Panelists for being here. But when we started to think about this really broad topic at the Bush Institute, one of the things we knew as we talked to our Advisory Council and president and mrs. Push, we cant just talk about the international component. We need to look at the challenges in our own country areassert. This panel were all chosen not because they are smart thirst on this issue but because they are working on something to address this issue in our country. Mel marchday, we have Case Foundation and jeffrey rosen. Let me kick off the conversation with a question for the group, lets follow up on the conversation we were having, lets having trust about americans in our institutions of democracy. How serious is this challenge right now and what do you see in terms of the challenges we face here domestically . Senator martinez. Im inspired by what has been transpired. I believe it is great sweptism in our country and we underestimate of what happened during the financial crisis and doubt f people became to and the conversation began to be had h the next generation will be able to live the fruits of the American Dream that i was proud to live. I remember everything that happened after freddie gray and the riots that took place in baltimore and the fact that you know, you had this 25yearold young man who was arrested and he was in a coma and week later, he died. And there were two weeks of protests in Baltimore City and one night they were no longer peaceful. And i remember speaking to a friend of mine. And we were talking about Police Accountability and the institution. And he asked me, he said next time you go to the computer, go to youtube and look at freddie grays arrest. And he said, do me a favor, go arrest be and youtubes and next time, dont look at freddie and dont look at the Police Officers. Look at Everything Else. Look at the neighborhood that video was shot in, look at the homes in the background, look at the fact that the video was taken at 9 17 in the morning and how many people are just standing around, not on their way to work, not on their way to school and standing there with cell phones taking pictures. He point is, if we arent will to do something about the micro. I think this feeling of disi will ugsonment, its fair. Its justified. And i think its worth talking about rebuilding institutions and not building and rebuilding basic infrastructure of institutions, there has to be a rebuilding of trusts because i think that really begins the unraveling and that is the only thing that is going to give the foundation for rebuilding. So those are powerful words. But i will say, i think this mornings words that we heard remind us that every democracy is true in the United States as anywhere else in the United States and its citizens. So we select nine years have been running a poll around perceptions and attitudes towards cause engagement and the perceptions of melenials of where they think this country is going. 29 said the country is headed in the right direction. 29 . D you think that is really discouraging and i thank secretary albright and the Millenial Generation is field with idealism and taking it into action in many ways and there is a terrific opportunity to unleash and ignite Civic Engagement and engagement turning them from thinking about the problems to becoming part of the solution. And i hope the panel will talk about those things we are seeing that are uplifting like baltimore where citizens are jumping in and owning these problems that we are seeing in our communities. There is the direct connection between lack of squeags and lack of faith in institutions. Thats why ken is right to quote jefferson. And that is why mrs. Bush is exactly right that lack of Civic Education and knowledge of the onstitution leads to declining trust in institutions. A quarter of americans cannot name. People who do not know about the constitution are and not the support to rule of law. And dison studied direct he thought that only a representative republic where will citizens choose can protect liberty. Civic education are supporting is an urgent matter of the survival of the future of democracy. We need to teach children about the foundations of the constitution about pt historical stories and the bill of rights. The way we are doing it is to go bring together the leading liberal conservatives and liberals to explore every aspect describing areas of agreement and disagreement and we have this new platform called the interactive constitution that got 15 million hits. I want you to download it, not now because im talking about and its cosponsored by the leading liberal and conservative lawyers in america and the american constitution society. It is a thrilling exercise in Civic Education. We need working with the Bush Institute and lesson plans that we are creating to create videos, learning modules and schools are using and bring it to every kid from 880. This isnt a luxury or something that is at the outside. The future of democracy depends on Civic Education. Lets talk about the issues that came up about education and Economic Empowerment and the fact that our Education System isnt doing its job and number two, before the recession, but even more so since we felt that people arent part of the American Dream but talk about the dream first and i want to hear from you all where you see pockets of hope and where you are making your investments and how you are slowly changing that tide. I believe in education and i agree that an educated society will be a stronger democratic society. At the same time, there is tremendous potential where we check the box or education is in a good spot. Why do i say that . New Digital Tools coming along and a further divide in our nation and looking at communities that werent expressing some of the concerns and we say what if we could ask citizens to own it. We developed a program called make it your own. And think about the challenges in their local communities and we had a Grant Program that was competitive. But the key was, it was btnt one of those grant applications. You can see it and wrap it. Just give us your best thinking. And many of the people that won won the day really proved that brilliance is equally divided and opportunity is not, because it was amazing what we saw and in some cases didnt have a high school degree. When you challenge citizens and invite them in to shall part of the solution and any educational level with any background with bring. I have an idea and sometimes those are some of the best ideas. It can be a connection point. You do a lot toll invest in education. Talk about what you are seeing. So, one thing we have seen and first, i would be remiss if i didnt say how good it was to say how good it was to see secretary rice and Vice President bush and honor to serve under you in multiple different facets. What was interesting, at robin hood, it is one of the first organizations that came in early and funded Charter Schools and ok at uncommon success academies and how robin hood me in to support educational facets. Its not about the Charter Schools in particular. Its about the idea of are we willing to test and innovate mechanisms that really chang r challenge common conceptions about education p that were built and done hundreds of years ago. And so, for example, being able to look not only the use of technology but how can we raise expectations for all students so you have students who are finishishing schools. And how exactly are we thinking about the military we talk about this idea of border regions. Because the challenge is no one can take accountability for an area. And if we have a similar type of thing in the educational system here that should be border areas, transition between middle school and high school, high school and college, and what happens you have one side that blames the other with the product without trying to take accountability for the product. How do we think about education partment. Me where there are School Transitions and preparing students instead of looking while they move on from this area and the combination and the collaboration and the conversation between the work force and the education side. Because one thing we are seeing is the work force needs are changing rapidly. The things that our employers need now is different than 15 years ago and 30 years ago. Do we have an educational system that can prepare students for that. When secretary rice is talking about the retraining and talking about trade arguments. Do we need to have a conversation, yes and thats fine. But the bigger conversation, what about the 10 year agreements and are we preparing our work force for whats going to happen as the work force continues to change. When we are talking about this idea, a huge part of this is do people feel the training they are getting is actually going to prepare them for the next 50, 60 years of their life. And think critically about our educational processes does matter. The issue of bout the millenial challenge and Good Governance where we were investing our aid. I remember the diss i will usualonment of the investment of the government. The governance was not working. We dealt with poor governance and the federal government was not bearing fruit. Transform some years and now it is quite different. May governance, a terrific or who worked with different parties and both working together to bring detroit back. What did that do . That inviolated the largest bank the detroit area, jpmorganchase. We decided we were going to make an investment in detroit. And they were making progress to lay the groundwork of 150 million. That is a substantial amount of money but in participate with local players. So what the process was to try to build Economic Development so e candidates so they could flowish and can be in Community Development and job training, so there can be Community DevelopmentFinancial Institutions that could lend monies that were not bankable. And you couldnt get them started with a Little Corner business so they could revitalize a program because they werent bankable and finance them and provide the financing for these businesses that were beginning to flourish, you provide a potential for a job and dealing with the components and Work Force Training and fill the gaps in which a lot of the reports is not trained. Recreatell of that, a narrative where people want to come back into the dilapidated and abandoned areas of detroit and begin that cycle. It has been successful enough and we are looking to other baltimore would be involved as well to where we can make that kind of investment but in partnership, in partnership with a notforprofit, the governmental institutions and the private sector all working from my experience as a local mayor and Everything Else, that is the key to making it all come together, you have to have all these institutions upon together, working together and created the conditions that can love allow a child to go to school and flourish and the given in all of this is safety. Onhout police safety, lights the corner and intent of security, none of the others can work. Really important point about the role that partnership plays in it and the about this, i think about the role of robin hood as one example. For the new york to city your City Department of education office, lets say robin hood would put 59 into education, that is a real number. Is. 2 in comparison to what the department of education budget is. The point is that the innovation we can support, it is capital that foundations and thorough and professional activities can play. This will present things that you can send this thing is working, we tried it out, we funded it, we supported it and now it is something that is ready to present to the people who can take us to scale witches the government. That is city leaders, federal leaders and so there is an interesting marriage that takes place with all these different partners where part of the role is for each partner to understand what is your role in this and part of it is to help these things that are then eventually present them to a longterm effect of scale. Partnerships are crucial and content is crucial and you thought about risks and we have found that the biggest risk in Civic Education is how to take surveys in a polarized age. Every question from the First Amendment to the meaning of equality has been politicized and polarized. What we found the works at the National Constitution center is isolaterage students to their political views from the constitution of years. When i began constitutional law class i say were not going to talk about politics, we all disagree about whether gun control is a good idea. By insisting that you separate your politics from your constitutional views you might reach different conclusions, you might think that guncontrol is a good idea but the Second Amendment prohibits it or that it a bad idea but the Second Amendment allows it, that is the way to teach questions like hate speech. Of students understand that the Supreme Court has held the First Amendment protected hate speech. The way you teach students that is to begin with the text of the First Amendment to tell the story of why Thomas Jefferson believed that the First Amendment was a natural right that came from god or nature and not from the government. To tell the stories about the alien and sedition acts of 1978 and jeffersons insistence that it was unconstitutional, to drop questions. Rt this will likely cause in an environment. Must beat the standard in the well, the most inspiring constitutional beacon we have, you cant understand his principles unless you understand the tax history, case law and then to make it accessible. That interactive constitution is used by zuckerberg justices and law firms, it is very wonky and we need to make it accessible to elementary , high school kids, using videos and pushing it out there. The bottomline is if you have a product that both sides can converge around, it is completely nonpartisan and multipartisan, there is a hunger in this country to be elevated above these partisan battles and to converge around the one thing that really does unitas, the u. S. Constitution. Whatlk a little bit about you view as the role of the philanthropic philanthropic i want to say on the detroit model, we are watching very carefully because it is one of the first models we have seen that is so cross sector, there are a couple other elements at play and i must say the Citizen Engagement in devising these strategic plans for their own city ultimately is what will make a difference. The parties came on to enable that. Philanthropy is playing a usual and detroit. I think that philanthropy has a very Critical Role in calling citizens to action and enabling pathways for them to do that. Ill give you an example of the Case Foundation. In the obama administration, we work on something called contrast and grand challenges. They were stymied on some of these so what a radical concept, what if we could conclude that the smartest people in the world are not always in the hallways of federal agencies, could we passed the brilliant of citizens out there everywhere . We pull together 35 federal agencies and bring all sorts of experts to train on contests and grand challenges with the idea that we would take the challenges that the agencies have which they were trying to serve citizens and throw them out there to citizens. Most brilliant things to happen as ebola was threatening the nation, it the reliefous that workers and the doctors were female challenges. This was used for design so it came all over the team in baltimore. At aeam in baltimore Wedding Dress designer on the team. What did she do . She designs things that people wear. She had some of the most important designs that ended up in the final suit that todays changing lives, everyone who worked on the project will tell you including the former director of the a few idea. It was real citizen best, a real world out there in the front lines without her conservation to that, we would not have ends up with ebola suit. It is really caring for so many patients. Can i ask you to expand on the role of business . Are they doing enough . I think much more can be done and should be done. T is not to denigrate yes efforts of so many today. I think the role of corporate foundations and business at large can be so significant. Whether it is technology, helping education or talking about Economic Development, i have to tell you that this is an issue that is part of our domestic problem today. It is the issue of puerto rico. It will take more than government to rebuild puerto rico. This is a use problem that i dont think we have got into the National Conference consciousness. Forramifications communities like florida where tremendous, itbe will take at the role for government to tackle something as big as that but the entice partners and bring in private sectors in order to tackle that problem. When youre looking at the magnitude of that issue, it is the same in baltimore, it is the same in detroit, chicago, so many cities that are hurting. I think that what we are doing terrific, i hope there is a leadership way of doing it, i hope they will entice others and invite others to participate in some of the ways because we are a bank, we are very connected to us makes a community work. Obviously, it is in the best interest of any business to a bank, any kind of business to see a community where they work and invest function to be successful. A community that is abandoned like detroit is not for anybody. The choicest example, i think what a terrific store it can be if a city that was once the symbol of american greatness and factoring and automobiles became hugeandoned city with a reduction in population and Everything Else to be big guided as a laboratory for can work in the future. I do think there is a tremendous role for the private sector and i think it will also be very much needed in a big mammoth job like the reconstruction of puerto rico. Let me turn the topic, lets talk about social media and Citizen Engagement. You talked a lot about what is good and bad about how people are using social media. Say a little bit more about that. Im a big supporter of social media, a platform for education, the fact that you can launch an interactive constitution within a year against 50 million that gets 59 hits is this astonishing opportunity to reach learners of all ages. Tweeting out educational videos is now reaching 49 kids in the classroom and the possibility for empowering individual learners to cultivate their faculties of reason is inspiring. On the other hand, it is important to note the dangers of social media. The worst thing that can happen in america is representatives to communicate directly with their constituents. I think i can say in a nonpartisan way that the idea of tweeting representatives would have not placed james madison. The entire madisonian system is designed to slow down the deliberation, justice brand has this beautiful opinion in the whitney cases and says as long as there is time enough for the liberation, the best response is a good one. That is why the whole constitutional system is set up to slow down deliberation. The idea of praise it would be inconceivable in america because we dont make fundamental cost additional decisions by referendum or initiative or snap judgment, to the degree that the speed of deliberation is so fast that it is polarizing people into filter bubbles and echo chambers, we have learned about how people were consuming their news from likeminded new sources and not hearing arguments on the other side is a profound democratic challenge. Platformsia and the are both a challenge and the solution. That cansocial media polarize people can also bring together the federal society and the american constitution society. These groups were like a montagues and the capulet. Askedere inspired to be to score areas of agreement and is right. Ive been convinced that this education project is madisonian are requiredople to respect louis into opposite point of view and consider what they agree with and disagreement about that is self is an exercise of citizenship. We need to use social media to spread the light and to empower people to educate and cultivate their faculties of reason but at the same time, mitigate the effects that may challenge. We are seeing civic action today with Digital Tools, the nation has invested about 4 million in three giving platforms over the last 10 years and today, over 5 billion of giving for microdonations, 10 and 20 by citizens, many of them giving for the first time. It is getting them engaged in causes, it is bringing them to action, things they care about. I think we look at the divide and we are not as careful to look at the true outside that we see that is bringing people out into action and caring. I want to go back to your business point for a minute. I think it is important that when we think about this in america to recognize some things that i think a lot of people dont understand. The Kauffman Foundation did a story study and said all net new jobs in america are not created by Big Companies or small businesses. They are created by startups. New firms. We should be concerned and vigilant because last year 78 of all Venture Capital the jet fall that helps young firms went it three place. Massachusetts, new york and california. 90 went to men leaving 10 to female founders and less than 1 to africanamerican founders. If we see shared prosperity and care about job growth and economic viability we have to Pay Attention to that area of business that we dont often think of which is making sure we are enabling and training our next generation of,entrepreneurs. Which when we think of the American Dream it is a promise that if you have a good idea there is the place you can make it real. I want to make a comment. We have not talked about the role of local and State Government and be a laboratory for what works in america. Through the years of the great society, the growth of federal government which was not historically the way america grew and jeff, if i had you for constitutional law it law school i would have gotten a better grade balls because you make it fighting. Exciting. We were governed by local and State Government, not federal government particularly domestic issues. So, we need to go back to that and rethink the role of the federal government being supportive and a source of funding and whatnot terrific. Good ideas. What makes Community Works is closest to the people. I would daresay working with Community Organizations like foundations, like businesses, like the people in business who volunteer and the volunteer community, not for profit community. Working with the local government and local representative, that they see at the Grocery Store and talk to every day, it is different to be in washington and removed from the daytoday of peoples lives and living with them in their locality. Ambassador haley had the experience of being a governor and knowing what goes on at that level. As we think of what will make us believe in our country again and believe it works again the role of local government must be highlighted and understood. There is a power of the role of local government pwaufrs because it has been said those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. I think about it from my time in military your time as platoon leader is the best because you know everything about the members and the higher you are the further you are rehoofed moved removed. That is one of the powerful things about local and state tkpwhofrts is they are the ones who are closest to hear about what is going on and be able to grow out the ideas that are working. Gene brought up a great point about the role of technology and role of entrepreneurs. I think about things we are supporting one is the guy who founded facebook groups and then he did pretty well because he founded facebook groups and said i want to focus on poverty issues. Hes created something called fresh e. B. T. Which is a technology to help people manage benefits. Whether you are on wick food stems and you qualify for snap and it himself you to better financially manage benefits and eat better. And there is tracking mechanisms to put in the app and theres another great entrepreneur that created good call where it is like the Witching Hour we you are arrested the first two hours are the most important after you are areased and who your first phone call to you have a chance of increasing the chance of conviction by 75 if it is not to either an attorney or to a Family Member who can get you proper representation. He created a technology which is a basic algorithm that connects to switch boards are so that the first call you make will be to the person logical notify your family where you are and notify the public defender that will serve as your legal representation. He managed to cut the conviction rate for people significantly and it is in the bronx and now they are talking about cooperating it citywide. These are local people with their ear to the ground about what is going on found a need and are creating Something Interesting and local governments are saying why shouldnt we be doing this. Just a smart way of scaling bright ideas that can have a longterm impact on populations that we serve. Wes, we talked about disillusionment and seeing in the rust belt and you are doing work in the africanamerican community. What are you finding is the disillusionment and how does it match other populations . I think that disillusionment and its challenge is it is compounded. It is not so much disillusionment amongst an institution. It is institutions. When you have a situation, take education as a reference from baltimore, 5,000 kids will graduate from high school every year in baltimore. 500 are prepared for college or careers when they walk across the stage. 10 . So 90 , the ones that graduate, even for those that move on to Higher Education will have to take vental course developmental course work and the challenge of that is that it costs exactly the same. Except you are getting no credit for it. So you have students that will take batteries of developmental course washing, pay the same and after using freshman tuition and aid to get that will then have six or three or no credits to their name. Chances are that student will never graduate from college because their Financial Aid will run out. So you have watched how disillusionment plays itself out on so many fronts. I think that the key way that we have to address it is we have to be incredibly deliberate about the expectations we are signature and i think brush said it is the soft bigotry of low expectation where we have different expectations for different kids in different communities. I remember once i wrote this story talking about a young man from baltimore who is currently with the same name from the same area, similar family background in year 16 of his life sentence for the same time i received a Rhodes Scholarship he was convicted for the murder of a Police Officer so it details the lives of two kids. I remember speaking with him and we were talking about baltimore and i said do you think we are products of our environment. He looked back at me and said actually i think we are products of our expectations. I thought it myself, he is absolutely right. We were not products of our environment. We are products of our expectations someone said it is a shame you lived up to your expectations and he didnt and i said the real shame is that we both did. We both lived up to our expectations. When we are talking about creating hope and opportunity, the very first thing we have to do is this soft bigotry of low expectation that we have for so many kids and communities for things they were born to and things they should not be ashamed of. We have to be able to psychologically change the bars and bear years. Booker t. Washington said it best when he said if you break a mans spirit you do not have to escort him to the back door because he will walk this himself. We have far too many people walking there by themselves. [applause] wes brings up a great point. Im a child of a single mom who raised four kids alone and there is no way i would be on this stage to accomplish anything without mentors who came along and lifted me. When president bush was in office he used his leadership platform to call on citizen to come alongside of citizens and offer a helping hand or just a shoulder to lean against. When we look by the way it is not just people raised in challenging circumstances that lead there. All young people need this. People at different point in their careers need this. The idea of mentoring as a powerful way to bring citizens forward around let them be the best they can be, is something that i think needs to recognized and has fallen off. But it plays a key role and if we went around the room and asked people how did you get here even people that came out of privileged circumstances will point to somebody who took them and said let me him you get ahead. I think that the power of that is often not recognized. We have just a few minutes left. I want to try to end on a more hopeful note and that was pretty hopeful. We are all hopeful. We will end up on a hopeful note and tee up the next speaker. What is the kind of opportunity this challenge brings and how do we step up to the plate . How could you not be on insist particular hearing that testament to the power of expectations . And inspiring students to consult straight their faculties can often be done telling the story of america. There is nothing more inspiring and learning about the constitutional story. This year is the 150th anniversary of the 14th amendment to the constitution. That is the amendment that guarantees all persons equal protection of the laws and denies any state the power to deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process that. Is the fulfillment of jeffersons promise in the declaration which was revived by lincoln at gettysburg amount it took the civil war it enshrine it in the constitution and it didnt become a reality until the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther king and civil rights act. They are inspiring staoeurs and there is something empornography and motivating about education in giving students the sense they have the power to fulfill their dreams. Them you are optimistic about america because you know how tkpwhror rurs the freedoms are tkpwhror rugs they are and despite the noise and clamor of social media and politics there is there shining core at the center of it that unites us as americans. I dont want to sit next to jeff on the panel next time. It has been a common thaoefpl our greatest asset is our citizens. I think it is for each of us to say how can we use our resources and influence and whatever we have to bring to call citizens to action. There isnt a problem out there that citizen banded together cant address and bring to a solution. I think we have to bring hope and promise and encourage citizens to get in the arena as Teddy Roosevelt said. That is the path to get out of this divide and addressing opportunity for all. I echo that. Im incredibly hopeful. I hope it didnt come off that im not. Part of the reason im hopeful is that we spend every day in communities with change agents who are doing remarkable things. Some people say they will throw these stats out and how do you stay optimistic despite the stats and that is because i dont live in stats. I live in communities. I live in communities where we are watching single moms working multiple jobs and absolute heroes for their families. I live in communities where we are watching people who are waking up at the crack of dawn and will meet people every day with a huge smile. We are living in communities where we are watching ministers and favorite leaders and elected officials who know they are living for something bigger than themselves. So i dont live in stats. That is why im hopeful about where we can get. It is difficult to be here and hear the story of her and she believes in america and chose to come here. We had on out earlier Panel Secretary all bright all bright who has a remarkable story and such an american story and in addition to that we have on that panel a former governor and currently our representative to the United Nations the daughter of indians immigrants. We had on that panel an africanamerican woman who grew up in grated alabama who rose to the ranks of secretary of state. All of these incredible people we have heard trfrplt im an immigrant myself and my story does not allow me not to believe in america. And what happens in my life the institutions that people, the good believes of the American People in my life is still here today. We have to continue to believe in it and to tell others the way jeffrey does, in a way that gets you excited and interested about what our country. It goes back to the beginning where we said people dont know our institutions, they the fact that she spoke about the need for education about our stations and who we are. Time an optimist about america and glad i get the last word because nobody gets to rebut that. Thank you all. Coming up tonight on cspan, senator outbreak and a statement on Sexual Harassment allegations against him. President trump meets with native american code talkers at the white house and after that, white house budget director Mick Mulvaney on taking over on the Consumer Protection financial bureau. Sydney lawyer lead a discussion on opioid addiction. Senator al franken addressed capitol hill reporters as he returned to work for the First Time Since being accused of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct