By the People: Citizens Voices

Fifteen By the People citizen deliberations on two critically important issues before the nation-healthcare and education-were the centerpiece of a PBS national program on November 10, 2005. The television broadcast covered more than 1,000 Americans at forums hosted across the country during Deliberation Week-- October 22-29, 2005-- by local PBS stations and their civic partners. It was produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and anchored by Ray Suarez, senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Uninsured Americans
On any given day, 45 million Americans are without health insurance. One of those citizens is recent college graduate Molly Blancett of Seattle. Blancett's main employer doesn't give her benefits, so she works an extra 20 hours per week at Starbucks to get health insurance. "As unrealistic as it sounds," says Blancett, "it makes me sad that your health really depends on how much money you have in this country."

Government Responsibility for Healthcare
Many of the participants considered whether the government, individuals, or businesses should be most responsible for fixing problems in our healthcare system. At the Baton Rouge dialogue, financial advisor Ann Singleton commented, "I think the worst thing in the world would be to have a government controlled system. I don't think the government is capable of doing anything efficiently….We can use Katrina and the aftermath here as a prime example."
Melvin Riley, an attorney, had another view: "Government is really not the boogieman in this thing. It's how it's implemented."

Citizens Question Healthcare Experts
Helping participants better understand the issues were panels of experts from each local community. In Charlottesville, retired state employee Vernon Smith wasn't satisfied with the response he got from Ruth Hanft, a health policy expert. "That really, really didn't answer my question. My question is why do we, in our guilt, think that we have to provide everybody with free healthcare?"
Hanft answered: "It's not free healthcare. "You pay for the insurance premiums. You pay a payroll tax on Medicare."

"Why should we have some kind of socialized medicine to help those that don't help themselves?" Smith responded.

Wellness and Preventative Healthcare
Participants in San Diego, Seattle, and Detroit talked about how wellness and preventative care factor into the healthcare debate. "Healthcare should be a right, and healthy or wellness-oriented lifestyles should be everyone's personal responsibility," said Kathy Fenske of Detroit.

"Starting at home is essential," said Anthony Perry of Henry Ford Community College, "but we also need leadership to tell us and to advocate that, too."
Listen to the entire healthcare section of the program in RealAudio.

Education: Funding and Taxes
Education issues including standards, testing, funding and parental involvement were hot topics of discussion at a number of By the People events. When it came to funding public schools, many participants were willing to consider increased taxes.

"I'm probably one of the few people who's willing to pay more money to keep the education standards at the highest level possible, even though I hate my tax statement," said Dwight Walton of Kearney, Nebraska. Walton felt we needed to increase funding to "keep our country top-notch in global positioning."

Kari Mulroney, an accountant in Kearney, was skeptical: "I want to see increased standards for the increase…if (my tax bill) is gonna go up, I want to see the results."
Listen to the education section of the program in RealAudio.

Citizens Reflect on the By the People Experience
Most Deliberation Week participants felt more engaged after joining in the dialogues. Jane Teply, a teacher from Kearney, remarked: "We learned that we all do have a role to play and that we can have something to say about issues like this and participate."

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-CT, observed the conversations in New Haven and remarked, "Legislation should not be top down. We should engage the public."

And Julie Linderman of Seattle said, "Hopefully, this can continue and perhaps move into something more interactive, where we as community members can be making more of a difference in the decision-making process."

Listen to participants discuss their experience in Real Audio.

A Closing Conversation About National Priorities
Ray Suarez led a closing roundtable discussion on the nation's values and priorities in healthcare and education. The discussion featured Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, who is widely known for his work separating craniopagus twins around the world; Timothy Knowles, Executive Director of the Center for Urban School Improvement at the University of Chicago; Ruth Faden, co-author of the forthcoming book: "Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Policy"; and Jennifer Marshall, director of domestic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation.
Listen to this section in Real Audio.

By the People's PBS Deliberation Week 2005 partners included:

Albuquerque, NM: KNME

Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana Public Broadcasting

Bowling Green, OH: WBGU

Charlottesville, VA: WHTJ

Cleveland, OH: WVIZ/PBS Ideastream

Detroit, MI: WTVS-Detroit Public TV

Kansas City, MO: KCPT

Kearney, NE: NET Television

Miami, FL: WPBT (Miami had to withdraw from the national broadcast because of Hurricane Wilma. Their rescheduled event took place in January 2006, and was featured on a local WPBT broadcast.)

Muncie, IN: WIPB

New Haven, CT: Connecticut PTV

Pittsburgh, PA: WQED Multimedia

Rochester, NY: WXXI

St. Louis, MO: KETC Channel 9

San Diego, CA: KPBS

Seattle, WA: KCTS Television