Good morning everybody. My name is bill hanson it is an honor to be with you today. I am president and ceo of the education network, its really a great honor to be here. I think i had one of the unique opportunities to serve as a political appointee for all eight years with president reagan at the education is a very young man at the time. But really was a disciple of president reagan. I just love the fact that he was the governor and brought that governorship into his role as president s. I also had the blessing to be the head of the Transition Team on the way out in 1992. And the Transition Team on the way into thousand, before and after president clinton, and former governor had served and helped lead the Transition Team for president bush in 2000, and again another governor. It was great to see these three education governors really make a difference in the National Leadership as president of the united states. Really in that vein in his and honor to be here today with Governor Hogan and to help facilitate the first conversation with the state of the state. With some of the most innovative and prestigious governors and the governor just an absolute honor to be with you today, to help walk through a conversation on your priorities and the things that are mattering most to you and to have the benefit of living across the river from you. Im able to watch from a close distance of your great work. Its really an honor to be with you today sir. And maybe with a quick unique steak for these last six months, would love to get your perspective as governor because youve probably issued more emergency orders and youve ever liked or thought of. Maybe if you could help walk us through if you are thinking about those tough decisions that youve had to make that affect the lives and the livelihood livelihood of so many marylanders. And really your calculation of kind of the risk versus the reaction and all those important decisions to make. Well bill, first of all thank you very much for being here for this discussion. And thank you for your service and all that you do for education in america. I really enjoyed the discussion with secretary rice and an admirer of pretty want to thank the Reagan Institute and foundation for giving me this opportunity to come in and speak with all of you today. So thank you for tuning in. Bill, as you know, our world really changed back nearly six months ago as we were faced with this Global Pandemic, this once in 100 year crisis that has impacted all of us in our lives. We had the opportunity to be leading the nations governor as the chairman of the National Governors association. Arm National Focus for the year long chairmanship was to focus on rebuilding americas infrastructure which we worked on perhaps the First Six Months of my term. Then all of a sudden the world change with covid and very proud of the governors on both sides of the aisle for stepping up and leading in the crisis. Sling with all my fellow governors and the federal government, but also had to deal the here in my state. I will just say the governors have worked together really wellin a bipartisan way collaborating on this. You are right, i had to make incredibly difficult decisions that i never imagined making. I believe we have done over 60 executive orders. We had to make decisions extremely quickly because peoples lives were at stake. We had to balance out our Health Metrics by trying to make sure we were not hurting those struggling maryland families and Small Businesses while we were working to keep people safe. It was a difficult balance every governor had to make. I am pleased to say that we are doing pretty well comparatively. Today we had a 2. 9 Positivity Rate in maryland. Which is a record for us over the past six months. We continue to look at on the health side. We have one 100 of our economy open. Our Unemployment Rate is about 30 lower than the rest of the country. We made decisions that we never imagined having to make quite frankly. Ive never been in the situation were obviously our number one job as governors keeping our citizens safe. And this virus that kind of hit us out of the blue, tested the mettle of all of the people in the frontlines it had to make these difficult decisions and find the right balance. Keeping people safe and trying to keep them economically stabl stable. Thank you governor. Just again its very evident, one of the hallmarks of your career is your leadership attributes. I think thats evidence very much. Specially here of late. I would say one of the other things that i think distinguishes you International Landscape is your leadership in terms of your bipartisan ability to work across the aisle hurt it is of the things i really enjoyed about the meetings these last several years and the ability to bring together both parties as well as bipartisan governors. And i would just love to get your thoughts on the partisan gridlock. I think you have been really unapologetically bipartisan from the beginning of your career. But really maybe help us with your perspective on how you work across the aisle while at the same time really standing by your values and your principles and especially this environment better country is in today. How is your secret sauce . Thank you bill. Like you, i heard you mention about being a young man and working for Ronald Reagan part i did not get the chance to work in the administration. But i was a foot soldier in the reagan revolution. When i was just a young guy, i was a delegate to the convention and 80 and 84 part i was a chairman of youth for reagan. I got a chance to serve on an inaugural committee. It was somebody i greatly admired. And i talk often about president reagan, how he really worked. He had a positive vision for america. He also believes in bipartisanship and was willing to work across the aisle to come up with solutions. I river the great relationship he had with tip oneill when he was speaker of the house. They had a really good rapport. They would have meals together, they would share a beer together and talk out their differences. It had a lot to do with my whole outlook on politics. Being governor of maryland is the first thing ive ever been elected too. I did not spend my career in elected office for us that most of my career in the private sector as a small businessman. But i really believe it is critically important that we find a way to lower the temperature, to do something about the divisive and angry politics that we see today that we did not see back during those years quite as much, in the 80s. I think i tried my very best, i am in a very blue state. I was elected in 2014 any bluest state in america. I have a 70 majority of democrats in both houses. But we have been able to find ways to come together. And to really accomplish on some big issues, some really true bipartisan Common Sense Solutions to the problems. I think it is something we desperately need in America Today. I know most people, are somewhat frustrated by the depth by sadness and the gridlock in washington. I just had a zoom meeting at like this earlier today with no labels and the problem solvers caucus. As it group of senators and congressmen on both sides of the aisle talking about trying to reach a compromise solution on the next stimulus bill. And i really think we need to see more of that bipartisanship. Mention the governors did Work Together in a bipartisan way. I am hopeful that regardless of what happens in this upcoming election, were going to see in 40 days or so, that maybe we can find a way to get back to a more civil dialogue and may be accomplished some about demonizing the other side back and forth. I really think that is one of the things that work a lot better, decades ago in washington that it is today. Governor, i would like to maybe focus a little bit on still standing. Maybe you can explain to her audience today. I know you just talked about a very busy five plus years in the governors manchin. And plan to write a book before covid19 hit. Youve had a few pandemic chapters addressing the early days of covid and the response, your state of Emergency Declaration and the acquisition of the test kits you secured from south korea. Can you tell us a little bit about the early response and what is happened since . In a little bit about the book . Guest sure. I worked on this book for a while. It is not a heavy political read. I just wanted to share some of the experiences and challenges that i have been through and talk a little bit about some of the things that i was just talking with you about, about how we do something about the divide in America Today and how we could find ways to move forward i talk about a number of challenges, the book is called still standing, surviving cancer, riots, a Global Pandemic and the toxic politics that divide america, it is a pretty long title. I had most of this written last year predisposed to come out at the beginning of the pandemic and it got the publisher to put it on hold because we were to focus. They can only delay it for several months. I added a few chapters at the end about our response to the coronavirus and added that into the title. It really talks about my general philosophy and how we have been able to get things done and probably one the most hostile and difficult environments as a republican whod not only, as a second republican 50 years to be elected in my states. But because of the bipartisan accomplishments and getting things done together with my democratic friends across the aisle, in 2018 when it was the biggest blue wave and blue year in a blue state i was overwhelmingly reelected. I became the second republican in the history of our state to be reelected to office. I think it was because people, regardless of their party affiliation, republicans and democrats and independents really want to see pragmatic bipartisan compromise and effective leadership. And they want to get things done for that is what they would like to see in washington. They like to see people Work Together better and get it done together. Talk about the response early on leading the nations governors. That all of the governors across america or were in washington in early february at the very beginning of this when we had just had cases breaking out in the state of washington. And then just a month or so it was spread to every state in america and weve been dealing with the crisis ever since. Were working together with the administration and with congress in cares act funny, getting support and working together with the governors, and a terrible crisis going to take all of us to Work Together to defeat this hidden enemy is affecting our schools and every other aspect of our lives. Its not behind us yet. Maybe on the other National Crisis on the social justice issues that are facing us, i just remember as a brandnew governor had the social unrest after freddie gray. And now it is a national we are looking to address. Again about the previous conversation with condoleezza rice. Was wonderful and very helpful we are looking at as a country. Have your perspective on what you stepped into when you were first elected. But now obviously with the National Conversation and challenges we are facing. Guest sure. I had the pleasure of having another conversation with secretary rice. We did a thing for the Hoover Foundation secretary rice and i did one of these things togethe together. She had tremendous insights and really wise input and advice on this particular issue. I dealt with these the rest of the country had now with the tragic murder of george floyd has elevated these issues front and center. Its something that we are addressing. I dealt with much of this, five and half years ago, just after i only been governor for 89 days after the tragic death of freddie gray our largest city just the first few hours 127 firefighters were injured. The city police force were overwhelmed to their crying out for help. I declared a state of emergency. And i sent in an additional thousand Police Officers and 4000 members of the National Guard trying to help keep the citizens of baltimore safe. To stop the violence and to stop the destruction of property. And to keep Peaceful Protesters from those who were inflicting all of this violence. I also then move my entire operation to Baltimore City from the state capital in annapolis. I spent a solid week trying to lower the temperature meeting with community leaders, walking through freddie grays neighborhood, meeting with naacp, faithbased leaders. I think it is really important for us to strike that balance of addressing some of these systemic problems and listening to the concerns of people. But also not allowing our cities and protecting the right to protest while not letting violence take over our cities for months on end. I have several chapters in my book about that. I joked that when i went to a new Governor School windows first elected they did not say anything about what you do if Something Like this breaks out in your city. But after dealing with baltimore i do teach a course at the National Governors association and have advised other governors and new incoming governors about how to deal with a crisis like this. Look at whats happening now i look at mayors and governors in America Today should probably take a look they can learn some lessons. Very proud mayhem about situation 2015, in this current environment we have thousands of peoples protesting peacefully in baltimore. Almost no violence, no destruction and no damage for an impromptu citizens of baltimore and our police force in the way the Community Came together. Governor, maybe here in the next couple of minutes i would love to maybe come with education and here your budget and priorities and things you have been working on with the equity issues with School Construction, School Safety getting back and getting hearing your thoughts on education priorities. From day one since i became governor education has been my absolute top priority. I leave very passionately every child in america deserves access regardless of what neighborhood or zip code they happen to grow up in. We have worked very hard to improve it persistently failing schools and to be innovative on education and try to make sure that every one of our kids and our state is getting the opportunities that they deserve. I put record funding, six years in a row, six and budgets in a row on to a k12 education and Higher Education actually. We have invested more money than our Democratic Legislature actually called for in spending formulas because we thought it was important to make a difference. Weve also been pushing for accountability our local School Boards and School Systems to make sure they are working to fix some of the underlying problems we have the most best and highly funded schools in america. 70 of the entire budget went to education the twopoint to billion dollar investment in School Construction and largest in state history. We have can see knows in maryland i push for and got the voters to vote for a casino lockbox which took all of the revenues from the casinos and put it into directly into education. Which is later tremendous difference as well. We have not solved all the problems. Were working to try to prepare our kids for the next generation, for preparing them for the jobs of today. And really working with our, going into our most troubled, disadvantaged neighborhoods and try to improve those schools. Im proud of the success we have made. I appreciate all the work i appreciate opportunities today to hear from some other leaders about all the things that are going pretty thank you for the work you have done, bill. Thank you governor. I think we can go another minute or two, theres one last question. Really as we look forward down the road to your final address to the people of maryland under the service of the governor, hope said with your legacy what you like to accomplish in your eight years of service . I wont put you on the spot and ask if you running for president 2024 . And he got a lot of work here in the next three years we love to wrap up here and. Thank you bill, im really focused on this job as a governor of maryland. Its been an incredible honor to be chosen to serve the people of my state. I am proud of some of the things we have accomplished. I really hope that maybe my legacy when i leave as governors and people say we left the state a better place than we found it. That we worked in a bipartisan way across the aisle to come up with solutions to some of the problems. That we made improvements in the daily lives of the people of our state. And we started out number ten with the Reagan Institute and foundation. I learned a heck of a lot from Ronald Reagan. I know he cared passionately about education. And about working across the aisle. I would just like people to say that we made a difference. We improve the lives of our children and worked hard to improve education in the state is better off. I will be happy with that. Host governor thank you so much for your leadership and really the impact you made for the state and our country. I look forward to hopefully doing Something Like this in person with you in the nottoodistant future. Thank you for