9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My first job out of college[br]was as an academic researcher

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
at one of the largest juvenile[br]detention centers in the country.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And every day I would drive[br]to this building

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on the West Side of Chicago,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
go through the security checkpoint

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and walk down these brown, brick hallways[br]as I made my way down to the basement

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to observe the intake process.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The kids coming in were[br]about 10 to 16 years old,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
usually always black and brown,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
most likely from the same impoverished[br]South and West Sides of Chicago.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They should've been[br]in fifth to 10th grade,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but instead they were here[br]for weeks on end

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
waiting trial for various crimes.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Some of them came back to the facility[br]14 times before their 15th birthday.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And as I sat there on the other side[br]of the glass from them,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
idealistic with a college degree,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I wondered to myself,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
why didn't schools do something more[br]to prevent this from happening?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's been about 10 years since then;

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I still think about how some kids[br]get tracked towards college

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and others towards detention,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but I no longer think about schools'[br]abilities to solve these things.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You see, I've learned that so much[br]of this problem is systemic

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that often our school system[br]perpetuates the social divide.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It makes worse what it's supposed to fix.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's as a crazy or controversial

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as saying that our health care system[br]isn't preventative

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but somehow profits[br]off of keeping us sick ...

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
oops.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I truly do believe though[br]that kids can achieve great things

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
despite the odds against them,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and in fact, my own research shows that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But if we're serious about helping [br]more kids from across the board

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to achieve and make it in this world,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we're going to have to realize[br]that out gaps in student outcomes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
are not so much about achievement[br]as much as they are about opportunity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A 2019 EdBuild report showed

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that majority-white districts received[br]about 23 billion dollars more

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in annual funding[br]than non-white districts,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
even though they serve about the same[br]number of students.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Lower resource schools are dealing[br]with lower quality equipment,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
obsolete technology

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and paying teachers way less.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Here in New York,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
those are also the schools[br]most likely to serve

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the one in 10 elementary school students

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who will most likely have to sleep[br]in a homeless shelter tonight.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The student, parent and teacher[br]are dealing with a lot.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Sometimes places are misplacing[br]the blame back on them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In Atlanta, we saw that teachers[br]felt desperate enough

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to have to help their students cheat[br]on standardized tests

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that would impact their funding.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Eight of them went [br]to jail for that in 2015

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with some sentences as high as 20 years,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which is more than what many states[br]give for second-degree murder.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The thing is though,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in places like Tulsa,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
teachers pay has been so bad

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that these people have had[br]to go to food pantries

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or soup kitchens just to feed themselves.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The same system will criminalize[br]a parent who will use a relative's address

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to send their child to a better school,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but for who knows how long[br]authorities have turned a blind eye

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to those who can bribe their way

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
onto the most elite and beautiful[br]college campueses.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And a lot of this feels[br]pretty heavy to be saying --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and maybe to be hearing --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and since there's nothing quite like[br]economics talk to lighten the mood --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that's right, right?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Let me tell you about some of the costs

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when we fail to tap[br]into our students' potential.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A McKinsey study showed that if in 1998

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we could've closed our long-standing[br]student achievement gaps

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
between students of different[br]ethnic backgrounds

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or students of different income levels,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by 2008, our GDP --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
our untapped economic gains --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
could have gone up by more[br]than 500 billion dollars.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Those same gaps in 2008,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
between our students here in the US[br]and those across the world,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
may have deprived our economy[br]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of up to 2.3 trillion dollars[br]of economic output.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But beyond economics, numbers and figures,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I think there's a simpler reason[br]that this matters;

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a simpler reason for fixing our system

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is that in a true democracy,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
like the one we pride ourselves on having,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and sometimes rightfully so,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a child's future should not[br]be predetermined

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by the circumstances of their birth.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A public education system should not[br]create a wider bottom and more narrow top.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Some of us can sometimes think

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that these things aren't[br]that close to home,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but they are if we broaden our view,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because a leaky faucet in our kitchen,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
broken radiator in our hallway,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
those parts of the house that we always[br]say we're going to get to next week,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they're devaluing our whole property.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Instead of constantly looking away[br]to solutions like privitization

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or the charter school movement[br]to solve our problems,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
why don't we take a deeper look[br]at public education,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
try to take more pride in it

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and maybe use it to solve[br]some of our social problems.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Why don't we try to reclaim[br]the promise of public education

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and remember that it's our greatest[br]collective responsibility?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Luckily some of our communities[br]are doing just that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The huge teacher strikes in the spring[br]of 2019 in Denver and LA --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they were successful because[br]of community support

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for things like smaller class sizes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and getting things into schools[br]like more counselors

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in addition to teacher pay.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And sometimes for the student,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
innovation is just daring[br]to implement common sense.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In Baltimore a few years ago,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they enacted a free breakfast[br]and lunch program,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
taking away the stigma[br]of poverty and hunger

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for some students

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but increasing achievement[br]in attendance for many others.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And in Memphis,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the university is recruiting local,[br]passionate high school students

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and giving them scholarships[br]to go teach in the inner city

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
without the burden of college debt.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And north of here in the Bronx,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I recently researched[br]these partnerships being built

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
between high schools, community[br]colleges and local businesses

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who are creating internships in finance,[br]health care and technology

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for students without[br]silver spoon connections

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to gain important skills

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and contribute to the communities[br]that they come from.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So today I don't necessarily have[br]the same questions about education

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that I did when I was an idealistic,[br]perhaps naïve college grad

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
working in a detention center basement.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's not, can schools[br]save more of our students,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because I think we have[br]the answer to that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and it's yes they can[br]if we save our schools first.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We can start by caring about the education[br]of other people's children ...

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I'm saying that as someone[br]who doesn't have kids yet,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but wants to worry a little bit less[br]about the future for when I do.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Cultivating as much talent as possible,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
getting as many girls[br]as we can from all over

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into science and engineering,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and as many boys[br]as we can into teaching --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
those are investments for our future.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Our students are like[br]our most valuable resource,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and when you put it that way,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
our teachers are like our modern-day[br]diamond and gold miners,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hoping to help make them shine.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Let's contribute our voices,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
our votes and our support

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to giving them the resources[br]that they will need

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not just to survive,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but hopefully thrive,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
allowing all of us to do so as well.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thank you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause and cheers)