Keynote Address
Thank you very much, Al. For those of you that don’t know my wife, Nancy, she has been a children's advocate for 20 years. She was on the Rockefeller National Commission for Children. She was Chairman of the County Commission For Children. She is on the Keck Foundation Board, and she spends 12 hours a day, networking around the country, on behalf of children, who have been dealt a bad hand in life. In fact, Al won't admit this, when we received the Honor, and I came up, he said, behind every great woman in the world is a strong husband. Well, I feel honored to be that strong husband behind my wife.

I'm going to be very short, mainly because you really should have my wife here tonight, on childcare, but let me give you a few thoughts. I believe every child that comes into this world has a God-given right to the tools to compete. Put another way, it's not important whether rich or poor. What is important is whether or not you have the tools to compete in life. Do you have the education, nutrition, healthcare, so you can get out there and compete? Because, quite honestly, there’s not much society can do for you, if you don't have those tools. The problem is we are not giving the tools to the children.

The Carnegie Institute's “Nation at Risk Study” in the early Eighties, is what woke me up. They said that if a child cannot read and write fluently by the end of the second grade, you've lost that child for life. Put another way, statistically, up until a few years ago, in the LA Public Schools, a poor six year old had only a 12 percent chance to read and write at the eighth grade level by the time they were 18. That means that all these other kids are likely to be criminals, homeless, welfare recipients. The cost to society is tremendous, and the cost to humanity is tremendous.

Early education is the best, by far. Studies have shown that between 18 months old and six years is when children learn the most. If you want to teach a foreign language to your child, start teaching them at 18 months. You've seen with Latino or Latina childcare givers at our homes, these two-year-old children speak Spanish as fluently as English. Actually, if they had access to it, a kid could speak a number of languages, by the time they're six years old, if we give them that chance. They soak it up. They soak it up, if they're given the opportunity. And, as Al was pointing out, studies have shown how many of these kids don't get that kind of opportunity - to be read to, to be spoken to in other languages, a variety of other things.

You are doing God's work, by getting to children, at the earliest possible age, and teaching them. Giving them the tools, so gradually, as they get to be three, four, five years old, and get into a regular school, they do have the tools to concentrate and learn, in that environment. So, my hat is off to you on that. I do think, in structuring what you're doing, and I'm sure you've talked about this, leadership has a lot to do with it. How are these childcare programs going to be run? Who is going to hold people accountable? Who’s going to have the guts to fire people, who do poorly? Who's going to have the guts to put people forward, who do well, and make sure they get a job, or they get leadership positions? This is a very important part.

Another thing to keep in mind is, I always say, perfection is the enemy of good. Churchill said that any idiot can come up with a perfect plan for winning a war, as long as they're not responsible for waging the war. And particularly in government and bureaucracy, perfection is the enemy. Plan, plan, plan. Process, process, process.

When John Agoglia and I drove together here tonight, we were talking about how great plans and great movements evolve. You get out there, and you do it. You learn from your mistakes, and you evolve better. If you wait for the perfect plan, it won't work, and in childcare, unfortunately, these days, they've come up with a perfect plan. The perfect plan says you need one caregiver for every four children. You need so many square feet of recreation space for every child. This is wonderful, but the cost per child comes to somewhere between $8,000 and $14,000 per child per year, according to the numbers I have, which means that we don't have the money to give childcare to every child who needs it.

So, let me end and I'll open it up for questions, answers. I'd like to thank Dr. Jim Rosser, who has been a true great leader in Los Angeles, for a number of years. Somehow or other we gravitated to each other about 25 years ago and when he needs something, he calls me. When I need something, I call him. When he just wants to criticize me, he'll call me. But it's wonderful to be here, and I'm proud of what KCEd did. My Foundation has supported “Sesame Street”” almost from the beginning, and “Sesame Street” is really the one that has led the way towards programs that we're talking about, at your seminar. So, God bless you. Thank you. Put children first. Thank you very much.