next up we have barbara smith -- no, we actually have domenica henderson from the san francisco housing authority, one of our community leaders. we have rhonda simmons, who heads up the office of work force development. rhonda, give a wave to the people. thank you. do we have a representative from america's cup? the port authority, the port? [inaudible] maybe they will be joining us a little bit later. so, i think, if i am not mistaken, we are going into a question and answer session that is going to be moderated by mohammed nuru, who had to leave earlier. so who is going to do it? [inaudible] no problem. let's get started. i hope you brought your thinking caps because we have thought leaders up here who can answer questions. let's go ahead and begin. thank you. >> hi. i am sarah. i am the chief financial officer with the trance bay joint powers authority. i do want to apologize on behalf of maria caplan, she is our executive director, and she did want to be here, but had some other appointments come up. so i will try to replace her only momentarily. the trance bay transit center progra

make the decisions i think and i was really pleased planning, and the funny group, ralph smith, lisa kline, and barbara o'brien of the peak in bandish. and the great comments from -- not part of the plaintiff that she read the policy brief and made really excellent suggestions on the policy brief so i'm grateful to all of them. i'm not going to summarize what are planning committee organized this event in seven proposition to most of which are facts. verse, individuals need to sound education to prosper in our 21st century. second, yet we are and under educated nation to our students -- comparisons and despite huge increases in per pupil spending, certain students learn about much they get two or three decades ago. third, we have had some closure of the gap between black and hispanic student on the one hand, and white and asian students on the other. but meanwhile, the difference in achievement between kids from wealthy families and poor families has increased substantially with direct effects on children's prospects in america. so our claim to be the land of equal opportunity has a gaping wound. fourt

ralph smith, lisa klein, and barbara o'brien. we had great comments from lila feister that made excellent suggestions on the policy brief. i am grateful to all of them. i will summarize why the planning committee organized this event in seven propositions. individuals need a sound education to prosper in the twenty first century economy. second, we are at undereducated nation. our students do poorly in national comparisons and despite huge increases, our students learned about as much as they do two or three decades ago. we have some closure in the gap between black and hispanic students in the white and asian students on the other. but the difference in achievement between kids and wealthy families and poor families has increased substantially with the facts on children's prospects for america. we claim to be the land of equal opportunity and there is gaping wound. literacy is the key to education. it follows the school system must insure that all of children can read and read to learn. the question for this event is whether gre

with planning and the planning group included rob smith of the campaign for grade level reading, lisa climbed at the birth of five policy alliance and barbara o'brien and a great comments from leah pfister has not part of the group, but she read the policy brief and made really excellent suggestions, so i'm grateful to all of them. i'm now going to summarize why we organize this event and seven propositions, most of which are facts. first, individuals need a sound education to prosper in our 21st century. i can't, we are an undereducated nation. our students do poorly in international comparisons and despite huge increases in per pupil spending, our students learn about as much as they do two or three decades ago. third, we have had some in the gap between black and hispanic students on one hand and why do nations on the other, but meanwhile the difference in achievement between kids from wealthy families in poor families have increased substantially with direct effects on children's prospects in america. so are claimed to be the land of equal opportunity has a gaping wound. fourth, literacy is the key to education. fifth, it follows the sc