demonstrated with the true qualities are needed for a leader that so many other activists that were involved in the protest movement out of ferguson show that you guys had a movement that may have appeared that was quite leader full and it's an amazing, amazing that you took that experience and managed to create something wonderful out of it by representing your district comes i want to thank you for this book and for this great conversation today, which i hope was really illuminating foror those listening. >> guest: yes, thank you so much. >> host: thank you. >> american history tv saturdays on c-span2 exploring the people and events that tell the american story. 12:30 p.m. eastern on the presidency meeting the like the first lady martha washington from her surviving personal letters with lower fraser author of the washingtons.

at 8 p.m. eastern on lectures in history hillsdale college professor richard campbell talks the american churches and religion during world war i picky shares how american pastors, ministers and rabbis spoke about the great war before and after the u.s. entered the conflict. exploring the american story, watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program ide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> good afternoon. my name is ian rowe, i'm a senior fellow at the american enterprise institute. 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 new book, "america, a redemption story." before introduce senator scott and welcome him to the states i

want to offer a little bit of context as to why this conversation is so important today. .. not yet experienced the american? as a senior fellow at aei and someone who has run public schools in the bronx for more than a i am obsessed with the goal of upward mobility. what are the >> one of the factors that normally drives whether any young children that has the minds and skills that leads to success as adults. in my time with thousands of young people working at teach for america, to the white house, to mtv, to gates foundation and now launching a network of international baccalaureate charter high schools in the bronx, i've worked with kids from every conceivable backgrounds and seeing children growing up in disadvantaged situations and

unfortunately, sometimes recreate that disadvantage as they enter young adulthood, but i've also seen many kids emerge from poverty or crime or dysfunction and lead lives of their own choosing. the question is what makes the difference. in my experience, young people who ultimately thrive as adults have usually had a sense of personal agency which i define of the force of their free will guided by moral discernment to learn right from wrong. they have usually formed strong families, regardless of the family that they grew up in. they typically have had a strong faith commitment which enpowered them to live by a moral code and typically had access to great schools through education freedom and assuming those three foundational elements, they've had an entrepreneurial spirit informed by the dignity and discipline

of work and in my own book agency, i propose a new framework, free. based on encouraging young people to embrace four pillars, family, religion, education, and entrepreneurship. a revitalization of the mediating institutions they know drive flourishing. and today i'm pleased to announce the free initiative we'll seek to equip 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 sparked by conference that brought together brilliant minds such as bob woodson in the room to discuss alternative approaches to tackle the

challenges facing americans of all races. we will hold our first free conference in birment, alabama this november 2nd through the 4th, bringing through business, academics, nonprofits and leaders how to implement the lessons we have learned about upward mobility. we aim to uplift agency to agency around the country and people leading by example, combatting unhelpful narratives and lighting the way towards lives rich in relationship, health, and well-being. this is why i am 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 what's 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, senator scott's 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'd love to welcome you to the stage and look forward to our discussions. >> thank you. [applause] >> we've both gone tie-less, the world is as it should be. >> it should be a comfortable conversation.

you've written a fantastic book. >> thank you. >> and i'd love to chat with you first about the title. america a redemption story, the idea that sounds like we're almost unfinished, we're still in pursuit. i'd love to-- what was the inspiration behind the title and the book itself? >> well, the inspiration was at that in my opinion, most american families are just one or two generations away from the story of redemption. we're in different parts of that journey, but the truth is that the greatest part of this nation is the chance to get a second chance, and the story of redemption, really, is about having a second chance to start all over. and i've had that happen in my life and the more i understand american history, the more i realize it's all about how your pain reveals your purpose, how your obstacles open the door of opportunities, and frankly, how tragedy leads to triumph. typically that comes first and then they're good, so--

>> got it. in it, you say the american dream isn't the thing of the past, but a miracle of the present. >> yes. >> do you sense that many young people or that the american dream is further in question today than that, you know, a thing of the past versus a miracle of the present? >> one of the things i say in the book is that my grandfather of 1921 born in segregated south carolina, in a small town, what he knew then sums out now. and 100 years later we're doubting the goodness of our own country in the way that's become popularized through the tribal nature that some are trying to see america in that-- the prism of tribalism. we're better today than 1921, being better versus bitter grandfather says, if you want

to be a victor, don't be a victim. and he believed in the goodness of america and that the future was better than the past and he lived long enough to watch his grandson pick up a seat in congress because of the goodness of america and one of the things i hope to uncover the truth of who we are, we're better today than we've ever been. that doesn't mean we're not going through gut punch in some areas of the nation's history, but the truth is we're better off today than we've ever been and more to come. and going through a gut punch to focus on the priorities and continue the advancement of the american people as so goes america, so goes the world. and we've got a lot of work to be done. >> i can already tell there are going to be a few nuggets dropped. it's better to be-- better than bitter. >> right, there's always a choice in life.

my grandfather, a guy who stopped school in the third great in south carolina, there was no need for an educated black man is what he was taught. so think about that picture and fast forward to seven years old, my parents are divorced, we're moving into my grandparents' house my mother, brother, myself sharing one bedroom and one bed and my grandfather is teaching me valuable lessons about being better or being bitter. it would have been so easy for him to be bitter all of his life, but he believed in the goodness of america. >> yeah. >> and in a time when it would be completely understandable why he would not believe in the future of this country. >> yes. >>, but he knew that the sacrifices that had gone before him made his meeker, challenging plight less challenging. that the abundance in his heart and the love he had for my

grandmother, that that combination formed a new foundation for generation. >> wow. >> and because of that, i was blessed with this inheritance of positivity this concept, the dignity of work, it was imprinted on my soul. how can things not get better if you have faith, that you have abundance of love and you see the land of opportunity expanding in your direction, run towards it. >> yes. >> my grandfather-- >> i want wait to talk to you more how we instill that spirit in young people today who may not be having a realization. you talk in the book, you know, one of my favorite quotes you say education is the closest thing to magic. >> yes. >> 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. >> yes. >> just expand on that. >> well, i'm kind of a simple, and the-- most affluent in our country they choose the school they send their school to. upper middle class folks, they choose the neighborhood for the best schools. the only people without choice are living in poverty, working long hours, trying to keep food on the table and the lights on. for that mom, whether you're in rural america or inner city, the one thing you don't have is choice. >> yeah. >> we can change that overnight by simply saying, there's a backpack, the money follows the child. if you're going to failing school, one school specifically, why not give the child and the parent the choice

of where to send their kid. >> yeah. >> and 68% of democrats, 67% of independents, around 70% of african-americans, 72, 74% hispanic, 66% of asians all agree that school choice is the path forward and both sides and that's a modern day miracle. >> this is a fundamental point, i just opened a new high school in the bronx, a district 12 in the bronx whereof all the students have started ninth grade in 2015, four years later they started ninth grade and dropped out along the way, or they actually did earn their high school diploma, but still couldn't do math nor reading without remediation if they were going to college. so, that structure-- even with that buy-in, it

sounds like for lots of group that reality still exists. how do we get more kids to be able to have that first rung to get on the ladder of success? >> we have to work a little harder at 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 where it's a charter school basically 50 cents on the dollar, but produces results that are better than the average public school in new york. and i think she has over-- eva has over 40 schools now, consistently top 50 in the state in math, reading and science. and african-american or hispanic with household income under $30,000 in new york city, 95% being free lunch, single parent households, yet they score above average, above the

majority population in new york city, these kids are outperforming the other kids in the city on standardized tests. how do you do that? well, she created an environment that's conducive for learning. there's a friend of mine who started school and the mean street economy. ben navarro wanted to proffer that poor kids in poor communities can learn just like everybody else for about 10 or 15% more than the average public school student in chelsea county and he's able to get those kids within two years top 20% nationwide. there's a model that works, we need to follow that model. another model in california, philadelphia, the truth is, when we follow the model that, would for the kids, it works out really well. >> so, what is the rationale for the people who know that those models exist and yet, continue to fight to preserve the status quo? >> i don't know. [laughter] >> maybe more -- i think

there's just areas that in order to save them all, you have to wait until you have a solution for them all. >> yes. >> it's as if the house is on fire, instead of saving as many as you can and the house is on fire, you're going to wait until you put the whole fire out and then go inside and figure out who is left. that to me just seems ridiculous. but that's how it appears that we are treating education. second thing i'd 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 what the child is going to experience. that's a problem. >> yes, you know, again, i've run schools in new york and primarily due to the teacher's union, there's a cap on even the ability to open charter schools, so in the same district only 70% of kids, primarily because of that force.

and again, how do we mobilize more awareness, attention, action, it's so central to your book because you talk about how education is a central part of your movement upward and yet, these forces are so powerful. >> they are, because they're embedded. i've often said as a conservative, we should be the party of parents. the fact of the matter is when i gave the statistics earlier, what it reinforces, it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on. the one thing, there's a sill veer lining in the pandemic and it's hard to see any silver lining in the pandemic. the one thing is learning loss, being out of the classroom, exposed the weakness within the public education system for all kids. >> 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. and that is good news for all of our kids, and the more we spend time understanding what's happened, the more we should focus our attention on making sure that the policies in place help us bridge the gap because of the pandemic and we focus on what actually works around the country. >> yeah, i mean, one of the things i love so much about your philosophy, whether it's in education, or an opportunity zone is that you're looking for innovations that break the mold about are actually focused on what will actually help people. so, talk about these opportunity zones as well because that's almost a parallel to school of choice and educational freedom. how do we attract more of those initiatives. >> you know, if you know me at all. one thing i love is competition. played ball, football in college, ran track, i love competition, you run for office you're in a competition. the truth is what is the best environment to improve outcomes

and reduce costs? >> yes. >> in america we call that the free market system. it works in education, too. and it works in opportunity zones. what i basically did, i designed a program that provided more incentives for those who have resources to look in areas that need resources without gentry gentrifying those areas. and we saw more investment go back into the poorest zip codes than in my lifetime. so in 2019, the opportunity zones sought 29 billion dollars invested into the most critically challenged financial areas in the country, and it also helped lead us to the lowest level ever recorded in this country of poverty. >> and how does that even help the creation of small businesses, for example? >> well, one of the things that you do, it's the more incentives that you have to drive down the cost, the more

likely to drive up entrepreneurs in the neighborhoods. a guy who was changed having an entrepreneur my mentor when i was 15 years old and starting my own business as i was able to understand the path of being a job creator in my neighborhood and employing people from my neighborhood was really powerful and it becomes momentum. the more small businesses you have in communities, the lower the unemployment will be. >> the fewer small businesses, the higher unemployment, the higher unemployment rate is and lower the graduation rate is in high school and so there's a correlation that flows through those communities and one of the reasons why i love the free, i love the education and entrepreneur pieces to that because they're absolutely essential to human flourishing. you can't do both. good economy makes all things possible and what is a good economy, a good work force. what makes a good work force. >> education. >> it has to be at least two

prongs. you're too young to remember these days when we had shop in high school. >> no, no, i did. at the high school we took shop. >> shop was an important part of it. so you can have a six figure income-- >> old? >> i'm young, i don't know what you're talking about, but anyway, trying to give awe backhanded compliment, but we'll work on this later. yeah, oscar, my son is here. >> 10 years old. and literally, when we find ways to give kids as many options in the plan, two year community college, apprenticeship program, you want to go to a four-year college, truth of the matter is, you can be a plumber and make six figures. that's-- >> i think this is a fundamental point because for so long college for all has been the mentality. >> yes. >> it's really been pushing kids into a certain pre-determined outcome of what should happen after high school. >> right, we never said roi.

so, one of the things i did with the bipartisan fashion was look for ways to look at the cost of college as the return on investment in college. financial literacy is a major component. what do you get for a philosophy degree versus a political science degree. what you can get for a political science degree, you get a job in the business world. and you go to law school, typically political science degree is not necessarily the best decision one can make that makes money, so you figure out another path forward. if we had financial literacy as a core component relates to not only going to college, but what is the kid going to get college, 33,000 in debt and on average income. but that's not a bad day, but the only way to get $2 million

of income what are the other avenues. back in the '70s, a marketing campaign in a guy in a perfect suit and next to him was a guy in, like he was a coal miner or something. and they said, this is the job na you want. you want this job that makes you a white collar guy. there's dignity in all work. there's dignity in all work. find out what you want to do and do it. don't let someone pre-determine this is the only path of success. hogwash. >> equal stature. >> multiple paths to success. >> when you noted the free frame work, it's family, religion, education, entrepreneurship. i'd love to step back and talk about the first two elements, because i call it free, i don't call it earth, right? right? >> there's a reason for that. >> right. you talk a lot about your grandfather in the book who literally, i guess, around the dinner table, held up a

newspaper and was acting as if he was reading so that you could sense that this is an important activity. >> what does it mean to have that within your family? so it's the new, core nucleus to develops the child? >> i think family is misunderstood so often. grew up in the single parent household. my mother and brother were my family when we were younger lived with my grandparents. one of the beauties of family, no matter what it looks like. the configuration does matter, but not always as much as we think it does. 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 didn't know then that he could not read. he was, you know, fake it till

you make it. he was faking it until i made it. he left such an indelible importance on me the importance of education that one day he wanted his grandsons to grow up and become all they could ever dream of being because they were equipped with the tools necessary and the only way he could do that at the time was to fake it, but that made me hungry for more. i wanted to know, what was so important in the newspaper that every single day that the charleston post courier, go through it page by page by page. it's one of the reasons why i read the wall street journal like my grandfather did it, but on the tablet, but it's just such a wonderful example of family and the footprint in the sand that family leaves. if you don't find your family, if you're not born into a family that you respect and appreciate, you'll make your own family. >> that's the-- i often say it's not about the family that you're from, it's

about the family that you form. >> yes. >> in your own life that can make it or break it. >> driving force. >> one of my best friends formed a different kind of family and it led him to what he called vacation. he started a neighborhood pharmaceutical company and he became a drug dealer. >> a neighborhood pharmaceutical company. >> (laughter) >> yes, yes. >> noted. >> and so that led him to seven years of vacation. [laughter] >> okay. >> but he formed his family around commerce that led them in the wrong direction because what he said was that there were no constraints on behavior and there was-- there wasn't ambition, there was almost greed and selfish pursuits that led him to spending a lot of years making money and seven years of making nothing. and so he would tell us if he

were sitting on this stage and i talk to him almost every day, he's one of my best friends and pastor, bless you. what he would tell you is take connections and relationships, take it seriously. >> yeah. >> you can either have friends that drag you down or friends that require you to go up. those friends can become your family. if we're not careful in today's america. >> yeah. >> 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 it's homagenous pool. and we need for of that. i need friends that don't look like me, don't think like me,

from a different faith than me and frankly, i shouldn't say this because i'm up for reelection, even from a different party. heaven forbid. and friends in the senate who think differently than i, who want to solve complex problems for the american people and who are good conscience i benefit from that. they're part of my congressional family. kyrsten sinema and i get along well and we work on legislation, disagree 80% of the time, but the 20% of the time we agree, we should work together. and chris and i work on these and makes the country better off long-term, why not? why wouldn't you focus more on education. >> you've mention add few times, the importance of faith in your own development. i'd love for you to just talk a little more about what role you

see the faith community, religion, playing today? are they active enough in helping to heal some of of the divisions that you think are hurting our country? what should we be telling leaders of faith in our community? >> well, i think we're not active enough. you know, one of the things i've learned from my faith is that it teaches me how to treat you and it warns me how you may treat me back. the warning is for the important-- reading matthew 544 and think about charleston, south carolina and think about the mother emanuel church shooting where a racist walked into the 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 five million south carolinians, 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-plus years and it came down in 17 days because when there is 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. >> wow. >> that's the power of faith though. it didn't say how -- it said how they should treat him, not now he should have treated them and what i think we miss in the faith realm is the importance of exercising our faith as a compass for ourselves, not necessarily forcing others to believe what we believe. in we if we want to impact others, let's live it right, do it right not preach it. i think st. francis of assisi said proselytize always and when necessary use words. >> that example is so powerful and i think about you as a

legislator, a policy maker. how do you think about the reach of policy, of legislation, you know, your first year in the senate in 2013 there was this terrible incident in chicago where there's a young girl gunned down by a gang member who thought she was someone else and president obama at the time, he 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, there's a hole in that child's heart that the government can't fill. so when you think of yourself as a legislator policy maker, how do you use your position to speak to all of us that it's not always about the tactics of what law is passed. it's how we treat each other. >> yeah, i will say this, probably be disappointing to some of my legislative friends, but 99% of the legislation that we work on will never become

law, if we're lucky 99%. so the question is, what is this role that we have been given by the american people and by our friends back home in south glen from my perspective? there's a perch, there is an influence that comes with this position that is incredibly powerful and really important, that president obama would refer to the fact that department of the isn't the answer, that community is far more important than government, is absolutely 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 and not a gang from their perspective, having spoken to some members. i can tell you that without

any-- we spend on buildings communities the better off we'll be. the more time we as officials see ourselves to community leaders as well as legislators and use our perch to bring people together. our century is, and a reason why there are over 7 #00,000 folks who died from overdose. over 30,000 people died due to guns. two third, around 62% were suicides. out of all the conversations you'll hear around guns, the one we haven't heard much about is suicides, the leading cause. so we have a hopelessness epidemic on our hand as well and we can bridge that through community.

>> and family and-- >> family is the foundation of community. the most important subgroup in any nation is the family. i used to be-- seems back in a different life, when i was in local government chairman for the south carolinians for family formation. >> as a guy who grew up without my dad in the household it was important for me to talk about and think about how family forms and foundation that comes with it. there's a security that oscar will never know that he has because his dad's in the house. he won't even know that it's there, but if it's not there, i know that 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

that the difference is incredible, but a mentor came in at the right time and a few of them, and helped bridge the -- filled some of the holes. i won't say bridged a gap, but it's probably overstated, but he did fill some of the potholes and gave me direction when i needed it. one guy name al jenkins, he was a small business owner, a wonderful man, helped me start my business when he gave me $40,000 and said, you know what, i went to the bank and i said can i get a loan? what's your asset. i've got a 10-year-old car with 230,000 miles on it. >> and do you know what an asset is. >> obviously i don't. that's all i've got. they laughed me out of the bank, but once i had $40,000, the bank loaned me more money. fascinating conversation in itself. having a mentor who believed in

me, watched me from 1989 to 1999 before he made an investment in my business and became a customers, became an investor. and i had a strong african-american mentor who taught me about profile. just because you can doesn't mean you should. for all your efforts, how to be disciplined when no one is watching. a force to be reckoned me. and john, happened to be a white guy, having a job is a good thing, but creating jobs is a better thing. one day you'll know the difference between a profit and income and when you do you'll be able to change your community. so there's a way for us to form a foundation and that's better than the one maybe you have. and it's just better to have a dad in the house though. >> i know that unbelievably, we're actually short on time. >> i talked to much? >> no, no, no, it's been

amazing, but i want to perhaps potentially end on how you end the book, which is that you fast forward to the year 2070. >> yeah. >> and you envision this beautiful future that's within our grasp that we're not so decided by race or class or gender or what separates us today. what has to happen between now at 2070 to reach the future that you law out in the book. >> for me -- you know, for me, i think it really is this gut punch that we're going through right now is very instructive for this nation. i think it's necessary. i think it's necessary for us to wrestle with some of the more foundational issues who we are, where we're going, how we're going to get there. are we going to go together or not? or not at all. i think it's interesting and

helpful to go through this conversation to see how hard it is, to try to make up for past discrimination with future discrimination. it's not working well for us right now, but we're going to try to figure it out and figure it out quickly. the truth is all the tribes that we're putting together, whether it's a republican tribe, democratic tribe, black system, class system or caste system, what it will produce is an american family that has more respect or appreciation for the respect of pursuing the american dream as one family and we'll break the barriers that divide us into smaller categories so that people in the same socioeconomic groups see that problems are the same and see the solutions are the same and those who are working on their behalf figure out and study the rules of the road and getting out of the way and letting people win or lose. is that a good thing or a bad

thing, and not thinking so much about centralized control, but thinking about the power of the individual, being the greatest minority in the country. i think we're heading there and that's really good news. >> yeah, so final question, what are the characteristics of the leader that needs to forge that future? >> well, i think someone has to be a purveyor of hope and someone who sees this as a single family unit and stake their lives on that. and we need leaders who are sacraficial 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're demanding it from themselves first. >> please join me in thanking senator tim scott.

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