Hi all, and welcome to my daily report on the Obama Administration.
Today we feature:
• The Medal of Honor ceremony for Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta and PBS Newshour story
• White House blogs round-up:
Debunking a misleading Wall Street Journal article on Medicaid and how the Affordable Care Act will save money for states, OMB’s progress in reducing improper payments as part of the President’s Accountable Government Initiative, and the Director of the Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Justice talks about an event dedicated to the issues of fathers who are incarcerated.
• Cabinet round-up: Reports from Departments of State, Defense, Commerce and Education
From the White House:
Medal of Honor for Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta
President Obama awards Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta, U.S. Army, the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry for his courageous actions against an armed enemy in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan in October 2007. November 16, 2010.
From the Office of the Press Secretary:
Remarks by the President in Awarding the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Salvatore A. Giunta
THE PRESIDENT:
.... Now, I already mentioned I like this guy, Sal. And as I found out myself when I first spoke with him on the phone and when we met in the Oval Office today, he is a low-key guy, a humble guy, and he doesn’t seek the limelight. And he’ll tell you that he didn’t do anything special; that he was just doing his job; that any of his brothers in the unit would do the same thing. In fact, he just lived up to what his team leader instructed him to do years before: "You do everything you can."
Staff Sergeant Giunta, repeatedly and without hesitation, you charged forward through extreme enemy fire, embodying the warrior ethos that says, "I will never leave a fallen comrade." Your actions disrupted a devastating ambush before it could claim more lives. Your courage prevented the capture of an American soldier and brought that soldier back to his family. You may believe that you don’t deserve this honor, but it was your fellow soldiers who recommended you for it. In fact, your commander specifically said in his recommendation that you lived up to the standards of the most decorated American soldier of World War II, Audie Murphy, who famously repelled an overwhelming enemy attack by himself for one simple reason: "They were killing my friends."
That’s why Salvatore Giunta risked his life for his fellow soldiers -- because they would risk their lives for him. That’s what fueled his bravery -- not just the urgent impulse to have their backs, but the absolute confidence that they had his. One of them, Sal has said -- of these young men that he was with, he said, "They are just as much of me as I am." They are just as much of me as I am.
So I would ask Sal’s team, all of Battle Company who were with him that day, to please stand and be recognized as well. (Applause.) Gentlemen, thank you for your service. We’re all in your debt. And I’m proud to be your Commander-in-Chief.
These are the soldiers of our Armed Forces. Highly trained. Battle-hardened. Each with specialized roles and responsibilities, but all with one thing in common -- they volunteered. In an era when it’s never been more tempting to chase personal ambition or narrow self-interest, they chose the opposite. They felt a tug; they answered a call; they said, "I’ll go." And for the better part of a decade, they have endured tour after tour in distant and difficult places; they have protected us from danger; they have given others the opportunity to earn a better and more secure life.
They are the courageous men and women serving in Afghanistan even as we speak. They keep clear focus on their mission: to deny safe haven for terrorists who would attack our country, to break the back of the Taliban insurgency, to build the Afghans’ capacity to defend themselves. They possess the steely resolve to see their mission through. They are made of the same strong stuff as the troops in this room, and I am absolutely confident that they will continue to succeed in the missions that we give them, in Afghanistan and beyond.
After all, our brave servicemen and women and their families have done everything they’ve been asked to do. They have been everything that we have asked them to be. "If I am a hero," Sal has said, "then every man who stands around me, every woman in the military, every person who defends this country is." And he’s right.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
More photos here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
From PBS Newshour:
Giunta on Medal of Honor: 'I Can't Wear This for Myself'
Ray Suarez talks to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the first living service member to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.
Transcript:
STAFF SGT. SALVATORE GIUNTA: It's strange when someone comes and congratulates me. And I have to -- of course, OK. This is -- this is very good. This is very positive. This is for a lot of things.
And it brings back instantly the memory of Specialist Hugo Mendoza, Sergeant Joshua Brennan, and think, you know, that is who needs to be congratulated, and they're not here to take this congratulations.
They gave every single one of their tomorrows. And I'm the one that they're going to pat on the back and thank and give a hug? It's -- it's difficult sometimes....
A soldier is not being a soldier for themselves. They're being a soldier for the people around them, for the men and women to the left and to the right, the ones that are showing them, leading them in front, and for the people that will follow them behind.
No one out there was in it for themselves. Everyone acted for each other.... I think this represents all those unsung heroes that deserve this so much. This is for them. I -- I can't wear this for myself.
The -- the president of the United States will give me the Medal of Honor, and I will wear it for every single one of the service members that I have ever served with....
http://www.pbs.org/...
White House Blog round-up
From the White House Blog:
Myths about Medicaid
By Stephanie Cutter, Assistant to the President for Special Projects
[Nov. 16’s] Wall Street Journal includes a story claiming that states will suffer through a deep fiscal crisis because of the Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, the story relies on flawed studies and omits important information about some of the key benefits in the new law for states and their residents. Here are the facts:
Insuring More Americans Will Help Save Money for States: Under the new law, 32 million more Americans will have health insurance, thereby saving money normally spent on caring for the uninsured. And savings for states under the new law could be substantial. The Urban Institute has estimated that:
"...state and local governments would save approximately $70-80 billion over the 2014-2019 period by shifting this spending into federally matched Medicaid, clearly exceeding the new cost to states of the Medicaid expansion..."
And after detailing other potential savings, the same report concludes:
"In sum, states as a whole can probably achieve savings that significantly exceed their increased costs for low-income Medicaid adults." http://www.rwjf.org/...
By insuring more Americans, the Affordable Care Act will substantially decrease the amount states spend to care for the uninsured, which in 2008 cost states $17.2 billion. Overall, boosted federal Medicaid support to states will decrease the share of how much they spend to cover their Medicaid enrollees’ health care expenses by 4.5 percent. http://www.kff.org/...
Administrative Costs Will Be Supported by the Federal Government: Today’s story wrongly claims that the new law "sticks states with a significant amount of the administrative costs" associated with their Medicaid programs. In fact, the Obama Administration recently proposed that the federal government cover 90 percent of the cost of updating state Medicaid systems to ensure these systems are as efficient as possible.
Even in These Tough Economic Times, States Continue to Make Improvements to their Medicaid Programs: A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that nearly all states are proactively improving their Medicaid programs to provide better care and make these programs more efficient. http://www.kff.org/... These improvements, combined with substantial resources from the federal government, for example, through the newly launched Innovation Center, will help ensure states do not have to cut spending in other crucial areas to support their Medicaid programs.
Today’s Story Relies on Flawed Studies: The article cites deeply flawed analyses on the impact of the Medicaid expansion on Mississippi, Indiana, and Nebraska. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes:
"These studies, however, conducted by the consulting firm Milliman, Inc., have serious flaws. They produce overstated estimates of the costs of the Medicaid expansion because they rely on a number of problematic assumptions..."
One of the assumptions these studies make is that 100 percent of those who are currently eligible for Medicaid, as well as 100 percent of those newly eligible will enroll in the program. Neither the Congressional Budget Office, nor the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, made this assumption when they projected the Affordable Care Act’s impact on Medicaid enrollment because there is no evidence to support it. Medicare, which offers coverage to all Americans over the age of 65 does not have 100 percent enrollment. The studies also tended to overestimate per-capita Medicaid beneficiary costs, as well as the number of people who would opt out of private health insurance for Medicaid. You can read the full report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities here: http://www.cbpp.org/...
Under the new law, millions of Americans who have been uninsured will have coverage, the worst insurance company abuses will be banned and states will save money they would have spent caring for the uninsured. That’s a good deal for millions of Americans and state budgets.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
From the Office of Management and Budget Blog, Nov. 16, 2010:
Improper Payment Progress
by Jeffrey Zients
Readers of OMBlog are now quite familiar with the Administration’s determined effort to cut the billions of dollars wasted each year in improper payments -- payments made by the government to the wrong person, at the wrong time, or in the wrong amount. These include payments made in error by a government agency sending a benefit check, inadequate documentation by a local provider, or outright fraud by a contractor or other recipient.
As part of the President’s Accountable Government Initiative, we’ve worked hard to bring down the rate of improper payments, recapture misallocated funds, and meet the President’s goal of reducing improper payments by $50 billion by the end of 2012. Yesterday, federal agencies finished their year-end financial statements, and I’m pleased to report that we have made significant progress on these fronts.
For 2010, the government-wide improper payment rate declined to 5.49 percent, a decrease from the 5.65 percent reported in 2009. This means that we prevented an additional $3.8 billion in improper payments from being made in 2010, and are headed in the right direction as we work to meet the President’s goal.
In fact, eight of the 10 high-priority programs (programs which account for the majority of government-wide improper payments) reported lower improper payment rates in 2010 compared to 2009. It’s worth noting that Medicare and Medicaid both achieved lower error rates in 2010, avoiding approximately $8 billion in improper payments if those declines had not been achieved.
.... All told, the $687 million recaptured in 2010 puts us on track to achieve the Administration’s goal of recapturing at least $2 billion between 2010 and 2012.
Now, because many of the targeted programs – such as Unemployment Insurance and Medicaid – are paying out more benefits as the economic downturn creates more demand for these benefits, the total number paid out in improper payments increased to $125 billion last fiscal year even though the overall error rate declined. This is an unfortunate result of the recession and of basic math: the more that is paid out, the more paid out in error even if the overall rate declines....
And because, ultimately, it’s your money at stake, information about agencies’ improper payments will be available later today at www.PaymentAccuracy.gov.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships Blog, Nov. 16, 2010:
New DOJ Director to Speak at Indiana Correctional Facility on the Importance of Responsible Fatherhood
by Eugene Schneeberg, Director of the Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Justice
As a part of the Administration's focus on promoting responsible fatherhood, I will travel to Indianapolis tomorrow to address a large gathering of Department of Corrections officials, educational and community leaders, and over 300 juvenile offenders as part of a two hour program featuring Tony Dungy, former NFL coach and spokesperson for All Pro Dad. We know that many men who are incarcerated are also fathers and it is important for us to navigate issues related to parenting for the incarcerated. Coach Dungy, New York Times bestselling author and Super Bowl winner, will do just that as he reflects on what it takes to achieve parenting success. Dungy will share what he has learned from his remarkable parents, his athletic and coaching career, mentors, as well as the importance of his faith.
Other guests will include:
• Ed Buss, Commissioner Indiana Department of Corrections
• Wendy Knight, Superintendent Plainfield Correctional Facility
• Kojack Fuller, an ex-offender and former Indiana Mr. Basketball
• John Stahl-Wert, President of Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation
This event is significant in that it incorporates two high priority areas for both the Department of Justice and for this Administration: Prisoner Re-Entry and Responsible Fatherhood.
As someone who was raised without my father, I have dedicated the last ten years of my life to working with juvenile offenders who are disproportionately victims of fatherlessness. That is why I am particularly excited about partnering with this group to help fathers all over the country with innovated ways to be more involved in the lives of their children.
For more information about All Pro Dad you can click on: http://www.allprodad.com
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
From AllProDadTV:
Tony Dungy: Teach Character
Cabinet Round-up
State Department:
Secretary Clinton Delivers Remarks with Austrian Foreign Minister Spindelegger
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks with Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., November 16, 2010.
Secretary Clinton:
.... U.S.-Austria relations are strong. They’re based on mutual interests and shared ideals. Today we discussed numerous areas of cooperation, from nonproliferation and global security, to the mission in Afghanistan, to peacekeeping in the Balkans and the Golan Heights.
I also want to thank the minister for his active participation on behalf of Austria in the United Nations Security Council. He and I have worked closely together on sanctions regarding Iran, and I appreciate his excellent work on that. We’ve worked together on Resolution 1325’s implementation regarding women’s participation in peace and security issues, and again today, where the minister spoke out strongly about the need for the parties in Sudan to move forward on implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
I was also pleased to see Austria’s cabinet extend the peacekeeping mission in the Balkans and on the Golan Heights. The 1,700 Austrian military police and civilian personnel serving in these missions have a profound global impact. I know that these men and women are far from their families and friends, but their work goes a long way to ensure a better and more stable future in the Western Balkans, in Kosovo, and in the Middle East and the Golan Heights.
I also want to thank Austria for the vital customs and police training to help Afghans assume greater control of their own peace and security efforts. There is so much we have to talk about and work on, and the minister mentioned a number of other issues that Austria is taking the lead on, including an important anticorruption effort, a new commitment to disarmament and nonproliferation, and so much else....
Full transcript: http://www.state.gov/...
Defense Department:
START Treaty
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates joins Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in calling on the Senate to ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia.
The Secretaries’ joint op-ed appeared in The Washington Post on Nov. 15: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Mullen Makes Military’s Case for START Ratification
By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [on Nov. 12] delivered the military argument for Senate ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and talked about the future of deterrence.
Speaking at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said "the stars may have aligned" to pass the new START pact the United States negotiated with Russia.
"Deterrence today is tougher and more complex. More than one nation can now reach out and touch us with nuclear missiles," Mullen said to a star-studded audience that included former secretaries of state George Shultz, Condoleezza Rice and Henry Kissinger, and former Defense Secretary William J. Perry. "Americans are potential targets of terrorism wherever they travel, and regional instability in several places around the globe could easily erupt into large-scale conflict.
"Yet, we have done precious little spadework to advance the theory of deterrence," he continued, noting the lack of serious discussion on deterrence since the end of the Cold War. "It is as if we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Soviet Union collapsed and said to ourselves, ‘Well, I guess we don't need to worry about that anymore.’ We were wrong. The demands of deterrence evolve."
The new treaty will help with the discussion, Mullen said, and the time is right. The stars are aligning for passage, he added.
"A flood of Soviet troops into Afghanistan dissolved support for SALT II in the United States, whereas the fall of the Berlin Wall and later the Soviet Union may well have hastened the signing and ratification of START," Mullen said. "Today, we lack a similar treaty with Russia. In fact, we haven’t had one for almost a year now. But the arms buildup in the aftermath of SALT II’s disintegration highlights the necessity for some sort of understanding, some sort of verifiable reduction and monitoring regime."
It is in the interest of both the United States and Russia to ratify this treaty, the chairman told the audience. From the military aspect, the new START treaty "allows us to retain a strong and flexible American nuclear deterrent," Mullen said.
"It strengthens openness and transparency in our relationship with Russia," he added.
The treaty also demonstrates America’s commitment to nuclear arms reductions, Mullen said. "I am convinced that New START - permitting us as it does 1,550 aggregate warheads and the freedom to create our own force posture within that limit – leaves us with more than enough nuclear deterrent capability for the world we live in," he explained.
Mullen said he’s convinced the treaty preserves the nuclear triad and retains U.S. flexibility to continue deploying conventional global strike capabilities.
"I am also convinced that the verification regime is as stringent as it is transparent, and borne of more than 15 years of lessons learned under the original START treaty," he said.
The new treaty provides for 18 inspections annually, and for sharing data concerning the numbers, locations and technical characteristics of systems subject to the treaty, the admiral noted.
"In other words, we’ll know a lot more about Russian systems and intentions than we do right now," he said. "And as I have said many times, in many different contexts, in this fast-paced, flatter world of ours, information, and the trust it engenders, is every bit as much a deterrent as any weapon we deploy."
Because he worries about "what I don’t know and what I can’t see," Mullen said, the treaty’s inspection provisions are critical.
"So, I believe, and the rest of the military leadership in this country believes, that this treaty is essential to our future security," said the chairman told the audience. "I believe it enhances and ensures that security. And I hope the Senate will ratify it quickly."
http://www.defense.gov/...
Office of the Press Secretary, November 16, 2010:
Statement from the Vice President on the New START Treaty
Failure to pass the New START Treaty this year would endanger our national security. Without ratification of this Treaty, we will have no Americans on the ground to inspect Russia’s nuclear activities, no verification regime to track Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal, less cooperation between the two nations that account for 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, and no verified nuclear reductions. The New START treaty is a fundamental part of our relationship with Russia, which has been critical to our ability to supply our troops in Afghanistan and to impose and enforce strong sanctions on the Iranian government.
President Obama has made an extraordinary commitment to ensure the modernization of our nuclear infrastructure, which had been neglected for several years before he took office. We have made clear our plans to invest $80 billion on modernization over the next decade, and, based on our consultations with Senator Kyl, we plan to request an additional $4.1 billion for modernization over the next five years.
The new START Treaty enjoys broad, bipartisan support. The Senate has held 18 hearings on the Treaty. It was approved by the Foreign Relations Committee with bipartisan support. It has been endorsed by prominent former officials from both parties, including former Secretaries of State George Shultz, James Baker, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, and Warren Christopher, former Defense Secretaries James Schlesinger, William Cohen, William Perry, Frank Carlucci, and Harold Brown, and former National Security Advisors Brent Scowcroft, Stephen Hadley, and Sandy Berger. It is consistent with previous Strategic Nuclear Arms Treaties, each of which passed with over 85 votes in the Senate.
Given new START’s bipartisan support and enormous importance to our national security, the time to act is now and we will continue to seek its approval by the Senate before the end of the year.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
Commerce Department:
Moving Ideas from the Lab to the Marketplace
by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke
Innovation always has and always will be America’s global competitive advantage. Our ability to create products and services that help people around the world live healthier, wealthier and more productive lives was a big reason why the 20th century was the American century.
Innovation is how we built the strongest middle class the world had ever seen. And it’s a big part of how we’re going to rebuild the American middle class here in the 21st-century.
It begins with a commitment to research and development. The president’s proposed 2011 budget, while freezing domestic discretionary spending overall, includes a six percent increase for R&D, with special attention given to emerging sectors like 21st century infrastructure and manufacturing, clean energy and biotechnology.
But R&D is only the first step in the innovation process. The next step is to find an entrepreneur to take that kernel of an idea or invention and turn it into a new product or a new business.
At the Commerce Department, I’ve set up a National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship made up of leading American innovators and entrepreneurs to help the federal government formulate policies that makes it easier for us to "move ideas from the lab to the marketplace." http://www.commerce.gov/...
One such program is the inaugural i6 Challenge, a $12 million innovation competition administered by Commerce’s Economic Development Administration in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. http://www.eda.gov/...
The i6 Challenge identifies and provides support for the nation’s best ideas for technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in six different regions of the country.
In the Philadelphia Region, this included a partnership between Innovation Works, Inc. and Carnegie Mellon University, which will create the "Agile Innovation System," to accelerate the commercialization of technologies being developed within the region’s universities and small businesses.
In the Pacific Northwest, Seattle Region, The Oregon Translational Research & Drug Development Institute, the Oregon Nanoscience & Microtechnologies Institute, and the Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center are joining forces to create the first comprehensive, innovation infrastructure – the Oregon Innovation Cluster. This will ensure that good ideas don’t get lost in the dreaded "valley of death," where promising inventions fail to make it into the marketplace because they can’t get funding or aren’t being commercialized by a qualified entrepreneur.
Through an effort led by the Small Business Administration, we are also reinventing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, one of largest federal innovation programs, to encourage entrepreneurship. http://www.sbir.gov/ The program has provided early funding to technology companies such as Qualcomm, Semantech, and Genentech – and among other things, it is focused on using small businesses to meet federal research and development needs, enhancing private-sector commercialization of innovation, and increasing women and minority participation in technological innovation.
These programs have different goals and different methods, but they are all fundamentally working towards the same thing. As President Obama has said we are striving for a future "where prosperity is fueled not by excessive debt, reckless speculation and fleeing profit; but is instead built by skilled, productive workers; by sound investments that will spread opportunity at home and allow this nation to lead the world in technologies, innovations and discoveries that will shape the 21st century."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
From FastCompany.com:
Readers: Send Us Questions for U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke
By Lindsay Cutler
Fast Company is honored to moderate the next White House "Open for Questions" program, an event where representatives of government field questions from everyday citizens. We're sending a Fast Company representative to D.C. to meet with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke.
This is where you come in. What would you like to know from Secretary Locke? If you could ask him any question about the future of business and technology, what would it be? In honor of National Entrepreneurship Week, try to keep the discussion in the field of business, innovation, job creation, etc.
Send your questions to ideas@fastcompany.com along with your name and city. We'll select a handful of questions to ask during our interview, which will be live-streamed from the White House via the WhiteHouse.gov website from 1-1:30 p.m. EST this Friday, Nov. 19. Stay tuned to see if your question is picked or Tweet your question during the event @fastcompany, using #LockeChat.
http://www.fastcompany.com/...
From the White House: During the event, you can also submit questions at whitehouse.gov/live or on facebook. http://apps.facebook.com/...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
Secretary Gary Locke appeared on CNBC on November 16, 2010 to talk about the recent success of the President's trip to Asia, especially the time in India. Secretary Locke also spoke about the importance of opening foreign markets to American goods and services to create jobs within the United States.
Secretary Locke’s Remarks at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, Tokyo, Japan (as prepared for delivery, Nov. 10, 2010)
.... Like President Obama, who was born in Hawaii, I come from a Pacific Ocean-bound state, Washington, where I had the honor of serving as Governor for eight years.
And I saw up close how indispensable trade with Asia was to the well-being of my constituents. Washington is the most trade-dependent state in the nation and one in three jobs in the state is directly or indirectly related to trade....
And the trade numbers certainly bear this out. Last year, our bilateral trade totaled nearly $147 billion.
But just looking at this trade in dollars misses its real significance. When you get right down to it, trade between the United States, Japan and all of Asia is really about one thing.
Unlocking our full potential...The potential of our people...The potential of our businesses...And the potential we have to build a world that is safer and more prosperous for our children.
We can do this by creating an open investment and trade environment that allows businesses, entrepreneurs and policy makers to bring their respective strengths to the table and spur the type of innovation and economic growth that we could never achieve alone.
When we do that, we open up some amazing avenues for collaboration.
Like the partnership we've seen develop between Tesla Motors and Toyota, where the Toyota RAV4 will be combined with Tesla’s electric powertrain to create a cutting-edge electric vehicle for the US market by 2012.
Or look at the agreement that Bechtel and Taisei Corporation have formed to provide engineering and construction services for massive infrastructure projects in the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and other emerging markets.
You’ve got GE and Hitachi collaborating to build advanced light nuclear water reactors, and similar cooperation happening with Toshiba and Westinghouse.
In March of this year, the Japanese pharmaceutical firm Eisai signed a licensing agreement with the Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University to develop small-molecule technology to treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and stroke.
This is the type of cooperation that’s going to create new jobs. It’s going to discover cures for diseases and unlock new energy technologies. And ultimately, this collaboration is a big part of how we get the world economy back to full steam ahead....
http://www.commerce.gov/...
Education Department:
Helping Students from Immigrant Families to Discover an "Emotional Connection" to U.S. History
Tim Bailey, 2009 National History Teacher of the Year, now a history teacher at Salt Lake City's Northwest Middle School, in the same feeder system as Escalante Elementary, serves mostly disadvantaged students. Although most of them come from families that recently immigrated from Latin America, Africa, Asia and other parts of the world, the children respond enthusiastically to Tim's creative approach to teaching American history and citizenship.
From ED.gov:
"I’ve always considered it both a privilege and a duty to teach what it means to be an American citizen to my students," says Tim Bailey, the 2009 Preserve America National History Teacher of the Year and the subject of a video recently produced for the U.S. Department of Education by the History Channel.
The video shows Bailey in his classroom at Salt Lake City’s Escalante Elementary School, where he taught U.S. history and civics until the current school year. Many of his students are first- and second-generation immigrants whose families come from countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Regardless of their backgrounds, he gets his students engaged and excited about the story of America.
"Real learning doesn’t take place without an emotional connection. Teaching history can make a real difference in the lives of my students," says Bailey. The video captures his class in a lively lesson about the U.S. Civil War.
Now a history teacher at Salt Lake City’s Northwest Middle School, in the same feeder system as Escalante Elementary, Bailey is a published author and Fulbright award winner and has been honored with a number of teaching awards from the state of Utah.
Secretary Arne Duncan last year congratulated Bailey when he came to Washington to receive the National History Teacher of the Year award: http://www.ed.gov/...
http://www.ed.gov/...