We are honored today to be joined by senator tim scott from the great state of South Carolina for a conversation on his very important newbook , america a redemption story. Choosing hope, creating unity. Before i introduced senator scott and welcomed him to the state i want to offer a bit of context t as to why this conversation is so important today. How do we take virtues and put them into action for the communities that have not yet experienced the American Dream . As a senior fellow at aei and someone whos run Charter Schools in the bronx for a decade i am obsessed with the goal of upward mobility. What are the factors that normally drive with a young person of any background p acquires the habits of mind and skill that typically lead to success as adults. In my time with thousands of young people from working at the america to the white house, mtv to the Gates Foundation and now launching a network of International Baccalaureate public charter high schools in the bronx ive worked with kids from every conceivable background. Ive seen children grow up in disadvantaged situations and unfortunately sometimes recreate that disadvantaged as he entered on the. But ive also seen many kids emerge poverty or crime or dysfunction and lead lives of their own season choosing. The question is what makes the difference . In my experience young people who ultimately drive as adults have usually had a sense of personal agency which i defined as the force of their free will guided by moral discernment to learn right from wrong. They usually form Strong Families regardless of the family that they grow up with. They typically had a strong faith commitment which empowered them to live a moral code. They typically had access to Great Schools through education freedom and assuming those three foundational elements, they have had an entrepreneurial spirit informed by the dignity and discipline of work. In my own book agency i propose a new framework based on encouraging young people to embrace 4 pillars. Family, religion, education and entrepreneurship. A revitalization of the four local Media Training institutions that we know drive human flourishing. And today im pleased to announce the launch of aeis Free Initiative where people can equip a movement of local leaders who are already reinvigorating these crucial institutions that help develop agency in young people. Central to this effort is a series of gatherings aei will be hosting across the country by the conference we held in may and all parkland texas together really minds such as bob wilson was in this room to discuss alternative approaches to tackle thechallenges facing americans of all races. We will hold our first free conference in birmingham alabama this november 2 through the fourth. Bringing together civic, academic, nonprofit, business and faith leaders for important discussions on how to implement the lessonswe have learned about upward mobility. We aim to upper left agents of agency around the country. People leading by example, combating unhelpful narratives and lighting the way towards lives rich in relationship, health and wellbeing. This is why im so excited to welcome senator tim scott to aei today to talk about the American Dream. I can think of few people whose life stories and work reinforce whats needed to move from poverty to prosperity by engaging the core components of agency. Just last week senator scott hosted the School Choice caucus breakfast to discuss ways to empower every Single Family in america with the resources to decide where, when and how they will educate their children. Overall since joining the senate in 2013 editor scott efforts have sought to strengthen family stability. Increase the footprint of safe communities, expand educational choice for students and spark a new era of entrepreneurship in cities across South Carolina and the united states. Senator scott i love to welcome you to the stage and i look forward to our we discussion. Ur [applause] we both gone pilots. That should be a comfortable conversation. Youve written a fantastic book. Thank you i love to chat with you first about the title. America a redemption story. This idea that it sounds like were unfinished, were still in pursuit. What was the inspiration behind the title and the book itself . The inspiration was in my opinion most americanfamilies are just one or two generations away from the story of redemption. We are on different parts of that journey but its the chance to get a Second Chance. And the story of redemption really is about having a t Second Chance and ive had that happen in my life. I understand the more i understand the more i realize its all about how your pain rebuilds your purpose and how your obstacles afford opportunities and frankly how tragedy leads to triumph. Typically the bad comesfirst. It. And in it you say the American Dream isnt a thing of the past but a miracle of the present. Do you sense that many young people worry that the American Dream is further in question today, then its a thing of the past versus a miracle of the present. One of the things in the book is my grandfather born in segregated South Carolina, what he knew then comes out now. 100 years later where doubting the history of our own country in a way thats been popularized by the tribal nature that some are trying to see america in that tribalism. The truth is we are better today than we certainly were in 1921 when my grandfather taught that the better versus being bitter was the only goal in life. You have to bea victory, not a victim. That concept was embedded in his heart he believed in the goodness of america. He believed the future was better than the past and he live long enough to watch his grandson be in congress because of america and is one of the things i hope we are able to uncover is the truth of who we are. We arebetter today than weve ever been. Its at that point in some areas of our Nation History but the truth is we are so much better off than we have ever been. Going through about punch helps you focus your attention on the priorities that are necessary to improve or to continue to expanse with the American People. We have a lot of work that needs to be done but the good news is were in the right place. I can already tellthere will be a few nuggets struck. Its better to be better than bitter. My grandfather stopped going to school in the third grade. Theres no need for an educated black man is what he was taught. Think about that picture and fastforward to seven years old, my parents are divorced. My mother and my brother were sharing one bedroom and one bed and my grandfather is teaching me these valuable lessons about being better or being better. It would have been so easy for him to be better all his life. But he believed in the goodness of america. In a time when it would be completely understandable why you cannot tbelieve in the future of this country but he knew that the sacrifices that have gone before him made his meager challenging wife less challenging. But the abundance in his heart and the love he had for my grandmother, that combination formed a new foundation for a generation of players. And because of that, i was blessed with this inheritance of positivity, this concept of dignity of work was almost like imprinted on my soul. How can things not get better if you have faith and you have an abundance of love and you see the land of opportunity expanding in your direction. Run towards it. Is what my grandfather taught. I cant wait to talk to you more but how we would instill that same spirit in young people who might not be having that realization. You talk in the book, one of my favorite quotes is you say education is the closest thing to magic. That we have in this country. At the heart of that magic just like in so much of life, is opportunity. And at the heart of that opportunity is choice. Just expand on that. The way i look at it im kind of a simpleton but the truth is that the most affluent people in our country, they choose the school to send their kids to. Middleclass, uppermiddleclass full os issues a neighborhood for the best schools. The only people without choice our moms like mine. Living in poverty, working long hours trying to keep food on the table. For that mom, whether youre aup in Rural America or an innercity one thing you dont have is choice. We can change that overnight by simply saying theres a backpack where the money follows the child. But if youre going to a failing school, a title i school specifically why not give the child and parent the choice of where to send their kids . He and 60 percent of democrats, around 70 percent of africanamericans, 70 to 74 percent hispanics 66 percent of asians all agreed School Choice is a path forward. Thats good news on both sides of the eye because i think jesus walking on a mirror, thats a miracle. Modernday miracle. This is a fundamental point, i opened a New Life School in district 12 in the bronx where of all the students that started ninth grade in 2015, four years later only seven grpercent graduated from High School Ready for college. Meaning that they started ninth grade and they dropped out along g the way or they actually did earn their High School Diploma but still couldnt do math or reading without remediation if they were to go to college. So that structured, even with that bike and it sounds like lots of different groups that reality still exists. How do we get more kids to be will to have that first run to get on the ladder of success. I think we have to work harder looking for the solutions that already work. We have examples around the country of education options that are available, that are successful. Success academy is a great example in new york city. Its a Charter School that gets basically produces results that are better than average of the state of new york. One of the beauties is i think she has over i think the thomas which has over 40 schools now and theyre consistently at the top five in the state , reading math and science. But a three percent of the kids in their school whether africanamerican or hispanic, average Household Income of 30,000 in new york city, i present being free lunch singleparent households and get a score above average, above the majority population in new york city, these kids are outperforming the other kids in city. On standardized tests. She created an environment thats conducive to learning. Theres a friend of mine started school in charleston called mainstreet academy, wanted to prove that poor kids import amenities can learn just like everybody else for about 10 or 15 percent more than the average Public School students in Charleston County he was able gto get those kids within two years in the top 20 percent nationwide. So theres a model that works and its just follow that model. Theres another model in california, the truth is when we follow the model that works for the kids, it works out really well. What is the rationale for the people who know that those models exist. And yet continue to fight to preserve the status quo. Let me give you a more indepth answer. These are just theories that in order to save them all, you have to wait until you have a solution for them all. Its as if the house is in fire instead of saving as many as you can and ill set on fire youre going to wait until you can put thewhole liar out and go inside and figure out whos left. That to me just seems ridiculous. Thats how itappears that we are treating education. The second thing i have to say is that currently Public Education seems to be more interested in adults than they are kids. Big labor unions and bureaucrats have a powerful impact on whats the child is going to experience. Thats the problem. Again ive run schools in new york and primarily due to the Teachers Union there is a cap on the ability to open Charter Schools so in that same district where only seven percent of kids primarily because of that force again, how do we mobilize more awareness, attention and action thats so simple to your book but you talk about how education is a central part of your movement upward and yet these forces are so powerful. They are because their embedded. I also said as a conservative ar we should be the party of parents. The fact of the matter is he when i gave those statistics earlier what it reinforces is it doesnt matter which side of the isle youre on, one thing there is a Silver Lining in the pandemic and its hard to see any Silver Lining in the pandemic butthe one thing is that learning loss , being out of the classroom exposed the weakness within the Public Education system for all kids , so much so that parents reengaged at a high level on a consistent basis and they demand participation. They demand collaboration and cooperation that is good news for all our kids and the more we spent time understanding what happens the more we should focus our attention on making sure the policies in place help us bridge the gap the cause of the pandemic and we focus on what actually works around the country. One of the things i love so much about your philosophy in education or an opportunity zones is that youre looking for innovations that break bowl that are focused on what will actually help people. So talk about these opportunity zones as well because that is almost parallel to School Choice and educational freedom, how do we attract more of these kinds of initiatives . That you know me at all the one thing i love is competition. I played football in high school a little bit incollege and track. I love competition. So the truth is what is the best environment to improve outcomes and reduce costs, in america we call that the free market system. It works in education to and it works an opportunity zones. What i did, i designed a program that provided more incentives for those who have resources to look in areas that need the resources without gentrifying those areas. And because of the capital gain tax deferral and the incentives around it we found more investment back into the poorest zip codes than weve seen in my lifetime. So in 2019 opportunity zones saw 29 billion and invested into the most critically challenged financial areas of the country and also helped lead us to the lowest level ever recorded in this country for poverty. How does that even help the creation of Small Businesses for example . The more incentives you have to drive down the cost the more likely you are to drive up entrepreneurs, the guy whose life is changed by having an entrepreneur, my mentor in 15yearolds started my own business so i was able to understand the path of being a job creator in my neighborhood pulling people from my neighborhood was powerful. It becomes momentum. The more Small Businesses you have in communities the lower unemployment will be. The higher the Unemployment Rate is the lower the Graduation Rate is. So theres a correlation that flows through those communities. Its one of the reasons why i love the education and entrepreneur pieces because they are essential to human flourishing. I always say that a good economy makes all things possible so the question is what makes a good economy, what makes a good workforce . Education, what kind of education . Youre too young to remember these but we had shot in high school where you go i did, but that. Shop was an important part of it. So you can have a sixfigure income. Im young, not sure what youre talking about. Will work on this later. So my son is here. Literally, the fact of the matter is when we find ways to get kids as many options for their future whether you want to go to a twoyear college or a thirdyear program, whether you want to go to a fouryearprogram, you could be a plumber. Student debt, six figures. This is the fundamental point because for so long college for all has been the mentality thats really been pushing kids into a certain predetermined outcome for what should happen after high school. One of the things i did with a bipartisan fashion was look for ways to help people understand the cost of college and return on investment. Financial literacy is a major component to understanding and appreciating what is good butat a velocity degree . What can you do with a Political Science degree . Ican tell you, you get a job in the business world. If you going to law school physically, its not necessary. The best decision one can u make to make money so you figure out another path forward. If we had Financial Literacy is a core component t as relates to not only going to college, what do you get four 33,000 average loan debt . 2 million in extra Lifetime Income is not a bad deal but isnt the only way to get that 2 million of Lifetime Income weston park the answer is no aware are those other avenues and we expose people to. Back in the 70s we started this Campaign Around the sky and a perfect suit and next to him was this guy whos like a coalminer or something. They said this is the job you want. You want this job that makes you a whitecollar guy. There is dignity in all work. Theres dignity in all work. Find out what you want to do and do it. Dont let someone predetermined this is theonly path. R will stature. When you noted the freeze framework is education and entrepreneurship but id like to talk about the first few moments because i call it free, i dont call it work. Theres a reason for that. You talk a lot about your grandfather and how in the book who literally just around the dinner table held up the newspaper and was acting as if he was reading that you could sense that this is an important activity. What does it mean to have that within your family . Its the most court nucleus that develops the child. I think family is misunderstood so often. Growing up in a singleparent household, my mother and my brother they were my family. When we were younger we live with our grandparents. One of the beauties of family no matter what it looks like, what configuration, it doesnt matter but not always is having a grandfather who was at the Kitchen Table every morning, flipping through the paper, left a profound impact on me as relates to the importance of reading. I didnt know then that hecould not read. He was seen it till you make it. He was taking it until i made it. He left such an indelible impression on me that one day he wanted his grandsons to grow up to become all they could have a dream of being because they were. With the tools necessary and the only way to do that at the time was to send it but that made me hungry for more u. I wanted to know what was so important in the newspaper that every single day but Charles Charleston currier open that paper and go through it page by page. Is one of the reasons i read the wall street journal. Its just such a wonderful example of family y and the footprint in that family leaves. If you dont find your family , if you are not born into a family that you respect and appreciate you will make your own family. I often say its not about the family youre from, its about the family you informed in your own life. One of my best friends formed a different kind of family. He started a neighborhood Pharmaceutical Company and became a drug dealer. A neighborhood Pharmaceutical Company. Noted. So that led him to seven years of vacation. But he formed his family around commerce that led him in the wrong direction because what he said was that there were no constraints on behavior and there wasnt ambition, there was almost three and selfish pursuits that led him to spending a couple years making a lot of money and seven years making nothing. So he would tell us if you were sitting on this stage, is one of my best friends now, a pastor what would tell you is take connections and relationships. Take it seriously. You can either have friends that drag you down or friends that require youto go up. Those friends can become your family. If were not careful in todays america, there are these tribal forces that want you to define your family by what you look like or how you vote and make sure that its a homogenous pool, pure as possible. Thats not in the best interests of the American Family. Its quite diverse and powerful, forwardlooking. We need more of that. I need to have friends that dont look like me, that dont think like me, that are a different faith from me and just because im up from reelection even different parties, heaven forbid. The truth is i benefit from having friends in the senate who think the same as i want to solve complex problems for the American People. Who are of good conscience. I benefit from that and the other part of my congressional family, Kyrsten Sinema and i, 90percent of the time we disagree but the 10 percent we agree we should work together. We think that if you have a big need and we can still laugh and it makes the country better off longterm, why not . Why would you focus more on education. You mentioned the importance of faith in your own development. Let me just talk a little bit more about what role you see the Faith Community and religion playing today, are they active enough in helping to heal some of these divisions that are hurting our country, what should we be telling leaders of faith in our community . I think were not active enough. One of the things i learned from my faith is it teaches me how to treat you and it warms me on how you may treat me back. The warning is important as well. Matthew 544 charleston South Carolina and the Mother Emmanuel Church shooting where the racist walked intoa church and killed nine believers. And 36 hours later, the family members are looking at the killer and saying we forgive you. That will change your entire community. Nine people changed the lives of 5 million South Carolina inns almost overnight. Brought 20,000 people together, black and white. On a bridge to celebrate the diversity of our state. Because in the aftermath of that tragedy people came together because the South Carolina family wanted to stand up and say not in my house. And we were fighting over the Confederate Flag for 50 years and it came down to 17 days. Because when there was a purity of your purpose, when there is a depth of your love on display when it matters the most, nothing stops light , not even darkness. Thats the power of faith though. It didnt say a, it said how they should treat him, not how he should have treated them. But i think we miss in the faith realm is the importance of exercising our faith as a compass for ourselves, not necessarily towards others to believe what we believe we want to impact others, lets live it right. Lets do it right, not preach it. Proselytize always, when necessary use words. That example is so powerful and i think about you as a legislator or policymaker, how do you think about the reach of policy and legislation, your first year in the senate there was a terrible incident in chicago where there was a young girl gunned down by a gang member who thought she hit someone else and president obama at the time said no law or set of laws can prevent every senseless act of violence in our country. When a child opens fire on another child theres a whole and that childs heart that the government cant fill. So when you think of yourself as a legislator policymaker, how do you use your position to all of us that isnot only always about the tactics of what law is passed, how we treat each ilother. Ill say this and it will be disappointed to some of my legislative friends but 99 percent of the legislation that we work onwill never become law. If were lucky, 99 percent so the question is what is this role that we have been given by the American People and by our friends back homein South Carolina from my perspective . There is a perch, there is an influence thatcomes with this position that is incredibly powerful and really important. That president obama referred to the fact that government isnt the answer, that community is far more important than merriment is essential and necessary to never forget. Those types of shootings can be avoided by what we started talking about a few minutes ago around family. Gang members very consistently are joining a family, not a gang from their perspective. Having having spoken to some members. S i can tell you that without any question the more time we spend on building and developing committees the better off we will be. The more time we as elected officials see ourselves as Community Leaders in addition to legislators and we use our purchase to bring people together the better off we will be. Our country is having a hopelessness academic. Theres a reason why we have w 107,000 people who have died of overdoses. Either the 35,000, the numbers may be off but nover 30,000 people died due to guns, two thirds, around 52 tpercent are suicides. Of all the conversations go around guns the one wehavent heard much about hissuicides. The leading cause. So we have a hopelessness epidemic on our hands as well and we can bridge that through community. And family. And font family is the foundation of community. The most important subgroup in any nation is the family. I used to the back in a y. Different life, i was the chairman of the South Carolina self carolinians for healthy Family Foundation because the past i grew up without my dad in the household it was so important for me to think about and talk about how families form and the foundation that comes with it. Theres a security that oscar will never know he has. He will never even know that its there but if its not there i would know it was missing. I think about this all the time particularly because i work with communities in which that is not the norm. And i grew up in that community and i will tell you the difference is incredible. But a mentor came in at the right time, i had a few of them and helped fill some of the holes. I will say bridge the gap because thats an overstatement but he did fill some of the potholes and gave me direction when i needed it. One guy named out jenkins was a Small Business owner helped me start my business when he made 40,000 and it said you know what, i looked at the back and said can i get a loan and he said i got a 10yearold car and he says you not know what an asset is . I said obviously i dont but its all ive got. But they laughed me up the bank once i had 40,000 i had an asset. Fascinating conversation unto itself but the truth is having a mentor who believed in me, who watched me for several years, watch me from 1999 before you ran into my business, before it became an investor that 10 years where i had a strong powerful africanamerican role model who taught me lowprofile, just because you can doesnt mean you should. Taught me how to be faithful in all your efforts. Taught me how to be disciplined when no one was watching. It was a force to be reckoned with. He taught me having a job was a gift and that a job was a better thing. When you do youll be able to change. So there is a way for us to form a foundation thats better than the onemade it you have. Its just better to have the data in the house. I know that unbelievably we are very short on time. That amazing but i wanted to perhaps potentially end on how you and the book which is that you fastforward to the year 2070. Can you envision this beautiful future thats within our grasp. That were not so divided by race or class or gender or what rseparates us today. What has to happen between now and 2070 to reach the future you layout in the book . For me, i think it is this got punched where going through right now is very instructive for this nation. I think its necessary. Necessary for us to wrestle with the foundational issues of where going and how were going to get there, are we going to get there together or not . I think its interesting and frankly helpful for us to go through this tribal conversation to see how hard it is to try to make up for past discrimination with future discrimination. Its not working well for us right now but were trying to figure that out. The truth is all the tribes that were putting together and whether its a republican try to work a democrat tried for a class system or caste system, whether its centralized control or not, all that will burn off and what it will produce is an American Family that has more respect and appreciation of the necessity of pursuing the American Dream is one family and we will break the barriers that divide us into smaller categories so that people in the same socioeconomic sset see the problems the same and the solutions the same and those working on their behalf figure out setting the rules on the road and letting people win or selose based on their efforts. Its the good thing about a bad thing and not thinking so much about centralized control but thinking about the power of the individual being thegreatest minority in the country. I think were heading there and thatsreally good news. So final question, what are the characteristics of a leader that needs to forward that future. I think someone has to be a purveyor of hope. I think we really need someone to see this country as a sitting family unit and someone was willing to say stick their lives on the fact that their rights for that and we need people who are sacrificial. In order for us to get there. Without any question and then we need disciplined, focused goal oriented leaders who demand the best from the country because they put themselves first. Please join me in thanking senator tim scott. [applause] every saturday American History tv documents america stories and on sundays tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. Funding comes from these Television Companies and more including cox. Homework can be hard but squatting in a diner for internetwork is even harder. Thats why were providing lower income students access to affordable internet so homework can just be homework. Cox connect and compete