host: ok. guest: generic answer. if you want any of this stuff to get fixed, you've got to have a government and politics organized enough to fix it. so let's start figuring out how to get politics and government reorganized. student loans are an area like a few others, like criminal justice where there's emerging bipartisan consensus that fixes need to happen. and where i think it will be possible over the next four years. if people are able to work together to form these compromises to do something. tax reform is another area. there's a lot of desire on both sides to do that. so we've got to create the structure so they can go into the room and come out with a compromise, do the horse trading and the leaders can get enough votes to get it to the president's desk for signature. it's what you read about in civics class. it's the old-fashioned process of compromise. but it requires having politicians who are empowered to do that. host: michael from michigan on our democratic line.

caller: i wanted to make a couple of statements about the states rights. and that is sending things back to the states. wo points. one the civil war philosophy of denying people their rights, primarily african americans. in michigan state government has taken over the emergency managers school systems have become resegregated under the uise of school choice. according to marketplace programming, nationwide only

25% of the welfare money goes to the individuals needing it. and in michigan only 12% is returned to the people. host: we only have a few seconds left. i want to give jonathan a chance to respond. guest: there's a lot of good points i don't have a particular response to. i'm a supporter of welfare reform. it's 20 years old and example of a reform that went well. the number of people on welfare slaverping. the number of people on jobs grew. it is not true that most money in welfare does not go to welfare recipients. it does. host: jonathan roush contributing editor to the atlantic and senior fellow at the brookings institution. journal,: washington

the labor department has reached numbers for july. green discusses the evolution and impact of third parties in the u.s. he sure to watch washington journal live at 7:00 a.m. eastern saturday morning. at the annual meeting league.al urban le this is an hour and a half.

>> good morning. was it a party? what we going to do? what are we going to do? ready to dive into this conversation on criminal justice reform and ending mass incarceration. mostis one of the important discussions in baltimore. every day in communities across the nation, our sons and daughters are being locked up. reform is needed right now if we are going to save families,

futures, and the lives of our children. strides in a positive direction. the conversation underway in many state capitals, city halls, and at the white house and in the congress. we can finally make some significant changes in our criminal justice system. the tragedy is many people who are arrested for minor violations, for nonviolent offenses, find themselves destined to many years in prison , and then, and then, after they leave prison, they are faced with the inability to vote. significant barriers to reemployment, to education, the housing, to simply moving on and

rebuilding their lives. this is an issue whose time has,. come. united states of america with 5% of the world's population and cursory 25% of all inmates in the world. we must change this reality. the president and members of congress and republicans and democrats and business people and faith leaders are now joining this call. the idea of criminal justice reform has been at the center of the agenda for the civil rights community and for the national urban league for many years. as we begin this morning, please of cokejenny kim

industries. she manages political and public policy issues, including developing and implementing compliance programs. she is chair of the board of directors for the coalition for public safety, on the board of the justice action network. these are organizations that advocate criminal justice reform. jenny cam.ome kim. ♪ >> good morning. thank you for the kind introduction. there honored to serve as sponsor of this session. we believe that individual liberty, adherence to the bill of rights, and the freedom to

succeed pay the road to a freer and more just america. our criminal justice system is failing all americans and depriving people of opportunity to live long and prosper. recognize the explosive increase and incarceration impacts disadvantage communities of the most. jailed atericans are a rate of almost four times that of white americans. , we havea decade advocated for comprehensive criminal justice reform to make the system more fair for all americans and our senior vice council will speak more extensively about our efforts on the panel. foundation,the ford john d and catherine t macarthur foundation, we are proud to have founded and funded the coalition for public safety, the largest

national right-left partnership be more fair, smarter, and cost-effective. proud board chair, i am to be collaborating with the coalition's president, who should be in this audience somewhere. to demonstrate the different voices and perspectives of good faith can engage respectively and create positive change to the system, and positive changes to any system cannot happen without engagement at all levels and active listening. that is why our initiative seeks to encourage meaningful and substantive discussion about breaking down the barriers to opportunity, ending special treatment for the politically connected, and protecting and defending free expression.

isall need to listen to what being said as well as what is not being said and to figure out how to bridge those cap's and build trust. as a friend from the a.c.l.u once told me, we need to engage. when the heart does not tell the truth paying gives the answer. thank you for your time and we are excited to participate in a solution and action-oriented culinary session. session. thank you. ♪

>> he is a friend of the national urban league, one of the most important voices for several rights and social justice in this nation in these times. i want to say as we always say that the civil rights leadership of the 21st century finds common ground, works together, does not engage in petty bickering, a mindsets.e we are unified in trying to work on the difficult challenges we face. ladies and gentlemen, i am proud to welcome back to the national urban league, the reverend al sharpton. ♪ >> thank you. i am very happy to be at another

conference of the national urban league. , no oned and colleague has done more or fought harder to correct the ills we face in this country. let me be very clear to you as we gather in baltimore, that we are at a critical time in the history of this country and in america.cape of urban we are in an election that is as polarized and hostile as we have ever seen it. there is the rhetoric , the reality when we are dealing with mass incarceration. when we are dealing with the question of police reform. when we are dealing with the

questions of economic inequality and wage stagnation. when we are dealing with education inequality. all of these issues cannot be dealt with in an emotional way. with throughalt concrete solutions. i was saying last night, on top of that, the optics will change because we are now facing for the first time in history that we will see a white succeed a black president. so even our youngsters that feel the inequality had the hope of watching a black family walk out of the white house and walk across the lawn every day, that will be removed in january. white is coming across the stage.

nonetheless, the cosmetic change will drive even more home to a lot of us that have to deal with this on the ground. it is in that climate that we must address the real basic questions of criminal justice reform and the reforming of our economic arrangements in this country. which is why it is critical that the national urban league and others that have a long-standing commitment and ability continue to work together. we cannot just have flashpoint movements to settle systemic problems.

flash points are good. but if you don't have permanent institutions to do with that, then we will not see institutional change. one of the things we say is that one of the reasons it is important is that, when you have a police matter, clearly, all police are not guilty. most are not guilty of doing wrong. but when there is a serious allegation, they can depend on an institution, their union, to provide them with legal services and media advice and legal only an institution can stand up against that. this weekend, when i leave here, i am going to ferguson. it is the second anniversary of the police killing of michael brown.

we are not in the beginning of seeing something in america become critical. we are in the middle of it teeing critical. we don't have to go back to selma and montgomery two reference movement. the question is will we be able to rise to the occasion that they rose to the occasion and dealt with those things in the 1960's. this is our challenge and this is our mandate. and i am glad that i stand with the national urban league to not just be a flash in the pan, but to change the temperature in the kitchen to make sure all americans can dwell together. thank you. ♪ [applause] >> one more time, give him a big

hand. [applause] >> let's change the temperature in the kitchen. to change the temperature in the kitchen, what are we going to do? >> vote! >> i am proud to welcome the president and ceo of the indolyl naacp cornell william brooks. , a lawyer and minister, the 18th person to serve as chief executive of this association and ladies and gentlemen, consistent with what we have today, the national urban league, the naacp, the national action network, and soon the black women's roundtable, we are coalesced, working together on issues of economic opportunity, education reform, criminal justice reform, and voting rights act reform. just a little bit about cornell brooks, a graduate of headstart and yale law school, he considers himself a grandson,

heir and beneficiary of the landmark brown versus board of education decision. >> before becoming president of the naacp, cornell led the new york-based new jersey institute for social justice. he directed the institute's efforts to win passage of three landmark prisoner reentry bills in 2010 in the state of new jersey. those bills or a model for the nation. ladies and gentlemen, he is an expert. he has walked the walk of criminal justice reform. we are so happy to invite to the national urban league, cornell william brooks. ♪ [applause] mr. brooks: good morning. >> good morning. mr. brooks: we are in a moment in our country's history where

leadership cannot be taken for granted. there are those who are adept and articulate in front of cameras and there are those who are skilled and deeply committed and sacrificially committed to the work of the nation. you have that kind of leadership in mark morreale. i will ask you to put your hands together for your own president and eeo of the national urban league. [applause] mr. brooks: this is a moment where the national urban league has convened in the hometown of the naacp. to up the cause and concern of a generation of americans who find themselves profiled and criminalized by the criminal justice system.

that would be the 2.2 million americans who are incarcerated in this country, the one million american fathers who are incarcerated in this country, the 65 million americans who criminal records. have criminal records. the one out of three african-american men who can expect to spend some time in their lives behind bars. it is a moment in our country that has been described as the new jim crow. it has been described by the scholar douglas blackmon slavery by another name. this is this era of mass incarceration. it is a moment that transcends rhetoric. it is a moment that transcends political platforms. it is a moment that speaks to who we are, where we are headed what we represent as a nation. and it is a moment that calls for serious policy reform. what does that mean?

it means that we have to have sentencing reform that represents a categorical, end to minimum sentences. [applause] mr. brooks i didn't see the : beginning of an end. i said the end. when we have mandatory minimums that represent mandatory damnation, condemnation, a mandatory condemning of our people to the bowels of the criminal justice system, we have to bring that to an end. it also means that we have to take some of the lessons we have learned in state capitals and state legislatures across the country and take action with respect to federal legislation. here in the audience, we have one of the leaders of that effort. from virginia, congressman bobby scott. if you don't know him, you should know him. he is leading that fight in the halls of congress with mark

morreale, with al sharpton, with melanie campbell, and with so many of you. we need to stand behind those who are pushing for serious reform and we need to set the floor of compromise really high. in other words, we can't back down from a commitment to ending this air of that this era of mass incarceration globally during we are also in a moment where we have to do some ink about policing on the front end. where our sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters, our aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers encounter the police on the streets and they find themselves treated as third class citizens in this republic.

we have to bring a brow -- we n end to predatory policing. how do we do that? the naacp at our convention called upon both presidential candidates, all presidential candidates, and to take what we call an american pledge to preserve and protect our lives. that is to say we are calling upon presidential candidates, upon securing the office of the white house, to act within 100 days to bring about. an end to predatory policing things like defunding law-enforcement agencies that have been found to have engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination. defund them. that is to say we should not be in the business of subsidizing those who are discriminating against us. number two. calling for data, that is to say transparency with respect to how we are being treated in the midst of our democracy. when the head of the fbi can

't tell you but the washington post can tell you, that is to say how many people have lost their lives at the hands of the police in a given year, i.e., 950 last year, well over 500 this year. we have a problem. , we need that kind of data. we also need to have a minimum standard of conduct. how is it that, when you go down interstate 95, there is a speed limit, a standard, how is it that when it comes to our law enforcement agencies, we have no national standard with respect to use of force? we have no minimum standard of conduct. we have no national certification. we can do something about that. lastly, all of these measures cannot be realized unless we use the vote. yes, on the precipice of a first presidential election in 50 years without the full

protection of the voting rights act. we have the combined energy and ofdicalitycallous protests, with the practicality of the polls, with the utility of policy. protests, polls and policy -- every demonstrator needs to be a vote or to every voter needs to be a demonstrator. we need to be in the streets and at the polls en masse and in the millions. it is just that clear. final note, if we are to do that, it depends on all of us working together. we need the national urban league. you are part of an iconic american institution that has dedicated itself this year, at this moment, to save our city. you are here under the leadership of mark morreale. you are here as part of a great post millennium civilized civil rights moment. we ask you to join.

black women's roundtable. join us with the action network. let us join together and let us turn around this white house, turnaround the senate, turn around the house of representatives, turnaround this nation, and let us lead. because heretofore we have had , those who pretended to be leaders. but i see in this room at this time, at this convention the , real leaders of this country and we call upon you to lead. [applause] ♪ >> thank you, cornell. let's give him another big hand for bringing fire, bringing intelligence, bringing vision. [applause] my very good colleague, our friend, melanie campbell,

president and ceo -- she wears two hats -- the national coalition on black civic participation is an umbrella organization that works on voter registration, education and get out the vote efforts. she is also the convener of the black women's roundtable, which is an organization of black women who are in the forefront of business and politics and civil rights and civic affairs. she is from florida and she has been a fighter for civil rights, youth rights, and women's rights for over 20 years. leading, organizing and managing , successful civic engagement rights issue-based campaigns. she is a hard-working leader. i am so pleased she is with us again. ladies and gentlemen, please greet a good friend of the urban league movement melanie campbell. , [applause]

♪ ms. campbell: good morning. >> good morning. : i'm going to say this again. good morning. >> good morning! ms. campbell: thank you, mark, for inviting me again this year. this time last year, those who know me, my mom and my brother isaac were with a down in fort lauderdale. my mom passed away after suffering a massive stroke on june 15. just seven days after her 87 th birthday. she was still driving. she left the way she wanted to leave. i want to thank you, my urban league family, for the love you showed my mom last year. she had such a wonderful time.

and for the prayers. my mom taught me so much in my life, especially about courage and resilience. so i know that she would want me to be here with you, to take care of business, to keep pushing, fighting for civil rights, women's rights, and social justice, moving forward on my journey. so i just dropped by -- you know i like to drop by -- this morning to share two thoughts with you. we have 95 days left before the november 8 election when we will vote for the 45th president of the united states, members of the house of representatives, 34 u.s. senators, 13 governors 41 of the 100 largest cities are , holding municipal elections, including the city of baltimore.

i heard reverend al say this. i will repeat it again. he always reminds us that we will be electing the first white president that will follow the first black resident. you know how that is going to feel? i don't know how that is going to feel. so i came by to ask you to join us. we are working in coalition with the urban league, the naacp, the national african american social network and many others to make sure we turn out the black vote in record numbers and protect our vote on november 8. what did mark say? what are we going to do? >> vote! ms. campbell: you can join us. what is at stake? everything. i'm going to say that again. what's at stake? >> everything. campbell: what is at stake?

>> everything. ms. campbell: we are going to have this conversation around criminal justice reform and mass incarceration. one in 10 black man in their 30's are in prison or in jail on any given day. one in 50 children in the united states have a parent in prison. what's at stake? everything. almost 6000 and youth are incarcerated in adult prisons and jails. half the people in federal prisons are serving time for a drug-related offense. what is at stake? everything. the number of women in prison has been increasing at a rate 50% higher than men since 1980. there are currently 106,000 women in the prisons in united states of america. wereblack women incarcerated at six times the rate of white women. what is at stake? everything. 5.8 million americans cannot vote because of a felony conviction. we must not only fight for sentencing and bail reform, or

fair treatment of prisoners, but we must also insist on returning citizens receiving the most basic of american rights, and that is the restoration of their voting rights. [applause] ms. campbell: i live in the commonwealth of virginia and spend my days in d.c. after the supreme court said that the governor could restore voting rights on a case-by-case basis, i have a barber who came up to me and showed me his phone. he had been out of prison for over 15 years, doing the right thing, raising his family. he was so excited to show me his application in the system. he said, miss melanie -- made me feel old -- [laughter] ms. campbell: i just need to

show you this. i looked at it. he was, like, i'd be voting. i did not get to vote for the first black president. but i will get to vote for a woman president. i am just saying what he said. [laughter] he said i'm going and sign 200 6,000 orders for ex felons, said governor mccullen. [applause] including 13 who had already registered for april 4. tomorrow is the 51st anniversary of the voting rights of 1965. what is at stake? everything. yesterday, president obama commuted the sentences of 214 men and women. the largest commutation than the last nine presidents combined.

that is the larges what's at st? everything. i want you to repeat after me. what's at stake? >> everything. ms. campbell: ending mass incarceration. what's at stake? voting rights. what's at stake? policing reform. what's at stake? everything. thank you, urban leaguers. let's get out and vote as if our lives depend on it because it does. thank you very much. [applause] ♪ mark: thank you. i want to welcome those who have just arrived. i'm so happy that when the third wake-up call came, you responded. [laughter]

mark: let's give them a big hand. [applause] mark: welcome, welcome, welcome. you are all a great-looking crowd. so we are ready for our discussion. as we prepare for our discussion, just a few things about today's conference after this plenary. there are workshops taking place. there is the annual experience expo, which is wide-open, around noon we have the national council of urban league guild luncheon. you need a ticket to be able to eat. this afternoon, we have continuing workshops and plenaries taking place. morning, we in the have power walk. you will get a call at 5:00 a.m. to get out and walk to the

streets of baltimore. following that, the family session, and also family and community day taking place. reference the national urban league website and the ap for more details and information. p i am pleased to welcome back to the stage reverend al sharpton, who has stepped in to moderate. you also see him at msnbc on politics nation. thank you, reverend al. , back up. come back up. let's get this show on the road. reverend al sharpton. [applause] ♪ reverend sharpton: this morning, let's bring on this morning's panel that is divided into two parts. while we will discuss the entire issue of saving our cities, the first part will focus on criminal justice reform.

our second part will focus on ending mass incarceration within our community. let's get started with our panel. please join me in welcoming our erica president and , ceo of the urban league of greater new orleans. give her a hand as she comes. [applause] reverend sharpton: kimberly fox, democrat for cook county state's attorney in chicago. [applause] reverend sharpton: michael henderson, president of associated realtors and builders and contractors of greater baltimore. [applause] reverend sharpton: mona lisa johnson, founder of parents with incarcerated children. [applause] reverend sharpton: and the one and only honorable william h

billy murphy junior founder and partner. [applause] reverend sharpton: dr. tony allen, managing director, corporate reputation global marketing and corporate affairs of bank of america. [applause] reverend sharpton: let's give all our panelists a big hand. [applause] reverend sharpton: all right. you may be seated. let's start off by each one of you taking one minute, and i do mean one, by giving us an introduction of what you do and where you are generally on this issue of how we deal with from a , criminal justice reform point of view saving our cities.

,let's go around. one minute each. erica: good morning. i am the president and ceo of the urban league of greater new orleans. we work closely with all of our law enforcement agencies throughout the state. we also work in the area of economic development and education, which we know are so critically and connected to criminal justice reform. we work deeply in communities throughout the state from a direct service perspective and a policy perspective. >> good morning. i am cam fox. kim fox. we have the largest single site to jail in the country. sadly, we have 94% of detainees are african-american and latino. cook county has never elected an

african-american to lead their prosecutor's office. cook county has never elected an african-american to lead their prosecutor's office. ran a campaign platform on criminal justice reform, talking about mass incarceration, about making sure that we use our jails and detention centers for those who cause the harm to the community and not those who we don't know what to do with. those dealing with drug issues, mental health issues, and is so this phrase is a seminal moment for the country because this will be an opportunity for us to show real leadership and reform from a prosecutor's standpoint, which one less pointer that is, 95% of elected prosecutors in the country are in common who are running unopposed. we represent less than 1% of

women of color who are elected prosecutors, so this is a seminal moment for criminal justice reform and i am excited that chicago can take a leadership role. reverend sharpton: let's go to you, michael. michael: i and the president of associated builders and contractors in baltimore. i am not a policy guy. i'm here to talk about a work force development reentry program that focuses primarily ex offenders, and we are considered to have one of the most successful models in baltimore, maryland, and the country. 10 years this program has been established and we've learned a lot of really valuable lessons on what makes workforce development successful because

there is a lot of workforce of element programs out there in name only that do not result in jobs. at the end of the day, it is getting someone in a job that can lead to a meaningful career. that is the truest test of a successful program. [applause] >> good morning. i am mona lisa johnson. we are a national organization. this organization because my daughter is incarcerated. i started it totally out of my pain because i realize that society has a stigma towards parents who have children in prison and jail. we basically look at each other and judge each other and tear each other down and assume that there is something wrong in the family. .hen in reality,

, there is pain in the heart of a parent when they are still in the system. emotionally, financially, anyway you can think of. we decided we would create the resources needed for the family, in particular the parents, to be able to function and make it through this journey with grace and ease. that isave a child incarcerated, the first thing i want you to do is stand up and not be ashamed, not hide, not protect or defend it. i want you to stand up and be proud of the fact that you did the best that you could do, if you did the best you could do, and know in your heart of hearts that they will hopefully come out, hopefully, and when they come back if you stand by them and make yourself strong, you will be able to hopefully reduce

recidivism and hope your child never goes back in again. [applause] >> i should be a pessimist but i remain optimistic. one way one in 1965 and the war on poverty and the beginning of the movement. we have lost every significant in thethat resulted republican party. the majority in congress have major we voted. , individual and systemic gadgetry.

that remain ins place because of the long history of racism. incarceration has gotten worse in the past 30, 40 years. we loss of the supreme court. we never regained it and now in danger of making it worse than ever. people of color, it is on a quince and it's that people in africa join al qaeda because they see what is happening in the united states. the present group that wants to lead is so hopelessly ingrid. that we mayy racist

be in for rougher times than we have ever seen area i should be a pessimist but i am an optimist because this is a rare moment where many people have discovered how bad it is for the black community and how bad it has always been the first time. these kids instead of being born in communities where there was no opposition ever, they are going to school with blacks, working side-by-side with blacks and in intimate relationships with blacks. those people have changed. that is why am an optimist. thank you. >> dr. tony. >> good morning. for -- i have reentry services onto runs. one, to figure out better ways in our policies to have

attractiveness for folks formally incarcerated into the company and to use a financial capabilities to spur investment in reentry services across the country. we're spending a lot of time thinking about that. we think it is an economic crisis to have so many black and brown men in prisons throughout this crisis. it is not good business and it does not make good public policy for states. we have a lot of people of color inside our company. 200,000 people are african-american. just like me and many of you have family members who have been a part of the criminal justice system and looking to accompany them. we're here to listen and be a part of the solution. >> all right. [applause] to steeran be done

efforts and resources away from retribution to sustainable rehabilitation? we have to be very honest and say it is institutional racism that has led to our current system and it continues to perpetuate this continual cycle we are living in today so policy is critically born to train in -- changing what is going on today. likee addressing things caliche ranging, hirings and its, anti-profiling laws and community policing. in a place like louisiana, baton rouge specifically, if you look at the police department it does not reflect the community in which it serves so that is a problem.

yet to move from policy to program and there are several things we can do to rehabilitate and be more responsive in terms of sustainable practices. development and looking at how we invest in our community. is deserted,f it neglected and disregarded. and so we have to double down for the workforce and economic development standpoint to make sure our communities are sustainable. from a community engagement standpoint, we have to create dialogue between folks and communities and citizens and law enforcement creative. >> as you are coming in, have a

local communities work together as part of the overall question you're asking? >> around systemic racism that makes people uncomfortable when talking about the little justice system, we have 211 honest conversation. we have edges with racism. with those uncomfortable using data from, there is other places, from folks who don't say it is racist. to that shows the debilitating effect of incarceration rate on wemunities of colors, when incarcerated, when we spend more money cars reviewed, there is a study done at salt one -- $50 million on incarceration in one neighborhood, one block. that is money we are not seeing invest in schools or economic

development as often, we'd rather spend more money on incarcerating for lower-level offense than we would investing in immigrants to ensure people do not go into our system. you look at a heat map and see where that is see it were not so rise you they are black and around communities. in terms of where the community can get engaged and talking about incarceration, it is the one where melissa made, we know somebody that was involved in the critical justice system and myself, somebody coming in as a top prosecutor, i have family members who have been incarcerated. it is not good ones of us tried to lock up the that once of them. it is all of us. if we don't as a community stand up together and say they one or communities to be safe but we

also wanted criminal justice system to be fair and we talked about reentry, we talked about it wintry and that means making -- making those investments in the first place. that is the conversation that we have been very passive about as a community on mass incarceration. we have been vocal and excited to see where we are. and the changes that will come from that we have not been mow in terms of the comics social and moral investments shared i will spend more of my tax dollars on incarceration and not in vestment. >> i will take a different tack and speak on the business community. a key piece to this is we have theispel the notion that

have-nots in baltimore city do not really want to work. we have -- we have had -- we have been very blessed to have tremendous success dispelling the notion among the commercial buildings in our city and we have shown again and again and again, when you crave the right opportunity, when you provide the right kind of support, incredible instant happen. we have seen hundreds of individuals welcome to our program who have formerly homeless, ask offenders and they now have jobs. they have a truck and they have a home and the come back to our program and speak to the kids, the students we have because nothing is more powerful than for them to listen to the story of somebody who sat where they sat and now look at them. it pays really well, he has a future.

nothing instills hope and hope is probably the most -- the most powerful gift you can give somebody or in any walk of life or any neighborhood. it is dispelling the myth. . they want to work. healthink that emotional i don't function in these collegiate processes in all this . i am just a mother and living this day after day. emotional health is very

important to changing the trajectory of incarceration as a whole. from the parent perspective to the family to the inmate to every piece of are african-american and people of color culture, emotional health will not look at it properly. be dangerous. it can be dangerous. we always run from the idea of getting help, am i right? when don't have to see a chi psi -- psychiatrist come along talk to anybody. we say to ourselves let's keep it in the family, let's hide and protect this, let's not talk about it. a space where to we can talk about our problems and not hide, protect and of 10 the fact we have problems.

lots of families are affected by different things. -- if wet of judgment could retract that, try to work away from that. if i take a look at happy guys from high school -- i would like to see what you did. what happened on the wall. let me see what you did that you don't get caught for. that is the difference between your kids, my kids, me. that is the difference there emotional health, we need help, we need to get the psychiatrist, talk to a therapist, we need to create programs for it that does not cost money because it is expensive. the typical cost of seeing a psychiatrist is $300 an hour. $300 an hour. we don't have that, most of us. insurance only pays for one

visit and that is what i would say. i am a fan of microsoft and. this is the time for micro solutions and it mystifies me why the core of our leadership across the country despite the amount against the war on drugs the focus where drugs are treated as a medical problem. the proof exists, it is called the white community. usage, their equivalent power for pound, person per person, same amount of illegal drugs as black people. we have been targeted and the evidence is overwhelming to destabilize blecker leadership and he did a great job. he did it did this that belies the black man who was emerging as a strong power hole leader.

who else? as serious as it has ever been. this is a serious progression as we have to bite the bullet. killing thing that is black people is mass incarceration. we need to stand up and fight it until it is done. none of these things are possible on a micro level to a macro level that the black families into extinction and in exponentially increasing rate. the targeting of black people for a drug offense when white skin treatment -- the only way to end it -- you will not get white folk to prosecute wife of because that is unfair.

one of the great hopes i have is the merchants -- not a hope that it's going to get worse and -- eight out of 10 of the last 10 years of heroine addicts have been white people. that sensitizes them to how drug addicts should be treated because as long as they did not have that problem, it was on a problem to them. it was only our problem. now, we have an opportunity to make major reforms like we did in maryland. contrary -- comprehensive overhauls and are, justice system. it is because of the length self-interest of black and white finally got it because of freddie gray. that shows what can be done. we did it because we were united.

we don't have any black caucus left. they are picked up one by one by powerpoint was. in maryland, we have 24 legislators out of 100 or before. it made it happen. two things have to happen here -- we have to have the courage to speak out relentlessly so drugs are legalized. number two, we have to speak out until we have black caucuses that are united unless we have the elbows on. we have to get back to the old habit. [applause] say that is exactly why major corporations cannot be on the sidelines.

we have to be a part of the process mostly to respective employing folks and to respect of standing up, particularly to political institutions that disrupt the opportunities for us to employ these folks. i have a friend named darrell. if you would stand. met him when he was 13. he looked like that, 6'5". >> you said he was short and fat? >> yet. he went into prison. we wrote an article called mercy. darrell is out of prison.

darrell, he is the reason we started a one-stop shop for reentry services the 1200 people who retired from present every year each of the small city of wilmington which is only 70,000 people. he is a phd candidate at the university of delaware. [laughter] [laughter] [applause] we are not that we have toat world remember where we come from. reach back in a big wet. >> that is why he is feeling like an optimist.

we have a lot to discuss. we will end this panel by asking each of you to give us one quick solution that we, the community, can affect change. each person will answer and quick emphasize quick -- do not be like a baptist preacher three times -- just one quick -- >> i think you have heard it over and over. that is the number one thing we can do. hold our policy makers accountable and make sure we promote our agenda. vote. >> especially in cook county, right? > especially for cook county. >> we had a fundraiser last year. we took that money and developed

a mentoring program where returning graduates would come in for themselves into our existing students. the business community needs to embrace this idea measuring and making part of their corporate culture. measuring is something i found sticks and works. >> humanize the face of incarceration. those are humans that are in there. recognize that judgment that you put out on someone else will come back to you. it is only a matter of time. >> my simple clarity -- everybody elect hillary clinton and stop donald trump menace. do whatever you can do. making her top priority because otherwise everything we have been talking about and going to happen.

>> my one piece -- do not quit your job. never get it back, right? god,ber by the grace of let's give our first set of .nalysts it is one thing to talk about the problems of today and then another to talk about the solutions. how about giving reverend johnson the praise he is due? >> wait wait. [applause] >> he has been consistently coming with the church. he has been consistently firsting our

african-american president against unwarranted attacks within and with out our community. he has been consistently the voice of reason and sound tactical approaches. let's give it up. you can do better than that. [applause] [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. thank our panel and thank billy murphy -- serious. please focus your attention to the video screen.

>> selling cigarettes outside of a corner store. >> romney the commuter train. >> walking home. contact. eye >> selling cds out of his supermarket. >> wearing a hoodie. >> walking away from police. collects walking towards police. >> missing a front license plate. >> holding a false gun. >> driving with a broken gate light. sitting in your car before a

bachelor party. >> walking up the stairwell of your apartment building. >> calling for help after an accident. >> holding up a gun in virginia. >> all the way to bible study. walmart.g up a gun and >> laughing. >> holding a wallet. party.ending a birthday >> doing absolutely nothing. >> the time for change is now. for aand transformation long history of systemic racism so all americans have the right

to live to the pursuit of happiness. [laughter] [applause] >> let's jump into the second panel and delve into this discussion on ending mass incarceration within our immunity. first, we have benjamin crump. and the president of the national bar association. iii, thebinson president and ceo of the houston area urban league. [laughter] [applause] ofk, the corporate secretary coke industries inc. [applause] mason, thele carol assistant attorney general for

the department of justice. [applause] let's begin by asking each of you to give us a minute on the question of how you we should deal with the issue of mass incarceration. one that each. >> i'm here on behalf of the national bar association. as the attorney for trayvon martin and michael brown and 13 black women who were raped by white police officers in a loma city, in all these cases, we see nothing happening on the reverse side of that, we a little black and brown people being arrested and convicted on trumped up carter's. over america, joining in this vicious cycle of mass incarceration.

if we don't stand up for on children, speaking of front children and writing for our children, one in three black man in america are going to go to jail. that is the statistic and we have an obligation to fight her on children and that is what we put talk about today comes hopping this mass incarceration, new slavery. younger, better people because even though slavery was abolished, all except when you incarcerated and so you scratch your head and say why they are putting so many of us in prison. you have to think long and hard when you think about $.23 an hour is what they pay for labor of the poor people of color in these prisons. that is what we're here for. >> wow.

30 years mass incarceration is plenty. we need to say it is time to stop the madness and work together to stop discrimination against the most moral people within the community. >> it happens to be people of color. you have to take organizations like the urban league and the naacp and look at the programs and recommendations. we know what the program will do. we know what empowering youth will do. we know we work with our membership programs. we have results that show that we can redirect able from a pathway to poverty and prison to a pathway to prosperity.

that is something we take seriously and work very hard to do each and every day. >> women to get rid of the two-tiered justice system. if brian stevenson said, you are treated better if you are poor and innocent. he is right. conservativehe judge, one liberal judge, and is and people cannot afford to pay the government. it is not a surprise to me. i had first exposure to the criminal justice system when i was eight years old. that i went to school with were incarcerated. they were very poor white kids. it is not working. it is getting worse.

it is dividing our country. we are wasting millions of dollars and it is not the just way to handle people. we need to reform the criminal justice system and would need to make sure everybody has a quality education and a job. that is what i think. >> our goal is to strengthen communities and make sure we leverage all the resources across the federal government so we are making sure we have an environment where you keep all have an opportunity to succeed. we were clipping them to succeed because what we have to do is remember there are some wonderful, beautiful intelligent criminal justice system and that is what we need to exceed. and we're making

sure we have the opportunity to succeed. how do we prevent heart youth from entering the juvenile justice system? how do we prevent them from entering the juvenile system? how do we prevent them from reentering? as an officer of the court, we have an obligation when we these tough to speak up. and liketimes we don't he said, you have four people of day and to every crimes did not know they committed because it is so high against you, they say, you can in thed and take this

criminal justice system or you can write roll the dice and be convicted of possibly spending the next 25 years of your life in jail for crime he did not commit because it does not matter what evidence is is. brown or ablack or young man and you go to trial with no evidence, 60% chance you are likely to be convicted of something. this, it is so important to vote. we are the solution. we have to get and participate in the system for the first time . they get to dictate who will be the police officer's, the prosecutor. lastly, the we don't vote, look at the trombone.

can you imagine a trumped up charge. that don't seem to care about the issues. we have to save ourselves. we have to get into a system. i saw something incredible in philadelphia. we have a prosecutor who says if you have been arrested and convicted of a felony on the age of 20 years old, they will expunge her felony conviction if you go to college and get one year of education. isn't that an awesome solution? redeeming qualities? not locking them up and throwing away the key? youthgrams like the urban -- we work with kids who are halfway to prison. we have specific programs to help redirect them, get them back into a path of prosperity.

i think it is important that we start early. district,, the school they redirected some of their resources to putting more psychologists school, behavioral therapists, make sure when we have kids were having behavior -- the set of sending them to alternative schools, we might bring them counseling. help the teachers understand how to deal with a population that we have in ours. help the students handle emotional feelings that they are going through. we are a smart world. the united states of america can do anything it wants. it is a matter of choices, authority, putting her mammy we mouth is. we have to make a decision on what we want our generation to look like.

do we want to change her practices so we have different note's. if you do the same way, you will get different results. if you get some 21st century appliances. >> i think it is -- the key is in my opinion, education and accountability. some a caring about these kids. people whoof imprisoned with children -- it is unsurprising that repeats itself. for me, it is a community coming together and everybody, employers,usinesses, but we all need to care and be involved. there are a lot of different especially in my new hometown of wichita, kansas, youth.up for you --

they mentor the children and difficult situations and they have 100% success rate. no women are not getting pregnant. timebody is graduating on and some of them are going to college for the first time. it is not even political science. the reality is people that end up in our system or oval and willing the poorest of the poor and the most uneducated. the system is set up to get trapped and never get out and i don't think that is right. thatuld not have intended to be the reason but apparently we have because we have not changed it but we have to change the system and change our hearts and mind's eye carry more about

people in difficult situations which does not always happen. when you change the narrative of the people in her voice and color. when i meet with them, stop calling me at risk and calmly at help because they are not at risk. they are our future, our leaders and we did see that. if you are looking at a roadmap to my brother's keeper, if you go on the website, we have a roadmap of how you can do this in our communities. most of you are doing that. invest in them. caring adult to care about the young people. -- orilosophy we have content for digital file justice system should be rare, fair and when they are there should be

been at each of their interbeing opportunity to get those who have followed the track to get back on the right track. bute all know the problems i want a quick, closing statement from each of you on what is the quick one line answer that we all should leave with on these two panels. a very quick one-liner out what is the solution. like i said, education -- we have to find 21st century solutions that is problem of mass incarceration or he put forth education. bodies and weack have to quick incentivizing mass incarceration is what we have done was make it very profitable to put black people in prison -- i mostet science

educated people we need to speak up. we cannot remain silent as they kill our children in and out of the courtroom. >> the fact that prisons are publicly traded really sickens me to my stomach. we have an opportunity to again redirect our focus. we can make a choice as to where we want our priority to his be. our voices need to be heard. it we believe in extending pre-k for all american children, that is something we can do. we can put the money to make sure we have the kind of educational invest in our generations to come because we have not done in the past. we will see more of the same. the criminal justice system needs to be reformed from top to

bottom. prosecutors have too much power. programs arendment a joke and a violation of constitution. we need to change the second sing walls. we should get rid of mandatory minimums. we need to have prison reform some people come out better than they when it condemn the -- reoffend. areeed that because there 50,000 consequences to eight consequence of this country and there are many people that meet tha choice. they get a license because the scarlet letter asked is in their body. they cannot get housing i. it is not surprising when you treat some and light sensitive walking in them back, they will behave like that. with ligament options, that goes to recidivism. as an employer, we ban the box.

we encourage other employers to do it. no one should be judged forever. i don't think anybody would. you don't need an act of congress just an act of conscious. give somebody a second chance. [applause] havetook the pledge and i two people on my team that will recently hired that were formerly incarcerated. the woman who runs the -- theion program solution is you guys. you were the answer. we have given you the tools. we work in your community to build the infrastructure to tackle these problems and i have an expiration date, they do not. i have to leave on january 20 and i am depending on youtube to you the work we have started to

we have given you the infrastructure. we told you what you need to be asking for so when we are gone, do not stop asked in demanding what you talk about. call my successor, hold them accountable. >> we have heard from two panels of outstanding people on the frontlines paired they have given specific solutions. they have dealt with data, they have talked about voting, the market.ross the stock they have talked about mass incarceration. be what wen will need to do. she says she has an expiration date. i'm obligated to tell you all of us have one.

the question is we don't know when that day is and when that .ay comes the heart is job of the preachers to breach somebody that has nobody life. up are young to make what you did not do for yourself. we hope you will leave here and not do this for some people somewhere else that are unnamed and may you cannot say their face. do it for you so your life will have meaning and you will be part of really making this beion not great as it can thank you for attending them session.

let's take it to the powers to be. sisters who are proportionately and adversely affect that a criminal justice system. president obama part in more than 200 inmates a few days ago most of them were black or brown. as iterstands the system is now working. he is on his way out so we must continue his momentum to right the wrongs that greeted this lopsided justice system in the worst place. get ready, this will be a bump you ride no matter who succeeds. with that, i bid you all adios and please enjoy the remainder of your day. i hope to see you tonight at the gala and the trenches when the convention is over. thank you. [applause] ♪

>> sunday night, civil war historian and virginia tech professor james robertson talks about his book after the civil or, the heroes soldiers and civilian to change america. >> state allegiance was very deep. as far back and generations. to keep thateeds in mind. you can explain the actions of good decent men like robert e lee and stonewall jackson. they fall because virginia needs

them. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern. >> the heritage foundation in washington dc hosted discussion of the state of schoolchildren. analysts were education policy analyst. this was an hour and 15 minutes. >> we are prepared to begin. for those watching online, keep your questions and comments.

e-mail the speaker and heritage.org and we will post it on the heritage's homepage following today's presentation for your future reference. leading the discussion is our research associate. she served -- workcenter institute for family, community and opportunity. she earned her bachelor of arts andee in political science is currently pursuing a masters in public policy at george washington university. two previous work here as an intern and research assistant in our advanced center for policy innovation. teaching sixear rate. >> thank you for joining us at we are pleased to have

you here without today to discuss the lifework of melting a man and current state of school choice in america today. families go to local public schools. -- they are trapped in dangerous schools. . he change the conversation about conversation and education financing should not be tied to the delivery. he opened the door to free innovation and gave parents hope they would have a say in their child's education. there are still long way from the dream of universal choice and american parents had more choices than they had before.

five states have education sites and 21 tax credit programs range across 15 states. according to the freeman foundation. half american families have a choice which is a tremendous victory. much is that which is why walter freeman. introduce giving parents a real choice. we have only seen the early fruits from this introduction of vouchers from giving parents a choice. the best is yet to come as they work their wonders. as you will hear, we're beginning to see the best. there was customizable options.

milton friedman have the incredible foresight to have this choice. the history was in empowerment. parents seize the opportunity to exercise will choice. we have an incredible panel of experts and i will start with .ntroducing patrick wolf investigatorncipal of the opportunity scholarship program and conducting independent pattern at the milwaukee parental choice program. he has designed, manage the

results from education studies including experimental, meta-analytical techniques. he received his phd in political science from harvard in 1995. next, the visiting fellow here at the heritage foundation and a boarding member. a passage of the scholarship program in two dozen four. -- 2004. sorry. who, jonathan butcher serves at education director of the goldwater institute. at bothducation policy

the state and national level. he was a director of accountability of the south carolina district. policy at education the university of arkansas and worked as a school choice demonstration project. it was in washington dc and milwaukee. andtudied education policy family policy at the heritage foundation. his commentary appeared in newspapers across the country and ox news.com. it is a bachelors degree in university of arkansas. we have lindsey burke whose devotes her time to research reducing federal imitation and empowering families with

choices. ms. appeared embarrassed newspapers and magazines and she has spoken across the country and internationally published school choice programs are various public policy foundations. politics from roanoke and a masters from the university of virginia and she currently studies education policy at george mason so join me in .elcoming our panelists >> thank you. there we go. the delighted to talk about frigid and the impacts private

school choice has on various and there is a definite arkansas theme. lived inity of us have this scrape choice. even in a wonderful place we ise rules and water role when any employee is speaking in they will have to issue a disclaimer that they are speaking for them and not for a spoke model of the university. mouth, it is amy disclaimer. what i will do today is review the latest evidence about the effects of implementing the

vision of private school choice. i will talk about what to expect some research on the attainment of facts and finally talk about a fresh study on the us effects of crime. milton friedman came up with a study about universal parental school choice. his argument is yes, government should fund k-12 education educated citizenry is necessary in the united states. but that does not mean that the government should be the sole

provider of k-12 education. other providers should be encouraged to be involved in delivering the service of education, even if it is funded by the government. expect if we alternatives to a public school governmental monopoly were offered to children for k-12 education? one thing we might expect his more access to quality rules due .o the innovation hypothesis basically granting schools more autonomy it should lead to higher quality education. another way that school choice can help children is through what is called the matching hypothesis which is one size does not fit all, we know that

different shrinks and educational needs and so basically no kids better than everyone. they are likely to match their child to a school that better serves their needs rather than .ome government there is the advantage of competition versus monopoly. . there is a stronger motivation for them to improve and/or are incentives for them to operate more and -- efficiently. it should hold in every other aspect of society. students should more learning and they should have better alliance.

what does the evidence say? first about the achievement effect of school choice. there are lots of studies. they vary in their regular, size, and their link and in their conclusion. oftentimes, this set of resource is mixed or certain people cherry pick the studies that reach the conclusions that they prefer and ignore the studies that contradict their ideological prior to use these statements such as that of stern and the conservative leaning manhattan institute which says they should resist unreflective support for elegant sounding perform which do not support which is school choice. or moving to the other side of gainsectrum achievement

are similar to those of the public-school peers. ravitch -- there is no evidence that students and vouchers schools get higher test scores. she does not say the evidence is weak or the evidence is questionable -- she says there is the evidence there is no evidence showing students get higher test scores. these statements and others -- her own curiosity led to outstanding graduate students of meta-analysism a of the effects of school choice on student test scores, private school choice through vouchers through tax credits.

it is reliable evidence that speaks to a particular reliance he question. tois when a prosecutor does string together all the evidence in a single study to point to a singer conclusion we are able to draw from 19 experimental evaluations. gold standard studies we talk about where students are randomly assigned to receive it all looks cool opportunity. these 19 studies were drawn from 11 different programs across the u.s. and around the world. a great variety of places.

,he city, malls like toledo washington, dc, right here in the nation's capital and bogota, colombia, urban area. a great variety of places where private school choice has been tried and evaluated using gold standard studies. when we pulled that evidence together from all these places, what do we see? these are the results. on the far left, you can see the result. let me briefly explain the logic of this graphic. parityo line would be between the voucher students and the control group students. the lines they go horizontally thess basically connect

aftereffects, the average of from year-by-year accessing private school choice and the bars -- the vertical bars are the confidence intervals. there was his confidence in terval -- if it is above or below the zero line, then we say the results are statistically significant. at least 95% confident it is not due to random statistical noise. it is i finding, effective program. years,y, the first few there is adjustment. schoolss the private choice leads to a slight decline in that second year, but by the third year, that decline is gone

and clearly students are benefiting in math from access to private schools and the positive effects in math rope right large and very clear. in reading, the effects of more positive. they are positive by the second year and they grow quite large. is, yes, then adjustment period. kids are changing our public schools that have a set of expectations and norms and alter to private schools that have different expectations and norms in cultures and there is an adjustment period. we don't see immediate,, positive test scores. over the long run and that is what would really matters. scores.est

they are important and easy to measure. we focus on them too much because there is a large social science research that suggests which makes the most difference is not necessarily test scores. it is other outcomes linked to educational attainment and the development of a strong character and behavioral factors that lead to a much better life. specifically graduating high school, college. they have a strong effect. contactarly avoiding with the criminal justice system. graduating from high school, , increasingtact lifetime him earnings by 30%, boosting employment prospects.

they maintain persons status in the community and the orientation towards the community has a positive contributor. these are very important outcomes that are seriously understudied in the area of education policy and we are now starting to study them in regards to parental school choice. one of the first studies to incorporate these noncognitive outcomes of private school choice was a study i lead in the d.c. opportunity scholarship program. we looked at the effect of the perp m on high school graduation rate for student and will was the effect of using a private school voucher in d.c. was to increase

the likelihood of high school graduation by 21% i. the control group students who lost about graduated at 20%. the effect of using the voucher was again of 21 percentage points. that is a 30% boost over the waistline of the control of 70%. a huge affect. that ite 99% confident is a true effect of the program. we found this not only in d.c. but also in the. in milwaukee. this returns to the approach with the zero line is thety in the bars above

zero line, the blue bars indicate voucher students advantage and the bars below the line indicate public-school students, the comparison group advantage. there are two areas where the public-school comparison group attained and a higher rate. it is a consolation prize when we talk about going through the education system and attaining education. fight your graduates, there were more of them in the comparison group. that is because they graduated on time at a higher rate similarly, the comparison students enrolled in two-year colleges at a slightly higher because thet was voucher students were enrolled in for your colleges at a much higher rate. finally, the voucher students persisted in college at a six percentage point higher rate as

well. not only did they enroll in college at a higher rate because private would choice, they also clearly were well prepared for that for your college experience because they persisted into the second year. outstandingther student of mine, we embarked in the study on the effect of the milwaukee parental choice program, the worst voucher program in the u.s., on the rate of criminal activity. we used the same sample of students we use for the we weree payment study carefully matched to a similar group of public school students. between 22 and 25 years old, we searched a public database in wisconsin that makes available all of the crime or it's for

every citizen in wisconsin. if you go to wisconsin, you don't want to be arrested is the entire world will know it. it was a great resource for us. they were looking for names who'd they do not know who was a dr. student. we found some very striking results bear. we found the student to use the milwaukee voucher program had dramatically lower rates of contact with the criminal justice system. a 45% reduction in the likelihood they will be written -- 42% reduction in the likelihood they would be can thought -- convicted. basically, they were eliminated. not present in the voucher group. a 93% reduction in convictions for their voucher group compared

to the public-school. that down 87%. reductions in the single factor that is most important for young men. these are the results for males. fortunately for females, they commit so few crimes that you cannot do analysis of it. we bad boys, we are the ones at risk. that is where we see the positive effects of private school choice on reducing crime. in summary, what we find the latest evidence is that private school -- student test scores, attainment and steering young people away from crime. that is the evidence that if you want more context, virginia will give some excellent firsthand context about this and throw in a plug.

my book is coming out in paperback this month. there is much more information and that as well. oreward byiller f senator joe lieberman. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. i love when patrick does research because i can think back and say yes. when our research was done, we saw it or stand. we saw how it really affected it. is --d like to talk about so involved i got as a parent. a recipient of a scholarship and we saw such a dramatic change the kind of

person he became. he was a young child who did not want to go to school. said hehool called and is not here. i dropped him off. a really fine student athlete. the changes we saw were incredible. life-changing for our family. but, i watched his life change and i watched my near his life not change so much and i thought children are community that were not really doing well and traditional public education. many were in the criminal justice system dead, on drugs, teenage fathers. , whichund our community got me excited about being able to be a voice to some of those parents. i was lucky to connect with members of congress who are

very, very interested to make sure these kids particularly and around the nation were going to be recipients of a better i started doing that and organizing parent. one of my first experience talking to parents was somebody and up to me right before said you can get up there and saw that those parents are not going to respond. they don't care about their kids. i said i will talk anyway. the response was overwhelming. justts and the audience came up to me and said we needed somebody to tell us we have a voice. once we started advocating for the opportunity scholarship low income parents came

forward and became part of the effort which passed and became an incredible program. what i want to talk to you about today are some of the kids. i followed many of them. carlos in countless battles, they have been one of the most troubled section. it's only a one point that they don't -- and she does not allow them to go outside because she was afraid they would get hurt becausenow, hurt mostly they were in seventh grade, ninth grade. i murmur the first i'm talking to calvin. where do you want to go to school and he's adamantly air -- i don't really care. carlos, the older of the two boys, what his plans were, what he thought about the program, his plans to do -- he said, my

mom dragged me down here. i will probably do what i have seen in my community which is selling drugs or getting in trouble or whatever. he was really dismissive of the program. iwatch 10 four years later graduated from georgetown. as a top student, the first african-american to student with a 4.0 grade point average. he graduated two weeks ago. his mother called me to have a conversation about the journey that they went on. at the beginning when they first advocating -- how she did not believe that any of this could have really happened and now she is watching her sons

graduate. he just finished his sophomore year. so, the direction life has changed. they still live in this troubled community but their mother told me that when i saw the children in that community these -- be successful in school, it changed how people felt about the community. there were changes in people's lives. we found not only that it changed the child, who is the recipient of the scholarship program, but it changes the parents and what they see as every parent wanting their children to be better than they did. it also changes the community. that was kind of a bonus to us, going out and seeing how everybody embraced the kids in the scholarship program in every community we visited.