esea built a foundation under our nation's schools helping to raise the bar for every child and insure resources are there for those most in need. it's helped to create expectation that no matter where you live in it country when students are not making progress, local leaders will come together to make change, especially for students with disabilities, students who are still learning english students from a particular racial group students who live in poverty or students coming from a particular school. the progress that has been made in those 50 years is remarkable. today, african-americans and latino nine-year-olds succeed in math about the same level as their 13-year-old peers did in the 1970s. today, dropout rates are down significantly for black and latino students. high school graduation rates height an all-time high for all students and gaps are closing fast for african-americans latino, and native-american students. with grad rates up and dropout rates down, just since 2008 college enrollment by black and latino students has grown by more than a million. that is a big big deal

speaker as we mark the 50th anniversary of esa -- esea, we reflect on this law. promises made to all american children. a promise that, no matter where you live or what you look like, you will not be ignored. a promise that no matter what resources you have will you not be undervalued. it is a promise that no matter what you deserve -- no matter what, you deserve a equality education. esea was a substantial step toward fulfilling these promises but we still have work to do. as we work toward re-authorization, we cannot break those promises. we cannot break our promises to make every child count by failing to gather information on student achievement for all children. we cannot break our promise to value every child by failing to target funding at the schools that need it the most. we cannot break our promise to uphold the civil rights of all children, to have a quality education. because all children are worthy, we cannot break our promise. and thank you for all that you do on behalf of our children. they are our future. i yield back the balance of my time. the s

esea marked an extraordinary step for education, and for civil rights. the fight for educational opportunity and the fight for civil rights always have been and always will be inextricably linked. esea has built a foundation under our nation's schools, helping to raise the bar for every child, and to ensure that the resources are there for those most in need. it's helped create an expectation that no matter where you live in this country, when students aren't making progress, local leaders will come together to make changeespecially if they are students with disabilities students who are still learning english, students from a particular racial group, students who live in poverty, or students coming from particular school. progress and the work ahead and the progress has been made in those 50 years is remarkable. today, african-american and latino 9-year olds succeed in math at about the same level that their 13-year old peers did in the 1970s. today, dropout rates are down significantly for black and latino students. high school graduation rates have so

we're starting internally to get behind this, and bigger picture if we can get to a good spot on esea. on hea reauthorization, will be like a walk in the park in relative terms. >> there's a lot offer if tile ground here. >> we're ready for a walk in the park after no child left behind. seriously, we look forward to that, thank you very much. thank you mr. chairman. >> i want to talk about college education making it more affordable. i want to talk specifically about finishing on time for undergraduates. the university of hawaii has worked very hard with their p through 20 initiative and with the department, but to try to enable kids to finish. it's not just the annual cost of college, but it's how quickly as a practical matter kids are able to finish, some of that has to do with the counciling they get in their freshman year, some of it has to do with the availability of the courses that they need i'd like to you talk about that, we tend to focus on the interest rate in the congress, and we tend to focus on the pell grant level and sometimes we talk about the retail price none of tha

because i think america's families are seeing the fact that we haven't reauthorized an esea bill in 14rs. so the kids that have come through the public schools in this country have not had the advantage of being able to see what we could improve on in those laws and education. she's exactly right. a baby girl born today has over 50% chance of living to be 100. that means she's going to work longer. that means that she's going to have the same issues that women today in the work force do which is they put less in social security. there is less security in terms of what happens to them after workforce, with whether or nothether or not they can have children and a family and be able to do all the things that they want to do. >> congresswoman, you are a grand grandmother. i assume you agree on the goal but not the means. >> i think all women want opportunity for their children. they're focused on that. what they're frustrated with is what they see as a diminishment of freedoms that are coming from this administration. and what they're also frustrated with is jobs and paychecks and the fact

i sit on the education committee as we are talking about re-authorizing esea, and the majority passed out of committee the ability to block grant all title 1 funding. so now children who are poor disabled, or minority will be at the mercy of their state to determine what kind of education they get. ohio has one way to do it. indiana has another way to do it. it all depends on what your zip code is anymore as to what your educational attainment may be. they further have reduced federal funding for education every year of their plan. i work in a body where the majority wants to block grant medicaid. so state by state they will determine who qualifies, who is sick enough to qualify. i work in a body where there is no value placed on our greatest asset, which is our people. these are the people who want to reduce block grants and community funding and community policing. our communities are crying out every day for our attention. did what happen in baltimore get our attention? it should have and it did. was it right? no. violence is never right. but we have to hear the cries of the people

when you go through the process like esea reauthorization, you can confirm that's the kind of program that should be continued and continue to put money in programs. >> do you know what you do at the department of education to think about these kids do you think about them? >> we think about every child in every program. >> i'm asking about this population. every child is special. we understand that. >> we do the best we can to provide a world class education to every single child. >> do you have a focus in any department to implement this and think about the talent pool we have to identify them and help the teachers know how to best develop them? >> to be clear students that are gifted and talented, we don't identify. that's done at the local level. >> proves my point. >> thank you senator mick cull skichlt we have the opportunity here to have both the ranking member and the chairman of the full committee and the chairman and the ranking member of the authorizing committee. that gives us a lot of strength on this committee. senator alexander is the chairman of that committee and an i