Transcripts For CSPAN National Governors Association Early Childhood Education Panel 20170226

They have being a waitress and waiting for their big day. I think it is harder to be elon musk than tom cruise. Many of these so companies, instagram, uber, the people running them didnt just have a lucky break. The stories were years and years and years of. Engineering. They have qualifications that i cant even imagine. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan skew and a cspans q a. Nations governors are in washington, d. C. This weekend for their annual winter meeting. On saturday, one of the sessions focused on improving the quality of Early Childhood education. Speakers included actress jennifer garner, and mark shriver with the save the children action network. This is an hour and a half. Governors and distinguished guests, please rise for the presentation of the colors, followed by our national anthem. Presenting the colors today is the district of Columbia National guard, performing the onal anthem is please remain standing until the guard exits the hall. Who, say can you see by the dons early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming glaree rockets red the bombs bursting in air nightroof through the that our flag was still there oh say, does that starspangled banner . Et wave land of the free and the home of the brave [applause] governor mcauliffe thank you, everyone. Please be seated. First of all, i would like to welcome everybody and i would like to officially gavel in the 2017 winter meeting of the nations governors. Let me start off and thank all of you for being here with us today and also recognize and thank all the governors. Is unique for us. We have 46 governors, the largest crowd of governors we have had at a Governors Association meeting. We have we are proud that our governors have come. We have 1200 guests, the most we have ever had. I think there is a lot of interest in what is going on today here in washington and at the state level. Let me now say for folks who dont know what the nga is, we are a bipartisan and i would often say nonpartisan group, organization to bring all our governors together to Work Together on the issues that confront us in our individual states and how we specifically interrelate with the federal government. We come together twice a year. We have our winter meeting. We will have our summer meeting in rhode island. We have our center of breast practices. We a best practices. We speak with a collective voice. All us governors want the same thing. We want to help the economy. We want to create jobs in her states. We want to make sure that we have the greatest education systems, the greatest Health Care Delivery systems, and people can move around in our transportation networks. We share our Innovative Solutions with one another , when one is successful, we are all successful. Your presence here is critical as we move forward to get our agenda at the National Level to make sure that the governors voices are heard and that we are partners, because the point we like to make, actions that are making up the federal level end up on the desks of governors. And we want to make sure, before they actually end up on our desks, that we have worked together to make sure that it is moving our states and our nation forward. Productive and substantive weekend ahead of us, where we will hear from some of the nations leading experts on the Critical Issues that are facing our nation today. We have plenary section sessions focused on critical of her structure needs, the importance of access to Early Childhood education, and to make sure that the governors have the necessary tools to be prepared for cyber attacks. This years meeting is also highly important because of the new leadership that we have in washington. Justin like to recognize clarke, head of the Intergovernmental Affairs at the up. E house to please stand give him a great round of applause and thank him for being here today. [applause] do want to thank administration, working with the cabinet. They have made all their tablet officials available to us and they will be here in the course of the next three days, working with us. I would also like to thank Vice President cant Vice President pence and karen pence. He opened up the mansion yesterday and we had our welcoming lunch yesterday at the Vice President s side. I also want to thank ambassador serna and mrs. Serna last night at the embassy of suit and a sea of india. And id embassy of india. I want to thank them for having us there yesterday. In addition, we headed things to our schedule this year. We are going to on monday all of us are going to spend the day on capitol hill to do meetings with the congressional leadership and to meet with the leaders of the congress on the issues that matter to us most importantly. We are meeting with the leaders to talk about the Affordable Care act. And is it goes forward, obviously, all the governors have a say. When this medicaid happens, it happens in our state. We have to administer these programs and we want to be at the front and to make sure, whatever we do, we are providing our citizens with the greatest Quality Health care efficiently and at the lowest cost possible. We will be meeting with senators on how to best strengthen our Cyber Security posture, not only at the federal but at the state level. Collectively, they governors have more personal data than the federal government, through our state tax returns, medicaid programs, health programs, department of motor vehicles. We have a german to cement of Critical Data that we need to ensure project. In addition, we need to make projecting thee businesses that do business in our respective states. To ensure that governors are at the table in congress is making any policy decisions. Let me take this opportunity to welcome some of the newest colleagues we have here with us today. We have nine you governors joining us this weekend. Governor of delaware, governor john carney, indiana, governor eric holcomb, missouri, governor eric raisins, governor sununu, rico,colonna, puerto governor ricky rossello, who i would also mention is the son of a governor, former governor of puerto rico. Governor phil scott and South Carolina, governor mcmaster. Give a round of applause to the new governors who are here today. [applause] i also want to recognize all the chairs over here of the state workforce boards. We really appreciate all the great work you all do to help us on workforce and in our respective states. Before i go any further, part of the rules of the nga require that any governor who wants to submit a new policy or resolution for adoption at this meeting will need a three fourths vote to suspend the rules to do so. Please submit any proposals you have in writing. Anna davis, put your hand up, and needs to go to her by 5 00 tonight. And at this time, i would like to recognize several companies t have him so critical that have been so critical to the Governors Association. Their participation in our Corporate Fellows Program has 1980 eight, toce facilitate the exchange of expertise and knowledge between our governors. They have an absolutely critical for us to share our best practices. With their annual contributions, more than 125 companies have provided the crucial Financial Support for the nonprofit nga center for best practices. Ngas relationship with private sector leaders are invaluable in helping for the center to achieve it such its mission to help governors in their work. We recognize two of those corporate fellows who have reached a milestone 25 years of tenure of helping the national Governors Association. Let us first give a round of applause and thank all the 125 companies who have helped make this possible. [applause] the two companies we have a presentation. When i called her name, i would ask them to come up. Please join me at the podium as i call your name. Gary fuchs with your factor with hewlettpackard, hp. [applause] now, Mike Prentiss with procter gamble. [applause] an out this time come i would like to return to the chair of the Education Workforce committee to begin our opening session. I would like to turn it over to governor bentley from the great state of alabama. Governor bentley thank you, governor mcauliffe. Today to be a part of this program because i truly believe that Early Childhood education is the most important part of education. Governors from both sides of the aisle leg knowledge they critical importance of this bipartisan issue to our childrens future and the vibrancy of our states economies. The are champions initiatives to improve the quality of and expand access to Early Learning programs in their states. And recognizing the significance of this ongoing work in states, later this afternoon, we will vote to adopt and jays first ever policy position on early ngasood education on first ever policy position on Early Childhood education to ensure that all children receive a strong start on their education. Last year, more than 14,500yearolds fouryearolds in alabama were enrolled in our prek program. That is 25 of all of our fouryearolds. That is a wonderful start. But we recognize there is still more work to do. I am encouraged by this new policy and im excited to see Early Childhood education as a priority across this nation. Together, governor ensley and i are challenging all governors to help us rethink the federal Early Education landscape to reflect the innovation taken place in our states. And today, we are honored to continue the discussion with advocates for a strong start for our children. At this point, i would like to turn the program over to our vice chairman, governor jay inslee. He and i have witnessed some exciting things in education during our time on this committee. Governor, i am honored to chair this Education Workforce committee with you. Bentley thank you. What a great day for nga. This is a historic day. You will see a lot of big bipartisan smiles around this issue. We know the near a sciences your science is clear. Know it is we clear that the new row science is clear. It is great to go to ribbon cuttings when we go to bridges, signing ceremonies of glorious bills. But there is Nothing Better than seeing the smile on a three or fouryearold kids face when they learn to count to 10. That kid is going to learn to get to mars and be productive. Itsis is a great joy and great that the national Governors Association is getting eague with there is a great color al eddie morality to this effort. We all understand this. Poverty should not be destiny in america. Be your destiny a few draw a bad card and you are born into party. Into poverty. A goal of having 90 of our kids refer kindergarten by 2020. We are not there yet, but we are moving fast in the state of washington. I want to share a few things we have done because i think there are things we can do in all of our states. Number one, we adopted a new quality rating and improvement system for those who provide Early Childhood education. We know that polity counts in everything and it certainly counts in early child heard education. Preschool an Entitlement Program for all incomeeligible families. These kids should be on our claim scarce resources, not last. So weve made sure that this is an Entitlement Program for these kids. Third, we made a specific investment for atrisk kids. We know we have some Little Angels who, if they get a little help at age three and four, they will do great for the rest of their career. Fourth, we have Health Care Providers and this is really important because we have a lot of fighters who might be recent immigrants to the country we have people who are kind of at the bottom of the economic ladder. So we are providing great Scholarship Programs for our provider so they can work on their own quality improvement. And fifth, we have done the butg that is most obvious, weve got to make sure we do it increased the number of our slots by 50 in the last three and a half years. We want to get to where we need to be to eliminate the opportunity gap down the road. Republicanhank governors, democratic governors to understand come if you are going to do economic investment, the best place to start is with three and fouryearolds. We are all about jobs. If youre going to have jobs, you need three and four euros were going to have their real dreams realized beginning at that age. We have some tremendous leaders today. And markennifer garner shriver. I will introduce them in a minute. We have mike patters, of Huntington Ingalls industry. Im looking forward to this conversation. Womaner garner, this is a who i got to meet in my campaign. Talk about a whirling dervish when it comes to inspiring people in this subject. Many enduring titles. First and foremost, mother. Shes got great work in her acting career. She is a member in our save our children organization. This is a person who put herself on the line. She has gone to West Virginia. She has got to capitol hill, california central valley, kentucky and West Virginia to understand the effects of poverty. And i can enter deuce mark shriver, president of save the children action network. He and jennifer have done more than probably anybody in the country to inject the word quality into early child that education and we are following her lead. Mr. Shriver thank you so much for having us. Its great to be with you again. And i have traveled all across the country over the last nine years. I met a governor bentley about six years ago in the work you have done expanding save the childrens work across your great state. Pulling together the chamber of commerce and other entities across alabama. It is greatly admired and. Appreciated and a role model for the rest of the country. We met you before you declared running for governor. We were in washington state. It is greatly appreciated and we want to say thank you. We want to thank you governor bentley, again, for the great announcement that will happen in a couple of hours, putting the issue of Early Childhood earlyion, highquality childhood education at the forefront of the Governors Association. It is so exciting. So thank you very much, governor. Save theou know children as an international, Nongovernmental Organization that is educational and Disaster Relief work. It was started here in the United States almost a hundred years ago in new york city and focused in on providing meals for poor children in kentucky. That led to the federal lunch, school lunch program. Our work has continued. All across this. Country jennifer join us nine years ago, focused on the issue of Early Childhood education here in america. America. Are here in it is rooted in kentucky. But also across the country, from the east coast the west coast. It gives me great honor to introduce our artist ambassador for the last nine years, someone i have traveled all across the country, from california to washington to kentucky to South Carolina. , as theeat role model governor said, for all of us who are interested in expanding Early Childhood education. Jennifer garner. Ms. Garner thank you. [laughter] markarner thank you, karen it is exciting and thrilling to be in a room full of people who are giving their lives to service to our country. Im honored to be here and grateful to be part of this conversation. Believe me, when i started working on years ago, the ,hought of Early Education being part of a national conversation, was something that was far off in the distance. So its thrilling to see everyone here and committed and ready to get to work. First, just to let you know how i got into this in the first place, my mom grew up poor, dirt poor, with 10 slid the desk 10 siblings and no 10 siblings and no electricity or running water. She had to get herself educated, the only member of her family to go to college. In and my sisters me and trusting, North Carolina. Kids shoes are cut along the front to let their toes grow out, where my kids from first grade didnt make it the second grade when i did, didnt make it a third grade when i did, and the faceisappeared off of the earth as far as i knew in my Little Elementary School mind. I grew up one generation and one hauler removed from poverty. Abouteen driven to think big things, like how did my mom get out and how can i help other kids like the ones i grew up close to . And so i hunted down the organization that at the time and still i believe has the most helping kids get out of generational rural party in the United States. And that was save the children run by mark shriver. Have the great luck and fortune believe me, when you are going into someones trailer home that is surrounded by travis, has plastic over a broken window, that has the oven door open to heat the small space, that is infested by that has notnd announced of sound of joy in the place, you do feel privileged to be allowed into peoples homes and to be accepted and welcomed into a place where they could actually just feel shame and not want you to take a look inside. When we walk into these homes, you would be suffocated by the silence in the room. The children are not badly, not talking, not crying, not making joyful sounds or anything else. Thats because their senses are doled. Their mothers and fathers are so overwhelmed by the stressors of living in poverty. Food scarcity, not knowing where they are going to live, drug addiction, abuse you all know the drill better than i. But their mothers are so overwhelmed that they dont have the capacity to look outside themselves. And im sure they have not had the modeling that many of us have had. They dont have the capacity to look outside to themselves, read to their babies and speak to and love on their babies. They it there babies in front of the television. Ive seen it over and over again across this country. And the child quietly goes to sleep inside their mind. The brain grows between birth and five. And we are doing this these children a great disservice. They have absolutely lost the chance to ever make it ahead in life. If you are growing up in poverty, by four years old, you are a year and a half behind develop mentally. So you are a two and a halfyearold peer how will it feel when you start kindergarten . 50 of kids in Rural America start kindergarten in special ed. Thethere is an answer and answer is starting earlier and earlier and earlier. And as much as i believe and applied all of you who are putting money and efforts into helping kids at three and fouryearolds, i challenge you to look at birth to three and ask you to think about what you are doing for those newborns. [applause] years, ist couple of insleested governor nation in washington, eastern bishop, South Carolina where programs are so, so needed, and the money for them were cut yesterday and am coming after him, and alligator, mississippi. Im thrilled to tell you that there is so much optimism in getting to a mother and child early. I have a story that i love. I was visiting a family in a concrete home in the heat of central valley, california. There was a little boy, 11 months old, when i walked into the house. At the time, i had a 10monthold boy who is turning five on monday. This little boy was 11 months old. He did he did not look up. He did not smile. He did not react to me at all. He was listening to an episode of oprah. The mother also looked depressed, overwhelmed, exhausted. And i can understand why. Her life did not look like anything i would want to lead. This little boy was stagnant. The say the children corded or came in and brought something for this child, along with a book bag of books and a log for the mother to fill out for every time she was reading to her child and encouragement and love. This little boy had never seen a ball. Imagine youre on children, imagine your son with his first ball. This kid looked at that ball and he looked at his mom and his mom was putting up with us frankly. And the save the Children Court nader said roll the ball to your son. She did. And he looked at it and couldnt believe what was happening. And he rolled it back. And the mother kind of sat there and the coordinator said he is playing with you. Do it again. Do it again. She rolled it to him again. Is that my time . Ok. [laughter] is like the oscars. You guys are so scary. [laughter] [applause] alright then can i tell you what happened with the mom and child . [laughter] the mother, the baby made a noise. The baby made a noise and the coordinator said hes talking to you. And she said, he is not talking to me. And he said he is. This is speech. This is connection. Its happening can say the same thing back to him. And the mother dead, kind of embarrassed. And the child set it back. The next thing you know, they were babbling back and forth. I sigh in lights switch go on for that little boy on that day. And i know, because we visited that mother a week later, that light switch was turned on just long enough for us to catcher a week later and a week after that and a week after that and there was a connection made. And the mother knew she could play with her child, knew she could speak to her child and expect a response. She was encouraged to read to her child and the kid had a chance to go to kindergarten ready to learn. Thank you so and please call on me if i can ever be a part of coming to your state and intraand gas and introducing you to our great programs. Governor mcmaster, i will speak with you soon. [laughter] [applause] mr. Shriver thank you, jennifer. I want to add one question or statement around the issue of money. You all know and jennifer and i have been around almost every statement country. The question comes down to in many cases how do you build the Financial Capability to expand highquality Early Childhood services zero to five. We have put forth a series of bipartisan recommendations that we hope you come as governors, case,ook at this tool this tool chest of ideas and come up with and support whatever idea makes the most sense for you. And there is a series of ideas and you all know the financial burden that highquality Early Childhoodcentered can cause. They can be as high as 17,000 year. It is often higher than annual instate College Tuition in over 30 states. So this is a huge financial issue for individuals all across america. I can briefly talk about a couple of the ideas. Social impact funding, the pay is success concept that showing success in utah, programs for children who could not previously access those services. There is the concept of expanding tax credits. Ittalk about making partially or fully refundable to ensure that families living in poverty, the ones that jennifer just beautifully described, have access to Early Childhood services, expanding minister bowl bonds to allow states and localities to pay for improved Early Learning of her structure, and free up other moneys that can be used for programming, such as teacher salary and other materials. Credit. Rgarten tax tax credits have been very successful in the state of pennsylvania. It allows people who cannot afford highquality Early Childhood services to get that. And businesses and individuals who have made country to be shoes to the fund, getting the tax reduction. There are a number of ideas out there that are being discussed. Jennifer and i met with a number of governors yesterday. A lot of states we know are struggling with financial issues. You are making tough cuts. Said, thisgovernors is not only an education issue, but a workforce of element issue. And there are ideas out there that are percolating in states, in the very early stages, that can look at funding, the expansion of highquality care. So we want to work with you. We hope you will reach out. We want to work with your constituents in pursuing some of these ideas. Jennifer and i would love to answer any questions if any governors have any questions. For your again so much committee to shining a light on issue. It is an incredibly exciting moment in the history and development of this important issue. Thanks so much. [applause] mark, u. N. Nslee jennifer, i want you and jennifer, i want to thank you for not only being on the panel, but for your passion for something that i too have a passion for. Physician, i saw, just like jennifer talked about, i saw a child that eight months of age was vibrant and then, at four years of age, totally dull. So its real. And that brain develops and we have to take advantage of the development of that childs brain. So thank you and think you for your passion. We are going to have some questions. We are going to call in some governors here in just a minute. Havef the things that we to be concerned about in our states, of course, is money. As governors, we have to deal with that. In alabama, what weve done is increased our prek funding in the state between 10 million and 20 million every year. Thats why we got from 6 to 25 . We are try to get to the 50 level. Then everyone will have the opportunity, if they choose, to go to a firstclass pk program. The thing that has prek program. What has helped us is the federal dollars provided for us over the last three years, the 17 million we received each year, helped us start new programs. Then the money that we put it on the state level sustained those programs. Thats how we approached it in the state of alabama. So now i would like to kick off our discussion by asking some of the other governors to ask questions of mark and jennifer. We will open this up. I have a question. Thank you very ms. Garner and mr. Shriver and gonvernor inslee and governor bentley for your championing [indiscernible] im trying to be heard here. I want to Say Something and then ask a question. Pennsylvania, we take this really seriously, getting are you and us citizens off to the right start in life is really 1718 budget,n my i propose a 40 increase in Early Childhood education, between headstart and Early Childhood education. Get to 44,000 you prek seats by 2020. This is a good investment. About 13,000ed to 17,000 per student, maybe a thousand dollars in some cases can do a good job in Early Childhood education. By contrast, it costs over 40,000 a year to incarcerate somebody. 40,000 a year. This is a good investment. There are all kinds of other wiegh. That you have to if a child gets off to a good start, we avoid paying the other social costs that we would pay for to do this. In a year that pennsylvania has a stress a budget, i am proposing a big increase in this because i think this is a smart investment. But as you pointed out, jennifer, you would like to see birth through three. Are there any models out there in the states that you think are doing a good job in the birth through three area . Or mark . Either one. Mr. Shriver you want to start . Ms. Garner you know i will interact. So go ahead. Mr. Shriver you just did. [laughter] number of excellent models that are funded through the mcphee funding revenue stream from the federal government. Save the children runs an Early Childhood program, a Home Visiting model called early school success. There are a number of great models that are running in all of your states right now. I was a former legislator in maryland for eight years. I know everybody comes in and asks everyone of you for dough all day long. That reallyquestion good legislators we have met and , theyors we have met with ask what the roi is. Because these are investment dollars and they are scarce. I think youve got to ask all the providers that are providing services comically save the children, not how many marquez they are serving, but are they services, including save the children, not how many more students they are serving, but they a number of providers have been out doing these services for years. They have constituencies in the legislature. But if we dont ask those tough questions and put some of the entities who have been doing business out of business and fund the ones i have strong track workers, the pay for evaluations, the demand a lot than we are staff, try changing the taxpayers but ultimately the kids. The concept of paying now or paying much more later is true. But you are getting squeezed on your budget and youve got to hit your number this year. We understand that. Thats why we put together a couple of financing ideas that is not code for tax increases. We rode it in a bipartisan manner. Sununued with governor in the state of new hampshire, 9 million for targeted all day kindergarten. So there are ideas floating around out there and we want to encourage you to ask those tough questions of save the children and early steps for Home Visiting programs and parents and teachers as well. When you raise the standard on all of us, and demand for more, the kids are the ones that benefit. That is what makes it exciting. I dont know if you want to add anything. Im sorry, that was great . [laughter] ms. Garner dont get a big head. Thank you. [laughter] bryant jennifer, mark, thank you for the meeting yesterday. I hope tracy prices doing good. We sent tracy a selfie yesterday jenniferuld tell that is going to the government. That was an exciting time for us. The great thing about save the children is we have a statewide plan and we worked three years on this for Early Childhood learning in the state of mississippi. And this program fits exactly into this plan. Through fate as if or perhaps divine intervention that save the children came to be a part of this. 98 of roughly right children are in daycare now. Our plan is to put an Early Childhood component in the daycare setting, working with our community colleges. Weve been created in the funding. Delta Regional Authority has been a part of this. Private funds. Wherever we can find funds, we going to so. We are going to work to make sure we expand save the children in the state of mississippi to fit those needs of those parents that cannot or have not been able to get their children into one of the Day Care Centers that have a learning component. And a lot of it is happening in the mississippi delta. There is 11 locations now. We are going to make sure we double and enhance that. And i would to thank jennifer for what she has done. Im sure she has a lot of other things that she could be doing without paying with a bunch of governors today. Mark, you and i have a lot of work to do ahead. Thank you. Governor sandoval thank you so much for being here. Standpoint, you made my daughters life last night because she got to take a picture with ms. Garner, my 12yearold. It was a highlight. Nevadacentric, but we didnt start in a good place a few years ago and we made some progress and we have a lot of distance to go from there. We developed what we call victory schools, to add resources for children in party and give bloc grants to use some of that for prek instruction. We also have zoom schools for our englishlanguage schools. A lot of states have a Large Population like that. Similar to governor bentley, we participated in the grant process. I put money in my budget so we thousands of precases as well. Im particularly interested in your comments on 033. Some of the pushback we get on zero through three. Some of the pushback we get is we dont want it to be babysitting. Questionetting to my is we are working hard to get more of those providers certified so that it can be instructional. What would be your comment on in terms of parents youre saying, wait a minute, dont take my baby away from me. I hear that sometimes. Help threadng to the needle and getting the providers certified so they get the instruction they need so they can be where they need to be and what would you tell those parents that are saying, wait, i want my child at home . Thank you very much, governor sandoval. Your daughter is adorable. I do not believe a child needs to leave for home when its time for preschool in order to learn. We need to support the mom through raising children in harmony, without neighbors, without baby and me mommy classes, without accident modeling of parents before them. We need to support them and encourage them. And that sometimes is brick by brick, child by child. Although i give you a rough time, you are actually doing this in the state of washington. Ive got to visit your programs. , sayay we deal with that the children all over the world, everyonet is to reach and do the job that nobody wants to do. We are going out into the fingers of nowhere in your states ad in ca people who cant get their children to daycare, who do not have a job to go to growing up, who are raising kids in absolutely the worst possible settings, where i am going to the Grocery Store with them as they try to figure out how to get the most out of their wic and food stamps money and still have enough left over for their mountain dew. These families need our support and our love and that takes us going to them. So the way that we handle it, sir, is that we hire people locally. We train them like crazy so there isnt the feeling of an outsider coming in. And we form a Community Around this family go back again and again and again and are in her face, assessing her child, figuring out how we can help her. What does she need . Does she need to see a special dr. . Is her child having hearing problems . Im going to get the hook. [laughter] is she looking for a ride for a Job Interview . That is what our programs focus on. I certainly know that the home visitation model has a place in every civil state. I know that all of you are doing in every single state. I know that all of you are doing it and im grateful. Mr. Shriver there are ways to evaluate how kids are doing in the first three years of life. Called themething picture of vocabulary test which looks at the social and Cognitive Development of kids. Those first three years of life, when the 90 of brain growth happens, it happens cognitively, socially and emotionally. A kid going into prek and kindergarten doesnt know how to share and interact with his or classmates, those kids will struggle academically as well. So it has to be a competence of approach. There are ways to evaluate whether organizations and systems are delivering High Quality Services in that area. Accessibility is a big issue. But accessibility. Without quality is not going to do it. It is a selfdefeating approach. So there are entities out there. We have to look at the child, the baby really, socially, aimlessly and cognitively when we look at how to expand accessibility of quality Early Childhood services. Gonvernor inslee i wanted to follow up on what governor sandoval said. Isl we found in washington you cannot succeed in Early Childhood education in a vacuum, in isolation. Other things you do have to be supportive of the Early Education initiative. One of the things we do first is to try to get the Higher Education community and the k12 Education Community and that leadership to be advocates for Early Childhood education. Youve got to have a continuum of education to make this work. I want to mention another thing, too. What we haveissue, found come if you want quality, you have to provide training of the people providing the services. And if you are going to get them training, youve got to have a little help to get that training. Thats not just scholarships or medicaid scholarships. Our Medicaid Expansion has been extremely important for these providers who are servicing the working poor on medicaid. We will have discussions with the federal government on these medicaid programs. It is hard to have high quality early Child Education if their families and up in a medical bankruptcy situation. These things have to be related to one of another. Governor herbert, can i ask you a question . Impact fundenefit in utah i can use a briefing . Governor herbert i can, very brief. , grow uptunity for us your children correctly, eliminates the social costs. Whether it is substance abuse, whether prison, whether eliminating gangs, the opportunity we have to save taxpayers money and reinvested is a significant aspect. I would like to ask the question again, this is such an important topic. We all know the rising generation need help to make sure they become the best they can be. We are talking about educating the children. But i like to say who is educating the parents . Throughtalk about birth three or prekindergarten, i have six children and none of them came with any instructions. [laughter] and i kind of experiment along the way. They all seem to be turning a pretty good, thanks to a good mother, first lady of utah. Utah, it also has to do with parenting skills. So we have an initiative that the first lady does in utah, have a people come to conferences through educational having tond not reinvent the wheel but learning from others who have done it and say heres the challenge we have and this is how we handle it and this will help you raising euro children. How do we merge the government responsibility with parental responsibility . How do we educate parents on how to teach their children become good, productive citizens . Mr. Shriver its a great question governor. Programy step success is built on the very concept. Im sorry we did not make that clear enough. When the home visitors going into the home, they are interacting with the parents, who are guardians of the home. Their teaching them how to read to their kids. As you know, that seems like a crazy statement, but that is often the case. And if the parents dont read well, which we deal with on a regular basis, the ideas jennifer will tell you, teaching them how to do nursery rhymes, stimulation of brain synapses, hearing those words, the lullabies that your wife did just naturally to your kids is all part of the growth cognitively of that little baby. And then working with the family and transitioning them its a prek programs or services in the school. Oftentimes, the parents of had that experience is in the local elementary school, where their kid is going to go. So we work on setting up experiences in the school for the pair to be richard used into the school to be reintroduced into the school, to have reading time in the school during afterschool times or on weekends. So there is a strong component of the Parent Education piece to it and repairing those relationships between the home and the school which in many cases have been negative in the past. Families as you know, there is not a lot of mobility. Have a lot will of negative experiences. Then they kids go there and some of the teachers that taught them or their younger siblings and had negative expenses that is a key component. You want to ask those tough questions, not only to us, but to other providers as well. Are they making a connection with families . Its hard come as you know. Your wife told us last night. It is tough to do. But it is critically important. Governor ricketts this is ask if anybody else who would like to weigh in on this. When looking at how to measure outcomes, are there three or five things it you can focus on and say im going to make up an example that will demonstrate migrants on this but if a child knows there abcs going into kindergarten, whether time they take a third grade standardized tests, the scores will be x percent better. We want to make sure that they know their abcs. Thats one of the things we want to measure with our prek providers. Are there things like that we can really focus on in the states to say, if we can improve the training or measure the specific things, so when we hit kindergarten, we know we will get better results . How do you think about measuring the outcomes for that . One of the other challenges is that standardized tests for kindergartners and prekindergartners is not always the easiest thing. But what are the things you can do to help us with that . Mr. Shriver its a great question. For save the children, we use something called up the body picture vocabulary test, which is a copper intensive series of assessments that look at the child cognitively, socially and emotionally. And the teachers look at it and can judge of the kid is if the kid is interacting with the kids well, with their peers, exhibiting the Emotional Intelligence behaviors as well as the cognitive behaviors of holding the book, knowing how to flip a page. When i was in the legislature, we had a hearing and i asked a series of kindergarten teachers the kidsu figure out that are going to graduate from high school . And to a person, they will tell you they know which kid will graduate from high school in which one isnt in kindergarten. So if they kick comes in jennifer has seen this if they dont know how to put the jacket on and they dont know aretold a book and they five years old, they are 18 months behind a kid that knows all that stuff. You are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in nebraska, as a country spending billions, to try to get that kid to grade level. In most cases, it is not going to work. Ms. Garner im afraid i do need to interrupt. California,ica, where my children are lucky enough to go to school, Kindergarten Readiness to us is that your child is reading, write their names, their numbers, probably know a song at least in another language. Kindergarten readiness for the set for the families we serve is about having the patience to listen to a story and sit still. Its about not knowing how to read a book, but knowing what a book is. If there is one book for every poor child if there is one for every 13 poor children in United States and on average 13 books for every middle class or upper class child in the United States, imagine hammy but you have had in your homes, these families dont even have books in their homes. So it is about knowing what a book is. Its not known now for that, but knowing that letters exist. It is a whole lot concept less than you would even imagine based on what you know as a parent. It is really just the very fundamentals. About a brain being setup to learn. I was thinking about a story in palmdale, california on a site visit. It was a home where english is a second language and there was not my thing was spoken at all. But the mother had three children. Two of them had gone through school that our programs. Her baby was benefiting from our home model. Been a benefit for a while. She has lovely kids. There were just struggling in school. Youngest, our home visitor brought hot wheels, hot wheels cars. This little boy, you can imagine, its like a little boy getting it. Wheels . Nt love a hot she was showing the mother had to take things around the house, an old box, toilet paper rolls, to make a garage for the child. She said lets teach and the colors. She was saying this is spanish to the mother. They would say the colors in spanish and english. She was just educating the mother, encouraging her and telling her you can do it. You can play with this child that is asked in a way that is going to expand his mind. And i saw them flop on their allies on the floor and do walkthrough a picture book that neither one of them could read. But they were giggling and having so much fun. So it is about Parent Education, parenting courage meant, and wrapping her arms around parents were struggling. And its about Kindergarten Readiness that is achievable. It is something we can do, but its very difficult to measure unless you are in santa maquet, california, where they better be ready to go to harvard. [laughter] those games that jennifer is describing is the fire developing a childs fine motor skills. Putting the green square in the green square are all ways to ofelop the find motor skills a kid. Social scientist will tell you and brain scans show that, when kids are stimulated that way, their brain is actually growing at a faster clip than kids who dont have those its parents is. In washington state, the university of washington, they do brain scans of kids who get stimulated with those extra words. It is a millions of words difference from parents who are not living a party versus one who is. In the rain is actually growing faster. And the brain is actually growing faster. It is amazing. The science now, which was not around when headstart was started 50 plus years ago, showing how brain growth happens and how kids will do better in the state of nebraska and make more money longterm. But you are planting a seed. You are probably not going to see it blossom as governor. It takes guts to make that investment because those kids arent going to be in high school and college or car mechanics or whatever it is when you are governor. But you are planting those seeds and you will be saving your state longterm and you will be doing economic develop network longterm. Governor malloy this has been a great and exciting presentation. I have enjoyed it immensely. I want to share an experience. This was about 20 years ago, in my home city where i was mayor. Thisabout 20 years ago month we declared we would provide prekindergarten experience for every child in the city, regardless of their financial circumstances. It was based on the research that you were just referencing. But i will also tell you that, even in a state that has led on and programs and other preschool programs, the thing that we did that really brought this home in 2013 by executive order and 2014 by legislation, which created office of early child. It is a cabinet level position with its own commissioner that coordinates the activities of five different departments that touch children early in their age and coordinates activities with a broad array of notforprofit send corn its activities with local boards of education as well. If you really want this to be important in your state, i would be happy to share and get you legislation. I would be happy to have our office of Early Childhood commissioner meet with anyone in your state that might be desirous of journaling it. But when desirous of doing it. When you declare the this is as important as anything else in your cabinet, you will be amazed at how quickly people will move at how seriously they will take your commitment. Governor bentley thank you so much governor. Thank you for sharing your time with us. As i say, your passion, the same passion that we have for improving the lives of children. I know you have to depart. Thank you for being with us today. Ms. Garner thank you. [applause] governor bentley as we talk about our programs across the state and across the country, as governor malloy just mentioned, onalabama, we actually have office of School Readiness and it is under the governors office. It is not under the department of education. That makes it to menace difference. It takes away a lot of the bureau that makes a tremendous difference. It takes away a lot of bureaucracy. Alabama, i would like to talk a little bit about what we really do. Gone, since ive been governor six years, we have gone from 6 enrollment of 25 . And as we reached what the 50 level, any chart and a pair who would like their child to go to a prek program will have that opportunity. We are one of only two states that has for the last 10 that has for the last 10 years met this firstclass level, this award given through the National Institute for Early Education research. Emphasis,t a special as i say, on the quality of our programs. These are grant programs. Some of the programs that do not what they should do, they have their grant taken away from them. So they are expected to do exactly what they are supposed to do. And we are seeing results. As i say in alabama, if you cant prove it, we dont pay for it. I think we need to take money away from programs that dont work. So if you can show us statistically and we can show it , we can show statistically that it truly works and we are very proud of our program. Ive got a great commissioner who deals with this. She has done a great a fantastic job. And we are going to continue to work hard and alabama to reach that level, so that every parent will have the opportunity to voluntarily send their child to a firstclass prek program. Now i would like to introduce our next guest. Andrsette is president ceo of angles industries. This is americas Largest Military ship company and the provider of manufacturing and engineering and Management Services to the nuclear, energy oil and gas markets. He is also the member of the Steering Committee for blueprint virginia, which is a Strategic Planning initiative spearheaded by the Virginia Chamber of commerce that pursues multiple goals related to Early Childhood education your those goals include improving access to highquality Early Learning programs and also for identifying opportunities for public and private partnerships. In addition, he has purchase a paid it in the work of the hamilton project, which is a d. C. Based organization seeking to advance americas promise for opportunity, prosperity and growth, with a special focus on including and eliminating the preky gap which are programs do. School readiness is a major part of this. Please join me in welcoming mr. Mike petters. [applause] before mike speaks, he has 22,000 employees. Every Aircraft Carrier ever built in the history of this great country was built in his company and we are very proud and we have several under construction, the Largest Naval base in the world. To a great virginian, i want to thank you mike. And a great United States Naval Academy grad. Mr. Petters thanks, governor. Ceo ofe today as the Huntington Ingalls industries, a fortune 500 company. Im not exactly sure who set me up on the agenda to follow up that first thing. [laughter] so thanks. I heard one time that everything that needs to be said has been said already, but not by everybody that needs to say it. So i will try to fulfill my obligation in that regard. Ceo, iblic Company Really familiar with safe harbor statements. So my first safe harbor statement is i am it i am not a professional educator. I am a businessman. I happened to be married to a professional educator who teaches threeyearolds. My wife and i have two daughters who teach in elementary education. So there are professional educators in my household and i am uniquely unqualified to talk about that. Secondly, i would like to recognize that, as governor mcauliffe said, we are the largest industrial side of employment in the state of in the commonwealth of virginia. We are also the largest employer in the state of mississippi at our angle should build a facility. And governor bennett, think we are the largest employer in your state because 3000 of our ship work interested will live in alabama. But beyond that, we have a built in America Supply chain that represents 5000 suppliers across all 50 states. So to commemorate all of your role in the great shipbuilding enterprise, we have stuck in your folder a little poster that we made that actually shows the carrier with state flags on it. When one of our sailors is writing a ship and he goes over the horizon in harms way, that ship may have come from one of the shipyards in mississippi or virginia, but it actually represents every part of our country and every fabric of our being and represents everything that we do together very well. So we are honored to be a place where all of that comes together. But we absolutely recognize that all of your shipbuilders and we are very glad and very proud of the partnership that we have with each and every one of you. I am here as a businessman and a want to give you a little bit of a perspective on this. I was sitting at the Naval War College a few years ago and the secretary of the navy was ray mavis, former governor of mississippi. And he made the statement that come if you take the population of this country today, from the ages of 18 to 24 years old, and you take out of that population the folks who do not have a high school diploma, who have had some kind of criminal activity or who have some sort of physical fitness issue that would preclude them from being joining the armed services, you are left with in that population of 18 to 24 you are left with 25 of that population who is actually eligible to be recruited into our armed services. 25 . I was staggered by that sitting in the audience because i listen to what he talked about when he talked about High School Diplomas or geds. He talked about criminal records. When he was talking about the physical thing, obesity, things within our control. I thought for a minute, those are all the same people and try to recruit as a businessman. Hes tried to recruit them. I am try to recruit them. What are we doing with the other 75 . About a month later, i was in one of my daughters classrooms and she was teaching fifth grade at the time. And that was kind of came back to me that said one in four is going to be employable. One in four is good to be paying for all of the things that you have to pay for for the other three. And i looked at. Her classroom of 30 students and thought what it for come even i can do the math, theres probably seven or eight kids in here who are going to carry the load for the rest of the classroom. So im not surprised by the comment. And my wife said the same thing you can tell in kindergarten the kids that are going to go and the kids that dont have and are not going to go. So thats just the say that maybe there is something that we from theo, just business side of this thing, there are some things we need to do to make sure that, windows ships go over the horizon 25 to 30 years from now, they still represent of represent the offer. What america can the second thing, thinking about it from the business standpoint, what we know from shipbuilding is, if it costs us a dollar to build something in a shop, if we have to move it out of a shop and then build it instead of building it in the shop, we build it out in the weather or unexposed area before he goes to the dock area, it is three or four times as much to build it in the last best be less hospitable environment. And if you cant build unless you get the ship in the water, it can cost five to eight times as much to build it. Theep back and we are largest employer in a couple of states we are heavily involved in the Workforce Development pipeline of trying to find employees. And i look at what we are investing to take people who have graduated from high school, who have the ability to come to work for us, and then i think about all the money we are trying to spend in that area to make sure they are actually and iable on our behalf, think him a you know, if we can start spending that money on the front end of the pipeline, we would actually get a pretty large return on our investment. We think a lot in our business, we think about the one create rule. Our suppliers that are in your states, they provide us the most efficient way for the products we need to build the ships. Why cant we think about our educational system as a pipeline as well . Putting all this money in the end of the pipeline to try to fix what is coming out of the pipe, would it make sense that we put some money on the front end of the pipeline and invest in that to make sure that the return would be pretty significant and pretty substantial i think . That seems to make some sort of logical sense to me. Ive heard and read and i think we heard some statistics earlier about some of the return on investment or the Different Things i go there. I think ink and final kinds of studies that will give your kinds of numbers. Ive heard 60 roi. Its heard 30,000 for student. Ive never heard anybody say it was a bad investment. I get a lot of folks bringing ideas to me all the time, just like you. And if it doesnt make sense, we say no. Ablenever had anybody be present to me a case that says this is nothing but a straight up good investment to make. Would say isng i that we are right now, in our society, in manufacturing and in the industry, we are looking at. He change of the workday what it means to work for someone and what it means to be an employee for someone for your career is changing rapidly. What you knew when you started working at the age of 20 or 18 or 16 or 25 will not carry you all the way to the time you are ready to retire. You are going to have to become the workforce of the workforce of the future will have to be a workforce that loves learning and is excited about the opportunity to try to do something new. And one thing my wife would say is that, when she gets her threeyearold class, she thinks that her objective in the year that she has those kids is to somehow take them and unlock their love for learning. And if we can unlock the love for learning and kids who are three or four or five years old, we are setting ourselves up for Great Success 25, 30, 50 years from now. Why would a businessman who has to do with Quarterly Results care about what is going to happen 50 user now . Besides being a best 50 years from now . Besides being a good citizen and all that thing . Last month, we built a contract to build a ship that we will deliver to the navy, the u. S. The ss enterprise in 2027 . In 2052, the ship will come back to the shipyard to be refueled. Ship will comee back to the shipyard to be in activated. The fortune 500 ceo with the longest horizon. Because i can tell you what doc and what are the enterprise is going to be at in 2077 when we go to that work. But i would suggest to you that, for all of the horizon that i have, it is my view that the government Government Service and government activity should have the longest horizon of us all. Where itose places doesnt make sense for the private sector to step in, the government has to make that make sense. Because it has a longterm horizon. If you get the credit returns were talking about here over that kind of timeframe, i think the sailors 50 years from now and the country 50 years from now will be in a good place. Absence of that, we are going to ships country that has a where we are not going to put people on it because they will not be qualified to sell them. And we will be elected to have shifts because we may not have a workforce that is qualified to build them. Opening. Nd of my i appreciate the opportunity to be here today and i look forward to your questions are governor bentley thank you, mike. You are doing what we are doing on the state level. We are trying to recruit jobs and retain jobs. We have to have a workforce. And if we dont build that workforce with education, with a strong foundation, then we are not going to have a strong workforce. I cant see why people cant get this. It is hard for me to believe that people dont understand that the most important part of. Earning is in the early years just like you talked about, it makes children want to learn. And thats a lifelong special lifelong goal. We will have just a couple of questions. Governor ducey. Governor ducey think you for your service and your commitment in the state of virginia. Im curious what can we do to incentivize Business Owners and ceos to make the same type of commitments in our state to the worthy work you are working on . I think him across the board, each of you probably know what incentivizes companies in your area. Different things work for different folks and different states will have different approaches. I would tell you that, from a Public Company standpoint, cash is king. So if you are able to incentivize companies in a way that helps them with their cash flow or, the cash put cash profile to make these investments in some way, that can be very helpful. ,hether its credits deductions, however it works best in your state, i think makes the most sense. British, publicprivate partnerships are starting to work pretty well in different parts of the government business interface. I think there is a range of alternatives there. ,hat weve done is actually last year, we went so far as to we gave out over 30 scholarships to children of employees to go to preschool. Now we dont know that those 30 kids are going to come work for us and 15 or 20 years. But there he is and i believe but in in here that says come we start down that path, if we get a 30 to one or 15 to one investment return in our community, that will be good for business and for the states we are in and for the country. We will do that again. We Just Announced the program again this year. Our employees are cementing their applications. Mucht tell you with as emotion and passion as you heard earlier, but i get the thank you notes from the parents whose kids are going to school who would not have a gorgeous goal buffer the Scholarship Program that we are offering. So we are very excited about that. My encouragement is for Business Leaders to step up and move their horizons out a little bit. In thanks for being here, for sharing enough to share your thoughts and channeling the informed members of your family as well. Not going to resolve what i ask here in this discussion. But you made mention of something a moment ago, mr. Shriver before you as well. You talked about the fact that you are able to help folks in your company to send their children to preschool. I think everyone of us understand that all science reinforces the fact that Cognitive Development starts early and the more the better at an early age. I think everybody agrees to that. And you are able to facilitate that as a possibility for employees and others have variations on that theme. Mr. Shriver made mention of a program that is probably the most prevalently used, the head start program. The question i would like to ask of all of us, regardless of our ideology, regardless of the prevalence of head start in our hases are not, head start billions of dollars pumped it up program. The last time anyone truly looked at the efficacy of that, Congress Asked health and Human Services to look at this eight years ago. They did an exhaustive study. Over the course of several years, they gathered data. ,hey looked at 5000 children randomly selected, half of whom went into headstart and half of whom did not. They followed them from the headstart age, the preschool age through first and second and third grade. By the first grade, any academic advantage had begun to dissipate. Grade, zero impact and in fact, negative differences as it related to those children and their ability to assimilate socially, which is an important thing for employees to think about. Because there is no substitute for parenting and yet not every parent has the home where this is possible. So the question i would ask us to begin to ask ourselves and i would think maybe at the nga, we would think about focusing, like a laser on this, by creating subsets among ourselves who can understand how best we can use the hundreds of billions of dollars. Because we are 52 years into this and there has never been a study not only was it the most recent, but there has never been a study section by the government or an outside entity that has ever proven that there is any of us guessing of billions of dollars beyond thirdgrade. All the facts also show that a child not performing at a thirdgrade grade level is not a child that will be able to compete loud compete well at higher levels. So then what are we pumping the money into . We all agree that it has to happen. We know that anything happened. Theres no Scientific Evidence that would refute that. So the question we need to ask ourselves is where does the money go . And that is one where we as governor should demand of congress, where we are sending our money, getting a channel back to us through programs that are arguably good and have all good intent but have no proven actual value add. The question we need to ask ourselves is what is the better mousetrap and what responsibility do we have as states to do the Better Things youre doing within your company, with other governors and what they are doing within their respective states. How can we take best practices and rethink the idea that we are throwing hundreds of billions of dollars into a whole and we get nothing in return . And its greatest. Everybody is for it, but we are wasting money and we are compromising the ability for to come at a harvard 2077 and have anybody who is capable of handling what needs to be done to it. So again, we are not going to resolve it here. It is something that would be derelict in our duties if we dont look at this seriously and come up with solutions. Because frankly, we are going to drive it and not congress. Governor bentley in alabama, in the last 10 years, we have been ranked in the top two in the country. We actually partner with headstart. We at our program to headstart to make headstart a good program. Headstart is not a good program. Statistically, you are exactly right. Though we have the statistics in alabama to prove that what we are doing in our state is exley working. The we get. Is actually working. We work with churches, head start, with public education. The other thing that i am pushing out in alabama right now is the development of a notee in Higher Education, kindergarten through sixth grade, but birth through third grade. Because unless we expand what we programs in the prek in alabama to the kindergarten, first and third grade, they are losing some of that. But if you get them at the third grade level, if they can read and know their math, they are on their way. Thats what were doing. We are working in higher red to develop those degrees, looking at it at a different grade level. The other thing we are doing, we are teaching parents how to be teachers. And let them do it in their homes. We have a program that is called parents as teachers. We are doing that in the homes. I think that is making a difference also. You are right about headstart. There are no statistics. Statistics on our program that shows that it truly works. So we are happy to share that with any state or anybody in the country. Weve had some great gains. Bev this isins and scaling though so we are not coming alongside something that is broken and trying to, at additional cost, try to fix it. Maybe that is it, maybe replicate that, but at a price that is more than if you were to actually start from scratch using the knowledge and insight and successes that youve had. Again, it is a challenge i am throwing up to us as an organization. If we are to have a real effect and indeed they demand of us, the people who send us here in these respective roles that we do it, then we need to ask hard questions like this and be willing to learn from best practices and benchmark off things that are happening in alabama and other states. I challenge us to think about this because we are losing this battle. And my, youre speaking to this. We are losing this battle, despite all good intentions and agreements that it needs to be done and a tremendous amount of money to make it happen and we cannot a look and we cannot afford to lose. Governor bentley thank you for sharing with us on a level that deals with economic development. Workforce training we have to look at the bidding, just like you were talking about for workforce training. So thank you for that. I would like to thank all of our presenters who have been with us today. My fellow governors, thank you for your questions. I like to say, on june 11 and 12 of this year in denver, colorado, we will convene the 2017 governors education symposium. This meeting will bring governors together we want to learn from each other at that meeting. So any of you would like to attend, please be in touch with stephen parker. Now what i will do is, unless there are any further questions then i will turn the program back over to governor mcauliffe. Governor mcauliffe lets give them a great round of applause. [applause] we have an addition to the calendar tomorrow. With a private meeting admiral rodgers. I asked him if he would come to our meeting. He is the director of the National Security agency, the commander of the u. S. Cyber command and chief of select services. He has agreed to come over, governors only meeting tomorrow, or hear a briefing. It will be at 3 00 to 3 45 in the treasury room. Gave moved to schedule around so he could be here for the governors. I thank him for doing that. He has moved around his schedule so that he could be here for the governors. I thank him for that. Governor scott thank you very much. And him and a sauna for me to be here as well as my wife diana. Support shown us such and a warm welcome. I appreciate that. I appreciate the bipartisan organization. I worked with the National Lieutenant Governors Association for a few years previous and found the same outreach of respect and so forth. In vermont, i am known as a pretty successful stock car racer. I have been racing for the past 30 years. My security at this moment to see if they will let me continue to race. Im thinking maybe a blue light out in front of may will allow me to win a race or two in the future. Im also an avid cyclist. I cycle about 4000 miles a year. And we have a short season out there, about six or seven months. It shows you the diversity of Bernie Sanders and phil scott being elected in the same year, that is diversity. Have as ago, i did not political bone in my body. I had no interest in politics whatsoever. I had been a frustrated Business Owner for 30 years in the construction industry. Finally, i got tired of complaining enough so i stepped up to run myself, served five terms in the senate, three terms in the Lieutenant Governor and now as governor. And sometimes i feel as though they dont get it. But thats the political reality. Ive always treated people with respect and civility. I have served in the minority my tire political life. But it is something that has proved to make me successful, listening to others entry them stability. T and and i get something done as a result. When we see the polarization across america and here in d. C. , i believe that we can lead by example and i think this organization can help do that. So i thank you very much for doing that and i look forward to getting a destiny to know you better in the next couple of years. [applause] governor mcauliffe Governor Haley is now ensconced at the u. N. Now we have dinner mcmaster with us. Governor mcmaster with us. Governor mcmaster on behalf of peggy in our family, we are delighted in making some new friends and seeing some old ones from the reagan administration. This is a great organization. I was attorney general for eight years. That was a great organization, these meetings. This this group of governors really has its finger on the pulse of the issues facing the country. And hauled ine making of the laws, but also in implementing them and seeing what works and what doesnt. So looks to me we have a great opportunity in our country now. People are looking for leadership from the kinds of conversations ive been listening to, and some from afar over the years. Ive got great confidence in this organization if we can stick together and make suggestions and do things that will work for the country. So on behalf of myself and peggy, we are delighted to be here with you. Thank you. [applause] governor mcauliffe thank you, henry. Weretheir parents governors in their respective states. Thank you very much. I was sitting here thinking, when we were going through this initial session, Early Childhood development of Early Childhood education, it is a great example of understanding with the priorities are, making sure that, when we do come together as governors, we dont talk about fluff. We actually talk about things that matter. We can talk policy all day, but its often about dollars, about implementation, about results, about outcomes. Thats the burden and the responsibility that governors bear over legislators. We take on things with great seriousness and to see the nga kicked off in such a positive way is a testament to the leadership that we have as part of this group. And what we can do and what we are willing to do to actually make all of our states better for our citizens. Thank you again a behalf of my wife valerie myself. It is great to be here and be a part of the group. Much more modernized that i remember running around here the halls back in 1987. [laughter] again, a great testament to really moving the ball forward and keeping our eyes on the prize. [applause] governor mcauliffe thank you, chris. Roceo good morning. On the half of my wife and i, we are happy to be here. No, im not the junior staffer. I am actually the governor puerto rico. [laughter] theres been a funny couple of events. They actually saluted some of my staff as the governor so i going little bit under the radar. And 54 days on the job weve been able to pass through 15 Structural Reforms in puerto rico. We are very excited. Its a challenging job, as most of you know, puerto rico is going through some tough times. We are about to submit a fiscal oversight plan in the next 72 hours. We would like to ask for support from this organization as we push forward. As you can see, with so many challenges, people have said or wondered if im crazy for taking this job. Why would a neuroscientist jump into politics . What we discussed today is a particular reason why i jumped at the politics. Seeing the overwhelming signs that shows growth and learning from zero to three is out there. Its compelling. But we are not doing nearly as much about it as we should be doing. I ponder the following question how do we stipulate to all the people, to all the leaders, how important these sorts of issues are . How can we make it one of the mainstream issues . It . Can we quantify and not only think about this in the short term implications are the longterm implications it will have in terms of giving opportunities to the children. The quantify and the quality of life to the parents and the mid to shortterm that this happens . All of these questions are wonderful. I would like to be a natural part of this organization. And you are all welcome to puerto rico. Let us host you when you are out there. [applause] governor mcauliffe governor mcmaster is the 55th and 55 states and territories. The 54th, the new governor of the great state of North Carolina, roy cooper is here with us today. Governor cooper thank you. Mcauliffe, i had always heard that you are a shrinking violet. Its not true. [laughter] greetings from North Carolina. People ask me what i want at the end of the day from this job and i say i want a North Carolina that is better educated, that is healthier, that has more money in their pockets and that they have opportunities to live a more abundant and purposeful life. Thats what i want. Thats what i told cabinet secretaries that i have interviewed and people who come to work for this administration. Its been a great first 56 days as governor. Im delighted to come here and be a part of this organization. I think we probably have never been as polarized politically as we are now, both in my state of North Carolina and across the country. I think what people want more than ever are people who are willing to sit down, roll up their sleeves, and find out, ok, work and we agree. Where can we achieve consensus. And i think this organization is one where we can help to force those areas of consensus. We will disagree when we know we add instead of for our beliefs, but there are so many areas where i think we can Work Together for the betterment of the people in our respective states and territories. Here. Lad to be i practiced of the law for a number of years. I was in the state legislature and served as the attorney general. So im ready to do this job and im ready to take advice from all of you about how i can do a better. Thanks a lot. [applause] governor mcauliffe thank you, roy. We will convene. A governors only lunch. We have been working tirelessly in the nga staff to vote on these. We have a lengthy agenda so i ask you to be on time so we can move through that. Thank you. This meeting is now adjourned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] i the Governors Association winter meeting continues today. 9 15s life starting at cspan. Tern here on and in the afternoon, or covers continues with transportation secretary elaine