me, their acceptance of me -- they did. draftingon that committee only because i was a ranking member. me as equalccepted and as their superior. it allowed me to know i can negotiate with the best of them. announcer: in the weeks ahead, we'll appear from colin medley and nancy johnson. watch on american history television on c-span3. next, to the center for american progress in washington

for a discussion on the challenges and benefits of so-called community schools and whereional strategy, schools partner with community agencies to allocate resources to children and adults. this is about an hour and a half. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] >> earlier this month, lebron james made headlines for his i promise school in akron. thought a remarkable topic event, but the concept behind it reflects an approach that has taken hold in innovative school districts country.e

our program will discuss that community schools are a transformative strategy to ensure that schools address all the needs that must be met, such as providing meals -- meals, dental or vision care, mental health counseling, and afterschool programs. this is an idea that stretches back into the 19th century. it is taking hold in more and more districts. communitycause schools have been shown to improve student achievement by examining chronic absenteeism and strengthening ties between family and educators in their communities. we know the education system today is not yet fully equipped to educate all students at a high level, especially those in low income communities, that argue for a greater use of the community schools model.

there is a chance to discuss this important topic today. before i get the program started, i would like to make a couple of introduction. able will be monitoring today's panel. i am sad to say that thursday is his last day with us. headed to the harvard graduate school of education next week. part ofeen an integral the team, working on everything from community schools to discipline reforms. but we be sorely missed, are pleased he is leading this event today. without further ado, i am honored to welcome our keynote speaker, a progressive leader who has embraced bold ideas to provide economic opportunity for all of the residents of the city, the mayor of philadelphia.

since taking office, has leadership has led to the enactment of progressive policies, ranging from expanding pre-k, toe--- quality investing in comprehensive workforce training. mayor kenney understands that children and families need more than just excellent teachers in order to arrive at school each day ready to learn. he recognizes that agencies serving children and families can have a greater impact when they work together. that is why he promised to create 25 community schools across the city of philadelphia and has continued to press forward with this goal. in independent evaluation released last year showed the community's school initiative met key benchmarks for establishing a city level system of support. mayor kenny's initiative exemplars --mayor kenney's initiative exemplifies what is needed to overcome challenges of

poverty and rising inequality to make social mobility a reality for all families. so with that, please join me in welcoming the 99th mayor of philadelphia, jim kenney. [applause] mayor kenney: thank you very much and good morning. it is a pleasure to be here today. i would like to thank the center for american progress for hosting this event. i would like to recognize communities and schools, not just for their involvement in today's event, but also for their vision and leadership which benefits schools and students in communities across the country. based on the success of community schools in so many of those communities, i was inspired to expand the initiative in philadelphia. as the mayor of a large city which is struggling economically, we value community schools as a way to fight poverty on two timelines. investing in student success will strengthen our neighborhoods and economy over time. increased educational attainment reduces the transmission of poverty between generations.

quality schools attract and retain families as well as employers. this process takes time, generations. in the meantime, our students and their families need access to basic necessities. access to food, jobs. our city, where one in four students live in poverty, we cannot ask your residence to it for those things. by expanding school-based services to community schools, we are making an immediate difference in setting the stage for long-term transformation. creating community schools also presents more opportunities for the city of philadelphia and our local school district to work together, to collaborate. being aligned and sharing the work just makes sense for all institutions. after all, we are serving the same students. we have the same goals for their well-being and their success. those students's families rely on writing with city services regularly so why not meet them in the schools in the neighborhoods where they actually live? well community schools have the potential to create efficiencies and pivot city resources where

they are needed, they are still required additional investment. back in 2016, we realized we would need additional funding to the initiative off the ground and ensure the right amount of stopping and support. -- staffing and support. piece together the initiative without adequate resources and plan for sustainability. that is why we want to find the initiative that would expand access to quality pre-k and rebuild a program that will revitalize neighborhood parks, recreation centers, playgrounds, and libraries across our city. these programs do not just have a funding source in common. together, they create a continuing for philadelphia children at every age and throughout each day of the year. two years later we are off to a , great start. act our first 12 community schools, we have successfully gone through a thorough needs assessment, established school committees made up of stakeholders and expanded programs and partnerships in every school.

in these schools we are seeing , new services and traditions emerge. at one elementary in north philadelphia, the first monday of every month is a community night featuring cooking classes, student performances, and meaningful interactions with city agencies and local nonprofits. at south philadelphia high school, community classes allow students and community members to shop for clothing and necessities all for free. monthly parent cafes bring families together in a safe space to talk about challenges and learn about important services. in --s are popping up popping up in many of the schools, expanding conversations about nutrition.

we are also looking that -- every community school partnered with the office of arts, culture, and the creative economy to expand access to arts education and host a workshop performed by local artists. our goal over the next five years is to establish 20 community schools across the city. as we grow, we are committed to completing an underpinning the school district's academic goals and interventions. by focusing on immediate and long-term barrier reduction and expanding free pre-k at the same time, we can prepare students to arrive in school ready to learn and what we have learned from this and other cities is community schools should be developed and designed not just based on needs, but on assets as well. in the case of philadelphia, our extensive parks and recreation system, extensive nonprofit sector, and wealth of universities and hospitals means our particular model is very focused on partnerships. we believe we can build campuses, resources around each community school. coordination, not reinvention. investment in education and

services and pathways to implement are not just long-term investments, but also a key part of our public safety strategy now as well. that is why i am proud to be one of the founding mayors of the smart on crime initiative and grateful for the space to work with other mayors who understand the need for equity and opportunity, not pipelines to incarceration in the communities. by looking at our schools and neighborhoods as campuses and remembering to view students and neighbors as residents, we set the stage for the city to explore even more opportunities to align with and support schools. now more than ever, we have the leverage and rationale to work together. in the last year, school governance in philadelphia shifted from a statement commission back to school board. we have always been in the same boat. now it is easier to row together -- i am proud of the work we have done in two years in philadelphia and optimistic about the years to come. i do not want to minimize the hard work and challenges.

for example, fighting for funding to sustain the program was not easy. we had the largest city to tax food and beverages, and that is -- has brought a host of challenges on the beverage industry, and they get a lot of money, trust me. they held us up for two years. because of the beverage tax fund, we can directly serve 6000 students and their families each year. we have matched and leveraged additional funding to serve even more. another area where we are learning is about partnerships. breaking down the silos between the school district and the city is an ongoing effort that will take some time. everyone believes in the benefits of this change, but designing new agreement about staffing and data sharing take time, and you cannot be effective without clear roles and metrics. we also have to balance the urgency of the work against the importance of listening and learning. we do not want to develop a program that residents will not use or set forth a vision that is not wholeheartedly shared by our partners. we are proud of our short-term successes as well as the foundation we have laid for

larger, long-term transformation in our neighborhoods. i want to close by acknowledging that will work was and continues to be inspired and informed by other communities's best practices from cincinnati to new york city. community schools are unique to their neighborhoods and a successful initiatives adapt their region. we are grateful we are not inventing the wheel entirely. whoave learned from so much have came before us and we learned from the cities and districts that follow behind us. met with every principle in our city on a monthly basis. our kids are smart. our kids are pure. arcades do not see brace. they want to be loved and nurtured and talked. if our children are not reading

in great level by third or they go to the corner and hostile to make a living. -- hustled to make a living. today thaty handheld the trump administration approved a $719 billion defense budget with the exception of giving our soldiers and sailors raises, everything else is a mess. think about what we can do without $700 billion -- with that what we can do for $700 billion. education throughout our country if we had those dollars repurposed for the purpose of educating our kids for the next 10, 20, 30 years of job creation.

and will not be coal mining i can trust you. it will be in i.t., innovation, and all those things we need to get our kids ready for. we would be doing a better service to our country by spending of money on our children and educating them and getting competitive with china and europe and other places as opposed to flexing our muscles and acting like we actually were a soldier. he had a chance to be in wasn't. he chose five times not to be. i get a little agitated and emotional about what is going on. i think we have no choice but to tough up. -- seek help. that is why we did the beverage and we are taking that beverage tax and funding our schools. we are ready to take this challenge and responsibility onto ourselves. thank you for inviting me here today did i have enjoyed -- enjoy this discussion. we are thrilled with our

community schools. we are happy we won the beverage tax lawsuit, which held us back for almost two years. and we are moving forward to fully expand pre-k, to fully expand our preschools, and to rebuild our parts and libraries so people feel there is some equity in their lives that the government cares about them and wants to see them succeed. have a good day, and thank you. [applause] >> before we moved to our panel, we have the opportunity to ask mayor kenney a couple of questions. taylor has a mic and will bring it to anyone in the audience, but opening up for a couple of questions. yes? >> my name is mark, and i am here on the half of the rebuild america's school infrastructure coalition. i wanted to ask you, what role do school facilities play in

your vision of community schools? i know philadelphia has aging schools. there is a recent three-part editorial published in the flood of the inquirer. can you speak to that a little bit? mayor kenney: again, since we have merged our city and schools again, we have been in close contact with our board of education. there has been passed analyses -- past analyses of what our schools need in terms of infrastructure. last time i looked about $5 billion of infrastructure needs. we will try to address them as best we can based on the amount of revenue and opportunity we had to pay for it. we have prioritized the needs. we have issues with lead still. we have issues with facilities's heating. we do not have air-conditioning in most of our schools. our schools for the most part are between 70 and 100 years old. they are big bulky buildings that need a lot of work. we are addressing those.

i think we have the ability since we have taken back control of our schools to use city resources and public property and other places to contribute to that effort. i tried to get a real estate tax passed -- increase passed. it increase the housing stock value and commercial value. and was not a good time to try to get additional dollars in our real estate tax increase, but people say to me, i do not want to pay these taxes. i don't have kids in the school district. i'm going to move to the suburbs. if you moved to the suburbs, your real estate tax will be five or six times what they are in philly anyway. i don't shy away from asking for additional revenue when it comes to issues that are absolutely critical. i think the reason we have the beverage tax past is because we identified where the money was going to go. in with possibly a tax increase

or imposing -- it was not just simply a tax increase or imposing a tax. they agreed with us and allow the district council people and at-large council people to vote for it. we are committed to getting our infrastructure and our buildings up to speed and even more so bringing them into the current state that we all want them to be in. but it is expensive, and we can pay for what we afford we can pay for. >> hi. susan, longtime educator at local, state, and national level. one of the things i found most exciting about the lebron james program is his focus on critical thinking, which is often missing from inner-city schools. is that part of your community schools program to ensure that these young people who do the critical thinking every day by

doing it -- are doing in the classroom as well you will mayor kenney: the community school model is not dealing with academics. it is dealing with dvd. when a child comes to school in january just like june, the resulting going on in the house. there is something happening. when children come to school hungry or in any kind of condition, those are how we address it. i leave it to the educators to try to figure out what the academic approach should be. we certainly collaborate with them and cooperate with them. we were up in graduation rate. we are up in kids attending school on a regular basis substantially. we are up in reading levels. we are making progress, but i have not been involved in this quickly thinking kind of issue. >> i think we have a chance for one more question. in the very back. -- right there in the very back. >> excuse me.

>> thank you. hi. i'm shelley. i'm on the development committee of new concept probably charter school in new orleans called living school. it promises the high school grads living wage job offer, college acceptance, and a tech certificate. are you looking at the range of options for graduates that are not just college focused given that we have learned that kids like everybody else have a wide range of dreams and hopes for their future? mayor kenney: i am a fan of the traditional public school model, but i am not an enemy of charter schools. i went to that i was catholic. i went to just what high school, christian brothers college. i understand the role of other educational opportunities. we are working with them. is not a fight. we are actually elaborating with

them. we are bolstering our cte programs, which is extremely important. i remember sitting in a cte lunchroom with a young man. i said, what do you want to do? he said, i want to be a plumber. i was like, yeah, you'll make a living being a plumber. the problem was the plumbing teacher retired. they did not have the money to replace the plumbing teacher so now he is in another program. he said he liked the program but really wants to be a plumber. we hooked him up with a general contracting organization, and they took him on for weekends in the summer. i have not talked to him recently, but hopefully he is moving toward being a plumber. those are the opportunities for young people to actually make a living. you can become a tradesperson, get your certificates, and still go to college and run your own business. there is all of these different opportunities. we are respectful of the charter school movement. we want to collaborate with them and work with them as best we can.

we are expanding our cte opportunities. we are also becoming the city's model employer. i remember being in a cte school the first year i was in office. the carpentry teacher called me over and said, you know, the school district just hired five carpenters off the street. he said, i have 20 kids here that have taken one of those jobs. that kind of opened my mind up again to making sure that the school district itself go to the cte graduates and say we have these jobs coming up. can you recommend some people to be interviewed and tested? i think when you take ownership of the schools, you need to take every opportunity you have and the city government to collaborate with the school district and to maximize your opportunities, so i agree with you. >> thank you. i'm going to turn it over now to jeannie, senior fellow. before that time i want to thank mayor kenney one more time for joining us here today.

[applause] >> i will pass it on to jeannie. >> thank you very much. i too am delighted to be here and have a chance to talk about community schools with all of you. i'm also in addition to being a senior fellow at the learning policy institute, i am president of the mayor kenney fan club. [laughter] jeannie: in fact, the book i am about to introduce today, if i can figure out how to do this, the community schools playbook actually features a political project as one of the examples of interesting policy to try to move from school by school efforts to develop community schools to really building systems that support and provide an infrastructure for the community schools.

so i'm pleased, really pleased to be here to introduce this playbook. it is an about to be released will permit it is not here yet. it will be in two weeks, but it is meant for policymakers, community leaders, allies, and advocates who really want to advance state and local systems of community schools. but before i tell you about the book, i want to tell you of the reason why i think this book is really useful and important. and that is it comes from a very solid research base. for the last two years, my colleagues and i had the learning policy institute together with the national education policy center at the university of colorado boulder and with the support of research for action in philadelphia have been doing research on community schools. and our research has produced this report. and on the table, you can pick up a brief that summarizes the big ideas in the report. but the big finding from this research is the community schools really do help meet the

educational needs of low performing students and high poverty schools as well as mitigating these out of school barriers as mayor kenney talked about. but we actually have evidence that not only does student achievement and family engagement and student engagement improve, but well implemented and over the long haul, we see real gains in student outcomes, and click student achievement, which is very important. the evidence is strong enough that it meets the evidence standard set out for evidence-based strategies that can be used in title i money and as part of the school improvement program for working with states for the 5% of the lowest performing schools. so we are very pleased to be

able to say that this is not only a good idea because it feels good and seems right. it is a good idea because it is very strong evidence. for those of you interested in evidence, you cannot see this, but this is a screenshot of a compendium of research that we have put on the internet at the learning policy institute website of the over 140 studies that talk about community schools and really analyze effectiveness from a number of angles. for those of you who are trying to prepare the rationale, justification, support for moving ahead with community schools as a system reform, you can go on this website and access any of the studies and see what the evidence really says. we have more documents as well, infographics, all kinds of good stuff. today, i want to talk about the

-- i thought the playbook of her was going to show up again, but it did not. the playbook is really into the to provide tools for policymakers as well as advocates, and it builds both on the research i just described, but also on the experiences and the resources, excellent resources, that have been developed by community school advocates and practitioners. and they were involved in helping us put together this book. and you will hear some of them talk this morning on the panel. the playbook was produced by an interesting organization called the partnership for the future of learning. the partnership for the future of learning is an organization that consists of about 14 foundation leaders and about 80 education and social justice foundations who have met together over the last two or three years to really advance the idea that the nation's future really depends on all student having access to meaningful learning and critical

thinking, as you suggested earlier, and i not only does individual well-being depend on it, but it is our public collective good. it's really going to advance based on this kind of excellent education we provide to all students. to the table of contents gives you a glance of what is inside. -- glimpse of what is inside. it is rough policies and policy examples of the federal, state, and local level. describes opportunities to develop community schools under the federal law, the various kinds of opportunities all the way from being a school improvement strategy to professional development under title ii to title iv grants programs and increasing interest in programs that promote school safety. community schools also as a positive response to that need and that there is some federal investment and interest in that

as well. we have state examples for many states, including grant programs, state budget allocation strategies, technical support states can provide, and state board of education resolutions that a local policy examples that include scuba resolutions and policies, county resolutions, joint agreements, and mayoral initiatives like we see in philadelphia. the book also includes model policy language for state policies and local policymakers. it has a messaging guide. how to talk about community schools in a persuasive way. and it provides resources to support good implementation. as mayor kenney said, what they have done over the last two years with their needs assessment, asset assessment, community involvement, development of partnerships, these are all very foundational. and so we have a bunch of resources. many of them have been developed by the groups you will hear from this morning. so there is lots more to say. and the upcoming panel discussion will reflect some of

that. i wish we had copies for you here today, but our launch date is on august 29. this shows you a website where you can go. there is also a flyer here today with the website so you can sign up for it. we are very eager to have you see it, respond to it, use it, and help move this very exciting evidence-based strategy ahead. so with that, i want to ask the other panelists who are here with us this morning, some of the people who really do this work in amazing ways, to come up. dale, who is the director of communities and schools. really important effort to help integrate student support systems into community schools.

jose munoz, you are the executive director of the coalition, the national coalition for community schools that is really advancing that only a systems approach, but a full-blown model that philadelphia will get to where not only does it support student engagement, but also expanded and enriched learning time and real collaboration between educators and the other community partners. finally, terry kim, was at the national center and has been a real leader in helping new york really pushing for greek policy in new york, but also helping practitioners in new york turning the policy opportunities into amazing examples. our moderator will be able to daniel from the center for american progress, who has just finished the report about moving

from individual community schools to community school system. back on the right slide. [applause] >> thank you, jeannie, for that overview of the policy playbook. before we get started with our discussion, i want to talk a little bit more about our forthcoming report from cap. we will talk today about policies that can support a community school strategy. what our paper does is really show that it is possible to do at scale across multiple schools or school district and that is necessary to give kids in communities of concentrated poverty a high-quality education. so the weight of paper does this is through an imitation study. -- way the paper does this is through an imitation case study.

it shows how three school districts, hartford, connecticut, oakland, california, which is in southeast tulsa, oklahoma, how leaders their adopted and build community schools initiative. i want to add that the school districts range from 15,000 students to 30,000 students. they are not the largest or wealthiest school districts like most urban school districts around the country. they have challenges with rising poverty and number of hiding needs enrollment, and of course they have challenges with financial strategy. the fact that these three school district have been able to build out very competent community school models, some of which have been around for 10 years, again, underscores it is feasible to do this. so leaders in these three school districts turn to a community school strategy as mayor kenney mentioned in philadelphia to address the out of school factors that hinder student success.

in oakland in particular, they explain that a lot of things students and families are facing are the result of years of inequitable, historic, and present racist policies so we need to be intentional about making policies that address those barriers. that is what they are able to do. tools like school board level policies and district level strategic plans let district leaders really clarify what a community school strategy should look like in that district, and that they are able to align and marshal resources along the strategy and build the capacity of schools to actually meet it. in these three districts, because the district is taking the leadership of the initiative, the community school strategy informs all aspects of what is happening in the district so transportation and food service, including student discipline, and even how perspective principles are prepared and evaluated all

aligned to a community schools or child approached. the most common question i get when i am talking about community schools in general in this paper is how to people -- how do people pay for it? it is somewhat simple. when there is evidence this is successful and we are doing and people are getting outcomes that are intended, it becomes a priority. district leaders again a line the district's focus and resources with a strategy. district are able to use or repurpose things like title i or the federal services grant to fund and release a strategy. and then because it is collaborative and involving other agencies that work with children and families and local community organizations, they are also able to garner grants from local or national foundations, and people are tasked with fundraising. ultimately, though, state governments need to fill a larger leadership role and that a school strategy is attainable for all districts serving communities concentrated in

poverty. the problem when it is so locally driven is that these strategies are only available in school districts that have committed and done the groundwork necessary to build it. but outside of the school districts, there are schools and communities that would benefit from a community school strategy. we will talk a little bit today about how states can have policy to support this around their states. i guess i will close by saying the education problems in this country are really multifaceted, but poverty is a constructor. to me, the analysis of the program for international students in 2015 really drives this home. we always hear how our students are not doing well and on that 2015 piece, the american students performed 31st in math overall. but when you take it apart by school level poverty, it tells an entirely different story.

at schools were less than 25% of students qualify for lunch, we finished third in math overall and first in reading. but when we account for schools was in the 5% of the student population qualify for free or reduced lunch, we finished 33rd in that come on par with countries like chile, mexico, and romania. so it is very clear that our school system, education system across the country needs a way to educate students in communities concentrated in poverty at a high level and it is a way to do that. so with that, let's get into our discussion. we really do have a great group of people who have worked on community schools from the practice world, the policy and advocacy role, and are able to speak to the strategy and how we

can use policy to facilitate it from a range of perspectives. so first, i would like to talk a little bit about how community schools do relate to other education reform efforts. still, given your experience around schools and your recent experience in a statement of goal, can you talk a little bit more about how community schools lead to an relate to sustainable school improvement? >> sure. it is important for the audience to understand that before i came, i was the superintendent of instructions i was the awful policymaker, regulator you live in fear of in my state. i work for a republican governor. in the legislature, my governor enacted frankly the largest tax increase in my state's history partly because of the issues of equity and policy that you touch on. -- poverty that you touch on. what i learned in that job -- listen, i came to that job and i testified on education policy the reading guaranty of third-grade without additional support and a measure aimed at

ending teacher tenure. so i came from that really early draconian reforms for a high standards guy. to a place where by the time i left that office, we were introducing measures and passing taxes for students who live in poverty. and we learned, ireland in the quest -- i learned in the course of that job that some kids show up ready to learn and some don't, because of barriers at home, poverty. increasingly, we see because it is because of,. -- because of race or trauma or mental health issues. so i learned in my own education in that job that additional

supports integrated student support. we prefer the broader term because it reflects and integration into the school and the students's educational learning environment as well as a lifetime with their families. so i think parents can take some of those same steps. for us, it was about funding and requirements that the money be used for needs assessment, barrier identification, and then the provision of services. what genii in her book so eloquently talks about the student supports measure. it might be dental care or health care or college prep and mentoring and the variety of services. that is now what i do is make it possible in about 2300 schools in america. that is my own journey i think is reflective of this movement. one last thing. we love in education the new great answer to our challenges, but i think the piece that i

love the most about community schools and integrative student supports is a lot like the town school. in america, all towns had a townhall. my mother and father went to that schoolhouse to dance that night when we were young, not just to receive education that my siblings received there. this is harkening back to the environment and away from what we have been institutionalizing. schools are an institution. that is not always a great word. you cannot return to the one-room schoolhouse, particularly in an urban environment, but we can provide sort of the supports and background that is that spirit. >> yes, definitely. >> the paper and discussion show a big challenge in the field is moving beyond one school that is providing more comprehensive support to doing this across the

community at scale. before jose joined as director, ofwas executive director cross-government community schools initiatives in new mexico. so jose, can you talk a little bit about where other places in your experience in new mexico and now at the coalition that are thinking about this at scale well and what makes the partnerships effective? jose: thank you. i love your perspective and how you learned your learning process there. thinking about this question right here, i have to think about what success we are talking about when we talk about scaling. i love mayor kenney's response to the question in regards to the focus on the academic side and what he said. it is typically a process you see across the country as well as i am learning in my first 11 months in my role here and more deeper analysis in albuquerque. defining what that success looks like, often we allow the

pressure to perform get in the get in the way of our purpose of performing, so first thinking about why do we need to have this system of people coming together to actually grow community schools? we want our children to do well. what success can look like is having children leave our homes and education systems. being a father of five, wanted my children to do good. that requires us adults and largely depends on us adults to work together and our community. i think collaboratively. so we think about community school structures, structures that are built to actually scale. it is just that. such as in nashville, tennessee, where their community chief is working closely with the chamber of commerce supporting 23 different community schools.

implementing an array of programs and services, including workforce development and having increases in act scores. you still see the out -- academic outcome in new york city, schools with mayor deblasio really bringing people around this concept of everybody working closely with the 150 community schools in new york city and have seen chronic absenteeism go down. you see reading and math scores increase in new york city. and then i just had a chance last night -- just got in 1:30 this morning from albuquerque, from home. there was a real testimony, when we talk about this conversation in policy, how this can grow and sustain the systems. ecosystem of collaborative leadership. when you first started off in albuquerque, there was only one community school in the first

two years that saw a 22% increase in reading scores and 13% increase in math scores. when you look deeper into that, what does it take? much like mayor kenney was talking about, that local community, those parents and those families, the first thing they did was build a relationship by meeting continuously with each other. the second thing they continue to do is build that relationship and use their own resources at these schools and begin to integrate that in the classroom. with that type of success, the albuquerque public school district, worked at a county there, and the city of albuquerque came together and said, we want all children to be ready to go to school, to be successful in school, and we want families to be stronger and our communities a lot healthier. what do we need to do to get that done? through lots of hard conversations, we continued

meeting and begin to build this agreement that includes themselves from united way, the university of new mexico, the chamber of commerce, and other partners, the unions as well to collectively grow this higher-level collaborative leadership structure where they meet still once a month. they just met on thursday. they collectively put their resources together. those of you who are not familiar with new mexico, one of the poorest states in the country. they are able to grow from one school, but when i talked about in the beginning, to now 25 schools without additional money. no new money or new taxes. the first thing they look at is, how do we equitably redistribute our resources to those in greatest need?

to begin to see the academic outcomes beginning with attendance, beginning with mobility, making sure families were more stable, and continuing on with schools going from state grades of f to c, b, and a in three to four years. the ecosystem where each school has a body of community members who meet regularly at the school to support each other locally that is then supported by a community whiteboard of elected officials and high-level decision-makers in control of policies. and within a four-year period, 13 different local policies engaged, including a state policy that is funded right now, but there are some other nontraditional states players like a workforce development actually bringing funds to that collaborative. so the key thing between nashville, oakland, new york

city, the ability of the adults to get into a really create this ecosystem. we will work together. every single level, we will listen to and included families and community members into the solution of what the children are facing. >> i love that term used, ecosystem of collaborative leadership. i want to bring terry in to talk about how policy can support that ecosystem. in addition to doing some direct service work, children's aid is also involved in managing the coalition to advance a school agenda in new york and send more local and federal levels. can you talk a little bit about how policy cannot only support community schools initiatives that are collaborative, but also help make sure those are high-quality? >> yes. >> around collaborative leadership, i often see what the community strategy is the , integration of the leaders, the support services, etc. i think there is a real opportunity at the system level

, whether it is at the city. new york city has had a major expansion of the initiative. over 227 community schools over -- over 60 community-based organization that are partnered. at the district level and state level ecosystems need a model of , what is happening in communities locally. that is one aspect that i am starting to see in new york state that we have really been able to encourage more of the agencies to work across one another. there are so many elements and pieces of this communal strategy. there is a real opportunity for department of education and youth services to a line on efforts. we talk about policies to ensure high quality and sustainability. i think about, how can a community school system be of high quality? that is a piece of it, the collaborative leadership. in new york state, children's aid as well as nine other statement advocates, teachers

-- state-white advocates teachers unions, and local , organizations have been advocating and collaborating with one another through a statewide coalition. what we have seen a great impact -- is making a great impact in terms of policy. state, there has been an expansion of community schools for funding. we have found an opportunity for us around budget policies and regulations to ensure that quality exists. for example, since 2013, new york state has invested over $500 million in community schools. in the last three years, it has been through what we call set-aside, education dollars through operating aid. there are budget regulations around how school districts can use the funding. but we have really wanted to ensure that the key elements of a community school are included in the budget regulation so anything from a coordinator, services, counseling, expanded

learning opportunities. that language exists in policy. that is one way to really hold the integrity of the strategy, through funding. i think another piece we have been able to do in our advocacy is if we are going to invest in communities schools the amount that we are, let's make sure it is substantive where districts can do something with the funding. the last three years, some districts can range from receiving $10,000 to millions in the set-aside. and through our advocacy and legit policy work, we are able to ensure that minimum allocation increases to $75,000. we know the school districts are utilizing that to at least hire a coordinator to start that initiative. i think those are two kind of very detailed around budget policies that can support the high quality. i often think about as we continue our advocacy around the interagency opportunities, and

so where else can community schools and policy be seen as a mechanism to really push forward initiatives? so sometimes i think policymakers see it from either or. but really, community schools can be the mechanism for accretive to career impact initiatives. i think policies can really advance the development of quality community schools. >> yeah. especially now we are in an interesting moment because we are coming off a major cuts to education at the state level for the past eight or 10 years, but we are also seeing a lot of ground-level support in terms of people and political support for increased funding. jeannie, can you talk about the challenges for these policy victories to get the policies passed and sustained and support this work?

-- and sustain and support this work? jeannie: yeah. i think one of the key messages that is important to convey is that this is not a compensatory policy that is doing special things for poor children and families. this is a strategy that creates structures in low-income schools and communities that enables them to develop the characteristics of high quality, high-performance schools everywhere. the kinds of expanded learning opportunities, the access to support, the parents -- active parent and community engagement, the collaboration you see. these things are what a lot of white and wealthy neighborhoods absolutely expect from their schools and are used to seeing in their schools. so community schools really is a way of creating structures that allow those characteristics to develop in schools where neighborhoods and families do

not have the resources or frankly the political clout to demand those things of the system and help provide them. i think it is really important. the reasons why community schools work is not because -- i mean, it is certainly about mitigating harms of poverty and disadvantage and racism, but it is also about building a quality -- that quality of relational trust in the environment, trust among the adults and kids between the school people and families, that is very strong evidence that that relational trust is really the secret sauce that makes effective schools work really well for everybody. rich kids, for kids, advantage -- poor kids, advantaged kids, disadvantaged kids. i think it is very important to talk about this as a strategy for creating great schools. this is not like some sort of second-rate system that you do

for poor kids because they are so needy. the second thing i think is really important, and this is very hard, is that so much of what matters in community so what what matters in community schools is what is developed at a local levels. the partnership, the assessing of the particular needs of the community, the assess that are there come a water the wants, the hope some of the desires of community people? it is really hard when you're doing policy to figure out how to support and encourage and them accountable for doing that heart will work. local work. policies will not say hey, sign onold a community site

your door. we know the evidence is very clear that renaming your school community school will not get the outcome. all the structures and policies in place. we like to think about -- how do you do policies that are both tight and loose so the policy of the state or district can set the parameters to say it is nonnegotiable? you need to have these kinds of things in place. at the same time, provide enough discretion, so they are not handing down a prescription saying you ought to have three of x, four of y, 10 of z, and this is really do it, but the great responsibility and funny ding and providing the technical support, so these things can be developed at a local level. i think that is really -- both of those messages to me are really important. we are creating good schools, the kind of school every parent wants for their kids.

second, we have to figure out how to both be tight, provide lots of support from have accountability from the level of the state or the local system and loose in that those on the ground can bring this into life and create something that works for them. abel: i love how you are working the desk using the language strategy. in a paper we have coming up, we make the point that community schools is a mindset, and attitude for how to operate and structure schools at all levels of the system, but it is not a program that should sort of be replicated the same everywhere. because the way a community school looks to meets the needs of the population it is serving. it really does need to look different elsewhere. i feel like we are using a lot of jargon specific to the field. i would love it if someone can talk a little bit about what this collaboration would look like at the school level, at the

district level, and at the state level to give some texture and color to what was said. >> sure. want me to take a stab at that? i was a former coordinator and became an initiative leaders want the school, i would describe it as a relationship. what i would see at a committee school, you would see a number of people who are not employed by the school there. parents able to help out in multiple areas from tutoring young people to checking in lunch money, or they have a place to be able to help and assist the school in their operations. you see community partners, a place for them, not set aside in a corner, but very prominent where people can have access to them and not feel ashamed. this is part of the resources i may need. you may have a collaborative leadership structure. you talk about what that will

look like -- actually a group of residents, educators, family members, business owners, who meet regularly because as a strategy, the continuous improvement strategy, once a month is not often enough, there is not enough to move the needle quickly enough for children. you will see them meeting intentionally using data from the school, relying on the community wisdom they learned from the assessments. you will see that at that level. the other ecosystem, at a very high level, speaking about albuquerque again, i just saw the mayor and the county manager yesterday -- they took a long time to replace a new

executive -- seven months. like, oh, man, how come it did not fall apart? what it looked like was there was actually a critical mass of decision-makers between the district, the city, and the county, regardless if it was incorporated areas of county or unincorporated areas of county, they knew that our children who were served in that entire community, met monthly, bring out their budgets, began to say -- this is what is coming up, i can change -- the county staffed the initiative, the city provides funding, the district provides access. they work with business communities to fill gaps programmatically and financially. saw, tangibly, it grow from less than $200,000 in the bank to now over $3 million in the bank on a regular basis. when you have the transitions of elected officials come through, they are all smiling at this,

what survive was some of the policies in place, but more importantly -- i was talking to people in the last couple days there -- there is a culture of working together. there are some people during the transition, the ugly head comes up of -- why are we doing this? is this really benefiting kids? you can see the data. there is a culture where they will not make an internal decision for their organization until they have brought it before the full collective body and talk about why that decision is going to happen. culture piece.o that there is a third part of that ecosystem. decision-makers are not the one in the day-to-day task of implementing. there is an intermediary body that can be led by a community-based organization, it can be led by one of the

institutions, but they are also collectively talking about -- how do we learn from multiple school councils? package what we have learned from them and deliver it, a policy and funding recommendations, to this higher communitywide board of elected officials and decision-makers? >> i would want to take it from a policy perspective. that is so near and dear to my heart. around at what this collaborative leadership looks like -- in new york state with our network, we are engaging local community-based organizations, universities, teachers unions, as well as health folks and afterschool partners. a focus of what we are doing in new york state is to demonstrate

what the community strategy looks like. leveraging, rating, funding streams, a variety of programs integrated. we have a developmental triangle where we have comprehensive student support, learning opportunities, and strong instructional courses. our advocacy wants to represent that as well. with that, when we are advocating, we are ensuring they are aware there is a core to community schools but you must , also invest in early childhood and afterschool. you cannot say you support community schools and then cut afterschool. all these pieces need to be invested and funded adequately and also properly supported. part of the advocacy and policy lens around collaboration is we are ensuring we are engaging the right stakeholders to deliver the message to the government partners. that is one piece that looks like -- at the policy systems level -- you know, i think we have been really successful with some of our advocacy campaigns.

a big piece of that infrastructure that we have been successful is to bring in technical assistance funding to the state. starting in july, new york state has three regional community technical assistance centers. we wanted to ensure local communities are supported to do this work long and with quality. abel: backing up a bit. the database was mentioned. another thing i commonly here hear is it is great for people to be working together at school level and have collaboration at the level. people are pushing for evidence that this is effective. we all know it is, but i would love for you to speak on how we should think about the data and how this works, and also, from

someone who did just complete a conference of review of the data, pointing to specific outcomes and initiatives around the country we have been seeing? jeannie: first of all, there has to be a recognition it takes time. because dosage matters. the extent of time that kids are involved in school like this makes a difference. you're not going to see the achievement outcomes you want, probably for four to five years. that does not mean you cannot measure early on what is happening. because implementation is so important, you can start by simply assessing and monitoring whether the key principles are being implemented. do they have integrated student support? are they expanding and enriching learning time? are they building active family and community engagement? is there a collaboration going on at all levels to determine how this happens? are they engaging in these

planning processes? i know, recently in philadelphia there was an evaluation, that mayor kenney mentioned -- they really focused on -- are they building infrastructure? this was the first year. are they building an infrastructure that is going to make this happen? the second thing is that you know that there are leading indicators. achievement doesn't happen out of the blue. you build it by building trusting relationships. we know that indicators like children saying, there is a caring adult in the school who i know and can talk to -- that is an important leading indicator of what you will get down the line in terms of student outcomes. it is very important to start thinking. but student attendance is one

that you can start measuring pretty early. are kids engaged? do they want to come to school? you think about staging the building of evidence because it takes a while, you need feedback about how it is working, and those kinds of data can help you really improve through this process. it is very important. and to monitor and assess progress to them but be smart about it. do not expect that unless you get a huge bump in test scores in the first year that you are not on the right track. because it takes a while. it is like anything really worth doing, it doesn't happen overnight. >> i would add to that, schools collect data about the students

that we serve. the best approach that communities in schools has used is to be clear about what piece we own inside a building. all these things have to be true. there has to be good instruction, integrated student support. but which piece do we own? often it is attendance. we can make quick gains with kids, are there barriers that keep them from getting there on time? we often on pieces of a school planned around behavior. dale shows up and melts down every day. he is disrupting the school environment. it is probably something going on at home. finding social workers and help in that way. it is also being clear about, well, we can contribute to post -secondary success by helping kids with goalsetting. we do a lot of work around fafsa, providing mentors and tutors. we can do a lot on the support side, supporting the academic environment, but it is incumbent upon us to be clear about what data we own.

on my side, the integrative student support side, and what data we have to work closely with the guidance counselor and school principal and the instructional team to be sure that dale succeeds because there are gaps, and terry succeeds because of this. terry: i wanted to add in terms of the questioning data, is t is kicking it back to the system. how are we accessing that data? in new york city -- in the communities in school strategy, there are multiple programs and systems. everything is everywhere. in new york city, it took a while, but we have made strides where we are able to access the data. the community-based organizations were lead partners in real-time, to ensure our strategies are meeting the needs of children and communities in the school. that is another question to

answer at the system level. it is not quite there in new york state for us, but it is something that is critical to this. jose: if i can add on to come up build on what they are saying here, there are things, data wise you see that are common across community school initiatives. working in them and working with them across the country, as a coalition, communities in schools, the national set of community schools, we promote community schools as an equity strategy across the country. that is not me and our team, it is a group effort. there are common things we see. jeannie, i love what you said. we are investing the dosage of relationships and reaching critical mass -- that relationship, what we see is that people want to come. attendance. increasing the dosage of listening and working with community members, begin to reach those goals, integrated student support, not only

resource the hurts, habits, and hangups but resource hopes and dreams as well, we begin to see families stabilize. that is mobility. when we integrate, as dale does and his community school does so well, supporting what happens in the classroom and we become more rigorous at that, we do see academic gains, some faster than others because of the dosage you're talking about. a final thing -- this conversation about school closures, school of choice. i love what mary said also -- a lso i work largely in part with traditional public schools -- i am not an enemy of anyone else , as long as you are serving children -- it just happened to be the public schools serve black and brown communities going through poverty issues --

what we begin to see, when that relationship is being built, is enrollment. began to climb back up. there are issues in regards to gentrification that we have to address, so this critical mass idea as a coalition -- we recently agreed to in our committee in june, is to begin to reach a critical mass in our country of serving our young people. we will be building on a campaign of 25,000 community schools by 2025. that will take all of us. we talk about community schooling at every level. that takes all of us in this room and others to become part of a coalition, to serve children who are most vulnerable. jeannie: i would like to add one thing we have not talked about as much. it fits with this, but it also addresses the concerns people have about -- what about teaching and learning?

what are the strategies within community schools for doing teaching and learning? one is through the partnerships, you get a lot of adults involved in helping children learn and creating learning opportunities for them that go beyond schoolteachers, so that you really magnify the number and variety of adults that are engaged in helping children learn, and because of who they are, it brings learning into the community as well as in the classroom. that is an important thing. a second is that this collaborative structure -- it is at the policy level, at the school system level, at teachers within a school. the fact that a school is a place where everyone has collective responsibility for all the children, people talk to each other, and the development of learning communities happens as a result of this culture of collaboration. some of the researchers have studied the impact on increased

achievement attributed to the teacher learning that takes place in these collaborative cultures. so again, it is a place where use this structure of a community school to build partnerships and collaborations, and you can trace that all the way through to how you see that teaching and learning can really be transformed and enhanced in these types of places. i would not want to let us go without that. [laughter] can i add to that real quickly? i want to appreciate the question about critical thinking and career pathways. when i was a superintendent, i had a s.t.e.m. advisory council, the pocket protector brigade. they were designing a s.t.e.m. school. when they stepped back, they said we designed a good school.

that was project-based learning where families feel welcome and teachers have resources to deliver education. it was not about science. it was about a good school. communities cooling fits in the s.t.e.m. world and the critical thinking world because it supports good pedagogy. that is why kids are in school. they are not there for me to solve poverty. i would love to do that. they are there to learn. i am still a high standards test guy. it is my job to help them get across the finish line. i think this strategy helps them do that. abel: it looks like we are ready to go to audience questions and answers. taylor will be running the mic, if someone has a question, you can raise her hand we only ask their hand. we only ask that you quickly state your name and affiliation. we have a lot of people and would like to get through as many questions as we can. state your name and affiliation and then ask your question. julie: i am julie, with

communities in schools. hi, dale. i had a question for terry about policy. i was wondering -- what kind of work have you been doing with housing policy and how integrated it is with education? if the two go hand in hand. thank you. terry: great question. with the work we have been doing in new york state, we have yet to tackle that, and honestly it is probably a partner we should bring in. in new york city, there is a focus on, how do we support other populations of young people? so homeless and runaway youth as well. there is so much opportunity for us to continue to integrate and support that work. we did not talk about on the panel, but where the opportunities are to ensure we are providing additional services to young people, foster youth are a very important population for us, and under title i, there is provision

around local education agencies and child welfare agencies working together. i see that is where we are headed. community schools is the strategy to do that type of coordination. jose: hayward, california, their initiative is not broad policy wise, but they are hyper local. community school wise. they were able to work with their city to have school gymnasiums turned into a homeless shelter. in the evening. that is just a band-aid now, but it is a great start. it is amazing how they were able to form that practice. >> [indiscernible] as well. hi, dale. hi, jeannie. i am wrapping up a book, i have been spending this past year writing a book about advancing integrated student supports,

much more at scale, which you guys mostly know about. we are very excited about it. one question i have for all of you, as paul and i are wrapping up the wrapup chapter, aside from the august folks on the panel and in the room, which organizations or agencies do you see as most critical in collaborating with you going forward? it is very exciting to see this huge scale up moment where everyone is coming together to take this to a bigger place. that is what we want to do, and we hope the book will complement the playbook in this amazing work, with other organizations. -- amazing work. which other organizations to ucs critical in the next few years in the scale of event? thank you. one group that is very

much involved already, which is critical is the ast. when i have talked about some of this kind of work and schooling in the past, a question i get from people not closely involved with the work of school say -- oh, that is great, but the teachers unions will never go for it. they will sabotage the whole thing. the fact that they have stepped up and said, not only are they not going to sabotage it, but they want to be in the lead. teachers are people who care about kids. it is not just about teaching and learning. teachers really care about these kids. these organizations are all terrific, not to let this get stashed away and be thought of as some elite reform strategy that will be imposed on people, but it is a moving partnership, especially with those who are in the classrooms everyday.

jose: to build upon what you are saying, i agree with the aft and nea. teachers are going to be the next principals. another key group is principal leadership. superintendents. the next state department of education leaders. terry: i agree. engaging superintendents, school board associations, in addition to the teacher associations. they are part of that infrastructure, to see this go to scale. jose: i will add, too, our civil rights organizations are imperative, because some of the policy issues, we will need them at the forefront in that fight with us. dale: and i will sound like the former conservative on the toel and say you are going want business and chambers of commerce and workforce, this is a demand side strategy. we need folks in our economy who have skills and can help the

nation compete. this isn't just the purview of professional jargonists. we need business folks and families who want the very best of economic opportunity for the children to be that voice. if it is just nerds like me, we will lose. we need real folks who work in business and who live in communities and raise children. hi.nne: i am roxanne garza with new america, and i have a question related to teaching and learning. i would like to hear your thoughts on how professional development needs to change for for school leaders in order to implement systems and be able to support collaborative professional learning? dale: how long do you have? [laughter] dale: seriously, i will say that

from my perspective, educator preparation programs at the high level and professional development programs need to change. they are locked into an old paradigm that is about the factory floor of a classroom. i think we have to help educators identify early warning signals of what is going on in a child's life, so they can help find a referral for that student. i don't expect teachers to address those issues, but i want them to understand the early warning signals, so they can communicate to a guidance counselor or social worker and understand why i am acting out in class. piece, thet is a tv's, reallkey social, emotional, skill sets , that role modeling, the relationship that we had with our own teachers when we were young, i think that skill building of social, emotional

role models, and skill sets among adults is a big part of what we need in a professional development and educator preparation. the early warning identification and how to build that relationship and connect on a more emotional level with kids. i would say, and this is wonky me, or geeky me, that we need to infuse in both initial preparation and professional development knowledge of the science of learning. because the learning sciences neuroscientists, developmental the learning sciences are -- it is like the neuroscientists, developmental scientists, are catching up with the community school movement. the fact that it is so relationship based, so concrete, grounded in kids prior knowledge and experience, it is all of those things at the heart of the sciences are now saying are

critical for learning are very much well-suited and can be nurtured by community schools. if people have that understanding -- the interconnection of the cognitive, emotional, and social development -- you cannot separate those things out -- those kinds of understandings about learning and how you create environments like community schools in order to provide opportunities for children. abel: i would add school discipline is another key intersection. in our forthcoming report, the districts we work with talk exclusion is notdisciplin compatible with the community approach. in oakland, leading in restorative justice came to that work as part of the community schools issue. over here? gary: hi, gary rattner, citizens for effective schools. very gratified to be here. i have been involved in these issues since the early 1970's

with ron edmonds and the effective schools movement. so it is very gratifying to see what you all are doing, and as elaine was saying, to see it come together. one specific thing you talked about is the need for needs assessment as the critical building block. i have written a little bit in the huffington post about a particular comprehensive needs assessment called the school climate assessment instrument, california state university, los angeles, which is unusually good -- goodoth for needs one, a powerful one for needs assessment and helping schools improve. my question is whether you have any thoughts about that or any other kind of comprehensive

needs assessments you think are useful that people can get to right now to help with that critical building block stage? dale: i am familiar with the california one from my days. it is probably the leading school climate assessment. i cannot give you another one, but i would reinforce what you said. we need tools around family and student needs and family needs, around services and barriers, but the issue of school climate, i believe the policy lever at state level would be include school climate surveys in the accountability scoring. when i was a kid, my report card had academics on one side and my sort of climate skills and social skills on the other. i have always wanted school report cards that look more like that. i think these tools give mom and dad a good picture of what is actually going on at school. that is a good one. i am a believer in evidence-based, private service at the school level, and then we use our own assessment for

families and students in particular. it is time for us to wrap up. i am sure folks can hang out if you have additional questions. to close, i would like to ask you all, if you could talk a little about what the federal role should be? we talked a lot -- because strategy is tied to the ground. we talked about local and state activity, a lot of our organizations and people with us today are at d.c.-based organizations. jose, you laid out very ambitious goals. i am sure you have ambitious thoughts about what the federal level can be doing. jose: thank you for asking that. we have been working at the federal level for quite a while. it is the future of our country here. we can work as adults to model the behaviors that we are asking

them to behave, to contribute back to society. with the full-service community schools and every child succeeds at the community schools just completed or gathered the second release of school funding and working with senator brown -- i am pulling up notes -- soon to be announced, full-service community schools and distressed communities act of 2018 will be calling for expanded full-service community schools, investing $45 million in full-service community schools that will provide resources, especially in communities who are working collaboratively together in addressing issues in regards to opioids and other issues. we have funding site coordinators and also set aside for, dale mentioned earlier, in our urban communities we see

this, but also set aside for rural communities. the federal government's role is to empower states and local communities to form these structures. terry, i don't know if you want to add? terry: it is an exciting time where we are, federally. with the every student succeeds at, within title i and title iv -- every student succeeds act, within title i and title iv, this is where we are and that is powerful, that we can reimagine the system to support this work. again, i had mentioned it, where can we, some of the work we are doing well, and how do we integrate that more? for us, foster youth is a huge priority. under title i, there are school stability requirements. there is an opportunity for us to provide additional services to this population of young people. being aware of where else we can fund -- strategies may be connected with what organizations, what is a well-rounded education under title iv?

it is a really exciting time, this is where our partnership at local, state, and federal needs to collaborate. only partly cynically but in this era, where the federal administration's mode seems to be one of deregulation, getting ready regulation, it would be terrific if they could turn their attention in these various agencies to clear out the barriers for blending and braiding programs and funding. that could be a real contribution to help get that underbrush out-of-the-way so it is easier, you do not have to do herculean efforts to combine resources across some of these spaces. my bit exclamation point. abel: thank you for joining us. a round of applause.

[applause] abel: thank you all. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, president trump's former deputy assistant and strategist sebastian gorka talks about the administration's foreign policy theatre thursday at 8:00 p.m., senators joni ernst and kirsten gillibran on paid family leave. >>

intellect to receive a pain benefit for social security -- elect torents could receive a pain benefit for social security. we're working through the policies, but we think we can create something that benefits families and those who needed the most. >> the family act is very affordable. it is about the cost of a couple of coffee a week, for you, about two dollars on average for all three. that is not a great deal of money to know that if your mother is dying, you would be by her side, or if you have a new infant or special needs child, you could be there when you are needed. >> was on c-span, c-span.org, and listen on the free c-span radio app. ad this week, a senate homeland security subcommittee from health and human services, homeland security and justice department

officials on the ongoing issues to help protect ongoing immigrant children from human trafficking and abuse. also thursday, estes each air -- pai is joined by other commissioners on his agency's work including robo calls, the outlook for 5g, and internet regulation. live c-span3 and streaming online at c-span.org, or on the free c-span radio app. >> a look at voting rights with mother jones reporter and author ari berman. he spoke at the brooklyn historical society for about 45 minutes. deborah: it is my great pleasure to introduce tonight ari berman to talk about voting rights. ari is a senior reporter for