so we were raised the following question, what if we could get every kid to follow 3, simple graduate from high school, get a job and continue work, and don't have children tell you're 21 and right now we've walked out at the entire country and we classified people according to whether they broke all those rules or they followed one or 2 or all 3 of the rules, the results are astounding. so

i started talking to judges and lawyers and doctors and health providers and interviewing people and literally asked thousands of people how many of you had the course istria poverty, united states, and we are segregated in america by social class. it is think about including middle class people hang out with most middle class. people don't know someone in poverty by 1st name and will settle down to dinner together today, millions of american families are tossed in circumstances beyond their control. their children will be compelled to live lives of poverty unless the cycle is broken. president johnson's war on poverty has this one goal to provide everyone the chance to grow and make his own way.

i think everything in life that's important really lives in the grey like there's no black and white, there's this gray. how do we make it more clear of what the problem is? there are so many different life experiences of poverty and we don't have a real clear definition of the federal government doesn't have their definition. they say if your family is more needed right about to take care of your family for a year in 2000. does that mean that if you're making more, you're not in red? that's not the case. i think the most difficult challenge your way out of your current predicament and your of course people cannot contribute to the nation if they are never taught to read or write. if their bodies are stunted from hunger,

if their sickness goes on 10 didn't. if they're alive to spend and hopeless poverty, just drawing a welfare check. so we were off from the get use to opportunity. we're also going to give all our people the help that they need to walk through those gates. all of our wealth. you get money, and you get more, have less income, go through, have 0, income, get the biggest money. and then as you earn money, lose part of the benefit. sometimes if you were even one extra dollar, use the whole benefit medical for health insurance for people, people who are disabled. but that number seems low. it should because it's based on 1000 fixed. these cost of living in the sixty's economists came up with a formula for calculating as a family need. and they said things like, well, we'll have a parent in the home, so we don't have to include childcare. people can walk to work so we don't have to

include transportation and employers will pay for health care. so we don't need to include that. $3.00, major family expenses are not included in the 2017, federal poverty guideline where you have more women in the workplace than ever in the history. if you look at parents and divide their income into 5 equal parts, and let's just the bottom 20 percent of this would be parents with income below roughly $25000.00. and now we come, watch their kids grow up and we made sure their kids income 3030 to 34 years of age. are they doing better than the kids from that bottom 5th of income below 25000 are twice as likely as we would expect, based on chance to be in the bottom. it's very difficult to get out of the bottom. it's a fight every day to meet your needs and the needs of your family. consider

her for her longer on the more must be done to reduce poverty and dependency, and believe me, nothing is more important than welfare reform. i think it's also a state of mind to have done have a noble cause you can put, make some close some times. have we struggled with poverty in a certain way with until the most critical? because we say, well, we didn't, i pulled myself up by the stress. i got it done. i struggled, i had to work 2 jobs. i did it. well, your situation is not the same. somebody else is because we're individuals and our characteristics, our personality, our network of people, our demographics of the area that we lived in are different. so we can take 2

people from different sections and say, well, this person did it, he looks good in that person and they train an elephant backhand, the elephant with a little girl. when they're young and elephant growth of the ball found the elephant. but the same little world around that elephant, but that alpha has been conditioned. only goal in as a result will lead anywhere say, wait a minute, faces of people as he has a little rope around their mouth. will, will only let him go so far. and now it doesn't only lead him to so far. there with your newly grew up the same little rope you're talking about that only goes towards

the 2 most important thing is where you're born and who you're born to. so this one guy, he said, i'll do your study for you. he said i grew up in poverty, and i said, thank you so much. i said, tell me, how did your family get by? he said, well, my father was a physician. he died when i was 12. i had to go live with grandparents. i worked in their store, i pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. i had the right mindset and i was determined. and i became a doctor like my dad. and i'm listening to him through the eyes of somebody who's bought her 5 brothers in the back window of the car. and i'm thinking you knew someone who owned a store and you were related to both. but if you but if you look at it from his context, his experiences, who are the children, a professional singer, typically it's going to be other children of professionals. and what people do is

we compare ourselves to the people around us. and we sometimes put an umbrella and say poverty is just poverty and that's not, that's not true. that's not the case. it's so difficult to come up with a solution to help someone we don't understand the problem ourselves. how can we work together? how can we understand each other? and the answer is, we have to accurately understand poverty. what is poverty about so understanding the perspectives of people who live in generational poverty or working class poverty, or immigrant poverty or situational poverty, there's so many different life experiences of poverty. and we use one word to describe them. so many people they've, they have no idea if you're born into a poor family. you're born into a minority family. if you're born into a family that only has a single parent that really constrains your life,

chances people die on average 15 years younger. if you're born into generational poverty, only 17 percent of the people born into generational poverty move out. so you move a lot and you just get through the day and a life becomes about getting through the day. generational poverty is the deepest part radio cycle out of any people in generational poverty are working 1.7, jobs a month to decide between pain and that's the kind of poverty i come from. where most of my family members can't read or write. there's high mobility or simply a victim. you're going hungry to have nutrition. if you don't really, really sick, you know, the merge through and you just hope they give you sales by the prescriptions working class. poverty is a little different. you're living paycheck to paycheck. don't have a lot left over, but you know that checks coming so you feel like you have

a little more control over their lives. but they're very hard on themselves. they buy into the idea that if they work or don't make it and they have the labor statistics, they without an education or skill or your whole life. and then there's emigrant poverty where you have people who are struggling with housing, transportation, child nutrition out of their basic human needs. and in addition to that, you have the language barriers, the cultural barriers, the discrimination, racism to live, to move really big obstacle to address, to really develop to their potential. and then you have a situation of passing by and making him middle class where it's, since you were in the womb, you know, little pricing structure, you're nothing. you maybe have a divorce and you fall into poverty, or maybe you get downsized in your job. and you fall into poverty, those are the ones that sometimes don't find their way into our numbers that didn't fill out the papers for the free and reduced lunch. so in america,

we like to thank that everybody who works hard and has a certain amount of talent can make it and can join the middle class. that's the american dream and past generations. the american dream seem to be working pretty well. it's not working as well. now, we always think that in america on the theory of the land of the brave, equal opportunity to simply not just say some just so through education. you can also better yourselves. in other words, you learn how to learn,

how to think critically and find solutions to unexpected challenges. education also teaches you the value of discipline. but the greatest rewards come not from instant gratification, but from sustained effort and from hard work. and finally, with the right education, both at home and at school, you can learn how to be a better human being. the foreign policy team of a potential buy in ministration is being touted by the liberal media. we tell you why all this should be for a fine also, there's a lot of talk of a great reset and build back better does looking backward bode well for the future .

when you look at the landscape of our community, one of the things that keeps me up at night is our education attainment rates, 70 percent of our citizens. our neighbors that live with us have no post-secondary credential. today's economy is very demanding skills and skills means education. so getting a job these days with just a high school education is a lot harder than it used to make. the chances are that you're going to be in poverty or close to poverty and be especially difficult if you're trying to support a thing. why did 20 different focus groups? i did surveys. i did interviews expecting to find that students were afraid of which they are, that students need more tutoring, which they do. but those weren't the barriers that students identified that were

keeping him from being successful in the classroom. what students told me, overwhelming, is the biggest barriers to their success in the classroom. had nothing to do with the classroom, transportation, childcare, health care, housing, food, utility payments, statistics show that college is a very successful way to go. and it's still the best decision for students or anyone who wants to get out of poverty or level up in what they want to do. however, i also think that the worst thing to do is go to college, or i also think that the worst thing to do is go to college and drop out years ago . the goal is to graduate. you got to graduate. like you just can't drop out because unlike anything else, you still got to pay the bill. now

what higher ed would do is they would look at those success rates and they would go, oh, are students aren't as well prepared? they're not smart. they don't know how to study, they're not dedicated. and i think what we've learned in emerald colleges, those aren't true at all. our students are smart, they're ambitious, they're capable, they want for themselves. they're burdened not just provide a future for themselves, but to save their families, but they have real barriers that they bring with them. if we're going to fulfill our mission in our education, we've got to understand those barriers and address them. if we want our students to be successful in the classroom, and i teach people that if you don't get educated, you don't get skilled, you going to be poor your whole life. and so will your children is an absolute exception of a person who is living. you know, so little say, well my

a little makes a 100000 and he's not educated, but i'm quoting labor statistics and census data that's an exception. i didn't know what i wanted to be. and so after i graduated from college, i think. 'd that somewhat normal, but i went ahead and i, i went to college and i picked the major. and i was glad that i had people in my life, their courage to me just to go ahead and go a lot of people because they've learned that they've been sent messages that they're not smart enough. they're not good enough. they don't try and tell you to get your high school diploma, get your college degree, and then keep pursuing what it is that you have a skill set for. and you're passionate about one of the hardest, most heartbreaking things about not having your eyes with a coma is sometimes you hit a ceiling at work or you miss an opportunity. we don't want you to miss we, we want people to have those are the best, you know, i'm not honest that it, them a lot of walking around, but i graduated man education and you need

a plan. one of things i think we're really not talking to high school students about is this subject that i like to call success. we teach english, we teach math, but we don't teach that, which regardless how smart you are in any of those other categories. if you understand the subject of the best way to lose his basic fundamentals of understanding, you know how to network, how to communicate would be bold, but also how to be strategic. realizing what's important college is not about how smart you are. it's about how hard you're willing to work . every college we should exposed to at school that shows the average income of people who drop out of high school. and people who graduate from high school, but doable for the kids who get a 2 year degree in kids who get a 4 year degree when they get to be adults. the difference in those levels with education over the last 3 or 4 decades. and if we can show the kids and make them

understand and say, you know, if i get more education, i'm going to make more money and that will have an impact on every other part of my life. the most important thing is not the freedom to buy things. it's the freedom to dream and chase what you really want to do, the more money you can make and now and not spend it. it allows you to dream at a place and give you the oxygen and during where you're not thinking short term, i don't think that i think is so important to understand is how poverty steals your hope. and your confidence. i was talking to 2 students at my t. place and i loaded one up on my car, brought them over here, walk them through the process, got him signed up. we got a man rolled and then that student told me after we got him

a schedule when it came time to go to class, but the 1st day he said in his car in his parking why, for 3 hours they couldn't get out of the car. that's not because he won smart, capable, or he didn't want to do it because he was a brave man. that's real, but it can't be an excuse everybody in their life. everyone has fear. i just challenge you don't work through your fear and don't let fear. keep you from being your best self. give out my yourself. when you are educated and when you know the things that you know and you know how hard you work, you need to create this story for yourself. you need to surround yourself with other people who are going to be possibilities and do not allow negative people or negativity to talk you out of your dreams. what are your passion about what you

have skill set for? and in the meantime, pursuing your education, you have to understand that you have so much purpose between 1024, that the decisions you make. not only going to pack yourself are going to pack your kids in your grandkids. you don't even know is going to benefit from the little decisions you make today. you may not see it, but your grandkids will definitely see some but it was for a while. i watched her just she was going to be

a singer. and i'm to from the moment she decides she was going to be a singer, really a little girl at that point. and every time i saw her do it, the worst thing about it. you know, this work ethic that she had was this week, an amazin, i mean, you know, as a kid, authorise thing and all the things. and then when we started this church in downtown houston, our family joe and brought the kids to an assistant and she joined a choir. and every now and then she'd get a solo. and c. would put more into that solo than the whole choir would into the whole 12. and now she is on the largest platform in the world. and they would be a thing all because of the work ethic of me, young woman, who made a decision to what she was going to do and be in life and allowed no one to get

away. will everyone be a no. that's why you got to have a plan, a, a plan b. and a plan speak. we have a hard workers in this community, whether they're students in amarillo college or employees in the community. we have a really hard work ethic. the issue is they're underemployed. so they're working really hard and not making a living wage. doing she already is working a crisis is $1.00 jobs and still i can't put food and pay rent. i have to make a choice. so we say you've got to work harder in order to, to make it that's not true, not when you're experiencing poverty. because people in poverty are working i started looking at who's the number one teacher of poverty in the united states of america. and the answer that i found was the media. so what's the average person

going to know about poverty and the people who live in it? it's probably going to be things like when they get rich on welfare, if they can in high school, if they can. it's not that big a deal as long as i have kids. i'll be fine, i'll be getting well for all the good and casual for will be covered by medicaid. i can get housing and so it doesn't happen that way. in 1906, my welfare check before going any dollars for me, jennifer was 6 daniels to my 15 year old homeless cousin was living with me and they said, we won't help her because she's not yours. we'll give you $400.00 my rent in a neighborhood. melanie, in portland, oregon, was 395 given to the man, a welfare check today. her family of 3, national average, or 78. that's 196-2000 17. the average rent, according to had a modest apartment, 750. the average disability check is $756.00. it's almost impossible to get out of

poverty based just on public, but our labor statistics say if you take a minimum wage job and you work 10 years and you don't have education beyond high school, you don't have a skill like an electrician or plumber. the average increase after working hard for 10 years in a person's income is $2.00 an hour. didn't matter how hard you were. big about it, who works harder, the person cleaning the hotel room, or the person in their office. you don't move up without a skill or an education. so if you want to buy your mama house, going to make sure your kids don't go hungry, can't get a skill. got a good education. now if you want to on, say start all that 30000 a year and have the possibility or up to 60 or 70000, you know, you have to have skills, you have to be talent, you have to know how to do. you need what we call soft skills and hard skills. part skills are just, you know, being technically trained to do something. take computer literacy. anybody who goes through school these days and isn't computer literate is going to be in trouble.

and i think our schools should be doing a lot more if they're not already to teach people programming and coding skills and the whole set of things. you can't get a decent job anymore if you don't have those skills, either the soft skills. and if you talk to employers, employers will tell you that they're really missing the soft skills as much as the hard skills. the soft skills are things like getting to work on tall. i'm dressing appropriately, knowing how to interact with other people, knowing how to be polite with a client or a customer knowing how to rob them, solve knowing what to do when something doesn't go quite right. you know, being a bit creative one of the things that helped me in my personal life was to see other people, maybe of my same skin color or, or in a city and, and see them succeed. so it becomes attainable. you don't know what you don't know . and i think a lot of times is that's what i think holding people back and they don't know it's

bigger than their town and they don't know what they can do, bigger than what they see on t.v. . and the people they see at school and the people that their parents are used to work in elementary schools. and yes, the kids, what they want to be in life and they want to be doctors and in a, in a lawyer. but if your home life doesn't support the teen ability of those things, it's a nice dream, but it's not a reality in certain groupings. neighborhoods don't have that exposure. so it's important that our schools, our community kind of live in that self and expose, especially the youngest kids to that

financialization has its limits. the accounting tricks of stock buybacks money printing of their lives. it's a brilliant example of what country decides to go financialization instead of economic activity. always be polite, never engage with baited or confrontational. don't get into any conversation or start answering questions just to survive, and you're more likely to walk free if you're rich. or if you're poor,

you got one now. so you should be seen here and a whole lot more than you're saying. if you don't take that advice, easy going to do it yourself. will be a way to give a lot of near

me. yes, but not part of a lot of people, you know, and it was a pandemic? no certain, you know, borders just blind to nationalities you know so much, we don't know what's really we don't look like seem to be judging commentary crisis with this system to in modern times, we can do better. we should everyone is contributing way. but we also know

that this crisis will not go on forever. the challenges created with the response has been so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we are in it together with the french president's party, which draws a bill that would have restricted the building of police officers after weeks of nationwide protests. europe's on guantanamo a rights report that says hundreds of eisel family members with european citizenship are being held in inhumane conditions at kurdish controlled refugee camps in syria and us president elect joe biden makes another key appointment. jen psaki will be the white house press secretary, a familiar face from the obama era, and a remembered for more than just a few gaps. but there are flows of gas that.