In the State of the Union address, President Barack Obama challenged Congress to pursue policies that recognize that a strong middle class is the key driver of economic growth. He stressed that the United States will not have an economy that works until it has one that works for all Americans.

Join us for a conversation with Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee, as he reflects on what he's learned from the series of HELP Committee hearings and events on the decline of the middle class, and outlines a policy agenda that puts the middle class first. In the coming months, Senator Harkin plans to introduce sweeping legislation that will rebuild America's middle class through investments in areas like education and workforce training, our nation's infrastructure, and manufacturing jobs, as well as securing pensions and ensuring college is affordable.

Senator Harkin's remarks will be followed by a panel of distinguished economists and policy analysts exploring how the middle class is a key engine of economic growth.

This is the second in a year-long series of events and publications on the importance of the middle class to our economy.

Open CourseWare and other open educational resources are beginning to draw the attention of higher education policymakers and other leaders. Why? These web-based educational tools hold the promise of both reducing the cost of high education and helping learners to complete their degrees by providing access to top quality course materials and instruction.

By radically reducing the costs of course content, delivery of instruction, textbooks and related materials these open resources can make college more affordable. Further, by enabling “learning from-anywhere” for students who have work and family obligations, the same technologies provide expanded access to higher education for millions of non-traditional learners.

But how do they work and are they for every kind of student? Does current policy encourage the use of these tools?

Please join the Center for American Progress and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning to explore these and other questions about Open Source Education Resources and how they can impact college affordability and access.

President Obama appointed Aneesh Chopra as the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer in May, 2009, to spur innovation and collaborative processes to solve problems and grow the jobs and industries of the future. Along with a growing team of leaders across the Federal Government, Chopra has worked to increase the potential of open innovation in areas like health IT, learning technologies, and smart grid. He has also championed the role of the White House as an “impatient convener” of public- and private-sector parties to tackle grand challenges.

As Chopra wraps up his tenure this month as the first U.S. CTO, please join him and a panel of innovation experts for a discussion of progress made and lessons learned—and for the unveiling of a new “Open Innovator’s Toolkit” that will facilitate wider use of these strategies across government, including at the state and local level.

Please join Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley for a conversation about the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and the success of the Massachusetts health care law it is modeled on.

Attorney General Coakley worked to implement the successful Massachusetts health care reform law that former Gov. Mitt Romney signed in 2006, which allowed the state to achieve near-universal health coverage, even as coverage declined throughout the rest of the country. Drawing on her experience in Massachusetts, Coakley will explain how the Massachusetts framework that provides full access to insurance, ensures that individuals will take responsibility for their health care, and makes health care affordable to all individuals played an essential role in successfully providing unparalleled access to health care coverage for Massachusetts residents.

Attorney General Coakley and Tanden will discuss why the Affordable Care Act’s adoption of the Massachusetts framework fits comfortably within the United States’ constitutional authority.

Turkey operates in a unique space between Europe and the Middle East and has dramatically expanded its influence in recent years throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. Understanding Turkey’s changing role in the region is critical to U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the wake of the Arab Spring. “The Perceptions of Turkey in the Middle East 2011” is a regional public opinion survey conducted in late 2011 in 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Including Egypt, Iran, Libya, Syria and Tunisia, the survey is the third annual poll of regional public opinion conducted by TESEV. The study sheds light on general trends in the region, perception of the Arab Spring and the region’s future, as well as the role of Turkey, including regional opinion of the protests of the last year in all countries, including Syria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and Iran; the role of international actors in the events of 2011; perspectives on security; and perceptions of the Turkish model and what makes Turkey valuable in the eyes of the region.

Please join the Center for American Progress and the TESEV Institute as we host a presentation and discussion of “The Perceptions of Turkey in the Middle East 2011”, a new study by the TESEV Institute on perceptions of Turkey by its Middle East neighbors on the Arab Spring, Iran, and Turkey.

"Love Free or Die" is about a man whose two defining passions are in direct conflict: his love for God and for his partner Mark. Gene Robinson is the first openly gay person to become a bishop in the historic traditions of Christendom. His consecration in 2003, to which he wore a bullet-proof vest, caused an international stir, and he has lived with death threats every day since. The film follows Robinson from small town churches in the New Hampshire North Country to Washington’s Lincoln Memorial to London’s Lambeth Palace, as he calls for all to stand for equality—inspiring bishops, priests, and ordinary folk to come out from the shadows and change history.

The Center for American Progress, in partnership with AFI SilverDocs, GLAAD, Groundswell, Integrity USA, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the Institute for Welcoming Resources, and St. Thomas Parish, presents a special screening of "Love Free or Die," followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session featuring Bishop Gene Robinson, director Macky Alston, and ThinkProgress culture blogger Alyssa Rosenberg.

The Last Great Senate draws from historical documents, first-hand recollections, and interviews with dozens of former senators, staffers, and Carter administration officials. What emerges is a portrait of a Senate that, for a short period of time, came as close to fulfilling the vision of the Founding Fathers as it ever has in our history.

Throughout the book, author Ira Shapiro brings to life the main characters on the Senate’s stage—Robert Byrd, Howard Baker, Ted Kennedy, Jacob Javits, Henry Jackson, Ted Stevens, Ed Muskie, Richard Lugar, George McGovern, Bob Dole, and Russell Long. These men—whatever their human foibles—were all passionate and serious about their work and service to the country. Shapiro captures their conversations, debates, beliefs, and machinations, offering a fascinating and illuminating look into how work is really done on Capitol Hill.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion on this new book.

Copies of The Last Great Senate will be available for purchase at the event.

On June 9, 2011, Alabama enacted H.B. 56—the most extreme state-level anti-immigrant bill passed to date. The act, designed to make every aspect of life unbearably difficult for undocumented immigrants living in Alabama, deploys fear as a weapon to marginalize and oppress an unwanted population just as segregationist policies did 50 years ago. It has been nine months since the law’s passage and its path of destruction is still palpable from children too afraid to come to school to potential economic losses of up to $10.8 billion. Adding to the cacophony of voices opposed to H.B. 56 that includes leaders from the civil rights, faith, education and business communities is a new and notable voice—from Hollywood.

Please join the Center for American Progress as we, along with America’s Voice Education Fund and Define American, release a series of videos by Chris Weitz, acclaimed director of the film "A Better Life" and a host of other notable films. Weitz turns the camera on and asks, “Is This Alabama?”

We will also be releasing the report “Alabama’s Immigration Disaster: The Harshest Law in the Land Harms the State’s Economy and Society,” by journalist Tom Baxter, which goes even more in depth into how H.B. 56 is destroying the fabric of Alabama’s society and economy.

Joining Chris to discuss the videos and the report will be Pulitzer Prize-winning undocumented journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who has spent a considerable amount of time in Alabama, amplifying the stories of those who have lost so much because of H.B. 56, and Tom Baxter, author of "Alabama's Immigration Disaster: The Harshest Law in the Land Harms the State's Economy and Society."

Anti-tax hardliners and bi-partisan efforts to curb the budget deficit are making it very difficult to increase federal investments in infrastructure. The recently passed Federal Aviation Bill failed to invest at needed levels. Both the House and Senate are now moving surface transportation legislation. The House Bill puts transit and rail funding at risk and the Senate Bill maintains the current level of federal investment. Neither bill is sufficient to bring our surface transportation systems up to world class standards.

Is there a way forward? Join a discussion with former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who dramatically increased state investment in road, bridge and water repairs while curing a gapping state budget deficit; and former reporter, financier and White House economic expert Steve Rattner, who led the nation's successful overhaul of the auto industry while serving in the White House; and John Podesta as they discuss the short term options for increasing the pace of infrastructure repair that could gain bi-partisan support, while also sharing their observations about the long term reforms needed to return America's infrastructure to world class standards.

Using a community schools strategy of combining student support services—such as family engagement programs and health services—with strong academics seems like an intuitive approach to raising student achievement in high-poverty schools. Little is known, however, about the optimal combination of support services needed to raise achievement or about the students who benefit most from a community schools strategy.

Join us for a conversation to discuss new research on leveraging specific student support services to improve achievement. We will launch the conversation with a paper by researchers at Stanford University’s John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities that analyzes how students and families utilize support services at community schools in one California school district and how those services impact student outcomes. We will continue the discussion with a panel of distinguished community school experts.

Race-baiting has often been the source of charged debates in newspapers, blogs, and on television sets across the nation. Programs aiding those in poverty are often at the center of the storm.

Unfortunately, in the midst of the name calling and punditry, we as a nation often forget to ask some important questions. How do race-baiting, stereotyping, and other forms of spreading misinformation impact support for programs that help people climb out of poverty, the development of poverty policies, and general progress towards the goal of reducing inequality and poverty? And what can we all collectively do to call our elected officials to tone down the rhetoric and focus on the issues?

This panel will discuss these questions, the efforts to redirect the public debate, and the future influence of other factors such as the rapid racial diversification of a nation that will not have an ethnic majority by 2050.

Europe has long been the United States' closest ally, and the United States and Europe traditionally played a decisive role in solving world problems. Yet as Europe struggles to reassure others about the fate of its currency and the future of the European project, some fear the continent's influence on the international scene may diminish, or worse still, that Europe could become the problem.

In the 21st century, however, the trans-Atlantic economic and security partnership will remain as crucial as ever. As Denmark holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union and with a view to the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt will share her vision of how a renewed European project and a revitalized trans-Atlantic partnership can help shape a new era of shared prosperity and common security.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt was elected Prime Minister of Denmark in September 2011.