So we will go ahead and start our next panel so that we can keep on time. Be as efficient as we can. Welcome to the second panel of the day. This panel is entitled where are we now . Our panelists today will be a resident scholar of the American Enterprise institute. He has been the education commissioner of florida, and president of black lines for Educational Options. Dr. Greg forster is the director sorry, cant get it right. Network at the center for informational churches at Trinity International university. He was formally at the Friedman Foundation for educational choice. He is the author of six books and the coauthor of three additional books. He received his phd with distinction from yale university. The founder and ceo of Digital Pioneers Academy which i learned was just recently was it yesterday . A week ago was given approval to open up a charter and 2018 in washington dc. [applause] prior to that, she served as ceo of the Network Charter school fund. And the executive charter for yorkc schools at the new department of education. She started as a special ed teacher as well. So the goal of this panel is simple. The stories youve heard in the last panel and the discussion yk department of education. Weve heard, we want to discuss and review the data as it relates to education, educational opportunity, and integration. Since the brown v. Board of education decision, where are we . What does the data tell us . Our panel will start off like this. There will be 10 minutes of comments each. We will then have directed questions and hopefully the audience will fire some good questions like johnny did last time. , we will goher ado ahead and start. Gerrard thank you for extending the opportunity to talk about a is vitallyt i think important. Advancing opportunity. Lets put this in context. 60 years ago brown v. Board of education was decided by the supreme court. Fastforward. Robert mentioned i was the secretary of education in virginia and commissioner in florida. 50 years ago it would have been impossible for me as a black man to serve as a state leader in either one of those two states. It was the work of brown, the work of the naacp, and the work of others who made this possible. 50 years ago, a number of our students were performing well in what they called segregated schools. They either came up very literate or went to college. But there were a lot of resource challenges. Fastforward to today. We have more africanAmerican Students and otherwise graduating from high school. We have more africanamericans going to college, whether they are not. S we have made tremendous advancement. One of the things i believe chokes an honest conversation about progress is the overreliance on the term segregation. Heres why i say that. We say today that we have segregated schools. I see what we have today are racially identifiable schools. Im under no pretense that government policy at the federal level or local level with the redrawing of lines and deciding zip codes where people are going to live, i get it. But to say that in 2017 that my oldest daughter who went to Public Schools, that she went to a zipper good school, we are saying that 63 years worth of progress never happened. That is simply untrue. We have racially identifiable schools that have a number of challenges. Poverty is not a proxy for poverty is not a proxy for destiny. We know people in it are cities you are doing well. People who are having troubles. Another thing about brown is the advancement of cell phones. Thats a different conversation. What we have today are racially identified schools that have hosted challenges and successes. We also have a new set of schools that fall into what we call the Public School option model. But last year we had to Members Commission a study. It was released may 17, 2016. 3 4dentified we had nearly of schools that africanamericans and 10 are either primarily africanamerican or students of color and are predominantly under resourced. But one part of the report we ,idnt spend a lot of time on the majority minority schools that one blueribbons or gold medals because of their academic achievement. There are high schools that are predominantly low income that are being that are doing well academically. What we need to do is look at the schools that exist. What are they doing differently . Is it the curriculum . Is it expectation . To say that we have schools that are segregated and not doing well simply isnt true. That isnt to let the government off for being responsible in investing the resources. When we talk about resources, it is not just revenues. It is also questions about expenses. Where is the money going . Be 20,000, 22,000. I had a chance to work with d. C. Public schools in the late 1990s for dr. Arlene ackerman. We spent a lot of money. We do not crack a 50 High School Graduation weight. It wasnt because of money. We had money in place. But there were other challenges. There is a lot of special education. If there is something we know are about today about brown the number of special education students and special needs students we have. We had different names for them back in 1954. They werent always kind names. But we have to find ways to work. Brown, we dont have segregated schools. We definitely have racially identifiable schools. We have majority minority schools that are showing success, and when he to figure out what they are doing have that across the board. Third, we have School Systems run by africanamericans, hispanics, and asians, and a number of teachers. We are now in positions of power that we were in 1954, but today we actually manage multimillion dollar School Budgets and have state superintendents and things in positions of power. These are things we should do to be able to advance the narrative. Im excited to be in washington, d. C. Having this conversation because 53 years ago, we would not have been in this room if it were not for brown v. Board of education. Im glad to be a part of the education the conversation. Asked to speak about what the Research Shows on School Choice and ethnic segregation. Im sure you have all heard the joke about the economist who fell down the well. He falls down the well and people run over and say, are you all right . He says, i dont need a rope. Assume i have a letter. A ladder. It describes how a lot of economic studies are done. A lot of the studies that are published purporting to look at schools with ethnic segregation dont look at data. They dont look at measurements of what had happened in the real world. The cake the authors assumptions about what they think should happen and present that as if it were data. One of the things i do for a choice is best for ed joyce for ed choicechoices research l choice, and one of the things we track and regularly published updates on is the research on School Choice and ethnic segregation. There have been 10 and empirical studies to date that look at how School Choice programs intersect ethnic segregation and that actually measure what are happening in the programs, and that actually measure ethnic segregation. Of those 10 studies, nine have a positive finding, that School Choice has some sort of beneficial effect. The 10th study find that it makes no visible difference. Seven of these 10 studies, they take a snapshot of the ethnic composition of the Public Schools where students are eligible for School Choice, and the ethnic opposition of the private schools that are participating in the program. What they ask is, which is more segregated, the Public Schools that students are able to leave or the private schools that the students are transferring into . What all seven of those find is that the private schools are actually less segregated. While that is a snapshot, it does tell us that the School Choice programs are moving students from more segregated schools into less segregated schools. The other three studies are able to track individual students as they move from school to school. Instead of looking at the School Systems, we are actually following individual student. That is a better matter that is a better method. There was one study in milwaukee and two in a School Choice program in louisiana. The study in milwaukee was the one that found no visible difference. There are a couple of different theories about why that is. One is that the study didnt even get going until 15 years after the program started, so it is possible the program had some effect on at the examination, but reached an equilibrium and there is no further effect to be found. Another plausible explanation is that milwaukee is just really, really segregated, more than even the of average American City of that size, and so the students may simply be moving from overwhelmingly black Public Schools to overwhelmingly black private schools that are created to serve that population. Without better data, we really cant know. But at least we can know that it is not doing any harm. The transfers of students are not increasing segregation. The two studies in louisiana have found that the program improves ethnic segregation. One of those studies found that there was a small increase in segregation in the private schools participating as a result of the transfers, but a much larger decrease in segregation in the Public Schools that the students are transferring out of. On net, it was a fairly dramatic reduction of ethnic segregation as a result of that rim. The of that program. The other study found no change in Public Schools, and the same positive effect in Public Schools. These results are counterintuitive to many people. Are coulter has sort of are culture has conditioned us to think that private schools are much more ethnically segregated Public Schools, but the data on private schools simply doesnt bear that out. Are often described as something that will increase segregation, so it is counterintuitive when people say that it decreases segregation. It is important to understand the numbers we find. I think the main reason is because in the public system, students are assigned what schools they are going to go to based on where they live, and american neighborhoods are residentially very segregated. That is a combination of ethnic discrimination in the Housing Market and people selfselecting because they want to live there other people who are like them or look like them. There is a feedback were those feed off each other. One time my wife and i moved to a new city and caught our Real Estate Agent righthanded filtering the housing results so they were only showing us houses and the neighborhoods with an ethnic composition they assumed we would want. And boy was he terrified when he realized he was caught, because that is very illegal. I dont think that his motivation was discrimination. I dont think hes concerned about the ethnic purity of minority neighborhoods in that city. I do think he is motivated to make the quickest sale he can, and he wants to show us as few houses we are not going to be interested in is possible, and just made some made assumptions about what we want. We were very frustrated with couldnt find a house he wanted, but when we took that filter off, we found a Beautiful House at the price we wanted, and we bought it and lived there for several years. ,t was an enriching experience sometimes a challenging experience, but we were much better off. Sometimes my friends on the thet will say, they poo poo idea that there is still dissemination the Housing Market. I know my personal experience is not a valid empirical study. We can debate how widespread this is, but we cant debate whether it happens because we do have eyewitness accounts. I think as long as people are sent to schools based on where they live, it will be extremely difficult to overcome ethnic segregation in schools. Was notSchool Choice designed for the purpose of reducing segregation. It was designed for various other purposes. But because it disconnects where you live from where you go to school, it does seem to have the effect of reducing ethnic segregation in schools. That is one reason i support it. I supported for a lot of reasons, but one reason i support School Choice is because i think it should be a goal of our system to reduce ethnic isolation or racially identifiable schools. I think the United States particularly, without being nationalistic, we are positioned to be on the cutting edge of the emergence of a new kind of Human Community where communities are not ethnically exclusive. That is historically new. Thatt something you find it is not something you find as you look back through history. About a new cuttingedge society where communities are not likely bounded, and you cant get into this committee because of your ethnic background. I think it is a great thing for schools was to be doing. Thank you very much. Well i got to respond to that. Let the start first by saying thank you for inviting me to this wonderful conversation. This, i thinking about reflected on my own personal trajectory and how i even got here. I have an identical twin sister. We grew up in new jersey. Neither of our parents went to college, and we both failed kindergarten. Yes. We both failed kindergarten. Apparently we colored outside the lines are to follow directions. I share that story because we were in new jersey, which was a majority white community. My parents had just moved out of philadelphia and wanted a better School Option for us. When we failed kindergarten, my mother took us out of Public Schools and put us into private school. Honestly, i think that has made all the difference for us. It is why i am a huge proponent of choice. I generally believe every parent should be able to choose what school or what environment even the construction of the school. How do you best meet the needs of each individual child . As i heard gerard talked a little bit, as was previously mentioned, i was ceo of the school fund. Im a new jersey girl born and raised, and was excited to be in new jersey. Now ive moved back to washington, d. C. , where my husband is a sixth generation washingtonian. All politics are local, whether it is the local cities, states. The narrative really just comes down to what is happening locally. About two years ago i went out to the Silicon Valley with all the tech entrepreneurs. They do think differently out there. Some thing said this is the reality. Is we are not preparing every single one of our students for their academic life, their economic life, and their life to be citizens in this global world, then we are not doing our job. When i think about the purpose brown v. Board of education and where he are now, my mission is to it sure every single child can really live a wellrounded life. Around majority minority, new jersey is almost im opening a school in d. C. Which is always 100 almost 100 ican, eligible for fair reduced lunch. Is more white parents want to come to southeast d. C. , great. But i dont think they are coming until the schools and the neighborhoods are safe and providing highquality, and available options. Until that happens, i think this is a false debate around is it majority minority, is it segregated. To be in two cities, newark and washington, d. C. , we have a thriving traditional Public School sector as well as a thriving charter sector, my perspective is that those are false debates. We should be choosing between charter or district. Every parent once a great school, and they dont care if it has a charter or a traditional Public School. I think thats what we heard from the last panel. The other data point of want to ,eflect on is in the last panel we talked about being in the postd wave of students brown v. Board of education. She described her experience as being invisible. I thought, that is exactly how post brown v. Board of education. The 1. 2 Million Students who are dropping out of school today feel. Invisible. The answer isnt more money or more schools. It is, how do we need the individual needs of every single student . The Digital Economy, the world is moving fast. Our students today are digital natives. We have got to prepare them to enter into the Digital Economy of the future. Excited to i have actually launch a school that is focused on Computer Science because i think that is a school that everyone of us should have and we should be prepared for the Digital Economy. Can i am roll . Can i enroll . Can you teach . That is this question. Were going to do a little bit of directed questions here. Im going to ask a question that follows up directly on yours. You said that you are from a district that is 100 majority minority. School choice system, if you are meeting the individual needs of every child, is it ok to have a school that is 100 racially isolated or 100 minority . Is that ok . To me, it is the wrong question. Is, how do we need the needs of individual students . Ofl be look at the portfolio schools, are they all the same model . Four doesnt give students real choices . There is this idea that there is no average student. There is no onesizefitsall. The more we treat individual children as an average, we are going to do one of two things. We are going to