 I want to thank my wife, who challenged me to give this talk and start doing something about this idea. It's about my hometown, Washington, D.C., where our graduation rate is 64 percent, which is a high for the city, but is low compared to the counties that are immediately around the city. It's something that I really feel as a lifelong resident, D.C. teens deserve better. You'll hear this frustration in the voice of D.C. students heading on to these high schools like 10th grader Jerome Pettichlis, who confronted with an old school that needs updated textbooks and science equipment said, this makes us feel unwanted or unwelcome. Jerome deserves better. You'll hear it in the voice of D.C. students heading already in high school like senior Diamond Gooding, who said, we achievers are in a stone age learning environment. Diamond deserves better. And you'll hear the desire for a new kind of high school in D.C. students like Destiny T. Ray, who said, people think we're bad kids. I'm only 16. I didn't drop out. I just wanted to go to school in a different way. Destiny deserves better. And she's right that there is a different way and a different kind of high school in Washington is needed now. We're the home of problem solvers. The wonks, the science, the research and public policy nerds who aspire to tackle the world's biggest challenges, like disease, global warming, space exploration, the environment, and so on. But we need a different kind of high school curriculum. Harvard's Tony Wagner has said, today knowledge is available on every internet connected device. So what you know matters far less than what you can do with what you know. And that's the kind of school we need. He also said, the capacity to innovate, the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life. And skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than solely academic knowledge. Fortunately, we don't need to spend billions of dollars creating the kind of public research and cultural institutions to address the world's biggest challenges, like tackling poverty, hunger, education, saving the environment, and so on. Billions have already been invested here in Washington, D.C. Over many years to tackle these huge problems with breakthrough technologies and radical solutions, we are standing at the center of that X factor that our teams need to thrive in the 21st century. Billions have already been invested here in Washington, D.C. Over and these public institutions, we have the highest concentration of them anywhere in the world. Free, accessible, that's something we should think about. And what are we doing with it? They're in fields of study that high school students need most, like science, technology, engineering and math, NIH, NASA, Smithsonian research programs, air and space and natural history museums, the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and also arts and culture, the Smithsonian Art and History Museums, the U.S. Capitol where I work, the White House, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art, the Kennedy Center, the National Archives, where many of you all are representing here today. And all of these free public institutions have individual mandates to make their research, your research, your collections accessible and freed and open to the public. However, local D.C. high school students are currently really only using them for one-off projects or the occasional field trip. That's not only a wasted opportunity, I think it's a waste of our public investment. All of these public institutions also have digital repositories, collections, research databases, social media and other forms to share their groundbreaking research and projects, and many have already created curriculum plans for students to learn from their work. So the building blocks for a project-based learning already exist. We just need a new high school to put this research at the core of the curriculum, at the center of an innovative new school for public high school students that can build on that public, that project-based learning platform. It can't exist in a vacuum. We have dual enrollment partners scattered all over the city. We can help teens get the opportunities now to build a pathway for success, a pathway to get college credit. These institutions that you see are dying to improve their own graduation rates and completion rates. They would love to partner with a new kind of high school to help achieve their own mission. And new high schools need to include a new way of measuring achievement and accomplishment of students. Thomas Friedman and others have talked about the importance of having digital portfolios. Let's give students something that will and merit badges that let's reinvent the way that high schools recognize achievement of their students. Finally, we've got to do something for Jerome and these kids who are aspiring to be high schoolers in DC. This is a way that we can leverage our resources and help them achieve their dreams. So what I'm calling this, the working title, is Smithsonian High. And I love any of your ideas or feedback for how to make it happen. Thank you.