KreweNews

Session Spotlight: Can We Afford Our Health Care?

America spends an astounding $2.4 trillion to keep us alive, productive and healthy -- a number that will rise another $175 billion in 2008. Some states want to take the lead in "fixing" key parts of this system—a daunting task for big-government and small-government experts alike.

"Can We Afford Our Health Care? New Directions and Solutions" will be a featured session at NCSL's 2008 Legislative Summit in New Orleans. The session will take place on Thursday, July 24 at 1 pm. Three national experts will discuss recent initiatives intended to control costs while preserving or improving health outcomes.

One of the speakers will be Robert Helms, an assistant secretary of Health and Human Services in the Reagan Administration, who played a key role in market-based reforms.

Register today to be a part of this session.

Speaker Spotlight: Paul Vallas

More than a year ago, Paul Vallas was named the superintendent of the Recovery School District in New Orleans. An article in The New York Times called him "one of the nation’s most prominent education reformers."

Vallas will be featured at two sessions at NCSL's 2008 Legislative Summit in New Orleans. On Thursday, July 24 at 1 p.m., he will be paired with Sol Stern to discuss "Two Decades of School Choice: What Have We Learned?" Then, at 8 a.m. Friday, July 25, he will be a panelist at a session entitled, "Lessons from the Trenches: Turning Around Poor Performing Schools."

Vallas is credited with making notable changes in Chicago and Philadelphia school districts. He has been featured in a PBS series on leadership. We couldn't find an official bio for Vallas on the Web, so here is a link to his Wikipedia entry.

To hear his views on education in America, be sure to register for the Legislative Summit today!

Speaker Spotlight: Major General Michael R. Lehnert

Strengthening the relationship between communities and military installations is the focus of a special session at NCSL's 2008 Legislative Summit in New Orleans. On Friday, July 25 at 2 p.m., Major General Michael R. Lehnert will be a featured speaker at the session called "Strengthening Military-Community Partnerships." He currently serves as Commanding General, Marine Corps Installation West.

The highly decorated Major General has more than 30 years of service to his country, including stops in Japan, the Philippines, Panama and Guantanamo Bay. In addition, he has served on numerous U.S. military installations and he will be able to provide a unique perspective on the military-community relationship at this NCSL session.

To be a part of this session, register for the meeting today!

Speaker Spotlight: Robert Hoopes

When Newt Gingrich and Lee Hamilton take the stage at NCSL's 2008 Legislative Summit in New Orleans, their discussion will be under the guiding hand of Robert R. Hoopes.

Hoopes, president and senior partner of Vox Global Mandate, is a nationally recognized expert on public policy, issue advocacy, and crisis management. His company focuses on providing bi-partisan advocacy and communications counsel to clients.

Robert has attended both the Republican and Democratic Conventions since 1992. He provides political commentary for Fox News, NPR, MSNBC, News Channel 8, Fox and BBC World News Radio and Television.

To be a part of this session, which takes place Thursday, July 24 at 2:45 p.m., register today!

Speaker Spotlight: Presidential Candidate Education Advisers

While the NCSL 2008 Legislative Summit has invitations out to the two major presidential candidates, we have secured a couple of key advisers who will share their candidate's perspective on education issues.

NCSL attendees can hear representatives Linda Darling-Hammond from the Obama and Lisa Graham Keegan of the McCain campaigns discuss the candidates' views on an appropriate federal role for K-12 education. The session will take place Wednesday, July 23 from Noon to 2:15 pm.

To be a part of this rare opportunity to compare the two candidates education issues side-by-side, register for the meeting today!

Speaker Spotlight: Alan Haley

by Meagan Dorsch and Janna Goodwin

The National Conference of State Legislatures is honored to have Alan D. Haley as a speaker during the 2008 Legislative Summit in New Orleans, July 22 - 26, 2008.

Haley has been a Preservation Specialist (Senior Rare Book Conservator) at the Library of Congress since 1993. He has been a member of the LC Collections Emergency Response Team for 12 years and been involved in emergency preparedness, disaster response assessments and on-site collections recovery efforts at the Library of Congress as well as in El Salvador after the 2001 earthquakes.  He most recently was in Iraq after the arson attacks on the National Library in Bagdad in 2003.  He has collaborated with colleagues to train LC custodial division staff in emergency response protocol and has given numerous collections salvage workshops at universities and museums in El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Alabama, New Orleans, and South Florida.

Haley will be speaking at the session ""In the Line of Fire and Flood: Protecting and Recovering Collections at Risk" on Tuesday, July 22. He will discuss generally accepted guidelines on preventative steps to minimize risk to institutional collections. He will describe and demonstrate procedures and techniques to minimize loss when disasters have damaged such historical materials. This session at NCSL Legislative Summit is sponsored by the Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section.

There is only one way to see Haley and all of our featured speakers at the 34th annual NCSL Legislative Summit in New Orleans. Make sure to register today!

Session Spotlight: School Choice

For more than two decades, there have been a wide range of experiments in allowing parents to choose the schools their children attend. At one of our breakout sessions at the NCSL 2008 Legislative Summit in New Orleans, we'll take a look at what we've learned in that time.

Sol Stern, a noted writer who focuses on education reform, will be featured in a discussion on how well the choice experiment has worked, and which strategies have been successful in improving student achievement and improving the public school system. The session takes place Thursday, July 24 at 10 a.m.

Stern is a contributing editor to City Journal and a Manhattan Institute senior fellow. His writings on that topic have helped shape the terms of the current debate in New York City. He is the author of Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice. Aside from his work in City Journal, Stern’s articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Magazine, Commentary, The New Republic, the New York Post and the Daily News.

To be a part of this discussion, register for the meeting today.

Speaker Spotlight: Fred Krupp

Mother Earth has been claiming her share of the headlines lately. Every region of the country seems to have a major weather-related story right, particularly the flooding in the Midwest. Our host for NCSL's 2008 Legislative Summit, New Orleans, is still recovering from hurricanes that hit in 2005.

Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, looked at what was happening to the planet and has written a best-selling book, Earth: The Sequel. The premise of the book is that the nation can build a low-carbon economy while unleashing American entrepreneurs to save the planet.

Krupp has focused his career on developing market-based solutions for environmental issues. He has led Environmental Defense Fund in a series of corporate partnerships with DuPont, FedEx, McDonald’s and others and helped launch the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.

He will join Shell Oil President Marvin Odum at the Summit's general session on Wednesday, July 23. Register today to be a part of this session to learn how can the U.S. maintain the delicate balance between energy, economic and environmental sustainability.

Speaker Spotlight: Lee Hamilton

When Lee Hamilton left Congress in 1999, he felt the American public needed a better understanding of how government, and particularly Congress, operates. He founded The Center on Congress at Indiana University that year as a non-partisan educational institution seeking to improve public understanding of Congress and encourage civic engagement.

His reputation as a statesman has led to his appointment to lead several notable U.S. commissions, including co-chair of the 9/11 Commission.  He is the author of two books: How Congress Works and Why You Should Care (Indiana University Press), and A Creative Tension: The Foreign Policy Roles of the President and Congress (Woodrow Wilson Press). He co-authored with former Gov. Kean Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission (Knopf).

At NCSL's 2008 Legislative Summit in New Orleans, Hamilton will share the stage with Newt Gingrich on Thursday to discuss what is needed to move America beyond gridlock to solving our biggest issues, including health care, education and the environment, with innovation and originality.

Register today to hear this fascinating conversation between two American legendary public servants.

Webinar Summary of Summit Program Available Online

Looking for a great overview of the 2008 Legislative Summit in New Orleans? Today, we recorded a free, online event highlighting the program, the tours, social events, kids program and some great information about the city of New Orleans.

At only 36 minutes long, the presentation features NCSL staff and a representative of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. All you have to do is grab your favorite beverage, go to your computer, turn on your sound and click on the link found on this page that says "encore presentation." The event, called a Webinar, will play out on your screen.

We welcome your feedback. Post a comment below and let us know if you have any questions that we didn't answer at today's event. And, if you haven't yet, go ahead and register for the meeting!