Please let them find another word that hostage. Both parties share responsibility for the discourse. We have to get back to greater stability where we can respect each others opinions, still have differences, have lively debate about the future course of our country, but lets make it less personal. I agree with you. We have to learn how we can disagree without being so disagreeable. And it is not just elected representatives. This course that we see is all over the country right now, especially on talk shows, pushing those hot buttons. People get riled up all the time. We have a lot of work to do to reach a level of conversation that is conducive to Good Government again. Is next in iowa. Democratic caller. Caller i have a lot of savings bonds. Down, government shuts will i lose them, will i lose the interest on them . The savings bonds you have should be safe and secure. The real danger is on thursday when we run out of the ability to pay our bills, what the government chooses to default on. This could affect Social Security payments, medicare, other payments that go on every day, including the interests on treasury notes and bonds. If we lose that full faith and credit, that the u. S. Will make good on its bills, that could lead to a terrible cascading affect where people lose confidence in this country, they stop buying treasury bonds, Interest Rates woods guy rocket, making it more expensive for the government to borrow, and for businesses and families to borrow a like. That is why we have never done this before. I do not know why we are playing with fire this time, going to the brink of possibly defaulting for the first time in our nations history. We ought not to test this because the consequences will be big. A viewer wants to know, how likely is it that we will default on the debt . The treasury has been clear that they will run out of any measures to pay bills on the 17th it the revenue does not meet the expenses coming in. No one knows when the real Tipping Point will be. It could be on the 17th. It could be a couple days later. Is just sothing that dangerous to do to the u. S. And global economy, we should not be attempting it. Danger, would the you and other democrats agreed to a gop provision that would deny the secretary of the borrowing . Wers on guest the details are being worked out. That is something that we are working on. We will see where they come down on it. I just hope that what we do not do is set up another crisis down the road. The American People are wearing a little thin with his antics. If, two months from now, we are facing another possible default, that will not be good for the confidence we need to get the economy functioning, get the good paying jobs we desperately need. The truth is, a growing economy solid a lot of these problems. That is what we should be focusing on, where we can partner with the private sector. Unfortunately, the dysfunction coming out of congress is more of a hindrance to growth, rather than helping. Is next in tennessee. Republican caller. Caller good morning. You had a caller a few minutes ago talking about how the Tea Party People are called extremists and radicals, but nobody ever mentions that, in the democratic party, like last davis one andman accepted an award from the peoples world, the online publication for the communist party usa. Several years before that, wasresswoman jan g caskey the recipient of the eugene debs award. Others speak at socialist scholars conventions. Is that radical . People that slam the constitution and the capitalist system and praise the marxist system, or is it radical to uphold the constitution and bring the constitution back . We can go around this block as far as you want and continue to divide the nation but i am not interested in that anymore. We need to find a path forward. We need to give this government the power to function properly. That is why i am proud of leading this group of bipartisan democrats try to understand the complexities of the world we are in, how we can help businesses and people be more competitive in the global marketplace, and how do we make sure that no one is left behind . How can we make sure that people fullolder rejig participants in this World Economy . Continuing to blame is not going to get it done. We have to figure out how we can come together again with honest conversations and start solving problems again. Host on the economy, a reaction story. Ashington times guest yes, and justifiably so. This is what we have heard from rating agencies all the time. If you cross the line, they will punish us with a low credit rating. Or importantly, they may be downgrading us anyway because of the dysfunction coming out of congress. Are is a pervasive feeling here in the country and throughout the world, that we have a congress that cannot govern the nation. Us losel help confidence as well. I would not be surprised if we see another downgrade given the recent episode in the last few weeks. Host these are the stories in the papers today. China calling for a de americanization of the global economy. Guest this is the kind of danger that we start to play with when we mess with the credit of the United States. If you take away treasury notes and bonds, which has been the worlds reserve, for a long time, that capital will look for a safer investment. They will take risk out of that decision. This is something that could lead to a decline of u. S. Influence and power in the 21st century. There is more at stake than just making a political point and shutting down the government. And credibility of the United States, as we move forward, that is on the line. Host here is the quotation from the chinese news agency. Still right now, we are first amongst the other nations when it comes to opportunity and growth, return on investment, but there is no guarantee that will continue, especially if we keep playing these games in washington and hurt the full credit of the United States. That is really what is at stake. Lauren, pennsylvania. Independent caller. My question is on insurance. I do believe obamacare has some good points, but my main question is why dont we mandate Insurance Companies and Health Care Providers to bring their cost down . Pay overd and i both 2000 a year for insurance. They only cover 70 , so you pay for all of this insurance him and nothing is covered anyway. Bills keep going up, why are we not mandated to bring these things in at a lower cost to help people get Affordable Health care . Questionat is a great but the focus needs to be in the Health Care Provider community. What can we do to encourage better outcome of care . And then we need to reward the value of care that is given, and that is the volume of services rendered. We have had a messed up Health Care System for too long and basically pays providers on how much they do rather than how well they do it. As long as that is the case, we will bankrupt ourselves. We will only encourage more tests and more things being done without Getting Better results. That is but we need to start changing. There are a lot of tools in the Affordable Care act that have not received a lot of attention that would change the way that health care is delivered so that it is more patientcentered. Wouldare also tools that change the payment system, so it is valuebased, nonvolume based. That has also been an area of bipartisan agreement through the years, im getting to that valuebased system will not happen overnight. You will not change the way that you pay for 1 5 of the economy overnight, but steps are being made in that direction. If we can get there, the insurance rates we pay now would be more efficient, better care would be delivered in the Health Care System. Bob in syracuse, new york. Democratic caller. The air. N ok, lets move on. Craig in scarborough, maine. Good morning. My question was on health care. I know that people that could not afford health care now have health care, but they have deductibles. How are they going to pay these deductibles, lets say they have a 5,000 deductible. I see that going back to building a hospital. They have no money to pay for it. How will that happen . Guest as far as the socalled exchanges, there will be different plan people will be able to choose from, with Different Levels of payment. Abouts what is alluring this. People have a chance to choose amongst competing health care plans. We found when Companies Compete thomas especially Insurance Companies, it is to believe the consumers that win. That is something that has been lacking in Health Insurance market. The lack of competition. For though income families, there is help for the socalled outofpocket expenses, deductibles or copays. I think the exchanges are something that conceptually have bipartisan support in the past. Onntroduced legislation these markets. I had an equal number of republicans and democrats supporting it. In essence, that is what was put in the Affordable Care act. Now we will see if people can find that quality care in these exchanges come a that they have not been able to in individual Group Markets so far. Minutes left a few with congressman ron kind. Lily in california, go ahead. Caller i wanted to see if maybe just one member of congress could finally tell the people the truth. The majority of the people in the United States are hard working people. What the people need to know is, this is not even a country, it is a corporation. The act of 1871, that is why they do not represent the people, they represent corporations. This is not a country at all. It is time for the lie to stop. People are tired of it. The Affordable Care act is nothing but taking power. It has nothing to do with medical. There is a lot that needs to be fixed. We can begin doing that by getting together and not being afraid to listen and talk to each other and work hard to find common ground. One thing we did not talk about this morning are the possible fixes. The redistricting ss is a mess. It is not right that politicians get to choose their voters. Safe seats on too the left and the right, when more americans are pragmatic about their thinking. He had to get rid of the big money in the system. With citizens united, that lifted the lid on political contributions for Large Organizations and unions. The American People do not even know where the money is coming from or the motivation behind it. There are other reform proposals we could talk about, but maybe this will turn opening up more eyes about the structural fixes we need to be a more functional democracy again. Host that is part of the negotiations coming out of the senate from this deal. Open up the government until january, raise the debt ceiling until february, and that gives more time to talk about more issues like entitlement taxes and so on. The best thaty be we can do right now, the concept of walking together first. If we can avoid the default and start helping the Economic Growth we need, maybe that time will be well spent. Host if you are confused about the default and that, everything happening in washington, usa today has a 101. This is what they write you can see under the different president s our total debt, how it has been raised over the years. Last phone call for the congressman. Democratic caller. Go ahead. Caller i would like to know what are the major philosophical differences in health care for members of congress and the American People. Guest there is this myth out there that members of congress and our staff will not be going into these exchanges. In fact, we will be. The irony is, these Health Care Exchanges are modeled exactly after the federal Employee Health benefits program, where employees get to choose amongst competing plans, received some assistance to pay the premiums. It is exactly the model for these datebased exchanges being created right now which worked well for federal employees for many years. It makes people feel more comfortable knowing members of congress and staff will be in these state exchanges. That will happen anyway. Right now, lets stay focused on making sure these exchanges work well for those who need coverage, for those who are uninsured or underinsured for the coverage they are receiving today. Host what happens today . Guest a lot of discussions. The senate will have to see if they have a bipartisan agreement. The house will have to see if what the senate came up with is good enough. Again, 48 hours before we could technically begin defaulting on our financial obligations. There will be a flurry of activity. Again, it has come to this 11th hour of brinksmanship of waiting until the last minute to do something, but it seems that is the only way that congress can operate, when its back is up against the proverbial wall. I hope something breaks today and there is a clear path forward. Host who has to go first, the senate or the house . Guest the senate will probably have to go first. The wider the bipartisan vote, the easier it will be for the house. Host thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Next, americas Global Competitiveness and a new study that finds u. S. Adults score below average on worldwide literacy and mathematics test. We will talk about that after we come back. A terror suspect accused of taking part in the deadly 1998 bombings at u. S. Embassies in kenya and tanzania is scheduled to appear in new york in court today for his arraignment. Recently, u. S. Forces captured a libi and was taken to custody over the weekend. People want to know who set up two dry ice bombs in the Los Angeles International airport. Werether dry ice bombs found yesterday but did not explode. The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today about the shaken voter approved ban on taking race into account in college admissions. The justices will decide whether the change to the state constitution that voters back in 2006 as grenades against minorities. The court is releasing the today. Ts you can hear it this friday on cspan radio. We will air it at 4 00 eastern time. Those are some of the latest headlines. This is a reconstruction of the ship that was built in the winter of 1812, 1813 for the battle of lake uri. Wrest control of lake erie. Timberip incorporates from the original. They are not structural, not loadbearing, but they are embedded in the frame between the pieces. A symbolic presence of the original ship. What is original about the ship is the way that it sales. The ratings, the work the crew has to do, is very much what the seamen had to do in 1817. We teach history, we teach people and appreciation of the war of 1812, the maritime history of the great lakes. Really, most of the learning that takes place on board is about functioning as members of the ships company. It is a real value now because it is a place that we can continue certain traditions, certain attitudes, abilities that have been with us for centuries. We keep that going here. The rest of the story this lowscoringbooktv and American History tv look at the history of erie, pennsylvania. We are back. Our guest is Anthony Carnavale, the director for the Georgetown University center for education in the workforce. About a newo talk study done by the organization of Economic Cooperation and development. What was the headline from the study . Guest essentially that the United States is losing its Competitive Edge in its workforce, not so much at the top. We are pretty good at the top, that is, our best workers are as highly skilled as anyone. It is in the middle and towards the bottom of the education distribution where we are increasingly falling behind in 21stcentury skills. Host what are those skills, what are we falling behind on . Oldt it used to be in the days, only the professional or technical worker needed skills like problem solving, vertical thinking, a variety of other skills, the ability to use knowledge effectively to solve problems. Nowadays, in modern economies, virtually all workers need them. Workers in almost every business or Employee Organization needs manage in a to modern competitive environment. Host who did the testing, what did they test . How do you test those things in adults . Everyone has seen the headlines about american children, but how do you test adults . It is a different kind of test, and in the end, trying to find out what people know. Do you know the first president of the United States . Do you know how to solve a simple equation . To these tests are meant assess whether you understand what you know. Can you use what you know to solve a problem . Can you use what you know to come to an answer that is not simply wrote amortization rote memorization . Here is the chart put together from the study. The u. S. Lagging in reading and math skills. You can see where the u. S. Ranks on reading, math, and problem solving. States, well below countries like japan and finland. What are those countries doing that the united data is not doing . Investing more, in relative terms, in a broader population. In the United States, our Education System tends to sort people. If you are a good student, the next dollar we spend tends to go to you. Think about the transition from high school to college. That is where the big sorting occurs. If you are good enough to go to college, we are willing to invest years in your preparation. We sort people out, and in the end, that is a good way to 15 , butn elite, top if schools sort, rather than educate, you are bound to have failure at the middle and in the case, the Income Distribution in the United States. Host how does it breakdown by age, doesnt matter . Guest it matters to the extent that you do not get a set of basic skills. If you do not have the ability to learn, if you do not get basic reading and math skills, most importantly, you are not ready to learn when you move into either college or on the job. The truth is, the Big University in america is the job itself. That is the place where you getn for 45 years after you up everyday for breakfast, go to work and deal with stateofthe Art Technology and do your learning by doing. People who are prepared to learn once they get on the job are the people that make the most money, do the best, have the most successful careers. Others who do not get the preparatory learning first of all, because the entry requirement is so high to get a job now, they rarely get into the Big University. They get the jobs that do not give you much learning and where you do not use much stateof theArt Technology. We have divided the lines by age. We are going to do it a bit different. If you are 30 and under, 202 5853880. 45, 202 5853881. To 65, 202 5853882. And then 60 and over, 202 585 3883. If you have become unemployed over this recession, what does that mean to you in terms of skills . Guest skills have changed in in any modern economy. A lot of learning occurs on the job. When you lose your job, you are basically leaving school. The data tells us, over and over again, with depressing accuracy, that the longer you are out of work, the more rapidly your skills decay. Not only that, but the train is moving in the other direction. The skill requirement you had on your job is going up in your skills are deteriorating. So the cap between the skills you have and those that you need are growing all the time. People who are longterm unemployed have a difficult time Getting Started again. Host what countries participated in this International Test, which did not . These are only d. C. Nations, essentially the club of modern nations in economic terms. Oedc nations, essentially the club of modern nations in economic terms. These are the people who are in the front of the pack in Global Economic conditions. Our position has gradually moved backwards. We are still in the pack, we are not the leaders, but we are still in the pack, but now we are in the back. Host 16 when it comes to reading skills, 21st in math skills, 17th when it comes to problem solving. China did not participate. Why not . Sense, they are not a modern economy yet. The chinese are where we were a theytime ago, and that is, have a relatively small share of their population that is highly educated, but given the size of their population, that is a lot of people. The chinese do not have an Education System that raises skill levels universally across the board, but they are in a position now because of their size, even if it is just the top five percent, that is a lot of people. That is an advantage we used to have before china and russia and other communist countries enter the global economy. We were the ones competing with germany and the japanese. Now, when we are competing with the chinese, the indians, the nations, other bigger our size advantage is disappearing. Host we will begin taking your phone calls. Phone numbers are on the screen. We have divided it by age. We want to know what you think about this International Test, where the United States is at the end of the pack of these countries that participated in this test. On the countries that did participate, these are the it is an appropriate comparison, but do these countries, like finland, who are at the top, have more jobs in their countries where they are actually challenging their workers, as opposed to the United States . Moreher words, are there widgettype jobs in the u. S. Compared to other countries . To our advantage that we have in unregulated labor market. We do not have a very highly credentialed labor market. Europe, ifsay, in you are going to bake and sell a be a you will have had to bakers apprentice with a license. In america, if you can make a good cake and sell it, you are a cake maker. Rigorouslyn focused on particular jobs and have a standard for the skills in a particular occupation, even a baker. In the u. S. , it is good that we are wide open as an economy. It is one of the reasons immigrants come here. You do not need credentials to get a job at the bottom and move up. But what is different now, more and more of the jobs, 64 of the jobs, now require some sort of post secondary education and training after high school. That standard is the one we are having trouble meeting, the skills standard. Host ryan in new york. How old are you . 40. Tcaller host ok, go ahead. Caller in new jersey, there has been extra funding for the School Districts for a number of years because of a court decision, but those School Districts are still failing students on a regular basis. My question is, how much money should we be putting towards failing School Districts, and is throwing extra money at School Districts working in any place where these others surveys were taken . Other nations we are talking about are much more homogeneous. Nations where the ability to work is much more broadly spread. The difficulty for disadvantaged students, School Districts in america, begins with the fact that their parents do not have a job, do not have the right job, do not make enough money to buy a house in a School District that has other students who are headed to college, highquality , peer groups focused on college. So, in the end, the difficulty with disadvantaged, is always multiple. It is always a set of mutually reinforcing negative forces that, when combined together, clustered in particular neighborhoods, is extremely difficult to overcome. Essentially have to build the school has to substitute for a middleclass family. The cost of that has pretty much always been out of our reach. , the Anthony Carnavale director for Georgetown Universitys center of education and workforce, talking about his International Placing of u. S. Workers. Skills for theck modern workplace. We want to get your skills thoughts on that this morning. N article inng a forbes. What do you make of that . Is true. At we have solid data that says, in modern economies, the skill set is more expansive than anything we have tried to teach in school. We give People Knowledge in school, we teach them geography and mathematics and so on. We do not give them a broader set of skills, like problem solving, teamwork, a whole variety of others, that are more and more required in an economy where machines usually computers, are taking over all the repetitive tasks. The nonrepetitive tasks are being done by people, usually in collaboration with each other. To work in groups, the ability to solve problems, the ability to customize what ever you are doing for a particular individual, or group of individuals, is no longer a person assigned to a machine. It is people working with people variety,e quality, convenience, speed, innovation, and so on. That requires a much broader set of skills than the old economy. Abilitiesother tent 10 abilities include guest that set of skills is extremely broad. It requires, instead of going to work and doing your job, it tethered to a machine, doing the same thing over and over again through the day, you have to bring the whole person to work. You have to use all of your assets. Your personality. Your ability to get along with others. You have to have enough of a sense of your impact on others so that you can influence them to move the work along. It used to be a set of skills just for the bosses, but now for everybody. N, the viewer tweets i problem is we teach students what to think, not how to think. Guest it is true our system is more focused on rote knowledge than these kinds of skills. There is a wide recognition of that and educators are trying hard, although we are in a primitive phase in all of this. Educators are trying hard to teach the starter set of skills, but we do not really know how to do that. Host steve in phoenix arizona. On the line for those between ages 45 and 66. Caller i have a two part question. As you said, the work ups,ronment, schools, grown but if you go to college and you get a degree for something, companies will pay you. But if you learn at the company, they will figure it is part of your job. What you said, skills that used to be just for the bosses, basically now everyone has to be the boss, but not everyone gets paid to be the boss. That is kind of my question. , that time seems now most companies are not looking for somebody that can work and do the job. They are looking for a bunch of junior executives. How can a person set themselves up to where they will be ready for the future, when, quite frankly, the future has changed just in our lifetime . Canas gone to a person that just be a machinist, now to being a ceo for the company, even though he is not. Of the issue is the speed of change of technology and the work processes is accelerated to the point that, in the race between technology and human beings trying to keep up with the skill requirements that technology and processes require, human beings are falling further and further behind in the race. Technology is winning. In the end, one of the problems the is, in the old days, in 1970s, 1980s, 70 of American Workers had a High School Degree, and most of them were in the middle class. Now the odds that you are in the middle class starting out with a High School Degree are very low. So there is a difficulty here. Schools really do teach as well as they used to, or nearly as well as they used to. The trouble is, that is not good enough. The skill requirement is increasing much faster and our old educational performance is not good enough anymore. So there is a lot of catchup involved. Do wea viewer tweets in, need an adult Reeducation Program to make sure that we are ready for the jobs of the future . Guest the adults are the missing group in our policy system. We spend nationally about 6 billion a year, keeping in mind it is a 13 trillion economy. 6 billion a year on retraining adults in the u. S. 450 billion a year on Higher Education alone. In the end, the adult Rating System is the work lace. It is large. Workplace. In the american system, the whole idea of lifelong learning, learning for adults, is a line in every politicians speech, but not in anyones budget. Host what do these other on average, . Guest these countries that we competed against in the study, dedicated to percent of the gross to domesticoduct to product to providing counseling, education, training, and Family Support services. In the United States, including unemployment insurance, we spend less than one 10 of one percent on a dock workers. All of our attention is focused on k12 and college, which is important, for sure, where young people are launched, but once you are in the workplace, the rapidity of skills changes requires lifelong learning. But frankly, we do not have the. Oney for it a read host are some of the countries ahead of the u. S. In these tests with reading and math skills. Here is a quotation from the study. Is weak inmance literacy, pour in numeracy, but only slightly below average in problem solving in Technology Rich environment. What is numeracy . To usethe ability mathematical thinking. Not necessarily the ability to solve quadratic equations. Very few of us have to use that every day. Host thank god. But about 50 of American Workers now need training in math, roughly at the arel of algebra 2, which good in high school in most places. It is not that you use algebra 2, but it teaches you to think numerically, gives you a sense of things from a quantitative point of view, gives you powerful deductive reasoning. The ability to look at something and break down the problem into its component parts. And then in your mind putting it back together in a way that you can solve it. Gueston twitter, can the name some of the hightech, high income fields short of u. S. Workers . Where should teenagers beheaded . Guest it is a matter of choice. And we look at the labor market, it is clear, the technical jobs, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, are ighestghest paid jobs, h paid college major. The highestpaid major is petroleum engineering, where you can make 120,000 a year, compared to psychology, where you become a counselor and make 30,000 a year. Wantuestion is what do you to be, where are your interests and values, but it is clear that the money is in technical jobs, jobs, business, health care. Where the money tends to reflect the value of the scale, not it economic value. Being a counselor is a valuable thing to do for the people you are counseling, but it does not make money. So the more technical and the more math you get, the more money you will make. S in illinois. How old are you . Caller i am 18, actually. Host go ahead. Caller the school that i went to had a class of 3000 kids, maybe more, and a lot of kids dropped out or flunked out because teachers were not really caring if the kids caught on or not. Personally, i got kicked out. There is not much we can do anymore but get our ged. Host is that what you are doing . Caller i am working on it, yes. Host so you are no longer in high school, dropped out. Caller yes, they kicked me out. I have one kidney, and i would often have to go to the doctors, i would be on medicine that would make me fall asleep, and i would fall asleep in class and there was nothing i could do. They were not truly working with me or my family, so there was not much i could do. Isst one thing you could do see a lawyer and asked them to pull up the americans with disabilities act, and see if you have cause to file suit against the School District. Difficultiesyour stem from a physical condition, then they are in the wrong and you are in the right. The other point here is, in the system, american because of the way that it sorts very systematically, moves people out of the Education System, if not in high school then directly after, in an onressive way, largely based their familys income and their relative power. And the neighborhood they come from. People who come from families with less resources only get to wait make one mistake, which it sounds like what you have done. If you come from a more affluent family and School District, you get to make a lot of mistakes. Dropout rates are much lower. So there is a problem with this, in terms of inequality. It is a tougher road for people who come from families with lower resources and parents who themselves have a lower level of education. Less affluent say people can only make one mistake, and if they make that mistake, what is the future . Guest generally grim. The truth is, we have come to an days,y where, in the old a High School Degree was more than enough [inaudible] job in get a construction, utility, the old blue collar economy. That is gone now. It,e is still a remnant of so 20 of boys who only have a High School Degree, in many cases a dropout, can make about 45,000 a year. For young women, there never has been a High School Level job that paid a family wage. There are very few of them now for females. It is absolutely necessary to get post secondary education or training tom and probably at least a two your degree. Ideally, a fouryear degree. Host kelly is next in prescott, arizona. Moving on to market in new jersey. How old are you . Caller 59 years old. Good morning. I am interested to know if you nos aware of the kro personality assessment test given to most job applicants these days. I am aware of it, by no means an expert, but i am aware of personality testing. A shame fors myself. I was a Software Engineer up until 2008. Once i was unemployed for about three months, it was already assessed, i was not capable of working any more, because i was unemployed for three months. I was a Software Engineer. Now we call them the stem field s. So i did what a lot of people suggested and i humbled myself and apply for other jobs that paid a whole lot less and do not utilize any of my skills. But in order to apply for those skills, you need to take that personality profile assessment test. If the algorithms determine that you answered some questions incorrectly, other than mixed remit agree or extremely disagree, somewhere in the middle, if you answer that way, you are tossed out. I sent a very professional letter to the ceo of a major Retail Establishment asking them, why, with my background i also have 18 years in retail at a very high end shop that i was assessed i got an e mail. We are sorry, but you do not have the background or qualifications to fulfill this job, as a salesperson at this Retail Establishment. I told him i did not understand. I worked in sales for 18 years on madison avenue. They said, well, we do not get the resumes here. One to take the personality test, the results are sent to florida. If it does not have the results we are looking for, it is tossed out. Guest there is and has been for a long time and issued about testing and jobs. First of all, the law requires that the test actually reflect the job requirements. If it does not, it is illegal. You may want to look at the duke power case of a few years ago, the seminal Supreme Court case in this area. Face, all problems we of these new skills, teamwork, problem solving, conscientiousness, a whole series of soft skills, are increasingly important. Retail, theyne, in are increasingly important, for instance. Whereas, in your trained line of work, your field, you were tested based on your degrees and technical competence, which was reflected in the sheepskin that you have, the degree. Of softerfter world skills, especially in service industries, we are beginning to use a lot of tests that i think, in the end, are somewhat discriminatory. We know, for instance, when you test at a Retail Establishment this was a court case recently for people that fit the profile of the customer coming through the door, if the customer is a wealthy upper middleclass american who tends to be white and comes from a very mainstream American Culture , when you give some of these tests, what you are measuring is whether somebody is latino, africanamerican, and immigrant, or someone who does not quite fit with the customer, which is a reason why a number of Retail Establishments have been taken to court and lost. In the end, they ended up hiring people that had the same cultural mannerisms and superficial traits of their customers. In the end, that really did not have much to do with their ability to do the job. There is a whole arena here that has opened up. The law about testing, especially in these soft skill nots, truthfully, we do know how to measure these things in a scientific sense. Is thenthony carnavale director for the center on Education Workforce at Georgetown University. We are talking about a new International Test that was taken and shows u. S. Workers lack the skills for todays modern workplace. Part of that discussion, as part of that discussion, i want to bring in the wall street journal today. Here is a figure from the piece. Expected to are spend 9. 7 billion dollars on technology this year, up from 6 billion in 2003. One of the american strengths and i think most would agree we have always been about future, have always believed in technology. Rightfully so, we always believed technology would save us from our difficulties. Believe that in part because it has consistently enough. We are open to spending on technology, but buying a machine is not the same thing as buying a teacher. We see is a, what huge expenditures on tablets and computers and so on, but we see no change in the way the teaching is done, that is until we use electronic instruments and Information Technology which intuitively, you with an, would help people learn. With ae integrate that curriculum that takes advantage of the technology and simply does not use it to substitute for a pat or paper, or for a movie on a screen that you now put on a tablet, in almost all cases with technology, the first case that is done and this is true in television. , when ifirst came out was around, what they simply did was take radio and put a camera in front of the people, and read the shows the same way. Eventually, tv learned to take advantage of its power. Technology still has not done that in education. Host what needs to be done to make that happen . Guest we need to keep working on it. It is difficult. The Gates Foundation and others in the country are trying very hard to build what they call new generation curriculums, which are not about technology, not about just filming a professor and putting it on an ipad. It is about using the technology to change the curriculum and increasing the interaction with the student and create artificial environments where people can do problemsolving to demonstrate they understand the things they have been taught. We are still a long way from that. I suspect it will take many years to get there. Host norma. West palm beach, florida. Caller i would like to ask mr. Carnavale about something i heard on cspan where they had a panel of educators talking about the common care act. Host common core . Caller that is it, common core. They had the ability to solve problems included in that. Core ishe common basically the new generation in education reform, our attempt at the space shot. Our attempt to use education as a device to teach these general problemsolving and other skills. It remains untested. There are questions as to whether or not it can do what it claims to do by using traditional curriculums and teaching methods. While we have the goals of the common core to make you college and career ready and to give you problemsolving skills, at least in terms of our ability to measure these things, this is an instrumental experimental idea. Host matt in englewood, colorado. Caller i am 22 years old. I am starting law school. I have to say, i have been fortunate in that, our Education System has gotten me to a place fight for my own. Our workforce is coming out, has struggled with problemsolving. Aam curious, what does country due to change that, in the classroom and out of the classroom . I know that you touched on that a bit with the technology. I was hoping that you could talk about a broader plan. Guest in your case, i am sure you are aware, there are lots of issues right now with law degrees. Law firms are no longer being used as much as they used to be. Private firms are including the lawyer now in their own staff and using the firms less, which takes away the bottom tier of the lawyers at the entry level, so it is getting harder and harder for lawyers to get started. On the other hand, apropos to your point, a law degree is generally considered, whether is become a lawyer or not, considered a good way to learn reasoning, teamwork, decision making, critical thinking, and so on. Essentially a very applied curriculum around case law, around mock courts, and the like that teach you how to do these things, including how to communicate in public. A law degree is a good agree in the sense that it is a good exercise machine to get general skill. When you need to be careful about is whether it will get you a job as a lawyer. Host from this International Test, what is the take away . To spend more energy. I doubt we can spend more money. One of the revealing things in this report and others, when you look at the money, we spend more than anyone else does. They spent a lot less money than we do per student, and yet, they get these results. Havert, it is because they much stronger and applied curriculums. In part, it is because they focused much more on bringing all the students along, not just a competition to see who will go from high school to harvard. There systems are much more evenly balanced, in terms of the standards they set up for themselves, for the top student and bottom student. Host Anthony Carnavale the senate is in session as well. Senate democrats and republicans have been working on some sort of deal to avert the debt ceiling default. We are learning the House Republicans land to push their own legislation to reopen the government. It would include a twoyear delay of the medical device tax. The house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers room, washington, d. C. , october 15, 2013. Re