WTOP Radio

Reihan Salam on WTOP | Interview: Discussion of 'Grand New Party' and the U.S. Presidential Election of 2008

Communications — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:21:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Fellow Reihan Salam interviewed with WTOP anchors Dimitri Sotis and Bob Kur to discuss his popular new book 'Grand New Party.' Link to Audio

Michael Cohen on WTOP Radio | 'Presidential Campaigns'

Communications — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:40:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Michael Cohen, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, discusses his book Live from the Campaign Trail and what makes a presidential candidate's political oratory extraordinary... LINK to audio

Lindsey Luebchow on WTOP Radio in DC | Top B-Ball Shools Have Poor Grad Rates

Communications — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 06:11:00 -0400

New America in the News:

WTOP Radio in DC | Top B-Ball Shools Have Poor Grad Rates

New America Foundation Education Policy Analyst Lindsey Luebchow discussed the Annual Academic Sweet Sixteen bracket results with WTOP Radio in DC. Also, Luebchow's comments on the NCAA teams' academic ranking appeared on CBS Radio's nationally broadcast morning show (3/27/08). Following these hits, the Los Angeles Times published Luebchow's op-ed "Academic March Madness."

Lindsey Luebchow writes for New America's Ed Money Watch and Higher Ed Watch blogs.

Parag Khanna on WTOP Radio | Interview on The Second World

Communications — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:57:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Interview on The Second World (WTOP Radio, DC)

Author Parag Khanna discusses foreign affairs and his new book, "The Second World," with WTOP Radio in Washington, DC. Please find the transcript below, and audio of the interview linked as an attachment at the bottom of the page. Visit WTOP.com for more news.

WTOP: A lot of people call the United States the last remaining superpower. But what if there are others, all fighting for the same territory and resources. As we’ve learned all too well in recent years, actions thousands of miles away can directly affect our lives here in Washington and in other parts of the country. On the line with us this morning, Parag Khanna, author of the new book The Second World. Thanks for being with us this morning.

Parag Khanna: Thank you!

WTOP: Now you argue in your book that the US is not the only “big kid” in town: there’s also the European Union and China. Why those three, and what are their roles?

Parag Khanna: Those are the three superpowers today that have global ambitions. They are reaching around the world for resources, for influence, to export their goods, to promote their political models. And they’re doing it everywhere in the world, whether you’re in Argentina, or you’re in South Africa, or Australia, in the far corners of the planet. People are talking about, and they’re affected by what America, Europe, and China do – not by India, not by Russia, not by Japan, but by those “Big Three” as I call them.

WTOP: Why not Russia?

Parag Khanna: Well, Russia used to, of course, when it was, the Soviet Union was a superpower and did have global ambition and global reach. It doesn’t do any of those things today. It doesn’t attempt to – it certainly causes a lot of trouble in Eastern Europe and its own former republics in central Asia, but it doesn’t have that global sort of reach any more. Its economy isn’t much larger than that of France or South Korea.

WTOP: The Second World, the title of your book, refers to Latin America, the former Soviet block, the Middle East, and Asia. Do these regions have a say in what happens to their resources and their people?

Parag Khanna: They do increasingly, which is why my book is really about them; it’s not about us. It’s about understanding them; what they want; what wherewithal they’re putting together diplomatically and strategically; and the ways in which they’re playing all sides (by all sides I mean America, Europe, and China) off each other, to get what they want, to get the highest price for their goods, and to have us bid for their loyalty. And so the book is really sort of biographies in a way of these really strategic second world countries in all the regions you mentioned.

WTOP: Now to understand the scenario you’re describing, maybe we all need to look as far as the local gas station. Do you see the costs of most everything going up, and is it a result of this new global order you describe?

Parag Khanna: Well the cost of different things are going to go up or down, the fact is that because of out-sourcing, we have a lot of goods that are cheaper than they were before, and the ways in which second world or even third world economies are coming up and becoming huge commercial or production hubs does hold the potential for a lot of other things to get cheaper, like electronics and so on. Gas prices, of course, are up not only because of growing demand from China and India and other places, but also because of political tensions. Both of those things could change, and that’s going to change and affect the price of oil. So everything, you know the price of everything will change, but I always point out that this is not just a challenge for the United States because other places become more powerful, but also an opportunity. As other countries get richer, those are greater markets for us to export to. The number of American companies, including especially Fortune 500 companies and the like, whose profits increasingly depend on sales overseas is really growing.

WTOP: Let’s look at the Big Three again: the US, the EU, and China. Who among those has the upper hand now, and how well is the US playing ball in this new order that you describe?

Parag Khanna: The upper hand always depends on where: unless you’re just taking a static chart and saying who spends the most, and who has the biggest military, and who can do the most damage, then we win, hands down, and we will for a very long time. But that’s not what influence is built on around the world. It has a lot to do with where we are. Our influence in East Asia used to be really dominant: our alliances with Japan and South Korea were ironclad. But that’s China’s backyard: China’s doing a lot to weaken our alliances with them and to strengthen its relations. And we used to have a strong alliance with Turkey, but now the European Union’s pull on Turkey, which is a very strategic country, is very great. Saudi Arabia’s another country that used to be considered America’s firmest ally in the region, but now it’s dealing a lot more with the European Union: there’s going to be a free trade area between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council, the GTC, and oil might be priced in euros for those markets. So we’re seeing that depending on where you look in the world, America is competing with Europe and China.

WTOP: What do you expect to happen in Iraq?

Parag Khanna: I expect that eventually, irrespective of whether or not our troop presence remains at a certain level or not, I think that eventually that the sort of soft partition is eventually going to happen. I spent some time in Iraq, or been there several times in the last few years, and it seems to me that it’s only a matter of time that the Kurds do get their own independent country. They already really have it in all but name: you can’t go to Kurdistan and actually feel like you’re in Iraq. So I think that eventually that will be solidified. As for the rest of the country, it’s really too soon to tell.

WTOP: Parag, what should we as Americans demand of our politicians in light of this scenario?

Parag Khanna: We have to demand a lot less, kind of, saber rattling and the belief that we need to be the global policeman. We really can’t do all things and spend the kind of money it takes to be arbitrating every conflict in the world, which we in any case don’t really do, and we certainly don’t do it well. So diplomacy really has to be a new cornerstone of policy. And diplomacy isn’t just talking more: diplomacy is really about putting out proposals for burden-sharing in places like Afghanistan, in the Middle East, and elsewhere so that conflicts, and especially you know Iran is another example, where we can’t pretend to be the ones solving the problem. And I think that, you know, I’m very critical of American powerhouse use in the world, but the one thing I would say is that, or concede to all those people who say we’re the global cops, is that it’s time to make other people wake up and realize, “Hey!” If we were to say, “Okay we’re not going to do anything here, what would you do?” And I think that that’s really important to get these rising powers - the European Union and China - to step up not only to be competing for influence, but also to make, to have a positive impact on the world.

WTOP: Things are very much up in the air economically at the moment and maybe two or three months down the road things won’t look so bleak, but do you see everyday life here in the US becoming a lot harder in say the next ten or twenty years?

Parag Khanna: It’s interesting that you’re taking that time horizon because that is what I look at in the book. It really comes down to one thing as far as I’m concerned, and that is investing in our infrastructure. It’s not something that is permanent. You know, a lot of our infrastructure here in this country – and you hear about it everyday: it’s the stuff that Paul Krugman writes about in his New York Times columns and it’s what Lou Dobbs talks about. But they’re talking about facts: they’re talking about collapsing bridges, and cracking roads, and poor schools and hospitals. Our infrastructure clearly needs an overhaul. In second world countries that I write about are, some of them in East Asia are buying the latest and best first-world technology and are becoming more efficient. Our internet broadband penetration in the United States is very, very low. If we invest in that infrastructure, that 21^st century infrastructure that we need, from coast to coast – not just in Silicon Valley and other pockets – then that’s going to create a lot of jobs and prepare us to be competitive in the 21^st century.

Audio of interview attached below.

Eric Liu on WTOP Radio | Interview on The True Patriot

Communications — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:23:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Interview on The True Patriot (WTOP Radio, DC)

Author Eric Liu discusses American patriotism and his new book, "The True Patriot," with WTOP Radio in Washington, DC. Please find the transcript below, and audio of the interview linked as an attachment at the bottom of the page. Visit WTOP.com for more news.

WTOP: Three names for you now: John McCain, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. Of those three, who would you say is a patriot? Well many people might say all three are patriots, running for President, but surveys show the word “patriot” is most frequently connected with McCain and other Republicans. A new book is trying to change our definition of patriotism: it is called The True Patriot, co-written by Eric Liu, who used to write speeches for President Clinton, and Liu talked with me a little earlier about this:

ERIC LIU: One of the things that’s remarkable about American politics today is that for too many of us, the word “patriot” conjures up somebody who is a conservative. And while plenty of conservatives are patriotic, and are good patriots, their side doesn’t get to own the word.

WTOP: Is the word “patriot” a dirty word for people on the left?

ERIC LIU: The idea of a patriot is something that completely ought to be non-partisan, but I think you’re right. There are plenty of folks on the left who are proud to be American, who love their country, and are unabashed about saying so; but there are also some who over the last four decades have developed kind of an arm’s length relationship to the idea of patriotism. What progressives have to do is really learn to speak again an affirmative language of patriotism that really grounds the idea back in original values. If you unpack the idea of patriotism to mean country above self, you end up with a set of moral values and principles like stewardship, contribution before consumption, sharing of sacrifice, mutual obligation: ideas that are inherently progressive. Unpacking patriotism doesn’t lead you to “every man for himself,” or “let the market sort things out,” or other principles that are so much part of movement conservatism.

WTOP: But can we point the finger at people who are more conservative republicans, because all they’re doing, at least the political gladiators among them, all they’re doing is trying to win elections, and if that’s one way to do it, if people on the left aren’t going to pick up the patriotism mantle, it’s an easy win for Republicans, isn’t it?

ERIC LIU: Well, progressives have to learn to get over their arm’s-length relationship with patriotism. Until progressives can unabashedly and affirmatively say, “I love this country, and I love this country not only because it’s my right to protest here and my right to dissent, but I love this country because there is no other country on earth dedicated to an idealistic proposition, dedicated to the idea of equal opportunity and a fair shot. And this country represents and embodies something that is good for the world.” Until progressives can say that with conviction, we’re not going to earn the lasting, durable trust of a majority of Americans, and we will lose elections.

WTOP: How does your book propose that, let’s say, all sides come together around the idea of being a patriot without attacking each other or just not coming to an understanding?

ERIC LIU: You know, one of things, Dmitri, that’s been interesting about the reception we’ve had to The True Patriot is that there have been a lot of Republicans who have been reading this text and telling us, “Thank you!” Thank you for putting the idea of patriotism not in the silly symbolic issues, but in language of moral values and principles, like sharing of sacrifice, ideas and values that don’t belong to either party, and indeed really are at the heart of any profound faith tradition that exists, not only in American life, but in the world. And I think if you take these values seriously, you’re able to find a zone where people of both parties can come together and say, “You know what! This is the essence of true patriotism: whether we are looking out for the next generation, whether we have a sense of obligation and responsibility, not just to ourselves but to those who are going to come after us.” And you can, I think, do a good deal of at least clearing away the silliness of our current politics if you start with that language of principle first. It’s on us to change the tone of the debate and to talk about patriotism, not as a club, not as a weapon, not as some tactical dart that you throw at the other side, but as something that we are all in it together, and what does that mean, and how are we going to find some common ground to move forward on.

WTOP: Well it does seem that it is a logical base to start from, that you’ve got to love this place regardless of any injustices that you see, any changes in policy you’d like to see somewhere down the road: it seems like a defeatist way to look at it, if you distance yourself from the word, or even suggest that you’re against America in some way.

ERIC LIU: The reason why we wrote this book, The True Patriot, is that when we looked at all the things that seem to be fake and wrong and irrelevant about national politics today, we began to realize that so much of what’s wrong with American politics derives from this very powerful, dominant frame that we have that says there is a narrow negative conception of freedom that we should all embrace: freedom from taxation, freedom from regulation, freedom from responsibility to others, freedom from obligations to look out for something bigger than yourself. And that narrow negative conception of freedom is deeply rooted in the American story. And we realize that the only thing that is going to help you uproot and trump that narrow selfish conception of freedom is an appeal to patriotism, and a re-grounding of patriotism in what we’re all going to do together, rather than some justification for naked selfishness.

WTOP: That’s Eric Liu, co-author of the new book, The True Patriot. Eric will to be talking about his book tomorrow evening at six at the New America Foundation that’s on Connecticut Avenue in DC.

Audio of the interview attached below.

Steve Clemons on WTOP Radio | Interview on Pakistan and U.S.-Pakistan Relations

Communications — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:59:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Interview on The True Patriot (WTOP Radio, DC)

American Strategy Program Director Steve Clemons discusses Pakistan and U.S.-Pakistan relations with WTOP Radio in Washington, DC. Please find the transcript below, and audio of the interview linked as an attachment at the bottom of the page. Visit WTOP.com for more news.

WTOP: Pakistan is facing a growing threat from Islamic extremists but President Pervez Musharraf does not want U.S. troops to join the fight against Al Qaeda on Pakistani soil. He is now warning that Pakistan will resist any unilateral military action by the U.S .against militants sheltering in its lawless tribal regions that are close to the Afghan border. On the line with us to talk more about Pakistan, Steve Clemons who directs the American strategy program at the New America Foundation. Good to have you with us Steve.

Steve Clemons: Good to be with you, Dimitry and Bob

WTOP: Are you seeing a change in Musharraf lately? I mean is he more defiant? And if you think he is, what could it mean for U.S. national security and our interests?

Steve Clemons: Musharraf is in a credibility trap. On one hand, both Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf were looked at by Pakistani citizens as agents of American Interest. And now given the gap obviously in what we want him to do and the current turmoil, he is trying to look as legitimate as possible in the eyes of Pakistani citizens which means putting himself to some degree at odds with what we want but also not putting him in necessarily as strongly supportive of the Islamists and the Taliban that are governing the tribal areas of Pakistan.

WTOP: Now the US understands this to a certain extent…understand the between the rock and hard place position that he’s in so is he doing this with a wink to the Bush administration? Like”let me talk tough for a while but I’m still on your side”?

Steve Clemons: To some degree there is wink but…but not entirely. I think to some degree there is a wink and nod because we know he is in a tough position facing elections ahead. There’s a lot of convulsion in Pakistan right now and we also don’t have any other options. All of the other options to Musharraf right now are bad ones so to some degree he’s taking that latitude and we’re extending it to him but on the other hand we have a credibility crisis and George Bush does as well in you know, having talked up the importance of real democracy, genuine democracy in places in which we provide significant amounts of aid because the president is being forced into a huge position of realpolitik and not of democracy promotion. I think that we’ve got a tough problem with our own citizens in this country sort of shoring up that position.

WTOP: Well there’s a lot of concern about Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, concern about nuclear weapons and the security of those in Pakistan. We read recent reports about the Bush administration considering expanding authority of the C.I.A and the military really for aggressive covert operations in the tribal regions of Pakistan. Does Musharraf have the power to stop that?

Steve Clemons: I think it would be remarkably destructive if in fact such a penetration of Pakistan happened at this point in these conditions but you’re right. We’re considering it, we’re talking about it, things are very tense. An American Journalist was deported today, Nicholas Schmidle, who had the long piece in the New York Times Magazine, a friend of mine, was deported and expelled, one of the first American journalists to be deported in many many years in Pakistan so things are very very tense in those regions. He was deported after reporting from Quetta---which is essentially about the Taliban out there, operating publicly in full day light and it’s a bit of an embarrassment to the government of Pakistan that this is happening. So things are tense and we don’t know which way they’re going to go but I think that at the end of the day Musharraf and the military, remember Musharraf is not the head of the military now but they guy running the military was his pick and they’re very very closely aligned. I think it’s a very fragile thing for the United States to try and shake up at this point.

WTOP: One more look at the election then on February 18th: the party of Benazir Bhutto, the late Benazir Bhutto and the other main opposition group are predicted to make gains February 18th. Would this mark the beginning of the end for Musharraf politically?

Steve Clemons: Well I think it marks the beginning of more political chaos but it’s done within the boundaries of civil society and that can be acceptable. Steve Coll who wrote the book “ Ghost Wars” on Pakistan and Afghanistan is the president of my organization and Peter Bergen of CNN just returned in the last tow days and they both feel the PPP is going to win enormously in the upcoming elections and don’t see that Musharraf really has a chance to turn that around. So I think what you get is more political gridlock but compared to a political meltdown that might still be okay. I know that sounds odd but nonetheless it’s still, believe it or not, rule of law in a way and not just complete chaos which is the scary alternative.

WTOP: Interesting. Our thanks to Steve Clemons. He directs the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. He’ll be moderating a panel discussion on Pakistan, Monday afternoon at 2:30PM at the foundation on Connecticut Avenue in DC.

Audio of the interview is attached below.

WTOP Radio Interviews Lindsey Luebchow on ABCS

Communications — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:45:00 -0500

New America in the News:
After New America's Higher Ed Watch.Org and ESPN released the Academic Bowl Championship Series (ABCS), the Education Program’s Lindsey Luebchow was interviewed by WTOP radio. Please check out the attachment for the mp3 recording of the interview.

WTOP Radio Interviews David Gray on Balancing Work and Family

Communications — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:08:00 -0400

New America in the News:

DIMITRI SOTIS: WTOP news time 7:17. No matter what else changes, we all find a challenge in properly balancing our work and family lives. The folks at the New America Foundation are having a symposium on that next week and we’ll be telling you more about that in a moment.

On the line now is David Gray, Director of the Workforce and Family Program at the New America Foundation.

SOTIS: David, should parents with small kids minimize the time they spend with their kids in child care?

DAVID GRAY: Well, our study finds something very interesting. About 2/3rds of parents feel they are not spending enough time with their kids. And yet when compared to a generation ago, parents are actually spending about as much time as they were in the past with their children. So we began to wonder why parents had this feeling of not spending enough time with their kids. It turns about the quality of time in many cases is falling.

SOTIS: What are parents doing then?

GRAY: Well, there are still only 24 hours in a day. And parents are working harder than a generation ago and yet are spending the same amount of time with their kids. So what gives? What they are cutting out is time as a couple, time on housework and time to oneself. Parents are spending 20% less time on housework than 1977, for example, and 40% less personal time to oneself than a generation ago.

SOTIS: So if I’m hearing you correctly, David, perhaps parents should be spending less time with their kids and having more time to themselves?

GRAY: Well, what we are finding is parents are spending more time working, the same amount of time with kids but they are now multi-tasking. Technology is making it possible for parents to be working while they are technically spending time with their children, but the quality of that time might be reduced. So when you ask the children about their time, surveys show that children report that 45% of the time their interaction with their mother is “rushed or distracted,” 37% of the time the same is true with their father. And when you ask children for their greatest concerns or wishes, they don’t now say “more time with my parents,” but “more uninterrupted time.”

SOTIS: So it seems like a pretty simply adjustment, and I say this not being a parent myself now, just turn off that cell phone, turn off that blackberry, and sit down on the floor and play with your kids.

GRAY: It’s harder than it seems, it’s the encroachment of work on family life that is the blessing and the curse of technology. Technology makes it easier for us to work remotely but it’s also harder to get away because we need the discipline to turn off our phones. And we find in our study that it actually has some negative effects on health.

SOTIS: As a single parent, when I was bringing up my daughter, I found I might be working on my computer in one room and she might be watching television in the other room and we counted that as time together.

GRAY: Exactly, so there is a change in the quality of time. Think about meal times, there has been a tripling in the percentage of time parents go out to eat each week from a generation ago. People are more distracted and rushed when eating out, particularly in eating fast food. And it’s no coincidence we think that this increase in people eating meals out coincides with the explosion of obesity among children.

SOTIS: David, I want to pick up on something you mentioned a moment ago in terms of health, in fact you touched on one effect in terms of obesity, but beyond obesity, what are some of the harmful effects?

GRAY: We find a large increase in parental stress and in the number of worker compensation claims for stress filed by workers. We find large increases in anxiety, and a doubling of substance abuse cases for workers suffering from work and family stress. There are mental and emotional challenges for such parents, who then bring home this stress to their children. The rise in overweight and obese children pushes down the overall well being of American kids by 30% since 1975. The work and family conflict further exacerbates the problem as parents take less time to take kids to the doctor or to breastfeed, things doctors say are important.

SOTIS: David Gray, Director of the Workforce and Family Program at the New America Foundation. Thank you David for your time. And you can attend a forum on this subject on Wednesday, September 19 at noon at the Foundation on Connecticut Avenue in northwest, D.C.

An MP3 audio recording of this interview is available below. For the full broadcast, please visit the WTOP Radio website.

For more information on the Sept. 19 forum where this study will be presented, please click here.

WTOP Radio Interviews David Gray on Well Being of Children

Communications — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:29:00 -0400

New America in the News:

MICHELLE BASCH, CO-HOST: On the line now tonight with us is David Gray, Director of the Workforce and Family Program at the New America Foundation here in D.C. Now David let’s begin broadly and then get more specific. You’re looking at the well being of kids in the US, and that of kids in Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. In general terms, what have you learned about them?

DAVID GRAY, NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION: Well our comparison shows that we have a very mixed picture. America is doing well in terms of the percentage of parents who are working and children who have lower suicide rates, and we are generally doing a better job of reducing teen birth rates as well as the use of cigarette use and alcohol. But we have real trouble in terms of the poverty rate and the gap between the rich and poor. In terms of overall health, as measured in infant mortality and in particularly looking at overweight children, the epidemic there as shown in all of our studies has been a real problem. And then in terms of testing and education, America’s math and reading scores are not what they should be when compared to other countries.

DIMITRI SOTIS, CO-HOST: You had talked about childhood obesity, or at least touched upon it. Is poverty the root of that? Is that the real problem here? Or do even affluent families have trouble with overweight kids?

GRAY: I think that it goes much broader. There is a disparity that does link somewhat to economic background, but there really is a broader story going on here. Where people of a variety of backgrounds and a variety of areas of the country are showing that the eating habits and exercise habits aren’t what they should be and even behavioral habits are not what they should be. In other words, there is a correlation that we show that kids are being more safe, in other words lower teen pregnancy, reduced violence and lower alcohol consumption because they may be spending more time indoors and less time getting in trouble outdoors. But because they’re spending less time outdoors they tend to play more video games and consume more soda and as a result become overweight.

BASCH: You are also looking at suicide and violent crime rates. What are those indicators of?

GRAY: Emotional well-being is where we look in terms of suicide rates. And in general, the United States in terms of its teenagers is in the middle of the pack. That’s one of the indicators we look at in terms of being better than some, but worse than others, it’s a middle indicator for us. In terms of safety, we generally are doing pretty well. It’s one of those that goes into that story I was saying a minute ago, our children are generally safer, maybe doing less stuff outside, but because they are indoors they are more likely to be overweight.

SOTIS: Now if we were conducting this interview in the UK or New Zealand, would we also have a mixed-picture? Are other countries doing everything better than we are? Or do other countries also have their low points?

GRAY: There is no country that across the board is doing better than the US. There are strengths and weaknesses in all the countries, and they all point to success that different countries are having in terms of how communities and families are looking at their children, and in terms of how policymakers are either succeeding or failing their children. We will be looking at this in some detail next Tuesday at 10:30 at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC, and we have got some experts there who have some strong background and have spent some time in those countries that we have mentioned who have gotten a strong perspective on how those countries are faring and what they might say if they were asked the question that you asked me.

SOTIS: President Bush is trying to extend his No Child Left Behind Act, is there any evidence that that has done good for kids in recent years?

GRAY: You know it is interesting in the education area, the goal of trying to get more students to complete high school has been somewhat successful, it is a little early to tell in terms of the effect of No Child Left Behind, in terms of our statistics. We have done a better job as a country in terms of having students complete their high school education than many of the other countries but the real testing that No Child Left Behind is focused on, which is the outcomes and the success in tests, we have not been as successful, but its early. And so, as an immediate indicator, it would be hard to tell, but there is certainly little evidence that the scores have gone up from our study as a result from recent changes, but I think it’s a little early to see the full effect of No Child Left Behind in our work compared to the other countries.

BASCH: This weekend, in every home in Washington, what could parents do to improve something slightly?

GRAY: I think the biggest thing that they could do is to spend time with their children, reading to them and working on homework, and spending time with them outdoors. I think that for parents, there are some clear things we think for policymakers as well, and policymakers need to get engaged. I think that parents need to push their policymakers to make children a high priority, and they themselves need to spend more time with their children to help them exercise and help them learn.

Please visit the WTOP Radio website.