so we'll raise the question what if we get every kid to fall 3 simple. graduate from high school. get a job and continue work and don't have the room till you're 21 and right now we've walked out 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 part of the united states of america. and we are segregated in america by social class obvious think about a middle class people hang out with. most middle class people don't know someone in poverty by 1st names fit in down to dinner together. today millions of american families are caught 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 a 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 the definition they say if your family is more 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 and that that's not the case i think the most. common. way out of your current predicament.

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 going on 10 didn't if their live to spam and hopeless poverty just drawing a welfare check. so we rafted from the goodies to opportunity. we're also going to give all our people. help the very meat. through goes. all of our welfare you get money and you get more if you 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 $1.00 extra dollar a hole benefit medical. help for people and people who are disabled if that number seems low it should because it's based on 1000 fixed these costs of living in the

sixty's economists came up with the formula for calculating the family needs 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 major family expenses are not included in the 2017 federal poverty guideline where you have more women in the workplace than average in the history if you look at parents and divide their income into 5 equal parts and let's look at 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. 30 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. we find some quarter 1000000 of our brothers sisters. parents or have a long arm of poverty and a messed up. our monetary parent more must be done to reduce poverty and dependency and believe me nothing is more important than welfare reform i think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind poverty in a sense. how does piloted love. that it doesn't have alone. because you can put make up. the clothes on anything about sometimes if we struggled with poverty in a certain way we're going to be 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 live in are different that we can't take 2 people from different sections that say well this person did it he must be good and this person didn't do what they trained elephant backhand the elephant with a little bell when the young. man elephant growth of the bull found them all the elephant. it put the same little rope around that elephant. but that elephant is a condition only go in. as a rope will lead. anywhere say wait a minute cases of people as he had a little rope around their mouth. will will only let him go so far. you know enough of me. so far and they would you. know they

grew up. the same little rope you're talking about. that only goes for example. the 2 most important things 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 bill. but if you look at it from his context his experiences who are the children of professional sing out when

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 70 percent of the people born into generational poverty move out so you move a lot and you just get through the day and 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 and i'm going to decide between pain. and . that's the kind of poverty i come from where most of my family members can't read and write there's high mobility or constantly a victim you're going hungry to have nutrition if you don't really really sick you know the large 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 any poverty where you have people who are struggling with housing transportation child nutrition medical care 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 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. set. your skills 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. problem drugs has come from unscrupulous dealers but from pharmacies to in every state in the united states we see me very sharp increase in the number of people seeking treatment for addiction to prescription opioids invited to america under the banner of medicine persisted with the pain but instead of trying to wean him off though she did those after dose

after dose after dose and really became his drug dealer so who's to blame patients doctors manufacturers all the governments of. this edition. of the 1st one to the finish to go over to the budget. cuts you'll see this would do him good except. if it was national guard. at the base. of the it. it's a local issue from the typical seems. to. support school board of these critics going up to the school is a good because they give. a shit into life their dismay at.

focus is. supposed someone to be lenient because of the most elegant way to 80. when you look at the landscape of our community one of the things they. 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 scales and skills means education 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 family. 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 overwhelmingly 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 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 our 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. you know 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 will say well my uncle 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 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 they encouraged me just to go ahead and go in 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 ged or your high school diploma is sometimes you hit a ceiling at work or you miss an opportunity we don't want you to miss. we want

people to have those are. the best you know i'm not honest that it a lot of walking around but i graduated man education and you need a player. 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. it's math but we don't teach success which regardless how smart you are in any of those other categories if you understand the subject of the best way to lose is basic fundamentals of understanding you know how to network how to communicate will 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 in every house we should expose bits. 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 to when they get to be adults the differences those levels with education have exploded 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 spending it allows you to dream at a place and give you the oxygen and durrance where you're not thinking short term. thing 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 them signed up we got a minute rolled and then that student told me after we got him a schedule when it came time to go to class for the 1st day he said in his car in his parking lot for 3 hours that he couldn't get out of the car. that's that's not because he won spot. are capable or didn't want to do it that's because he was a brave and. 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 off the melody and do not allow negative people or

negativity to talk you out of your dream. what are your passion about what you have skills that for and in the meantime keep pursuing your education you have to understand you have so much purpose between 14 and 24 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. it's. true.

but it was for a while i watched her just as. she was going to be. and and i'm telling you. from the moment she decided she was going to be a singer. to have that many a little girl at that point. every time i saw her do the one thing about. 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 she 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 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 c. . 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 aquinas's is $1.00 jobs and still i can't put food and pay rent i have to make a choice so we say you just 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. then it is probably going to be things like whether get rich off welfare if a kid in high school is taken 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 to any dollars me jennifer was 6 daniels to my 15 year old homeless cuz i was living with me they said we won't help her because she's not yours we'll give you $400.00 my rent in a neighborhood. in portland oregon was 395. the thing to the man a welfare check today birth 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. our labor statistics 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 of up to 60 or 70000 year who have to have skills you have to be talented have to know how to do you need what we call soft skills

and hard skills parts 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 messing with the soft skills as much as the hard skills the soft skills or 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 i'm so all 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 in poverty 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 blend that so often and expose especially the youngest kids to that.

the world is driven by a dream shaped by one person that there is. no day or thinks. we dare to ask. because the banks are getting so much free money from the government they don't want to take even any risk on any small to medium sized enterprise or anyone looking to buy a house because why take any risk at all if the government just going to stuff trillions of dollars on your balance sheet.

of. the big stories this hour declassified pentagon files reveal that the current leader of the islamic state was previously a us prison informant and exposed some of the terrorist groups most effective operator was. also a german lawmaker tells all t. that the white house is run by anti european folks out on replacing the old stream to gas pipelines with more expensive american gas. in the pot to fool monkeys has come to power in the us this will aggravate the problem on the european continent this fits into biden's concepts. from floating bread crumbs to crying in ciro gravity veteran space travelers talk to us later about the joys and challenges of life in orbit ahead of the 60th anniversary of the 1st manned cosmic.