Frankly, it is a panel filled with people who have been there done that. People who have done real change. One of these people is fitted is to my right. Sister john berry fleming. They go to person when it comes to Catholic Education and understanding Catholic Schools in america. Not surprising since she has been an educator. We also join by dr. Steve perry. Dr. Steve perry is the founder and ceo of one of the top Public Schools in the Country Capital repertory Magnet School in hartford, connecticut. Capital prep which is for mostly low income families, mostly children of color, graduates 100 of its children and has done so every year since 2006. Sending them to fouryear colleges. That alone is worth applause. [applause] dr. Parry is a regular education contributor for msnbc. Upa bestselling author. As soon as you hear him talk you will see him be one of the most passionate voices for education reform. Next to him is nina rees. The president and ceo of the National Alliance for public Charter Schools. She has over 20 years expense in washington dc. Most recently as the Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives for an Amazing Company helping kids. She is also served as the deputy secretary for innovation at the u. S. Department of education. They never had an secretary for innovation and change before. Nina was the first. That was right after she was dick cheneys assistant director for policy. Nina has a huge history with d. C. And education. Finally, to her right is Mashea Ashton who is ceo for the new or Charter School fund. Previously, she served as the executive Director Director for the new york program. Executive director for Charter Schools for new york Citys Department of education. We will do the same thing that rick did. First of all, on your seeds are the social media please. Please get involved. I will start really quick with following up on what senator scott asked. At the end of last panel he said, we need to have a grassroots conversation about what is having to restaurants today. Im going to throw this to you dr. Gray, what is happening to our kids, how bad is it . First of all, thank you. Thank you to senator scott and all the people who assembled here this morning to have a conversation about the most important issue of alltime. It is education. The enlightenment of education and the ability to transform individuals where opportunity has not been there. What is happening is the variant life forests of a generation is being brought from them and being given to the employees of the status quo. We do not have a School System is put in place to help our children. We have a School System that is kept in place to ensure that grown people can have their jobs. I have seen too many beautiful children, like those who are here [applause] who, if you have the opportunity to talk to them, they would tell you their stories and struggles of their community. Those stories will not hold them down because they are at good schools. They are at choice schools and their lives are being changed everything will day. We cannot continue to pour good children into that schools and expect good things to happen. The biggest challenge to our community is quite frankly, not adversary, it is our advocates who are weak and unwilling to fight. They are too apologetic. They have an issue with calling a failed school, a failed school. The local mayor says that having a failed school offense or more. If we do not hold our allies a accountable im sorry, you got me warmed up. [applause] that was the intention. Sister john berry, please pray for me. She could put her hand on me. Sister john mary, you are part of the Catholic School sector, why should we have options . Why should we have is competition a good thing or bad thing . I think charters have paved the way for options for parents that are very important. In the catholic community, we educate 1. 9 students in the Catholic Schools. There are many catholic children in the public sector. Therefore, we are interested in Excellent Schools as we are in Catholic Schools. Thats why we are interested in Parental Choice. Its part of our dna as a School System. We exist because we want to give parents the right and choice to be to choose Catholic Schools. Hence, we are supportive of it 100 from the Vantage Point of continuing to do that. Thats why we are interested in Parental Choice. We are just in Parental Choice to piggyback off of dr. Parry, we are very concerned about children. The hope of our society is in this room right now. These are the kids that we have. Through Catholic Schools, we offer hope through school and education. It is an act of hope. We are making a statement to kids out there that we care a great deal about who they are and not just what they learn. But actually, who they are by giving parents the option to choose. Thats why we are interested in School Choice. [applause] nina. I would also like to thank senator scott for hosting this great event. Ive been involved in this co School Choice movement for a long time. One of you have a senator interested in the topic, it attracts so many people to th is. The question of choice. By way of background, im extremely proud that we have Charter School laws and 42 states and in washington dc. We are serving a little over 2. 7 million children across the country. One of the reasons why taras gold is so important is that that they are serving the needs of children where they are. As the governor mentioned earlier, when families want to make a choice, they can move if they are wealthy. In the innercity setting, the option is not available. We do not have enough voucher programs to meet the needs of lowincome families. Right here in washington dc, we have a bustling School Choice movement. Close to 50 of children in the district are attending Charter Schools. As a result, the overall quality of the public system has improved over time. Im a believer because i think it empowers families, im also believer in the impact of the Charter Schools on the judicial system. And making sure that we are transferring the knowledge to the church and knowledge to the digital system so that everything is improved at the end of the day. Can i jump in real quick to tell my story. I come up this from a very personal perspective. I have an identical twin sister we in the traditional Public Schools. And at that point, my parents took us out and put us into private schools, Catholic Schools and that made all of the difference. I just believe every parent wants to best for their parent and as a four chair, we believe that Parental Choice is widespread, but not for low income and working class families. If you are, if you have resources, you do two things. You move to a community where the traditional Public Schools are great or you put your child into private school. And i believe that children in low income and working class communities deserve that same access to quality education. And it should not, should be a right. Whether youre in southeast washington, d. C. Or in newark, new jersey, you deserve an access to a quality education. I think its worth noting im a School Choice advocate, not a Charter School advocate. Raggedy schools are raggedy schools, no matter the destination. There are some raggedy charters that need to be shut down this evening and some that need to be shut down a couple of years ago. Simply because a Charter School struggles, it doesnt mean Charter Schools struggle. We need to get past either charter or traditional. We need to get past either private or public. We need to get down to what education is about, which is providing different instruction to children so you can meet them where they are and take them to where they need to be. We spend too much time having a conversation about the ends of the conversation, of the issue. Thats not what this is about. Its about whats at central. Whats central to it, which are the children. I know weve forgotten somewhere along the way that education was supposed to be about children, but it is. Its not a jobs program. Its not a tenure conversation. You hear so many times, people talking about well, the traditional schools need more resources. For what . To do what . If i give you more money, are you going to be worse . Or better . Because its not the issue of money. The overwhelming majority of Charter Schools and Catholic Schools function on a fraction of the amount of money traditional schools get. If that were the issue, the best place to send a child to school would be the prison. Thats where we spend more than anything. So, if the issue were money, we would have those parts of the conversation. What the issue is quality of instruction and quality of leadership. Simply because you have a certification that says you can be a teacher doesnt mean you should. This is a calling. [applause] and just because somebody called you with a job offer, that doesnt mean you were called. Our community specifically africanamerican latino and poor communities, we have been trying to find a way to claw our way out of poverty through education for quite some time. And for a long time, the Catholic Schools were there for us. You see, whats interesting is a baptist will go to a Catholic School just to get out of the raggedy school thats at the end of their street. Now, they have to wait until they get out of church somebody around monday evening, but when they get out, theyre going to go to school. Children will lie, families will lie about a childs address and if race is considered, theyll lie about their race, so ja kim will be a white kid if necessary to get the child out of the circumstances that are literally robbing him of his life. This is america. A place where you can go into a store and find so many different types of a gum that your head would spin and were supposed to only choose from the school thats closest to our house . Its an absurd notion. You cannot under any circumstances think that the best indicator of a schools compatibility to a child or the family is because its close to their house. You know, its interesting that people call themselves liberals and say theyre prochoice, but theyre prochoice when it comes to having a choice, but antichoice when it comes to where you send a child to school. Its interesting to say somebody calls themselves a liberal whos so focused on making sure social programs are in place, but the greatest social program of all time is education, but thats not what they want. What they want to do is maintain the status quo. So, i submit to you that if youre not willing to fight, then get out the way because theres a fight going on. [applause] shes praying. She is pray inging for me as we speak. Right here. Dr. Perry talked about it being a calling. So, your schools is a calling. What makes your schools unique in the catholic sector and what do you offer that others dont . In the catholic environment we offer jesus christ preached in the gospel and so, that is the fundamental reality of our schools. But what we believe is that the individual, the human person within our schools is of inest mall dignity and because of that, we owe them within our environment an excellent education that will help them flourish as an individual person, as a human being. And therefore, all the things that make up good education are part of the conversation for our schools. And good teachers, community excellent governance, good use of resources, all of that is part of the larger question because it matters to who the children are. We believe that education has two ends and the churchs teachings have been clear for many years. Both the flourishing of the person here and now as a citizen of this world and their eternal end as a citizen of the world to come. And so, the mission and the vision of our schools, we try to lock, keep that very much within our minds because it matters to the children in front of us, so thats what makes our schools different. Im going to assume thats exactly the same mission at the Charter Schools, right . What makes the Charter School sector unique and different . What to you offer . Again, its a diverse community, so depending on the state law that allows for the creation of Charter Schools, youre going to have very different types of Charter Schools. One of the things we do at the National Alliance is grade laws based on their strengths and last year, we produced a document that looks at the movement and quality of the movement. How innovative is the space in the different states. The thing we base it on whether as an entrepreneur, youre able to open a school and come up with different types of curriculum, different modes of delivery and different ways of attracting families and running your school. The more freedom you have to do that, the more, the stronger your law is, so to speak, so here again in washington, d. C. And states like louisiana, they have some of the strongest Charter School movements because youre able to create online Charter Schools. Youre able to create Charter Schools that are focused on math and science, on bilingual education, character building and what not, so depending on the strength of the law, were agnostic as to what type of education is provided so long as the school is held accountable to raising student achieve m and held account bable to making sure all of the students regardless of race, background are graduating and going on to college. Thats great. Go ahead. Ill just add i think you asked earlier, like whats happening in our schools and in our communities and in many schools and particularly in urban and working class communities, our kids are dying. They dont have hope. Theres teachers who dont believe in them. They dont see going to and through college or having a career in family as something thats real to them, so this problem is urgent. Its real and we have to have a three sector approach to it. Sometimes, i hear you know, its all about having great Charter Schools or having great traditional Public Schools or put more money to it. We need a three sector approach. We need great Charter Schools, great traditional Public Schools, great private schools if theyre not quality, then they need to close. We need to have a no excuses, no time, no patience for schools and for organizations where people who dont put children and students interests first. Thats a great question. Last couple of months or last six months, two schools in indianapolis have closed. Parents did not want it even though the schools were poorly performing. So, is there a distinction between the idea that we want accountableility based on test scores and performance and yet parents still dont want them to close. Should parents be able to go to poorly performing schools . I think its on us as reformers to think thoughtfully. If students are going to go to worse off schools, thats not a better choice. This panel is about Engaging Community in the process. Weve got to be more transparent about what is a Quality Schools. Its not just test scores family engagement, teacher sats fak, so i would argue theres not great transparency around what is a Quality School and the more we can engage parents stakeholders and policymakers into the discussion about quality, i think the more thoughtful we can be about closing schools and providing students and families better options. She looks at me, i have to say yes. And i agree from the Vantage Point that we use a phrase principal subsidiarity. The local level in the Catholic School, the community should be vested in that, in that environment. And that means parents, it means administrators, the pastor, the bishop, it means a vestedness. The other point that i think is really important is is that in doing so, that relationship between the school and the family is a partnership. Its not just a consumer experience. Its an actual partnership where the school takes on the obligation to educate that child on behalf of the parent in local parentes and i think that element of relationship related to education is extremely important and may be sometimes missing in this conversation. That the parents have an obligation to communicate well with the school, its not just one way and so, when we talk about accountability, its a relationship accountability. Not necessarily just you know, a gavel accountability. So i think th