The younger generation has a key role to play in the fight to pass health care and climate legislation said prominent Democrats to students Wednesday. President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke at the Campus Progress National Conference, which brought together over 1,000 progressively minded students from across the United States.

President Clinton said America’s youth “cannot just sit on the sidelines” of politics and must focus on the “how” when it comes to energy, health care and education policy.

“The answer can not just be more money…you have to look at the delivery system…Your life will be shaped by America’s success of failure to do that,” the former President said.

“These are mind numbingly difficult problems” he said, “[But] America works when we are all sort of stumbling in the right direction.”

Speaker Pelosi praised student activists groups from across the country for the lobbying they have done in order to promote the Democrats’ agenda. The Speaker said she was encouraged by the increase in youth mobilization and urged how imperative it is to passing new legislation.

“I have so much confidence in the future,” she said.

Secretary Sebilius also spoke to the students about the importance of their participation in the health care reform debate.

“Not doing anything is not an alternative,” she said.

Through the administration’s proposed health care reform, “we have an opportunity to not only increase the health of America but also the wealth of the nation” said the Secretary.

Among other speakers at the conference were White House Green Jobs Special Adviser Van Jones, Daily Show Correspondent John Oliver and pop star Joel Madden.

“Do you know who inspires him [President Obama]? You,” said Jones to the delighted crowd.

Debra Smith, market communications coordinator for LEGO, said they have interesting products that span from pre-school through college (0:25).

 

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U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod read to young children at the Education Department’s outdoor plaza. The “Read to the Top!” initiative promotes summer reading among young children. June 30, 2009

By Courtney Costello-Talk Radio News Service

At a hearing Tuesday morning, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) discussed their desire to provide affordable health care for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is currently marking up The Affordable Health Choices Act, in which measures would be put in place to prevent insurance companies from denying people coverage, regardless of whether or not they have pre-existing health conditions.

“The present situation is unacceptable [and] it is unsustainable economically. We’ve got to move forward to get this legislation done, or we are going to bankrupt families,” said Dodd.

Title III of the bill, Improving The Health Of The American People, would include the preventive measures that would also help to drive down the costs of health care.

The bill would insure that Americans are not discriminated against by private insurance companies, said Harkin.

“Affordable quality health care is going to put a stop to a gross injustice in our current system, the denial of coverage to persons who have pre-existing conditions,” said the Senator from Iowa.

Senator Dodd hopes to have the amendment process for the bill finished by the end of this week.

By Sam Wechsler – Talk Radio News Service

Harlem Village Academies (HVA), a charter school in New York City, recently set a New York state record for academic achievement with 100% of their eighth grade students passing mathematics. In addition 100% passed science, 92% passed reading, and 96% passed social studies.

Deborah Kenny, founder of HVA, discussed their formula for success Monday morning with former NFL star and HVA board member Tiki Barber at a charter school convention in Washington, DC.

Kenny highlighted autonomy and passion as characteristics of teachers at HVA. “In our schools, the more we trust our teachers, the more we give them a voice in decisions … the more we give power to our teachers and trust them, the more they are on fire,” said Kenny.

In addition to having passionate teachers, she also stated that the school spends the vast majority of its time dedicated to reading, helping the kids fall in love with it rather than focusing on the technical skills required.

“A passionate teacher creates a passionate learning environment,” Kenny said.

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Dick Gephardt former Democratic majority leader of the U.S. House of the Representatives and founder and the president of the Council for American Medical Innovation discusses the importance of placing a higher value on science education and innovation. He says science was considered a cool thing when the U.S. first began space exploration and we have to make it cool again. (0:29)

 

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Former Senator, Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), explains how the United States is not doing a sound job at recruiting health care providers. Also, how there needs to be more emphasize on nursing education in the United States. (0:52)

 

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By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

The U.S is not responding to the needs of its Hispanic citizens even though the population of Hispanics college students in the US rises and many industries are gearing their marketing toward this changing demographic, according to former director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Henry Cisneros.

Cisneros, now Executive Director at CityView and author of “Latinos and the Nation’s Future”, gave a speech on” Latinos and the Nation’s Future” today at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

“A very interesting phenomenon will be the growth of the second generation of Hispanic immigrants. The Pew Foundation says that this number, which is 11 million second generation Hispanics today, will be 30 million in 2030, so it will triple in 20 years or so,” said Cisneros.

Recently, the nomination of Hispanic judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has brought many criticisms from Republicans, who argue that she is not being sufficiently patriotic because she pronounces her name with a Spanish accent.The criticism of Sotomayor has renewed the debate on immigration integration.

Tamar Jacoby, President and CEO of ImmigrationWorks USA and co-author of “Latinos and the Nation’s Future”, said “For a long time, people have said that Latinos in American politics were the sleeping giant of American politics… The reason they thought that is because they said ‘look at these people, look at these demographics’… The political participation was below the potential.”

But Jacoby rejoiced of this complete turn for the best which began with the most recent presidential election of Barack Obama, saying that “In November 2004, 7.5 million Latinos voted; In 2008, 11 million Latinos voted.”

As a consequence of this Hispanic political awakening, Cisneros says that “We will see that the make up of community schools and colleges will be decidedly different in the time period we are describing… We will see that in markets as consumer products relate to the reality of these markets.”

Cisneros added that “Many industries view the growth of Latinos and immigration as the principal basis by which they will grow.”

“The sleeping giant woke up,” said Jacoby.

Henry Cisneros, Executive Director of CityView and author of “Latinos and the Nation’s Future” discusses the consequences of the growth of the Hispanic second generation population. Amongst other factors, Cisneros mentions the consequences of such growth on education, on markets and financial institutions. (0:43)

 

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By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

The $100 billion given to the Department of Education by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is the most expensive piece of legislation since the G.I. Bill which provided college education for returning World War II veterans. The investment is intended to shore up state education efforts, while saving jobs and encouraging educational innovation with its main objective to provide a better future for the youth of this country and the future generations said Education Secretary Arne Duncan at a press conference this morning.

“It is a time of economic crisis, it is a time of educational crisis and I am convinced we need to educate our way to a better economy. The challenges are real, the challenges are profound,the stakes have never been higher but the opportunity is absolutely once in a lifetime,” said Duncan.

“With unprecedented resources we want to push unprecedented reform,” said Duncan, adding that “we have to get dramatically better if we were to retain our spot around the world as the education leader… By the year 2020, we want to have the highest percent of college graduates in the world.”

To reach this ambitious goal, investments will be made in nearly every level of education. $5 billion will be invested to early childhood education. $30 billion will be invested in higher education. “There are no good dropouts, no good jobs today for high school dropouts… condemning them to poverty and social failure,” Duncan said. $2.5 billion will be dedicated over five years to retain students in higher education, and “the goal is not to go to college, the goal is to graduate,” he said.

These students are “competing with students in India and China for jobs… We have to raise the bar,” said Duncan.

For Duncan,”we cannot go backwards”, the crisis should lead people “to think very differently, to invest differently… and show what the country is possible.”