Good afternoon and welcome to the American Enterprise institute. Im resident scholar and Deputy Director of education policy studies here an aei. Im pleased to kick off the event on Education Savings Account and future of Education Choice. Our event today is straight forward. In a moment, i will give the podium to our speaker, governor jeb bush. Following his remarks on esas, i will join him on stage for a brief conversation together. Following that, my former colleague, Gerard Robinson, now executive director of the center for advancing opportunity, will join a distinguished group of panelist, which i will let him introduce in detail. But who will include adam pishack, john thnathan beckham lindsay burke. A little housekeeping, this is live streamed, full video available by the end of the day. We also have our friends at cspan who are broadcasting. We appreciate their service. For those watching at home or online, we have a hashtag for the event. Its jebbush aei. For those that would like to pose a question for later, we will be monitoring on twitter. This is National School choice week. And i think an ideal way to wrap it up is with a discussion of Education Savings Accounts. But im aware that some of you may be wondering why. Why should we care about Education Savings Accounts and probably handful, what are educati Education Savings Accounts. So Education Savings Accounts, or esas, are a mechanism or educational choice in six states now. Where parents can withdraw their children from Public Schools and the state will deposit public funds into an account that those parents can control and they use those funds for restricted uses but for a wide variety of educational services. These include private school tuition, but much, much more. By moving between schools we are movingon the idea of School Choice to really a broader notion of educational choice. So esa opened a new chapter in educational choice and it comes with promises and pit falls. Last year, there was an edited volume, esas, or Education Savings Accounts, the new frontier in School Choice was announced. It covers the history, legal fou foundation, how parents use them. How to develop a supply side of providers. How to administer, regulate and ensure quality control. There are a number of these aspects that we will discuss here today. So growth in Education Savings Accounts and other School Choice mechanisms has been progressing in the states and in a number of years. But we are in something of a new era of School Choice. The unapologetic support for private School Choice. From the Current Administration is new. And its raising the possibilities of tail winds from that support and head winds for School Choice and push back to it. What future of education holds and role that esas play in it are open questions. Honestly, i cant think of a better person to tackle those questions than our speaker today, governor bush. Jeb bush doesnt need any introduction. He is the 43rd governor of florida. From 199 t9 to 2007. But maybe some introduction to his passion for education reform. During his two terms his top priority was to tackle floridas struggling Education System. Under his leadership, the state established a bold accountability system for Public Schools. Before it was cool. And created some of the most ambitious School Choice programs in the nation. A statement that could be defended at the time and could still be defended today. Florida remains National Leader in raising student achievement and even before becoming governor, bush was engaged in reform and in florida, involved with the First Charter School in florida way back in 1994. Today governor bush maintain is his passion for improving Public Education for all students across the country. Serving as chairman of the foundation for excellence in education and National Nonprofit education reform noirgization he formed, or founded rather, to transform education in america. Please join me in welcoming, governor jeb bush. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you all very much. When people say he needs no introduction, thats kind of a purr pri surprise these days. On the way up here, some person saw me, and i kind of have remote face id i guess. Having run for president and being on tv. Not as much as the official winner, but being on tv a little bit. You get known. This was was looking at me like, i know you. Like that. And finally, you used to be jeb bush, right . Always good to recognize that i need no introduction when in fact i probably do. It is a joy to be here at the American Enterprise institute. Arthur, are you trying to brand the product here . It is like, how many different times can you say aei on a screen . This is a beautiful place. And more importantly than its beauty, it is place where scholars think big thoughts and create practical ways to improve the human condition where people can live lives with purpose and meaning. Im a huge fan of what aei does. Try to steal every idea that comes out of this place and its a joy and honor to be here. So why is it important to talk about School Choice . Because for those people that dent like a good political fight, it just seems like thats what goes on when you talk about education reform in general and School Choice. I got tire marks on my forehead for advocating as many different choices as possible. Normal people dont like to get into fights just voluntarily. Here is what i believe to be true. The first thing that we have to recognize is that if you think the schools are working, and many parents do think their schools are working great, or if you think the schools are okay, or if you they aink they are mediocre or are failing, it really doesnt matter. The arguments we have from time to time in all 50 states and sometimes in washington, the quality of schools and who is to blame for the joum cooutcome is kind of irvel rant. I think what we can all agree on is learning has to get better. It has to change. It has it recognize the world were living in and the world we are moving towards is dramatically different than what schools started out to do. Maybe some of these new ideas actually should get a fair hearing. Thats what we try to do at the foundation that im chairman of, is to convince people of different way of thinking. The world is the most exciting time to be alive and perhaps the most dangerous times weve ever lived in. Let me give you sta tutistics t bear this out. From mckenzie, its got to be totally accurate, right . 45 of all the jobs that americans are paid to do could be automated with existing technology today. Thats 2 trillion of wages. And imagine what that looks like in a decade of time. Ive been fascinated by upss o orion project. Imagine the data you can require for a Global Business that has thousands of trucks operating everyday over thousand he and thousands of miles. And using inputs across the spectrum of their business, including the truck, where the trucks are going. What they concluded is when they become fully operational with the orion project, doing things like not allowing their trucks to take left turns for example, which counter intuitive to me living in miami. When i get a left turn, bam, im taking it as quick as i can. But the simple fact is they determined looking at big data using Big Data Analytics that would save them a lot of money. And if they fully implement this program they will save about 100 million miles per year. 10 million gallons of fuel. They will reduce co2 emissions by 100,000 metric tons. Reduce the number of trucks by a thousand. And save 300 million to 400 million to the bottom line. Phenomenal. Use of technology. Marching band celebrating it. What about the 1,000 Truck Drivers . Think of our entire economy using this information across the board that the combination of wireless technology, creating the internet of things, the use of artificial intelligence, Big Data Analytics. Converging into our lives all at once. Its possible that a child born in poverty, going to a mediocre or even Excellent School for that matter, will never get a job. The simple fact is, this is not just about poverty. There are a whole lot of people that wont have the skills because their Education System, the k12, starting at k12 and working up to Lifelong Learning isnt prepared for the world were moving towards. Thats why this is important. Education is the chance to be able to have the skills to be able to live a life of purpose and meaning. Plain and simple. Quality teachers in front of students. Using innovative technologies. The right way will give people a chance to be, not just the displaced truck driver, but perhaps the Software Provider that makes it possible for a whole lot of other people to be successful. You extrapolate the ups experience, not just in transportation, but think about it, manufacturing, retail across the board. Amazon sells for each one of its employees, sells 1,200,000 worth of goods. Brick and mortar sells 100,000 of goods per employee. Who is going to be winner there . We are not prepared to deal with exciting but dangerous time. So the question is which governance model first applies to the 21st century in the world we are moving towards my personal opinion is the 12 or 13,000 government monopolies, we call them School Districts, is not the best model the world we are moving towards. The new system should be parent driven, transparent, focused as many choices as possible where we customize the learning experience for this unique group of people that are emerging into our world. Florida is a majority minority state in terms of children. So is texas. So is california. So are most states that have growing populations. 58 of all children in florida are qualified for free and reduced lunch. Same in texas. Same in california. Same in most of the states that are growing. Do you think the system that we have created around these kids are working to the extent that they should . I dont believe so. And so the reason why our foundation, why personally have been involved in the School Choice movement for many years, in fact, its kind of like dog years, im 800 years old in this fight, is because i think thats the american way, to empower people with proper choices, to allow them to be able to love their children with heart and sole in t soul in the right way is the way to go. Have you all read into average . Great book by todd rose at Harvard School of education. And in the book very beginning, i recommend it if you havent read it, he begins with a story of military plane crashes in the late 1940s and early 1950s with the conversion to jet aircraft from what existed before. And they studied the reasons why there were so many crashes. And what they ruled out pilot error in training. And finally turned to the cockpit that was designed prior. And a young lieutenant named Gilbert Daniels looked at the body measurements of more than 4,000 pilots. Talk about a drury job. Actually measured the leg sizes and arms and necks of all these pilots to try to determine what would be the perfect cockpit so that there could be fewer crashes. And what he determined after he did all this work was that not a single pilot met that average. Some might have longer arms. Some had bigger torsos. Some had big hands. Some had small hands. But the simple fact out of those 4,000 pilots, not a single one met the average. We have organized our Education System in many aspects of our society around averages when in fact thats not the relevant thing that we should be looking at. Not one of them conformed to the average of all ten dimension measurements used to design the cockpit. And so the simple point is everybody is different. Its not just a question of race and ethnicity or income. We are all different, which makes us special and unique. And our Education System could be customized around that uniqueness. We can do that today whereas in the industrial era where everything was organized around averages it was impossible to do. So thats why we should focus on School Choice, particular Education Savings Accounts. Vouchers, Charter Schools, Virtual Schools are important for sure, but what makes esas where we should focusing on these across the country is that its customized to uniqueness of each child. Parents receive the money. It isnt to go 100 to monopoly dictates where it should go to. It could be for therapy or tutoring or after School Programs. For the uniqueness of that child. And i would argue empowered with the proper information, parents are the best School District that exists in this country. So what should we do about it . Well, this is not a place where washington is going to play an important role. It can be a role for advocacy for sure. But this is a battle fought out in 50 states. And little by little, courageous governors and legislatures are doing this work. Whether its in nevada, certainly in florida largers Scholarship Program close to 10,000 students where parents can customize the learning experience, it could grow by the way to 100,000 if we had the budget to be able to make that happen. In states that are focused on this for special needs kids and in the case of nevada and other places, across the board for students, things work out. My vision of how this should work is that with the right policies in place, most open system, you would have a halfday perhaps, a mom could pick half day of Traditional School or Charter School, take an ap cal cue last thats not available in that classroom setting online from the Florida Virtual School or one of the other Virtual Schools, take an online music class from julliard and Spanish School with retired school teacher. In that system my guess is our education outcomes would be much stronger, more sustainable to be able to deal with the world that we are moving towards. So the question is what are the issues at hand to implement this vision . And its complicated. There are a lot of thanings tha need to be worked on. What does accountability look like where parents can choose two schools at once or half a day in one school and another half in the other . Who is accountable for that child . How do we weave esa in other School Programs to create harmony . How do we deal with assuring that disadvantaged families get equal access to the benefits of this . All of these things have to be worked out, for sure. But i think its worth doing. I honestly do. If you consider the system we have today, which worked quite effectively for 100 years, the optimum system of governance for the next generation and for what we are moving towards, fine, then youll have what you have. But i think the growing number of families look over the horizon, see huge opportunities, but also see great dangers if their children dont gain the power of knowledge. And by advocating these programs, i think we can achieve that at a far faster rate, and we need to, because the world is moving at warped speed towards a very exciting time. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you, governor. I now have some questions for you. Yes. So to back up a little bit off of esaest. Youve been at this quite a while. Im older than dirt. Before most folks. And led the expansion of mccabe before this century started. So my question is, how is the landscape of School Choice changed over time since you were governor . Well, when we created the first statewide Voucher Program in 1999, it was the first statewide Voucher Program, like it hadnt been done before. And you would have thought before we implemented it that the world was going to come to an end. And one of the advantages of implementing policy is the world normally doesnt come to an end. Look, our system wasnt perfect, but the fact that we implemented it took away some of the argument that is the folks that were protecting the status quo at all costs would normally advocate. My attitude is success is never final. And reform is never complete. What you need to be doing is it creating perpetual you build a platform based on one policy change, and that allows you to take advantage of that and move on. So what we proved was that the world doesnt come to an end. 47 of all florida kids go to a school thats chosen by their parents. Whether thats universal public School Choice, which we now have in florida, a burgeoning Charter School,