be a minority. your folks say what does your dad do? he is in the army. a lot of kids say, does that mean he goes to war? what is war about? a lot of these conversations. kids have to deal with are very important we have to reach out to things like mcec. it educates the principles, and house words and all the things the kid has gone through. they have probably moved multiple times. their parents have been deployed. maybe multiple -- just like my kids. 12 different schools. how they deal with all these things. it may not be as normal as it used to be. that experience may not be there. that is something that we will have to continue to foster in

the future. even when we go on the hill, there are less and less people who served in the military. our ability to communicate and dialogue will be important for us and our kids. >> going forward. you think about what has happened since 9/11. the incredible support we have across the united states and support for our military am a w will that support -- military, will that support wane a little bit? this communication through school boards whether through mcec or other organizations like this, that is what we have to do to make sure we have support. it is hard to grow up as a military child as you go from school to school. my kids, the daughter is 22, 9 different schools. three different high schools. that is challenging, but that is not unique. >> there are two things, there

are a lot, but the two main ones the transition from school to school, coming to a new environment, not knowing anybody. the student to student that mcec does, the connection room -- it really helps. it enables our kids to get integrated quickly and focus on academics. on the other side, when you transfer credits from one state to another, what can you use and what do you have to redo? that is why the interstate compact and the efforts of others have had to get all states on board with that, the military student identifier. right now only 17 of our states have the military identifier on the enrollment form. when you do that, you can track those students and they get through school easier without

repeating classes just to meet the state graduation credentials. those are the two biggest things that these organizations are working at. we all thank you for what you do but we have to keep pushing it because the job is not done. [applause] >> continuing on that a little bit, after a decade of continuous deployment, what can leadership do to reinvigorate commitments between installations and school districts? >> our new commanders coming in, whether squad commanders or wing commanders, which run a highlight to make sure they are integrated with school board in the local community. emphasizing that point is something we need to do. every time we go out as senior leaders to visit with those communities and those school boards to make sure they are ready for those challenges.

>> like you said, our garrison leaders and senior commanders, they are on the school board. they worked closely with them. that is that connectivity with us and the community. like i said, we put school liaisons and to all of our areas. that is to facilitate the communication. also the balance between mission community and family, we have done a lot of things like adopt a school and these programs -- it puts the soldiers to assist. all of these things -- to know that you have to give back to the community and share the dialogue with the children is very important. these are the initiatives we have to continue to fund. it is our next mustard seed that we have to grow from a leader perspective to make sure our

commanders know that this is part of readiness. this gives you that ballots. -- balance. you will reap the benefits and anything you do. education is so important. it is a huge readiness issue. what we want to do is create the environments. that the family unit stays together. it is an education. war is trying hard enough to separate us but to stay together is very important. the work that we are doing is allowing us to make these other tough choices. >> you might have seen the questions in advance because the next one deals with stem being science, technology, engineering and math. do you believe that stem is a field that adults should encourage our kids to explore? >> yes. [laughter] >> my two girls, one is

mechanical and one is a electrical engineering. my wife was an english major. she did go to the academy. i really ran into that one. it is exciting. my kids used to enjoy the robotics capitation in oklahoma. what i found about stem, it doesn't matter where you are there are a lot of opportunities for us. in college they were in high school and they went to college classes to facilitate some of these explication -- exploitations of stem. i seen that school make sure they have the environment to learn and prosper. to understand that it is ok. with my girls being an engineer

is a good thing to do, even though it was not normal before. >> the navy pushes stem like all the services. we have partnerships with 2100 schools across the country. where we can, we leverage the neighbor's expertise. whether they are down at the river or in hawaii at the shipyard or san francisco at the bay warf. when we can bring those in, a stem pieces to that and the engineers to facilitate what our sailors are doing. we consider it very important. we have to work that stem apiece. the better off we will be, not only as the navy but also as we -- as a country down the road. >> this next 1 -- the numbers may be wrong but there is a 35%

suicide and depression rate of children of military personnel. 37% higher for siblings of military personnel. are you seeking programs to address this? the suicide and depression rates of the children. >> that is a great question. it is the biggest fear of all parents. as kids grow up and therefore months change, we will learn a lot more about this as we study. but from the army, we did this for soldiers. it is opportune for family members and children. we have done that internally. then to be pushed all the way down to give them the resilience that they need to understand these things are normal and they can get help.

i think that is very important. i don't know the statistics but it is troubling if you have one. there is so much to go through. it is not about turning off the computer, it is about life has ups and downs and how do you get to that as a team and a unit. >> the struggle for the air force, just to take it back to the resiliency traders is to have at least one and every squadron in the entire air force. not only will it be for airmen but also the families. >> for the navy the answer is yes, also. the same thing for the fleet and family service centers. >> from a v.a. perspective we deal a lot with suicide. the deaths we have right now is about 18 veterans per day that commit suicide in the united states. one thing we are particularly concerned about is that

transition for children when they're leaving active duty going to private sector. when i was in high school, my dad retired from the air force and that was a nightmare. i never fit into the new school and it probably delayed my college for four years. i was a mess but we had a strong family. i don't know the figures, i heard yours. i am concerned that the figures for the people who leave the military, i don't know if anyone is keeping those figures and that is something that we need to think about and worry about. how do we handle that transition for the children? >> good point. the follow-up to that would be, what do you believe is the best way to harbor resilience through all of the deployments and transitions and reintegration? >> what we try to do for our

kids is participate in team sports or something that has more than one person. so an individual activity -- you go to a new school and now it is time to go to the cafeteria. if you are participating in a group event then you walk in and there is someone you know and you can sit at the table. otherwise you go into that new school and you do not know a soul. those kind of things help. >> that is a tough question because it is reality. for an army perspective we are justice engaged in the ukraine and the balkans and other areas. the churn is still the same for people deploying. it is part of the asset you are

to be a military child in a military family. you have to give them the resiliency that you need to understand. so as a family, how you deal with these things are very important. understand that you are not unique with these issues. how you communicate them to your child. as the spouse or something if your soldier is deploying. knowing they're doing it because the mission requires it but they want to be there. and the conductivity they do. all the different -- connectivity they do. all the different programs we do. we have to continue to stress these programs and learn about education and understand that it is just a normal thing. you want to get your kids integrated and back to normal as soon as possible so they feel comfortable and they have confidence in themselves and what they are.

to get that circle that they are not alone. >> when i look through the things we have done each time that we met with our three kids it came down to three things. those things we keep stable, make sure that love existed in the family, that we love them to matter what they wanted to do at the third thing was integration. whether in school or extracurricular activities. >> what important schools and traits do you believe military children will gain just by virtue of being military children that will make them college and career ready? >> i will jump on that one. we spent three years and naples. middle school for our two eldest. we spent three years over there and they learned things. they learned there is more out there than just english-speaking

americans. there are other ways to do things than just the american way. we walk into a church and say look at this and they say another church. they have been in 15 or 20. but where i really saw the change was when we came back and went to our next duty station here we had a young man the same age as our oldest son who lived a couple doors down. he was a solid kid. good grades, athlete, could converse with adults. the difference between that young man and our oldest was his universe revolved around jacksonville florida. our son's universe revolved around the world. he understood that there is more out there than just jacksonville. he is now 28. what he is doing and how he succeeded -- we moved many times. all three of our kids went to at least three different high schools. but the resiliency we talked about before and providing things that can be stable.

how he and the other kids are now is a result that i think they are who they are because of the experience we had in the military. >> a global aspect, it is a global world we are connected to , just like dixon said. i also think that they are resilient. because they have done these different things, my girls went to college and they were not homesick. some of the kids were homesick. >> there can be a lot of reasons for that. [laughter] >> they integrate very well with people. it is really important for them to be able to do that. it is a national university. it can be intimidating graduating from oklahoma. they felt very comfortable with that. i think that our children have a great worldly experience because they will be exposed to a bunch of different things. they can actually be an enabler

into the educational environment for the rest of the people they are with. if the teachers and the principles -- that type of thing really does make a unique experience. >> we had a short conversation this morning over coffee. we were talking about the things that make military children different. the worldview and all of that. then we had a discussion about the little things like being on time rsvp'ing, thank you notes yes sir, yes ma'am. the kind of things that set aside that discipline. that little bit of extra they learned from being military children sets them aside and makes them special. >> good comments. what can secondary schools do to address the fact that there are

people with what they call middle skills leaving -- mental skills leaving an employment gap. i think what they are talking about is what do you do about bo tech training? are we trying to make everybody college ready when maybe not everybody should go to college? there, is the military is good at preparing people for such jobs. >> it is important. the american model is that you have options. and you have an individual choice. we are doing a lot on credentialing all of the skills. i think it is an awareness. there is a big thing, even with education. there is a big attack on the edge of -- institutional aspect of education. the brick and mortar aspect. when you look at the new businesses credentialing and

certain credentials are just as important as having this broad-based education. if i will be an i.t. person, i do not really need world history, maybe. there are issues we have to be able to work on these approaches. georgia tech with their masters program, they were able to cut down their costs in some cyber fields because of this approach. to take a different approach where you are not so much focused on the over arching aspect but the credentials. the thing that america will have to continue to look at is we are doing a lot to capture the experts to be able to impose and to credentialed folks along the way. that is why for us we are doing life credentialing so we have a lot more skill sets that work in

the outside -- >> we do similar things for credentialing for the air force. to get to the core of the question, where we are going the folks in the cyber realm do they need a college degree or is it that programming and coding? can they learn that on their own? there are different ways. should that be part of middle schools now. it won't be turning wrenches into an auto mechanic stuff, it will be cyber. >> in what ways do you believe that the mcec programs help students, parents and professionals in addressing the challenges of military-connected children? >> i am looking out here and i see folks that i recognize. one, it is not just the programs that mcec provides. that we utilize. it is also you all here in the

different organizations separate from mcec but you partner together and leverage each other in what you do. that makes a difference. you all are spending two solid days here. while we sit up, we talk and you ask questions and you listen -- what will really happen is the networking and the partnerships you are developing, you think we will go work that out. it is the brakes. that is really what i think the benefit and the leverage of mcec is and what you all the. -- all do. [applause] >> what is important, mary and the whole board -- how do you adapt to the new ways that things are? what are the new approaches? mcec from the early days to what it is now -- just like you are saying. a lot of us were there when we

founded this thing called mcec, and being there as a young leader, it was very exciting to see. dixon was saying, to see what it has become, and these few years since we were there, it is an amazing thing. it does show you the power of what one person can do to move this forward. that is what is important. the mustard seed aspect of taking this to each of our communities and to facilitate this aspect of education. we have to give them opportunities. that is why this is important. it is an amazing thing. how we will do that for where we want to be in 2025 and these other things will be really important. that is the thing to focus on, too. >> i don't think you can put the importance of what mcec does and words. what they have done over the years and the impact they have had. i think about myself as a dependent. my kids as a dependent.

my grandkids as a dependent. we have an all volunteer force in this country. that is important. it is fragile. being a military child is hard. going to school as a military child is hard. if we cannot make sure they are taken care of and have a better than average chance in society that is one of the things you have to remove. if you look at the statistics, they are future officers and future nco's. most join the military. the ones that don't -- if you look at the important people in the united states, most are military children. you have to sustain that. >> i will ask for closing comments in a quick second. there are a lot of folks here. i want to ask you what advice you might give the students in the room with regard to cultivating talent and

developing a persistence to achieve success. >> work hard. [laughter] >> set goals. stay in school. there is no easy solution for any of this. it takes a whole team. with our kids, that is what is important. set your sights high. you can do anything you want. that is the beauty of america. set your goals high. >> despite what mom and dad said chase your dream but be focused and work hard at it and don't give up. >> then, i would ask each of you, if you have something to close with then we will close with that. >> it has been a great opportunity just to dialogue with questions or whatever. you were well prepared with the questions. you didn't give us really answers but it was good to have

the dialogue. [laughter] i just want to say thanks. like most folks, we are committed to the military childhood education. education is important. it is a readiness issue. this family thing is a readiness issue, especially as you say with the all-volunteer force. with the nurture in the balance during tough and challenging times. it is their story, our mission our commitment to the military and to you all and what you do. we are committed to that and that is a big part of the professional aspect. i want to say thank you to each and every one of you. what you will do when you go to each part of the globe that you come from. thanks very much. >> i will -- go ahead, you can clap. [applause] it is kind of risky i poked at him a little bit because he was a hockey player in college, he might have hit me. [laughter]

my dad quit high school at 17 and joined the united states air force. he served for 30 years. to go back to that point, the three of us might rather and his sister, we moved all over the world. i went to 10 different schools. my sister and brother about the same. sometimes different schools in the same grade because of how the pcs cycle was. my mom dragged the three of us, 8, 6 and four to the philippines by herself. i know i was a lot of help as we moved through that. [laughter] there was though such thing as an mcec or communication between schools. now i have two drunk kids who have gone through a similar thing with eight or nine schools between them. they have emerged just fine. it is that similar thing that dixon talked about.

that love at home and making sure they are part of a bigger organization that they can latch themselves onto. the air force and the military -- all of the services, there are opportunities. for the young people in the crowd, there are plenty of opportunities. like in 1956 when my dad joined they exist today. if you work hard you will do things. thank you. [applause] >> i just want to say thank you. you are here because you care. whether you are an educator, a parent or run a support program. you work with one of the services to take care of our children, you are here because you care. don't forget that you make a difference. you support us and our families. you are truly force multipliers and we all appreciate that very much. thank you for what you do day in and day out for our children. [applause]

>> i will just reinforce whatever buddy else said -- thanks -- what everybody else said -- thanks. you know why you are here. my biggest concern is transition of service members to be productive civilians. one of the greatest things that has happened is congress enacting the dei act that greatly expanded the transition program and the service now allowing spouses to attend transition from -- with the servicemember. we know from the v.a. if the spouse attends the program that they sign-up up for more benefits and take advantage of more. the usually don't mess up their transfer to college or things like that. just having that spouse takes a huge difference. one of the things i pledged to mary is that the v.a. will work

with mcec to get you guys access to our websites and information to the transition so we can provide people going through transformation the things they need for their children. i can tell you that whole transition process takes about 180 days. everybody is thinking about the job, the servicemember, where they will live, where they will go to school and handle medical issues. we cannot forget that important part of the family transitioning with them. thank you again for having me today. [applause] >> i learned a lot. i did not know a lot of that information. i think we all took something away from their personal experiences that they have had. as they have gone through their time in the military, and raised their children, they went to the same thing that you are going through now and we are all trying to help facilitate. if i could ask you to come up and we can give a little momentum. [applause]

thank you very much. >> next, a house hearing on efforts to reduce heroine use in the u.s.. and senator elizabeth warren and congressman elijah cummings discuss federal investment and economic growth. then live at 7:00 a.m. your calls and comments on washington journal. >> on "newsmakers" alabama senator richard shelby talks about the export-import bank the dodd frank banking law and other senate topics. "newsmakers" today at 10:00 a.m. and six clock p.m. on c-span -- 6:00 p.m. on c-span >> the republicans debating at the forum on monday at 7:00 p.m.. c-span is providing live coverage. the new hampshire union leader along with leadership

organizations are sponsoring the forum. following the life forum you can provide your input by joining the colin programs are adding your comments. the road to the white house 2016 on c-span, c-span radio and c-span.org. >> officials from the dea, the white house and other federal agencies testified tuesday about how to stop the increase in heroine abuse and how pain relief medications have contributed to the problem. they were at a hearing at the homeland security committee it is one hour 15 minutes.

>> our nation faces a profound challenge with the growing heroine epidemic. last year, a number of heroin deaths grew by a shocking 72%. while northwestern wisconsin suffered six overdoses in six days this february. clearly this is a problem that does not discriminate by race or class and transcends geography. earlier this year, the white house released the 2016 -- 2015 drug overdose mortality data. the data shows that while drug deaths related to prescription opioids has remained stable since 2012 -- the mortality rate with heroin increased by 39% and was more than triple the levels in 2012.

that represents the third year in a row that the number of heroin deaths has increased nationwide. this past weekend the report of the tragic story of a family and made that lost a child to heroine laced with offender till -- ephenytil. heroine cut with offender till -- phenotyl has been response will for a rash of overdoses around the country. tragically when a batch has killed someone it is often what attracts antics to it because it will deliver an extremely potent high. it is obvious that the solution to this problem must have to do with access as well as enforcement. this legislation will take a number of important steps to