. the states are doing great work there. a couple of brief comments on what the slideshow, it is very interesting that clearly there is real bipartisan leadership here. no one party has a monopoly on ideas, it just happens that data , there is a mix here of republican and democratic governors. this is the ultimate bipartisan issue. second, leadership matters tremendously. when you look at the progress, particularly on the k-12 side, for states like tennessee and

hawaii, those are governors providing huge leadership and are frankly willing to take on their own political base. what is interesting to me when you look across the country, when people play to their base that is the easiest thing politically but does not necessarily move the ball for kids. when you are ready to spend some capital to do hard things to challenge the status quo, those of the states we are seeing having breakthrough results. it takes work, encouragement, and leadership, but if you are serious about better outcomes for young people, this is the thing to do. one enemy in education is academic failure. we have to increase high school education rates, alternately making sure that our athletes are high school and career ready. those going on to college, about 40% of young people going to community college have to take remedial classes. they are not ready.

what is worse, if you look at the four-year public institutions, it is 38%. almost identical. a huge portion of the people graduating from our high school are going on to college not prepared, burning through grants. we have to do something better, collectively. we have a lot of chances to work together and put politics and ideology to the side, trying to inthe right thing for kids our country. shifting to early childhood education, which some of you as provided, have shown extraordinary leadership. we think that this is an idea whose time has come. we have introduced bipartisan legislation here. through, this is a time for early childhood education. as a country, for me we will get there, the question is will we get there fast enough to give young people a real shot in life?

top 10 lists, i will not read them, you can read them yourselves. the importance of early years can no longer be here subject of real serious debate. most of you are familiar with the nobel prize-winning research out of chicago that talks about a seven to one return on investment. for every dollar that we invest, we get act funds. less crime, less incarceration. more people graduating, becoming productive citizens, paying back taxes. this is just the right thing to do. after the public money that we collectively spend, how many of those dollars have a 7 -- one return on investment? i am not sure that a high percentage of them do. an opportunity like this is one that we have to take full advantage of. this cements bipartisan support with national polls showing huge overwhelming majorities of

people showing -- saying that thing to do.ight this has become a total bipartisan issue. last year 30 governors, their teen democrats, increasing funding for schools in the state budgets. these are tough economic times. times of declining revenue and folks stepping up to the plate in a big way. governor beshear talk about what he is looking to do going forward. governor sandoval is looking to add $40 million for all-day kindergarten across the country. it doesn't matter, the folks are stepping up and doing the right thing. number eight, this is been a fascinating coalition that we have built around the country. but i cannot think of another issue where you have hundreds and hundreds of ceos, union leaders, the faith-based community, military leaders, states attorneys, all in absolute unanimous agreement

that early learning is the right thing to do. this is a parade that you all want to be in front of, not behind. we continue to bring people together from different walks of life. we think this is the right thing to do and that there is tremendous power there. seven, states are stepping up who have never done this before. mississippi made her first time ever investment to fund its first ever pre-k program. governor schneider tried to put $65 million into his state preschool program to create spots for an additional 18,004-year-olds. again, this is one where everyone is starting to work together. idea ofix, again, this not just access. we are not interested in glorified babysitting. this has to be done by quality. state leadership here has been

extraordinary. in 2009 only 17 states operated a quality ratings system for preschool programs. today we are at 35. we are more than double. 49 out of 50 states are implementing a system around quality. in just a couple of years thanks to all of your leadership. number five, this is a huge one for me. the fact that we have so many, hundreds of thousands of children, who start kindergarten each year, five years old in the fall, a year to 14 months behind. frankly, none of our school systems do a great job at kit -- catching up kids who start that far behind. sometimes they do, but sometimes the gap between the haves and the have-nots just continues to grow. if you look at these early assessments, the results are devastating. in oregon, 40,000 kindergartners

showed only one in three to name five letters of the alphabet. one out of seven children starting kindergarten could not identify a single letter. oflouisiana about one half kindergartners needed intensive intervention to bring their literacy skills up to par. the governor talked about kentucky. just under half the children there are entering kindergarten prepared to be successful. i will commend the governors from the states who have encouraged having these conversations. they are not easy conversations to have. they are difficult, but the only way that we can improve is if we tell each other the truth and are honest with each other. if half of the children are entering kindergarten very far behind, it is not fair to their families, their teachers, their classmates, and alternately again we are trying to prevent dropout in these graduation rates. junior year, senior year of high school is too late.

there is just a growing recognition that we have to get to our babies earlier. number four, all right, this is a step in the right direction, many states are stepping forward saying that children need to be reading it grade level before third grade, getting out of the ketchup business. they have passed bills making sure that all third-graders were reading on grade level. that is going back to starting early childhood side. deeplythree, this one is troubling to me. in a flat world, in a globally competitive economy, many countries are out innovating, out assessing us. we simply provide less access than many industrialized countries to early childhood education. many competitive countries enroll monday five percent or more in competitive preschools, we are only at two thirds. many of our most at risk and

disadvantaged families do not have access. we are starting up further behind their peers. same issues, same socioeconomic challenges, they just have better educational opportunities to learn. our children, our country pay a price for that disparity. a realtwo, there is opportunity here. the governor talked to little bit about the race on the early childhood side. investing $1 billion in 30 states, folks are increasing access, quality, working on integrated systems. there is a real chance here, i could run through a whole number of states, california, ohio, doing some very interesting things here. there is a chance to go to an entirely different level. not working in isolation. the final slide, and then we will open it up, extraordinarily

unmet needs. virtually every single one of you are investing your scarce tax dollars in this. i cannot tell you how important that is. you will not see the dividends in your states until your frankly long out of office. three-year-olds, four-year-olds do not vote, do not have lobbyists. it is easy to disregard and look past them, but you are showing real leadership there. the challenges for everything you are doing, there is still an extraordinarily unmet need. in colorado 14,004-year-olds do not have access. pennsylvania, the people do not have access. governor schneider is working so hard. 29,000 children do not have access. state-by-state which -- they are charged to do the right thing. what we are proposing on the federal level is a simple partnership. this is not from mandates, we

simply match the money where you are investing. we just think about where you are investing, but where there is tremendous unmet need having a federal partner to meet the need makes sense. this would be a mixed delivery system. we were clear about that. we were at gnostic about who would provide the pre-k or early childhood education. it could be for-profits, faith-based, boys and girls club's, whatever it might be. in washington we do not think we know what is best in your state. that would be the height of arrogance on our side. you just want the children to have access in your states and have you figure out where it comes from. the final thing i will say is that what we want to push through is every politician runs through as pro-education. no one runs on an anti-education agenda. what we do not have enough our state, federal, local who walk

the walk. getting past the point of saying that they are for education or are not willing to invest. we never talk about the status quo, we always talk about reform, quality. to have so many children in our country who are not able to have access to high-quality, starting kindergarten so far behind is absolutely untamed -- untenable. as we fight to grow the middle class in this country, we have to start with our babies. i want to thank you for your collective leadership. you guys are driving this in powerful ways. washington should be a much better partner. if they had just a little bit of the bipartisan spirit that you are exhibiting, our country would be a better place, but your collective voice is important to help the folks in washington see the mutual needs and benefits of working together in this area. if we can break through and change the odds were our young

people, the collective legacy here will be extraordinary. thank you very much, i look forward to your questions. [applause] >> mr. secretary, thank you very much. let me kick off the discussion if you couldg you elaborate a bit on an area that you touched on at the last of your remarks that i'm sure all of us are interested in, that is the funding that has been made available in this upcoming budget. some 200at there are $50 million, i believe, set aside for race to the top, early childhood, that area. can you give us more specifics? >> sure. historically our department did not do much in this space. one billion dollars over 20 states, we feel fantastic about it. we are partnering with hhs. this was always about a general design continuum.

home visiting, working up to pre-k, we will use that 250 billion dollars to continue to invest in states that demonstrate this -- demonstrate their seriousness in taking this on. our challenges that we always have so many more great applicants than dollars available. thate thrilled to have 250, but the unmet need is still tremendous. if we were able to break through with congress we could get a significant amount of money out to the states, we would match what the states themselves are doing. 250 will help to continue to move us forward, but i am more ambitious than that. >> thank you, governor. governor sandoval? >> i want to follow up on your comments on the race to the top. you say you have invested a billion dollars in 20 states, but 30 others did not get the funding. what are some of the things that the department is looking for in

particular states to be eligible >>be in the game for that? we will work through their criteria and get advice from the outside. you have froming the outside, it is a good time to feed it to us. when there is a tremendous focus on equality, a focus on getting to the children in the communities who are most underserved, starting kindergarten the furthest behind , the need for access and making sure it is high-quality, looking at the data systems over time. half the children in kentucky are starting kindergarten behind, that is where we are today. that is the baseline. what are we doing collectively to reduce that number every year? >> one brief follow-up, those who do not get it, those who do, they are better eligible? >> to be clear, we will only fund states we have not considered in the past. to get twotrying

more and more states every single year. states who have not applied cannot even. >> governor? >> first of all, i am honored to be a member of this committee. i specifically asked to be part of the education workforce committee. i want to thank the nga for hearing my request. i am obviously the newest one here, i have been in office for about 50 days. i ran on a campaign on diversifying the economy. in virginia we are unique, we are the number one percent -- recipient of defense dollars. when you have defense cuts, it means you have to diversify that economy. when you read that they may deactivate an aircraft carrier, that could be 30,000 jobs in virginia. my challenge is -- how do you grow, diversify, become leaders in genome sequencing? it all comes back to education and starting early with education. as it relates to pre-k, mr.

secretary, i am all in. i talk about this every day. i did it in my state of the commonwealth trust. we have to compete on a global basis. the southern governors just left what was something of a scary presentation about r&d and how our lunch is getting eaten by other countries. it is now china, south korea, germany, the european union. america is now fifth. they are investing in other nations. yoummend the great work have done, mr. secretary. i want you to know that virginia will put in a very imperative proposal for the next round of race to the top. this is important for all of us. i want you to know that virginia is all in. this is so important for growing and diversifying our economy. i am also a big leader when it comes to community colleges.

i'm the first virginia governor to have visited them all. but i know if i am going to convince a business to come to virginia, you understand you have to convince that ceo that you will have a workforce before you are going to invest millions of dollars in a manufacturing facility. it comes back to education and starting pre-k, making sure that we are doing but we have to do at technical schools, community colleges, and higher education. forward toi look working with you. >> as a parent, either forward to working with you in virginia. >> thank you, governor beshear. thank you for being here. thank you for your tremendous support in this area. following up on the question that governor beshear and governor bullock asked about how you are looking at investing in the future, you said it is around quality. if i could just make a

observation about what the moment was for us in delaware where we realized. shortly before we won the early learning challenge, our general assembly supported a significant increase in early childhood funding. but we were very concerned about just throwing good money after bad. what we did was we were one of the state stench -- one of the states -- you said that there were 13, but i think there are more now -- we said the only way that this could be sustainable is we're looking at these investments from the perspective of the providers of early childhood education. as you said, you are a bit agnostic. boys and girls club's, school districts, traditional early childhood centers. we basically said that we are going to use our early ratings systems. in addition to creating an

overall reimbursement for low income kids, we said we are going to tie reimbursement to the quality ratings systems. .o, we have a five-star system centers that now get three stars will get reimbursed at 80% of the market. for starters, 90%. five stars, one hundred percent. the reason this is so important is it has never made sense in the past for the very best centers to except the lowest income kids. it was not a financially sensible decision for them. it was his -- similarly not sensible for mediocre centers to invest in equality, because they would not do paid for it. now that we have tied reimbursement to the quality rating, we have seen significant improvements in just three years. a huge increase in the percentage of low income kids enrolled in those centers. we are seeing a lot of centers making the necessary investments

to move up the scale. because these ratings are transparent, not political, the decisions are made by an independent group of people, the centers feel that there is real integrity and fairness behind it. we have really laid the groundwork for meaningful improvement in how many kids are accessing high-quality care. >> i think that is fantastic. there is no competition here outside learning from each other. most governors will spend a great percentage of their time working on education each week. your leadership has been extraordinary. earlyion at every level, childhood, k-12, higher education, 90% of our funding is done on input, not output. collectively at the state and federal level we have been part of the problem. butant to increase access, it is not again quality that is

a good use of taxpayer dollars. it is putting in place incentives and being willing to learn and change those over time . incentives to improve quality are desperately, desperately needed in the early childhood space. on higher education, on that side, we do not fund if they , so collectively we have to do a better job of being creative there, encouraging those who are doing a better job , and for those who do not take your mission seriously, they need to change their behavior or find something else to do. this kind of common sense has been a radical, radical notion. i appreciate the leadership and, , we can tinker and fit it into our local context, but the focus on quality is desperately needed.

>> thank you. thank you, secretary duncan. we are honored to have you here with us and we appreciate your good work and effort on raising the bar when it comes to education in this country. think weors i recognize and understand the importance of education. certainly, in utah, we have done everything we can to raise the bar. we call it 66 by 2020, we might have two thirds of our goal population by 2020, some kind of post high school certificate, associate degree or a full degree. that is a 50% increase on what we are trying to accomplish in utah, which is a significant lift. it will not be easy. we have a high birthrate in utah, probably the youngest population in america. the challenge that we face is really one of economics. understand that to have a

growing, healthy economy, a skilled labor force is important. they used the phrase -- not willing to invest. i think we are willing to invest. the question is, to we have the money to invest? as states and governors, most of us have a requirement to balance the budget. to not spend more than we take in. we do not see this thing -- the same constraints on the federal government, which creates another set of problems. i am curious to know about your view. is this a new entitlement program that you are proposing? is this going to be more of a targeted approach for those who may be need -- wire at risk kids who need help going through a lot of those kindergartners come with skills, being able to read, the parents have artie taken on the responsibility. i am concerned about the cost in the overall spectrum of the

economy and the fact that our living government is beyond their means. >> those are all valid questions and concerns. first of all, i love your goal of not just having high school diplomas. i would be furious -- curious of this body, i mentioned the benefits of the top, if there were three or 4, 5 things that this group could agree upon together, just having that level of transparency should help. if every state had that as a goal, that would be fantastic, working together to figure that out. if there are no good jobs, if you just have a high school diploma, that is not enough. two-year community colleges, technical, vocational training, that has to be the goal for every single young person. having this body coming together behind those goals would drive

that. clear, if this were to be funded, it would have a dedicated revenue source. this would not increase the debt . we have proposed an increase in the cigarette tax. we have talked about the pros and cons of that. wouldsidual benefit there be to see a reduction in smoking, not a bad thing either. if folks have other ideas, i am open to that. it would be paid for. they would generate very significant money here. additions to the deficit, whatsoever. simply partnering with states who wanted more resources to reach at-risk kids. states that did not want the money would not have to do anything. again, i am just so conscious of the states who are investing where we are just trying to be a good partner and leverage our state money with federal money.

governor carver? >> thank you, governor. secretary duncan, thank you. listening to you, listening to some of the questions that have been asked, you touched on this a little bit, but maybe we can get you to go into deeper detail. a combined question. number one, there is a greater emphasis today on pre-k. i understand that. i want to make sure that that emphasis is on quality. you mentioned not just babysitting. i agree. a personalys had interest -- i have a renewed personal interest now, with my two-year-old grandson. i watch and learn. watching his mind learn, it comes to me that the first teacher is the parent. i am wondering, if you have given consideration as to how we can encourage these parents to be the teacher. we have children going to pre-k who are not prepared, who do not

know their letters. it really is the responsibility of one or two of the parents, maybe the grandparents, to get that child ready. if they come there, we are playing catch up all of a sudden. should we be? we have to, if that is the case, but is there any thought that you or the president are giving to encourage those parents to educate from the day that that child is born? >> that is a great question. i should talk more about it. as i mentioned briefly, or focuses on the pre-k side. this is the zero to five plan. a significant portion of the money we are talking about would goingvisiting programs, into the homes of families who do not have advantages. i am not too concerned about your grandson, he is probably in good shape, but not every child is so blessed, so fortunate. i visited someone in rural

kentucky, those folks were doing remarkable work, having a real impact in homes where children were not read too. they now have books that their parents are reading to them. parents who are not literate are being helped to learn to read. we can make significant progress there. that early home visiting, head start, there is a parental component. and anything that we can do to strengthen the family unit together, that is the right thing to do. that has to be integral to everything, all the way through. at the same time, having a pre-k,chance to go to enter kindergarten more prepared, is the right thing, but yes, helping families get into the homes, giving the skills there, that is a huge part of the effort. >> governor quinn? >> i think that one thing that sometimes gets missed, is there

enough room to do early childhood? invested $45 million in capital money, the first time we ever put it in the capital budget in the history of the state. the demand was 550 million. less than 1/10 of what was needed. variousent to the facilities, it was very important to each and every one that they have these places to conduct early childhood education. i think it is important that we keep that in mind when we do capital budgets. we have to do not only roads, bridges, rail systems, water systems, but school construction must include early childhood facilities. one other area that we are focusing on in illinois is we have a count to five initiative. we believe in early education, but even prenatal is very important. parental support, one of the

parents, the first and best teachers of all children, it must be included in a comprehensive program. i think that doing those kinds of things are part of a robust effort. governors, what level -- whatever political party we believe in, we had a poet laureate from illinois, the poet laureate of the united states, his name was carl sandburg. baby isthe birth of a god's opinion that the world should go on. i think that should infuse all of us with the mission here of taking care of birth to five. one million children in illinois are between birth and five today. have taxes, they don't have political action contributions, but they are the most important people for all of us. >> quickly, if we were able to get this bipartisan bill passed, part of that money could be used

for those facilities there. again, we would leave it up to the governors to tell us what their needs were. >> we will have to draw this discussion. to a close. to ascussion period close. >> governor herbert, i want to play off a comment he made. the federal college access challenge grants program, my understanding is that there is some hefty maintenance of effort requirements. 33 states asked for those waivers. 60% of the program funds went back to the treasury. i am not sure if you have any comments on that, so that we can explore getting more money to the states. >> happy to have that conversation. congressional intent, we are applying the rule as congress mandated us to do. any help from congress on that one, we would be open to it.

>> any personal comment? in terms of really needing to get that out there to help the students? >> we will continue to work with you guys as best we can. yes, we want to get that money out, but at the same time having maintenance of efforts, that is not the worst thing in the world. tough economic times, 40 states cut funding to higher education. we understand that governors make tough choices. act that wealancing have to try in finding these things, but on that one we do not have a lot of latitude. thank you. >> mr. secretary, thank you very much for being with us. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> we will now move onto the rest of our panel discussion. we have to distinguish panelists with us today. he have the mccain maryland state superintendent of schools. prior to her service there, she was governor markel's secretary of education in delaware, where she oversaw implementation of one of the first federal race to the top rants. before she served at the state level, she oversaw school districts in delaware, virginia, and indiana.

she holds a bachelor's from north carolina central university, a masters degree from central north carolina university, and a doctorate from virginia tech. let me call upon governor bentley to introduce our other panelists. >> thank you. introduceleasure to tina ross. i appointed her commissioner of the alabama department of children's affairs in 2012. as commissioner, gina has let a recent expansion of our states voluntary pre-k program, maintaining alabama's ranking among states as number one in program quality. she has 18 years of training and service in childhood programs, holding a masters degree from the university of alabama and a bachelors degree from the university of alabama at birmingham. i am proud to have gina here today to share alabama's

successful volunteer pre-k program. >> please join me in welcoming them. [applause] dr. lowery? >> thank you, governor. thank you, governor. we really appreciate and are honored to be here with you this morning. we are happy for this opportunity to highlight the state of maryland's successes and lessons learned through our early childhood education system over the last 12 years. at the conclusion of this presentation i will share recommendations that you may be able to apply to your states early childhood education system. the mission has been to get more children prepared for school and to narrow the school readiness gap with an eye on eliminating the achievement gap. how do we go about this? in 2000, maryland set up an

accountability system for early childhood education systems. the focus was not on sanctions, but on continuous program improvement. the accountability system immediately yielded positive results for several reasons. slide number one shows the domains and a number of assessment indicators from the maryland model for kindergarten assessment. first, we established metrics for measuring school readiness. then we actually customize an existing assessment. one that is predictive of third grade proficiency outcomes in reading and mathematics. over the past 12 years we have assessed all children as they enter kindergarten. slide number two shows the graph of our school readiness results. here, each years

kindergarten cohort was better prepared than the previous year. over 12 years, maryland closed the readiness gap by approximately 38%. as of 2013, 82% of our kindergartners enter school ready to learn. slide number three shows the comparison of low income to middle income kindergartners, with an emphasis on the narrowing of the school readiness cap in terms of socioeconomic status. these data charts, highlighted in slides one through three, our samples from our data collection. we also aggregate data by subgroup, experience, race, english language learners, and special education status. we will provide each of you with the most recent getting ready publication. ready at five is a program of the maryland business roundtable.

the abacus work at the state, local, and community levels are to increase knowledge and skills, raise awareness about the benefits of quality pre-k programs, and bolster statewide efforts to invest in the early years. every year we send these publications to principals, administrators, policymakers, and constituents in the early childhood community. we also involve the community in determining on how we can improve the results, a process of called results-based accountability. after the first two to three years of participating in the results-based accountability system, communities embrace the system and started to line up their programs. with their children matriculating into kindergarten, they met school readiness outcome. local education agencies, school districts, they included strategies developed by the results-based system in their annual master plan. the data has been included in

the annual legislative budget analysis. governor o'malley is an advocate and his support of early childhood development and learning is characteristic of maryland's leaders throughout the years. marylandand the legislature passed the landmark school finance law that included full-day kindergarten for all schools and access to public school prekindergarten for any andly eligible for free reduced meals. the maryland, general assembly passed and the governor signed into law the earlyidation of all childhood programs into the department of education, creating a new departmental position. in 2008 governor o'malley created a state advisory council on early childhood education. this council became instrumental in developing the plan from the race to the top early challenge

grant. in 2011 maryland was one of the first recipients of the early learning challenge grant. we have used the early learning challenge grant resources to build on the states earlier successes. we have built a quality rating and improvement system for care. the headstart is called maryland excels. we have revised early learnings standards for career ready standards. in the area of readiness assessment, the doctor is right behind me and is the brain trust on all of this. we have been selected as a fiscal agent for a newly awarded united states department of education for consortium seven states. together these states will develop a universal readiness assessment. this year governor o'malley introduced legislation and pre-k beyondpand

the previous mandates set forth in 2002. this funding will incentivize public and private partnerships as illustrated in slide four, showing the public-private partnership of action. on this slide you can sue the updated mechanism for funding prekindergarten. state aid includes funding for establishing public kindergarten for all economically disadvantaged four-year-olds. the new program will expand access to prekindergarten for families under 300% of the ,ederal poverty guidelines expanding public prekindergarten classrooms to community-based early childhood programs. result of these ongoing funding opportunities, public and private investments in school years 13 and 14, 8 out of 10 maryland kindergartners began school ready to learn, with a better start and improved educational opportunities.

in closing i share the following recommendations based around lessons learned. consolidate early education into your department of education and online early education with elementary and secondary education. efficiencies are long-term, tremendous efforts in the mission to improve student achievement and close the achievement gaps. look for smart investments in early education to give you the greatest chance to impact school readiness, such as universal kindergarten and high-quality prekindergarten programs. introduce reliable and valid school readiness measures that enable educators and staff to intervene strategically before children reach the third grade. finally, make sure to engage families in all aspects of this process, especially families for whom pre-kindergarten education is but only one of their many

challenges. thank you. >> ms. ross? [applause] [applause] >> thank you, governors, for inviting alabama to address the education in the committee. i appreciate governor bentley to provide perspective on our state's efforts for improving early childhood education. will be on the success of alabama's pre-k for four-year-olds. the à la bop -- alabama department of school affairs administers first-class pre-k for the most highly acclaimed program in nationally recognized quality. it is a diverse delivery much sought after early childhood education program for excellence, including the short-term and long-term benefits.

under governor bentley's leadership, high quality and greater access have been a significant effort. through hard economic times, governor bentley has remained committed to pre-k expansion. the incremental implementation of this program with technical assistance for quality, accountability, and support. different programs were added to or competitive grant program -- process. grant classese-k throughout the state. last year a 9.4 million -- $9.4 million increase was given to expand alabama's first class.

enhancing the quality of existing program serving four-year-olds. increasing access from six percent to nine percent. community-based, military-based programs. faith-based programs as well. early childhood professionals worked to develop across the state, and now refined, the alabama first-class pre-k framework. this means monitoring for a replicate of a model for high quality pre-k programs. the goal would be to provide access to volunteering for high quality pre-k in alabama for

parents who choose to have their child participate. the classrooms are selected through a competitive rant process. this process carefully examines criteria, indicating the ability to meet specific quality assurances and abide by rigorous operating guidelines, as well as current access available in the communities. visitors have hit potential sites to evaluate the conditions of a proposed class. there are three competitive grant options available each year. first crass -- first-class plus grants or new classes with material and equipment started on the first-class tier grants for the poverty level and excellence grants for existing programs that are to become first-class. isernor bentley's position that all children deserve the benefits of early learning experiences that have been

proven to profoundly impact and influence a child's success in school and throughout life. he fully supports and advocates for high quality, diverse delivery, voluntary pre-k that has structures in place for accountability and program excellence. he is actively involved in what our department is doing to expand and develop pre-k and routinely asks or visits in his office to talk about pre-k. on many occasions he has visited classrooms to see, firsthand, what a good quality early learning environment looks like and how the children are doing. he takes the time to talk to the children, meet their parents, and encourage the teachers. a study on the benefits and faith-based pre-k bien in early november, early reports indicating significant successful educational outcomes. the results were grouped by the

alabama state department of education, showing first-class pre-k students consistently over time and across grades score higher in reading, math, with fewer days missed at school, less likely to repeat a grade, less likely to need special education services. the benefits of first-class pre-k were even more lowounced for children from income families. positive academic subjects demonstrated first-class reach a participation, closing the achievement gap for lower income students by an average of 25%. worked closely with the alabama department of education and the headstart collaboration offices in providing grants to enhance the quality of existing headstart and title i programs. challenges we have faced include

the mandates and headstart requirements. having flexibility, particularly with regards to the selection criteria associated with income levels, that would be very beneficial to further developing the comprehensive system of high-quality services in alabama. program islass pre-k designed to provide an enriched environment with authentic, appropriate experiences for developing in the socioeconomically mixed classroom. governor bentley's leadership is shaping the future of alabama. he has called for funding to provide greater access to high-quality pre-k, supporting a grassroots program development, detailing expectations for accountability. the federalto

vision for expanding access and improving quality. the federal government could be helpful in realizing the common elements by respecting the states ability for uniquely identifying the needs of our children. in closing, recommendations for , goodt include expansion teachers, credentials, well-paid. ongoing assessment of children's development. thank you. [applause] >> let me start off asking both of you about what is going on in your state in this area. i know that when most of us talk about early childhood education and development, we zero in on pre-k, meaning for most of us

four-year-old. those first few years of life are variable in the development -- very important in the development of those children so that they can perform one therefore, five, and on up. in kentucky we have the hand program, a partnership between our health and human services toartment and education bring in folks to at risk homes. teaching them how to read and what to do to make sure that the child is ready to compete at the four-year-old age. >> a model that we have that is , congressmanst

shey hoyer and his wife worked closely with the state department of education to create the judy centers. they are from birth to elementary school affiliated with title i schools, housed in the title i schools or in a center nearby. starts from childcare at zero for parents who are working or parents who want their children to start socially interacted. headstart, not only do we have a community base for the publicly , butrogram by the school headstart can also be part of the program. students are in a community where families come in and get arun singh. -- get parenting.

understand better and better why these prekindergarten programs are so culturally important in going forward to the rest of their school experiences. we have data very much like alabama this experience really does progress students in ways that they are accomack -- academically outperforming peers. the judy centers, among many models, i think it is on of the most comprehensive ones. 0 toes really address high school graduation. overseas, administers, and nts.s rants -- gra each model has its place, we use , whichent-teacher model

is birth to five years old. we have been nurse family partnership model which actually visits with young mothers and parents before the child is born. we train home visitors within a community to go into the home and provide literacy instruction and guidance to families. we feel like we are serving a great number of families through one of three models. the parents are the child's first and most important teacher , and we want to do everything we can to support them. for your great presentations. --m curious, have you have as you develop this pre-k and public and private, what the reaction has been from the with theector

additional requirements for those that are providing the instruction? finally, what the reaction was to a grading system. >> when we rolled out the we had aexcel system, -- transition,d because we asked people to volunteer. some of our private directors were concerned about the standards, and how that could impact them and their bottom line. these standards that we set to these publicly funded school programs. programsd out with 200 , and they were pretty skeptical at first, a little nervous about it. we have a waiting list now that justst tremendous because like the governor said, once they got in and started to know that the information that was

being given to them was not only going to improve the quality which goes on a state website and parents choose from that website, they were given reimbursement rates on the quality of their program. they work hand-in-hand with us, and became ambassadors for selling that program. i think our private owners and community-based owners are very much engaged in the excel program. we do appreciate the quality they get from it, and the funding. hours has been mostly positive. it is a stretch for some of the childcare centers, particularly that do not have the funds and are barely scraping to get by. because ours is a competitive grant progress -- process, they are given the support they need to get to that level quality they need. there are assurances because -- thatw that they know

they know they will have to meet. other early learning a success they are having, and they want to have this as well. it has been a peer to peer effect. >> thank you. the question for commissioner how to get state-funded pre-k off the ground and rolling. it a fewed supporting years ago in north dakota, our legislature did not go along with the idea. we have a problem with the constituencies involved. we did not get support from headstart, they were not interested in integrating what they're doing with anyone else. the private providers were not

really supportive. the daycare people will not really supportive. we had a hard time hiding the constituency -- finding the constituency. we're talking now about the possibility of a scholarship for four-year-olds, that could be certifiedy state pre-k program, public or private , with standards, obviously. have heardng if you of that approach, or what you think of it? >> i think the original first-class, they were just for pilot sites -- four pilot sites. those pilot sites up and going, and there was a grant

from the operation region that provided more funding. then once you see what you get the parents started asking for it. there was a demand for this program in our state. mental, --anger incremental, start with a few pilot sites, and you will create a demand for it. anyone else? on his picking up statement. in montana, we have full kindergarten, we have not had a meaningful pre-k program. one thing that we should not forget is 29 of the 46 states that have state chambers have come out and worked on this in the business roundtables.

part of where we are going to focus his this is actually an investment and economic development, if the business community gets behind it, i think the rest of the world will follow. optimistically, >> i need some clarification. as you heard me earlier, i am concerned about budgeting. have -- that we don't spend beyond our means. if you're trying to make a program available to all four-year-olds in alabama, it is hard to predict how many four-year-olds will want the program. is the money going to the student, or the going to private , or the going to the public school system? >> it is a grant process, it is competitive.

it is required to have a 25% match that the grantee has to come up with, whether it be from arvices -- if they are at public school, they can count their speech therapist. they can match the funds that they put in. scale, have a sliding that can actually charge a fee. that helps tremendously. >> tuition possibly? >> there can be. of westam the principal side elementary, and i the kindergarten class, and i want to have a pre-k 44-year-olds -- four-year-olds, where do

i get my match money? >> if you're a preschool, you can figure out what the rent would be on that commercial space in that community, and you can count your school nurse. you can count your speech therapist who comes in and gives therapy to three of the children. and some of the public school thisi have worked in, grant might pay for 60% of a class, and we would be charging a little but of tuition on a inding scale, it was late that english language learner funds. it would randomly select those with title i those funds, we would select according to the title i appropriated. it is an interesting way to do it, but it coordinate your

workams, i have to together. >> what would you should just to be the percent of which -- up four-year-olds that voluntarily participate? >> we have moved into nine percent throughout our state. we have waitlists in every county. some classes actually have 60 children on the waitlist to go in. >> you're not able to accommodate all of them? >> we are not. but we expect to expand year-by-year and accommodate all of them. >> unfortunately, we have run out of time. lowery --nk both dr. [applause] have 140 days until our workforce convened again in july

at the nga annual meeting. we have discussed how we can move the beetle -- the needle on critical issues. governors are doing their part to address the significant talent is to education and creating jobs. we must now do their part, we believe this can make substantial progress on three key issues. one, restore the workforce investment act. advocacyee years of and pressure on congress, the set-aside was increased from five percent to 8.75% last month. that means over $100 million more in taxable federal funds for states to support workforce innovation and though governors appreciate this, we should use this momentum to continue to call on congress to fully restore the 15% wia set aside this year during the fiscal year

2015 appropriations process. number two, fixed the college axis alleged -- college axis challenge program. ca cg is broken. ensuring that low income students can attend college is a priority for everyone at this table. withholding funds. based on a flawed formula is no reason to deny students across our country a chance to go to college. we willext 180 days work with the u.s. department of education to, with how to fix programd to ensure that ensures access for all students. career and technical legislation. we can bridge the transition between high school and post secondary act of these by providing students with real world skills to better prepare

for the 21st century work life. reauthorization of cte policy overdue, the workforce committee will put forward guiding principles for the reauthorization of the program that insures ability for the states to craft cte programs, to meet each unique situation, to allow states to more effectively align state programs with the state work force needs, and supports a determined -- state determined accountability. we will follow that with drafted legislation at the nga annual meeting in july. sandoval? >> thank you for your participation. we have set this aside in nevada, and we have used it for the jag program to meet that goal that governor herbert

talked about. it is important for this committee to be together on this issue in terms of giving us more flexibility. >> a feel quick announcements. ensuring children have reliable byess to nutritious food, adopting an nga policy making child nutrition a focus of this committee. to build on this work, nga is partnering with share our strengths to convene a state summit on reducing childhood hunger. to raise awareness about the issue, and develop policies focus on ending child hunger. snyder has graciously agreed to host the summit, and i hope that all governors will be able to send top senior level advisors to detroit, michigan on march 18 and 19th to determine long-term strategies to

improve state policies. kentucky and indiana will cost a joint meeting of the governors workforce liaisons and state workforce investment shares in 7-i august 1uly 20 -- july 27 through august 1. again, thank you to everyone for for the spacing here today -- participating today. we stand adjourned. [applause]

>> in about 30 minutes we will be live back at the national governors association meeting for a discussion about problems with prescription drug abuse in the states. that is scheduled to start at 2:45 p.m. eastern time. congress comes back into session this week after a week off for presidents day. we spoke with a capitol hill reporter about what is on the agenda. with the house and senate returning from the president's a recess, we are joined by pete kasperowicz who looks ahead to the week ahead in the house and the senate. they come back with a bill that deals with flood insurance. how does it deal with what the senate passed last week? >> we do not know yet. it was still being written as of friday afternoon. we know that house republican leaders think that the senate bill goes a little bit too far in getting ready some of the --

rid of some of the reforms passed in 2012. we will see rates go up as part ill, right now we just have the general outline. we will hopefully see it over the weekend. >> one of the terms that has been the hot watchword has been unfunded mandates. what would this do? >> this goes back 20 years almost to 1995 when bill clinton signed the bill meant to reduce unfunded mandates, order from sayingeral government you must do this, but there's money to do it and -- no money to do it and it cost states lots of money. we need to carve down even more, the government is finding ways around this.

rules andthrow regulations back of the stage without any money to let them fund these activities. >> we understand that the house may take up a bill dealing with the irs. the headline on the hill says that the house could go after the irs. >> if you look at it more expensively, the big thing is the republicans reacting to the targeting on the conservative groups. they're going to have a bill the irs is looking at regulations, saying let's codify rules that we will put in place for starboard like vocal groups -- certain political groups. the big one next week that would stop that regulation from taking place until they fully investigate this targeting scandal.

taxe does that packers -- money go, how is it that? -- it spent? we heard all last year the anger firm republicans -- from republicans. >> a supreme court case, you tweeted about it, saying that ut it.use will try to got what would it propose to do? >> not everyone disagrees with that, but a lot of people say that the supreme court is making it too easy for the government at all levels to take property away if they decide that some other owner might do more with the economically and create more tax revenue for the state and local government. if you went to high school, and

learned the consequences of a , what -- eminent domain the supreme court says is that valid public use should take the property if it can take more money with it in tax revenue. a lot of conservatives are strongly opposed to this, was 10 years ago now. what we will see next week is basically a prohibition that says that the government cannot do this. so many bills that they've passed, one was passed similar to this in the last congress, and never went anywhere. they may not like the decision, but whether or not it can go anywhere, it is based on the relationship between the house and the senate these days. >> the word is that the chairman of the ways and means committee is set to release some of the proposed tax they just -- chabngnges.

any proposed breadcrumbs? involveow that it will a drop in the individual and corporate market rate. the goal should be to broaden the base of averages rates on everybody. save even moreen money if changing the tax system promotes growth. know that we're not sure where this will go in the future, we are already talking elections, and people want to get something going because it requires a lot of hard decisions . lastly, the senate is back thatweek on the two issues are generally coming out, the extension of the unemployment insurance benefits and raising

the minimum wage. vede either of those mo forward? >> my guess would be at this point it is too early to think something will happen next week. leader harry reid said we are just one vote away from advancing the unemployment insurance bill musso they're working on some sort of legislation. videe has been such a di between the two parties, and neither side has been much -- bent much. minimum wage would probably take a little bit longer, but we know that they want to bring something up t. >> you can read the reporting of twitter,erowicz on thank you for the time.

>> angus king of maine will deliver the reading of washington's farewell address every year. at 5:00 p.m., a debate is maier, a for jeffrey devoted to food forward that at 5:30 p.m. -- a vote to move forward with that at 5:30 p.m. debate toe house, a delay an irs rule that would limit the political activities of some tax exempt groups. live on our companion network c-span2. afghanistan, in and the obama's administration -- obama administration's plans to withdraw. while many of the governors are still in washington, arkansas beebe will be

discussing health care. arkansas was the first date to get federal approval to use money from medicaid to purchase private insurance. before the governors return for their next session, here is a look at what i was terry branstad had to say. host: all day here we are covering the winter meeting of the nga. one of those participants is iowa governor, terry branstad. guest: thank you for having me this morning. host: earlier this year you announced seeking a sixth term. are you now the longest-serving governor ever in the history of this country? this country? no, the, the --guest:

first-ever governor of new york, george clinton, a revolutionary war general, was elected under the articles of confederation and served 21 years. he has the record in all of american history. host: why are you seeking a sixth term? i love the state of iowa. i think i am making a difference. we got our financial house in order. we passed major education reform with property tax relief. health and wellness plan designed to get people to take ownership, we have iowa going a good direction. we brought the unemployment rate down from 6.1 to four point two percent. i love what i am doing, we have a good team, i have more work to do, we have more than we want to accomplish. we have one phone line set aside for those of you living in iowa. act: the affordable care

was a reversal on how you viewed impactlementation of the on residents. why the change? all, what we did was come up with our own plan. we want to be the healthiest state in the nation. at the des moines medical school we did health risk assessments on all faculty staff and students, we encouraged people to set their own goals. we found that this work effectively. now what we have done -- we had to get labor to do this, and i have a split legislature, so it was a delicate situation to work out, but we called the iowa health and wellness plan. people need to pay a modest premium if they are below the made youevel, but that health risk assessments and if they do that the state will refund them the cost of the premium and that way they can know what their risk factors are

and what they can do to reduce them. are also working, obviously, to encourage people not to use tobacco products, exercise, good nutrition -- all of those things that can make us a healthier state. the affordable care act, or obamacare, is unaffordable and unsustainable in the long term. we know there are a lot of problems with it. we also want to make sure we are doing all that we can to help iowans and make sure that iowans are doing the kinds of things that can help them live a healthier, longer life. why not go ahead with the straight expansion of medicaid? not affordable or sustainable. i have watched medicaid expand and expand over the last several decades as the health of americans goes downhill. we are trying to do the opposite. we are trying to improve the

health of our citizens and get people to take ownership of their own health. we did work on a compromise between the senate democrats and the house republicans on our health and wellness plan. we then had to get the labor from hhs. it took until almost christmas eve before they gave us the waiver. this is an opportunity for us to demonstrate how we as a state can do a better job of providing opportunities for our citizens to live longer and healthier lives. what are the priorities when the house republicans return this week? according to eric cantor it is to look for ways not to replace obamacare, because even republicans know that i will not happen, but to fix the current law? my question to you is -- what advice can you give lawmakers, democrats and republicans, that would be valuable in today's political context to change or

fix the affordable care act? what needs to be done? give states the flexibility to adapt to their own needs and give them the opportunity to do innovative things that can help to actually improve the health rather than just have this federal isernment mandate that it too expensive, not workable. obviously it is more than hhs can handle. they have proven that with their disastrous rollout of the system. they could not even give us the information about the people that we wanted to enroll in the health and wellness plan. so, after their system failed, we gave people an opportunity to sign-up on our system and it has worked much more effectively. conversation with governor terry branstad, now in -- fifth term, seeking rina reelection in november. democratic line, good morning.

good morning. the republican party is just living off the stimulus package programs that president obama put into office. but you do not want to seemed to want to give him any credit for helping out your states. first of all, i have two parts. you republicans are against the minimum wage that would help me as a people. you are also for farm subsidies and you are against [indiscernible] and it is hurting citizens. there are people who need the medicaid and your state. your state is going to receive federal dollars and you reject are thetly because you ideology of the republican party. obviously he is from georgia and does