 Good morning, everyone. I think we'll get started and really very honored to be in this distinguished setting. I'm Sandy Close, the director of New America Media, and we've partnered with members of the KidsWell Collaborative, which is here today, and people will introduce themselves very quickly. This is a forum that was totally inspired by Juan Flores, a longtime friend and colleague, but it is part of a larger effort sponsored by Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation in New York that is very committed to expanding healthcare access for children and youth, and has a particular concern with children and youth in Texas, in Florida, in Mississippi, in states where Medicaid has not been expanded. So I'm delighted that we have several colleagues from the Atlantic Philanthropies KidsWell project here. We are doing these seminars to also bring our ethnic and community-based partners together, and we will be joined by several more. We had a very good RSVP for today's event, and we also have the wonderful opportunity of a webcast that we will be able to project today's panel to a much wider audience through New America Media's ethnic media syndicate, through our website, through the various folks who are here today. So I'm going to turn it over to our official host and MC Juan Flores, but just to say thank you so much for letting us come and learn from all of you today. Good morning. I'm Juan Flores, and I'm the Executive Director for La Fe Policy Research and Education Center. I want to thank everybody for joining us today to have this conversation on the future of children of color in Texas. I want to give a special thanks to New America Media, Sandy Close for choosing San Antonio to do the media briefing. It's a first for San Antonio, quite frankly. Secondly, I certainly want to thank Dean Rogelio Sainz from the College of Public Policy, and I also want to thank Roger for the work he put. Roger Enriquez who's the Director for the Policy Study Center. And of course I want to give a thanks, shout out to NowCast who is willing to video and record today's media briefing and discussion. Our special thanks go out to our presenters, you know, their expertise to sharing it with us, to giving us their perspective and their long years of experience with some of the issues that we're going to touch on today. And so I really, really appreciate their time and effort. And, you know, I want to kind of make a brief presentation just for a few minutes, and with regard to the fact that the demographic changes and issues presented today have major implications for the biennestad and well-being of our children and the economic prosperity of our state. For many of us, the word biennestad has the implied meaning of social justice in opportunities to achieve equality education, occupational and economic mobility, good health, civic involvement, and a safe living environment. As you know, children of color comprise the majority of the state child population, which is being led by the Latino explosive growth. Furthermore, it's important to note that the majority of state tax revenues from Texas will come from people of color, which 43% will be from Latinos. Latinos will comprise over 42% of the state's aggregate household incomes. The incidence and prevalence rates of disease and chronic health problems, unfortunately, are increasingly shifting to African-Americans and Latinos, thereby increasing their health resource needs. The purchasing power of Texas people of color is growing quickly. For Latinos, it is expected to increase by 50% from 175 billion in 2009 to 263 billion by 2016. If Texas is to achieve and maintain a progressive and compassionate posture, it must pay serious attention to the conditions under which children of color live. They are the future power Texas must reckon with. Therefore, it must pay attention now to the social and economic implications of their success at school or lack thereof, their developing health status, which is directly related to their school performance, their projected growth and purchasing power that will contribute in great measure to the state's economy, to the growing numbers that will begin voting, become civically engaged, and increasing their voting block strength. While we will not present all the issues impacting children of color, we will speak to priority education and health issues that have statewide legislative policy implications and impact. It seems to us that effective child development is fostered by a loving and nourishing family environment, a financially stable and unstressed home, a good physical and mental health, and early education opportunities as major prerequisites. The expected results is entering adult health with social capital assets evident by development of a strong family and community networks, achieving equality education and good health that are central to self-sufficiency and being a productive citizen of our society. If you view it as a puzzle, these requisites represent critical pieces required to achieve effective child development. Unfortunately for too many children of color, the puzzle has been incomplete and the requisite pieces are either missing or they're broken. The result that most of us in this room know about has been entering adulthood with an inadequate education, weak job skills, living in poverty, poor health, high teen pregnancy, incarceration, and so forth. It's not, you know, unfortunately, you know, a lot of children are being lives, our lives are being lost, families are being marginalized, and the economy of our state is also being diminished. While cities, nonprofits, faith and businesses have increasingly ventured into local partnerships to help address some of these pressing problems, like San Antonio being one with early child education recently. Unfortunately, they are not supported by state policymakers who demonstrate minimal, minimal statewide investments in building stronger human capital for the future. According to the 2011 Texas on the Brink, the state is not making such human capital investments. The reports succinctly illustrate the state's national poor rankings across selection of legislative performance indicators relating to education, employment and wages, health, voter inequality are all well documented. You can read reports from Texas organizations such as the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Texas Care for Children, and other present who present similar results that further perpetuate inequalities. Latinos, African Americans, and low income populations have experienced firsthand the state's minimal approach to public policy making that often obstruct ideas and change to equitable opportunities for all citizens of our state. The current far right political and policy environment raises major concerns about the potential impact on our families being established and our influence to help direct the future of Texas. Too often, the policy environments reflect biased ideology and political rhetoric, which has little to do with objective or equitable policy solutions that improve education, healthcare and economic development and that truly, I mean truly are for all Texans and so we like to say. Instead, we have a regressive tax system taking disproportionately more dollars from the poor as opposed to a fair progressive tax system. This contributions, this contributes I should say to our inadequate state revenue collection structure which is insufficient and most people know it, to meet basic infrastructure needs such as roads and water, let alone meet current and future revenue investments in education, workforce with a living wage, healthcare and so forth. These inequities have contributed to the numerous legal actions in education, mental health, juvenile justice, family planning against the state for the discriminatory impacts resulting from these policies particularly against the poor and people of color. For decades, Latinos and African Americans have fought and continue to fight against unequal education, low wages, healthcare inequities, immigrant bashing and other economic mobility barriers. Specific to Latinos, the history and future of Texas is immersed with the Tejano presence and contributions. Improvements in the quality of life of Latinos would not have occurred without the significant labor movements of the 1920s. The post-war war II Mescan American civic organizing and advocacy of the 40s and 50s, the civil rights Chicano engagement of the 60s and 70s. Since the 1980s African Americans and Latinos and other progressive advocates, organizations and network allies have been involved in major legislative and legal battles particularly in education, legislative representation, voter suppression, health and immigration issues. Unfortunately, they're still with us today. Comprehensive education and healthcare access legislative solutions are vitally needed. While good data and policy research are critically important, all of us in this room, we know and we must demand action and develop the power and influence for that to happen. Good policymaking should strengthen communities, families and individuals through investments that in turn contribute to a strong economy and citizens. For the future of children of color, we have much work to do as the data and the policy perspectives will be reflected this morning by the expertise and the committed individuals that we have presenting. With that, if you will, I'd like to begin with Dr. Sainz, who will be followed by Kuka as well, us lovingly referred to her from IDRA, followed by David Hinojosa, the regional council from Maldave, and Non-Docobart, the deputy director for the Center for Public Policy Priorities. Again, we would like very much for questions and discussion to take hold until the completion of their presentation.