we'll be taking your calls, tweets, e-mails and facebook questions on the literary career. >> i move today miami and been there ever since. we'll talk about it. it is really a good place. >> he published over 30 books. the recently released best state ever, a florida man defends his homeland. watch in depth sunday on cspan

2. >> this year included panels on early childhood education and childhood security. terry mcculaugh.

please remain standing.

♪ oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ what so proudly we hailed ♪ at the twilight's last gre gleaming ♪ ♪ wloz broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight other the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rock's red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh say does that star spang l

banner y bann bann banner -- spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ for the land of the free ♪ and the home of the brave ♪ [ applause ]

>> first of all i would like to welcome everybody and like to officially gavel in the 2017 winter meeting of the nation's governors. let me start off and thank all of you for being here with us today and recognize and thank all of the governors. we are very proud our governors have come. in addition we have 1,200 guests, which is the most we have ever had. there is a lot going on here today and at the state level. we are a bipartisan and i would

often say non-partisan group. we come together twice a year. we will have our summer meeting in rhode island. we have our best practices. we speak in a collective voice. all of us governors want to same thing. we want the committee. we want to create jobs. we want to make sure we have the greatest education systems, greatest health care delivery systems and people can move around on transportation networks. we share solutions with one another because when one is successful we are all successful. your presence here this weekend is critical as we move forward to get asour general da at the national level to make sure the governors voices are heard and we are partners.

we will hear on critical issues facing our nation today. the importance of access to early childhood education and make sure and ensure governors have the necessary tool tobs prepared for cyber attacks. this year's meeting is also highly important because of the new leadership that we have in washington. i would like to recognize justin clark. if he could stand up and give me a great round of applause and thank him for being with us today. i do want to thank the administration working with the cabinet. they have made all of the cabinet officials available to

us and will be here working with us. i would also like to thank karen pence for the first time ever the vice president opened up the mansion yesterday and we had our welcoming lunch yesterday at the vice president's residence. i want to thank them for that. i want to thank them last night. they hosted all of the governors and our corporate fellows together. i want to thank them for having us there yesterday. anything we added things to our schedule. on monday all of us will spend a day on capitol hill to meet with the leaders on issues that matter to us most importantly. we are meeting with leaders to talk about the affordable care act. as it goes forward all of the governors have a say when this happens it happens in our states. we have to administer programs

and we want to be at the front end to make sure whatever we do we are providing our citizens with the greatest quality health care and at the lowest cost possible. we'll also be meeting to discuss how to strengthen our cyber security posture not only at the federal but also at the state level. collectively they have more personal data through our state tax returns and health programs, department of motor vehicles. we have a tremendous amount of critical data we need to ensure and protect. we need to make sure we are protecting it for businesses that do business in our representative states. one of the key goals is to further strengthen and ensure governors are at the table when congress is making any policy decisions. let me take this opportunity to welcome some of the newest colleagues with us here today. we had nine new governors

joining us this weekend. the governor of delaware, indiana, governor eric holcomb, new hampshire. give a rond of applause for new governors here today. i want to recognize all of the chairs over here of the state work force boards. we preesh kbrat all of the work we do in our respective states. before i go any further part of the rules require that any governor that wants to submit a resolution will need a three-fourths vote to suspend the rules to do so.

i would submit any to anna davis o.nga. it needs to go to her by 5:00 tonight. now at this time we would like to recognize several companies that have been so critical in providing governors with ideas that work. today we recognize two of those corporal fellows who i'm proud to say have reached a major

milestone, 25 years of tenure of helping the national governor's association. let us first give a round of applause and thank all of the 125 companies who have helped make this possible.

>> and i would like to turn to the chair to begin our opens session. i would like to turn it over to gof flor bentl-- governor bentl from alabama. >> thank you. i'm honored today to be part of this program because i truly believe that early childhood education is the most important part of education. governors from both sides of the aisle knowledge the critical importance of this bipartisan issue of our children's future. they are champion, the initiatives to improve quality of and expand access to early learning programs to their states.

we will vote to adopt early childhood education and make it a top priority as we work with congress and the president to ensure all children receive a strong start on their education. last year more than 14,500 four-year-olds were enrolled in our high quality first class pre-k program. that's 25% of all of our four-year-olds. that's a wonderful start. we recognize there is still more work to do. i'm encouraged by this new policy and excited to see early childhood education as a priority across this nation. together the governor and i are challenging all governors to help us rethink the federal early education landscape to reflect the invasion taking place in our states. today we are honored to continue

that discussion with advocates for a strong start for our children. at this point i would like to turn the program over to our vice chairman. he and i have witnessed exciting things in education during our time on the committee. governor, i'm honored to share this education work force committee with you. >> thank you, governor. what a great day. this is a historic day. you're going to see a lot of big bipartisan smiles tharnd issue. we know of the neurorscience is clear. this is the most important time to do it, at age three and four. it's great to go to ribbon cuttings. it's great to go to signing ceremonies of glorious bills and there's nothing better than seeing the smile on a three or four-year-old kid's face when they learn to count to ten and

you know they will be ready. that kid is going to figure out how to go to mars and cure cancer and make sure they are economically productive. it really is a joy. it is great the governor's association is getting where the single best investment is we can make of our people. there is a great morality in addition to economic benefit. i think we all ought to understand this. poverty should not be destiny in america. it should not be your destiny if you are born into poverty. we want to eliminate that gap and we know the single best way to do it is with a three and four-year-old early childhood education. we set a goal of having o90% of our kids ready. i want to share some of the things we have done.

i think it's things we can do in all of our states. we have adopted a new quality rating and improvement system for those who provide early childhood education. we know quality counts in everything and it certainly counts in early childhood education. second, we have made preschool an entitlement program for all income-eligible families. these kids ought to be first, not last. so we made sure it is an entitlement program for these kids. we made a specific envestmeinve for at-risk kids. we have helped our providers. i think this is really important. we have a lot of providers who might be recent immigrants to the country. we have people who are kind of at the bottom of the economic ladder. we are providing great scholarship programs for our

providers so they can work on their own quality improvement. fifth, we have done the thing that's most obvious. if you will do economic investment the best place you can start is with a three and four-year-old. we are all about jobs. you have to have three and four-year-olds that will have their dreams realize beginning at that age. we have tremendous leaders here to join us tonight. we'll have jennifer garner and mark. i will introduce them in a minute. we have mike, ceo of industry. i'm looking forward to this conversation. jennifer garner, this is a woman i got to meet to my campaign and

talk about when it comes to inspiring people around this subject. she holds many many titles. the first and most important one is mother. i will put that first on your resume. she has got a great work as we know in her acting career. she is a member of our children organization. importantly this is a person who puts herself on the line. she has gone to west virginia. she has gone to capitol hill, california central valley to understand the effects of poverty and how important it is for poverty reduction effort. i introduce mark shriver. he and jennifer have done more than probably anybody else in the country to inject the word quality. we are following her lead. >> thanks. >> thank you very much. good morning. thank you everyone. thank you so much for having us. it is great to be with you

again. jen and i have -- i met her in the great state of alabama and the work that you have done expanding save the childrens work across your great state, pulling together the chamber of commerce across alabama is greatly admired and a role model for rest of the country. we met you before you were declared running for governor. it is greatly preesh yaapprecia. we want to thank you nfor that great announcement putting it at the forefront of the national governor's akoessociatiassociat. it is so exciting. many of you know it as an

organization that does work and education and in health does disaster relief work. it was started almost 100 years ago in new york city and focused on providing meals on poor children. it lead to the school lunch prachlt it continued all across this country for almost the last 100 years. jennifer joined us about nine years ago, focused on the issue of early childhood education here in america. it is really rooted in kentucky from the east coast to the west coast. it gives me honor for last nine years. i traveled all across the country from california to washington to kentucky to south carolina and as great a role model for all of us interested in expanding high quality early

childhood education, jennifer garner. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. it is really exciting and thrilling to be in a room full of people who are giving their lives to service to our country. i am honored to be here and grateful to be part of this conversation. when i started working for save nine years ago the thought of early education being part of a national conversation was something that was very far off in the distance. so it's really thrilling to see everyone here and committed and ready to get to work. first, just to let you know how i got into this in the first place, my mom grew up poor, dirt poor with ten siblings, no electricity or running water in oklahoma. she managed some how to get herself educated. the only member of her family to go to college.

eventually mom and dad landed my sisters in me. the kinds where kids shoes are cut along the front to let their toes grow out. the kind where my friends from first grade didn't make it to second grade when i did, didn't make it to third grade when i did and disappeared off of the face of the earth as far as i knew in my little elementary school mind. i grew up one generation removed from poverty. they have driven me to think about big things like how did my mom get out and how can i help other kids like the ones i grew up close to? and so i hunted down the organization at the time and still i believe had the most efficacy getting out and that was save the children and run by

mark. mark and i have had the great luck and fortune. it has the oven door opened to heat the small space, that is infested by cockroaches or has not an ounce of sound or joy in the place you do feel privileged to be allowed into people's homes and be accepted and welcomed into a place where they could actually just feel shame and not want you to take a look inside. when we walk into these homes you would be suffocate bid the silence. they are not babbling, not crying, not making joyful sounds or anything else. that is because their senses are

dulled. mothers and fathers are so overwhe overwhelmed, food scarcity, drug abuse. their mothers are so overwhelmed they don't have the capacity to look outside themselves and i'm sure they have not had the models like i'm sure many of us had from great parents. they don't have the capacity to sing to their babies, read to and love on their babies. they sit their babies in front of a television. i have seen it over and over again and the child quietly goes to sleep inside their mind. if the brain grows between birth and five we are doing these children a great disservice because they have absolutely lost the chance to ever make it ahead in life. if you're going rowing up in po you are a year and a half

behind. how is it going to feel when you start kindergarten? 60% of kids in rural america start kindergarten in special ed. it doesn't make sense. we all know that. there is an answer. the answer is starting earlier and earlier and earlier. as much as i believe and applaud all of you who are putting money and efforts into helping kids at three and four-year-olds i challenge you to look at birth to three and ask you to think about what you are doing for those newborns. in the last couple of years i have visited governor indian nation in washington -- i am

thrilled to tell you there is so much optimism in getting to a mother and child early. i have a story that i love that i was visiting a family in a concrete home in the heat of central valley, california. there was a little boy. he was 11 months old. when i walked in i had about a ten month old. he is turning five on monday. this little boy didn't look up, didn't react to me at all. he was sitting in front of an episode of oprah. she is wonderful. i hope he got something from her. the mother looked depressed overwhelmed, kpaexhausted. this little boy was stagnant. to t save the children

coordinator brought something for this child along with a bag of books, a log for the mother to fill out every time she was reading to her child. she brought a ball. this little boy had never seen a boy. imagine your son with his first ball. this kid kind of looked at that ball and looked at his mom and his mom was just putting up with us frankly. she said roll that ball to your son. she did. he looked at it and couldn't believe what was happening and he rolled it back. the mother kind of sat there and coordinator said he is playing with you. do it again. she rolled it to him again. [ beep ] >> it's like the oscars. is that my time? you guys are so scary. all right. well can i tell you what

happened with the mom and child? the mother, the baby made a noise. the baby made a noise. the coordinator said he is talking to you. she said he's not talking to me. she said this is. this is speech. this is connection. say the same thing back to him. the mother did, kind of embarrassed. the child said it back. i'm telling you i saw a light switch go on for that little boy on that day. i know because we visited that mother a week later that light switch was turned on just long enough for us to catch her a week later and a week after that and a week after that. there was a connection made there. the mother knew she could play with her child, knew she could expect a response.

governor mcmaster, i'll speak with you soon. [ applause ] we have been around almost every state in the country. it comes down to how do you build the financial capability to expand early childhood services 0 to 5. it has put forth a series of bipartisan recommendations we hope you as governors will look at this tool case, tool chest of ideas and come up with and support whatever idea makes most sense for you. there is a series of ideas. you all know the financial burden that high quality early

childhood can cause. it is roughly $13,000 a year. it can be as high as $17,000 a year. it is often higher than annual in-state college tuition in if over 30 states. this is a huge financial issue for individuals all across america. i can briefly talk about social impact. programs for children who could not previously access those services. the -- to ensure families living in poverty have access to childhood services, expanding mu nins pal bonds, free up other

money that could be used for teacher salary. a prekindergarten tax credit. it has been very successful in the state of pennsylvania. it allows people who could not afford high quality early childhood services to get that. a lot are struggling with finance issues. as they both said, this is not only an education issue. it is a work force development issue. there are ideas that are percolating and social impact bonds processes that can look at

funding the expansion of high quality care. we hope you'll reach out. we hope you'll work with constituents. we turn it back over to you. jennifer and i would love to answer any questions if any governors have any questions. thank you again so much for your committee. >> i saw a child at eight months of age vibrant and then at four

years of age totally dull. the brain develops and we have to take advantage of the development of that child's brain. we are going have some questions. we are going to call on some governors here in just a minute. you know, one of the things that we have to be concerned about in our states of course is money. obviously we have to deal with that. in alabama what we have done is we have increased our pre-k funding between 10 and $20 million every year. that's why we have gone from 6% to 25%. we are try to ing to get to the level. the thing that has helped us tremendously has been the federal dollars that has been provided for us over the last three years. the $17 million we received each year helped us start new

programs and then the money we put in on the state level sustained those programs. and so that's how we approached it in the state of alabama. so now i would like to kick off our discussion by asking some of other governors. we will open this up, governor wo wolf. >> thank you very much. [ no audio ] >> closer. >> i'm trying to be heard here. i want to say something then ask a question. in pennsylvania we take this really seriously, getting our youngest citizens off to the right start in life is really important, as you point out. i proposed a 40% increase between head start and early childhood education. the goal is to get to 44,000 new

pre-k seats by the year 2020. and this is a good investment. mark, you are talking 13 to $17,000 depends on the area. they could do a good job in early childhood education. it costs over $40,000 to enca encars -- incarcerate somebody. there are other factors if a child gets off to a good start we avoid paying a lot of other social costs. in a year when pennsylvania has a very stressed budget i am proposing a big increase because i think it is a smart investment. as you pointed out, jennifer, you would like to see birth through 3. are there any models out there in the state you think are doing a good job in the birth through

three area? >> you want me to start? >> okay. i always ask permission. >> you know i'll sbrer ruinterr. >> you just did. >> yep. [ laughter ] >> there are a number of models. save the children runs an early childhood program home visiting model. there is parents, teachers, nurse family partnership. there are a number of great models running in all of your states right now. i was a former legislator for eight years. i know everyone comes in and asks every one of you for dough all year.

they ask what they are. i think you have got to ask all of the providers that are providing services including save the children not how many more kids they are serving but are the kids entering can i noter gard-- entering kindergar ready to learn. i think they are tough question to ask because the number of providers have been outdoing services for years. they have constituencies in the legislature. if we don't put some of the entities that have been doing business frankly out of business and fund the one that is are that have strong records, demand lot out of their staff they changing the taxpayers and shortchanging the kids. as you said butte teautifullybe concept of paying now or paying much more later is true. you're getting squeezed on your budget.

you have to hit your number this year. we understand that. that's why we put together a couple of financing ideas. it's not code for tax increases. you know, we wrote it and it works with republicans and democrats. we worked with governor and his new investment in the state of new hampshire. so there are ideas floating around out there. we want to encourage you to ask those tough questions of save the children in their early steps for home visiting program, nurse family partnership and teachers as well. when you raise that standard and demand more from all of us the kids are the main one that benefits. you want to add anything? i didn't hear you. that was great? >> don't get a big head. thank you.

>> thank you governor bentley. jennifer and mark, thank you for the meeting. i hope tracy price is doing good. we sent tray say selfie so jennifer could tell them she has gone to the top of the government in mississippi to make sure tracy gets help. it was an exciting time for us. the great thing about save the children is we have a state wide plan. we work for early childhood learning and this program fits exactly into this plan. it was almost as if through fate, perhaps devine intervention that save the children came to be part of this. 98% of our children are in day care just now. our plan is to put an early childhood component in that setting working with our community colleges. we have been creating in the funding. delta regional has been part of this, private funds, where ever

we can find funds we go and do so. we are going to work to make sure we expand save the children in the state of mississippi to fit those needs of those parents that cannot or have not been able to get their children into one of the day care centers that have a learning component. a lot of it is happening in the mississippi delta. there is 11 locations that's in just now. we are going to make sure we double and enhance that. thank you nar. mark, you and i have a lot of work to do ahead. thank you. >> governor sandoval. >> thank you so much for being here. i guess from a personal standpoint, you made my daughter's life last night because she got to take a picture with miss garner. it was a highlight.

not to be too nevada centric but we didn't start in a good place a few years ago. we made progress and we have a lot of distance to go from there. we developed what we call victory schools which is to add resources for children in poverty and give block grants and allow them to use some of that for pre-k. i know many of your states like mine have a large population of that and we need to make progress there. it is similar to governor bentley. we participated in that. i put money so we could add thousands of pre-k seats as well. i am particularly interested in your comments on 0 through 3. some of pushback we get is funding is great but we don't want it to be babysitting. we want it to be learning as governor brooiyant talked about. we are working to get more of

those providers certified so it can be instructional. and also, what would be your comment as well on parents saying wait a minute, don't take my baby away from me. i hear that some times. so just trying to help thread that needle so they get the instruction they need so they can be where they need to be and what would you tell those parents that are saying wait. i want my child at home? >> thank you very much, governor sandoval. your daughter is adorable. i do not believe a child needs to leave the home until it is time for preschool in order to learn. i believe we need to support the moms who are raising their moms in poverty without neighbors, without enough, without baby and mommy classes, without the excellent models of parents before them. we

that sometimes is brick by brick, child by child. you actually are doing in this state of washington because i've gone to visit your programs. and the way we do that, since save the children all over the world our mandate is to reach the hardest to reach, do the job no one wants to do. and we believe that to be true also here in the united states. so we're going out into the fingers of nowhere in the states and seeing people who can't get their children to daycare, who don't have a job to go to if they did, who are raising kids in absolutely the worst possible settings, where i am going to the grocery store with them as they try to figure out how to get the most out of their wick and food stamps money and still have enough left over for their mountain dew. these families need our support and our love, and that takes us

going to them. so the way we handle it is we hire people locally, train them like crazy so there's not the feeling of outsiders umming in and form this community again and again and are just in her face assessing her child, figuring out how we can help her, what does she need, does she need to see a special doctor, is her child having hearing problems, is his language delayed and he needs had i ears to be looked at by a specialist? does she need a -- oh, it's going to beep on me again, isn't it? i'm going to get the hook. does she need to -- is she looking for a ride to a job interview? that's what our programs focus on. and i certainly know the home visitation model has a place in every single state and i know all of you are doing it in different ways and i'm grateful. >> the only thing i would add, grochb, to that, is there are ways to evaluate how kids are doing in those first three years of life. so there are -- there's something called a peabody

picture vocabulary test which looks at the social, emotional, and cognitive development ofand kids because those first three years of life when 90% of brain growth happens it happens cognitively, socially sxem oceanly. a little kid going into prek and kindergarten doesn't know how to share or doesn't know how to interact with his or her peers, classmates then those kids are going to struggle academically as well. it's got to be a comprehensive approach and there are ways to evaluate whether organizations and systems are delivering high-quality services in that area. access bilt's obviously a big issue. but access bilt as governor inslee said without quality is not going to do it. it's a self-defeating approach. there are entities out there. we have to look at the kid, the child, socially, emotionally, cognitively when we look at how to expand the accessibility and quality of child care services.

>> governor inslee, do you have a final question? >> i wanted to follow up and then a question on what governor sandoval said. what we found in washington is you cannot succeed in early child education in a vacuum, in isolation because other things you do have to be supportive of the early education initiative. so one of the things we did first is to try to get the higher education community in the k through 12 education community and that leadership to be advocates for early childhood education. you've got to have a continuum of education to make this work. i want to mention another thing too. in this quality issue, what we have found is if you want quality you've got provide training of the people providing the services. they've got to have a little help to get that training. that's just not scholarships. our medicaid expansion has been extremely important to a lot of these service providers who are the working poor on medicaid. i just mentioned that because we all know we're going to have

discussions with the federal government about these medicaid programs. i would point out it's hard to have high-quality education if their families are in a medical bankruptcy situation. these things have to be related to one another. governor herbert, the social benefit fund we heard about in utah, impact social fund, can you give us a briefing on that? >> i can. very brief. the opportunity for us in fact to grow up your children correct ly eliminates the social costs. whether it's substance abuse, prison, eliminating gangs. the opportunity we have to save taxpayers' money to reinvest it is a significant aspect. i'd like to ask the question. this is such an important topic. we all know the rising generation need help and make sure they become the best they

can be. we're talking about educating the children. but i like to say who's educating the parents? we talked about birth through 3 or prekintar garden. i have six children, and none of them came with any instructions. and i kind of experimented along the way. they all seemed to turn out pretty good, thanks to a good mother, the first lady of utah. she has in utah part of the same thing governor inslee has to do with parenting skills. we have in fact an initiative the first lady does in utah on having people come to conferences and educational seminars and not have to reinvent the wheel but laernz learn from others who've done it and say here's the challenge we have, here's how we handle it, this will help new raising your own children. but i'd like to have -- how do we in fact merge the government responsibility with the parental responsibility and how do we in

fact educate parents on how to teachar their children become good productive citizens? >> it's a great question, governor. and the early steps to school success program which save the children runs is built on that very concept. and i'm sorry we didn't make that clear enough, that when the home visitor is going into the home they're interacting with the parents or guardians in the home. they're teaching them how to read to their kids. as you know, that kind of sounds like a crazy statement, but that is often the case. and if the parents don't read well which we deal with on a regular basis the idea as jennifer will tell you of teaching them how to do nursery rhymes, how to speak to their kids. it's the hearing those words, hearing those lullabies that your wife did just naturally to your kids is all part of the growth cognitively of that little baby. and working with the family and transitioning them into prek programs or services in the school.

oftentimes the parents have had bad experiences in the local elementary school where their kid is going to go. so we wok on setting up experiences in the school for the parent to be reintroduced into the school, to meet the teachers, the principals, to have reading time in the school during after-school teams or on weekends. so there's a strong component of the parent education piece of it. and there's a strong component of trying to build those relationships between the home and the school. which in many cases as i said have often been negative in the past. a lot of these families in utah and across the country, there's not a lot of mobility. and parents will have a negative experience in ps-180, their elementary school, and then their kids end up going there and their teachers are some of the ones that taught them or their younger siblings and had negative experiences. that's a really key component to it. and i think you ought to ask those tough questions not only to us but other providers as well, are they makinging that connection with the families. it's hard as you know and as your wife who we met last night

told us it's tough to do but it's critically important. and do you want to -- >> governor rickets, did you have a question? >> thank you. i wanted to follow up a little bit with mr. schreiber. and this is actually for anybody else who would like to weigh in on this from their experience as well. when you're looking at how you measure outcomes are there three or five things that you can focus on -- i'm going to make up five examples which indicate my ignorance of this. if a child goes into kindergarten we know when they go into the third grade standardized tests their scores are going to be x percent better. so we focus on making sure they know their abcs. that's one of the things we want to measure with our prek providers. are there things like that we can really focus on in the state to say if we can improve the training and measure those specific things so when we hit kindergarten we know we'll get

better results or huh do you think about measuring the outcomes for that? because i know one of the other challenges is standardized tests for kindergartners and prekindergartners isn't always the easiest thing. but what are the things you can point us to? >> it's a great question. for save the children we use something called the peabody picture vocabulary test which is a comprehensive series avenue cessments that look at the chly emotionally and the teachers look at it and can judge if the kind is interacting with their peers well, if they're sharing, if they're exhibiting a lot of these emotional intelligence behaviors as well as the cognitive behaviors of holding a book, knowing how to flim a page. when i was in the legislature we had a hearing and i asked a series of kindergarten teachers, can you figure out the kids that are going to graduate from high school. and to a person they will tell

you they know what kid is going to graduate from high school and which one isn't in kindergarten. if the kid comes in -- jennifer's seen this. the kid comes in and they don't he no how to put their jacket on, they don't know how it hold a book and they're 5 years old and they're 18 months as she said behind a kid who knows all that stuff, you're going to spend billions of dollars -- hundreds of millions of dollars in nebraska. as a country we're going to be spending billions to try to get that kid up to grade level. in most cases it's not going to work. >> so mark, i'm afraid i do need to interrupt. in santa monica, california where my children are lucky enough to go to school kindergarten readiness to us is that your child is reading, they can write their name, their numbers. they probably know a song at least in another language. but kindergarten readiness for the families we serve is about having the patience to listen to a story and sit still. it's about not knowing how to read a book but knowing what a book is. if there's one book for every poor child in the -- if there's one book for every 13 poor

children in the united states and on average 13 books for every middle-class or upper-class child in the united states and imagine how many children's books you all have had in your homes, these families don't even have books in their homes. so it's about knowing what the book is. not knowing the alphabet, it's about knowing that letters exist. it's a whole concept less than you would even imagine as a parent. it's about the brain being set up to learn. i was thinking of a story in palmdale, california. i was on a site visit there. and it was a home where english was a second language and there wasn't much english spoken at all. but the mother had three children. two of them had gone through school without our programs. she had been a parent for a while. she had lovely kids she told me, they just were struggling in

school. but her youngest, our home visitor brought hot wheels, hot wheel cars, and this little boy, you can marnlgs it's kind of like a little boy giddiness and i felt giddy when i saw them, who doesn't love a hot wheel. and she was showing the mother how to take things around the house. an old box, some toilet paper rolls, to make a garage for the child. and then she said let's teach him the colors. and she was saying all of this in spanish to the mother. and they would say the color in spanish, they'd say it in english. they were counting. she was just showing the mother, educating the mother, encouraging her and telling her you can do it, you can play with this child in a way that is going to expand his mind. and i saw those two flop on their bellies on the floor and do a picture walk through a book that neither of them could read but both of them were giggling and having so much fun. and so it is about parent education. it's about parent encouragement. it's about wrapping your arms around parents who are struggli

struggling. and it's about kindergarten readiness is achievable. it's something we can do but it's very difficult to measure. unless you're in santa monica, california where they'd better be ready to go to harvard. >> those games jennifer's describing are developing a child's fine motor skills. so putting the blue thing in the blue hole and the green square in the green square hole are all ways to develop the fine motor skill of the kids. and social scientists will tell you and brain scans show that when kids are stimulated that way their brain is actually growing at a faster clip than kids that don't have those experiences. in washington state at university of washington in ilabs they do brain scans of kids that get stimulated with those extra words and it's millions of words difference from a parent who is not living in poverty versus one who is. and the brain is growing faster. pat cole, who governor inslee knows well, will come to your state and show you these brain

scans. it's amazing. the science now which was not around when head start was started 50-plus years ago. showing how brain growth happens and how these kids will do better in the state of neb and make more money long term. but you're planting a seed that you're probably not going to see blossom as governor. it takes guts to make that investment because those kids aren't going to be in high school and college or car mechanics or whatever it is when you're governor. but you're planting those seeds and you're going to be saving your state long term and you're going to be doing economic development work long term. sorry, governor bentley. >> thank you, mark. our final question comes from governor malloy. >> thank you, governor. this has been a great and exciting presentation and i've enjoyed it immensely. i just want to share an experience. this is about 20 years ago. in my home city i was mayor. just about 20 years ago this

month we declared we would provide a prekindergarten experience for every child in the city. regardless of their financial circumstances. and it was based on the research that you were just referencing. but i will also tell you even in a state that has led on kindergarten programs and other preschool programs that the thing that we did is create an office of the early child. it is a cabinet-level position with its own commissioner that coordinates the activities of five different departments that touch children early in their age and coordinates activities with a broad array of not inform profits and coordinates activities with local boards of education as well. if you really want this to be important in your state i'd be happy to share the executive order. i'd be happy to get you the legislation.

happy to have our early childhood commissioner with anybody in your state that might be desirous of doing it. but when you declare that there is a house for early children. when you declare that this is as important as anything else in your cabinet. you will be amazed at how quickly people will move and how seriously they'll take your commitment. >> thank you, governor. and thank you so much, jennifer and mark. thank you so much for sharing your time with us and as i say, your passion for the same passion we have for improving the lives of children. thank you. i know that you have to depart. so thank you for being with us today. >> thank you. [ applause ]

>> the reason i'd like to mention as we talk about our programs across the state and across the country is as governor milloy just mentioned, in alabama we actually have an office of school readiness and it is under the governor's office. it's not under the department of education. and that makes a tremendous difference. it takes away a lot of the bureaucracy we have in our state departments of education. in alabama i would like to talk a little bit about what we really do. since i've been governor six

years, we've gone from 6% enrollment to 25%. and as we reach the 50% level then every child who wants their child to go to a first-class prek program will have that opportunity. we have worked very hard on quality and not on quantity. and that's why we're one of only two states that has for the last ten years met this first-class level, this award that's given to the national institute for early education research. we have put a special emphasis on the quality of our programs. these are grant programs. some of the programs that do not do what they should do. they have their grant taken away from them. and so they're expected to do exactly what they're supposed to do and we're seeing results. as i say in alabama, if you

couldn't prove it, we don't pay for it. and i think we need to take money away from programs that don't work. if you can show statistically and we can show statistically it truly works, and we're very proud of our program. i've got a great commissioner who deals with this, she's done a fantastic job, and we're going to continue to work hard in alabama to reach that level so that every parent will have the opportunity to voluntarily send their child to a first-class prek program. now i would like to introduce our next guest. mike petters. mr. petters is president and ceo of huntington ingalls industries. this is america's largest military ship-building company and their company is a provider of services to the nuclear energy and oil and gas markets.

he's also with blueprint virginia, which is a strategic planning initiative spearheaded by the virginia chamber of commerce that pursues multiple goals related to early childhood education. those goals include improving access to high-quality early learning programs and also for identifying opportunities for public and private partnerships. in addition, he has participated in the work of the hamilton project, which is a d.c.-based organization seeking to advance america's promise for opportunity, prosperity, and growth with a special focus on including and eliminating the poverty gap, which our prek programs do. school readiness is a major part of this. please join me in welcoming mr. mike petters. [ applause ] >> before mike speaks i would also like to give a special

recognition to mr. petters, who has 22,000 employees in the commonwealth of virginia, but his company as you know, every aircraft carrier ever built in the history of this great country was built at his company. and we're very proud and we have several under construction. the largest naval base in the world. so to a great virginian. i want to thank you, mike. and a great united states naval academy grad. >> well, thanks, governor. i'm here today as the cref huntington ingalls industry, a fortune 500 company. i'm not exactly sure who set me up on the agenda to follow that first thing. so -- and i heard one time that everything that needs to be said has been said already but not by everybody who needs to say it. so i'm going to try to fulfill my obligation in that regard. as a public company ceo i'm really familiar with safe harbor statements. so my first safe harbor

statement is i am not a professional educationer. i am a business man. i happen to be married to a professional educator who teaches 3-year-olds. i have -- my wife and i have two daughters who teach in elementary education. so there are professional educators in my household but i'm uniquely unqualified to talk about that. second, i'd like to recognize that as governor mcauliffe said, we are the largest industrial site of employment in the state of -- in the commonwealth of virginia. we're also the largest employer in the state of mississippi at our ingalls ship building facility in pascagoula. and governor bennett, i actually believe we're the largest employer in your state because 3,000 of our ship builders that work in pascagoula live in alaba alabama. but beyond that, we actually have a built in america supply chain that represents 5,000 suppliers across all 50 states. so to commemorate all of your role in the great ship-building

enterprise we've actually stuck in your folder a little poster we've made that shows a little carrier with state flags on it. because when one of our sailors is riding a ship and it goes over the horizon in harm's way that ship might have come from one of the ship yards in mississippi or virginia but it represents every fabric of our being and everything we do together very well. we're honored to be the place where all that comes together but we absolutely recognize that all of you are ship builders and we're very glad and very proud of the partnership that we have with each one of you. i'm here as a businessman and i want to give you? perspective on this. i was sitting at the naval war college a few years ago and secretary of the navy was ray mavis, former governor of mississippi. and he made the statement that if you take the population of this country today from the ages

of 18 to 24 years old and you take out of that population, you take out the folks who do not have a high school diploma, who have had some kind of criminal activity or who have some sort of physical fitness issue that would preclude them from joining the armed services, you are left with in that population of 18 to 24, you are left with 25% of that population is actually eligible to be recruited into ow armed services. 25%. now, i was kind of staggered by that sitting in the audience because as i sat there and i listened to what he talked about when he talked about high school diplomas or g.e.d.s, he talked about criminal records, when he was talking about the physical thing, obesity, thikz that were in our control i actually thought for a minute those are the same people i'm trying to recruit.

he's trying to recruit them, i'm trying to recruit them, what are we doing with the other 75%? about a month later i was in one of my daughter's classrooms. she was teaching fifth grade at the time. and that voice kind of came back to me that said 1 in 4 is going to be employable. 1 in 4 is going to be paying for all of the things that you have to pay for for the other three. and i looked at her classroom of 30 students and i said 1 in 4, even i can do the math, there's probably 7 or 8 kids that are going to carry the load for the rest of the classroom. i'm not surprised by the comment, and my wife would say the same thing, you can tell in kindergarten the kids that have got it and are going to go and the kids that don't have it and are not going to go. and so starts to say maybe there's something we need to do just from being in the business side of this thing, there are some things we need to do to make sure that when those ships go over the horizon 25, 30 years from now that they still represent the best of what america can offer.

the second thing i would say is thinking about it from the business standpoint what we know about ship building is if it costs us a dollar to build something in a shop, if we have to move it out of the shop and instead of building it in the shop we build it out in the weather, in what we call a platen area, which is an exposed area before it goes to the ship in the dock area, it's like three or four times a much to build it in that less hospitable environment. and if you can't build it until you actually get the ship in the water it can cost five to eight times as much to build it. and i step back, and we're the largest employer in a couple of states. we're heavily involved in the workforce development pipeline of trying to find employees, and i look at what we're investing to take people who have graduated from high school, who have the ability to come to work for us, and then i think about all the money that we're trying to spend in that area to make

sure they're actually employable on our behalf and i think if we can start spending that money on the front end of the pipeline we would get a pretty large return on the investment. in our business we think of the 1-3-8 rule. our suppliers that are in your states they provide us the most efficient way for the products we need to build the ships. why can't we think of our educational system as a pipeline as well? and as we're putting all this money in at the end of the pipeline to try to fix what's coming out of the pipe, wouldn't it make sense that we put some money up on the front end of the pipeline and invest in that to make sure the return would be pretty significant and pretty substantial i think? that seems to make some logical sense to me. i've heard and read and we heard statistics earlier about the return on investment or the different things that go there.

i think you can find all kinds of studies that will give you all kinds of numbers. i've heard 16% r.o.i. $30,000 for each student. i've heard all kinds of numbers. i've never heard anybody say it was a bad investment. i get a lot of folks bringing ideas to me all the time just like you. and if it doesn't make sense we say no. i have never had anybody be able to present to me a case where this is nothing but a straight up good investment to make. the third thing i would say is we are right now in our society in manufacturing and in industry, we are looking at the change of the workday. what it means to work for someone and what it means to be an employee for someone to your career is changing rapidly. what you knew when you started working at the age of 20 or 18 or 16 or 25 will not carry you all the way to the time that you

are ready to retire. you're going to have to become -- the workforce of the future is going to have to be a workforce that loves learning and is excited about the opportunity to try to do something new. and one thing my wife would say is when she gets her 3-year-old class, her objective in the year she has those kids is to take them and unlock their love for learning. and if we can unlock the love for learning in kids that are 3, 4, 5 years old we are setting ourselves up for great success 25, 30, 50 years from now. why would a businessman who cares about quarterly results care about what happens 50 years from now? i mean, apoort from being a good citizen. well, last month we signed a contract that will build a ship that will deliver to the navy, "uss enterprise" again, it will deliver to the navy in 2027. in 2052 the ship will come back

to the shipyard to be refueled. and in 2077 the ship will come back to the shipyard to be inactivated. so i'm probably the fortune 500 ceo with the longest horizon because i can it will you what dock and what pier the enterprise is going to be at in 2077 when we go do that work. but i would suggest to you for all of the horizon i have it is my view that the government service and government activity should have the longest horizon of us all. and in those places where it doesn't make sense for the private sector to step in the government has to kind of make that make sense because it's got a long-term horizon on it. and if you can get the kind of returns that we're talking about here over that kind of time frame then i think the sailors 50 years from now and the country 50 years from now will

be in a good place. absent that we're going to be the country that has ships where we're not going to be able to put people on it because they're not going to be qualified to sail them and we'll be lucky to have ships because we may not have a workforce that's qualified to build it. i look forward to being here today and i look forward to your questions. you're doing what we're doing on the state level. he we're trying to recruelty jobs and retain jobs. and if you don't build the workforce with education on a strong foundation we're not going to have a strong workforce. i can't see why people can't get this.

i can't believe people don't understand the most important part of learning is the early years. it makes children want to learn. it's a lifelong goal. governor ducey. >> mike, thank you very much for your service and your commitment in the state of virginia. i'm curious what can we do to incentivize business owners and ceos to make the same type of commitment in our states to the worthy work you're look at? >> i think actually across the board i think each of you probably know what incentivizes companies in your area. different things work for different folks and different states are going to have different approaches. i would tell you from a public company standpoint, cash is king. and so if you're able to incentivize companies in a way

that helps them with their cash flow, their cash profile, to make these investments in some ways, then i think that that can be very, very helpful. whether it is credits or, you know, deductions, however it works best in your state i think makes the most sense. public/private partnerships are starting to work well in lots of different parts of the government business interface. i think there's probably a range of alternatives there. what we've done is we've actually, last year, we went so far as to, we gave out over 30 scholarships to children of employees to go to preschool. now we don't know that those 30 kids are going to come work for us in 15 or 20 years. but you know, there's an i believe button in here that says we start down that path, if we get a 30-1 or 15-1 return on that investment in our

community, that's good for our business and for the states that we're in and for the country. so we will do that again. we just announced the program again this year and our employees are submitting their applications. i can't tell you, i can't tell you with as much emotion and passion as you heard earlier but i get the thank you notes from the parents whose kids are going to school who would not have been going to school but for the scholarship program we're offering. so we're very excited about that. and i think that my encouragement is for business leaders to step up and move their horizons out a little bit. >> governor bevin? >> thanks, mike, again for being here, for caring enough to share your thoughts and for channeling the informed members of your family as well. truly appreciate that. we're not going to resolve what i'm going to ask in this discussion but you mentioned something a moment ago, mr.

shriver, before you as well, you talked about the fact that you were able to help folks in your company to send their children to preschool. i think every one of us understands that all science, 100% of it, reinforces the fact that cognitive development, the firing of little synapses and the creation of meddling starts earlier and the more the better at an early age. i think everybody agrees with that. and you're able to help facilitate that for employees and others have variations on that teem. thelma. mr. shriver made mention of the program probably most prevalently used and that's head start. regardless of our ideology, regardless of the prevalence of head start in our states or not, head start started in 1965, we pumped about 265-odd billion dollars into that program. the last time anyone looked at efficacy, congress asked health and human services to look at this, about eight years ago. they did an exhaustive study,

over the years gathered data, looked at 5,000 children. very scientifically robust randomly selected, half of whom went into head start and half did not. and they followed them from the head start age, the preschool age up through first, second, third grade. and what they found is by first grade frankly any academic advantage had begun to dissipate. by third grade beyond zero impact. no difference whatsoever. in fact saw some negative differences as it related to those children and ability to assimilate socially which is also an important thing for employers to think about. because there is no substitute for parents and yet not every parent has a home, as we just heard, where this is possible. so the question i would ask us to begin to ask ourselves and i would think at the nga we would think about focusing on a laser like this by creating subsets among ourselves who could understand how best we can use the hundreds of billions of dollars. because we're 52 years into this. and there's never been a study. not only is that the most

recent, there's never been a study sanctioned by the government or any outside entity that has ever proven there is any efficacy whatsoever into the hundreds of billions of dollars beyond the third grade. if we all know and facts also show that a child not performing at a third grade level is not a child who's going to be able in all likelihood to compete well at higher levels. so then what are we pumping the money into? we all agree it's got to happen. we all know it needs to happen. there's no scientific evidence that would refute that. so i guess the question we need to ask ourselves is where does the money go? and that is one where we as governors should demand of congress where we're sending our money, getting a channel back to us through programs that are arguably good, have all good intent but are proving no actual value add. the question we need to ask ourselves, what is the better mousetrap and what responsibility do we have as states to do some of the very things you're doing within your company, with other governors and what they're doing within

their respective states? how can we take best practices and rethink the idea that we're throwing hundreds of billions of dollars into a hole and we're getting nothing in return? and it's great in theory. and everyone's for it. but we are wasting money. and we are compromising the ability for that ship to come into harbor in 2077 and have anyone capable of handling what needs to be done to it. again, we won't resolve it here. it is something we truly would be derelict in our duties if we don't look at this seriously and come up with solutions. frankly, we're going to drive it and not congress. >> governor bevin, i would like to answer that also. in alabama, as i say, for the last ten years we have been ranked in top two in the country. we actually partner with head start. we add our program to head start to make head start a good program. head start is not a good

program. statistically, you're exactly right. but we have statistics in alabama to prove what we are doing in our state is actually working. but we give the grant on top of the head start grant and we actually work with churches. we work with head start. we work with public education. most of them public education. the other thing that i am pushing in alabama right now is the development of a degree in higher education. not kindergarten through sixth grade. but birth through third grade. because unless we expand what we are doing in the pre-k programs in alabama to kindergarten, first, second, and third grade, they are losing some of that. but if you get them at third grade level, if they can read and know their math, they are on their way. that's what we're doing. we are working with higher ed to develop those degrees, looking at it at a different grade level.

the other thing we are doing is we are teaching parents how to be teachers. and let them do it in their homes. so we have a program that's called parents as teachers. and so we are doing that in the homes and so i think that's making a difference also. you're right about head start. there are no statistics. but we have statistics on our first class pre-k program that truly shows that it works. and so we're happy to share that with any state or anybody in the country. because we've had some great gains. >> let me simply say, and this is exactly what i'm talking about, best practices. channeling things that work. scaling those and using those more nationally so we're not coming alongside something that's broken and trying at additional cost to fix it as you're doing and doing well but how can we not only learn from that and maybe that is it. maybe replicate that. but at a price that's maybe more than if you were to start from scratch using knowledge, insight

and success that you've had. again a challenge i'm throwing out to us as an organization. if we are to have a real effect and indeed they demand of us, people that send us here in the respective roles that we do it then we need to ask hard questions like this and be willing to learn from best practices and benchmark off things that are happening in alabama and other states. and i challenge us to think about this because we're losing this battle. mike, you're speaking to this. we are losing this battle unfortunately despite all good intent. all agreement that it needs to be done and a tremendous amount of money to make it happen. and we can't afford to lose. >> mike, thank you for being with us today and in sharing with us on a level that deals with economic development. because work force training and we've got it look at beginning just like you're talking about for work force training. so thank you for that. i would like to thank all of our presenters who have been with us today.

my fellow governors, thank you for your questions. i would like to say that on june the 11th and the 12th this year in denver, colorado we will convene the 2017 governor's education symposium. this meeting will bring governors together and we want to learn from each other at that meeting. so any of you who would like to attend, please be in touch with steven parker. and now what i will do is unless there is any further questions -- then i will turn the program back over to governor mcauliffe. >> let's give governor bentley and bevin a round of applause. we have on addition to tomorrow, last week i was out speaking at the rsa cyberconference at a private meeting with admiral rogers. he had some very important information. i asked him if he would come to

our meeting. admiral rogers as you know is the director of the national security agency, the commander of the u.s. cybercommand and the chief of select services and he's agreed to come to our governors only meeting tomorrow. secure briefing. if you want to do it, it is at 3:00 to 3:45 tomorrow in the treasury room if you would like to meet with admiral rogers. he moved his schedule around to be here with the governors. i thank him for that. if you are interested in coming, please let anna davis know and she will write names down. i would like to give new governors 30 seconds so we know one another. governor scott, welcome. great to have you here. >> thank you very much. tremendous honor for me to be here, as well as my wife, diana. you have shown us such support and warm welcome. i really appreciate that. i also appreciate the bipartisan nature of this organization. i worked with the national lieutenant governors association for a few years previous and

found the same outreach of respect and so forth. in vermont i'm known as a pretty successful stock car racer. i've been racing for the last 30 years. continue to race. i'm negotiating my security at this very moment to see if they will let me continue to race. i'm thinking maybe a blue light in front of me might allow me to win a race or two in the future. but i'm also a very avid cyclist. i cycle about 4,000 miles a year. we have a short season up there, about six, seven months. it shows you the diversity of vermont in many different ways. north example would be bernie sanders and phil scott being elected in the same year. that's another sign of diversity. 20 years ago i didn't have a political bone in my body. i had no interest in politics whatsoever. i was a frustrated business owner. in business for 30 something year in the construction industry. i started complaining a lot then what they are doing to me right down the street at the legislature.

finally i got tired of complaining enough, so i stepped up to run myself, served five terms in the senate. six -- three terms as lieutenant governor and now as governor. sometimes i feel they don't get it. but that's the political reality. i have always treated people with respect as i have served in my entire life. it has proved to make me successful. listen to others and treat them with respect and civility. and i get something done as a result. and i think when we see the polarization across america and here in d.c. i believe that we can lead by example. and i think this organization can help do that. i thank you very much for having me here and i look forward to getting to know you better over the next couple of years. >> thank you, phil. [ applause ] >> america's newest governor

from the great state of south carolina, governor haley now ensconced at the u.n. and now governor mcmaster with us. >> thank you. i appreciate your warm welcome and on behalf of peggy and our family, we have delighted in making some new friends and see something old ones back from the reagan administration. this is a great organization. i was attorney general for eight years. that was a great organization. these meetings. this group of governors of course is the group that really has their fingers on the thoughts of issues facing the country. not only are we, you, involved in making the laws but also in implementing them and seeing what works and what doesn't. so it looks to me like we've got a great opportunity in our country now and people are looking for leadership and from the conversations i've been listening to and some from afar over the years, i've got great confidence in this organization if we can stick together and

make suggestions and do things that will work for the country. so on behalf of myself as well as peggy, we are delighted to be here with you. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, henry. next two, interesting. both their parent were governors and their respective states and honored to have from the great state of new hampshire, chris sununu here with us today. >> thank you very much. i was sitting here thinking as we were going through the initial session on early childhood development, early childhood education, it is a great example of understanding what the priorities are. making sure when we tum together as governors we don't talk about fluff, we talk about things that matter. we can talk to policy all day but to governor bevin's point earlier it's often about dollars, it's about implementation, results, outcomes. and that's the burden and responsibility that governors bear over other legislators. but when we take on with great

seriousness and to see the nga get kicked off in such a positive way i think is a great testament to the leadership we have as part of this group. and i think what we can do and what we're willing to do to make all of our states better for our citizens. thank you again. on behalf of my wife vallie and myself it's great to be here. much more modernized than i remember running around the halls here back in 1987. but -- which is i think a great testament to really moving the ball forward and keeping our eye on the prize. >> thank you, chris. [ applause ] the great commonwealth of puerto rico. governor rosaio 37. >> thank you. on behalf of my wife beatriz and myself, we are happy to be here. before you ask, no, i'm not the junior staffer. i'm actually the governor of puerto rico. it's been a funny couple of events. they've actually saluted some of

my staff as the governor. so i sort of go a little bit under the radar. but only 54 days on the job we have been able to pass through 15 structural reforms in puerto rico. we're very excited. it is a challenging job as most of you know. puerto rico is going through some tough times. we're about to submit a fiscal oversight plan within the next 72 hours. we would like to ask support of this organization as we push forward. so as you can see with so many challenges, people have said or have wondered, if i am crazy for taking this job. why would a neuro scientist jump in politics? what we discussed today is a particular reason why i jumped into politics. seeing that the overwhelming science shows that growth and learning from 0 to 3 is out there. it's compelling. but we're not doing nearly as much about it as we should be doing.

i ponder the following question, how do we stipulate to all the people, all the leaders, how important all these sorts of issues are. how can we make it one of the main street missions. how do we quantify? and not only think about this in free short term implication or long-term implications it will have in terms of giving, you know, opportunities to the children, but quantifying quality of life element to the parents in the mid to short term that this happens. all of these questions are wonderful. would like to be a very integral part of this organization and you're all welcome to puerto rico. let us host you when you're out there. >> thank you, richard. for governor mcmaster, 55th in the states and territories, we have with us the 54th, after election day, but the new

governor of the great state of north carolina, roy cooper is here with us today. >> thank you, governor mcauliffe. i always heard you were a shrinking violet, and i guess that's not true. greetings from north carolina. people ask me what i want at the end of the day from this job. i often say i want a north carolina that is better educated, that's healthier, that has more money in their pockets and that they have opportunities to live a more abundant and purposeful life. that's what i want. that's what i've told cabinet secretaries that i've interviewed and people who come to work for this administration. it's been a great first 56 days as governor. i'm delighted to come here and be a part of this organization. i think we have probably never been as polarized politically as we are now. both in my state of north

carolina and across the country. and i think what people want more than ever are a people who are willing to sit down, roll up their sleeves, and find out okay, where can we agree? where can we achieve consensus? i think that this organization is one where we can help to forge those areas of consensus. we'll disagree when we know we need to and stand up for our beliefs. but there are so many areas where i think we can work together for the betterment of the people in our respective states and territories. so i'm glad to be here. i practiced law for a number of years. i was in the state legislature. i served as attorney general. i'm ready to do this job and ready to take advice from all of you about how can i do it better. thanks a lot. >> thank you, roy. we will convene as soon as this

meeting ends governors only lunch. we will start out with the five standing committees. we have been working tirelessly on the nga staff. we're going to vote on these. we have a very big lengthy agenda. i ask you to be on time so we can move through that. and frank luntz will come in in the second part of the lunch and go through a national poll he just completed. thank you. this meeting is now adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [ room noise ]

♪ room noise ] we are just about to g