Violent home books were a never ending source of inspiration a way to provide meaning to life at difficult times. One special teacher she says, mrs. Belton helped shanna develop her passion. She says she taught me it was possible to read and write my way into another life. Thats a pretty good description of education in general. Today miss peeples passiones that onto her students. They pour their stories onto the page and she tells them everyone has a voice, everyone has a story worth sharing. They discover their experiences arent so singular, that whether theyre an eat openian refugee or never set foot out of texas theyre not so different and not so alone as a consequence. Shanna works hard to earn and keep their trust and help them find new ways to grow ak academically academically, to reach for their future. In a sense i sell hope she says. I love that line. In a sense i sell hope. And her students are hungry for hope. Most kids are hungry for hope. Since shanna arrived there five years ago, the number of kids taking ap english exam doubled. This year 30 students are taking ap english 4 exam. Before shanna arrived the number was exactly zero. Her impact reaches beyond the classroom. English as a second language, students write bilingual books for kids and record lessons Refugee Families can access online. Her ap students hit the streets of amarillo on Public Health campaigns, Research Science on gratitude, too. As a School Instructional coach and literacy trainer for the district, shanna helps other teachers learn how to better teach reading or writing. For some of her colleagues they say shes a godsend. One principal said he was sinking until shanna came to his rescue. Often uses the tale of hansel and gretel to finish the school year, a story of how we can be our own heroes, find our way out of the forest. Shannas students have gone on to be ivy league, won prestige is scholarships but more importantly, many found their way out of the forest into new and better chapters of their lives. They figured out a way to carve a path for themselves in large part because of her. Now, obviously shanna is exceptional, but we could have told a similar story about every single one of the teachers standing here behind me. [ applause ] they are not just teaching formulas or fon ethics. Theyre selling hope. Sparking imagination. Opening up minds. Giving people, young people a sense of their own power. They teach students to challenge themselves, dream beyond their circumstances, imagine different futures. Then they work as hard as they can to help them make their dreams real. End of the school year, their children arent just smarter theyre stronger more confident, more resilient, more inspired. Maybe if they trip, they have been able to get up dust themselves off, that will make them that much better in the future because theyll probably trip a little more. Those qualities are hard to measure but theyre invaluable. America is hungry for more teachers like these, which is why weve got to acknowledge them, because every school has teachers like these and we dont give them enough credit. We dont talk about it enough. Want to thank all of the teachers here for outstanding contributions to the life of our nation. We couldnt be prouder of you. I like the fact that we have a strong contingent of men here today, too. I like that. Way to go, guys. And with that, i want to present shanna with her crystal apple. Here you go. Lets get a picture of that. Thank you. Fantastic. With that, let me present the teacher of the year. Shanna peeples. Thank you, mr. President. Your support and belief in Public Education is one of the many things i admire about you. Youre charged to create world class learners is our mission and we answer it in our classrooms every day. Thank you secretary duncan for your advocacy of authentic learning and service for our students and your support of teacher leadership. Thank you to my wonderful family. Im nothing without you. Thank you to kayla, my student to the texas delegation and to my administrators. [ applause ] finally, thank you to the talented passionate and remarkably goodlooking group of state teachers of the year with whom i am privileged to join today. Each of them is a study in excellence and each of them is a representation of what a great teacher is. I am honored to stand here today. As a teacher of refugee students, i have been privileged to see Public Education through the eyes of students from countries as diverse as berm a, somalia, iraq, and cuba. Being here today makes me think of my student. She was a shy teenage girl who had little formal schooling and much suffering in her native berma. One day a snowstorm shut down the entire city, but she set off, trudging toward her school in blizzard conditions, clutching a backpack full of homework. Her friends had to find her convince her that school was indeed closed. But how is that possible, she asked them . School was always open like the hospital. We are in schools all over america in a sense never closed. So many teachers like these behind me stay after school to listen to our students go to their games or concerts, or just create a safe space where they can draw because we are stable, dependable adults. For her, school was special. We were her beacon, her stability, her source of inspiration, dreaming and hope. This is the commitment that america and its schools offer all our students. We will be here and we will help you. This is no easy promise, and thats why so many families send us their most valuable resource their children. They trust us to teach them no matter their abilities, behaviors, or financial situations. School is the place where so many of us learned to dream. Where we began the ground work of our futures. Schools and their teachers are a stabilizing force in society and a fierce promoter and protector of our democracy. Public schools help us to find the most treasured thing that any of us have, personal meaning in our contribution to the common good. Public schools must always stay open because teachers doors stay open saying come in lets learn, lets hope, lets begin dreaming. Thank you. [ applause ] hey woo good job, everybody. Can we take one picture with everybody . That was without any liquor [ applause ] on the next washington journal, represent ron kind, chair of new Democrat Coalition and ways and Means Committee member will discuss his concerns with the trade Promotion Authority bill. Then congressman john mica of florida is here to talk about the jie row copter landing on capitol hill and efforts to secure d. C. Air space. Later, a look at a poll that Shows Younger americans prefer democrats control the white house in 2016. Our guest is a polling director at Harvard Institute of politics. Washington journal live every morning at 7 00 eastern on cspan. Join the conversation with your calls and comments on facebook and twitter. Navy secretary mabus remarks from the National Press club, live at 1 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan3. This weekend the cspan cities tour partnered with Cox Communications to learn about the history and lit rather life of to peek a, kansas. The act of signing that piece of paper was viewed by missouri as an act of war. When northerners decided if popular sovereignty will decide the fate of kansas, we are going to send people to settle, that was viewed as an act of war by many that assumed it would all be theirs. There are raids back and forth across the kansas border almost immediately. In may of 1856 john brown, his sons, a couple of other followers dragged five men from their cabins along the mosquito and apot was the me creeks and theyre hacked to death with broad swords. That effectively cleared that area of southern settlers. If you looked at the schools, standing outside, you would be hard pressed to determine whether white or africanamerican students attended because the school board really did provide all of the same materials that the white schools offered and what is even more interesting for most people when they come to visit, they find out after graduating Elementary School africanamerican students attended integrated middle and high schools. While they certainly were no supporters of segregation and obviously saw injustice of having to attend separate Elementary Schools, the Africanamerican Community also was very proud of their schools because these were excellent facilities. While there was support for the idea of integration there was also resistance, especially from teachers and local chapter of the naacp who feared the loss of the institutions and loss of the jobs. Watch all our e topeka saturday on book tv. And sunday morning at 10 00 on American History tv on cspan3. Next, a discussion on u. S. Hostage policy. Our guest, congressman john delaney of maryland. This is 35 minutes. We want to welcome back to the table congressman john delaney, a democrat of maryland. He is here to talk about Warren Weinstein who was killed by the drone strike recently, the president talked about it last week. He was a constituent of yours. He was. He was being held hostage by al qaeda. When and how did you learn about his death . Well, we learned about it the day before it was announced from the white house. So i learned about it about the same time the family did. What was your reaction . I was just heartbroken because i never met warren which i feel sad about but i have really gotten to know the family incredibly well, elaine and warrens daughters. We worked very closely for the last couple years on a whole bunch of strategies to try to get warren back. So it was just such a terrible ending to what has been a really difficult situation. What was that effort like . Explain u. S. Hostage procedure. Yes. So ill start by saying i think the men and women who work in the various parts of government that touch the hostage situation, principally the fbi, they have primary responsibility for dealing with hostages no matter what the circumstance around them being taken are, then the state department and other parts of government. Men and women that work the cases are terrific, work hard. In truth, we dont do a great job as a nation in terms of coordinating all of the resources we have to bring these people back. We dont develop the kind of customized strategies needed. Every one of these situations is highly unique. A lot has changed with respect to hostages. A lot of head set we apply is dated back to times when most hostages were related to drug cartels, capturing americans, wanting ran soms. Now we have nonstate actors taking american hostages. They dont really want the money, they use them as propaganda, and theyre operating in countries that dont control their borders. It is a different set of facts than we ead set and i think we need a more customize approach, we develop specialized capabilities just for hostages intelligence assets technological assets, all the wonderful assets of the military, and importantly leverage relationships in the region with other countries to help get information to help get our americans back. I think we need a whole new comprehensive strategy which is what we called for a hostage czar, most understand what that is. It is a person that wakes up every day with a white board of all hostages, how theyre advancing the ball each day, but enhances new capabilities in the government. Walk through efforts when it came to Warren Weinstein. Explain what that was like. What did you do, what did the administration do . What we did, we worked closely with the family, they were calling a lot of the shots here. We never wanted to get in front of the family in terms of what they wanted us to do. We focused on all assets of the government being utilized. Pakistan we thought could do more to help in efforts to get warren back. We did specific things through the congress to push the government of pakistan to cooperate more fully with the fbi, right, and thats something in my own opinion if we would have had better cooperation earlier in warrens situation theres a chance we may have had a different outcome. So it was an example that surprised me that we we provide pakistan of billions of dollars of aid. When i heard that and heard we werent getting the information back we wanted from the government about warrens situation, i was like this is ridiculous. We ought to be tying aid to getting this information. We are not asking them to change Foreign Policy but are asking them to cooperate with the fbi as relates to american held hostage. That was one example. The other example we got involved, the government of qatar has been instrumental helping get american hostages back. We started efforts to get that conversation going again. Again, not changing u. S. Policy. U. S. Policy is we dont pay for hostages and i fully support that. That doesnt mean we may not have partners that have other relationships in the region and can get these people back without violating u. S. Policy. So we started those efforts. I was surprised we werent doing more as a country in that regard. Youre saying qatar can pay the ransom . No, not saying qatar can pay. But qatar like lots of governments has different relationships, know whats going on on the ground better than we do, have people they work with that may be able to negotiate like theo curtis. He was a terrific example where a private citizen gentleman named David Bradley i think is an american hero, has taken hostage release as a private mission. He worked on many of these cases. The Washington Post did a good story about this last year they talked about how a private citizen actually played an Important Role getting the government of qatar to get theo curtis back without paying ransom. And no one said they did. What was the communication between the al qaeda operatives holding mr. Weinstein hostage and the family and the government . So there have been a few Public Communications where they sent videos. But in terms of other communications, i generally am very respectful of the family dont want to talk about any specific communications they may have had. What efforts can families like Warren Weinsteins, other families who have Family Members held hostage what effort can they make on their own . Where does the government limit them in what they can do to try to free their loved one. The u. S. Policy is we dont pay for hostages, i 100 support. We also have a policy private citizens cannot pay for hostages, Family Members or loved ones. Theres talk about that being reviewed. And thats an interesting conversation to have. The policy we dont pay for hostages i support. It will encourage more americans to be taken hostage. Whether it should apply to families or not does merit conversation about whether there is evidence to support that would change the number of americans taken hostage, so thats open for debate but i think again unfortunately if we did a better job, again i dont want to criticize the individuals, men and women that work in the state department and fbi, they care about these people and work hard, but if we do what i want to do a whole new effort, what we are proposing, create a committee of National Security council that has the principles of the most important parts of government. You have state department fbi, intelligence, you have military, you have even the attorney general. Theyre all on the committee. The committee is chaired by a fulltime person whose sole responsibility is to develop strategies and get hostages, find out where they are work to get them back, and communicate with the families. Theyd be able to speak for the capabilities of all of the members on the committee. It would be a totally new approach and much more effective approach for getting hostages. How big a problem we need in your opinion a hostage czar . I think it is a huge problem, the fact an american like warren how many hostages are being held . No one knows exactly. A lot of them, warrens situation wasnt public for a long time because the family knew and the government knew, but the decision was made early on not to go public with it because they thought particularly considering his jewish faith it might be counterproductive. Then when al qaeda would send open videos to the media obviously the decision was to go public with it. Theres estimates theres several dozen at any given time and how many of those are kind of the Old Fashioned drug cartel taking people at the american border versus the middle east, it is probably an even split and again, i am not talking about building a whole new department i am talking about taking resources we already have in the government and creating a way for them to be coordinated. I come from private sector i think about it as a management job. We dont need, because as you said there are only several dozen hostages as one time, we dont need a whole new bureaucracy, we need a capability that can develop hostage specific strategies all be different and customized based on facts on the ground, and have the ability to cut across all assets of government grab whats needed and execute against those strategies. Lets get viewers opinions. Go to joy in california. Democratic caller. Hi joy. Caller good morning. I am down in the garage i am not giving i can hear you guys talk but when i first saw the headline of terrorism, i thought of gitmo and i am curious why that situation is still going on. My second part of my comment is that with terrorism, you know, i read a lot about isis and whats going on with that, and i just think that the media overemphasizes the threat that that is to the United States. Now joy, i am going to have the congressman jump in, take on those two. Thanks for those questions. As for Guantanamo Bay i agree. Not clear what role that plays and i think the president s efforts to move to close that are headed the right direction. As for isis, i think i have a different take. I view it as a very, very significant threat to the United States. And in this area i actually take them at their word. If you listen to the words