Transcripts For CSPAN2 Bill Clinton Jeb Bush Education Discussion 20240713

Thank you. Throughout the year we honor the legacy where they chronicle the love affair between the president ial years into the bush connection. On w one, we gather to receive e wisdom shared ip insightful individual who visits the distinguished lecture. Today we have the opportunity to examine a Pivotal Moment in American History and of americas educational system we gather to learn and commemorate the 50th anniversary of president bush condemning allmo0 u. S. Governors to create a unified set of National Educational goals. This work cant be the end of research at long last into the process of crafting educational policies. Our events today will undoubtedly shed light on this dry up ththisdrive that weve me 27th, 1989 and this historic meeting took place. And we will shed some light on the work that is still left to be done. To introduce the event and formerly introduced to this very special guest, a hybrid invite to the podium the chairman of the george and Barbara Bush Foundation and the nephew of president and mrs. Bush. [applause] thank you, president herbert. Wea lovely moment of remembrance as well. So, on behalf of the george and Barbara Bush Foundation than i want to thank you and your team for helping us produce this very special and important event and i also want t to thank the foundation for their generous support for both the foundation and the event. The george and Barbara Bush Foundation, we believe that four years a of george and barbara bh served for four years that changed our world for the better. To secure freedom for the victory in the cold war without a single shot being fired between the superpowers. He helped unify germany within the nato and the division of europe. And he forged and led an unprecedentedd coalition to reverse the today we can see it is refreshing particularly today and in no small part to the Clean Air Act of 1990 which george bush signed into law and addressed in a very innovative way acid rain was clearing away the smog that was choking the city. No other issue affects the nations of the people and more of an education. We are delighted to be cohosting this important event for the university of england as they not only look back at the groundbreaking collaborative work of the 1989 Education Summit also classic george bush fashion looking ahead to the challenges and opportunities that remain. Convening this under the auspices of the distinguished lecture series that seems especially poignant in the first since the most president bush late last year just six months after losing his beloved wife. They enjoy a very, very special relationship with the leadership and students. I cant see out there but i hope there are a lot of students. Now, it is my great pleasure to introduce the moderator for todays event, one of the masterminds behind the educatioa summit, professor roger today serves as the itm perthshire of business at Harvard University school of kennedy school. Backho in 1989 he was serving president george bush as a senior white house adviser for domestic and economic policy. We couldnt be more pleased to have him joining the conversation today with over distinguished speakers, and im delighted to invite him up to the stage at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome professor roger port. [applause] it is a delight to be with you this afternoon. When people aspire to be president of the united states, they are required to give an explanation of what it is they want to do if they become president. And when george h. W. Bush sought the presidency in 1988, he told the country that he wanted to become the education president , the environmental president and he wants a kinder and gentler america. Better to tell us his vision for this summit then george h. W. Bush himself. The spirit of the summit is how can we get results. We are here to put progress beforero partisanship, the futue for the moment, and our children before ourselves. And now it is time to define. This is a time for action. I value your advice and ideas as we continue to refine the federal role. To those who say that money alone is the answer, i say there is no one answer. If anything experienced teachers we are simply not getting our moneys worth and education. Our focus must no longer be on resources. It must be on results. This is only the third time in our 200 years in the nation that a president has held a summit with the governors and ive told you together because you bear the constitutional responsibility for education, and i didnt ask yo dont ask ya historic occasion merely toobin on what is wrong. We are here to work and Work Together and once again to make an American Education the best in the world. Theyve emphasized the need for a National Performance goals and the importance of greater flexibility and the use of federal funds while accepting accountability for the results. Theyve also stressed the high priority of helping prepare preschool children should have on federal spending in a time of fiscal constraint. Finally, the governors have articulated eloquently the need to restructure our education system. Social contact today again in charlottesville virginia, a compact between parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, states that its leaders, governors and the administration. It is founded on challenges. Each one a radical departure from tradition. I hope that you will join me to define their National Goals in education for the first time from this day forward let us be an america of tougher standards, of higher goals and a land of bigger dreams. [applause] you may well have wondered what the first two president ial summits with governors were. The first was a former governor of new york, Teddy Roosevelt who neared the end of the second term convened the governors and the group of other people in the white house for a conference on conservation and natural resources. The second was another former governor of new york, Franklin Roosevelt who invited his fellow governors to his inauguration and asked them to stay over to the following monday said that he could meet with them on a series of issues at the interface between the states and the federal. Government. But the third time that weve come to call the charlottesville summit, the Education Summit with governors was different. It began early in his administration. And it wasnt held in the east room of the white house as the previous two summits had. But it was held at the university of virginia because president bush determined that he did not want this to be viewed as washingtons holding the nations problems. Nor did he want it to be viewed as being held in the white house. But instead on the campus of an Education Institution that was near and dear to him in part because his son and daughterinlaw had gone there and in part because it was founded by one of his predecessors, thomas jefferson. To discuss what happened at that charlottesville summit and how it came about we couldnt have two finer individuals who dedicated a great deal of their lives to promoting Educational Excellence in the united states. Please join me in welcoming the 42nd president of the united states, bill clinton and the 43rd governor of florida, jeb bush. [applause] as i was mentioning some of the summit was quite different. Each has its own context and in 1983, president Ronald Reagan had issued the nations report card called a nation at risk which suggested we add dramatic improvements are needed to be made in our education system. A series of governors who chaired the National Governors association, Lamar Alexander and 8586, governor bill clinton and 86, 87, john sununu, the governor of new hampshire, and at that time but white house chief of staff who was a major force in encouraging the summit, then jerry of virginia, and he was succeeded by Terry Branstad of iowa when president bush came into office. All of them were eager to have governors involved in discussions about education. And so, president bush determined that he in fact wanted the conference not to be his agenda, but a joint agenda. So, governor branstad appointed a task force on education cochaired by governor clinton of arkansas and governor Carroll Campbell republican from south carolina. Its important to remember the Governors Association since it was created in 1908 has been a very Bipartisan Organization and has maintained that bipartisanship for more than a century which is at least in my view very impressive. I think the former governor is here. You set the stage well but its worth emphasizing that the time this meeting was called at least of more than six years previous. And in 1992 disproportionately because it was the poorest part of the country trying to believe beyond any doubt and then much more of education. And said then that Big Initiative coming out of florida and mississippi and then from alexander and North Carolina and then you have a lot of interest in colorado for example and by 87 the First Commission ever to recommend Community Service as part of a curriculum but we were all frustrated because most of us adopted the standards of having some success of those teachers who are doing a good job and supporting schools and good cultures but we were having a hard time figuring out how you take this unique system in america state Constitutional Responsibilities for education and funding from the state local and federal level and turn them into Something Better results now we have all this good work went from one of the lowest rated states in the country that we have the feeling and they are catching up early to step forward and one step back and nobody could figure out exactly how to put in incentives to improve the system and accountability. I think its worth pointing out even then that challenge with america education because you couldnt of those worldwide levels but then for a variety of reasons that i know that you have a lot to do with it and the National Governors association and part of our staff from 30 years ago is here today to. But thats what people need to know. There were genuine differences of how much money the federal governments should give or the states to regulate local districts ortr have future certification but there wasnt much part of a difference and h president bush just wanted to be with the governors and i gave an Opening Statement i got a guy that said you know what youre doing cracks i said yes this is a big deal. We need to go brag on people in the other people will agree with what they are doing its crazy so what about we act like threedimensional people insteadbi of twodimensional cartoons. But it was normal then. I got a great relationship and Terry Branstad he was a republican governor now ambassador to china was the chairman of the governors conference with those meetings that webu ran together but for some reason he cannot be there he said just start you know what were doing and what we are working on just get started. Dont waste any time. He knew i would embarrass him or the president or the republicans and i would be faithful to the position. Re and whether or not the party they were with. So it seemed normal to me and it needs to be normal again. [applause] you will recall president bush was very content and to say this is great but there is something concrete coming out this was more than four singlespaced pages but you cannot issue a joint statement unless everybody signs on to it we didnt want them to sign on to it we wanted the president and the governor to sign on tove it so governor campbell and then governor clinton had the responsibility to get the republicans and democratic governors respectively to sign on to this joint statement so why happened as you try to get this joint statement signed to your fellow democratic governor governors. You can tell how long it took to ride it by the way. Pointed me go to sleep quex. We finish 3 10 a. M. We were just getting warmed up. [laughter] j i have to say it didnt bother me as much as it did some people. It took a lot to get it done because there were so many involved in education. Johnson to lead a delegation to italy in 1987 to study the Economic Organization the Medieval Guild to the modern world to see if it was a good thing for the Economic Transformation in america. And i met with three republicans and we had the time of our life. Everybody has an idea so we tried to do that. But i remember how unusually accommodating we were to each other. You would be amazed. And to sound silly. And so Terry Branstad was working with the republicans and there was no staff allowed. So that and then relieve the fact how much were going to say or how much were not going to say. To make it affordable and what does that mean in the federalal responsibility that they could hold out the hope of getting more money and not to get in trouble with the base and then to do something without consulting her but we methodically went through every one and by three ted my side was happy. [laughter] if you look at what was produced out of the charlottesville summit probably the single biggest idea that you alluded to in your concludingllud remarks to commit to establishing performance goals and embraced nationwide but would be implemented by each governor and hold ourselves accountable for that. Its one thing to articulate a set of goals its another to actually implement them the other idea that came out of this is we would establish standards and hold ourselves accountable for achieving them. Governor bush spent eight years as the chief executive florida at ahe time when florida made larger gains with respect to education that at any other time in history. I think its very interesting to hear governor bush how a state took these goals that were established and created a system l where he can literally raise the level of student performance. Thank you roger. Its great to be here. I appreciate the connection to the bush family to this great a university. And then my dad set the example and then be good friends. [applause] then that created have aspiration that the federal government is the beall and endall that aspirations can create those big hairy audacious mold it doesnt have to be a federal programan but where millions of people buy into it. But every child reaches their godgiven ability to dream their dreams they are capable to pursue those options in their life that starts with pre k through 12 education reforming the system is important. In florida we took the idea of accountability t and High Expectations and standard and implemented choice in education creating a pressure to t adapt and we ended social promotion in third grade one policy that matters is to assure every thirdgrader knows how to read. If you cant read by fourth grade you cannot do math or science. We were all in on that subject creating all sorts of support for the accountability system and all of that really was started by what happened intt charlottesville in the 19 nineties when you were president jim hunt and my brother had the strongest Accountability Measures so we flak those on steroids so florida was 50th of 50 states only 50 percent of kids graduated pretty pathetic. But now on the report card test we have gone from 29 out of 30 with fourth grade reading now we are seventh we are 60 percent of 60 free and reduced lunch majority minority all around some kids not being able to learn but if not for the National Consensus for real accountability and higher expectation it wouldve been harder to do for sure. And if i would call correctly that it was a commitment from all the governors that they would restructure education. Most organizations spend a lotiz of time doing the same thing theyve been doing over and over again periodically we need to step back and take a look if there is a better way a catalyst and thats one of the big outcomes from commitment share with us how you got the governors to buy into that. I was obsessed because it didnt matter if you have like in japan they have National Standards and the way it will be done. America has always had a tradition of different cultures and different states but we do one thing we knew we had to restructure the School Districts so we can have Accountable Leadership with the good teachers and then to have the goal to bring more parents intoba the school and then under whatever rule the state set because the most frustrating thing to imagine any other endeavor in america if you had any other operation with 100 parts and ten of them doing it better than anybody else in the world. And then to have that adapted but then you couldnt replicate excellence. But i also have to face the fact there are differentth reasons. If i could give you an example that charlottesville you kept your word you did agree to give more flexibility to the states in implementing and then to identify if they were eligible before the fifth grade anyway. So i had to rural School Districts and then they started to have stunning results one in Early Childhood education the department of education gave us the authority to take the special ed money spend it kindergarten through third grade to make the classes smaller and putting everybody together. No bigger than 15 teachers aides to make them smaller and then the children those that were the best leaders were used as tutors this Little School figure this out on its own they double the performance as far as we could measure it and the people who were held back in one year triple theres. So i excitedly or naively sent a letter and said we have a waiver from the federal government and here are the results. You see it and we will pay the way. The same thing happened with the youth dropout rate with a brilliant teacher if you dont pass out the third grade you will fail if you dont read thats in the dropout rate picks up. This guy got it he was in a great s teacher and then to have that autobiographical even if they could notua punctuate. And then every night he would take all those papers home. He was determined to save the kids that were failing. It literally dropped all of his kids stayed all the way. Because once they can learn about something they cared about a only 10 percent of my School District took advantage. But the point im trying to make is this jonesville meeting tries to figure out how much would we need is a financial issue or a cultural issue or accountability issue. If massachusetts were started later let out bipartisan passion parents went to harvard first language is not english they had one of the ten best School Systems in the world because they started 25 years ago and the schools in creating cultures once they get the parents involved. So they did a better job solving with the resources they had while our people were doing what works. But we are ready for another big leap all of us who have worked in this field can point to successes and failures but its our best effort to keep trying but if you ask my great disappointment that i am absolutely positive that children from low income families and people who overcome enormous obstacles perform at very high levels. My greatest frustration as i look around america and i look at a country and have 45 different ethnic groups and everybody wants to be a teacher. They got our best with what we knew at the time. We loved it but were still not as good as they need to be so we think if we ever figured out the answer to that. One of the interesting things to have new and fresh ideas and one of these panels that we discussed in charlottesville was about choice and restructure. And governor bush with Public School choice and choice in general. And i know your father was very interested. Can you share your experience with choice quex. And you see the entire mark on my forehead cracks talking about is good but acting on that sometimes. [laughter] but to the point that our systems dont replicate when its their. And the Committee Principles and the achievement was lights out good for guy would argue that 13000 plus monopolies is not the best governance model tto decide an incredibly Diverse Group of children in a society where we have a moral and economic obligation to they are college or career ready by the time they get to 12th grade. We need more power to parents to make sure they are informed and that they have choices. With that innovation we have universal pre k and those that go to school paid for by the s state. We have the Corporate Tax Scholarship Program we have kids going to Charter Schools the largest Virtual School 50 percent of all students are in a school that is picked by the parent not selected by the School District. To make these choices. Its worked in florida, and i think it is going to work across the country. You think about it, we probably have too many choices in our lives these days and this is the one place where a child thats kind of the american way. Ive always rejected out of hand. We have rising student achievement because had we not, the programs would have died. Now 20 years and theres huge support among low income families no one is going to take these away anymore with the political empowerment of parents this. Aying i want and we continue to add to the programs because of its. One other thing we talked about kids with learning disabilities. The federal law requires an individual Education Plan under the civil rights act. In florida as a parent the fiercest. For those that have children with learning disabilities, they are awesome, dispassionate, they have to protect their children. In florida they dont have to argue with a lawyer in the School District for the principle of the school if their iep isnt being met, they can take the state and local dollars, dollar for dollar to go to any school of their choice, public or private. And i think the federal government ought to add to that. The money that comes down for kids with learning disabilities, those parents are deserving to be in the front of the line. [applause] for a democrat, i have pretty good credentials on this issue. Issue. There was one Charter School in america when i became president. We found that about 2,000 at the time i left office and left money for a thousand more and now there are 66,000 in the country. So, i took your money and started the first Charter School in miami. [laughter] here is the deal. Its like Everything Else once every institution tends to become institutionalized what we found is when we set up the Charter School, the deal was supposed to be you can keep the charter as well as you do as well or better and theres a demand for your service. You also have a lot of rules and regulations School Districts might otherwise have. The benefits of what you have learned in the school and you share it with others. Thats where the breakdown in the charter system has been mac once youve been in business for a while, you apply your constituency and keep thert charter whether you are performing well or not. According to the study no more than 1 have tried to offer ongoing work in partnership with onother Public Schools. And the one exception is after the financial crash in 2008 in rhode island because it was the ththird hardest hit in the couny and everybody was going broke. Educators got together and started working together sharing their insights and according to only know about this is that i saw on the Television News report that they thought it really helped education an and e for Charter Schools and Public Schools because they were working together. Then you could say the way youve been doing it doesnt make sense anymore and a thousand other thing is. So i would like to see more of that. One of the big issues governors frequently brought up is the question of Strings Attached by the federal government with the money coming in. Weve talked before that there wasnt a lot of money available at the federal level. President bush to his credit proposed another half a billion dollars when he very first came in which was hard to wring out of the office of management and budget, trust, me. Got that through that in the discussions we had leading up to the summit we made it very clead we had deficits to share but we didnt have surpluses tosh shara and that therefore the expectation that there was going to be an outburst of federal spending was unrealistic. To your credit and governor campbells credit, we didnt have one of the discussion groups talking about federal spending. We did have one talking about federal mandates and Strings Attached. And at the end of that, when we were discussing it with president bush, he said what are you going to do about that . We are going to go to the National Governors association and have the governors tell us in detail specifically every string that they would like to te lucent and we will promise to send back to them a report card onlo whether we think we cn loosen the straps or not. And we did. The association came up with over 400 specific examples of something they wanted to send. I wish i were making this up. Im not. So, we went through, got the office of management and budget and we looked at every single one of them. In about a third of the cases we could loosen the strings and i think in every one but one of them we did. But in the other two thirds of the cases, the strings were mandated by law and we were told by the departments and agencies you cannot loosen the string because it is clear and specifii in the underlining legislation that it has to be this way. So we then went back to you and your colleagues have said will you go with us to congress to try to get these relaxed and administrations, which we did, fortunately if you want to share what happened when we went to the congress to do that. Ha some of them didnt like it very much. [laughter] i this may be a partisan perspective, and i dont mean for it to be. I will tell you what the members of congress worried about. They think okay, i cant run anything. Im not in charge of operating anything so as a member of congress, i cant guarantee that a school i recognize i maybe need to get out of the way thati can make sure but its not going to be taken and spent on something else. And theres something to be said for that because i remember in 1994 i had already given more than 40 states the waivers and if it is the same principle to move poor people from the military work we had all time high in child care and transportation and Everything Else. Nevertheless somehow or another by the time i got out of office about eight years or ten years, eight states have managed to do away with any cash welfare benefits, but they were still they got itmoney the alltime high of a. We would cap the Welfare Grant to the state and where it was in february of 94 because it was an alltime rule and every time i left office they dropped 60 . But if you are not careful how you work those things, very clever governors will take the money away and spend it on something else. And if that happens. So, if we want to do this again and we want to do a better job of it, i think that at the time we did it in charlottesville, we were in good faith and wanted to spend the money on education. I gave you two examples and you let meme do it and im very grateful, but i do think that weve got to have a record here of the things in the federal government is too close pe gap between the poor and not so poor in Public Education and to give help to deal with special needs kids. Its been frustrating by one of the great successes in the American Education that we have given a special needs chance they can improve and learn and do and grow and its is it more complicated, yes so thats worth oftt the inconvenience for the rest of us. But anyway, youve got to be careful about that. Bosco stanek at the charlottesville summit, we agreed as part of the state and to establish a set of nationalal education goals and these were going to be developed jointly by the governors o and the presidet and administration and we were hopeful to be able to announce them in the president s state of the Union Address in january. The conference was held the 27th and 28th of september so it basically gave us october, november, december and january to get this done. One of those goals embraced one of the most important things to come out of the summit which is we are going to try to improve student performance and hold people accountable. If you are going to hold them accountable, there has to be a standard. So, one of the goals and interestingly enough there were people falling all over themselves wanting to be one of the education goals and at the meeting i cant remember which one of us brough brought it up t but we both agreed we have to have a limited number of goals if we have more than a handful or six goals, no one will be able to remember everythin evero we have narrowed it down to those and one of those goals was going to be they will not be sent from a year or two or three years from now, but making this change in American Education is going to take at least a decade so they targeted them by the year 2000. And a third of those i remember well when we were discussing this was by tha the year 2000, student in the four, eight and o12. Youll be able to demonstrate confidence in english, math, science, history and geography. The impetus for the goal is something that you have done in arkansas. We were the first state in the country to have an eighthgrade exit test to pass and go on to high school. I looked at all of these not just for arkansas for the whole country and that isis where spie so i thought its better to hold acthem back then to just keep shoveling themhe into high schol if they couldnt read appropriately or learn appropriately they were going to probably drop out anyway and they are not going to get the benefit of an education. New york made this famous decades and decades ago and we decided it would be better to give the test and not close the barn door when the cow was reready out and that way we could require the kids to do remediation in the summer and hopefully graduate from high school onad time and prepare hih School Graduation to do it. But that was a big deal. The eighthgrade thing i thought was really important. I have learned a lot a couple of years earlier. I had a tough time. A lot of kids did. Andre so, theres lots of stuff going on including biological things. Trying to get that right is one of the more important things we did. I think whatever else did or didnt happen basically its considerably better i still think we are having too much trouble recruiting and keeping good teachers and and if we have to make other adjustments [applause] but i think that we cant be in denial about these. I spent quite a bit of time later iteacher in the school bei was so impressed by it as a system and how well they were doing and i really dodo think tt every one that ive everi been n they clearly have high state standards and all that but also individual cultures where the teachers felt able of ownership and i think somehow we have goto eyt going on that again where if everyone believes they are not beta down and threaten just me or agre agreedd to make somethid happened today. The schools have to have a culture of commitment to excellence. The trust model doesnt work but it produces the incentives to overcome not having a product as good as it should be. We tried to address all of that. I would love to see them do it again. He didnt know the first thing about artificial intelligence. [laughter] [applause] its being covered by the press we attribute to that. [applause] hthink we are on the same list. [laughter] theres someone else we shouldnt forget in a letter that Abigail Adams wrote to her husband john when he was at the constitutional convention. She included that wonderful phrase remember, dont forget the ladies. [laughter] laughter [applause] [applause] interestingly enough that the charlottesville summit, the spouses of the governors were there and the first lady hosted them for a series of discussions and eve events. It is the george and Barbara Bush Foundation because this was such a wonderful couple who were deeply committed to education. And it seems to me that there is no one better than barbara bush to share some of her ideas with us on education. [laughter] i chose literacy because i honestly believed. Whether you are talking about education, career or service, you are talking about life and life must have joy. Its supposed to be fun. At the end of your life winning one more verdict or not posting memorial. Governor bush, you know your father and mother are better then anyone else in the audience by far. Great, glad to have you with us. Perhaps you could share with us what you think caused them bothn to be as genuinely interested in education as they were a. This is a lifelong passion and maybe you could help share with us where that came from. My mother was very passionate about this from being a young mother from all the way she had time to serve as a first lady. From the rest of her life she was committed to adult family literacy which was essential for us i think as a nation to get beyond the silos. Everybody has their own ecosystems and this should be lifelong. The first teachers of every child or their parents and if they cant read, then that makes it harder and harder for children to Start School Ready to learn. She believed that to her core. It is without a doubt the mostrt Important Organization of its kind working nationally. For the adult family literacy which i think is a very cool idea. You think of all the people that have come to the country many of them came from literacy schools and they certainly were behind in english and so creating a strategy around every person to give them so they can pursue their dreams that was barbara bush and hope she believed. And im proud to be her little boy. [applause] i will say one other thing we have something in common. We were on her backlist occasionally. I think i was on it more than you were. At a dinner for the points of Light Foundation the interesting thing is she could look at you and say ive got your number. [laughter] she wouldve breathed a huge sigh of relief. Those nights and when she would get all the spouses together and we had a dinner one night and the Education Summit hillary and president bush and barbara bush were talking about the impact of child health and she mentioned in passing she was t worried about the fact that americas infant mortality rate back then was still the 18th in the world, to hide. And you your dad said that can. The Healthcare System is too good. She said no, i can get good enough information. [laughter] and he says i will do it. So im sitting there watching a tennis match. So it was very funny but thene next night when alleles which tables and everything he came up to me with a note. The reason im telling you this is that is the way we ought to treat each other there is no downside to come its for a baby to die or live. [applause] theres no republican orno democratic way to teach to read english or to make sure a child that has a minor learning disability to catch up and reading levels. That is what barbara was saying. I thought that was great. [applause] one of the issues that came up on the National Education goals that were signed off on a got all 50 governors to sign onto them and then we have to question where arest we going to announce these. The National Governors association has a meeting in february, and the president s state of the Union Address is typically given in the third week of january. So, the question was where are we going to announce these. And a bunch of your colleagues, one of them announced at the National Governors Association Meeting i took the position in our discussions in th and the Nl Association is wonderful. Let me see if i can get agreement on these National Education goals as a part of the first state of the Union Address in 1990. One answer came back, yes we can do that. Do that. So i said let me see i want four seats because the chairman branstad and the vice chairman governor and then you and governor campbell and myself negotiation it was clear for governors played a much larger role than others. He so i went to the first lady and said can we get four seats and she said yes. But then the president said great when we have the governors ride with us in the motorcade and not to show up on their own and i said thats a great idea. So i invited the four of you to come to the white house mess to have a meal before we got in the motorcade which would be at about 815 and then make her way up. So we are sitting there havinger dinner break i hope you remember this. Like it was yesterday. [laughter] and we were sitting there and theth phone rings the stewart hands it to me and its very a usual to have a phone handed to you in the middle of the meal and its the president and he said are you having dinner with your governor friends i said yes he said would you like to bring them over . s i said bring them over where . He said to the residents. And i said of course when would you like us there and he said as soon as you can get there so we quickly finish the meal. [laughter] and at the meal i had handed to the four of you the state of the Union Address so you can read through it to see exactly what he was going to say and a fact sheet you are comfortable with everything. Going out if you look at the embargoed release your names are not mentioned. We go over to the residence if i was getting ready to give a state of the union i would want peace and quiet. You and governor branstad and come on governor campbell and you had that first conversation probably in the family quarters provided if youve ever been there before. I remember how gracious he was to thank the four of you for all the work you had invested into developing the national cleducation goals. I remember that like it was yesterday. I remember sitting there at and thinking this might really amount to something. This might translate to change the future for our kids. And his delivered state of the union he paused and looked up into the first ladys box and called each of you by name and thanked you before the nation for all the work you had invested to bring about the National Education goals. The big lesson i learned if youre not concerned about who gets the credit if youre willing to work with others and share with themu then the likelihood is you will find a lot of Common Ground and things will go a lot better. I dont know anyone who did that better than george h. W. Bush. [applause] and went to provide an opportunity for each of you to provide us with some final thoughts. What came out of the charlottesville summit what else do we need to be doing . What type of legacy have george and barbara bush left with those of us that are still here . I would say the legacy of charlottesville is the important one apart from those lofty aspirations to make a National Priority was every ogovernor minus one different parties coming together in a bipartisan or nonpartisan way to say this is important. And our country does well when wewe do that we can fight about things we dont agree on the people that disagree should not be considered your enemy. Today we are in these tribal camps where consensus can to be built as somebody who may be wrong or has a different view and our country desperately needs that right now. [applause] and my parents both passed away in the past year and the outpouring of love with thousands of friends and just in general i believe you can be civil and generous and kind the way you want it to be treated its timeless and important we should start rewarding the politicians is that of ignoring them. I think charlottesville showed with the political system and those operating in it and almost a completely positive way and can highlight their differences it is stimulating to get into a constructive argument with someone that you disagree with. [laughter] and you would be amazed what happens. This was the first time we ever asked for a National Education goals and we could do it without the national or State Government trying to take over everybodyth knew and then the nations matter and we are still more conscious of it by thee late eighties. And a competitive race for the futures you can live in arkansas or alaska but you knew in a wayy that we really fail except at war and how we stack up and would relate to a whole new world dependent on no smallr measure if we provided the ability and to say we have to get kids ready fo school and we also recognize as you said governor Lifelong Learning was important that said this is no easy out we are asking you to excellence at last a lifetime. Thats the big take away the first time governor said we have to restructure the School System and then you have all of these politicians that like to talk more than they like to do in that statement saying we wrote until 3 00 oclock in the morning to be personally accountable for what this is doing and you have every right from here on out to make your own judgment if it was tconsistent about our signatures. And like i said those that are uptodate. At least every 30 years but i will always be grateful to president bush and johnson new new and to you for not o only doing it but going through it he couldve given a pro forma speech nobody ever said a bad word and we get thrown together something. [laughter] but those that werent there it change the definition. You could not be a decent governor at least in our part of the country you cannot have that threshold unless you were serious. Mesh you are serious about education. That was a huge thing. And it still is. [laughter] and when i was president and the one thing that you know you can tell somebody a serious or not and if there is a remote chance and once you have done that enough with charlottesville not very long and then to agree on everything everybody was committed to making a difference. And i think we did there still a heck of a lot to do but for what whatever is appropriate to do again but never forget that we had a chance to help and had america a better place. Thank you very much. [applause] clearly it was a summit worth celebrating please join me to think president clinton and governor bush for sharing their ideas. [applause] thank you also much on behalf of the entire community for the very inspiring conversation and on behalf of the university of the small token for each of you these are socks. But they were designed by your father George Herbert walker bush. True story if you look inside the sock he has his initials inscribed we appreciate you being here and thank you for coming. [applause] [inaudible conversations] let the candidates to focus on this year is gerrymandering because all the Congressional Elections and like North Carolina if the district had been gerrymandered. And then to talk about the real estate industry. They had so much control and we need more community control. And with that oligarchic force. And then to pass that amendment and with citizens united. And then to focus on Foreign Policy and cutting back the militaryindustrial complex. That would benefit our region from people that are forced into the military that never come back home and that we need to cut spending in the military and i also think it would help the immigration because we need to stop to overthrow with the right wing dictators. Good afternoon. I think we will have fun with our panel that you will have a special guest