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89–574 2014

S. HRG. 113–415 

INCREASING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 

FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS: LOCAL INITIATIVES 

THAT ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE 

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

JULY 29, 2014 

Printed for the use of the Joint Economic Committee 

( 
(II) 

JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE 

[Created pursuant to Sec. 5(a) of Public Law 304, 79th Congress] 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

KEVIN BRADY, Texas, Chairman 

JOHN CAMPBELL, California 

SEAN P. DUFFY, Wisconsin 

JUSTIN AMASH, Michigan 

ERIK PAULSEN, Minnesota 

RICHARD L. HANNA, New York 

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York 

LORETTA SANCHEZ, California 

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland 

JOHN DELANEY, Maryland 

SENATE 

AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota, Vice Chair 

ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania 

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont 

CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut 

MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico 

MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas 

DAN COATS, Indiana 

MIKE LEE, Utah 

ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi 

PAT TOOMEY, Pennsylvania 

ROBERT P. O’QUINN, Executive Director 

NILES GODES, Democratic Staff Director 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS OF MEMBERS

Hon. Amy Klobuchar, Vice Chair, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota ..................... 1 

Hon. Richard L. Hanna, a U.S. Representative from New York ......................... 2 

WITNESSES

Ms. Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO, PolicyLink, Oakland, CA ..... 6 

Dr. Eva Moskowitz, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Success Academy 

Charter Schools, New York, NY ......................................................................... 7 

Mr. William Bynum, CEO of HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation/Hope Credit Union), Jackson, MI ......................................................................................... 9 

Dr. Aparna Mathur, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC ............................................................................................................. 10 

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD

Prepared statement of Hon. Richard L. Hanna .................................................... 30 

Prepared statement of Ms. Angela Glover Blackwell ........................................... 32 

Prepared statement of Dr. Eva Moskowitz ............................................................ 44 

Prepared statement of Mr. William Bynum .......................................................... 50 

Prepared statement of Dr. Aparna Mathur ........................................................... 57 

(1) 

INCREASING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 

FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS: LOCAL 

INITIATIVES THAT ARE MAKING A 

DIFFERENCE 

TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014 

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, 

JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE, 

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 2:31 p.m. in Room G– 

50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the Honorable Amy 

Klobuchar, Vice Chair, presiding. 

Representatives present: Paulsen, Hanna, Carolyn B. 

Maloney, Cummings, and Delaney. 

Senators present: Klobuchar, Casey, and Murphy. 

Staff present: Al Feizenberg, Connie Foster, Niles Godes, Colleen Healy, Christina King, and Robert O’Quinn. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. AMY KLOBUCHAR, VICE 

CHAIR, A U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Okay, we are going to call the hearing 

to order. We are very glad we have a good number of people here 

in attendance, and thank you so much for coming, and thank you 

for this important conversation about increasing economic opportunity in the African American community. 

I would like to thank Congressman Cummings, who has worked 

with us to put this hearing together. Also, the people from my 

hometown of Minneapolis who met with me. We had a really good 

discussion about this issue, and talked about how not only do we 

want to shed some light, continue to shed light on this issue, but 

also talked about what has been working across the country and 

some positive developments, as well. 

I think we all know we have seen some positive developments in 

our economy, and that is a good thing. We have seen stability. I 

know in our State we are down to 4.6 percent unemployment. But 

we still have a lot of issues with long-term unemployed and people 

who, even though they have jobs, are not making enough money to 

really pay the bills and make ends meet. 

Paul Wellstone, who we miss every day in Minnesota, always 

said: We all do better when we all do better. And that is really 

what this hearing is all about. 

There is much work to be done. We know that the unemployment 

rate for African Americans has dropped significantly in the past six 
2 

months, but it still remains well above the overall unemployment 

rate of 6.1 percent. 

In 2013, African Americans were 12 percent of the labor force but 

24 percent of those unemployed for more than 6 months. 

We are going to talk about some policy recommendations. I know 

we will hear about them from our witnesses, and those are improving workforce training. We did just pass a bill on that out of the 

Congress, but it is something we care a lot about. Education. Helping families build wealth. Revitalizing neighborhoods. And helping 

start their own businesses. 

Harlem Children’s Zone is obviously a good example when it 

comes to education. A birth-through-college pipeline of programs 

reaching more than 12,000 young people annually, and has become 

the gold standard for comprehensive education programs built on 

outcomes- based models. 

We also are going to look at increasing the number of African 

Americans with STEM skills. We know that is important. I know 

there is a young man I just met out there—there he is in his blue 

shirt and orange tie—and asked him what his favorite subject is, 

and his first answer was, ‘‘Math.’’ Very good. That was good. 

And where’s your grandma? You showed me where your grandma 

was. 

(Nigel indicates where his Grandmother is sitting.) 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Okay, good. You should be very proud 

of him. That was a good answer. 

I am going to actually, instead of going through everything, because I know that I want to give Representative Cummings time 

to speak as well and introduce our witnesses, so I am going to first 

turn it over to Representative Hanna who is our chair today on the 

House side, and then we are going to come back to Mr. Cummings 

and hear from him, a few comments from him as well as introducing our witnesses. 

Mr. Hanna. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD L. HANNA, A U.S. 

REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW YORK 

Representative Hanna. Thank you, Vice Chair Klobuchar, 

Members, distinguished witnesses, grandparents, parents, and 

scholars. Thank you for being here. 

Let me begin by noting: Through the title of this hearing, Vice 

Chair Klobuchar and her Democratic colleagues acknowledge that 

Washington does not have a one-size-fits-all solution to every problem that Americans face. 

Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of 

World War I when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The 

Great War disrupted the supply of immigrant labor to the American industries. In what became known as the Great Migration, 

hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved north to fill 

these positions. 

July 2nd marked the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil 

Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or 

national origin. Through this Act, both Democrats and Republicans 
3 

sought to close the opportunity gap generated by racial prejudice 

and segregation. 

Over the last half-century, there has been substantial progress in 

narrowing the opportunity gap for African Americans. Fifty years 

ago, less than 25 percent of African American adults had a high 

school diploma; today, more than 85 percent do. 

And there has still been a five-fold increase in the percentage of 

college graduates. Inflation-adjusted median family income of African Americans has nearly doubled. The percentage of African 

Americans living in poverty today has fallen by more than a third, 

and the percentage of children living in poverty has fallen by nearly half—but much, much more needs to be and can be done. 

Nevertheless, the opportunity gap for African Americans remains 

substantial. Much of what remains of the opportunity gap is caused 

by a lack of education and job skills needed to prosper in today’s 

economy. 

The surest route to prosperity for every American is a good education. For poor African American children raised by single mothers in rough inner city neighborhoods, a good education, as Thomas 

Sowell argues, is their greatest chance at a better life. 

America has many great public schools with excellent teachers 

that provide them with outstanding education. Unfortunately, 

America also has failing public schools with struggling teachers, 

many of which are in inner cities serving poor children. 

Economically prosperous families can avoid sending their children to failing public schools by either moving to a different neighborhood with good public schools or enrolling them in private 

schools. Prosperous families always have school choice. 

Until recently, more families in inner cities had no choice. Their 

children were forced to enroll in the assigned public schools even 

if they failed to provide a good education. Over the past decade, 

however, the public school monopoly for the poor has begun to 

change. 

Some governors and legislators working with parents have developed new and innovative approaches to provide all parents, regardless of their income or wealth, with choice for where their children 

are educated. 

The choice movement has taken a number of different forms: 

charter schools, vouchers to attend private schools, and privately 

funded scholarships to attend private schools. 

One of our witnesses today is Eva Moskowitz, the founder and 

Chief Executive Officer of Success Academy, a charter school system in my own State of New York. She has overseen the expansion 

from one school in 2006 to 22 schools serving 6,800 students—I understand soon to be 32 schools, serving many more students. 

Her students are largely from the poor minority families. One of 

the interesting statistics is that these students score in the top 1 

percent in math, and the top 7 percent in English Language Arts 

in state testing. 

Americans are a generous people, willing to help the poor 

through government-funded assistance programs and providing 

charities. But Americans are also a practical people. 

We want our safety nets to be temporary, helping able-bodied 

working-age people to move from poverty into the middle class, and 
4 

beyond. We do not want our safety net to trap the poor in a multigenerational cycle of dependency. 

Another witness today is Dr. Aparna Mathur who has identified 

what local initiatives in social welfare programs can actually lift 

women, especially African American women, out of poverty and 

making economic growth even more inclusive for the poor. 

She has argued for streamlining existing programs in order to 

improve transparency about the implicit tax penalties associated 

with each program. Ms. Mathur, Dr. Mathur, will offer Members 

important lessons on how to restructure our existing anti-poverty 

programs, improving the lives of current beneficiaries while providing a better value for the taxpayer. 

I look forward to their testimony. Thank you all, again. 

[The prepared statement of Representative Hanna appears in the 

Submissions for the Record on page 30.] 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Thank you, Representative Hanna. We 

have also been joined by Representative Paulsen of my home State 

of Minnesota. We are over represented on this Committee. And I 

will turn this over to Mr. Cummings. 

Representative Cummings. Thank you very much, Vice Chair 

Klobuchar. And thank you for holding today’s hearing to enable us 

to examine how we can increase economic opportunities in the African American community. 

While the overall unemployment situation is improving, we must 

ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to live the American Dream. We must remember that minorities, particularly African Americans, have a long hard road to walk just to get back to 

where they were before the Great Recession. 

In a recent report entitled ‘‘Beyond Broke,’’ for example, the Center for Global Policy Solutions and its partners have revealed just 

how wide the gap between the net wealth of White households and 

Minority households is. And they have detailed how extensive the 

financial struggles of the Minority community really are. 

Among other findings, this report explains that home equity accounts account for 58 percent of the wealth of Whites; but it accounts for more than 90 percent of the personal net worth of African Americans. And African Americans are more than twice as 

likely as Whites to hold no financial assets whatsoever, and to have 

no, or negative net balance. 

When African Americans are able to find work, they are more 

likely to find themselves in minimum wage jobs in industries 

where their salaries barely allow them to make ends meet. 

There is much that we in Congress can do to help. We can raise 

the minimum wage, which at the moment is not high enough to lift 

a single parent working full-time above the poverty line. 

We can immediately extend unemployment benefits, which are a 

crucial lifeline for the millions of Americans who have lost their 

jobs and rely on this modest benefit to cover the cost of housing, 

food, health care, and child care. 

And we can work with federal housing regulators to expand programs designed to help homeowners struggling with their mortgage 

payments, and preserve the home equity that is so critical for the 

African American community. 
5 

We can also shine a light on local programs that are achieving 

measurable economic results for Minority communities, including 

African Americans, and I thank you, Vice Chair Klobuchar, for 

holding this hearing to shine that light. 

We must approach this with urgency, the task of lifting all Americans, including communities of color, out or poverty into economic 

opportunity. And any initiative that has succeeded in this effort demands our attention. And I say to you, we do not have the right 

to remain silent. 

On the panel today to discuss these issues is Ms. Angela Glover 

Blackwell, the CEO and Founder of PolicyLink, a national research 

institute advancing economic and social equity. Ms. Blackwell previously served as a Senior Vice President at the Rockefeller Foundation. She also served as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of 

the Children’s Defense Fund; was a commissioner on the Robert 

Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to build a healthier America; and served on the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Earlier this year, Ms. 

Blackwell was named a National Honoree by the Center for Urban 

Families and the Fred and Rita Richmond Distinguished Fellow in 

Public Life by Brandeis University. 

Also with us today is Dr. Eva Moskowitz, the CEO and Founder 

of Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of charter schools 

throughout New York City. From 1995 to 2002, Dr. Moskowitz 

served as a New York City Councilmember for the Upper East Side 

of Manhattan, and chaired the Council’s Committee on Education 

from 2002 to 2005. 

Mr. William Bynum is the founding CEO and President of Hope 

Enterprise Corporation and Hope Credit Union, a private, nonprofit 

community development financial institution that provides banking 

services and access to capital to 400,000 low-income residents of 

Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Finally, he has 

advised Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama on community development, small businesses, and financial services matters, serving 

for 10 years as a Presidential appointee and Chairman of the Department’s Community Development Advisory Board. 

Finally, Dr. Aparna Mathur is a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She previously served as Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, a consultant for the World Bank, 

and an instructor at the University of Maryland. 

So I look forward to our testimony, and I thank you, Madam Vice 

Chair, for including children. I have often said the children are the 

living messages we send to the future we will never see. The question is, how will we send them? 

Thank you. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Thank you very much. And I know that 

Representative Cummings has another hearing, meeting that he 

will be going to shortly, and I am going to have to vote. But I will 

come back. Never fear. So I may have to turn over the gavel to Mr. 

Hanna, or whoever else is here. I want to also mention Senator 

Casey is with us from the Great State of Pennsylvania. 

So let’s start with you, Ms. Glover Blackwell. Thank you so much 

for being here. 
6 

STATEMENT OF MS. ANGELA GLOVER BLACKWELL, FOUNDER 

AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, POLICYLINK, OAKLAND, CA 

Ms. Glover Blackwell. It is my honor to appear before this 

Committee to talk about increasing economic opportunity for African Americans. 

The United States is on the cusp of a very important transformation that is being fueled by the rapidly shifting demographics, 

which show that by 2043 we will be a Nation which is majority 

people of color: Black, Latino, Native American, Asian. But already 

the majority of those under five are of color, and by the end of this 

decade the majority of all children under 18 will be of color. 

So we find ourselves in the situation in which investing in those 

who too often have been left behind, while it continues to be a 

moral imperative, has become a national and economic imperative. 

In making sure that African American and others can fully contribute to the Nation’s growth and prosperity, we really have to 

focus as a Nation on work, place, and wealth. 

In the context of work, certainly increasing the minimum wage, 

expanding unemployment benefits, increasing job training programs, getting more youth summer jobs, and aligning job training 

programs with real jobs are important, but Oakland actually has 

a wonderful example, the Oakland Army Base, that has been shuttered for 20 years and is now being turned into a logistics hub for 

the region. And they are using this $800 million public/private investment, 

which will cover a land base larger more than 200 football fields, 

to be able to lift up the population that is too often left behind. 

First, they are making sure that they limit the temporary jobs, 

so that these are long-term jobs. Next, they are eliminating the 

box. They are banning the box on application forms that too often 

people who have been formerly incarcerated have had to check and 

which has put them out of the running for a job. They do not have 

to indicate that unless they are well into the process. 

They are making sure that 25 percent of all the apprentice hours 

go to the vulnerable populations of Veterans, people formerly incarcerated, and those who have had difficulty getting work. And they 

are making sure that the jobs pay living wages and have benefits, 

a very exciting example. 

In Baltimore, a bioscience hub, they are making sure that the 

jobs that are going to be available in bioscience get to those who 

need them the most, by having mentoring programs for high school 

students. They get mentored, and then they get moved into jobs, 

a seamless process. Very exciting. 

But we know that in this Nation, where you live has so much 

to do with opportunity, particularly for African Americans, who live 

in communities where the schools are often failing them, suffering 

from disinvestment, in places where there are no jobs and little access to jobs. They are wonderful examples of being able to turn 

around this notion that place has become a proxy for opportunity. 

The Promise Neighborhood Program is a wonderful example. 

Building on the extraordinary success of the Harlem Children’s 

Zone, where 12,000 children have been surrounded by all the supports that they need. One hundred percent of those children start 

school ready to learn because of early childhood investments. Nine-
7 

ty-five percent of those children will graduate from high school and 

have gone on and been accepted to college. And the schools are 

really providing for those children. 

But we also know that there are other local examples that are 

important. Pennsylvania has really demonstrated to the Nation 

that we can solve the problem of lack of access to fresh fruits and 

vegetables, and the Healthy Food Financing Initiative is building 

on that, making resources available; 5,000 jobs have been created 

through this resource in Pennsylvania, and we are hoping for results beyond that magnitude across the country. 

But we also know, in addition to work and place, that wealth 

also matters. And the drivers of wealth are housing, inheritance, 

income, but also education. And as we are thinking about creating 

wealth, it is so important to understand that education not only 

leads to being able to develop wealth because of employment. By 

2020 47 percent of all jobs in this country will require at least an 

associates degree. Only 28 percent of African Americans have it. 

Not only does education lead to wealth, it can also be the cause 

for wealth stripping, when so many students have to go into debt 

and stay in debt and have their wealth stripped away because of 

the financial crisis that comes from student loans. 

Pennsylvania—I’m sorry, Tennessee has a wonderful example: 

Tennessee Promise. Governor Haslam actually has a program in 

which they guarantee—this program just started in May—that 

every single student who graduates from high school can have two 

years of free community college. Two years. 

That means no loans for the first two years. That means they’re 

well on their way to the kind of investment that they will need to 

do well in the future. We know what works. We need to lift it up, 

put policy behind it, and create greater opportunity for all, including African Americans. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Glover Blackwell appears in the 

Submissions for the Record on page 32.] 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Thank you very much. 

Dr. Moskowitz, thank you for being here, and thank you for 

bringing your students from Success Academy with you. 

STATEMENT OF DR. EVA MOSKOWITZ, FOUNDER AND CHIEF 

EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER 

SCHOOLS, NEW YORK, NY 

Dr. Moskowitz. Good afternoon, Senator Klobuchar and members of the Committee. Thank you for your attention to this critical 

topic. I am also honored to be here. 

I am Eva Moskowitz, the Founder and CEO of Success Academies. We started August 20th, 2006, with 155 students. Today we 

have 32 schools K through 12. Our first high school we are opening 

in a couple of weeks. We have just shy of 10,000 students; 3 out 

of 4 of our students live below the poverty line; 94 percent are kids 

of color; 15 percent of our children are special needs; and about 10 

percent are English-language-learners. 

And yet our students are in the top one percent in math and in 

science for the past five years, even with the new addition of the 

higher Common Core standards. And our kids are in the top seven 
8 

percent in reading and writing. And we have been asked: Well how 

are you doing this? 

And I would argue that great schooling, world-class schooling is 

terribly complex. It is also terribly hard. But there are some elements that are key, and I would say that in order to have a great 

school, or set of schools, you really have to not only teach reading 

and writing, but you really need to go beyond that. We have chess 

as a fundamental and signature element. The amount of strategic 

thinking you teach children through chess is actually quite profound. Our kids competed in Dallas this year with 5,000 other children from around the country, and they took home 1st place, 3rd 

place, 4th, and 7th place. 

Our kids are on the Math Team. We have 40 percent of our children who are on the Math Team. That is unheard of in America. 

It is usually a few kids. And what we really try and do is have kids 

fall in love with mathematics. Our kids compete internationally on 

the Math Olympiad and do exceedingly well. 

We are also tremendous believers in science education. Our kids 

start science in kindergarten 5 days a week. It is not a second-class 

subject. We believe in inquiry-based science. Our kids do about 135 

experiments every year starting in kindergarten. And if you want 

to try and figure out how we make this country more globally competitive and how we help our most vulnerable children, low-income 

children in neighborhoods like Harlem and Bed Sty and the South 

Bronx, it is a robust STEM education. 

We also do coding starting in kindergarten, believe it or not, with 

devices called BBOTs, which are little robots that the kids can program in a single direction. And by the time they get to middle 

school, they are doing JAVA SCRIPT. And by the time they graduate from high school, our kids will be able to program and earn 

roughly $90 bucks an hour as programmers. We want them to go 

to college and graduate first, but they will have that access to economic opportunity. 

It was mentioned that we have a number of students with us 

here today. Our scholars are incredibly passionate about learning, 

and our goal in schooling is to help children fall in love with school. 

If you love learning, you can teach yourself anything. Part of our 

success has to do with a robust teacher and principal training program. Unfortunately, schools can either, as was mentioned, either 

can be engines of opportunity or they can actually trap children 

and they can be poverty traps. And unfortunately in America, we 

have far too many failing schools. 

We have far too many mediocre schools. And what we need to do 

is to make sure that schools are really engines of opportunity. And 

when we do that, we will provide a foundation for economic success. Thank you, very much. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Eva Moskowitz appears in the 

Submissions for the Record on page 44.] 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Thank you, very much. 

Mr. Bynum is next, and I will be turning the gavel over to Representative Maloney while we have a vote, and then I will return. 

Mr. Bynum. 
9 

STATEMENT OF MR. WILLIAM BYNUM, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF HOPE (HOPE ENTERPRISE CORPORATION/HOPE 

CREDIT UNION), JACKSON, MI 

Mr. Bynum. Good afternoon. Thank you, Vice Chair Klobuchar, 

for the opportunity to speak before this Committee. 

It is very encouraging that you are taking the time to focus on 

opportunities and challenges related to African Americans because 

as the Nation grows more diverse it is increasingly clear that all 

of our interests, our common interests, are tied to the fact that we 

equip these growing segments of the population with the capacity 

to prosper, to support their families, and to contribute to our Nation’s economy. 

Over the past 20 years, HOPE, which is a community development financial institution, has worked to accomplish this by undertaking a range of asset development strategies in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee. 

During this period, we have generated over $2 billion in financing that has assisted over a half a million people. My comments 

will focus on our core elements of work: That is, providing retail 

financial services in what are becoming bank deserts across the 

country; affordable home ownership; and support for entrepreneurs. 

Our primary financial service vehicle is a credit union with 

29,000 members, federally regulated; 7 out of 10 of our members 

are people of Color. Over half of them earn less than $35,000 a 

year. And 37 percent were unbanked before they joined HOPE. 

Since the financial crisis in 2008, we have more than tripled our 

presence in low-income communities, often in communities that 

have recently lost a bank. We have gone from 6 to 23 service locations at a time when 1,800 bank branches have closed across the 

country; 93 percent in low-income census tracts. Of the 1,679 Zip 

Codes in my service area, 61 percent, 1,031, have zero or one 

branch; 723 have no bank branches. 

Regarding home ownership, we expand access to home ownership 

by offering mortgage products that emphasize the applicant’s ability to pay, not how much we can make in fees. We take the time 

to understand their situation, what they can afford, and help them 

develop a plan to succeed. 

In 2013, 82 percent of our mortgages were to Minority borrowers; 

52 percent were low-income; over half were female; and 86 percent 

were to first-time home buyers. An annual survey of mortgage borrowers indicates that 41 percent reported improved education outcomes for their children since their families purchased the home. 

We also focus on small business lending. We’ve been doing this 

since we started, and nearly half of our commercial loans last year 

were to Minority or women-owned businesses. The average wages 

at these businesses that we finance was approximately $28,000, 

significantly above the $23,000 poverty threshold for a family or 4, 

or the $15,000 minimum wage. And 80 percent of the employees at 

the companies we finance report that they have health insurance. 

I hope this gives you a sense of what is possible when African 

Americans and other under-served populations have access to a financial institution that is committed to providing affordable and 

responsible structured services. 
10 

Related to this, I would like to make three—a few recommendations: 

First, I really urge you to increase the amount and the focus of 

federal resources that benefit persistently impoverished areas and 

under-served populations. A quarter of the Nation’s persistently 

impoverished counties are in my service area. A disproportionate 

share of the residents are people of Color. 

Increase the long-term investments in institutions like community development financial institutions, cooperatively structured institutions like credit unions that have a track record in fostering 

opportunity among African Americans that will produce the kind of 

outcomes that I described earlier. 

Second, I would support strong federal consumer protection 

against products that target the under-banked and other vulnerable populations, and support increased accountability by banks. 

The mid-South has the highest concentration of payday lenders 

in the country. Subprime lending is higher than it is anywhere 

else. And combined with the bank closures in low-income and Minority communities, this is a recipe for disaster. 

It is vital that you support strong rules preventing abusive financial practices and enforce laws that require banks to invest in communities from which they derive profits. 

These steps are essential for ensuring that Americans and families can participate in the economic system in a viable manner. 

I will close by quoting Dr. King, nearly five decades ago when he 

gave his final speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He put out a passionate call for economic justice. In that 

speech, he emphasized the importance of well capitalized, locally 

owned banks in Chicago and Cleveland as a critical part of the economic success of African Americans in those communities. 

We cannot allow financial services to become an extraction industry in low-income, rural, and Minority communities only taking 

revenue, while leaving large holes in those economies. 

Community development, credit unions, community development 

financial institutions like HOPE, have shown how a locally owned, 

locally accountable financial institution can foster economic opportunities for historically underserved people and places. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. William Bynum appears in the 

Submissions for the Record on page 50.] 

STATEMENT OF DR. APARNA MATHUR, RESIDENT SCHOLAR, 

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON, DC 

Dr. Mathur. Vice Chair Klobuchar, and other members of the 

Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify on the very important issue of economic mobility and opportunity for African Americans. 

Economic mobility refers to the ability of an individual or a family to improve their economic status, either within a lifetime or 

across generations. It is a reflection of economic opportunities 

available to parents and their children as they attempt to move up 

the income ladder. 

Amongst all races, economic mobility is of particular concern for 

African Americans. Forty-four percent of African Americans in the 
11 

bottom quintile stay there into adulthood, compared to just 25 percent of comparable Whites. Therefore, from a policy perspective understanding the correlates of opportunity and mobility is extremely 

important. 

Segregation, both by race and income, is an important factor influencing mobility. Many studies find that African Americans who 

live in segregated metropolitan areas have lower educational attainment and lower earnings than their counterparts who live in 

more integrated areas. 

There are several approaches to alleviate these issues. Studies 

advocate using community betterment projects in these neighborhoods such as improving school building, reducing crime rates, or 

investing in neighborhood infrastructure to encourage integration. 

Other policies help individual home buyers or renters gain access 

to existing neighborhoods. This approach is typified by the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 which was moderately successful in 

reducing residential segregation. 

Also, empirical economic studies suggest that housing vouchers 

which moved African American children out of public housing and 

into less distressed homes as part of the Moving To Opportunity 

Project helped, as well, in reducing segregation. 

In a paper from earlier this year, my AEI colleague Abby 

McCloskey and I propose improving the human capital of disadvantaged city residents by introducing a greater degree of school 

choice. 

Studies focusing on charter and public schools in districts comprised mainly of Minority and low-income children suggest that 

school choice has significant and positive impacts on student test 

scores and attendance rates. 

Some examples of the successes, as have already been cited, are 

the Harlem Children’s Zone Program in Harlem, New York, which 

combined charter schools with a web of community services designed to ensure that the social environment outside of school is 

supportive for children from birth to college graduation. 

Another example is the Public School Choice Lottery in North 

Carolina which ended the 30-year-old practice of busing students 

across a district to achieve racial desegregation. 

A few studies suggest that the more years of schooling African 

American children attain the more likely they are to move out of 

the bottom quintile. However, African Americans have a high 

school dropout rate that is double that of Whites. 

There is a growing body of research on using financial incentives 

to motivate educational goals. The accelerated study and associate 

programs granted full tuition waiver for full-time college at the 

City University of New York, which was found to increase graduation rates. Roland Freyer of Howard has found that financial incentives can be a cost effective strategy for raising achievement among 

even the poorest Minority students in the lowest performing 

schools if properly structured. 

In our study, my colleagues and I propose a milestone credit 

where low-income teenagers receive a cash bonus upon receiving 

the high school diploma to realign the incentives to stay in school. 

The milestone credit should begin as a pilot program to test its effi-
12 

cacy in improving graduation rates, the size of the credit required, 

and the impact on lifetime earnings. 

The next challenge is labor markets. African American unemployment rates have been double that of Whites consistently over 

the last 50 years. Recent studies suggest that this is the result of 

racial mismatch rather than spatial mismatch. 

In other words, unemployment is not a result of African Americans living in areas with fewer jobs; but that even if they reside 

in areas that are dense with jobs, these jobs are more likely to be 

held by Whites. 

One approach would be to allow employers to develop customized 

job training and job placement programs based on their needs. A 

current experiment along these lines is the Wisconsin Fast Forward Initiative. 

This program allows employers to apply for state grants for 

worker training, provided the employers hire the workers after 

they are trained. Such programs can be targeted more specifically 

at disadvantaged groups such as African Americans. 

Certain federal and state government programs such as the 

Earned Income Tax Credit have been shown to have a positive effect on the employment of single mothers and economically disadvantaged populations. 

A possible improvement to the ITC would be to expand the credit 

and extend the credit to childless individuals. About 33 percent of 

African American teenagers, and 25 percent of African American 

youth between the ages of 16 and 24, are unemployed. 

Since teenage and youth unemployment leads to lower incomes 

and fewer life opportunities, this is an urgent issue that needs to 

be addressed. Apprenticeship and training programs for youth have 

been shown to be effective at easing transitions of teenagers and 

disadvantaged youth to jobs. 

Since the 1960s, marriage rates have fallen more sharply for 

blacks than for whites. One of the reasons for changes in family 

structure is that increases in teen pregnancy rates mean more single motherhood at very young ages. 

Among all racial and ethnic groups, the teen pregnancy rate is 

highest for Black teens. Traditional prevention methods have included more birth control and sex education in schools. However, 

nontraditional methods are also worth exploring. 

A recent study finds that MTV’s ‘‘16 and Pregnant’’ show was responsible for one-third of the reduction in teen pregnancy rates in 

an 18-month period. 

As the cost of child care increases, many mothers with young 

children may also decide to leave the labor force to care for children, or scale back the hours they work, to balance household responsibilities. 

In our paper, my colleague and I propose streamlining the current child care subsidies and tax credits which are needlessly confusing, have low recipient rates, and leave out many low-income 

women who need them the most. 

The core of our proposal is to substantially increase the amount 

of the child care tax credit and make it refundable. The system of 

tax credits and means-tested transfers, such as the EITC, TANF, 
13 

SNAP, impose high marginal tax rates of up to 30 percent on lowincome households which discourages the workforce participation. 

At the very least, combining some of these programs into a single 

program could improve take-up rates and allow policymakers to obtain a clearer understanding of the marginal tax rates faced by 

low-income individuals. 

To conclude, the most important challenges going forward are the 

creation of stable family structure that will invest sufficiently in 

the education and upbringing of the children, as well as providing 

the right kind of high quality education. 

In addition, improving labor market outcomes through the expansion of the EITC and other programs is important. I have proposed seven reforms to existing welfare and workfare programs, as 

well as incentives for teenagers and youth to attain higher education. 

Thank you. If you can address some of these challenges, America 

may remain the land of opportunity for generations to come. Thank 

you. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Aparna Mathur appears in the 

Submissions for the Record on page 57.] 

Representative Maloney [presiding]. Thank you. And I want to 

thank all of the witnesses for being here today, and for their insightful testimony. 

In particular, I would like to welcome Dr. Eva Moskowitz and 

thank her for travelling here from my home City of New York to 

tell us about her organization and experience with working with 

low-income children. 

Her testimony mentioned an important point: the large skills gap 

in our country that is keeping too many Americans from landing 

stable, well-paying jobs. 

Even younger Americans who just graduated from college, whose 

school sets should be up-to-date, are finding it difficult to land good 

jobs. And it is one of the highest unemployment rates for youth 

that I have seen in my lifetime. And what is so sad about it is that 

it just is cumulative. If you cannot find a job, then it gets harder 

and harder going forward. 

According to the Economic Policy Institute, over 25 percent of 

young college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. And 

this issue is a particular concern for Minorities and women, groups 

that have been under-represented in the growing science and the 

technology fields. 

Currently, Minorities make up only one-quarter of the STEM 

workforce, and African Americans only comprise 6 percent. I have 

introduced legislation, the Minorities and Women In STEM Booster 

Act to encourage more Americans from these sets and these communities to think about a career in science and technology. 

And Chairlady Klobuchar has a bill in to create 100 STEM high 

schools across this country. 

It is a priority of President Obama to encourage more young people to go into STEM, particularly Minorities and women, and there 

is a huge focus in this Administration on it. 

So I would like to hear from our panelists about how we can encourage greater interest in STEM education and boost Minority 

participation. And if you have an experience, direct experience that 
14 

you have had successfully in working with Minorities to get them 

into STEM. 

And I am going to begin with the hometown girl, Dr. Eva 

Moskowitz. Good to see you again, Eva. 

Dr. Moskowitz. Good to see you, Congresswoman Maloney. Yes, 

I think part of the barrier here is that we also have a teacher 

shortage in this area, and it is very, very hard to find math and 

science teachers, particularly at the high school level. 

Representative Maloney. That is true. What do we do about 

it? I have been to some of the high schools in my District, and the 

teachers are literally from foreign countries in math and science. 

So what do we do about it to get the teachers in those fields? 

Dr. Moskowitz. Well longer term, these young men and women 

behind me will be able to do that job. So it is sort of short-term. 

If we do not train the kids, then we will not have the teachers later 

on. 

But I think short term what we have had to do is to become a 

school of education. We have to teach our teachers the math and 

the science in order to be able to teach the kids. It is hard, and 

it takes resources, but it is doable. 

You know, it is even harder in the field, frankly, of coding, because people obviously can make much more money in the private 

sector. But there are actually ways to train teachers that are online. Coding is something that, you know, people who have a knack 

for it can learn pretty quickly. 

There is an organization called TreeHouse that has 72,000 students online, and is really providing training for the job market. 

We need to use some of those resources for the field of education. 

Representative Maloney. Dr. Glover, Ms. Glover Blackwell? 

Ms. Glover Blackwell. Thank you. It is so important that 

school boards adopt policies that make sure that STEM education 

is just a standard part of the primary and secondary curriculum. 

These issues just get pushed to the side when it is not something 

that every child and every family is thinking about. In addition to 

making it a standard part, we really have to focus on training. 

Coding is so important. There’s the Black Girls CODE Program 

in San Francisco, and also Code 2040, taking young African Americans and Latinos and making sure that they have the skills that 

they need to have an advantage. 

And we need to make sure that companies are providing internships with employment opportunities at the end of the internships. 

These kind of programs have been proven to make a difference. 

The mentoring that things like Code 2040 provide is absolutely 

essential, because so many young Black men and women, girls and 

boys, do not see people who look like them in these jobs. So programs that connect engineers who are Black and coders who are 

Black with these children make a tremendous difference. 

And then we just need to put more money into it so every school 

district has the resources they need. 

Representative Maloney. I’ve got to tell you, the most successful programs I have seen in New York are when industry comes in 

and adopts a school—— 

Ms. Glover Blackwell. Yes. 
15 

Representative Maloney [continuing]. And literally trains the 

young people for the jobs that they have. IBM has done that. But 

also in Harlem, some of the hospitals have come in for technicians 

and things that they need. 

In other words, where you really focus the education to what the 

job will be so that you are fitting the child with the job. 

Doctor—Mr. Bynum, I really wanted to tell you that I have—I 

really appreciate and admire your work and HOPE brings financial 

services to many communities that have been underserved. 

The FDIC has reported that 21 percent of Black households are 

unbanked, double the rate of other populations. Why do you think 

so many are unbanked? And what can we do to remove the barriers? 

But I must tell you, I also serve on the Financial Services Committee. I was a little late because I was at that Committee meeting. 

And a lot of what we tried to correct in Dodd-Frank were really 

predatory abuse of policies towards the least fortunate in our society. 

They were really aimed at selling products to people that could 

not afford it, so that they could get their fee and just let the chips 

fall where it may. But even the CARD Act, which I authored to 

protect from unfair, abusive practices in the credit card industry, 

very much targeted the low-income community. 

So the low-income community is often targeted with these predatory practices and products, and I would like to hear your comments on it. And do you think that the fees are just too high, overdraft fees, ATM fees? Why are so many in the Minority community, 

or many communities, unbanked? 

Mr. Bynum. Thank you. That is something that we live with 

and struggle with every day. We are a regulated depository, but we 

have found that there are prudent ways to provide financial services in low-income communities. As I’ve said, 40 percent of our 

members were unbanked before they joined our credit union. 

We have tripled our presence in what we are calling ‘‘bank 

deserts.’’ Since the Recession, as banks have left in record numbers, there is unfortunately little accountability when banks decide 

to leave these communities. 

The Community Reinvestment Act, which is the law of the land, 

requires banks to reinvest in those communities from which they 

derive profits. It was based on a system when there were bank 

branches everywhere. Now most of us have not been into a bank 

branch in six months. We do everything electronically. 

And when banks do not have branches, they do not have an assessment area and are not held accountable to reinvest in these 

bank deserts. They are leaving. 

Representative Maloney. Oh, I did not realize that that had 

really affected the Community Reinvestment Act with the new 

technologies. 

Mr. Bynum. It has changed the financial industry dramatically, 

as bank branches—you know, bricks and mortar and expensive. 

People are expensive. And banks are in the business to maximize 

profits for their shareholders. 

As a credit union, our profits are used to reinvest in our members: offer them lower rates on their loans; higher rates on their 
16 

deposits. And so the business model exists that can benefit these 

communities. 

And banks, even some credit unions—I get into trouble with my 

peers in the financial industry when I hear them have a knee-jerk 

reaction to too much regulation. There is smart regulation. We saw 

what happened in the absence of regulation—— 

Representative Maloney. Absolutely. 

Mr. Bynum [continuing]. During the financial crisis, and that is 

why the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is so important. It 

is great to have an agency that is actually looking out for the interests of consumers and is holding banks more accountable to offering products that are not deceptive and abusive; and that hopefully 

in the near future will put some brakes on the proliferation of payday lenders. 

Because as banks leave these communities, payday lenders are 

going into them in record numbers. And those most vulnerable in 

our society can least afford to pay 400, 500 percent for small-dollar 

loans. 

We have had so many people come into our doors where we had 

to restructure debt traps that they were caught in to get them back 

on their feet. 

One woman in Memphis needed—she needed—she got accepted into trooper school, State Trooper School. She needed $1,600 to buy 

the uniform. She didn’t have the money because she had been in 

a payday lending situation, and had gotten so trapped down in 

debt. We were able to make the financing available to her. She’s 

got—she’s in the Trooper School. She is on her way to a better job 

and being able to support her family. 

Representative Maloney. My time has long expired, but I appreciate so much your testimony and all of the panelists. Thank 

you. 

Mr. Bynum. Thank you. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar [presiding]. Thank you. 

Representative Hanna. 

Representative Hanna. Thank you. 

Dr. Moskowitz, you mentioned in your testimony that schools 

need to be incubators of opportunity, not poverty traps. Yet Dr. 

Mathur, to that point, you mentioned—correct me if I am wrong— 

but if you are born in poverty, you have something like a 70 percent or so chance of, to be callous, dying in poverty. 

And we know that education is that single best way around that. 

We have Nigel, and Ananda, and Aida back here, proof that you 

can break out of that with enthusiasm. I listened to them earlier 

and they are just excited about what they are doing and where 

they are at the Success Academy. 

So, Dr. Moskowitz, I have a question for you that seems to me 

there is no reason to pit anyone against anyone when the outcome 

we’re all looking for is the same. So my question is a simple one, 

I think. 

How do you make children love education? 

Ms. Moskowitz. It’s a simple question. It’s the $64,000 question, 

and I would say that there are many ingredients. But I think with 

all the technical fixes, and expertise, we have forgotten something 

incredibly important in education, which I think all parents know. 
17 

But actually, schools have to love children. They have to know 

when they walk through the gate that the principal loves them, 

and that their teachers love them, and every adult in the building 

loves them. 

Obviously you need more than love to run a great school, but I 

don’t think that can be underestimated, the emotional bonds that 

we have with our students. At our schools, every principal greets 

every student every day, and says goodbye to them every day. And 

every adult in the building is expected to know every child’s name. 

Two of the three students behind me, Aida and Ananda, were my 

students when I was the principal of the first school. And having 

that relationship not only with the kids but, frankly, their parents 

and their grandparents is very powerful in terms of motivating 

kids to love school. 

I also think when you think about school design—and I do think 

we have to think more about school design very, very deliberately— 

we often think about school design from the adult’s point of view: 

what is convenient? What is the least amount of work? 

My best example of this is when schools do not allow recess when 

it is cold out. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met a child 

who is cold when it’s time to go outside. They usually—you’re fighting with them to put on their winter jacket, not the other way 

around. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Unless you’re in Minnesota and it’s 10 

below zero. 

Dr. Moskowitz. Yes. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. I just had to put that on the record. 

Dr. Moskowitz. Fair point. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Or 30 below. 

Dr. Moskowitz. But at our schools, winter or not, kids like to 

put on their snow pants and, assuming it’s safe of course, go outside and run around. 

And so if you imagine all of schooling designed from the point of 

view of the kid and what do they like to do, and how do you make 

school really, really interesting. We say to our faculty and to our 

principals, if there were no laws mandating school and parents did 

not need child care—which is very hard to imagine; I say that as 

the mother of three—would the kids come to school? 

And I think in many, many cases in America they would not. 

They would not choose to come to school. And we have to make 

sure that as educators we don’t treat children as a captive audience. 

Representative Hanna. How do you engage the—in what fashion do you engage the parents of these children? There must be 

something different about that. Go ahead. 

Dr. Moskowitz. Well, we partner with parents. That doesn’t 

mean that parents run the school, but we do have a very profound 

respect for our parents. They are their child’s first teacher and last 

teacher. And no matter how many hours a day we have their children, respecting parents, but also demanding that parents can’t see 

the school as the babysitting operation where they then check out. 

It’s got to be a true partnership between the school and the parents. The school can’t do it alone. Parents can’t do it alone. We together, their children join us. We call it a 13-year marriage. We’re 
18 

in it together, and we’ve got to see their kids through thick and 

thin. 

And we have some very concrete demands that we do make of 

our parents. And the most important is reading to their child every 

night K to 2. And then starting in 3rd grade, our kids must read 

45 minutes a day. 

Representative Hanna. My time has expired. Thank you, very 

much. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Thank you, very much. We’ll turn to 

Senator Casey. 

Senator Casey. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank Vice 

Chair Klobuchar for having this hearing on a very important set 

of topics to focus on. I want to thank our panel for your testimony 

and for your work in this area. 

I will not get to each of you for a question, but I wanted to start 

with Angela Blackwell, not only because you mentioned Pennsylvania once in your testimony and you referred to a Pittsburgh program in your written testimony, but I might as well just start 

there. 

But the real reason was that you did highlight the Pittsburgh 

Central Keystone Innovation Zone as a good example, and I wanted 

to—an example in terms of job creation and a real strategy that 

leads to that. And I just wanted to get your kind of summary of 

why you think that program is successful, and whether or not—I 

am assuming you would answer, yes, that we should scale up those 

programs like that, but whether you think it is possible and what 

we can learn from that example. 

Ms. Glover Blackwell. Thank you for the question. And I have 

been so happy that I can lift up Pennsylvania as examples in more 

than one area. 

I think that the Keystone Project actually demonstrates what we 

can do when we target and when we are deliberate. And it is so 

important that as we are talking about the plight of African Americans, how they have been marginalized in the economy, over-incarcerated, and pushed aside when it comes to so much that is essential for being able to reach your full potential, that as you are looking for strategies, you not start as if you have a blank slate and 

all that has not happened before. 

It is so important to acknowledge the struggle, the impact of that 

struggle, and to target strategies. And so we are seeking examples 

around the country, and Keystone is just one of those examples, 

where in the creation of something that is going to be good for the 

region, good for the city, we think that we have to do multiple 

things at the same time. 

The need is too great for us to have a special program to deal 

with every one of the things that has to be addressed. When we 

are thinking about the things that the economy needs, things that 

the region needs, that is how we are going to achieve equity and 

full inclusion: by targeting strategies, making sure that we are removing barriers, measuring outcomes, engaging partners, and 

doing this in a public/private way. 

And I think that Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, so many 

places are learning this and solving our social problems as we solve 

our economic problems. 
19 

Senator Casey. And even as we look—and we do have in our 

State a number of good models—but even as we look at those, I 

cannot, nor can anyone in our State, be satisfied with these numbers when you consider that the African American population as a 

percent of the adult population in our State is 10.4 percent, yet the 

unemployment rate is 12.4. 

The same holds true for long-term unemployment: 2.5 for all 

races, more than double that, 5.4, for African Americans. So we 

like a lot of places have a long way to go. But I was grateful you 

mentioned that. 

I am also grateful for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, 

which as you know is a national strategy, but it is being carried 

out in a lot of states. And we are grateful for that. 

I know I am low on time, but I wanted to get to a question for 

Mr. Bynum. I note for the record that a lot of what has been talked 

about today in terms of strategies that work, I was particularly 

pleased that the JEC staff noted in the memo for the hearing on 

page 4 in terms of kind of efforts that can reduce these numbers 

that we highlight, expanding early childhood education—I am reading from the memo here, quote: 

‘‘Expanding access to quality, affordable preschool education can 

close the gap in school readiness between some African American 

children and their peers.’’ Unquote. 

That is a passion of mine, and I know a lot of people here in both 

parties. We have not been able to get agreement on it, but I think 

all of us know if kids learn more now they are going to earn more 

later. That is not just a nice rhyme, but it happens to be true, and 

all the data shows it. So I know that many people here are focused 

on that as one of the strategic focuses. 

Mr. Bynum, maybe I will submit it for the record and you can 

answer it for the record in a longer form, but in the world of financing and capital, if you could highlight one strategy or one effort that Congress could undertake that could actually pass, what 

would it be? 

And if you want to answer that, you can, but you can add more 

in a written statement, if you would like. 

Mr. Bynum. I would focus on—again, I appreciate the focus on 

strategies that work. And I think, while the Community Development Financial Institution Fund in the Department of the Treasury is relatively small, the results have been staggering. 

It has been able to leverage capital from private investors into 

low-income distressed communities as these banks are leaving, and 

the results are targeted investments in communities that we all 

need, but low-income communities lack. 

So I would say increasing investments in the CDFI Fund, and focusing those efforts and those resources in a more targeted way on 

persistently impoverished and underserved communities. 

Senator Casey. Thank you, very much. Thank you, Madam 

Chair. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Thank you very much. Representative 

Paulsen. 

Representative Paulsen. Thank you, very much. 

First of all, I have to say it is a real pleasure to see Dr. 

Moskowitz here. You and I have not had a chance to interact since 
20 

you and I were both in the Aspen Institute’s first Rodel Fellowship 

Program. 

I will start out by saying I think you are truly a hero to thousands of New Yorkers of modest means who have been able to see 

their children get a better education. And as a mathematics major 

myself, it is fun to see Nigel here talk about his enthusiasm for 

math down the road. 

Let me follow up on what was mentioned earlier, because I also 

agree with the comments you made in your testimony about having 

engines of opportunity, incubators of opportunity, and not having 

poverty traps. That is the foundation of building success and skills 

in the future workforce that we will need to fill. 

You talked a little bit about school design, interaction with parents, and teachers, and principals. Would you say that having 

equipped students with not only the skills they need but the confidence, the hope, and their treatment as adults motivates them to 

personally invest in themselves, and then hold themselves responsible to succeed? 

Dr. Moskowitz. Yes. Confidence, you know, breeds—confidence 

generated by mastery, and that is a really important point, because 

I sometimes think schools pursue self esteem that is not connected 

to mastery. But in schools where mastery is driving the confidence, 

our kids just know how to tackle difficult problems. 

It is really interesting. On the Math Olympiad, the kids really 

have to think. It’s a problem, and when they are practicing for 

that, you know, it can go on an hour or two. And they’re little. And 

so they have to be able to puzzle through it. They cannot solve the 

answer in 30 seconds. 

Similarly, the chess games. The kids get two hours on the clock. 

So those games last four hours when they are competing. And they 

have to think for four hours. It’s very funny. They are starving 

when they’re done. They are very hungry. And we’ve learned the 

hard way that our snacks are insufficient for that amount of thinking. 

But I think we are a little bit afraid to challenge kids and allow 

them to struggle intellectually, and we have to get over that. We 

have to allow them to struggle, and also allow them to experience, 

frankly, the pleasure of struggling intellectually, overcoming that, 

and succeeding. 

Representative Paulsen. Unfortunately, I won’t have a chance 

to ask everyone on the panel a question, but, Dr. Mathur, you mentioned earlier in your testimony that segregated areas in cities 

have lower economic opportunity and school choice equalling less 

positive results. 

You spoke a little bit about the EITC and welfare reform. Now 

recently there was a little bit of attention in the news, because the 

House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan, put forth this discussion draft on a proposal suggesting the consolidation of different 

anti-poverty programs, I think 11 different anti-poverty programs, 

into one Opportunity Grant. So then states could participate and 

I guess incorporate work incentives into that safety net and reallocate welfare dollars where they are needed most. 

Would you agree that program consolidation would help impoverished families get those specific needs met from one overall pro-
21 

vider? And if you are familiar with the draft, maybe you can offer 

some insight. 

I know this has just started that conversation. 

Dr. Mathur. Right. I think in our own research we do suggest that. So we know we are spending about $800 billion on anti-poverty programs that we have, these whole slew of programs that the 

problem is that people don’t know about the eligibility for different 

programs. Their takeup rates are low because they just don’t know 

if they will be eligible for multiple programs at the same time. 

So there is a lot we can do to improve transparency. And I think 

the first step towards that is consolidating programs into a few programs that people can understand, that they know they are eligible 

for, and which would improve takeup rates, and particularly target 

low-income people. 

So I think I agree with those proposals. I think there are a lot 

of programs that we could combine and make more effective, given 

that we have so many that exist today. 

The other issue with these programs is also the phase-in rates, 

the phase-out rates, the fact that people are going off the program, 

you know, low=income people are going off the programs and facing 

really high marginal tax rates which affects their incentive to participate in the labor force. 

So again, having transparency, reducing the number of programs 

into a few programs, and understanding what the tax rates are actually faced by these low-income people would really help. 

Representative Paulsen. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I 

yield back. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. You have a minute left, or 20 seconds. 

I notice that Ms. Glover Blackwell wanted to answer, raised your 

hand up there. We’ll give her a little time. 

Ms. Glover Blackwell. Thank you. Thank you for the 20 seconds. I did want to say that I worry a lot about the consolidation 

of all those programs and pushing them to the states to make decisions. 

Very important. We saw when we had the recent Great Recession that it is so important for the Federal Government to be able 

to increase food stamps and make sure that we are not hungry. We 

do not want to just leave that to the states. We have to have a floor 

below which we do not let people fall. 

I don’t think that we yet have gotten to the place as a Nation 

where we can abandon the federal responsibility to make sure that 

we always maintain a floor. I think that there is room for innovation and states should be encouraged to do that, but we cannot 

abandon the floor. That is a national responsibility. 

Thank you. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Senator Murphy, welcome. 

Senator Murphy. Thank you, very much, Madam Chair. Thank 

you for all of you being here. I am sorry that I came a little late 

but I got the chance to read a lot of your testimony. 

I wanted to maybe talk about two very diverse subjects, one that 

I will direct at you, Mr. Bynum, and am happy to have other people weigh in on this. 

Last week, Bank of America announced that they were closing 

two branches in the north end of Hartford, which is the predomi-
22 

nantly African American section of the city, leaving only one bank 

in the entire north end of the city. There are a lot of other ATMs, 

but there would only effectively be one, maybe, depending on your 

definition of the neighborhood, two retail banking locations. 

And the excuse was that there wasn’t enough traffic, and that 

people could just access banking online. The reality is that online 

connectivity in that neighborhood is pretty miserable as well, and 

there are plenty of alternatives to traditional banking—check cashing locations at the top of the list. 

So I am hopeful that I am going to be able to prevail upon Bank 

of America to reconsider closing at least one of those two locations. 

But let me ask you about that question about how you convince 

banks to be located in economically distressed neighborhoods— 

which, you know, in my state often tend to be neighborhoods in 

which you do have a high concentration of African Americans living. 

We have a real problem in Connecticut of people without banks. 

You know, there are thousands of people in New Haven and Hartford who have absolutely no bank that is attached to them and 

their money, and thus they spend lots and lots of additional dollars 

in alternatives to those banks. 

It is not hard to understand when you walk around a neighborhood and cannot find a bank. So how do we convince banks to look 

on this question differently? 

Mr. Bynum. I hope you are successful in convincing Bank of 

America to revisit that, because I think that we have seen many 

banks focus too much on profit maximization in the short term, 

rather than looking at the needs of the communities where they do 

extract tremendous profits. The banks have had the most profitable year in history, $154 billion in profits last year, which is a dramatic turnaround from 

where they were in 2008 or 2009. 

There is a gentleman that was at the University of Michigan who 

wrote a book, ‘‘The Fortune At The Bottom of The Pyramid.’’ He 

I think made a very compelling case that the people in low-income 

communities need the same things that everyone else needs. And 

there are large numbers of people in these markets. And if banks 

took the time to, and focused on serving them as opposed to moving 

to more affluent communities which we have seen in record numbers, I think they would find that there are ways to prudently 

structure financing, or as I mentioned in my testimony, 86 percent 

of our mortgages were to first-time home buyers. At a time when 

banks are focusing on refinancing, and very few new mortgage 

originations to first-time home buyers, but our losses have been at 

less than half a percent. 

And so we know that with the proper structuring, with proper 

counseling, things that they make available to more affluent customers, people can succeed. 

We also know that when there is a bank in a community, access 

to business financing is more likely to occur. The same thing with, 

as banks leave, you have a proliferation of payday lenders in those 

communities. 

There is a significant tie-in with the education conversation that 

is going on, because communities cannot generate the revenue to 
23 

support schools if they do not have business, if the economies are 

not vibrant. And the economies cannot be vibrant without strong 

financial institutions. 

The same thing. Kids don’t live in schools, they live in families. 

They need households and communities. There are data that show 

that when kids move into a home, not only do they do better in 

school, but they have better recreation outcomes. Families report 

that they feel they are in safer neighborhoods and it stabilizes 

those communities. Increased tax revenue. Increased revenue to 

support schools and other investments to strengthen these communities. 

So there is a strong economic case to make, but I think public 

policy has to hold banks accountable to staying in these communities and reinvesting in them. 

Senator Murphy. Doctor—I’m not over my time, right? 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. No. 

Senator Murphy. Dr. Moskowitz, I assume that a lot of the conversation here has been centered around education, which is of 

course the key to unlock the prospect of economic opportunity for 

people throughout the country, African Americans of course included, but there’s a barrier that happens in our schools for many 

African American children, and in particular African American 

boys. And that is, the school discipline process. 

Many African American boys have their education interrupted, 

and often ceased, because of an unjustifiably disparate way in 

which we treat African Americans, particularly African American 

boys, when they get in trouble in schools. And we all know about 

the school-to-prison pipeline by which kids get suspended, and then 

expelled, and then are in the juvenile justice system. 

That is the quickest way to keep yourself on the outside of the 

economy is to get yourself locked up. And the reality is that one 

of the reasons that you have a disparity in the number of African 

Americans versus the number of Caucasians in jail as adults is because you have a disparity starting in the schools as to how African 

Americans are treated when they just goof off. And 95 percent of 

school discipline is for nonviolent offenses, for kids that are just 

late for class, or who are just being rude to a teacher, and then ultimately they end up getting pushed out. 

So what do you recommend that we do about this continuing lingering difference between the way in which African Americans, and 

Latinos, but it’s really a problem more specifically to how African 

Americans are treated with respect to school discipline, so that that 

doesn’t become an increased burden that hamstrings individuals 

and families as they try to progress through the educational system 

into economic prosperity. 

Dr. Moskowitz. Well often when there is disorder in schools, 

children bear the brunt of the consequences. And it is usually the 

adults who are not running the lunchroom properly, or not setting 

the expectations and teaching kids, you know, what the expectations are. 

You know, we at Success Academies are somewhat old-fashioned 

in that regard. We think we need to teach kids to say ‘‘please’’ and 

‘‘thank you,’’ and we need to make sure that there is real civility 

and respect. And that is something we don’t expect children to 
24 

come in automatically with, and particularly when you have a 

bunch of five-year-olds together it can get chaotic and you have to 

teach children how to interact in the school environment. 

I liken it, you know, you act a certain way in a library. You don’t 

act the same way when you’re at the stadium. And that has to be 

taught. But unfortunately, in many of our schools adults are not 

taking responsibility for the behaviors that they are seeing, and 

they are blaming the children, which is really unfair. 

Senator Murphy. I wholeheartedly agree. Do you track school 

discipline by the race of the student? And do you have any information about whether that disparity, which does exist writ large, exists in the Success Academy Charter Schools? 

Dr. Moskowitz. Well the vast majority of our kids are kids of 

color, and there aren’t significant differences between Latino and 

African American rates. 

Senator Murphy. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Thank you, very much. 

I now have a few questions. We issued this report, and I thank 

the JEC staff today, ‘‘Economic Opportunity in The African American Community,’’ and we did a state-by-state analysis and looked 

at it regionally as well. 

I guess I will start with you, Ms. Glover Blackwell. It actually 

shows that the Midwest has the higher poverty—highest poverty 

and unemployment rate for African Americans, as well as the lowest median income for African Americans. And so African Americans over the age of 25 in the Midwest are less likely to have a 

post-secondary degree. 

Why do you think they are worse than these other regions on the 

economic metrics? 

Ms. Glover Blackwell. The work that has really been looking 

at social mobility in America has pointed out that the Midwest and 

the South really are the areas where we are seeing the worst outcomes across the board, particularly for African Americans. 

In the Midwest we have a situation in which there was extraordinary dependence on manufacturing. And we have seen a complete shift from manufacturing to the service and knowledge economies, and the Midwest has not been fast in terms of making that 

adjustment. 

So you have an area of the country that has really suffered devastation because of a reorganizing of the economy. In addition, African Americans suffered historical discrimination, and that historical discrimination often had them coming in to the workforce and 

making progress at a later point than others. And so when the recession hit, they were hit hardest. They were let go. We have not 

had an educational system that has been moving people into the 

new jobs. And so the combination of a bad economy, the impact of 

historical racism, and the impact of an educational system that has 

not prepared people, has left the Midwest hurting, and really hurting in the African American community. 

If I could just take a moment to comment on the school discipline 

issue, too, because what we are seeing is that so many young Black 

men are not able to get into work, even when it is there, because 

of a criminal record. And it starts with the discipline in the school 

system. 
25 

California has really taken this up and started a Select Committee on Men and Boys of Color, and they have lifted this issue 

of school discipline up. They are tracking by race, what is going on, 

and they have eliminated schools being able to suspend children 

because of ‘‘willful defiance’’, which is so nebulous: anything can 

come under it. This is forcing people in the schools to pay more attention. It starts there. It ends up with unemployment. 

And I think the Midwest is suffering more from all of these 

things. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Yes. Because what is interesting, and 

you and I talked about our situation in Minnesota where we have 

a gap with people of color, yet we have the lowest unemployment 

rate in the Twin Cities in the country. And I think part of this is 

that the manufacturing that we have now requires different manufacturing skills than the manufacturing you’re talking about that 

was traditionally in the Midwest. And that we similarly have not 

adjusted in our schools and through the way we approach workforce training to the new reality. 

And we have, you know, two-thirds now of our manufacturers in 

our state who still have openings for people. And they are not all 

in the Twin Cities, so there are some mobility issues. But I think 

part of it is the workforce training issue. 

And if you could comment on that, and also what we could be 

doing more. I know Secretary Duncan came out to Minnesota and 

some of our areas are doing some innovative things with businesses, and so the kids are actually getting degrees in high school 

while they are in high school that will be a one-year degree, a twoyear degree, and they can then go on from there, or they can work 

for awhile with those degrees. 

Do you want to talk about that? 

Ms. Glover Blackwell. Thank you. The truth of the matter is 

that now the skills and education required to get the middle-skills 

jobs, the advanced manufacturing jobs, are the same kind of skills 

one needs to go on to college. 

And so schools that are not preparing young people for a college 

education are also not preparing them for the manufacturing jobs 

that are coming online. 

We also know that the job training programs too often are separated from where the jobs are. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Um-hmm. 

Ms. Glover Blackwell. The best job training programs are programs that are developed with employers, with the employers helping to design the curriculum and making arrangements for young 

people who come through the programs to be fully trained to be 

able to take those jobs. 

California is actually taking advantage of the Workforce Innovation Act to be able to align its training programs with jobs, so that 

they are targeting the areas that are most vulnerable. They are 

targeting the areas that need work most. And they are making 

sure that the employers are working directly with the training programs so that we are targeting the jobs, and we are targeting the 

people, and we can make the connection. 

For all of the things we are talking about, the good news is: You 

show me a problem, and I can show you a place in the United 
26 

States where communities together are solving the problems. What 

we have not done is figure out how to tease out the policy implications and take all this innovation and good work to scale. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Okay. Dr. Mathur, I know you agree on 

some of this workforce training. Do you want to comment on that 

and how you believe we could take it to scale? 

Dr. Mathur. Right. Absolutely. As I mentioned in my testimony, 

I think the programs that are going to work right now are where 

employers are taking on prospective—and this is a solution I discussed earlier when we were talking about the issue of long-term 

unemployed. In order to get those people back into the labor market, we need customized job training programs where the employers have an incentive to train the people so that they are ready to 

take on the jobs that are offered to them. 

And in Wisconsin I think they are trying exactly that kind of initiative where the employers are getting state grants to train, out 

of the pool of unemployed, train people to fit the jobs that the employer eventually offers to them. So I agree completely with having 

more training programs that are customized to get people on the 

job and back into the labor market. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. And, Dr. Moskowitz, I know you commented about your students getting—being able to be trained in 

computer programming, which you said can pay like $90,000 a 

year. So was part of the thought there that, one, you want them 

to go to college, obviously, but they also have this skill they could 

use immediately if they wanted to? 

Dr. Moskowitz. Yes. We are just practical people and we want 

to make sure that they can economically navigate the twists and 

turns of life and having that practical skill, as well as it being intellectually challenging and interesting we thought would put them 

in good stead. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Yes. And I think it is that kind of 

thinking, this idea that we work more with where the jobs are, and 

I’ve seen it work so well in places like Rochester, Minnesota, because the Mayo Clinic is there, and IBM has a major presence, and 

it is easier for the community colleges, and the high schools, to see 

exactly where there might be some immediate jobs, and then what 

those longer jobs are that require more advanced degrees so they 

can plan. 

It is sometimes harder to do with the inner city because you do 

not have the employers right there, and you somehow have to 

match the way the education system is working with those employers. And I think to do it more broadly you have to look at what 

those job classes are that are looking for those immediate jobs that 

also pay well. 

Dr. Moskowitz. And it is just challenging as the economy is 

changing so fast, and schools tend to be sort of ossified that it is 

hard for them to be agile and respond to the economic changes. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. And I think that is why in places like 

that Rochester, or in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, where we now 

have 200 job openings at one employer, they are able. They can go 

right to the school district, and right to the community college and 

say we’re going to have 50 openings in this area. This is how much 

it is going to pay. The parents know how much it is going to pay. 
27 

And it is just easier to get the kids and the parents on board, I 

think, as part of this. 

Because people understandably after what Ms. Glover Blackwell 

was pointing out, you know, after jobs have gone away and vanished that people thought they had, people get very cynical, especially in the manufacturing area, that that is going to be a job for 

their child. Yet there are openings, and there are some well-paying 

openings. 

Mr. Bynum, I will just finish up with you. You have got clearly 

something good going, and how do you think people in other parts 

of the country can replicate the success you have had in the lower 

Mississippi Delta? 

Mr. Bynum. I think that it is great that we have been able to 

help some people in the Delta, but we have clearly not helped as 

many as needs exist. 

Since the Recession, we have seen, as these banks have closed 

and payday lenders have expanded, there is a need for accountability to require banks to reinvest in these communities. But when 

they don’t, Community Development Financial Institutions have 

demonstrated that we know how to deploy capital into these areas. 

We have taken a relatively small amount of funding from Treasury. We slowly gained access to other federal programs. The SBA 

and USDA have tools that are very important in I think 

prioritizing access to those tools by CDFIs is critically important. 

The CDFI industry has grown over the country. There are some 

in most Congressional Districts. We are not nearly at a scale we 

need relative to the problem, and so I think investing significantly 

more in long-term capital to support the expansion. And as Angela 

said, there are models that work. They need to be taken to scale. 

There also needs to be a continued focus on protections so that 

payday lenders do not have a free rein to extract capital from communities that can least afford it. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Okay. Very good. 

Do any of my colleagues have any additional questions? 

Representative Hanna. Madam Chair? 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. Okay. 

Representative Hanna. There is a—Secretary Duncan has a, 

it’s not universal, people, children 200 percent below the poverty 

line who are pre-K. And you spoke, Dr. Mathur, about the connection between being born in poverty. 

And, Dr. Moskowitz, can you give me a quick notion of how important it is towards breaking that intergenerational poverty that 

pre-K is? In other words, going to school with that extra headstart? 

Just take a minute. 

Dr. Moskowitz. It makes the education much easier if you have 

that early childhood foundation. I mean, it obviously can be done 

when you get the kids in kindergarten. We are doing it at Success 

Academies. But it is absolutely essential for worldclass schooling to 

be educating 3- and 4-year-olds. We just have to be careful that it 

is done well. Because if it is warehousing of children, that is not 

worldclass education. But what you can do is you can really do all 

the pre-reading work that needs to be done in terms of comprehension. 
28 

It will be much easier to teach a child to read if they have heard 

the same stories over and over again and can act them out. You 

can do that in pre-K. Kindergarten is actually quite academic these 

days, and we have to kind of rush kids into reading. 

And so if you could do all that work, not to mention the social 

and emotional skills that kids need, you could do so much more in 

early childhood education if you could have the pre-K. 

Representative Hanna. So the children who are not read to at 

home, who do not have access to books, whose parents are not engaged with them academically, pre-K can help equalize that opportunity of going to kindergarten? 

Dr. Moskowitz. Yes. But I would also say it can support parents 

in reading to their children. And don’t forget that that’s what great 

schooling does: it inspires parents to be engaged in the academic 

development of their children. 

And it is when the children are young that parents are inclined 

to. Everyone has a mama bear or a papa bear instinct; it’s just that 

people aren’t quite sure what exactly to do. And pre-K can be that 

community center where you involve parents from when their children are very, very young. And that investment in parents will 

carry you over the long haul. 

So I think pre-K is seen as just about the kids. It is also about 

the adults and getting everyone inspired to be committed to their 

children’s education over the long haul. 

Representative Hanna. Thank you, very much. 

Thank you for indulging me. 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. That’s okay. Anyone else have any 

questions? 

(No response.) 

Vice Chair Klobuchar. All right. Well I want to thank our witnesses today. These are great initiatives going on across the country. I think we all know there’s a lot of work to be done, and we 

look forward to hearing from you again and working with you in 

the future. 

The record will remain open for five days for any Member who 

wishes to put in some comments or additional questions. You can 

wait for those, our witnesses. 

The hearing is adjourned. And thank you for our three students 

in the front row, and my interns that I think are in the back row, 

for all listening and staying awake through the entire hearing. 

Thank you, very much. The hearing is adjourned. 

(Whereupon, at 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, July 29, 2014, the hearing in 

the above-entitled matter was adjourned.) 
(29) 

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD 
30 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD L. HANNA ON BEHALF OF HON. KEVIN

BRADY, CHAIRMAN, JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

Vice Chair Klobuchar, Members, and distinguished witnesses: 

Let me begin by noting that, through the title of this hearing, Vice Chair 

Klobuchar and her Democratic colleagues acknowledge that Washington does not 

have a one-size-fits-all solution to every problem that Americans face. 

Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I when 

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The Great War disrupted the supply of 

immigrant labor to American industries. In what became known as the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved north to fill these jobs. 

There, African Americans enjoyed a level of economic freedom and prosperity that 

they had not previously known. 

Also, July 2nd marked the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights 

Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Through this Act, both 

Democrats and Republicans sought to close the opportunity gap, generated by racial 

prejudice and segregation, and provide African Americans with an equal opportunity 

to pursue the American Dream. 

Over the last half-century, there has been substantial progress in narrowing the 

opportunity gap for African Americans. Fifty years ago, less than 25 percent of African American adults had a high school diploma; today, more than 85 percent do. 

And there has been a five-fold increase in the percent of college graduates. Inflationadjusted median family income of African Americans has nearly doubled. The percent of African Americans living in poverty has fallen by more than a third, and 

the percent of children living in poverty has fallen by nearly half. 

Nevertheless, the opportunity gap for African Americans has not been completely 

closed. Much of what remains of the opportunity gap is caused by the lack of education and job skills needed to prosper in today’s economy, and the dependency on 

discordant government programs, which penalize personal advancement and work. 

The surest route to prosperity for every American is a good education. For poor 

African American children raised by single mothers in rough inner city neighborhoods, a good education, as economist Thomas Sowell argues, is their one chance 

at a better life. 

America has many great public schools with excellent teachers that provide students with an outstanding education. Unfortunately, America also has failing public 

schools with struggling teachers, many of which are in inner cities serving poor children. 

Economically prosperous families can avoid sending their children to failing public 

schools by either moving to a different neighborhood with good public schools or enrolling their children in private schools. Prosperous families have always had school 

choice. 

Until recently, most poor families in inner cities had no choice—their children 

were forced to enroll in the assigned public schools even if they failed to provide 

a good education. Over the last decade, however, the public school monopoly for the 

poor has begun to crack. 

Republican governors and legislators working with parents have developed new 

and innovative approaches to provide all parents, regardless of their income or 

wealth, with choice for where their children are educated. The choice movement has 

taken a number of different forms——charter schools, vouchers to attend private 

schools, and privately funded scholarships to attend private schools. 

One of our witnesses today is Dr. Eva Moskowitz, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Success Academy, a charter school system in my own state of New 

York. She has overseen an expansion from one school in Harlem in 2006 to 22 

schools serving 6,800 children. Her students, who are largely from poor minority 

families, score in the top 1 percent in math and the top 7 percent in English Language Arts in state testing. 

Americans are a generous people, willing to help the poor through governmentfunded welfare programs and private charities. But Americans are also a practical 

people. We want our safety net to be a trampoline—helping able-bodied, workingage Americans to move from poverty into the middle class. We don’t want our safety 

net to be fly paper—trapping the poor in a multigenerational cycle of dependency. 

Another witness, Dr. Aparna Mathur, has identified what local initiatives in social 

welfare programs can actually lift women, especially African Americans, out of poverty, and making economic growth even more inclusive for the poor. She has argued 

for streamlining existing programs in order to improve transparency about the implicit tax penalties associated with each program. Dr. Mathur will offer Members 

important lessons on how to restructure our existing anti-poverty programs—im-
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proving the lives of current beneficiaries, while providing a better value for taxpayers. 

With that I look forward to hearing the testimony of today’s witnesses. 
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