 Good morning. I'm Charlotte Ann Lucas with NowCastSA, and we're here this morning to have a conversation about the importance of quality early childhood education. That's the Before Kindergarten or Pre-K, and we have some people with some terrific expertise in childhood education here on this panel. Let me introduce the folks who are on the panel today, and I am going to read from notes on this, if I haven't got it memorized. Directly to my right is Bradley Scott, who is a senior education associate with Intercultural Development Research Association. He serves as the director of IDRA Equity Assistance Center, which is the South Central Collaborative for Equity. They work with school districts in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in the implementation of educational equity plans that increase equitable educational opportunity and greater access to high quality instruction for all students. I believe KUKA describes it as equal opportunity education for everyone. And the preparation and adaptation of desegregation and unitary status plans and settlement agreements to decrease and eliminate racial isolation in public schools, community, patient, parent, and student involvement in the diverse school setting. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy with a concentration in Educational Administration from the University of Texas at Austin, and his dissertation title was Race and Racial Perceptions, a comparative study of the equity context of two school districts. He got a bachelor's degree in French and education from Grove City College in Pennsylvania and a master's degree in early childhood elementary education from University of Texas in San Antonio. And next to him is Dr. Judy McCormick. She is the executive director of P-16 Plus of Greater Bear County, where she joined them in October 2010. And the P-16 Plus Council is the lead education partner for SA-2020, the city of San Antonio's vision for 2020. P-16 Plus partners with all 15 independent school districts, primarily serving San Antonio. Before this, she was the executive director for San Antonio Education Partnership. And she previously served as chairman of the Board of Directors for the partnership for over five years. The partnership provides college access services to 25 high schools in eight school districts to more than 30,000 students and has provided more than $19 million in scholarships since 1989. Under her leadership, the partnership contracted with the city of San Antonio to create and launch this place we're at right now, Cafe College, the city's college access center that provides services to more than 11,000 clients. And further down the table is Richard Noriega, who is the president and chief executive officer of Avonce, which is a national two generation nonprofit organization dedicated to parental involvement and child development. Under his leadership, Avonce has established innovative partnerships and community ventures, including rapid expansion to states across the nation and for the first time engaging in cross-cultural research on the adaptability of Avonce parent-child education program to different ethnic groups. And Hispanic Business Magazine named him one of the top 100 influential Hispanics in the United States and recognized Avonce to their top 25 nonprofit list for five years running. Very impressive. And then our two fabulous interns, Martha Rainier and Destiny Estrada, who are juniors at Travis Early College, I'm sorry, Travis Early College High School in San Antonio and aspiring journalists. They are interning with us and as part of their journalism internship, did the research and voiceovers and for these videos that we're going to debut today. And I think we are going to launch those videos right now. And this is the first time our panelists, I think, have seen these videos. And so I would love for your observations about what you think of these things. Why pre-K? Pre-K helps teach young children how to learn and it gets them ready for elementary school. How is it different from day care? Good pre-K programs have highly skilled teachers and small classes. In pre-K, teachers use educational materials that are designed to help preschoolers learn and expand their vocabulary through playing and participating. Many people think that they can't afford early education. Depending on your family's income, your child may qualify for low cost or no cost pre-K. You may also qualify for assistance if your child speaks English as a second language or if you, as their parent or guardian, have served or are serving in the military. There are approximately 5,000 four-year-old children living in San Antonio who are eligible for state-funded pre-K but are not enrolled in a full-day pre-K program. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Why pre-K? Pre-School helps prepare young children for primary school. What is the difference between a day care pre-K? Pre-K has qualified teachers and small classes. Teachers use educational materials designed to help students learn and expand their vocabulary through playing. Many people think that they can't afford early education, but in San Antonio there are ways to qualify for their child to attend a pre-school center. The requirements for their child to qualify are low income, English as a second language or military service or family. There are approximately 5,700 children who live in San Antonio who are eligible but are not enrolled in a full-day pre-K program. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Why pre-K? A child who goes to a quality pre-K program is more likely to keep up with his or her classmates and graduate from high school. Unemployment among dropouts is 14.1% compared to 9.4% among high school graduates. On average, a person who graduates from high school will make half a million dollars more in their lifetime than someone who does not. Graduating from college increases a person's lifetime earnings by an additional one and a half million dollars. If every state made a high quality pre-school available to children, two million more Americans would graduate from high school, get better jobs and become contributing taxpayers. Although enrolling your child in pre-K may seem expensive in San Antonio, there are many programs that your child may qualify to attend for little or no cost. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Why pre-K? Taking care of a child is a challenge and as a parent I just want to give them the best. A child who goes to a quality pre-K program is more likely to keep up with his or her classmates and graduate from high school. A person who graduates from high school earns half a million dollars more than a person who leaves school. If he graduates, he can help the economy and reduce unemployment. If all states made high quality pre-schools for children, more than two million Americans will graduate from high school, get better jobs and become contributing. Education pre-K may seem expensive, but in San Antonio there are programs that can qualify to a low-cost free service. When inscribing your child in pre-school, it gives them the opportunity for a better future. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Why pre-K? Children are playful and curious, looking around to learn something new each day. In pre-K your child will learn how to socialize with other children in basic skills. Children who attend early educational programs are at lower risk for obesity. The years of education that you have can affect how long you live. If you have a good education and job, you tend to have health insurance and access to more nutritious foods. Minorities who are less educated tend to pick up bad habits like smoking and physical abuse. Seven out of ten children who did not attend pre-K were more likely to be arrested by the age of 18. School keeps a child focused instead of committing a crime. Children who attend pre-K are less likely to become teen parents. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Give your child the opportunity for a better future. Those are the first cuts of those videos and we would love to hear from you guys about how they can be improved. One thing I do need to tell you is that there was very upbeat music underneath one of the videos. We are going to lay that track down underneath all of them but they are not quite as sad sounding. This question is for UCA. Why did you choose to do a series of bilingual videos? In the old days we would have written a story in the newspaper to try to get the information to parents by reaching them that way. These days more of the people in the target audience who are young parents get their news and information from places like YouTube and Facebook. We went ahead to create these and try to get them out where people consume their news and information. Pre-K slots are going unfilled. Why do you think that is happening? First of all, San Antonio has one of the higher rates of unfilled early childhood slots. That should be concerning to us all as a city. Why that might be happening among those things from what we see at IDRA are things like parents not knowing what is actually available that they can take advantage of. We also are very much concerned about what are the systemic realities around slots that are available for parents and their children. How the system provides access, knowledge, supports parents, knowing how to navigate systemic realities, structures, challenges that they may face to get their children enrolled. We think there are a combination of things that need to be looked at in addition to some parents just not feeling comfortable with systems and people who run those systems and knowing how to trust them to have their best interests at heart. We think a lot of factors like that may be intervening on the connection of families and their children to opportunities that systems do have available. Some of the quality education that we have has a component on it where if you leave your child during the day for early childhood, you can leave them and then there is childcare after like 2.30. So if you work all day and you come in in the morning and you drop your child off, but if you have to pick them up at 2.30, many of our families can't stop at 2.30, go and pick up their children and then go back to work. So the really quality childcare have taken that into consideration that for working parents it's a big deal to stop at 2.30 and we've got to make arrangements for that. The other thing is location. Some of our early childhood centers are not in the locations where there's a propensity of children that need them. So it's kind of a mixture. It's like real estate location and location. That's part of it. And then the other part to me is not understanding the importance of pre-K and early childhood as a learning place, not a daycare place. And the learning place is so important because we need to have vocabulary. We need to have lots of words when we go to kindergarten now. And we have a lot more things that kindergartners are expected to know than when many of us went to school. They need to know their letters, their numbers, their colors. You know, they need to know where they live. They need to write their name. Many of us never had to do that until we were in first grade. So a lot of the educational pieces have been pushed down to 3 and 4-year-olds and there's a lot of expectations for 5-year-olds when you come in to be ready to learn. And in our city, only 40% of our kindergartners are actually ready for kindergarten in the spring of their kindergarten year. So that means they definitely weren't ready when they came to kindergarten. So for our community, this is a big issue. Being ready for school and early childhood education is part of getting them ready. Thank you. First, Charlotte, I just want to say that I think that Martha and Destiny did a phenomenal job on these videos. I've taken a very complex, in some ways, idea and then, you know, really bringing it to communicate to parents. And so Judy just mentioned a couple of things that were real important about why things are not, are not, some of these slots are not filled. She mentioned timing and location. But all of the key things that she mentioned of why it's important, how further upstream the efforts have to be to get results, are obviously the things that, you know, Avance has been involved in for 40 years. We have a very robust effort here in San Antonio integrated with all the collective work that is being done here. But I think part of the reason that we're seeing slots more at a more strategic level is it's a cultural change. It's a cultural change, especially within our community where, you know, I will eat that or tea or somebody would take care of a child, you know, if both parents were working. And the whole notion then that we may have a child in a program zero to three or age four is a little bit of a shift. And as Judy mentioned, it's also, you know, we're doing that cultural change too, that we're not babysitting. It's learning through play. It's actually, it is a critical intervention in the development of that child. And so, you know, here in San Antonio, we have seen a very robust leadership initiative that you see spotty in different parts of the country and in some states too, but this city has made an invested commitment to the next generation of children. Now, all these little nuances and logistical glitches will be worked out. And your work contributes to that cultural mindset change of the parents in the community that's out there. And that's why your work is so important. So keep up the good work. Thank you. So the next question is, how do you know what a good quality program is? I'll be brief. Well, the good thing is that here in San Antonio with a comprehensive effort, there's going to be vetting mechanisms and the education to the community to help them know what's a good program and what isn't. Unfortunately, in other parts of the United States or in the state, it really in large part depends on the parent's initiative to look and see what kind of outcomes, what kind of metrics that if a program is graduating a child who then is school ready based on their pre-K or kindergarten assessment instruments, then it's proved up of whether or not it was a quality program or not. Now, obviously, I have a deep bias. Every child that comes through Alvonse gets the best here in San Antonio. They absolutely get the best there is. So I have my own bias. However, with the pre-K for essay, I think that the process and the structure is going to be there and that quality programs are delivered so that here in Bear County, people can be confident of that. There are also state designations and the city has a listing. The issue is how do you get that information to parents so they can say, here are all the early childhood providers that these are designated as high quality or certified. And that's something that we're working on as a community to make it easier for parents. And so that's one of the things P-16 is working on is how do we get that information to parents in an easy format like on their telephone or on their iPads or make it available, easily available so that they can choose the right one. So IDRA has been working on this particular question since the 70s with its early childhood Amanaseira curriculum. And one of the things that we're talking about in terms of quality in these instances has to be how systems value assets that families bring into this learning preparation for school success process that kids are engaged in. So many times systems and even early childhood systems are set up instruction in a way where they look at families and their children with deficits through a deficit lens as opposed to saying that these families culturally, linguistically, socially have something already that they bring into this process of teaching and learning. How can we look at that and use that as a springboard for this child's readiness for school success? I think it's critical that a quality program also has as a part of its criteria notions of how families are valued and their ways of being and knowing are integrated into the learning process. I think teachers need to be prepared for that. They are not necessarily highly prepared to do that. That is to say that families have high qualities that can be used to build their own children's success. I think many times quality programs have to be defined as those that look at parents as partners in their children's success and structure that into the learning that goes on in the schools, in the homes, in the classrooms where their children are engaged in. I think third, quality program also has to prepare people to be cross the teachers and the administrators in these early childhood settings to be cross culturally competent enough to know how to identify where those asset points are, that children and families have, that they can hook onto and use them as springboards, of moving their children from that knowing to the knowing that leads to school success. So these are processes I think that we and those who run systems have to understand, I think that at the preschool level, it becomes critically important. As I have said and have said for years, that the transition between preschool and kinder early elementary is as important as a transition from high school into college, that there are big infrastructure realities that the programs have to have in place to help children to make those transitions and that when they don't, and IDRA has done this not only through its original Manasera curriculum, but also through its current Simeitas preschool curriculum, builds those infrastructure bridges so that students move with some sort of facility from one level to the next. I think it's hugely important. Judy, to your end on how to get that information into parents' hands, I need to tell you that I'm very proud of the fact that the most popular piece of content on Nowcast SA is a mobile-friendly early voting map that you can get on your phone and people are using that to find places to vote. We're able to do that if you have the information. We're able to map that information and get it out to people and would love to do it. As a matter of fact, that could be their next project. If I may, I just want to pick up on what Dr. Scott said. I had mentioned earlier about the cultural change in families and a lot of what he's mentioning too is the cultural change in systems where these educational systems were pretty much siloed. Judy's been working to really make this, you know, we were talking earlier from a crib to career a seamless cultural change and I think that what Brad was talking about is super important is that one thing I would offer as a recommendation is that we look at within the educational system of how when principals are going or teachers are going to be certified as administrators, et cetera that we also acknowledge that they can do a pre-K piece as a part of their accreditation. I think that's important to be able to start building the bench and the knowledge base and the cultural seamlessness of everything that we're talking about and what Brad also mentioned is super important is that the national conversation now really recognizes is that part of what we used to do in social environments is that we're going to go fix somebody. Something's wrong with you and now we're going to go fix you versus the way we approach folks is what Brad was mentioned is taking people where they are. Everybody comes with value, they come with assets, they bring something to the table and not looking at someone as though they're deficit but looking at someone with respect and able to gain the trust so that they recognize and bring certain talents to the table to be either an effective parent in terms of parent engagement and what they can do with their children. So all of these conversations is what San Antonio is really at the forefront in the movement and that's why people across the country are flocking to San Antonio to see how it's getting done. That was good. Why do each of you believe the system is failing to engage pre-K parents? I don't subscribe to the question. I don't agree with the premise of the question. I'm going to let you... The other thing is I don't think we're failing. The issue is I think we have over 16,000 children in San Antonio that are going to pre-K. So out of the 20,000 that we have, that's a huge number but it's not enough. This is how I think the better question would be how do we reach those hard to convince parents and families that they should put their kids into pre-K. And I think that has a lot to do with what you were saying. Reach them where they are. Do it in the language they're comfortable with. Do it in the way they're comfortable. It could be in person. It could be through their church. It could be through their telephone, TV. This is an interesting time for San Antonio because several years ago when I brought up the fact that we really should be looking at pre-K because it affects third grade reading. Many of the people in business suits kept looking at me like, why does it have anything to do because pre-K is babysitting? And so I've been working for years to say pre-K is not babysitting. Pre-K, you have to be in a safe place but you're learning all those foundational, fundamental things so that you can read and be successful by third grade because everybody in this room has heard this but if you're learning to read by third grade you have to read to learn after that. And so the school systems are set up like that. So if parents really understood pre-K is important so that your child can read by third grade. Your child is 60% more likely to graduate from high school if they go to pre-K. And they're more likely to go to college and on. Parents sometimes don't get that connection in families because in our culture it's just never really talked about. But for me, let's just start focusing on third grade reading because if you can make third grade reading important and they can excel at that and be proficient children have a much better chance at being successful all the way through their life. And so that's why I'm saying it's so important from 0 to 8 years old to really hone in on pre-K and reading and language and that's why pre-K is such an important piece. I would add and I agree with you, Judy that we have to think about how we make systems more effective at bringing parents into pre-school systems and pre-school settings. So that should really be the bigger question. How do we make our systems more effective? One of the things I think we have to ensure the systems do we do want to have a wraparound notion of support for parents but that wraparound support set of services shouldn't become a web that entangles parents in a lot of bureaucracy and things that become fearful and unknowable to people who are powerless sometimes to even know what systems are actually doing and wanting to do for them. So even though systems may have at their core the best interest of parents at heart how they go about their business may be frightening and unknowing to parents and so it may cause them to want to be resistive. I think systems and the people who control the systems have to think about how they really engage parents in a way that is non-threatening, that is accessible, that is understandable and that creates in parents a sense that yes, I can trust that what they are up to is something that is going to be a win-win for me and my child in a way that makes them want to engage it. So I think that when systems and those who control the systems understand those kinds of things about families who have always been manipulated and controlled and operated by the systems that they rely upon for their support and their success when the systems begin to approach parents in a different kind of way I think there will be this willingness, in a more receptive way in which parents will also reach back to those systems including preschool experiences. I can't agree with you more, Judy, about the importance of how we structure preschool experiences so that they do empower kids with capacity so that they can do the kind of learning in the ways that schools are structured. It's not that they're not learning. We've had this conversation before, it's not that they're not learning. It's how they use that learning and use the mechanisms for learning to create school success for themselves. So how do we get children to do that? I think it becomes one of those things that we want to make sure are happening in terms of how systems outreach the parent and make them feel comfortable that these kinds of things will happen. I think finally, it becomes important that when we start talking about systems and how they operate, when we see successes as we're experiencing here in San Antonio, how do we institutionalize those things and communicate those to new programs and to new other cities who are seeing the San Antonio early miracle beginning to occur and wonder how that's happening that we have a way of explaining that and helping others to know that so that they can do that in their localities, wherever it is that they are. Can I echo that which you said which is, instead of looking at it as what has failed, tell me what is being successful? I mean, what are some of the ways that some of the institutions are being successful at this? Well, I know just on an institutional level, I mean, think about it, over 16,000 kids are in pre-K. I mean, we always talk about the 5,400 that aren't. But a few years ago, that wasn't the case. I mean, so that's a good thing. The other thing is that our reading scores are going up. So that's another thing. Our third grade reading scores are going up slowly, but they're going up, which tells me somebody's doing something right down the cradle to career spot where it's not, from my standpoint, it's just not going fast enough. So that's why I work on it. We need more people going into quality early education so those third grade reading scores keep going up and more kids are reading. That's the path I think we need to be working on is how do we institutionalize it to make it sustainable? How do we scale it? How do we scale it in all the places where families need this kind of help? It is amazing to me that the city of San Antonio has taken on this conversation of early childhood or pre-K through 20 education. The community is owned by paying for it through taxes. In other words, education is not just the concern of educators. It is the concern of a community that is saying this is so important to our economic vitality, our social reality, and our future as a city that we need to make sure that everybody has access to good education that prepares them for school and success in life. I mean, that is a huge step forward in terms of a city looking at and investing in its future. In every conversation, that needs to be part of what the conversation is about, that a community has owned public education in a way that says it is important enough for us to put our money where our mouth is. I think that is a huge step. That is why so many states and cities and organizations are coming to San Antonio to say, how did you do that? How did you convince people to take their sales tax money and spend it that way? A lot of people do not. They fix potholes. They build infrastructure. To us, education is infrastructure. That is where businesses finally adopted that and understood that their workforce of the future is all based on our education today. That starts with little children in pre-K. We always laugh about it. When people in suits start talking about three- and four-year-olds and how important it is for their education, not that they did not always love them before, but now they are talking about three- and four-year-olds are connected to their workforce in the future. That is a huge cultural change, I think, in our community. I just wanted to add to that in another life, when I was in the Texas Legislature on Appropriations Committee, the prison board would come before the Appropriations Committee and would forecast how many new beds we needed to build in the state of Texas, prison beds, based on the third grade state at that time, the TOX test. So they were already forecasting. And that the evidence is irrefutable about the cognitive brain development, zero to three, and what pre-K means. The business community gets it. The community at large, the advocacy groups get it. The importance of how this is a critical factor of continuing to be relevant in a global economy where countries like China and India and Israel and everyone else, they have already invested. What was mentioned earlier that San Antonio has taken the leadership and has the public will to actually ensure that it is supporting its seed corn, the next generation of leadership in the city is super important. But I just want to add, we have champions that are talking about how important pre-K is. There's another, and the reason I want to say is absolutely committed to that as well because we recognize that people will continue to need to look to the left, further upstream of where interventions need to occur, where the parent is the first teacher and the home is first classroom. Right now, even if a child does attend pre-K and there is a word gap, there are not the proper number of words that are spoken in the home and the sentences and there's a national effort to try and campaign to try to lift the word gap of words that are spoken in the home that's critical. It's all interrelated. These are not silos. They are all congruent. It's glove in hand and they affect one another. Well, I think I just mentioned it and I just want to take it to a different level though. If we are going to continue societally to be great as a country and as a state, San Antonio is a microcosm of that effort is what has to occur across this country. Other countries get it. Other countries are doing something about it. Local communities like San Antonio have stepped forward and demonstrated the public will, the leadership, the financing, the resourcing. Incidentally, I think that the economics of what's occurring in San Antonio will come back to them tenfold. It will come back tenfold in so many different ways. So it is, it's paining now or paining later and it is so refreshing to see what is occurring here in that regard and we just hope that this does stimulate a more national comprehensive movement that early childhood development pre-K is part of our tenant, our foundation as a country, just like Maslow's hierarchy of need. This is like air, it is like water. It is fundamental to who we are as a country, as a nation, why? Because this year in this school district, I don't know about this school district, but I'll tell you about it most of them, folks that look like me, you'll probably see in excess of 30% at the end of May not graduate high school that entered in the ninth grade. That is appalling and we should be outraged as a society for not doing something about it and where does the fight need to occur? What's happening here in San Antonio is how that fight needs to be engaged and additional effort needs to be invested nationally. Since the profile of pre-K has increased, has the standard of quality pre-K program changed too? Very quickly. It's evolving, the neuroscience continues to change, delivery, intensity, time, all those things are going to continue to get better as this movement evolves, which is going to be better for our children, but it's sharing information, research, outcomes, data, and we'll continue to get better at it. That's one of the things that happens when you do pre-K for essay. Automatically the quality in our city went up because we wouldn't have voted on if we didn't want a quality curriculum and quality outcomes. So all the children in pre-K for essay, for instance, will be measured all the way through third grade to see what happens. So there's another way for us to continuously improve and monitor those children that are going to pre-K for essay to see is it really quality? Did it really work? Because in eight years from the time they opened, we have to go back and re-vote on this situation and we need outcomes. And so that's another reason we know that it's going to be quality because all of us that are working so hard on this want to make sure that those outcomes are there by third grade. So the quality, when you have pre-K for essay, it isn't really competition but it does raise the level of discourse in our city about what goes on in a curriculum, what goes on in the room, what kind of technology are you using in the room for the teachers, what kind of technology do you have in your schools? Those are all conversations, interestingly, that are going on right now. So I think a lot of that will raise the quality and the professional development for our teachers and the information for our parents. I think we've been talking about children and systems and whatever, but around this is a common group called parents that really need a lot more information and a lot more support. And I think our children are going to be more successful through pre-K for essay because a big component of that program is support for parents. Information, what connectivity to other services and a lot of organizations like Avante, that's what they do. They help parents connect to their next need or to their next step in life. So I think that connectivity is also part of our quality movement. And about quality, just to add what both Rick and Judy are saying, all of our pre-school programs are not yet of high quality. So we're moving in that direction because I think we are understanding the need for high quality pre-school learning experiences for children. Our Simeitas curriculum, Simeitas being seeds that we are planting is a professional development model as well as well as a model for parents. But in it is recognized the importance of ensuring that teachers are continually having an opportunity to upgrade their skills, their knowledge and their competency so that on the front line of learning, as they work with children and they do their bases, they are providing to them the highest quality learning experiences they can in those schools and classrooms. And I think that opens up another important conversation between public education and post-secondary education even in San Antonio. That centers a professional development for teachers. Teacher education that goes on in San Antonio as it prepares young men and women for classroom experiences include building capacity to get little learners at three and four years old ready for a global reality. That is the world that Rick was talking about and the challenges we face dealing with India and Brazil and Russia and Korea who are preparing their students as well. Our learners have to get ready for that world. This 21st century reality in our schools and classrooms just as they are doing with their children and that's a part of what I think a quality program does. It prepares them not to be successful just in San Antonio but to be successful around the world and to be competitive with their counterparts around the world. It starts at this preschool level building that foundation. One of the things we haven't talked about though is the early childhood teachers are some of the lowest paid people. Oh, yeah. And the issue is that we want them to have professional development. It's very expensive to do that and in many centers the reason that we get why they can't do more professional development it costs almost $1,000 or more to get that constant development per teacher. So if they increase the cost then parents can't bring their children to daycare or to early childhood education. So we've got to figure out a way in the system to provide cost effective professional development to the early childhood providers without putting it on the backs of the parents. That's a different conversation and that is a systemic issue that we have. So how do we as a community provide that extra professional development cost effectively so that we can raise the quality without burdening our parents? Big question. What most concerns each of you about the state of early education right now? Just like she mentioned. I would echo what Judy was saying on the pay issue but also what Brad was saying to the capacity issue. Today if we were to wave a magic wand and there were the resources abundantly available so that every child in the United States had a quality early childhood education we would not have the capacity to be able to serve that need. So there has to be a timeframe or process of building that capacity through a variety of ways both locally and nationally. The other thing I think that concerns me more ideologically is that there's a pretty loud ideological voices in this country from a lot of different perspectives. One of the things I'm a little bit concerned about and I'm glad that we have people like IDRA here in San Antonio and others that people will refute science and we see it happen every day. People will give them on TV but still. So I have some concern that through all of this body of work of knowledge that is irrefutable that people will try to poke holes in it that somehow it's inaccurate which is it is not. People can now map the brain, they can understand a child's ability through mapping to acquire an additional language and when that intervention has to occur it is irrefutable and so I think we just all need to be vigilant when that voice of ignorance rears its head to put them in their place. The other thing that concerns me is that we focus so much on schools doing everything. The issue is is it will take everybody to educate that child and that includes not only learning in the school room but also about safety. What about food? What about transportation? All these things are connected to the success of a child going through school. So it's not just what they learn in school it's these other things. It's not always academic. It's some of the softer skills like healthcare and being able to be healthy enough to be in school every day to find some root causes of why children in pre-K and first grade through first grade were missing so much school and we found three things. One was a transportation issue. Parents had a hard time getting their kids to pre-K. The other thing was a chronic health issue and most of it was asthma. So in our city that was news to me that we have a chronic asthma problem and so the other part is not having the knowledge to know that attendance is required every day because pre-K and kindergarten are still optional in the state of Texas. They aren't mandatory and so they were kind of mixing up that piece with once you enter into a system the rules are mandatory but that was getting missed in the translation. So I think we need to focus on not just academics but the whole surrounding picture. In addition to the things that both Rick and Judy have talked about my concern about early childhood education is those who are making decisions that early today that early childhood education is important that they not look at this early childhood education experience as just the new interest of the moment but that they understand it and see it deeply and broadly as important to a child's success life's success so that they won't make quick or superficial decisions about to continue it or not but to say that it is critical I think Rick you have alluded to this already that it's woven into our fabric a basic tenet of how we see success in life building success in life as early childhood education is one of those things so important so critical to it that we not stop our DRA is 40 years old this is a position we have steadily taken for 40 years that preschool education is so important that it has to be structured into the basic reality of how systems define themselves and their doing so we've been at this for 40 years with that message that early childhood education and particularly for kids whose first language is not English and poor kids etc that it's so important that they be provided with quality education that even in the absence of quality education we've had to create curriculum and structures of teacher preparation and put those systems into place to help school systems and communities or whomever to understand that this should be a natural and regular part of their day to day doing and being so I'm concerned about those who might be making quick decisions do we continue this program is it bearing fruit Judy is it making a difference in terms of third grade success or not and based upon that and that alone do we need to build prisons Rick to get ready for the black and brown boys who will end up in them you understand what I'm saying we need to be saying to ourselves it is so important that we structure into the basic fundamentals of who we are who define ourselves to be quality high quality early childhood educational experience to build success for not only children and families but for communities as we move forward it's interesting we're sitting in a college access center calling you know cafe college we put a lot of emphasis on trying to get all kids to and through college and it starts with pre-k now the question is who are the right ambassadors to get this message to the people who need it all of us everyone everyone has to be an ambassador for what's important and why it's important and understanding to change the entire culture that it is readily acceptable that this is again a part of our fabric our foundation as a country and as a state and as a local community and so each and every one of us have to be able to to be able to discuss this in a meaningful way y'all are in high school still and look at what you did in terms of messaging and I assure you that whenever and if you have children I bet you are going to be absolutely focused on your zero to three child I know some of our interns and staff that are here today that may have children or are going to have children I promise you as a result of them just witnessing this today they are going to be more engaged parents and their kids are going to be successful so it's each and every one of us every day communicating that message and I think more and more we will see others finally getting to that place and understanding that this has to be the basic foundation of our society cradle to career that's why should I make a comment before that question or not I need to get every one of your names and your titles and then I have a question for you about how important computers are to youngsters three year old because obviously as an adult computers are a little more complicated for me but it seems like kids under six it's no problem when you're trying to you know let's say educate child so may I speak to the ambassador question first and then respond to that I think that everybody in this room especially you young folks we older people are about ready to turn back into dust but you young folks are going to be important for being ambassadors also so I think everyone in this room we all have to be ambassadors doing our respective parts around ensuring quality preschool education about computers and technology it is absolutely critical our future is already here so we are in a virtual reality we are dealing with all kinds of computers and technology it is a part now of how we define ourselves when I was a baby television was just coming into being and so we became the first generation of the TV society right now our babies are the first generation of computers and technology the world is defined by what that reality actually is if it's not integrated into their lived and learning experiences as a part of how they do what they do they're going to be sorely left behind I think is absolutely critical and I think we ought to be using technologies to enhance and broaden and deepen what learning is all about in a 21st century it is that critical to the whole process of teaching and learning and I think part of what I wanted to tell you is that we are at Cafe College by design and thank you for your involvement creating this place but it is essential that preschool is inextricably connected to college readiness is part of the underlying theme here also to the notion of computers obviously the fundamental thing for all of us is how to get news and information to people and we have to get it into their hands and we can't do that without technology I would like to say technology is a tool and that there is nothing more important than talking with a child not just looking at a screen and learning from the screen I think the brain we know from research there needs to be that give and take the thought process, the problem solving the relationship building all those things are just as important as the academic piece or the technical piece so we want our children to be able to problem solve be able to self-sufficient to be able to work with others to have friends interacting with humans and so that I don't like the idea of just abdicating to technology or putting them in front of the television or whatever as the answer to everything it is a tool in the big scheme of things Judy just said everything I was going to say it is an enhancement it is it can be a force multiplier it is not in lieu of we are human creatures we require the human interaction the greater learning of all the sensitive senses and the brain development is required is more enhanced by human contact and again research has been done on this where you have a kid in front of a TV versus one that interacts with the human being someone that so without question it is not in lieu of it augments or enhances and is a tool oh and I did want to say too Charlotte thank you for putting this on together now Kassna was it Casey Annie Casey that helped helping to support this effort for being an ambassador for wherever this winds up showing so thank you again for having us thank you this is a good conversation to keep having and I think we can make it richer and deeper by bringing more and more people into it so whatever you can do to make that happen thank you and thank you for allowing us to be here today thank you also very much and thank you for also helping us with what are our next steps to go and we will continue the conversation