my question is, analyzing a situation that happened in tikrit. you mentioned that sunni tribes played a role in expelling isis from the city. how important it is for the iraqi government to have the best cooperation of the tribes not only for the outcome of the operation to clear mosul? ambassador faily: to your second question -- and that is -- unless it is catastrophic. but geopolitically, what was requested is we get the engagement of locals. whatever it takes, whatever we

need to do that, but we are determined to have the localities to participate in it. and also what you might call or they call it here the post-stabilization forces. that is another issue. that is an area we are working on. mosul, the scale of the city the police officers, the local services, needed to be provided, bear in my we have a clock that is ticking and we have refugees inside the country. refugees always create social upheaval in any area they go to because of the nature of that problem itself, accommodations schools, everything else. we need them to go back to their homes. it is an area we have come to before, that politically we know each other, preconditions of localities. as far as washington is concerned, and i am an open

book, as you know. in essence, there are quite a few requests we have made. the key issue we have had has been the administration. the administration has been very understanding of the challenges. because of the people and the traffic flow on both sides and the relationship with officials. however, we do have an issue with congress for them to appreciate the politics. as far as the issue of blaming everything on prime minister maliki, we need to move away from that. we have common interests. understanding of politics and the nuances of it is a mission for us. we are here to sell our project. we need customers. we need others to buy into

it. we need to explain that, and the prime minister is here to do that. we also appreciate that there are certain politics in washington where both houses are partisan or bipartisan. we need to understand that and communicate our concern. we do need u.s. support to not just appreciate the politics but we want them to appreciate our politics as well. and be our partner moving forward. here it is important for us to cooperate, understand each other, and, i would say, not just work with each other, but synchronize our approach to this. here, the united states has

important role in the region. they could be our partners moving forward. our mission needs to be embraced by them as well. iraq is a too much credit -- iraq is a democratic entity. people have the decision. with all of the people we have had over the 12 years, the trend of democracy is moving forward to elections. people tell me the election is not democratic. but the key indicator, the key prerequisite for us, is moving in the right direction, at a very high cost. people want to move far away from dictatorship. the last elections and the incoming prime minister are a sign that people want to move away from any dictator. we need to move away from that and we are here to tell that project.

support in intelligence sharing, ammunitions, other things as well is important. also, with the situation polarizations are taking place in the region. we have shiites, sunnis, anything you have. in relation to oil prices and everything else. appreciate the situation. an earthquake has taken place in the fault line, stabilized, supported. it's important for our american partners to hear from the prime minister himself and his delegation, but this is what we have. economic support moving forward because of the current crisis we have. there are a lot of issues. this is what you might call a 10 minute visit. i would say no. it needs to be one among many

to have that discussion. in baghdad as well, it's important for that. we should not have politics by exception. it should be the norm. there is a lot of work to do. discussions about iran is an area. we would be open about that. we don't have any secretive deals. no secret handshakes or anything like that. our clear problems we have clear and present danger we have, we need to address that. we will have that discussion. and we need to understand where we are in relation to the postnuclear discussion. where do we fit into the post yemen situation? we don't want to be on the other side. we have important challenges for our country.

>> one here, and then i will try to get to this side next. >> thank you, i had a specific question. first, you mentioned the most of operation. and the localities. what do you mean about the localities and what level of participation is baghdad expecting from the localities? there was recently a background briefing by officials, and they said that there might be an operation in mosul. is it a realistic forecast in terms of this operation? secondly, yemen. what is the position of baghdad about the idea to form an army

within the arabic countries that will be used for groups oriented by the government? and third, in terms of your relations with turkey, how would you characterize the cooperation between the turkish government and the baghdad government and the struggle against terrorism that you mentioned? mr serwer: only the turks get three questions. margaret rogers: i started working in iraq in 2005. i appreciate the 3rs as well and the challenges with reclaiming iraq. while you have addressed these challenges, i would like you to

try to be a little more explicit. while what i see as the major media coverage of iraq from a westerners standpoint is sectarianism, a war within islam overwhelming the middle east. is, in fact, that is what is really going on? the second is a lawn controls baghdad. the third is that iraq is forever broken into three or four countries that cannot be put back together. you know the challenges of persuading our policy makers to support iraq given the americans desire to withdraw. i think you have to make a more compelling case that there is hope in iraq. just try to make your message stronger about how you are to address these key areas.

ambassador faily: i will start with the second question, or second three questions. the whole project is about hope. suffering -- having car bombs in every district, in shia towns and villages and suburbs of iraq over the last 12 years has been about hope. that is what they have suffered. high representation at the elections has been about hope. people talk about the marginalization of sunnis and others, but if you look at everything with the car bombs and everything else, it has been shiite. we may not have been doing a good job of talking about the country with numbers and so on maybe. but going back to the key point, we're developing a new

country with the ashes of dictatorship all over, with traces of cultural balance all over. that is a key point for people to realize. i am not giving you the blame. i am just giving you a diagnosis of the problem. the 3rs, the government is a key important attribute. we are that. i can assure you i have seen many ministers and director generals who say, ambassador it is not for me to make that decision. they always want to take it upward. that is the culture they come from. they don't want to be blamed for any change. without having an adventure or risk taking, how do you develop your society? these have social consequences. they take time.

they take generations, but we have to get the right steps. going to the key issues of sectarian and muslim. i know there is boko haram and what happened in two nisi a recently, and paris -- tunisia recently, and paris. this was about a group having to -- trying to have political power. it's all about power. there is an ideological basis or some of them. i am not saying that. but for a long time in england the situation was not about being catholic. it was about power. the ira was ideologically catholic. but it was all about power. so here is the issue we need to distinguish. otherwise, unfortunately everybody else will miss

out. the organization seeks to destroy the norms of nationstates. they want to create a paradigm where diversity is not allowed. in relation to iran in our relationship with baghdad, somebody asked me today, a journalist, about the iraq-iran war. iraq still has major challenges with relation to the 1975 algeria agreement. we still don't agree to sign it. now, after 12 years. so that i think is a clear sign that and issued -- an issue -- here is an issue of nationalism.

we have a need with iran. we have a desire as a neighbor. as much as you have mexico and problems with immigration or canada -- i don't know what problems you have with canada. perhaps none. mr serwer: we have fought several wars with them. ambassador faily: canadians want to be american and americans want to be canadian. that's another issue. it's not that we don't want them to get involved. we do want them to get involved. but do we want them in control? no. last week, our prime minister met with the leaders of congress at the summit and said to them, in my recent discussion with iranian officials, they said because of the freedom in iraq, we pose a threat to iranian national interests, with freedom.

maybe that is true or not, but the point is we are distinct and we want to have our own way of life. we respect our neighbors and we have common threats. as to the point of most all and the operations and so on, there have to be riots in peshmerga involved. there have to be various -- tribes and peshmerga involved. there have to be various communities involved. we don't want one problem to create another problem for us. that's an issue we have to address. isis is a problem for the whole society, not just for localities. so as far as yemen is

concerned, we do support the formation of an arab army to deal with issues, but that is a project for another time. problems are more domestic. people are projecting it as a regional problem. we need to support them. certainly, we think there needs to be a more political discussion. we need a little breathing space before politics plays a role. in turkey, if we compare the relationship to a year ago, 18 months ago, i think we have a good traffic flow between the countries, the leadership. the prime minister of turkey has been to iraq. we appreciate the issues of the threat turkey claims and relation to its own terrorism

problems, but please do not compare isis to any other organization. this is too big of a problem. regions have to play a significant role in stabilizing syria. for us, and regards to syria we have the back door open. we need to close that. the timing that was talked about was not an iraqi timeline. we need help and support, but anybody talking about the timeline is not us. johnny: johnny from voice of america. if this continues, what

guarantee deal have that occurred to stan region -- do you have that the kurdistan region will stay in iraq? there is a lot of fear and hesitation that if they are crashed, they will turn their guns to the kurds. mr serwer: let me take one over here. >> than give very much. my question is regarding the participation of peshmerga in mosul. while cutting all the sources from baghdad to the kurds, why

is peshmerga participating in a fight that is not its fight? they are fighting isis. thank you very much. ambassador faily: i am astonished by somebody saying it is not their fight. a threat to the border. a threat to all minorities. destruction of property, culture, heritage, destabilizing the unity of a country. these are all part of somebody site. with isis, it is everybody's fight. ambassador faily: i don't want to talk about the kurds. i would say it is a fight for humanity, for civil law to prevail.

those are the key issues we have here. isis is a threat in the ideological and physical sense to not just the heritage but to the future of our societies in the region. by the way, let me be clear. when i talk about isis, i am talking about the ideas of isis, the way it has been materialized. if i am isis and i want to change the name, i will talk about the new name, the new mutation of isis. people found that it cannot be contained. more aspects are now with our affiliation to isis than ever

before. we find this in baghdad and elsewhere, iraq and elsewhere. here we talk about a threat to the region. if they don't take that on themselves, they shouldn't call for national support. if it is ideological, we need to address it. if it is political problems. in relation to natural resources, heritage, history, so on. the bigger picture, the kurds and everybody need to be strategic in their thinking. by the way, let me be clear as well. the kurds always seek independence.

they joined the project in 2003 after 13 years of independence. they have agreed to the constitution. we all need to work together. we coexist and have that interdependency. if they want independence, let's have a different chat about it. but isis is a bigger threat for us than all. i think we need to mature up to that fact. otherwise, let's not call for national support. recently, there were some payments made. it's an ongoing discussion. i don't see iraqi politics as what you might call a key milestone. i see it is a gradual

development. it's a marathon. i don't see it as 100 yards or 400 yards or any sprint. this has to be a marathon. we need to have that designation. we should be less conditional in our discussions. simply because i think the threat is bigger. not just because of the state of iraq, but i am talking about society. the last thing i want to see is a less strategic relationship between communities because of a threat or because of fear, because of intimidation of each other. your neighbors should stay your neighbors. regarding the first question, i think i tried to answer

that. it is a natural, healthy development once the state is able to protect the citizens. should we be in this position? no. we should have only the army and so on. but is it necessary we have to deal with that? yes. are we doing a day after scenario in regards to letting states have control, talking about the national guard and so on. it is necessary for us to work on. mr serwer: thank you, mr. ambassador. i am going to use these last few minutes to see if you have anything to add. mr. kadhim: i am going to yield to the ambassador because he is the guest of honor, but i do want to respond to a question about the media.

there seems to be a lot of -- again, we all appreciate the press and its role and we cannot live without it. ambassador faily: i could live without it, but. mr serwer: but beyond that, i think that there seems to be an alarming groupthink in the reports about iraq and what is going on. conservative, liberal, american, whatever, all of them speak in the same language talk about the same things looking for the same troubles to report on, and when they don't find anything, they just look for anything. one of the biggest battles that happened in iraq, major liberation of tikrit, a major advance that is probably the

most important step taken, and what does the first report on it? they have looted some shaving cream and toothpaste. i am kidding you not. you go back to that report and that is what they are looking for. there also seems to be atone of people conflating shia and iran and hezbollah. there is a deep rooted -- some really deep symptoms of anti-shiism among so many experts in the west, so many journalists. i am speaking here for someone who wrote the book, one of the earliest, a classic on the air of shia -- arab shia, and no

one can skip its reading. i am looking at how the narrative has been formed. those who control the media from the government side and the shia side, to me it seems that is what they do not want to escalate, and that is what is backfiring because if you do not control the narrative or balance the narrative, the other side will become the truth too many minds. remember, i am dealing with people who do not have the nuances or inner sense of what is going on here. there is a problem. one is taking from the other. how many towels were taken from five star hotels in the green zone where people -- how many words were taken from five heart -- five star hotels in the green zone where people were sent to report?

when you go and investigate, none have it was really going on. it's easy to check a journalistic box and say the same thing because you do not have to be challenged. and that is the exception here. it's an amazing agreement among all of these people who love to agree on everything, but they agree on the last points. and if you don't find anything how about shaving cream and toothpaste. ambassador faily: i think it is important for people to appreciate a rack in one parameter, the balance between

justice and peace -- appreciate iraq in one parameter, the balance between justice and peace. at the same time, they want to move forward and bring stability and peace to their society. how do we get that balance? the key issue is how do we balance justice and peace? it is a difficult problem for us. we are trying to give it a try but it is an ongoing project. so keep that mindset in mind as well. the other issue i will finish with is that the level of change required in iraqi society is different than in other countries. people are disagreeing in egypt and elsewhere.

what is the level of change? is it the president and ceo? the system of government or the whole nation state? that type of discussion is no longer taking place in iraq. isis tried to define their own narrative, but beyond that it's all to do with the nuances of the politics. we need to resolve the governance. people still associate democracy was services. you can have the best democrats but it doesn't mean they have the best governors. that's an area for us to work with. that support would be very helpful, but keep in mind the uniqueness of iraq. and please do not look at iraq through a prism.

it needs to be looked at in its own unique way. the uniqueness is something i hope of americans will appreciate more than anything else because of the last 12 years project. however, we have no desire but to have a good relationship with all countries including the united states. we may not say thank you enough. that is part of our culture, unfortunately, but we do need and want to have that relationship with the united states strategically. thank you. mr serwer: it is in our culture to say a loud thank you to you for being so frank with us. you are a marathoner, and we are only halfway through this session, but our time has run out and it is time to thank you

very much for a terrific hour and a half. the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> congress returns from a 2-week break next week with several items on the agenda. the house is expected to consider bills on tax code policy and irs oversight. meanwhile, the senate begins the

week considering a judicial nomination for the southern district of texas. also pending in the senate is an anti-human trafficking bill that failed to advance last month after several procedural attempts. for more on the week ahead, we talked to a capitol hill reporter. >> with congress set to return after a two week recess, huffington post congressional reporter laura barron-lopez on what to expect in the house and senate in the next few weeks. this coming week, the senate foreign relations committee plans to mark up chairman bob corker's bill on the iran nuclear framework agreement. you write about it in your article, laura, gop steadfast on passing iran bill despite obama's plea to stand down. what would the senator's bill do and what kind of support does it have among senate republicans and democrats? >> well, thanks for having me.

so what senator corker's bill does is it essentially gives congress a chance to weigh in on the iran nuclear deal, the framework that the administration just announced last week. and so it either would let them vote on it. vote for the framework. vote against it. or do nothing on it. and so it kind of puts a halt on whatever final deal they have for 60 days. and there's a good amount of support within the republican conference for it. but republicans do need democrats to come over to get a veto-proof majority. >> also next week, the budget resolution that passed the house and senate before the break heads to conference committee. you tweeted yesterday that house budget chair price and senate budget chair enzi met today to chat 2016 budget plans and ready for conference next week. what are some of the main differences they need to work out?

>> so they need to work out the difference in defense spending. both the house gop and the senate gop budgets aim to boost military spending but they have different amount in their budget and have to reconcile that. they also have to reconcile in how far they're going to go in repealing obamacare in their separate budget plans. >> turning to the senate, the anti-human-trafficking bill was at an impasse due to abortion language. what's the status of that and how does that impact moving ahead with the loretta lynch nomination for attorney general? >> it impacts loretta lynch a lot because senate majority leader mcconnell has said they aren't going to be moving forward on lynch's nomination unless the human trafficking bill is pushed forward. like you said, in order to to have the votes on that they need to figure out the abortion

language on that bill. >> you wrote regarding the house that the first 100 days has been a learning process for the republicans. tell us why that is and what we can expect key bill-wise over the next few weeks and into may. >> as you know, the senate is now controlled by a republican majority and so it's been a little bit of a rocky start for republicans in both the house and senate. in the senate they spent a month and a half on keystone knowing it was going to be vetoed. but senator john thune said there was a commitment they were going to vote on that. a matter of honor. in the house, there was the lockheed/dhs battle followed closely by a budget debated

where the house gop leadership had to put two different budget plans on the floor in order to make sure that one passed. they really had to work with their deficit and their defense talks ahead of time to make sure that one of the budgets pass. i spoke with congressman mulvaney who is pretty upset with leadership. he's a republican from south carolina and he was saying that he wants more republican voices to be heard more. we'll see how that plays out in the months ahead. when they get back next week how majority leader kevin mccarthy, they're going to be focusing on some tax bills. there's also possibility that they may vote on reauthorization of the patriot act, but that's not for certain. >> laura barron-lopez of the huffington post. you can catch her on twitter, @lbarronlopez.

laura barron-lopez, thanks very much for being with us today. >> thank you.

>> virginia governor terry mcauliffe outlined his state's early childhood programs yesterday at an event hosted by the center for american progress in washington dc. governor mcauliffe said that it is a cost-saving measure of that ensures virginia will have the workforce of the future. >> good morning everyone, i am thrilled to have governor mcauliffe here today. neera: we will discuss the values of states and communities taking action on early childhood action. really happy to have him at the center for american progress. he has been a leader on this issue as on so many issues. early indications are that it is a bright spot in the national policy landscape. it brings together diverse leaders at the city and state and federal level. at the state level and local

level, we have bipartisan leaders who have been really focusing on these issues. i believe that is because really there has been incredible data points on the return on investment we get from early learning. early childhood programs not only even the playing field for children as they begin kindergarten, they also build a workforce that can drive future economic growth and ensure american businesses remain globally competitive. that is one reason president obama has called for more investment in early education. in december he brought together stakeholders including state and local policymakers, mayors superintendents, corporate community leaders, and advocates to discuss the importance of early education and to harness funds for early education. the next steps are to help communities implement proposals. state and local leaders are rushing to answer the call. states like pennsylvania georgia, virginia, and cities

like boston, indianapolis, and columbus have increased funding and expanded access. we are thrilled to have leaders from those communities today. but i am particularly honored to introduce governor mcauliffe, who has really focused on investments in early education. it is really from that perspective of human capital. we know that virginia is growing, growing very strongly. it has its lowest unemployment rate in 15 years. at 4.7%. congratulations, governor mcauliffe. congratulations. neera tanden: i think it is really the leaders focusing on the long-term, ensuring that those businesses will have human capital needs met not now but well into the future. that is where early investment makes sense. if you are investing a lot in k-12 it makes sense to invest in the early years as well

because we know that is the even start that kids need. we are honored to have governor mcauliffe here. he understands that prioritizing early childhood programs is essential to the virginia economy in the 21st century. and he has been instrumental in securing extension grants from the u.s. department of education. which will allow the commonwealth to serve an additional 1600 students in high-quality preschool classes in the first year. so we thought that it would be critical to have his voice here because he understands this not just as a governor but as a community leader that recognizes it as an important issue into the future. governor mcauliffe?

governor terry mcauliffe: good morning everybody, it is an honor to be here at c.a.p. and i thank the center for american progress for inviting me. the deputy secretary of education is here with me as well and we thank you for the opportunity. this is an important topic in the commonwealth of virginia and i would make the argument in the entire country. early childhood investment early childhood education, i make the argument, will determine the kind of workforce you will have for many years to come and if you are going to be competitive in a global economy, you better start early. it is an investment. when i became governor i inherited a $2.4 billion budget deficit that i had to work through so to convince folks to say, take money and invest here and try to close the budget deficit at the same time is challenging. we were able to do it. because we have consistently made the point that this is an investment and it is is an investment that will return over and over.

i want to thank the center this is such an important issue for virginia. and i would make the argument for the entire country as a whole. we have made tremendous progress in the commonwealth and we have a lot of work to do going forward. when i ran for governor in virginia, one of my campaign promises was an investment in pre-k early childhood development. i found it very important, it was one of the main things i ran on when i talked about workforce diversification and the economy. i knew that i would face headwinds. the leaders of the general assembly, basically, there are only 32 of the 100 democrats. i knew i had a challenge. the head of the delegates told me that pre-k was a total waste of money and something they were not interested in. i knew i had a challenge ahead of me. for me, what i had to do was encapsulate early childhood

development. into growing and diversifying the economy. virginia is very unique. we are the number one recipient of department of defense dollars. number one in the country. we have the largest naval base in the world. we have so many military assets, the pentagon, the cia, quantico. so when defenses funding it is great but when they are cutting back it has a dramatic impact on the economy. sequestration is a big marker for virginia and it could have a crippling effect on the economy. what i have tried to do was work with the general assembly to say that we have to grow the economy and be less reliant and build a diversified 20th century economy. human genome sequencing, cyber security, all of the jobs of the future. you cannot do that without the best educated workforce. the issue becomes when do you start education? this is something that became important working forward to building new economy and bring

them jobs. we have been very successful in virginia, very low unemployment, 351 economic development projects. we have brought in $6.44 billion of direct investment into virginia. not that anybody is counting but that is double any governor in virginia history. not that i am counting but it is important. because of the successful job creation and economic development i was able to forge a bipartisan relationship with the general assembly which realize that he is creating jobs so let's work with him which has helped us to move the ball and we have made tremendous progress. i don't about the economy, it is not just education. when i became governor we have legislation as it relates to women's issues. we have ended all about. we were going to shut down women's health clinics and that is gone. i have tried to make virginia open and welcoming to

everybody, i was the first candidate to come out for gay marriage. i did an executive order to allow gay couples to adopt. i am the first southern governor to perform a gay marriage in the world and the sky did not fall in. governor terry mcauliffe: my point is, open and welcoming. if you want to come to virginia and set up a business than we want to. investing in your education. historically, in virginia, on education. i recognize that we have a lot of things to do in virginia. 52% of our three and four year olds were not in school. think of that. with incomes below $20,000, 60% of the children were not in school. as i said in my state of the commonwealth address in january, if we are going to

lead in a global economy, we cannot wait until students reach kindergarten to begin preparing them for economic success. research tells us that 90% of a child's brain development goes on between birth and five years old. the point i am trying to make, let's not pick winners and losers at birth. your future should not be dependent on your parent's financial condition. if you do not do everything possible to maximize learning in early years, i clearly realize these children will not reach their full potential. and as a business person i can tell you that you invest early guess what? it saves you money on the backend. this is a cost-saving measure. it gives me the tools to be successful. 73% of our four-year-olds in

virginia today or not enrolled in publicly financed preschool programs which amounts to 76,000 children. more than a third of our young children live in economically depressed communities. they desperately need a generation of educated, highly skilled workers. we have parts of the commonwealth. we have seen the loss of oil textile, furniture, and tobacco. these have been ravaged by jobs going overseas, changes in economic conditions. we need to bring business back into these communities and you cannot do it unless you have a highly educated workforce and that workforce i would argue starts at pre-k. i make the business case every day to expand the pre-k initiatives. first and foremost i believe this is the partnership that we have established with the business community. i would make the argument to

every elected official here, why we have been successful in virginia is the virginia chamber of commerce and most community leaders have come out wholeheartedly to support the initiative. our virginia chamber of commerce, it is fair to say, probably about the most liberal organization ever put together. it has wholeheartedly supported my efforts on this and they came out with a blueprint virginia and said that the number one goal from the chamber of commerce is early childhood preschool. to have the business community this has made opportunities to work with the legislature. the top corporate leaders recognize in virginia that we will need 2 million workers in the future to support our state's economic growth.

we are doing great in virginia we have new businesses coming in, i have announced 351 economic development projects. we have brought projects in from all over the globe. i was one of the most traveled governors, i went to china and korea and europe. the largest investment by a chinese company ever into the united states, we just won that in virginia, $2 billion investment. we opened a new plant at appomattox. 150 years ago, generals lee and grant ended the civil war. we brought a company back, and old, shuttered furniture facility. we reopened that facility and turned it into a manufacturing

facility. and that manufacturing facility is now making pollution control devices. we are taking the pollution control devices, taking them to our report, the deepest on the east coast, and we are shipping them back to china and selling them back to china. you want to talk about a new economy, that is a new virginia economy. i was able to convince the ceos in china that we will have a workforce 10 or 15 or 20 years from today. they will not invest unless they are convinced you will have a workforce for 20 or 30 years and it starts with early childhood education. everybody is beginning to get on the bus and figure out what you need to compete in a global economy. every governor faces the same challenges that i have today. growing and diverse defying the economy. i think we have gotten to the

point were preschool, early childhood education is not a partisan issue at all. it is bipartisan and everybody needs to work together. as we move forward or do want to thank the department of education. as neera mentioned, junior was one of 18 states to receive regret that provided us with $17.5 million in the first year and they will continue. this was a grant that was hard to get, it was competitive and i am proud of the education team at work to get this together. the secretary of education, who happens to be married to the senator, so it is all in the family in virginia. as a result of this grant, we will serve 13,900 low income five-year-olds in a high quality setting in our virginia high school initiative. we have identified 11 school district for participation with a concentration on poverty, the

number of schools that are title one schools in the region, the number of unused slots available to the existing state pre-k program. you give money out, there has to be a match at the local level and if the community does not use it i sponsored legislation to prohibit using it in other areas. if you have funding slots and the other community wants them you want to be able to use them. common sense but it was not the easiest battle. finally, the percentage of students not meeting literary benchmarks. we have developed an innovative model that builds on the program to go forward and the program currently serves today more than 18,004-year-olds who are at risk or have faced failure and do not get into the head start program. the key ingredient of the program, most importantly, high

quality. more than anything else, it is the quality of that teacher in the pre-k. to get that young mind in their and get them excited early on about learning. i joke with my education folks when we have the meetings, every child that comes in, i want a crayola book that says stem because we have to get them excited, all of the avenues we need the brands to be opened up on. we have state-of-the-art measures developed by people at the university of virginia. we want a child of the and staff ratio of 9 to 1 and we concentrate on parental involvement. we can do whatever we want in the school but once they go home if the parents are not engaged it diminishes what we

are doing. getting the parents involved is so important. we have expected it to increase services. i can tell you the horror stories i've heard from futures in certain parts of the commonwealth in virginia when some of the children come to school. the clothes that they have said, sad stories. pre-k, we are changing the whole way we look at it, a 360 degree approach. i have started what we call a children's cabinet. i just passed legislation for pregnant women in virginia who for the first time have access to dental care. it is important that women have access to dental care.

it is important during the birthing process and we continue it for six months after. we have to have strong community partners. we are spending $68 million now in state funds for the program. and this grant enables us, we got just the other day to do more to address the communities that are struggling. if the local community cannot make the match, the money will help. we have communities that want to go to some step forward and we are to be assisting and the federal grant, i cannot thank them enough to give that to us. we will see the results very shortly and it is important that we work together on this but as i said we have put this in concert not just with the education department but with our secretary of commerce who was involved in putting the whole program together. i tie it all into workforce development. when they are working together in the community talking about education we are also talking

about job growth. dorothy and i have five children and we want our five children to stay in virginia. they will not stay unless we have the jobs for the 21st century because it is a global economy and these children will go anywhere. to get them to stay and build the economy is starts with education and early childhood development. i also want to thank robert, a world-renowned researcher who was probably one of the best researchers in helping to put these programs together. we have a great public and private partnership with together and i am excited about the future that we have in the commonwealth of virginia and i will say to elected officials that the key to all of this is encapsulated in growing and diversifying your economy.

i'm excited about the future we have in the commonwealth of virginia, but i would say to all elected officials with us today that the key to this is diversifying your economy. nothing better than success when you are bringing in jobs, and making that argument, people understand that. you have a great ability, i think, to move forward. i would just say, finally, as i speak about the 360 approach, my wife dorothy, wife of 26 years. what a statement. imagine if you are married to me for 26 years. she is a saint. her whole initiatives going -- we have 3000 children who go to school hungry. let's be crystal clear. you can't learn or expect a child to go to school who is hungry. they will not focus on learning. our goals is to end hunger for all 300,000 children that go to school hungry. we have made tremendous progress. i also want to thank the department of agriculture. we just got a tremendous grant for several of our school district to feed children three meals per day for 355 days per year. we are one of five states who got this award.

it ties to health, nutrition and early childhood learning. i wanted to come here and say thank you. we are stepping up front on childhood education. we are taking a 360 degree approach to doing what we need to do. the numbers we have, you just look at the statistics, those who have some type of pre-k education, when they going to kindergarten, as you know, 90% of those children -- actually 97% -- are excelling. only 3% are not. for those that did not have a pre-k education, the number of those not excelling goes up to about 30 percent. from 3% to 30%. those metrics speak for themselves. it's an honor to be here with you. i thank you for inviting me here today and i look forward to taking some questions.

neera: we would love to get questions from the audience. when you answer questions, tell us who you are. thanks so much. thank you again for being here. i think you help does understand something that has been a little bit of a mr. to me. so many of the benefits of decay have been -- i mean, the benefits of what you are making will happen really when you're no longer governor. in a way, it is one of these issues where you are not going to see the direct benefits, or capture all the benefits of the decisions you are making now. the argument is that you can attract business. are there other ways -- basically, why do you spent all this time is the jobs created

because of human capital will help some future governor? gov. mcauliffe: it will help a future governor, by would make the argument that it helps me -- we have shared all investment records in my first four months. i have to tell you, i travel all over the globe, i love to bring new businesses. that is why ran for governor. at the and of the day, all governors consider in the office and say they want to invest in this or put money here -- none of that matters if you don't have economic activity to invest in the parties that you have. i would make the argument, as i job around, one of the things that constantly -- i'm pretty good at sales and i really enjoy it, i have fun doing this, as you can tell -- education is the key. honestly, i can't stress it to anyone else they're trying to bring business to their state. if the project we brought to china, a $2 million investment

if they did not think that 10 years or 20 years, that they would have that workforce, they would not come to virginia. my main argument that i talk about, with great universities all of that, i talk about three k. we are starting our education system early. in all fairness, would you go to asia, they are doing it. let me be clear here, we are competing. they go to slow longer and more days than we do here in the united states of america. they are keenly attuned to what we are doing on education. for all governors and elected officials, you better get in the game on this or you won't get the business. they are smart. they are determining where they will invest their capital. i can make the argument that pre-k -- starting education early is one of the best drivers we have. can just talk about it. we have to show that i put money in and got back much

more. neera: there was a study that showed exactly how much china, india are ramping up their 0-22 investments. they are in a major path, like you said, most kids are in pre-k, early learning. gov. mcauliffe: studies show it. i just cited a study. 97%. these are metrics that we have. some of the people on the other side have argued -- one study out shows that after four years, they forget everything they learned in pre-k. you go talk to multiple pre-k teachers. they will say it is night and day for kindergarten teachers, they know who have had pre-k. neera: what of the great things about pre-k is it is bipartisan. you see governors like

yourself, but also the vulcan governors leading on these issues. we have had a little bit of a challenge on the federal level to create that same level of bipartisanship. is there anything that we can learn from your efforts to generate bipartisan support? gov. mcauliffe: as you mentioned -- i see we have c-span here -- i hope the department of education, some members of congress are watching. we need reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education reauthorize. like transportation funding and everything else, it is very important. i will be honest with you, as governor, it is very hard for us to plan. we cannot make long-term decisions unless we have some certainty. that's why sequestration -- we have to get our act together. we can afford the cuts to the military that we have today. the office of transportation how are we going to fund transportation? i have 300 50 projects that

will stop immediately and virginia if they don't do the authorization for funding. they have to understand, we are competing on a global basis every day. i'm competing against 200 nations every time i get out of bed, every day. if they continue to show uncertainty and an and ability to make decisions, it affects us on the state level and clearly affects every governor and every state. i'm glad you raise that question. let's get this reauthorization done. the numbers speak for themselves. this is important for all 50 states. this is important for america to allow us to compete on a global basis. neera: i told the agree. lessons from the audience. >> dylan. virginia has excellent universities. are there ways to engage those universities more in this effort?

gov. mcauliffe: great question. we have. university of virginia is our key strategic learner. they are a part of the children's cabinet. the children's cabinet -- i actually asked my lieutenant governor who is a pediatric doctor -- university presidents are all part of that children's cabinet that we have. all of our pre-k, all of our education, i make sure we have community leaders, education leaders, but uva provides of a lot of the research data that i provided here today. you are right. we have great higher ed institutions. they want to be involved. we can do a better job when i talk about -- the key elements teachers are pre-k we could do a better job getting those institutions to train the teachers and get a pipeline of teachers as they are graduating. i will beginning several commencement addresses this year. one of my things will be, i

need you, now that you have an education, i need your help now to plant the seeds. neera: i know we are tight on time because the governor has to go see children in virginia. i want to thank you for your remarks. we will bring up our panel. i really want to thank you for being here, and more importantly for everything you're are doing for kids in virginia. thank you very much. ms. martin: i am carmel martin.

executive vice president here at the center for american progress. it's my pleasure to introduce a panel to build on the conversation from the governor. we have representatives from the federal, state, and local level to continue to talk about the challenges and opportunities related to early childhood education. i will briefly introduce the catalyst to you and then we will move forward -- panelists to you and then we will move forward with the conversation. first, in the middle, we have john king, senior adviser of the office of the deputy secretary at the department of education. he has served at the state level in york. during his tenure as commissioner, new york was national leader in many facets of education, including increasing educational opportunity for students and heidi's communities. john has been a high proponent of increasing levels of education, and cofounder of roxbury preparatory schools. he has been closing the

achievement gap and encouraging students to graduate from college. to john's right, we have mayor andy berke who joins us from china, tennessee. mayor berke secured a grant from the department of health and human services. the largest grant awarded to chattanooga, allowing young children to start in education for to others. he started in the state senate where he was vice-chairman for the democratic caucus. he was also a leader on "first to the top," at the u.s. department of education, and transformed the state system of education. last but not least, we have

virginia's deputy secretary of education, jennie oholleran. jennie previously served at the george washington university where she worked with government and community leaders to promote gwu's campus and aspirin. i think i panelist for joining us today. i will dive right in. i will start us off -- start john, with you. if you could talk a little bit more. we are lucky enough to have two recipients of the department of education grant funding. maybe you can give us -- and we will talk to each panelist about the plans they have to use the funding, but you could give us a broad national landscape of the grantees that

you will be working with and then we can move to more specifics for chattanooga and virginia. mr. king: sure. thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the conversation. president obama has had a priority of expanding education. we have tried over the last six years to not only expand access to quality. preschool grants are one aspect of that strategy. we are investing $150 million in 18 states to expand -- we have 300 60,000 more students being served because of the preschool development grants. we had quite as many applicants. a secretary talked about getting calls from governors some republican, some democratic, expressing their disappointment that they did not get access to those

resources. we see the pre-k developments as a down payment to what will be universal access to pre-k. the president proposed adding an additional $500 million to the grant. we hope to grow the number of states that are participating. what you see states doing with these dollars is not only opening new seats but improving teacher quality, connecting preschool with support for families including health care and community-based organizations helping parents better support their children. we really are -- we hope galvanizing and effort. what you have seen over the last few months, like the state of the state address, you see governors all over the country like governor mcauliffe prioritizing investments in early learning. ms. martin: can you tell is a

little bit about the impact of having additional funds in the area of early childhood education? mayor berke: we really got that largest grant in the state of tennessee. i want to say to john how great he looks today. 1000 of our students are ready for school, we know that. as mayor of a city that does not have the school system like many mayors have, we have a county system, we look at the areas where we can make an impact. for me, it is the 0-5. if you look at the statistics at kids to enter kindergarten and are ready to learn, many do not catch up. many who make progress from year-to-year, they reversed back during the summer, and it is hard to catch back up. for us, we focus on the 0-5 space and the summer space. if you think of those thousand kids who are not ready for school -- i will also say, as

governor mcauliffe says, you can hear it in the teachers. to say, i was at one of the schools that is lowest performing in our county. the principal told me that many of her kids come to kindergarten with 400 words in the vocabulary. typical american student comes with 4000. for her, she spends a lot of the first years with kindergarten teachers trying to figure out how we close that gap of 400 words and 4000. ms. martin: jenny, can you tell us a little bit more?

it was great to hear from the mayor about plans for virginia can you go in more deeply? ms. oholleran: we are very excited about the opportunity to participate. you can hear the governor's excitement and it goes down from there. we are thrilled. three things we are looking forward to doing with our grant is first and foremost serving more kids in higher quality settings. you heard the governor say over the course of the term of the grant, we will serve 3000 kids in higher quality settings. the second is research and evaluation. we will use the data that we collect from the grant to better inform our system. we will be able to track the kids and see how our investments have paid off over the course of time. third, that will inform our third important goal which is looking at state policy and how can we take the lessons that we have learned from this grant and make policy decisions at the state level to invest more and more effectively. ms. martin: it seems like in all three contexts -- state, federal, local -- with respect

to tattered education is ensuring that across sectors ensuring -- would you like to speak to your efforts of integrating better education for an overarching goal of readiness? ms. oholleran: for us in virginia, it is very important for us that we create this network and work with our private providers. we see early childhood education as a public-private initiative and the state and local initiative. virginia is unique in that we have a one term governor. we have for years to accomplish a whole lot. we need to be sure that we have partners in the private and public sector who are on board with this early childhood initiative so that we can

sustain it beyond our time. one of the things i did not mention that we will be doing with our grant is working to increase quality and some of our nonpublic partners to create classrooms in nonprofit settings or private settings. for us, the network is really critical in increasing quality across sectors. mayor berke: one of the biggest powers i have as married is the power to convene people. we try to gather in all kinds of areas, not just education but all of our service revisions. more and more, our goal is to get people in the same room and make sure we are sharing ideas and best practices. we are certainly doing that in education area, especially the baby university, which i'm happy to talk about later. for me, it is leading by example and being sure that we are doing what we need to do.

chattanooga had a high-quality head start program. we also knew that we need to look at that and see whether it was of the highest quality we could provide. sometimes high-quality means not just instruction, but also that you obey regulations. like most things that come from federal government, there are a lot of regulations that come with headstart. we actually went over the head of -- the head went over to pay attention to what is going on in the headstart program. when what he found is unfortunately, because of being involved with young kids, these kids had to wash their hands all the time. you have to watch before you paint, after you paint, before you snack, after you snack. they were leaving the classrooms all the time -- teachers were with the kids. he came to me and said, for

$80,000, we can blessing and every classroom and at probably about 1.5 hours of instruction time. you would not have done that from the evaluations. we do all the things that we have to do, but these commonsense ways of saying, how do we add instruction time to teachers -- who are doing a great job in the classroom, but figure out how do we comply with what the federal government wants, bad education time is important. mr. king: one of the things i think the administration has tried to do is invested qualities of education. you have 20 states working around quality improvement. part of that is doing programs and doing feedback on instructional programs, the quality of the socioemotional environment. part of that i investing in data system so we have

information about who is being served and who isn't. that can inform what are k-12 system provides to families. also, this work of teacher development, and making sure that teachers have good training, literacy development are able to teach students how to share well, express themselves. those kinds of supports are also investment. ms. martin: do you want to tell us more about baby university? a very exciting initiative for the very youngest of our nation's children. mayor berke: as governor mcauliffe said, i think it is hard to think of childhood development without thinking of strengthening families. we know that childhood education has to be good, but that families are in power to make the best decisions possible.

as we strengthen families and give them better support and what they do, that provides immediate dividends today in our workforce and in our communities. what we decided to do is bring social service providers together, partner with them on what we are calling "baby university." that is about giving parents the best information that we can. the great example that comes to mind is -- we were try to figure out what to do in this area, and we had a roundtable discussion with expectant mothers. this one woman who was probably about eight months pregnant told me that she had a four-year-old son. the four-year-old son was hard to control, disobeyed her a lot, and now she had another child on the way. she also told me that she had been physically abused by her father as she was growing up. she really didn't know how to discipline her son without doing to him what her father

had done to her. she wanted to know, what do i do? we want to provide people with that kind of education so they can make good decisions and strengthen our families from day one of birth. ms. martin: we have these beautiful posters here on, "invest in us," which is an initiative from the obama administration. can you tell us a little bit in that? i think it goes to jennie's point on public-private partnerships. mr. king: the idea is to bring together elected officials philanthropic organizations, and others. the partnership between obama administration, the first five years fund. what we have been able to do is galvanized a large number of

philanthropic contributions. over the summer, we were able to raise over $300 million in a variety of areas -- from the buffet organization expanding education in omaha to an organization investing in no signs research, the joy foundation in teacher development initiatives and how we better support our educators, and they are also working to organize communities so that they can think creatively of investing their resources in early learning. ms. martin: one of the things the governor mention is the need to ensure that as you expand early education programs, they have in place high-quality teachers -- in the expansion phase, that can be difficult, you need to catch up -- where are things you are

thinking about in that space? it sounds like you're partnering with some folks. how can we talk about in a transition phase? ms. oholleran: the first part of the answer is that we will scale up. we will not serve all of the extra kids in the first year. our of the reason why is because we need to know that high quality teacher workforce. the second part of the answer is as you said, partnering with the private sector as well as our institutions of higher education. we are so blessed to have so many wonderful researchers in virginia helping us with this initiative and so many others. we will be looking to the university of virginia to help us lead the way on this initiative. i think -- the other piece of it is the governor will be making some editions this coming spring to inform the

success in early childhood education. teacher quality will be a piece of as well. ms. martin: the governor also mentioned the desire to move forward the education act, which has strong support. one of the big priorities is that we move forward with that legislation. we think about how we can improve the federal programs that impact k-12 education, but also that commerce recognizes, what the government, mayors, the nexus between childhood education and elementary and secondary education. we are hopeful congress will include in the reauthorization a larger federal commitment to some of the programs we have

been talking about, exist in appropriations land, but not in authoring land, which might not interest people out in the real world, but it makes a difference in washington. i wonder if any of you would like to speak to that to the importance of additional federal action in the context of elementary and secondary education act of further support early childhood programs. mr. king: you mentioned the secondary education act, which i'll now discuss. it was adopted in 1965. secretary duncan spoke about that yesterday. to think about the elementary and secondary education act of the civil rights law, the voting rights act of 1965, elementary, secondary education act is part of the effort to expand quality of opportunity. one of the most important ways

we can expand opportunity today is by investing in early learning. we put out -- early this week that said 40% of students are enrolled in the major public early learning programs, like preschool to limited grants programs or head start. we got a lot of students who need the opportunity to get high-quality early learning so that they arrived at kindergarten ready, so students get to school with social skills they need to learn effectively in the school environment. we have an opportunity in the reauthorization discussion to express the real national commitment to early learning that school does not begin -- learning does not begin in kindergarten. preschool has to be what we think about. we're hopeful. senator alexander and senator murray are discussing this. senator murray has been a longtime champion of early

learning. we hope to see some movement on this issue. ms. martin: you had mentioned that there was not a -- between the county running the school system and the city level. do you feel -- how big of an obstacle is that given that we really do need to make sure that the programs are aligned with what is happening in the school system and they need to be reinforcing each other? mayor berke: as we look in the city and had the county school system that has a county school board, a city that controls early learning and a number of other initiatives. that segmentation does not give a realistic picture of a child's needs, which should be our first priority. one of the things i did when i got into office was try to realign city government so that it paid more attention to

children. because we did not have schools before, we stayed out of the education space. i took all of our recreation centers -- and i love shooting a basketball as much as anybody -- but i renamed every one of them a youth and family development center, renamed our parks and rec departments as "family development," because i wanted people to think about the development of families of young people, not about recreation. then we started making sure that a reading initiative, mostly computer-based, was available in each one of those centers, and now we have gone from zero in two years to about 3400 kids reading at least 26 minutes every week in those centers. even though we have this segmentation, what we are trying to do is at least the pipeline keeps going, that gets kids where they need to go because even if we all have

diverse responsibilities, at some point we cannot argue about who has control where. we have to all pitch in. ms. martin: jenny, at the state level, you said the department of education is leading efforts around early childhood. how have you tackled the issue that there is a holistic approach and that the early childhood programs are aligned? ms. o'halleran: it is important for us well. you heard the talk about the cabinet. the secretaries who deal with issues talk about all sorts of topics, workforce development, and one piece of that is childhood development. we have five priorities. that was important us because

the biggest initiative are working on our schools with challenging environments. we see the most important answer to the question of how can we help support the schools in our most impoverished areas as early childhood education. we see the convening role, pulling people together at the state level, hoping to set the example for colleagues at the local level like the mayor seems to have done in his community, to do that as well. ms. martin: i want to give the audience a chance to ask some questions. if you have a question, raise your hand, and billy will bring you a microphone. please identify who you are before you ask the question. >> i am with "national review." my question is directed at mayor berke.

there's an evaluation of the preschool program that are discouraging. the effects fade out at the end of the kindergarten year. what effect does that have on your thinking? mayor berke: there is a study when i was in the legislature, something we talked about a lot, that had some amount of fadeout after four or five years. i think there is a couple of things. number one is we still have to strengthen what happens after they leave early learning so that even if they are getting great effects as they enter kindergarten, we want to make sure you sustain that, and some of that has to do what happens with them between k and 5. the second part is there is an important social element of early learning and of being in head start and places like that, that certainly they are -- there are a lot of effects that we see and are important.

third part is that there are a lot of studies all over the country that do not say the same thing as the vanderbilt study does, and we need to recognize that, and in fact most of the studies say something else. as far as i'm concerned, if we can help kids for four years or five years, that is money well spent. >> hi, i am from -- and i just wanted as ask something you did not mention. what your government is doing about providing early childhood education to special needs children, the hard of hearing, the blind, and other disabilities? thank you. mr. king: one of the things that we focus on the preschool grants was trying to increase in early learning programs.

one of the things we are supporting is trying to create opportunities for students with disabilities to be fully integrated. one of the challenges is in some places the only students who are getting publicly funded early learning are students with disabilities, and as a result, they are segregated from the general education population. as we move towards universality, we have the opportunity to create the environments we want for students with disabilities and our general education students. ms. o'halleran: we are trying to do that in virginia as well using our grants, but also our existing state programs. we have a great example in arlington, right next door, where they do a wonderful job of -- their funding streams so preschool kids, kids with special education funding, are all in the same classroom, and

it was exhibited a couple months ago and we hope to do more. mayor berke: our lead partner in the baby university is a nonprofit called signal centers. what they have come to the space doing is education for children with disabilities. now they are trying to get more into helping parents and strengthen families. we are investing heavily with partners who have special ideas and expertise in this area. >> good morning. i'm from the center for inspired teaching. i heard the governor talking about economic investment. can you talk about the benefits of the whole child in early charter education and other benefits going forward, social emotional?

mr. king: those of us who have worked in elementary schools know that you can see achievement gaps on the first day. you can see kids who hold the book upside down because their level of familiarity with letters is so low. you can see student who are not able to play productively in a group because they have not had those kinds of experiences in learning how to collaborate. you can see that impact for students from the very first day of kindergarten, whether or not they have had those high-quality early learning opportunities. we know that students who have had high-quality early learning opportunities are less likely to have remedial work in the middle- and high-school level. they are more likely to graduate from high school, more likely to be successful in life. there are studies that show just a 9 to 1 return on investment, because they are less likely to rely on social services and are less likely to end up in prison.

this points to the long-term success and families' long-term success. one of the greatest sources of anxiety, people who are struggling, is worrying if their kids are in a high-quality early learning quality program. to ensure that parents can go to work and do what they need to do with confidence, it is not just the whole child, but the whole family who benefits from quality early learning. >> national center for learning disabilities. you spoke about inclusion for students with disabilities. can you speak a little bit about screening for students that might not have a parent -- a learning disability and how can you distinction between the effects of poverty and what is a neurological cause?

ms. o'halleran: one of the things we are doing with our federal preschool grant is assessments for the kids in this program. our teachers will be able to go in and take a look and see how these kids are performing on a whole host of issues, social emotional, literacy skills, and what we are hoping to learn from some of the things you just talked about, what are factors of poverty, true learning disabilities, and then how are those students improving over the year and as they enter kindergarten. ms. martin: other questions for the panel? >> hi, i am coming from the university of oklahoma. thank you for sharing your

knowledge and experience with us on this topic. governor mcauliffe talked a lot about -- and the national conversation is folks around that -- early childhood education being a point for preparing you for the future in an increasingly globalized world and globalized economy. could you guys perhaps elaborate on what intersections between programs like dual language immersion schools and early childhood education are taking place? mr. king: there is research evidence. one of the best ways to ensure their cognitive development as well as their appreciation for their culture is to have high quality dual language programs that leverage that.

one of the things that many states are doing with their challenge dollars or grants is trying to support teachers and how they leverage their native language skills for the acquisition of english. what we know is due to our english language learners, if they become proficient, they often perform at the same level or better than students who have english spoken at home from the beginning. we have got a real opportunity investing early. the other opportunity we have is to connect learning services for their parents. some of our strongest programs are providing english language acquisition courses for parents. they're providing opportunities for parents to gain job skills to get access to opportunity for some of our recently arrived families. there is a huge opportunity to make progress with a population of students which unfortunately

many states are lagging behind. ms. martin: time for one more question. any other questions? maybe i will ask the last question, which is just to ask each of you to speak a little bit to the question that was asked the governor in terms of the politics around the issue. it seems like it is in the area, on the state and local level, where you see bipartisanship and business interests supporting it. what you think are the most critical factors to having that bubble up and support increased investments? i think the governor made a good argument at the macro level, from an economic standpoint. mayor, you made a good point and john is welcome to talk about the economics of the individual family.

65% of parents in virginia are working, so making sure their children are in high quality programs is about families' economics. can you speak to the issue about how we can continue to build politically for investments in this space? mayor berke: there is politics and investments. it is something actually which i think that there is bipartisan consensus about largely because there's public consensus about. most parents, most families want to see high-quality early learning for their kids. no matter where you go, what neighborhood you are in, people expect that as a fundamental part of education that is going to start early. even for families who do not necessarily know how to get it or how to access the high quality early learning, they still want it, they still know that their child needs an education to compete in the 21st century, and also for them

to be fulfilled as a citizen in the 21st century. so to me, i think that that the politics of this are great for early learning advocates because people across chattanooga, across tennessee, and i am sure across the country all understand the importance of what we are doing, and that reverberates with politicians across the spectrum. it also does not hurt that if you go visit an early learning center and you sit there and watch what is going on and see kids' faces light up, sit up there and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with them your day gets a lot better because you can see what is really happening. in the long run, i think, going back to the argument about the reauthorization, we have a situation in a city like chattanooga, metropolitan of roughly 500,000 people, the

city is 172,000, there are a thousand kids every year who are not ready for school at kindergarten. that just seems like a number that we can work with. that seems like a place that we can make an impact. and so i appreciate cap putting the day aside for this, because this is a problem that if we think about it in those kinds of numbers, we can actually make an impact. ms. o'halleran: i would say i am very encouraged by what is happening in virginia. the governor talked about it as our business community, which is 100% onboard with early childhood education, which helps efforts not only in a bipartisan, but in a nonpartisan way in the commonwealth. we had an experience this year in the session where it looks like we may be moving backwards in our preschool eligibility in virginia. we heard such an outcry from

actually, southwest virginia which is not your typical liberal community that advocates for liberal programs. we heard from teachers parents, community leaders, and republican legislators in those communities who are so worried that we are going to be cutting back on eligibility on public preschool programs that we were able to strike a deal with the republican leadership in the house and senate to move forward using previous eligibility criteria. i'm hopeful moving forward in the next biennial budget, which will be the first and only biennial budget that governor mcauliffe will be having control over, that we will be able to invest further in early childhood. mr. king: i am optimistic about bipartisan potential in washington. we have great leaders like senator murray and congressman scott, also like congressman hannah in new york, who is one of the leaders in an

effort. i am optimistic about that. i think the challenge for us and the thing we got to do well is deliver results. the key thing that will help us maintain and build momentum is we got to make sure the programs are very high quality and that the outcomes are very strong. that is why we begin to think not just in terms of expanding access, but continue to work to improve quality. ms. martin: i am optimistic as well and look forward how did see things progress in virginia and chattanooga. thank you for coming and doing this for us today. national cable satellite corp. 2015] the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

the event will focus on how imbreags law is currently enforced and what improvements can be made to better protect u.s. borders live at suck a.m. eastern on c-span 2. and today florida senator marco rubio is expected to announce his candidacy for president making him the third republican

to enter the race. that announcement is happening at an event in miami. we'll have live coverage at 5:30 p.m. eastern here at c-span. >> tonight on the communicators, karl anybodyia on the importance of spectrum for the government and the public. >> the last two administrations both written presidential memorandum on spectrum. when i first started back in 1979 i came out of the marine corps after being an art tillry officer. i didn't know anything about spectrum. most people that i melt and even those oftentimes i work with doesn't understand. but now everybody realizes the part of our daily lives our devices scommeeltly rely on it, our ability to communicate and do our jobs and stay in touch with our family.

>> coming up next on c-span, q&a with weekly standard senior editor andrew ferguson followed by "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern. our guest is andrew ferguson. he talks about some of the potential 2016 g.o.p. presidential candidates, his career, and his approach to writing. >> andrew ferguson of the weekly standard. i want to call this our odds and ends with andrew. >> ok. odd andrew? >> no, it's not. go back over some of the columns you've written and get

your embellishment on them. but let's start first by showing an appearance of your the first time on c-span back in 1986. >> the general point i was trying to make was that people seem to sort of assume the responsibility journalists, certainly journalists, to become experts into everything and every matter of public debate and sort of hold court on them. i don't see that they've actually done much work on -- done much research on the pieces that they do. i think that in magazines like spectator or other opinion magazines you seldom see people popping off for the sake of popping off. they're people who have done work on the subjects they're

writing about. >> look like 18986. >> you know how long ago that was. i remember i could smoke during that interview. that's how -- that's another era altogether. i think i stopped smoking because my hand would start shaking so i had to put the cigarette out. >> people could smoke here. smasket one person called up he had lung cancer. he said put that cigarette out. . >> wow. >> christopher. >> yes. >> but a pundity. you've been a pundit all your life? >> no. i would have hate to think that i was a pundit. in fact, it's interesting that i was talking about that, whatever that was, 30 years ago because it's been an obsession of mine in washington journalism that there's -- as that guy said on there, a class of people who make themselves experts in everything by which

they mean they kind of become experts in nothing so that they can talk about the intricacies of sent fugse in iran and the minutia of the religious freedom act in indiana. and it's just i am mawsible. people don't know that much about that many things to arrive at a real plausible conclusion that they can articulate to people. but it's one of the fictions we all li by here. >> so we're in the political season. how much time have you spent with politicians writing about them the last six months? >> i haven't spent that much time with them. i've written a fair amount. it's a very odd thing when you go out on the campaign trail now it's so crowded. i was telling one of the guys at my office the other day that at this point in the cycle what

they call the cycle, the actual election if it ever comes will be held next year. and the iowa caucuses will be eight months from now. you dial that back to say 1988, which i think was the first election i really covered for -- extensively. at this point in the cycle you could call up dick again hart's office and say i'm going to be in new hampshire. i would like to talk to him. they'd say ok we'll pick you up and we'll drive over and there's an interview with the tv station and you can figure out your way to get home and i would have half a day or a day with him. now at this point in the cycle you just have to beat down the door to get any time with some of these guys at all. and when you go to events -- i was at an event in des moines for an article i was writing

about jeb bush and it was an event, thing a summit they called it the first annual and probably last annualing a summit to bring out all the republican candidates to talk. and half the republican candidates, the field showed up. and there were maybe 450 people in the audience, 500. and there were 300 reporters. there was 1.2 normal people per journalists. ravages and ranks of people sitting there with their laptops and with their phones at the ready. i just thought man, this is -- this has changed quite a bit. >> how close did you get to him? >> well, this is a perfect example of beating down the door. i went for a long time getting unanswered e-mails and then the phone call or two would be

answered and they would say yes we want you to come see the governor. we can just hardly wait. and then it would be radio silebs for another ten days. and tht not just true of bush's campaign. this is true of all of them from what i can tell. so finally they called up and said, if you can be in des moines next saturday we can give you 20 minutes with hip. but you have to fly to des moines. so that's what i did. and being the crack reporter i am i got 35 minutes rather than just 20. >> let's run a clip when he was recently in iowa. may have been the same trip that you did. to get a sense of how he addresses an audience. >> so i don't know why all the press is here but nice to see them too. thank you for continuing to serve and thank you for supporting your congressman. he is going to need your help going forward. and early money really does matter. so thanks so much for coming.

i want to get the legal part out of the way. i'm seriously considering the possibility of running for president. all of that now allows me to talk about that possibility in a way that doesn't trigger a campaign. so thank you all very much for allowing me to be lawyered up and make sure i get that part right. i have fond memories of iowa. i got married when i was 21 years old. i fell in love at first silingt. my love can be divided in bc and after ac. i was ready to marry her right there and then. i was pretty skinny. i lost 20 pounds, couldn't sleep, fell head over heels with this girl from mexico and it kind of changed my life. part of that was we got married quickly, we had two kids, we lived in venezuela working for a bank. then i came back to work in my dad's campaign. most of that time, at least the

beginning of it, was right here in iowa. >> so what did you see for those 35 minutes up close that we don't see in television? >> not much. i guess -- you know, you're closer physically in proximity to them. in fact i was at that event. that is another one of those things. i showed up -- i guess bush's campaign spokesman gave me a ride over there. i think we met at a bar and he gave me a ride over there. i walk into this place and it's kind of a museum place outside of des moines. and once again there was like 1-1/2 normal people per journalist and they had ranks of cameras and stuff. it's just -- it's such overkill in a sense because nobody is

going to say anything at this point unless they make a mistake of course that is newsworthy. polls do not matter. anything that will affect the campaign happens behind closed doors were they are lining up money or campaign operatives. these events are perfectly staged and control as much as they can be controlled. and yet all of these news organizations are spending thousands of dollars to send somebody to des moines and stay at the hyatt so they can walk 20 minutes of jeb bush talking to a room full of iowans. it's pretty weird. brian lamb: what is your sense of why these people run? andrew ferguson: a lot of them -- one thing i have noticed about this field, and i think it is different on the republican side than it was before. how many of them are pure politicians. that is, they really haven't done anything in their life since they started their campaign for hall monitor in seventh grade and have been