WEBVTT 00:01.915 --> 00:04.340 - Now, I wanna say, first thing is, we just saw 00:04.340 --> 00:07.870 the most exciting panels, because we saw 00:07.870 --> 00:10.530 what bipartisanship can do. 00:10.530 --> 00:13.890 We also heard that there's a sense of urgency 00:13.890 --> 00:16.990 and that sense of urgency is truly what we need 00:16.990 --> 00:20.900 to help get these things done for our families. 00:20.900 --> 00:22.930 So we will now be joined by leaders 00:22.930 --> 00:25.360 within the private sector for a panel 00:25.360 --> 00:29.070 on early childhood education and childcare, 00:29.070 --> 00:30.900 moderated by Department of Health 00:30.900 --> 00:33.650 and Human Services Secretary Azar. 00:33.650 --> 00:35.770 Please welcome, Barry Downing, 00:35.770 --> 00:39.270 President and CEO of Northrock Incorporated, 00:39.270 --> 00:42.640 Jim Sorenson, founder of Catalyst Opportunity Funds 00:42.640 --> 00:45.380 and Sorenson Impact Foundation, 00:45.380 --> 00:48.320 Jack Brennan, Chairman Emeritus 00:48.320 --> 00:50.970 and former CEO of Vanguard, 00:50.970 --> 00:53.430 Jack McBride, CEO of Contec 00:53.430 --> 00:57.610 and Cheryl Oldham, Vice President of Education Policy 00:57.610 --> 01:00.193 at the United States Chamber of Commerce. 01:00.193 --> 01:02.020 Here's our panel. 01:02.020 --> 01:05.020 (audience applauds) 01:10.180 --> 01:11.250 - Thank you very much Lynn. 01:11.250 --> 01:13.340 Is my microphone working okay? 01:13.340 --> 01:15.180 No, it's not coming through. 01:15.180 --> 01:16.949 Lynn, how about I borrow that one just until- 01:16.949 --> 01:18.210 - [Lynn] Absolutely, sir. 01:18.210 --> 01:19.720 - Thank you, well thank you all for being here. 01:19.720 --> 01:21.860 I'm really grateful to be here today 01:21.860 --> 01:23.450 for this important gathering 01:23.450 --> 01:25.340 and I'd like to thank everyone involved 01:25.340 --> 01:27.340 in putting it together, as well as all the members 01:27.340 --> 01:28.470 of Congress and the Senate, 01:28.470 --> 01:30.680 the governors that are in attendance today. 01:30.680 --> 01:34.180 Really just a great event and what a showing 01:34.180 --> 01:37.540 of bipartisan support around these important initiatives. 01:37.540 --> 01:40.130 One of the reasons I'm so proud to work 01:40.130 --> 01:43.450 for President Trump is his focus on ensuring 01:43.450 --> 01:46.630 that the US is the best place in the world 01:46.630 --> 01:49.210 to work and raise a family. 01:49.210 --> 01:52.120 The President's policies have allowed the private sector 01:52.120 --> 01:55.380 to generate more than seven million new jobs 01:55.380 --> 01:56.650 since he took office. 01:56.650 --> 01:59.020 seven million new opportunities 01:59.020 --> 02:02.010 for American families to prosper. 02:02.010 --> 02:04.470 And I'm grateful to Ivanka also for her efforts 02:04.470 --> 02:06.310 to help working families benefit 02:06.310 --> 02:08.730 from these incredible opportunities. 02:08.730 --> 02:11.330 Helping Americans attain self-sufficiency 02:11.330 --> 02:16.230 and economic independence is a key part of HHS's mission 02:16.230 --> 02:17.910 and affordable, quality childcare 02:17.910 --> 02:21.230 is an essential piece of that work. 02:21.230 --> 02:24.040 This year, led by our fantastic assistant Secretary 02:24.040 --> 02:27.160 Lynn Johnson, who's been coordinating everything today. 02:27.160 --> 02:31.090 HHS has held 10 regional childcare roundtables 02:31.090 --> 02:34.940 to engage directly with parents, providers and employers. 02:34.940 --> 02:37.070 Over 900 stakeholders, including 02:37.070 --> 02:40.080 almost 100 of our employers. 02:40.080 --> 02:41.710 I was actually able to join Ivanka 02:41.710 --> 02:43.790 at the Roundtable in Kansas City 02:43.790 --> 02:46.830 from which we have some familiar faces here today. 02:46.830 --> 02:50.140 Those discussions informed the childcare principles 02:50.140 --> 02:52.493 that the administration released today. 02:53.420 --> 02:55.250 Employers are key to this discussion 02:55.250 --> 02:57.680 because lack of affordable childcare 02:57.680 --> 03:01.210 can be a real barrier to an employee taking a job. 03:01.210 --> 03:03.620 Employers can help break down these barriers 03:03.620 --> 03:05.664 and childcare can help them attract workers 03:05.664 --> 03:08.410 and reduce turnover. 03:08.410 --> 03:11.110 The business and nonprofit leaders that we have here today 03:11.110 --> 03:13.460 could discuss many of these issues. 03:13.460 --> 03:17.050 Why does childcare matter to employers and employees? 03:17.050 --> 03:20.320 Where are we seeing promising solutions? 03:20.320 --> 03:22.300 How can the government and the private sector 03:22.300 --> 03:25.230 work together on providing solutions? 03:25.230 --> 03:28.560 We've got a great panel here to discuss these topics today. 03:28.560 --> 03:30.030 We've got my friend Cheryl Oldham, 03:30.030 --> 03:32.210 who is Vice President of Education Policy 03:32.210 --> 03:35.370 and Senior Vice President of Education and Workforce 03:35.370 --> 03:37.230 at the US Chamber of Commerce. 03:37.230 --> 03:39.960 We have Barry Downing, CEO of Northrock, 03:39.960 --> 03:42.220 a financial services company in Kansas 03:42.220 --> 03:44.810 and founder of the Opportunity Project, 03:44.810 --> 03:47.310 a public/private partnership to improve 03:47.310 --> 03:49.880 early childhood education. 03:49.880 --> 03:51.530 Jim Sorenson is here, founder 03:51.530 --> 03:54.590 of the Catalyst Opportunity Zone Fund 03:54.590 --> 03:56.650 and the Sorenson Impact Foundation 03:56.650 --> 03:59.720 and a leader in Utah on public/private partnerships, 03:59.720 --> 04:02.563 including around childcare and pre-K. 04:03.420 --> 04:06.790 Jack Brennan, Chairman Emeritus of the financial services 04:06.790 --> 04:10.330 company giant, Vanguard, a philanthropist and leader 04:10.330 --> 04:12.840 on early childhood issues and a member 04:12.840 --> 04:16.550 of the Pennsylvania early learning investment commission. 04:16.550 --> 04:19.060 And finally Jack McBride, CEO of Contec, 04:19.060 --> 04:22.210 a South Carolina global cleaning supplies firm 04:22.210 --> 04:26.130 and a philanthropic leader on early childhood issues. 04:26.130 --> 04:29.040 Let's kick things off first by just asking each of them 04:29.040 --> 04:30.320 to provide some brief opening remarks. 04:30.320 --> 04:31.720 You wanna get us kicked off? 04:48.470 --> 04:50.810 - Well thank you very much, good morning 04:50.810 --> 04:54.280 and I'm here as a concerned business owner 04:54.280 --> 04:57.170 and a childcare philanthropist as well. 04:57.170 --> 05:00.660 Early education issues are impacting our ability 05:00.660 --> 05:03.430 to run successful businesses and maintain quality of life 05:03.430 --> 05:06.610 in our communities and if we're to compete successfully 05:06.610 --> 05:09.293 in the global economy, build better communities, 05:09.293 --> 05:13.890 we have to do that and address the current crisis 05:13.890 --> 05:17.990 in childcare, because it is truly a crisis at the moment. 05:17.990 --> 05:20.450 Families are too often faced with impossible choices 05:20.450 --> 05:25.360 resulting in their inability to find an affordable place 05:25.360 --> 05:27.420 to house their children while they're working 05:27.420 --> 05:30.600 during the day or sometimes at night 05:30.600 --> 05:35.480 but parents need to receive safe and quality childcare 05:35.480 --> 05:36.570 for their little ones. 05:36.570 --> 05:39.900 More and more often, these children are being placed 05:39.900 --> 05:44.900 in unsafe and certainly low quality settings for daycare. 05:46.010 --> 05:49.817 What we find is only one in 10 daycare facilities 05:49.817 --> 05:54.817 in the country meet the standard of true, high quality 05:54.950 --> 05:58.270 and 90% of our children are not receiving the service 05:58.270 --> 05:59.713 that they deserve and need. 06:00.820 --> 06:03.010 Surveys show that due to cost constraints, 06:03.010 --> 06:06.110 only one in every 10 of these people are able 06:06.110 --> 06:10.391 to achieve that service, so it's a crisis that we have. 06:10.391 --> 06:15.250 Our solution has been to, as we've talked, 06:15.250 --> 06:20.250 our solution is to take a public/private 06:21.230 --> 06:25.590 partnerships position in this, because it's too expensive 06:25.590 --> 06:30.070 just to have one fund or another to be able 06:30.070 --> 06:33.620 to challenge or change this huge, huge problem. 06:33.620 --> 06:36.690 So we're all for early education 06:36.690 --> 06:39.200 and we're all for childcare and we're all 06:39.200 --> 06:44.200 for a solution that is flexible and fits everyone, 06:44.460 --> 06:45.812 so thank you. 06:45.812 --> 06:46.770 - Thank you very much. 06:46.770 --> 06:49.051 - Great to be here, can you hear me? 06:49.051 --> 06:54.051 Jim Sorenson, I'm here as a father, as a grandfather. 06:57.570 --> 06:59.060 I'm trying to keep up with the Romneys, 06:59.060 --> 07:01.260 I have 23 grandchildren. 07:01.260 --> 07:02.230 (audience laughs) 07:02.230 --> 07:06.400 We're working on, we need one more and we'll be there 07:06.400 --> 07:10.350 but very concerned, obviously as a father and grandfather 07:10.350 --> 07:13.330 about the next generation. 07:13.330 --> 07:17.230 I'm also an impact investor and an impact investor 07:18.160 --> 07:21.820 invests in businesses or social enterprises 07:21.820 --> 07:24.210 that address problems in society 07:24.210 --> 07:29.210 and I can think of no better, ultimate return 07:29.560 --> 07:33.344 in that regard than investing in the next generation 07:33.344 --> 07:38.344 and that's in childcare, it's in early childhood education 07:40.900 --> 07:43.200 and in those very formative years 07:43.200 --> 07:48.160 when the brain is developing and children 07:49.120 --> 07:52.450 are going to be establishing patterns 07:52.450 --> 07:55.870 in ways that will affect them the rest of their lives. 07:55.870 --> 07:59.080 And as also an entrepreneur and a business owner, 07:59.080 --> 08:03.370 I know how important this is for the workforce. 08:03.370 --> 08:08.370 Being able to have a workforce that is confident 08:09.960 --> 08:12.570 to be able to take care of their family 08:12.570 --> 08:15.140 and have the resources to do that 08:15.140 --> 08:17.010 I think is really important today. 08:17.010 --> 08:22.010 About 56% of the children ages up to six 08:25.230 --> 08:29.070 have parents that both work in Utah 08:30.750 --> 08:35.750 and 30% of those cite childcare and taking care 08:37.028 --> 08:41.980 of children and the issues at home in those formative years 08:41.980 --> 08:46.980 as affecting their ability to work, 08:48.010 --> 08:53.010 their ability to work the number of hours 08:53.372 --> 08:55.900 and be as productive as they might be. 08:55.900 --> 08:58.980 So I think these are really important issues 08:58.980 --> 09:03.980 and a great opportunity for the public sector 09:04.020 --> 09:07.062 and business to be able to lead out 09:07.062 --> 09:10.080 in helping to solve. 09:10.080 --> 09:11.303 - Great, thank you, Cheryl? 09:14.059 --> 09:15.503 - Ah, good. 09:16.930 --> 09:20.420 Thank you, so much, thanks for allowing me to be here. 09:20.420 --> 09:23.890 I'm obviously here, representing the US Chamber of Commerce 09:23.890 --> 09:26.090 and the Chamber Foundation but I'm also a mom, 09:26.090 --> 09:31.090 a single mom of two boys and this is not just 09:31.694 --> 09:35.310 a women's issue and how great it is to be up here 09:35.310 --> 09:39.117 with five men who are here to talk about childcare 09:39.117 --> 09:42.103 and the importance of it, I think it's awesome. 09:43.230 --> 09:46.420 And so the chamber, largest organization 09:46.420 --> 09:49.370 representing the interests of business in this country, 09:49.370 --> 09:52.730 we took this issue on about four or five years ago 09:52.730 --> 09:56.490 and thank you, Governor Bryant for mentioning 09:56.490 --> 09:59.117 the report that we released, "The workforce of today, 09:59.117 --> 10:01.733 "the workforce of tomorrow" and we really 10:01.733 --> 10:03.260 got into this conversation because we knew 10:03.260 --> 10:05.680 childcare, a very important work support 10:05.680 --> 10:07.330 but we were also a little bit wanting 10:07.330 --> 10:09.870 to have a conversation, broaden a conversation 10:09.870 --> 10:10.960 beyond just four year olds 10:10.960 --> 10:13.055 and we wanted to talk about the really important 10:13.055 --> 10:16.394 role of childcare as an early education setting 10:16.394 --> 10:20.220 for babies, so again, the workforce of today 10:20.220 --> 10:23.880 support you're really important to the business community. 10:23.880 --> 10:25.870 Support their current employees 10:25.870 --> 10:29.820 but also a really important foundation for readiness 10:29.820 --> 10:32.430 and to Kindergarten and beyond 10:32.430 --> 10:34.890 and so we took that report out on the road 10:34.890 --> 10:37.150 and we partnered with many of our state 10:37.150 --> 10:39.550 and local chamber partners. 10:39.550 --> 10:40.880 We've got a few of them here 10:40.880 --> 10:43.460 in the audience today, raise your hand. 10:43.460 --> 10:46.510 These are really, really great advocates 10:46.510 --> 10:49.690 and partners for you all in communities. 10:49.690 --> 10:52.230 They are taking a report like this 10:52.230 --> 10:54.440 and they are really trying to figure out 10:54.440 --> 10:55.940 what is needed in their community 10:55.940 --> 10:58.090 and when we took this on the road 10:58.090 --> 11:00.110 to make the sort of the business case 11:00.110 --> 11:03.120 for why you should care about childcare, it was not hard. 11:03.120 --> 11:07.370 We found a willing and receptive audience 11:07.370 --> 11:09.643 and we learned a few things along the way. 11:11.050 --> 11:13.747 They need help, they need to understand 11:13.747 --> 11:18.747 what role they can play and as an employer, 11:19.500 --> 11:21.480 what is the best thing they can do 11:21.480 --> 11:24.380 to support both their employees and their community. 11:24.380 --> 11:27.750 And so there's three things I'll say real quickly. 11:27.750 --> 11:29.480 Important to figure out the need. 11:29.480 --> 11:32.800 Like what is the need, you need a really low cost 11:32.800 --> 11:36.958 and first step that employers can make is to survey 11:36.958 --> 11:40.060 their employees and really understand what are the needs 11:40.060 --> 11:43.520 of the people that are working for them? 11:43.520 --> 11:46.250 The second is to understand the context 11:46.250 --> 11:48.102 of the community in which they live. 11:48.102 --> 11:51.330 So on-site childcare may not be the answer 11:51.330 --> 11:53.180 for every employer in the country. 11:53.180 --> 11:56.460 In fact, we know it's not and so understanding the context, 11:56.460 --> 11:58.460 the community in which they live. 11:58.460 --> 12:00.610 The Missoula Chamber is here, for example. 12:00.610 --> 12:03.841 Kim in an amazing CEO and she has really taken 12:03.841 --> 12:06.840 a leadership role to sort of survey, understand 12:06.840 --> 12:08.620 what the community's needs are, 12:08.620 --> 12:11.550 work with both providers in Missoula 12:11.550 --> 12:14.390 but then also the development community, 12:14.390 --> 12:16.100 real estate developers, to really think 12:16.100 --> 12:20.762 of innovative ways to open new childcare centers. 12:20.762 --> 12:23.110 And so understanding that context 12:23.110 --> 12:24.860 for them was really important. 12:24.860 --> 12:27.070 Another really important context piece 12:27.070 --> 12:29.377 is understanding the economic case 12:32.210 --> 12:34.820 for childcare in your community 12:34.820 --> 12:37.770 and so the Association of Washington Businesses here, 12:37.770 --> 12:39.960 they did a great report, Louisiana has done one 12:39.960 --> 12:41.910 with the business community's leadership. 12:41.910 --> 12:44.373 The Metro Atlantic Chamber has done this 12:44.373 --> 12:48.130 to really understand what is the economic impact, 12:48.130 --> 12:51.080 both to business but the economy at large 12:51.080 --> 12:52.650 for breakdowns in childcare 12:52.650 --> 12:55.773 and then third is to then figure out what are the options? 12:55.773 --> 12:57.680 Is it on-site childcare, 12:57.680 --> 12:59.870 or maybe it's providing backup care. 12:59.870 --> 13:01.740 In the case of Home Depot for example, 13:01.740 --> 13:03.160 it's predictive scheduling 13:03.160 --> 13:07.850 and back for their hourly wage employees 13:07.850 --> 13:09.960 and then helping with backup care. 13:09.960 --> 13:12.330 So there's lots of options out there 13:12.330 --> 13:15.780 and employers are really digging into this issue 13:15.780 --> 13:19.210 and we hope that at the Chamber, we're playing 13:19.210 --> 13:22.220 a little bit of a role to help them figure that out, 13:22.220 --> 13:25.290 in partnership with our network all across the country. 13:25.290 --> 13:26.760 Happy to be here. 13:26.760 --> 13:29.990 - Hi, so Contec is a company we started in 1988 13:29.990 --> 13:34.180 with two people and we're now 550 in Spartanburg, 13:34.180 --> 13:37.900 manufacturing wipes, mops and pre saturated wipes 13:37.900 --> 13:40.350 for high-tech manufacturing, particularly 13:40.350 --> 13:41.600 the pharmaceutical market 13:42.870 --> 13:46.639 and what we see is with our 550 associates 13:46.639 --> 13:48.710 our early associates come in 13:48.710 --> 13:51.590 and we have 360 hourly associates. 13:51.590 --> 13:55.090 Start about $13.50 an hour and then it averages 13:55.090 --> 13:58.440 around $18.50 an hour and at those pay rates 13:58.440 --> 14:00.950 we know that they really can't afford 14:00.950 --> 14:04.630 great quality childcare and in the organizations 14:04.630 --> 14:06.330 that have been a part of understanding 14:06.330 --> 14:09.540 the importance of those first three years of life 14:09.540 --> 14:12.530 when 80% of brain growth is going on 14:12.530 --> 14:16.980 and a huge percentage of brain development is going on, 14:16.980 --> 14:20.320 they really need to have quality childcare 14:20.320 --> 14:21.980 that is gonna engage children 14:21.980 --> 14:25.460 and teach them and get them ready to learn 14:25.460 --> 14:27.670 by the time they get to 5K. 14:27.670 --> 14:30.510 So one of the initiatives that we've been involved in 14:30.510 --> 14:33.470 in Spartanburg is the basics, which was started 14:33.470 --> 14:36.500 by Dr. Ron Ferguson up at Harvard 14:36.500 --> 14:40.760 and it's five simple skills that are wonderfully easy 14:40.760 --> 14:44.050 to explain, they don't require great education 14:44.050 --> 14:47.140 or income level, so we're trying to roll that out, 14:47.140 --> 14:50.910 both with our own employees and everybody in Spartanburg. 14:50.910 --> 14:54.100 So Contec has hired somebody to be the community coordinator 14:54.100 --> 14:56.869 for the basics in Spartanburg. 14:56.869 --> 14:59.330 But we really we wanna try and figure out 14:59.330 --> 15:03.071 how we're not big enough to do on-site childcare 15:03.071 --> 15:06.150 but we'd like to help our employees 15:06.150 --> 15:08.570 during those first critical three years 15:08.570 --> 15:10.960 and we're hoping there's some solutions 15:10.960 --> 15:14.380 that allow us as now a mid-sized company 15:14.380 --> 15:17.453 to help our employees get that quality childcare 15:17.453 --> 15:20.910 that is gonna make the rest of their child's life 15:20.910 --> 15:24.430 more productive and also that parent-child relationship 15:24.430 --> 15:27.600 so much better, as the family grows. 15:27.600 --> 15:29.730 - Thank you Jack number one, Jack Brennan number two-- 15:29.730 --> 15:32.760 - Jack number two, first thank you for having us 15:32.760 --> 15:36.320 and really to the administration for the emphasis 15:36.320 --> 15:38.430 you're putting on this issue. 15:38.430 --> 15:41.260 I have the privilege of co-chairing a CEO taskforce 15:41.260 --> 15:43.310 for ReadyNation around this issue. 15:43.310 --> 15:47.210 We've been at this for 10 or 12 years 15:47.210 --> 15:50.140 and this is the best momentum I think we've seen 15:50.140 --> 15:54.160 Mr. Secretary over that period of time 15:54.160 --> 15:57.960 and what we've built is a network of business leaders 15:57.960 --> 16:01.810 like our colleagues up here and at the state level, 16:01.810 --> 16:03.980 in some ways we've been ahead of the federal level, 16:03.980 --> 16:07.470 I think, in terms of advocacy, creating advocacy 16:07.470 --> 16:08.890 and creating awareness. 16:08.890 --> 16:11.680 And so I'm here, I'm privileged to be here 16:11.680 --> 16:13.610 because it's the federal government now 16:13.610 --> 16:15.500 talking about it in a bipartisan way. 16:15.500 --> 16:17.170 Very inspirational to hear the Senators 16:17.170 --> 16:20.980 and the Congressman this morning talk about this. 16:20.980 --> 16:23.640 But for all the reasons everyone has said, 16:23.640 --> 16:26.350 it's a critical issue, it's a short-term issue. 16:26.350 --> 16:27.954 Absenteeism and other things in the workplace 16:27.954 --> 16:29.790 but it's a long-term issue 16:29.790 --> 16:32.010 if we wanna be globally competitive. 16:32.010 --> 16:36.220 We started as a company with 13 people 16:36.220 --> 16:39.450 and it's now 17,000 people around the world 16:39.450 --> 16:41.980 but who's gonna do that next 16:41.980 --> 16:43.970 if they don't have a ready-made workforce 16:43.970 --> 16:45.640 full of children ready to learn 16:45.640 --> 16:47.810 when they get to kindergarten and go at it. 16:47.810 --> 16:51.140 So you've got all the advocates you want around the country 16:51.140 --> 16:53.500 who wanna do this and have proven capabilities 16:53.500 --> 16:56.310 to make it happen locally and the national emphasis 16:56.310 --> 16:57.780 is something that's very exciting to see. 16:57.780 --> 17:00.150 So thanks for letting us be here. 17:00.150 --> 17:02.090 - Absolutely, well thank you very much. 17:02.090 --> 17:04.100 Let's get some, we'll hit some questions now 17:04.100 --> 17:06.970 and Cheryl, Jack McBride raised the issue of solutions, 17:06.970 --> 17:09.400 of innovative ideas out there. 17:09.400 --> 17:10.930 What are some of the things that you're seeing 17:10.930 --> 17:12.010 out in the business community? 17:12.010 --> 17:13.890 That's one of the things the Chamber can really do 17:13.890 --> 17:17.000 is be a kind of knowledge sharing hub, 17:17.000 --> 17:17.900 a center of excellence. 17:17.900 --> 17:19.286 What are some of the things you're seeing around 17:19.286 --> 17:22.440 efforts to have childcare be more innovative 17:22.440 --> 17:24.190 and help us retain and attract talent? 17:24.190 --> 17:27.770 - Yeah, so I'd encourage everyone to go 17:27.770 --> 17:29.830 to uschamberfoundation.org 17:29.830 --> 17:34.830 but we have case studies, really talking 17:35.100 --> 17:36.620 about a lot of things that are happening 17:36.620 --> 17:39.940 but a couple of things, so work day 17:39.940 --> 17:41.350 was one that I didn't mention. 17:41.350 --> 17:44.490 They have been serving their employees for forever 17:44.490 --> 17:45.860 to understand what their needs are, 17:45.860 --> 17:48.360 what they can do to be helpful and provide 17:48.360 --> 17:50.283 what employees are looking for. 17:51.270 --> 17:53.660 A restaurant on campus, a gym on campus 17:53.660 --> 17:55.790 what they didn't realize until they really dug in 17:55.790 --> 17:58.790 to the data is that if they sort of narrowed in 17:58.790 --> 18:03.790 on the 30 to 40 year old employees, 18:05.790 --> 18:07.580 the issue of childcare was coming up. 18:07.580 --> 18:11.410 It was sort of getting lost in the broader survey 18:11.410 --> 18:13.470 but if they narrowed in on that population, 18:13.470 --> 18:15.990 they really understood childcare was huge issue 18:15.990 --> 18:18.505 and now that they know, they're starting to figure out 18:18.505 --> 18:20.768 what are the options. 18:20.768 --> 18:24.605 I mentioned Home Depot's got on-site childcare 18:24.605 --> 18:28.630 we've got chambers that are all over the country 18:28.630 --> 18:32.620 that are really helping to make this economic case 18:32.620 --> 18:34.060 and I think it's really important 18:34.060 --> 18:39.050 because it then brings, it's sort of a rallying cry 18:39.050 --> 18:42.080 for all the stakeholders in this conversation. 18:42.080 --> 18:46.690 It's a way that business and advocates can come together 18:46.690 --> 18:48.150 with those hard data points 18:48.150 --> 18:50.870 and really make the case in their community. 18:50.870 --> 18:52.400 As I mentioned, Missoula's doing 18:52.400 --> 18:54.737 some really interesting things to support 18:58.460 --> 19:00.428 current providers and expanding by using 19:00.428 --> 19:05.010 unused property in the town. 19:05.010 --> 19:06.430 I mean, this is a big deal, right? 19:06.430 --> 19:11.430 There's an unused building, how can we use it 19:12.500 --> 19:14.290 for a childcare setting? 19:14.290 --> 19:16.160 And these are all things that the business community's 19:16.160 --> 19:19.478 really playing an important role in sort of herding 19:19.478 --> 19:21.543 these efforts on the ground. 19:22.761 --> 19:25.050 - Thank you Cheryl, Barry, could you talk 19:25.050 --> 19:26.470 about the Opportunity Project, 19:26.470 --> 19:27.700 the work that you've done there 19:27.700 --> 19:29.806 and specifically, what kinds of outcomes you're measuring 19:29.806 --> 19:32.290 and what kind of data do you have on the kids 19:32.290 --> 19:33.840 that have gone through that program? 19:33.840 --> 19:36.530 - Well, we started the Opportunity Project 19:36.530 --> 19:39.230 15 years ago in Wichita, Kansas 19:39.230 --> 19:42.650 and it started as a public/private partnership. 19:42.650 --> 19:45.130 We raised around 15 million dollars 19:45.130 --> 19:48.530 from various private and public partners 19:48.530 --> 19:51.110 and built three large centers. 19:51.110 --> 19:54.140 Now it's actually four now, 800 children. 19:54.140 --> 19:56.970 We've graduated about 3,000 children 19:56.970 --> 19:58.330 over that period of time. 19:58.330 --> 20:02.000 So we have a great deal of experience in assessing 20:02.000 --> 20:05.845 what seems to work with at-risk populations. 20:05.845 --> 20:08.812 As far as the longitudinal study, 20:08.812 --> 20:11.680 we track Kindergarten readiness as well 20:11.680 --> 20:14.060 but longitudinally, the oldest children 20:14.060 --> 20:17.250 are graduating from high school just now 20:17.250 --> 20:20.780 and so what we find is that overall, 20:20.780 --> 20:23.250 Kindergarten readiness for the at-risk populations 20:23.250 --> 20:28.250 that we serve are up from 35% incoming to 85% outgoing, 20:28.380 --> 20:31.090 as they're delivered to the public system. 20:31.090 --> 20:33.650 In particular, socio-behavioral measures 20:33.650 --> 20:37.500 are twice as likely to be in the top 20% of their class, 20:37.500 --> 20:42.470 so it's not only a cognitive development program 20:42.470 --> 20:45.930 but also a socio-behavioral, which is of course, 20:45.930 --> 20:48.740 in some cases just as important. 20:48.740 --> 20:52.800 We have increased high school attendance rates. 20:52.800 --> 20:55.020 The absenteeism is reduced significantly 20:55.020 --> 20:58.220 with these children, they get high quality care. 20:58.220 --> 21:02.440 We see increased GPAs and the children more likely 21:02.440 --> 21:06.070 in math and in science to achieve grade level results 21:06.070 --> 21:09.170 in Kindergarten at 12 and most importantly, 21:09.170 --> 21:11.290 when you look at the dollars and cents here, 21:11.290 --> 21:15.934 there's a 35% reduced need for early education services 21:15.934 --> 21:18.310 as they hit the K-12 systems. 21:18.310 --> 21:20.850 So that alone is a huge return 21:20.850 --> 21:23.085 on investment for the program 21:23.085 --> 21:27.470 but we are so happy to be able to do this 21:27.470 --> 21:29.810 and we just need to expand to scale 21:29.810 --> 21:34.810 and get other children involved to have a maximum benefit. 21:35.300 --> 21:36.666 - Great, thank you very much. 21:36.666 --> 21:39.660 So Jack Brennan, you mentioned your advocacy work 21:39.660 --> 21:42.370 and as a member of the Pennsylvania Early Learning 21:42.370 --> 21:46.320 Investment Commission, what are the commission's priorities 21:46.320 --> 21:49.230 for improving access to childcare in Pennsylvania 21:49.230 --> 21:52.270 and how does it relate to workforce development? 21:52.270 --> 21:53.970 - Well, the commission's been around 21:53.970 --> 21:56.990 for I think 11 years now, through multiple 21:56.990 --> 22:00.180 and different political party governorships 22:00.180 --> 22:02.970 and it's a governor-appointed commission. 22:02.970 --> 22:04.920 Our priorities are around a couple of things. 22:04.920 --> 22:09.920 First is quality and second is access and their co-incident 22:11.545 --> 22:13.970 and the goal is, literally it gets down to almost retail. 22:13.970 --> 22:17.720 How many children do we have served and how many 22:17.720 --> 22:19.670 are left to be served in a high quality? 22:19.670 --> 22:21.670 We have a ratings system in Pennsylvania 22:21.670 --> 22:23.580 which is called Keystone Stars 22:23.580 --> 22:25.550 and it's zero stars to four. 22:25.550 --> 22:27.030 It's things you can imagine, it's safety, 22:27.030 --> 22:30.265 it's quality of the teaching staff 22:30.265 --> 22:32.000 and the facility and so on 22:32.000 --> 22:35.270 and our goal is to continue to have funded 22:36.230 --> 22:40.310 star-based programs available in the rural parts 22:40.310 --> 22:42.610 of Pennsylvania, which we have lots of 22:42.610 --> 22:45.430 and in the inner cities, which we have a couple of big ones 22:45.430 --> 22:46.960 and some other smaller ones 22:46.960 --> 22:49.483 and so it's all-around access and quality, 22:50.807 --> 22:51.940 it's what we talked about continually 22:51.940 --> 22:53.700 and it ends up being a federal state 22:53.700 --> 22:56.290 and private partnership, if you will. 22:56.290 --> 22:57.850 We're grateful for the block grant, 22:57.850 --> 22:59.940 the increased block grant we've gotten 22:59.940 --> 23:03.850 and we put that, half of that money this year 23:03.850 --> 23:06.876 just the difference between what we had and what we got 23:06.876 --> 23:11.150 to raising the subsidy rates for children 23:11.150 --> 23:12.330 to participate in these. 23:12.330 --> 23:15.110 So again, we literally look every year 23:15.110 --> 23:16.370 at how many kids are served 23:16.370 --> 23:17.850 and how many are yet to be served 23:17.850 --> 23:20.610 and that is the goal, is to eventually 23:20.610 --> 23:24.660 get that last number to zero and the other one to 100% 23:24.660 --> 23:26.240 and it's tough, like we've made a lot of progress 23:26.240 --> 23:29.020 over the decade but we got a long way to go. 23:29.020 --> 23:30.770 - Great, thank you very much. 23:30.770 --> 23:34.270 Hey Jim, one of the principles for childcare reform 23:34.270 --> 23:36.730 that we've released here out of the White House today 23:36.730 --> 23:39.420 it involves building the supply of childcare 23:39.420 --> 23:41.530 and increasing choices for families. 23:41.530 --> 23:43.580 Could you tell us a bit about what you touched on, 23:43.580 --> 23:46.210 which is leveraging social impact financing, 23:46.210 --> 23:49.410 the public/private model, to bring in outside capital 23:49.410 --> 23:52.580 to expand and improve the quality of childcare in Utah? 23:52.580 --> 23:55.620 - You bet, first of all let me say 23:55.620 --> 23:58.950 I'm also happy to be part of the ReadyNation group. 23:58.950 --> 24:02.600 It's a been ahead on this for some time 24:02.600 --> 24:05.708 and it's really great to see now 24:05.708 --> 24:10.708 the White House and the bipartisan efforts 24:11.210 --> 24:14.780 that are being made but as an impact investor, 24:14.780 --> 24:17.000 I became aware of a very interesting, 24:17.000 --> 24:21.000 innovative approach to funding social services 24:21.000 --> 24:26.000 and the concept is a private/public partnership 24:27.140 --> 24:31.297 where investors essentially fund an intervention, 24:33.270 --> 24:35.413 let's say early childhood education. 24:38.640 --> 24:41.120 There's a lot of data around the measurement 24:41.120 --> 24:45.770 of the success and it's usually focused on an outcome. 24:45.770 --> 24:49.720 Now in Utah, the very first initiative 24:50.760 --> 24:54.370 for early childhood education was done 24:54.370 --> 24:57.631 and it was focused on investors investing 24:57.631 --> 25:00.630 in early childhood education, in programs 25:00.630 --> 25:03.000 that had been shown to be very successful 25:03.000 --> 25:07.440 in reducing the need for special education 25:07.440 --> 25:11.680 for at-risk populations, about 90% in terms 25:11.680 --> 25:14.969 of the data that had been generated 25:14.969 --> 25:18.805 and investors took the risk, made the investment 25:18.805 --> 25:21.320 Goldman Sachs, their urban development fund 25:21.320 --> 25:24.470 and it was de-risked by the Pritzker Foundation, 25:24.470 --> 25:28.300 so innovation in the capital stack itself 25:28.300 --> 25:30.840 and about seven and a half million dollars was raised 25:30.840 --> 25:35.840 and the students were from at-risk populations, 25:36.370 --> 25:39.430 the children, starting at age three 25:39.430 --> 25:44.430 and then measured through the fourth grade 25:44.910 --> 25:48.063 in terms of their education proficiency. 25:49.820 --> 25:53.460 And I think the program's been a remarkable success 25:53.460 --> 25:55.880 in terms of reducing the need 25:55.880 --> 25:59.470 and the cost of special education in the state of Utah 25:59.470 --> 26:02.630 is about $3,000 per year, per student. 26:02.630 --> 26:06.180 And so this was used in the calculation 26:06.180 --> 26:09.910 for the ultimate repayment to investors, 26:09.910 --> 26:13.350 based on the success of the program, very outcomes-driven 26:14.290 --> 26:17.120 and it has reduced the need for special education 26:17.120 --> 26:22.120 by an average of about 80-90% in this at-risk group. 26:23.190 --> 26:25.410 I think the other remarkable thing about it 26:25.410 --> 26:27.330 is that after it was passed 26:27.330 --> 26:29.896 and as it was seen to be successful, 26:29.896 --> 26:33.820 the legislature appropriated additional funding 26:33.820 --> 26:35.740 for early childhood education. 26:35.740 --> 26:38.920 Funding that probably would not have been appropriated 26:38.920 --> 26:41.250 and their basing the funding based 26:41.250 --> 26:44.478 on the same rigorous approach to focus on data 26:44.478 --> 26:46.800 and outcomes measurement. 26:46.800 --> 26:48.760 So I think there's a real benefit 26:48.760 --> 26:53.373 in engaging in private/public partnerships. 26:54.571 --> 26:57.970 The financial resources that can come 26:57.970 --> 26:59.810 for such an important issue 26:59.810 --> 27:03.107 as early childhood education and early childhood care. 27:04.626 --> 27:05.950 - Well thank you and Jack McBride, 27:05.950 --> 27:10.950 so you have a challenge because of this red-hot economy. 27:10.980 --> 27:13.120 Your company's located in Spartanburg County, 27:13.120 --> 27:17.430 South Carolina, which has a 1.6% unemployment rate 27:17.430 --> 27:22.070 and 3,500 open manufacturing jobs. 27:22.070 --> 27:24.960 How's that impacted your company's ability 27:24.960 --> 27:28.060 to get access to childcare, to get employees 27:28.060 --> 27:31.390 and what are some of the great steps 27:31.390 --> 27:33.498 that you think could be taken there? 27:33.498 --> 27:35.000 - Well, we're all struggling 27:35.000 --> 27:36.900 to get enough employees, obviously. 27:36.900 --> 27:38.740 Those numbers speak for themselves 27:38.740 --> 27:41.470 but we also have probably have seven or eight thousand 27:41.470 --> 27:44.870 people in Spartanburg County that are not counted 27:44.870 --> 27:46.730 in those workforce numbers any more, 27:46.730 --> 27:48.270 a lot of them being single moms 27:48.270 --> 27:50.976 that if they had good quality childcare 27:50.976 --> 27:53.053 could get back into the workforce. 27:53.890 --> 27:55.227 One of the problems that we're seeing 27:55.227 --> 27:58.339 in terms of childcare is we're just not paying 27:58.339 --> 28:02.160 childcare providers enough money and the teachers, 28:02.160 --> 28:04.410 I was talking to a principal 28:04.410 --> 28:06.730 at our leading childcare center. 28:06.730 --> 28:09.060 She just lost a woman that was a great teacher, 28:09.060 --> 28:12.730 she was making $21,000 a year, she went to work 28:12.730 --> 28:15.660 for Chick-fil-A to make $27,000 a year, 28:15.660 --> 28:17.210 which is what she would get paid 28:17.210 --> 28:19.980 to stack wipes in our clean room. 28:19.980 --> 28:24.980 So yes, it's very hard to attract employees right now. 28:25.033 --> 28:27.020 We actually had to move some production 28:27.020 --> 28:29.755 to our plant in China which, our plant in China 28:29.755 --> 28:31.930 was built to service the Asian market 28:31.930 --> 28:34.570 but if we can't get enough people to do the jobs 28:34.570 --> 28:37.480 we have to satisfy our customers, 28:37.480 --> 28:40.163 so it's a challenge in many ways. 28:41.180 --> 28:42.670 - Great, well Jack, thank you very much 28:42.670 --> 28:45.760 and please join me in a round of applause 28:45.760 --> 28:47.841 to thank all of our panelists on this topic. 28:47.841 --> 28:50.841 (audience applauds) 28:53.630 --> 28:56.930 and I think we'll be taking a brief break now 28:56.930 --> 28:59.093 as we reset the stage for our host. 29:01.220 --> 29:02.613 - Thank you, thank you so much.