The. Not when it is sucked up by the School District itself and so until we shine a light on return on investment for these expenditures i think we will continue to live in a world where we spend more money per kid but dont get the results. Talk about student voucher tell us how you change your thinking on this interesting topic. This topic gets people really riled up if you want to have the debate just bring up the word voucher. I am a democrat and have spent my entire life when i asked my dad the difference he said democrats care more about the people that have less than republican make more money and i said i made democrat and i have been ever since. So when i got to washington d. C. I had clear views about what education reform should look like right to allied with the vouchers because the democrats think they are bad because you take the money away from the pork that needed them or let the core that need it the most but when i arrived in washington there is a publicly funded Voucher Program that was about to be reauthorize so they said you are the top education official what do you think . I knew what i thought so i did not want to jump to conclusions so i would meet with the mes throughout the city and how the discussions that i had absolutely change my mind i was meeting with parents mostly lowincome single moms and they have done everything you want to a mother to do cover research neighborhood schools and only 10 percent of the kids were on grade level so might child has and the percent chance of failure then they would apply to the outer boundary lottery process to win one of the spots and inevitably they would lose because there were thousands of people applied with a handful spots and they would say now what . In one i was looking eyetoeye with these mothers and i knew i could not offer them a spot at a High Performing School that i thought was good enough for my own to kids so i said to have my to take the 7,500 voucher to go to a Catholic School where their kids could get a great education . Was not willing to say no i came not in favor if people went crazy. What you doing . But i would always say my job is not to protect and preserve a district that is doing a disservice but to make sure everybody gets a great education i am agnostic it to be private, the charter, a traditional as long as they get a great education i dont care. So i try to bring my democratic friends along with me and talking to a friend of mine the other day i laid out the argument and she said no. I said let me try this did you watch the movie waiting for superman . She said one of my best friends was it you remember this scene with the little girl looking out the window it is tragic and it is she can go to school because her mom had fallen behind on tuition . She said that is heart wrenching i wanted to write the check myself. I said that would be a voucher. [laughter] and this is the problem people have they see things like vouchers that is republican and democratic but if we stop looking at things with partisan politics and started making Public Policy based on the decisions we make for a drone kids we would not have a democratic or a republican agenda but the students first agenda to put our children on a wildly different trajectory going forward. Host you put importance on teachers what about critics that say teachers have no control of the whole life, poverty comic cetera . Guest they are absolutely right. Kids come to School Every Day facing enormous challenges. Nobody fed them dinner or breakfast maybe the electricity was turned off the and they could do homework. When you face these challenges does it make it hard harder to teach . Absolutely. 100 percent but he did it be an excuse for why kids arent achieving . No way. This is what i think all we have to understand is the u. S. Ranks toward the bottom internationally with social mobility so if you are a child born into poverty in this country the likelihood youll ever escape poverty is almost zero decos almost every single ideal we hold as americans. This is not the way we are supposed to work. If you work hard you can live the american dream. But the likelihood to go to a feeling school is 50 so you would not get a College Degree or the highpaying job that is criminal in my mind. So we cannot allow poverty in my mind to be the determining factor we cant do it. Host what about teaching to the test . This is a very good question because as a bomb last year when my daughter was in the fourth grade, in the middle of april she was coming home and never say wheres your homework . She said we dont have the whole market anymore because the test is over so what kind of message does this send to the kids or the parents they say the test is over . There is the over emphasis on the test that i think is maddening for parents but on the other side i talk to one parent who was extraordinarily frustrated because she had a little girl who got astray as and she was excited because she applied for her daughter to go to the Magnet Middle School and was told later heard daughter did not qualify because she did not have the Academic Skills she needed. What do you mean . She got straight as in they said that is one thing but she took the test and actually does not have reading comprehension. This mom felt so betrayed and she trusted the system about when her kids came home with good grades that meant something so why wasnt anyone telling me or showing fed data compared to her peers she could not compete . Well we dont want the over emphasis we also have to have accountability. So the challenge we face is how to restrict the right balance . We have accountability we can do that and the standardize consistent way but there is not such emphasis people think that is the ann doll or be all. The film waiting for superman it would give more money to the Teachers Union substantially more. Why . That is what i was asking [laughter] during the movie if you saw the incredulous look on my face. When the movie was being filmed, we had presented a plan back to the union where we said we want to give high the effective teachers the opportunity to make double the amount of many of the old system if they are willing to give up their protections. It is a choice. They can stay in the old system if they want to go to the new system but they will make a lot more money. The union said no. I could not believe it because the guy who was the president at the time now has come to jesus now is with education reform and he said do you know why . I did not want that policy in place in the teachers were saying it pointed to a dont i knew i was loose so i did not put it up. Eventually we did get the contract in place a and this is the interesting thing. People were very skeptical about the impact if you paid some people more money based on the results and there was a study that just came out weeks ago in what it showed was most of the districts retained there highly effective teachers in the effective teachers at the same rate in there was no differentiation. Fell one of meyer was washington d. C. Where they kept 80 percent of their high the effective and only 40 percent of ineffective teachers and i said that means what we were doing is starting to work because the Great Teachers are feeling more valued they know they are being recognized and it makes them want to stay. The most Precious Capital is children so if merit pay is put to teachers and why arent slow leak performing teachers removed do in your view . It is tough to understand why because it defies all common sense. But barrett evaluation is the way of life is so important dealing with children why is there so much resistance . Guest i can tell you having run a School District for 31 2 years that much of the Education Community is allergic to the idea of accountability people say you cannot hold this accountable because of this or that and i think is extraordinarily problematic. But how i think we have to change this, i now live halftime in california which is one of the most difficult states to get anything done with education reform. There was an episode that happened in a Public School in l. A. Where they found a teacher that was basically a sexual predator and showed him abusing the kids in his class in the School District tried to fire him but they could not because he had tenure and it was an absolute travesty the parents were up in arms so the legislator from that area introduced a bill to the California Legislature that would simply make it easier to fire a sexual predators. Not ineffective teachers. That is pretty low hanging fruit you would think that bill could get past it did not even make it out of the education committee. Or make it to a vote. That is how powerful the status quo is to make sure that no longer gets passed. If you went on the street today and ask people what they thought i guarantee virtually everybody would say of course, for the people on that committee who voted, and nobody knew that. There is no public light showed on that so now they will be held accountable for those decisions held to the detriment the only way it will change is if we start to hold the elected officials accountable and we send a message that if you vote with a dull interesting set of children interest we will not go free the next time around. [applause] that means you have to figure out your School Board Members and the stance on education reform. Why do teachers get the same raise every year . Is in. The motivating for the excellent teacher doesnt show those low performing teachers they dont have to approve their own performance . If they get the 2 percent raise regardless instead of standing out . You can see why i was shocked when i got such pushed back because some employees do really well you should be able to compensate them more. That is how the Education System works you get paid according to what type of the degree you have and how long you have been in the profession and it literally drives highly effective teachers thats when they see somebody downhaul to comes in when the kids come in but they come to hours early and stay three years later producing results but they are paid less because they have been there longer it is not the environment the High Achievers want to go into. I got into a little bit of trouble because i was giving a speech in california that high paid teachers are not paid enough. I said basketball. Now my husband is a former nba player. Why i got in trouble at home i said they are paid 12 million per year to dribble a ball. [laughter] what value are they adding to society . Meanwhile we should pay to the most highly effective teachers, a 12 million there determining the future of our nation. But we have a skewed culture where we dont respect or honor teachers for the incredible work that they do in we dont pay them what theyre worth certainly. Host with 200 days a publicschool in china or india is 220 days why in the United States is only 180 days . That is 48 less per year if you multiply that through the 12th grade it is a big disadvantage. No wonder they kicked our butts. People say what do we need to fix education . In my opinion you have to put every single resource there. The resources that they underestimate is time. If you look at the schools in this country that do the best weather traditional schools they have their kids working we have the 180 day calendar because we still live off of the agrarian calendar. Literally it is interesting somebody said the other day Michelle Rhee is wrong. The u. S. Is not doing worse than it was before. She is exaggerating the problem with that person is right if you look at the fact academic achievement levels of our kids in the 1960s and 70s is on par with where we are today. But the problem is there are countries that are leapfrogging ahead of us like latvia and liechtenstein. I am not kidding. They are growing academically to three times the rate of american kids. If we stayed the same because we run the School System the same way of 100 years ago based on the calendar and other countries have figured out if we want to get ahead we have to educate our kids, then we can remain the same the we will fall behind with the global positioning. Host does the average american receive two 1 2 weeks of vacation per year than why do publicschool teachers in general receive almost 31 2 months and will that never change like the length of the school year . It is only going to change if we make the commitment as a country to address this issue in do something about it. As long as the School Calendar is negotiating with a good collective Bargaining Agreement we are in trouble because in my mind we should set out to our kids need to be in school x number of days per year but right now because they are bargained and districts dont have many to put on the table really think they can bargain away is the length of the day youre this school year which is a detriment to the children. So how many had to go to the fore Day School Week because they did not have enough money . That is where we draw the line. I am actually for collective bargaining i am all in favor of the unions but around things like salaries and benefits they should bargain at the table but when it comes to how long kids should be in school, that in my mind should not be a bargaining chip. Host it feels like there is more chances, tell us where students first is going in what is next for the organization and has been impressive. I started students first two years ago with the idea if you look a what was happening with Public Education you would see it was driven by specialinterest groups rather textbook manufacturers are Testing Companies these organizations have tremendous resources and they use those to put allotted influence on the political process to get the policies and regulations in place. I dont have any problem with that. The problem is not that they exist for do those things but at that point was we did not have organized National Interest groups that was advocating on behalf of the kids. Because they were not represented you have a skewed landscape tilted to the interest. So i thought we have to start a National Movement of everyday people who care about education to know the policies we have to put in place and hold Public Officials accountable one that has political muscle for we have 2 million members across the country in 150,000 in new york almost 300,000 in california and theyre very active people searching for a venue that they can fight for the kids we passed over 115 laws in the 17 states over the last two years. We have gotten involved with the Electoral College we have bow with a rate of about 75 in the election so we are beginning to level the Playing Field and i still think we have a long way to go. This comes from a variety of sources of our funding i am proud that we have 2 million members that donate i the average donation is 81. These are 80 what everyday people who know that the future of this country will be based if we can fix the public Education System for the kids today. Host this takes some audience questions. I will repeat the question. Im in a situation that is similar they teach to the high in the low in the middle get lost but also the mine said i was in americorps in georgia implementing the federal Program Helping teachers to take an active role and i find that the bureaucracy is so thick i stepped out. Your mindset just burns me because i of such an advocate for what you are doing. So how do everyday people like me . But when you are working against money. That is part of the reason i wrote radical partially because i wanted to tell my story and explain my views partly to get teachers and educators to understand but partially for the average mom that is frustrated that wants to do something about it and doesnt know how. I will say here in new york city it doesnt matter where you send your kids to school you have to make the decision you think is in the best interest of your kids you cannot let politics make your decision but one thing you can do so would take me york city. The city recently lost 300 million of state and federal aid because if the union basically refuse to to do a Evaluation System. Everyone has to be evaluated and be accountable is the way of the world but the fact that they refuse to do this and am bloomberg very rightfully stood his ground and said no because they want the evaluation model to just be in place for two years that was the mark where the ineffective teacher would be removed and then the mayor said no. What is the point . Where is the public outcry for that . Where are the People Better ticketing saying you cannot deny our kids 300 million because you refuse to be accountable to have a reasonable Evaluation System in place . This is where students first is organizing everyday people like you, youve got to get involved in the process because of legislators they can solve the problem they just have to hear from people like you but they just have to make the decision based on this defense that they take now because right now they your from the union folks but they dont hear enough from people like you. With these reforms put in place we live in a culture where children go home where they watch five hours of tv per day facebook, internet, hollywood and tv and mass media pop culture in the obsession with sports that the very culture was hall style. I hostile and i raise a question when the whole Culture House to be transformed . I would like to hear your reactions that is beyond all the reforms we talk about. I am just an educator but i can tell you the kids are not