Archived Information
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
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EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE COMMISSION
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OPEN SESSION
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WEDNESDAY
NOVEMBER 28, 2012
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The Commission met in the Fourth Floor Conference Room in the Museum of the American Indian, Fourth Street and Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C., at 9:00 a.m., Christopher Edley and MarianoFlorentino Cuellar, CoChairs, presiding.
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
CHRISTOPHER EDLEY, CoChair
MARIANOFLORENTINO CUELLAR, CoChair
CYNTHIA BROWN
MIKE CASSERLY
LINDA DARLINGHAMMOND (by teleconference)
SANDRA DUNGEE GLENN
ERIC HANUSHEK
JOHN KING
RALPH MARTIRE
MATT MILLER
MICHAEL REBELL
JESSE RUIZ
JIM RYAN
THOMAS SAENZ
DAVID SCIARRA
ROBERT TERANISHI
JOSE TORRES
DENNIS VAN ROEKEL
RANDI WEINGARTEN
DORIS WILLIAMS
RUSSLYNN ALI, Ex Officio Member
ALSO PRESENT:
SECRETARY ARNE DUNCAN
CONGRESSMAN CHAKA FATTAH
CONGRESSMAN MIKE HONDA
BETH GLENN
GUY JOHNSON
BOB KIM
LIZ KING
NEAL R. GROSS
COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701
NEAL R. GROSS
COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS
1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701
P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-GS
(9:22 a.m.)
Day 2 Agenda Review
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: Thank you for being here. We very excited to be back, and very shortly we will have documents that we will share with you all.
I want to say a few words about the process today, but what I mostly want to do is turn it over to Congressman Fattah and Congressman Honda, who will give us a few remarks.
Later on in the morning, I believe we also expect the Secretary to come by. So what I'm going to do is just very, very broadly sketch out what we hope to see happen today, and then I'm going to turn it over to the Congressmen.
We had a lot of homework. We spent a lot of time working very hard to try to pull together the different edits and feedback. We spent a lot of time looking back at earlier versions of the report. But especially we spent time just simply trying to respond to the feedback that we got yesterday.
It was extremely valuable, and what we will have to share with you is a very heavily revised draft, that we think keeps some of the best elements of what you saw yesterday but improves on it, in all the ways that you wanted us to improve it.
What we hope to do after these initial remarks is to share the document with you as it comes in, and then to give you a chance to read it, to just process it, to think about it a little bit.
Then after that, we will reconvene and we will have a chance to go, I think person by person, really to ask you, you know, what your reaction is with a particular focus on anything that you think is a sort of bright line for you.
Now the key thing that we will need you to work on is to separate out nits, things that you want to just respond, you know, convey to us, that you want us to try to do if we can, from things that you really need us to change. We will take all of the nits that you have, all of them. We will welcome them.
For every nit you give us, we will feel happier, as long as you let us, you know, play with that and see if we can accommodate it. But we need to know what your bright lines are, so that we can work on that today, in the limited time that we have left.
We are very excited. I think this is a good document. It's gotten stronger, thanks to your feedback, and Chris.
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: The only thing I want to add is as we, when you get the material and read through it, please just keep in mind the, you know, that fiscal cliff thing. Well, it turns out there's a caffeine cliff that sets in, and so there may be some sections that are a little bit garbled. That's putting it charitably.
But our hearts were pure and our intentions noble, and we hope we've given you something that we can work with and celebrate at the end of the day.
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: Okay. Well said. Congressman Fattah.
Opening Remarks
CONGRESSMAN FATTAH: Well, let me thank, first of all, our leaders. If you will join me, we'll give these two a big round of applause.
(Applause.)
CONGRESSMAN FATTAH: I want to thank my colleague, Congressman Honda, who has been at the very forefront of this since early in the Congress. Let me just say a couple of things and then I'm going to have to leave.
We have Gene Sperling on Capitol Hill at 9:30, speaking with the Democratic members of the caucus around issues related to what has become known as the fiscal cliff. But the Simpson-Bowles Report, the Rivlin group, and a bunch of bipartisan commissions that worked for a number of years, came up with recommendations that appeared to be dead, but really are going to be the basis for all of the important political decisions that are about to be made in this town over the next 30, 40 days.
I start there to make the point that I believe that the work of this Commission, at the point when this country's prepared to go forward, is going to be the basis under which the political decisions are going to move, be made for.
So this decision package is going to be framed around the work that you've done, and for that, I want you to know how grateful I am, because this is a town in which on my first day here, I introduced the Equal Protection School Finance Act and Mike, you were there.
It takes a while. I'm now getting ready to start my tenth term in the Congress.
(Laughter.)
CONGRESSMAN FATTAH: But in perspective, President Nixon had created a School Finance Commission that did some important work and was led by a young Philadelphia lawyer by the name of William Coleman. In its executive summary, it says as long we have a property tax-based funding system, poor children are going to get the short end of the deal, and we're going to have disproportionate failure.
So it takes a while for, you know, kind of bridging the gap between knowing better and doing better as a country. But you know, being here at this museum gives you a sense about how nonetheless, we can move forward and we can create a more perfect union, no matter how long it takes.
So I'm committed, but my commitment is not enough. We need to build a consensus, and I think this work that you've done is the basis under which this consensus can go forward. So I really want to thank you. I want to thank you for the work that's been done.
It's been two long years, but what might seem like imperfect timing for you may be perfect timing for the circumstances that we confront here, because now we have a newly-elected president. We have a Congress that will be coming in office in January.
We have the reauthorization, which is late but therefore still in front of us, in terms of elementary and secondary education. So the work that you've done, I believe, is timely, very much so, in terms of the policy work that we have to do as a Congress and as a country, to move forward.
The fact that -- and this is the last thing I'll say. You know, when we look at the McKenzie report, it shows that notwithstanding the recession that we went through, which was the worse since the Great Depression, that the hole in our economy, in terms of GDP, is greater each and every year, because of the disproportionate educational attainment of our young people than what we went through in the recession.
So that if the country actually wants to deal with the fiscal cliff, if we actually want to deal with growth in our economy, if we want to retain our growth and leadership, as we compete against billion-plus populated countries like China and India, we're going to have to get this right, and I believe that you have hit the sweet spot in terms of the work you've done in terms of this report.
So I want to thank you, and again, I want to thank everyone. When the President decided to proceed on this, I told him -- we were on Air Force One together -- that this, I believe truly could be the linchpin to changing America, transforming America in a way in which every single young person has an opportunity to do things that we could not even imagine.
The two of us were talking about how it was hard to imagine that he'd be the President of the United States, and we'd be gallivanting off on Air Force One.
But when he first came to the Hill, we had a workshop on things that work in education, and in every -- if you look back through his work, he's committed to this issue, and I think this report will give him the ammunition needed for us to take some aggressive steps. So thank you very much, and I have to go.
(Applause.)
CONGRESSMAN HONDA: Well, let me add my thanks to my colleague also, and I haven't been here ten sessions. But I do have to tell you that in terms of time and what I saw yesterday, it sort of reminded me of two things.
One was that movie "Lincoln," when he was struggling with making a decision and having to come to a decision point, and then finally doing the right thing. The other area is gestation, that word came through my head yesterday.
The largest land animal is an elephant, and their gestation period is about 22 months. The largest mammal in the ocean is the whale. Their gestation period is 22 months. So what we have today --
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: What about dinosaurs?
CONGRESSMAN HONDA: No. We're actually giving birth, and it's been about 22 months, I believe, and so we are at a point where I think this could be a whale of an outcome. The elephant has no particular party designation.
But I think what comes through real clearly is that, and I think you all understand that, when this nation was formed, there was no education system. There was no public school system. That's why they said anything that's not mentioned is going to be to the states. We've been living with that for the longest time.
I think we have struggled with the issues, thought about it, and tried to figure whether there's a time and point where there's a paradigm shift and some real serious thinking that needs to go on. In those days, the founding fathers were struggling with the bold and provocative concept of being independent and breaking away, because the burden from the home country was so great.
The Civil War is the next one, where our country was faced with being split up, and it was a challenge. It wasn't a popular decision, I think, when states were warring against each other and you had the largest number of fatalities in that Civil War than any other war that we've ever faced.
But it came together, and I think that public education is at that point, where we've got that experience and the history. We've just got to weave it together and ask ourselves are we at a point where the Constitution that had that preamble, "in order to form a more perfect union."
Are we at that point where we're looking at again, another iteration of perfection, for our children? And going from the 50's to the 60's to today, do we have an issue of equity for each and every child that we're struggling for, and does that mean that parallel to the work that we're doing, that we have to keep in mind the civil rights of each and every child.
In terms of their right to have an equity in education, regardless of the zip code that they live in, I think I heard a lot of that yesterday. So again, we're here to try to form a better and more perfect union, through your work and your expertise.
The cloth that's going to come out will be stronger, brighter, because I think we've done it with the right intent. So I have a real good feeling about the kinds of public dialogue that we're going to have to go through from here on out, and it's all because of you guys, you know, kicking that football out there for consideration to this country to move forward again, for the sake of our children.
So I just want to say again, thank you.
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: Thank you, Congressman.
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: Thank you.
(Applause.)
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: Let me ask Guy to just give us a quick update on what documents are about to be laid out over there.
MR. JOHNSON: See if we can get help, we could pass out the clean version of the introduction, for folks to start reading in the meantime. We also have track changes versions of all the chapters of the report, just in case people want to refer and see what edits have been made.
So we'll assemble a full package. We'll pass that intro now.
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: Okay. So the intro's coming out now. The full report is coming shortly; correct? Okay, great, and just briefly, what will happen now is we'll have some time for you to just read, right, and then if and when the Secretary joins us, we will reconvene for that.
Then you'll probably have a little more time to read and work through the report, and then at some point, maybe before lunch, if people have had enough of a chance to read, we'll reassemble and we'll start person by person just going through what your reactions are.
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: How long do you think it's going to take people to read the thing?
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: I don't know. That's a question in my mind. I mean it's 30 pages or so, and it goes quickly, because you're kind of familiar with the basic structure.
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: I mean my guess is everybody will be able to get through it, taking notes about what you need to have changed, what we need to discuss in, I would say 35, 30 to 40 minutes at the most.
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: Because that's the case.
Just see how far we get and how people feel, right.
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: And you may want to wander someplace else.
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: Yes, and you know what else? We'll be checking in with you guys.
(Simultaneous speaking.)
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: Okay, especially the lawyers, yes, right.
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: That's fine, and what we'll do is that we're all co-located. So we can check in and see like, you know, how much have you gotten done, do you need a little more time.
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: Okay. Here's my suggestion seriously. Why don't -- if you wander off to find a quieter space, to be alone and take notes, whatever, check back in 45 minutes.
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: Yes.
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: Okay. Check back in 45 minutes in this room, just so that we --
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: We know where you are, yes.
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER DARLING-HAMMOND: Can we get it sent to the people on the phone by email?
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: Yes. So I guess that means officially we're -- for transcript purposes and so forth, we are breaking.
(Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record at 9:37 a.m. and resumed at 10:14 a.m.)
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: Okay. Folks, let's wake up. We're back in session now. What's-his-face is here, and I should say that Congressmen Honda and Fattah gave us some opening words this morning, and they were fabulous.
CO-CHAIR CUELLAR: So the bar is pretty high. But you're a basketball player.
CO-CHAIR EDLEY: I think Russlynn has probably briefed you about where we are in the process and all the likes of -- we'd love to hear some words of inspiration, because the next couple of hours are going to be very critical for all of this, and we want to do right by you.
Remarks by Secretary Duncan
SECRETARY DUNCAN: Well, I won't be fabulous, but I will be quick. I feel like I'm interrupting class. You're hard at work, so I want to let you guys get back to work.
Obviously, this is the home stretch. It's been a pretty amazing journey. I know it's been blood, sweat and tears and heartache and battles.
But I'm just really looking forward, when you guys are ready, to receive the report, and obviously when we set off on this journey, we didn't know if we would have a chance to have another four years, and didn't know we'd come here in tears and thrilled to have the opportunity.
There's a lot that I'm really proud that we accomplished in the first four years, but there's a lot that we didn't, you know, get done. Clearly, as anyone here knows, lots of unfinished business.
I would put this work that you guys are doing, near the top of that list of things that we need to do. So, you know, finding consensus, finding common ground is never an easy task, and lots of you devoted your life to this work. We understood that going on.
We just appreciate the collective commitment and leadership, and the goal here is not to issue a report. The goal is to change behavior and to change outcome of kids' lives around the country.