Advancing and reforming America’s education system

>> this morning i shared a stage with three of the nation's most prominent may ors. the teachers the students, and the paths toward advancement and reform. here is part of our conversation.

>> let's talk about whether or not this is snobbish to talk about higher education --

>> wait, that has been -- that really was the key issue 20 years ago, 20 years ago, across the country, we closed what i would grow up calling vocational schools , and everyone said what do you mean my kid is not going to harvard, yale or princeton and number one, it's not for everyone and that is not the ways you make the most money. there was a great tongue and cheek piece comparing going harvard university with joining the corrections department of the state of california and it turns out that the state of california correction's department is more selective than harvard and you never catch up. because instead of spending $50,000, you make money and the benefits and the vacation and everything else. the issue is really we need people at all different levels, community colleges , vocational schools and college graduates.

>> we have to be real here, the vast majority of children in the three school districts are poor and the majority are black latino , these are communities where we have high high school drop out rates they are going remain poor. the only way we uncycle the poverty is to get the drop out rates to zero, they are having to graduate in some form of education. there's no good jobs if you are a drop out and there are none for just a high school diploma .

>> i think most educators in america stand with the president. the fact is you have to be a career ready or a college ready in this society. when you said, and you are right, that a plumbar is a good job, i hear people saying they want to be in an apprenticeship program. if they have not taken math courses they cannot get in. the fact is, our kids, you know, 75% of parents, if you ask them, if you ask them if college is important, they will say yes. we want the kids to be career ready or college ready and graduate from high school because as you said, in l.a. today our unemployment rate is above 12% and one of the reasons why it's continuing to remain that high is that we have so many people, such a high percentage of our workforce that are not even high school graduates. so, that, they are going to be unemployed for a longer period of time.

>> in new york, a child spends about 8,000 more minutes a year in the classroom than a chicago child. an l.a. child every year about 3,000, about 3,000 more minutes in a kas room than a chicago child. we are all competing, our kmirn children and cities, now it's cumulative. so i gave you a year status. 8,000 more minutes than in chicago . great city, love mike. his kids are not more valuable than our kids. so our battle was getting a length of day and a less th -- and length of year that is in line with goals. i don't care where you are, you get --

>> and we are going have more of that conversation online.