tavis: good evening. from new york. i am tavis smiley. tonight part two of our conversation about the troubling plight of women, children, and poverty in america. i am joined by our panelists. suze orman, our labor secretary, the teachers' union head, the pulitzer prize winner, and the colleges and college president. we are glad to have you here for our look at women, children, and

poverty in america. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day trucks making a difference every day -- >> making a difference every day. pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

[applause] >> this conversation would not be possible were it not for the generous support of the american federation of teachers. [applause] i can jump right to this because the link between a lack of quality education and poverty is so well established but is one thing we do not have to debate. even republicans agree there is a lamink. the question is what is a link between poverty and a child ability to learn. >> let me start by saying thank you because we do not ever talk about poverty and not, and the fact you're making this a priority so we shine the light

so nobody says it can be ignored, thank you very much. i find it morally reprehensible the debate is a false choice. the moment you utter the word poverty as a schoolteacher, you immediately get that you are using it as an excuse. i want to make sure we address it, and there are a bunch of things we need to do in terms of advocacy, which this town hall is a part of, but also in terms of intervention, which people do not believe we can do, so i think you have to have those tracks of the same time, so the question we asked is about intervention. and right now what we see, there is a 40% achievement gap between rich and poor kids.

but is double the achievement gap between black and white kidski. we know the achievement gap happens for a child between zero and five years old, because kids are so nimble. we also know when there is a good early childhood program, there is a rate of return on investment, $7 for every $1 you invest in early childhood. i do not know too many investments better than that, so less than 40% of its 4-year- old star in appropriate pre-k

programs. we know it works. we note for kids who are poor, if we can get them in, it is fantastic, and take a place like new york. it is harder to get into of pre- taped program here that if is to get into harvard. -- into a pre-k program than it is to get into harvard. this is an intervention we know will work. why aren't we doing it? the secretary of education has a pilot program. the secretary has been trying to find forms of intervention, but what is the measure and the character of are we going to solve the problem.

what we are seeing in lots of places across america, 2/3 of kids have their only real nutritious meal in schools. teachers are spending on average $25 a month to feed kids. we have to say education is here and everything else is here. bring it together and focus on furnace and a quality at the same time -- on fairness and the quality of the same time. but there is no one pushing harder on this issue than hispanic brothers and sisters. this has to get past. it has got to get past. nellie is a latino. she is an entrepreneur, has her own company, does a lot of work to engage women. i have never seen a community

people want to exploit more, politically, socially, economically. people want to exploit them in so many ways, yet i have never seen a community madison avenue praises more. they are trying to get to latino moms more than anyone in the country right now, and i wonder if you can speak to that economy of being exploited and being craved. >> it is difficult to read continual statistics but do not explain who we are. they make us feel like we are -- are framed in a way that makes us feel like something is wrong with us and we are taking something away from this country, and the dichotomy is when you go to the consumer products companies and

advertisers, they look at us like we are the greatest thing since sliced bread. their numbers show we are living in a multicultural society, and 16% of that group is latino, and by the year 2013, we will be 30% of the country. you know that latinos come from countries in latin america where we have seen governments come and go, where banks have , where someone like me could never grow up to be like me, ever, so we come here in gratitude and hard work, and when we hear things about poverty and our relationship to poverty, it is a little shocking, because we do not in a

state of poverty. we have been in and out of poverty for generations, and does not mean we are stuck here. latinos do not see ourselves as stock in poverty. latino moms were starting businesses, and when they look further, it is none of the american values. i decided i am going to start a movement for latinos. we started a tour, and we are going to go to the country, and all the information, we are

going to give it to latinos, and we have to remember something else. if we want to ask something, we have to come through. if we are asking the government now for something, we have to vote. if we are asking a corporation to give us money, we have to buy their products. if we are asking to put more latinos and african-americans on tv, we have to watch their shows. it cannot be 01-way street. it is not about them giving to us. we have the power to make or break their companies. we are main street. [applause] >> that is a nice segue to suze orman.

her latest bestseller, "the money class." last time you and i saw each other, you said something to me that arrested me. i have been using this line across the country, as i have not been giving you attribution for this either. >> that there was a highway into poverty and there was not a sidewalk out. >> if that is true, how much more true is about four women and children, that there is a highway in but not even a sidewalk out? as i have been sitting here listening. aren't you surprised by how

quiet i have been? i have been listening deeply because there are good reasons we are here. the commerce, education, native american, a whole thing, and it all boils down to what is every single person in this audience today, what is every single person watching this program today, tonight, listening on the radio, what are you going to do for yourself? [applause] women are very interesting to me, and it is no doubt women have the ability to give birth in most cases. in most cases, they have the to give back.

it is a woman's nature to nurture, and she will nurture every single person, spas, a family member, pat, it's, employers and -- family members, pets, plants, employers, before she will nurture herself, but it is not until a woman is about 55 or 63 and she is all by herself reader response has left her career and her children -- she is all by herself. her husband has left her. her children have left her. -- her children stay at home. she finally starts to say, what

about me? when women come together, rather than work against each other, which they do. i cannot begin to believe how much women love when i fail, as if when i fail it is going to make them a bigger success. their ratings will be better on their tv shows. we have got to stand by one another. [applause] we have got to help one another. it is everything everybody is doing on stage, but it is what you are going to do for yourself as well when you go home. are you going to stop giving away to family members who are not working? are you going to stop doing things that squander all this money you are making?

ladies, the day you matter to yourself and you are willing to not come off that point that you matter is the day that a true change to the united states of america can begin. [applause] >> i want to hear from cheryl. i want women to know they are connected around the globe. she is a pulitzer prize winner. listen to these statistics. the gap in poverty between men and women is wider in this country than anywhere else in the western world. got tripped me up. someplace else maybe, but not in

the western world. of the impoverished people, and 70% are women. one of the things you talked about in your work, one thing we know that works around the world is micro financing. we see women all around the world starting their own businesses courtesy of this notion of micro financing, so i wonder if you might address the or anything else you have heard. >> i have been listening. there are many things that echo what i have seen as well, and i am not helping these people. i am the messenger, but is very important, but it gives me a broad view. in the first place, and we can to look at poverty as a drag on

the economy. having a conversation about poverty, we have to move from the discussion of people in poverty as a problem as part of a potential solution. if we are trying to grow the economy, where are you going to get the people who will grow about the economy. what is also interesting is i have seen solutions around the world that could work well here. some places in kenya and cambodia have done a better job in china than they have in the u.s., and that is kind of embarrassing considering we have and i would like to draw on the experience of china. i know a lot of people say china has been run by dictators. they also have done something

remarkable. 20 years ago we were talking about the year of the woman. 20 years ago most of the people in china were in poverty, and they were under a communist society, so they also have a political challenge and a social challenge. 20 years ago they said education was critical because if we can educate our girls, and they can start working in factories. we call them sweat shops, but they were the best alternative of lot of high school graduates had, so they worked their butts off. maybe it is not factories. maybe it is something else, but it is something that gives a goal for the people to look for potential jobs, even if its is just a vocational school.

java localt fathat factory. -- at a local factory. they started bringing home the paycheck, and that elevated their status, and that is what is critical, giving people a way out of poverty, and there are ways out. you go on the highways, but there are no sidestreet. there are sidestreets out. we need to make sure we focus on solutions, not a dry and poverty presents region in -- not the drag is poverty presents. >> for those watching who will say this is the absolute approach, that we have already spent more money than we should have trying to lift women and children out of poverty, you say

what? >> they are absolutely wrong. you cannot make choices about cutting back during a time we are not fully in recovery mode. we still have high rates of unemployment. 8.3%. and we know is even higher in some communities, and women have suffered the most. we are not making the same wages and we should bee so the real answer is about training and certification. that is where the president is putting forward a proposal for $8 billion. we want to million people to come out of community colleges are three-year with certification and licensing. get employers keep telling me, i want to better train people. i do not want a phd. i want a technician, and there

are a lot of people who can be trained for these types of jobs, so i am saying, let's make it happen. examplelist is a good of starting to get funding for women. i ran and started to get money for women, but also learn you have to build a coalition with other people, and women look at problems different from men. better.eat women if they decide to go as an elected official, there are a lot of women who run who are not rich, and they give up lucrative fees, even the security of their families to serve the public. it is not a bad thing to do, and

there are a lot of women i know who serve who care about domestic violence, who care about women getting a good job and making sure everyone has a fair shot at education. >> the numbers are clear. black and latino women are twice as likely to be in poverty in this country. black women, the numbers right now are so abysmal, for black people more broadly, the numbers are worse for a spirited -- nemours for us. there is a deafening silence with regard to the obama whitehall's end to what they ought to be doing for poverty around the world -- regard to the obama administration and to

and what they ought to be doing about poverty. i love barack obama. i love michelle obama. i love the kids, but there has been a deafening silence about poverty. why can black woman be so silent about their own poverty? >> that is a good question. she talks about voting patterns of african american women. we are the most loyal democrats there are. we voted 97 percent sign for president obama. having done that, what have you done for me? that is a question we have to ask. there is a schizophrenia about president obama. he is fine. he is smart. he has got it going on.

technically, given the recession, i think the president should have done jobs first and then health care. by doing health care first, he used up a lot of political capital, and then he gets these tea party people who do not understand they get social services. their kids are going to publicly support schools, but they are saying, cut, cut, cut, but they have diverted to the conversation to talking about reproductive rights than economic rights. if you do not like abortion, do not have one. african-americans are extremely understanding of president obama, but the should not prevent us from speaking in our own interest, and it should not

prevent african-american women from talking about poverty. can you imagine a president gingrich or president romney or president santorum? for any flaws we see in president obama, i think he is better than any alternative we can look at. tavis: join us tomorrow for our final conversation on women, children, and poverty in america. see you tomorrow. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation about women,

children, and poverty in america. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> making a difference every day. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more.