was asking, you know, are there movements to develop apprenticeship programs or help students really get kind of real world experience while still in high school. and we have seen some very innovative practices. this has been pushed by this administration, president -- excuse me, vice president biden has been very smart in talking about apprenticeship programs and also dual enrollment programs which allow students while they're still in high school to enroll in college. i think that's important for two reasons. one, it raises expectations for students which we know is very important, but it also keeps students motivated. it allows them to see real world application of their studies. >> host: and as we're going through this segment, if you want to see ulrich boser's work, go to the center for american progress web site, that's americanprogress.org, and darlene opfer is with rand education. that web site, rand.org. we'll go to jeff waiting in nebraska on our line for parents. jeff, good morning. ..

jeff, good morning. caller: bobby jindal do not back out because of politics. out because once he seen what common core was all tryingnothing more than -- why don't you ask these people on your panel to give you -- the document that they ask all the questions of their students. just ask them for that document and i guarantee you that she will be able to get it. they are not allowed to. one other thing. if they come out with a new law that says that money follows the i'll guarantee now that our education system will get better in a heartbeat because then the best education -- the best teachers would come out, and the ones that couldn't teach would

be fired. >> host: darlene, can you take the second part of that. >> guest: money does follow the student. going back to where we started with esea, when i said at the beginning would the child benefit? the money is given to school districts for children in poverty. so, the money in that sense follows the child in many states and districts. their funding formulas are the same way. you get certain amounts of moneying depend ago then characteristics of the children. if he means in terms of following it and letting them go to open choice, we have some systems like that and they work -- some work well, some don't. but the idea that money follows the children is generally the way we finance education to begin with. >> host: the question from twitter, are you saying there's a direct correlation between money spent and outcome, no other factors? >> guest: no. there's certainly other factors but money matters. those have been study after study that show that when we

spend money and we target it appropriately, that it does have excellent outcomes, long-term outcomes, outcomes on unemployment, on health, on incarceration rates, money matters. >> host: go ahead. >> guest: i money matters when it's being spent in effective ways and there are practices in education where money matters less. so, in many school systems, dollars are being given to teachers to get masters degree, and the research is weak. when we look at things like class size reduction in early grades 0, or investing in prek, it's very clear that money can make a big difference for student outcomes. >> host: pennsylvania is next on our line for teachers. good morning, matthew. >> caller: good morning. i was a military veteran and i

had -- it toed at atlantic state university. i taught at groves high school in satisfy nana, which is 9 -- savannah and 90% minority and economically disadvantaged. i walked away every three years because i was very discouraged. i came to the conclusion that it's more the -- the problems in many of our schools is a cultural problem more than a problem with policy. and it's not a money problem, either. for example, when you compare appling county, georgia, with jack join come, appling county receives $5,000 less per pupil annually, but perform outperforms jackson county. from a policy standpoint if we can improve the culture of learning in the home and encourage learning from the home in disadvantaged communities, i think we're going about it all

wrong with common core. the highest performing western country in the world, as many people know, is finland. finland has a dee centralized consumer-driven mod'll they use vouchers and local autonomy to drive education. so i just leave that guy out there for you guys, and -- >> host: do you want to pick that up? >> guest: he raised a number of important issues and questions. one is, again, the way we prepare teachers. he went through a troops to teachers program, so a quick training program. i think we need to be paying attention on the we hand it's gotten us great teachers. then how we support them over time, make sure they're prepared to teach in the places they go into. and so i think paying attention to training is particularly important. he also raised a question about the role of parents, and i think

one of the things that has happened is we tend to address problems, particularly problems of poverty in siloed ways. we don't talk about it in relation to things like neighborhood issues, health issues, and if we really want to tackle the problem of children and poverty, we can't treat it in this siloed way without looking at the other conditions. >> host: would you agree? >> guest: i would agree. when we look at school models, sometimes referred to as wrap-around, schools that also offer some health services, dental services, they've been shown to be very effective. they can often cost a little bit more so we have to be prepared to spend more on these types of schools, that can be very successful. >> host: we have 25 minutes left. our phone lines are split up

differently. parents, teachers, and all others. if you want to call in, submitis calling from arizona. >> caller: good morning. one of the problems we have here this morning is you have two people on the panel that are both like minded, both come from the same background, and both believe the same things. i'm going to use a word here and i get in trouble when i do but they're basically socialists. the common core program was written by socialists. it's to take the curriculum away from states because -- they say the states can do anything they want but if they don't do what the common core people want they lose their federal funding is what will happen. >> host: darlene opfer, another question on common core. but if you also want to talk about your perhaps policy difference is with the center for american progress. >> guest: sure. i think generally people think

that rand is probably more conservative,, in our thinking, but part is because over time we have done things look research on vouchers, on charter schools. we -- when the evidence shows those things work, regardless of our own political belief, we put out the evidence and say, this looks like a promising practice. so, it may seem like we're aligned right now, but part of the alignment between us is based on the evidence, and we where the evidence is going in terms of how we need to improve schools. >> host: mr. boser? >> guest: i think one thing i'd add to that is trying to get a look at what we know about effective schools, and what we know about successful schools, whether they're in right to work states or not, charter school states, which another divisive issue. is it successful schools are focused on bringing people

together. they do a great job of having teachers focus on a common vision. we see this in the research. ton where bright has shown that full systems, whether more trust among the teachers, are much more likely to achieve in the long term and we see this in terms of practice. you look at toledo, ohio. they've done a smart job of bringing teachers together in evaluation systems where teachers are giving each other feedback, and that has shown an effect in terms of achievement and motivation for students. when it comes to education we need to do more to bring people together, to bring schools together to bring teachers, parents, and students, focused on a common vision. that's going to be key for success. >> host: illinois next on the line for parents, jerry. >> caller: good morning. i'm just like to comment that there's no amount of money you can put in the schools going to teach kids to open up a book or have the teacher teach what a

child needs to learn, because you just throwing money away, and here in illinois we done seen that too many times because the public school system here is so messed up, it's unbelievable in chicago, schools closing, not because of money. they closed because the schools was just in bad shape. i mean -- >> host: jerry, what's the answer? what is your suggestion? >> caller: just suggest that before they start throwing money into the public school system, like they say, you got to have a choice to parents. you got to be able to let the parents make the choice where the kids want to go to school, and the lady said the money follow this parent. no, if your kid wants to go to any school, you have to give them avoucher. it might be a charter school or something else, but they're sinking money in the public schools and keeping the public schools, you're losing. >> miss opfer. >> guest: well, i mean, i think that the evidence on vouchers is

not very clear. we have better evidence on school choice that actually some schools -- some charter schools are doing much better than their public schools. but, again, goes back to what they're actually doing in the schools. it's not a public versus charter issue or private versus public. it's the processes going on, the kinds of support teacher are providing for students, and they have a common vision they're working to. so i think it's not about which kind of school but what the schools are doing themselves. >> host: a couple teach efforts, one from cleveland, ohio. >> caller: i'm a retired plan, principal. i have a program, we put 15 kids in jobs between the ages of 12 and 17.

they learn a work ethic, how to market their skills, how to write a resume and how to go for a job interview, and it's called -- it's very successful. i've been doing it for the past nine years. and once they complete the summer jobs program, then they're eligible to receive a scholarship to college. so it's very important that they learn a work ethic early as possible, even 12 years old, and the soon -- they work in the area businesses in cleveland, ohio, and they get in-kind services. they don't get paid but learn the work ethics. >> host: talking about the efforts show is involved in cleveland. will is on the line for teachers in columbia, tennessee. will, good morning. >> caller: good morning to you, c-span. so happy to see that -- there's something about education here and it's very important to this great nation of ours.

i was fort nat enough to be in a school that provided for homeless children, more like an orphanage but provided a great background in education, and it was so important, and the best thing they provided in the secondary level was vocational training. i know that they don't put nothing like that in the core. but it's so important for young people to have a job today, they have some kind of variety to pick up some skills before they get out into the real world, and they -- i mean, tps had a vocational training in every area where there is typing or short happened, vocation automobiles, woodworking, so vitally important.

>> host: calling about vocational training. mr. boser? >> guest: i think vocational training can be very important for students. one of the key things we have to understand about education is we want students to be motivated. we want students to be engaged to develop those really rich, deeper learning skills. the one thing the call are did mention, want to push back upon. we have to separate out what schools are doing and what the common core do, which is this policy that has been developed by the states that raise expectations. there's nothing in the common core that prevents teachers from taking a more vocational approach to education. so offering students those types of programs, whether they're vocational education that might be motivating some students, or sports or arts, other things we know are part of a rich, deep curriculum. common core is language arts and mathematics and tries to push up the standards and expectations of students, allowing us to do more to offer a richer curriculum for students. the other thing that is

important about common core that hasn't been brought up that i think is worthwhile to talk about is testing. a lot of parents complain there are too many tests in school, they're not fair, and that is an issue. we know that many school districts are not -- have too many tests and students feel overwhelmed and the common core offers potential to create better exams that are more relevant to students and give a better sense of what they know and are able to do. >> host: our line for all d. >> guest: i want to jump in on the vocational issue, and also talk about the role of businesses. one of the problems with public schools offer vocational is being able to keep up with how employment changes. and every day we have new jobs being add as technology changes, and i think if we're going to train students for the work force now and for the future, we need much bigger and much closer

cooperation between businesses on the one hand and schools on the other, and meeting that need. >> host: now to calvin on the line for all others. calling from new york, delware. good morning. >> caller: good morning. >> host: go ahead. >> caller: calvin davis, jr. i've called c-span in the past -- i have a question and a comment -- [inaudible] rand corporation, the think tank policy organization that works for the government, and so -- [inaudible] the center for american progress. my question is, with all the extensive research that we know your organization has been afforded, we still see that the policies that are being implemented by the government is

failing people like me, black men and women, and the reason why that teacher who said she taught black kids, why she doesn't understand why we may not pick up a book, we're under stress from psychological warfare. the kkk military police literally shoot news broad daylight with no reap percussion -- repercussions so we're dealing with a psychological environment where we're constantly being told our lives are worthless, we mean nothing, we contribute absolutely nothing in society, when true history will show that we contributed just about everything that everybody else has. >> host: mr. boser do you want to take some of the racial achievement gaps the caller brings up? >> guest: i think the caller brings up some interesting issues, and a broader debate around race and education.

the issue of achievement gap where we look at the achievements between white students and students of color. we have seen, as we talk about at the beginning of the show, that that gap has been narrowing slightly over time. some of that could be partly attributable to the vision of johnson. but we have to also acknowledge we have a long way to go before we really narrow that gap, and we need to be focused on policies we know work. focusing on building instructional capacity, the teachers have the tools they need, and focusing on high standards. something else the caller brought up that i would like to address. we have done some research on the situation of teacher diversity and make sure we have a diverse teacher work force. what we have seen is really tremendous gaps in some states, like carr and arizona, where you have largely a white teacher work force, and the students who are largely students of color. so, you also have to make sure we get teachers in the classroom who are prepared to teach, who

are highly effective, but we also know that teachers of color can relate better to students of color, as they understand their background. so making sure we have a diverse and highly effective teaching work force is key to our future. >> host: ms. opfer on teacher diversity. >> guest: i think definitely is an issue. we have seen recently that teach for america has made a big push to increase their diversity in response to some criticism that they were too white. and so i think that has been a long-standing issue, and the question is, how do we incentivize and aattract really high-performing minority teachers into classrooms and environments that probably aren't the best conditions to teach in. we really need to think about how to do that in order to address the problem. >> host: east st. louis, illinois, on the line next for parents. good morning. >> good morning. i grew up in the '50s and

'60s, and i did not learn until i was an adult that you're not supposed to stare at the sun. or that you're not supposed to swallow toothpaste. after you brush your teeth. if you're going to teach, you need to teach children things they're going to need in life. like filling out a checkbook, or writing a check. teaching people about nursing. so -- and these communities where the hospitals are all closed down, they'll have someone they can go to for medical aid or to fine out what they need to do about their health and about nutrition. there were many days i set in school, i didn't have anything to eat. and i was hungry, and i couldn't concentrate on what they were talking about, also the blackboard and i'm sitting there with my gut growling. honest, if -- you can find money for wars and for all this crap, why want you take care of the people here in this country?

>> guest: i think the caller addresses some important points, that we need to think about ways in which we're going to improve education for young people. we have heard this now from a lot of callers. people talking about the role of money and education, and i just really want to stress we need to think about productivity in schools, how we get the most bang for our buck. we did a study that came out a few months ago that evaluated the -- seven thousand school districts and we only see across the united states only two states, two states, texas and florida, that really evaluate the productivity of their school. we need to put more money in our schools but we need to make sure those dollars are well spent and that's going to take looking closely at what programs are effective. i think the research is pretty clear on things like pre-k and clear on supporting teachers that they can have those rich

skills to attract students. and i think ultimately education reform in our nation is common sense. we know it works. the question is, do we have the political will to do it, to focus really on those programs, those policies, that are best for kids? >> host: warrington, pennsylvania is next. carol on the line for all others good morning, carol. >> caller: good morning. about the teachers, in order to bring a more broad-based teaching staff into teaching profession, i lived in philadelphia when i was growing up, and in the -- up until the middle '60s i think it was, nursing students would come from all parts of the state because that was the only thing they could afford. and plus the only place they could probably get it because they were at that time all women. but they did not lower the quality of -- or the expectations of their scholarship, but they did -- it was practically free. now, don't understand why the

government can't subsidize something like that. we need more teachers anyway. all over. but particularly for low-income areas. you could draw people from the community, both men and women, that could come in and at a low cost and teach. the other thing is teacher quality. i think teachers get a bad rap. i think there are very, very good teachers out there, but of course i live in a different area where there is great support for the school system. but i think that you can begin to change the curriculum, and one way you can do that is through the accreditation for colleges. each area has its own accreditation throughout the united states. and they could begin to look at what is needed for better teaching and more preparedness and more student teaching or mentoring. >> host: carol, thank you for the call. darlene opfer, on teacher

quality and attracting teachers financially into the profession. >> guest: there have been a number of efforts to attract teachers into the profession where tuition has been waived or forgiven, particularly in high need subjects like science and math, and they have been successful. although they're hard to scale. if we want to solve this problem long-term we need to sort of think about the profession. she talked about how in nursing they had high standards, and i think when we look at other countries that have very high quality teaching, going into teaching is a very difficult profession to get into. we need to think about that and what it means in terms of professionalizing teaching, raising the standard of teaching, making it an attractive profession for people to join. if you're a minority student right now, who has excellent grades and qualifications, there's a world of opportunity

available to you, and we need to make teaching one of the choices that they think is a good one to make. >> up next on our line for parents-calling in alexandra, minnesota, good morning . >> want to make a quick comment here. when i see these associations on the contract, the focus is all once three things, wages, benefits and retirement plans, and then about four months later, the complaint is that the class sizes are too big. -- >> host: by teachers unions? >> caller: yes, teacher unions. and i think until the focus changes from tenure and retirement plans, i don't think education is going to get better. thank you. >> host: mr. boser. >> guest: i think the debate over teacher tenure is, and the roll of teacher unions has been a lot in the headlines recently. i think that the teachers unions play an incredibly important

role in making sure the nation has a strong middle class, but win we look at successful schools, they are schools that have brought people together and i mention toledo. it's so powerful. that's a school system where management and labor came together, where teachers and administrators came together, to really focus on improving teacher practice, and thinking about what is going to be best for students, and i think that is ultimately the way of the future. that's ultimately what is going to work in schools. in. >> host: our last call to one of the teachers, karen is waiting in texas. good morning, karen. >> caller: good morning. i was calling with a -- a comment regarding what i believe your guest speaker from rand said regarding money following the students, and what actually happens is the money isary marked to to state and the state earmarks the money show to district. i taught for nine years in title

i schools, and who actually happens that the school principals get to decide how the money is spent. a couple of the last two districts i worked with, schools received over $2 million. unfortunately none of that money went into the classrooms. the principal decided that she would take all of that money and redecorate her offices and the secretary's offices and she would buy free bicycles to give away to the students if they showed up on time. another district received $2 million to buy computers and technologies for the classrooms, which were all put in the computer lab that each stunt got to use for 15 minutes out of the week. the entire school week. and then lo and bee hold the computers were stolen by the computer teacher and sold on the black market. so -- >> host: karen, want to give darlene a chance to respond. >> guest: sure. i think this raises a question that just kind of circles back to where we started. esea was about input.

the then sort of switched under "no child left behind" to output and we now need to focus on profits. what are we doing with the inputs we have. how are they being used? are they being used in evidence-based ways to improve student achievement. if we want to get the outcome wes hope to have, i think focusing more on those processes in schools and the way schools are using the money and making sure they're using money for really effective processes is the way we need to focus now. >> host: mr. ulrich, you want to chime in. >> the only other thing is the use of technology school. technology is going to a lot of schools but students aren't using the technology in very effective ways. a study found a toward of students are using -- a third of students using technology in school for drill and practice. i want to reiterate a theme we start off with, money matters

when it's glued effective ways, and we need to focus on raising expectations for students. common core is a great way to start out for that. we also need to empower our teachers and make sure we prepare students for a college and a career. >> host: americanprogress.org, and darlene opfer with rand education, rand.org. thank you so much for joining us today as we discuss the 50th 50th anniversary of the great society. >> here's a look at our primetime programming this evening across the c-span networks. on c-span at 8:00 we take a look at genetically modified foods. show you both sizes of the argument in a recent event in colorado. here on c-span 2 at 8:00 its booktv. we're focusing on fracking in america. we hear from authors who have books on the subject. and on c-span3 at 8:00, it's

american history tv. tonight theme is the civil war, overland campaigns. looking at a series of major battles that took place in virginia in may and june at 1864. >> here's a look at our rhymetime lineup this week on the c-span networks, each night at 8:00 eastern. on c-span tonight, debate on genetically modified food, and then on tuesday, issues spotlight on general motors safety re-call. wednesday night, high lights from the new york ideas forum, including cancer biologist. thursday we look at the issue of climate change, and friday night we'll visit important sights in the history of the civil rights movement. tonight on c-span2, it's booktv in primetime, beginning at:30:00 p.m. with a discussion about fracking. tuesday night at 8:00, "after words," on the history of money. on wednesday, the authors of the second machine age talk about

how new technology will fundamentally change everyday life. thursday night, discussion about the future of politics with former maryland governor, and on friday, "in depth" with scholar. an entire week on the civil war. tonight a look at the overland campaign in virginia, and then the battle of fort stephens. wednesday night, the 150th 150th anniversary of the union defeat at the battle of the crater, and thursday, the chapter of atlanta and general sherman's march to the sea, and on friday, look at hollywood's portrayal of slavery. find our schedule at c-span.org and let us know what you think about the programs you're watching. call it as 202-626-3400 or e-mail us at comments@c-span2.org.

>> c-span 2 providing live coverage of the u.s. senate floor proceedings and key public policy events, and every weekend, booktv, now for 15 years, the only television network devote to nonfiction books and authors, c-span2, created by the cable tv industry and brought to as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. >> we'll wrap up today's edition of "washington journal by "with a discussion of mental health issues in the wake of robin williams' suicide. this portion is just shy of have al-an hour. >> a ledline from last week's "washington post," the death of robin williams prompts grassroots conversation about mental health, and we want to continue that conversation this morning in our last 30 minutes on the "washington journal. "toy to kick off the

conversation, we're joined by congressman tim murphy, psychologist and cochairman on the congressional enemy health care caucus good morning. good morning. >> host: this grassroots conversation that was referred to in the "washington post" headline, what do you want to see come from this conversation in the wake of the death of robin williams? >> guest: well, we have been putting off action on dealing with the mental illness for decades in this country. and so i want to make sure that we are coming up with real reforms and putting them into place. in the past, the federal government has done is simply pass programs to throw more money at federal programs without looking at the root causes of -- in fact the federal government has worsened the situation. when we closed down state hospitals in the '60s and '70s and '7s so and had a promise of helping people with youth patient care that never came

true. the federal government has put barriers up such as if your are on medicaid you can't see two doctors on the same day. meaning if a parent brings a teenager to a physician and the physician says your child is showing some signs of psychosis, severe depression, but can't see another doctor that day. medicaid has a rule that says they won't reimburse hospitals that have more than 16 beds in it. but the problem is, when someone is involved in a severe mental health crisis, hallucinating, depressed or something along those lines, and they need hospitalization to help them get stablized again, they not enough beds in america. so where do we put these anymore while the number of hospital beds has decreased from 550,000 in the 1950s when the population hoff the country was 150 million, and enough it's less than 40,000 hospital beds for psychiatric hospital and the

population if 316 million. we have seen an increase in incarceration in homelessness, in substance abuse, in suicide in unemployment, among the mentally ill. none of those are good signs, and it is time we change the way we approach this. >> host: you have been pushing legislation to increase access to mental health care programs. where does that stand? >> guest: well, 37.17, helping families in mentality health crisis act, we have near lay 100 cosponsors. the bipartisan bill in energy and committee, we have been working with leadership so see which parts of the bill we can move forward now. but frankly there's a lot of parts the bill we still need to move with solid support. this includes such things as reauthorizing suicide intervention work, making sure that we take -- i mentioned the two doctor visits, increasing the number of hospital bed and also programs such as the

response after initial schizophrenic episode to make sure we're funding early treatment, because we know when a person is in treatment, they're much less likely to be involved in a violent act or suicidal act, and quite frankly, the mentally ill are more prone to be victims of violence in all these cases we want to make sure we're dealing with this. there's also some interesting points here, too, that states still maintain a standard establish ned the 17th century that they'll only intervene in sort of compel someone to get into treatment with a judge if they are in imminent danger of suicide or homocide. that means in a bad case like robin williams or shootings, only if they're catching that person about to commit suicide, about to be violent towards others, or saying they're going to do that, will the state

subpoena. what we have heard from so many parents across america, stories, how they've lost touch with their kids, lost control, they -- kids who are maybe on the streets, teenagers, adults, et cetera, but with some of our hipaa laws they've completely blocked the ability for families to help. think of it this way. someone with alzheimer's disease or maybe a soldier with brain damage. someone with alzheimer's wander out of their night, into the cold next darkness. their picture would blow on the evening news, they would alert everyone, search parties would look for them. if someone had severe mental illnessly depression or psychosis and they're wondering around, hallucinating delusional, not able to care for themselves, we have rules that say no one can know about it or talk about. it's time we recognize that mental illness is a brain disease, as well as physical, in

case like robin williams, certainly speculation of what role this he had with parkinson's defense, someone with chronic illness is more subject to depression. let's keep in mind that with depression, like mr. williams 0 others, this is not just the blues. this is not just someone being sad. this is a place where it is so pervasive, there they are now an act of desperation, they're trained to end the sadness. they're no longer able to think straight, and using the kind of measure wes may use with each other, when we just down in the dumps, having a bad time lately, it's different for someone with this kind of level of breakdown in their able to think for themselves and that's where our bill, helping families in mental health crisis act, will step in to say we want to help people, just don't want city them suicidal. one of thousands sued suicides in the country.

we don't want to see them caught up with the police or in jail or homeless. >> host: congressman well, ask our viewers for the thoughts on the state of the mental health system and we can put up the phone numbers so viewers, call in. but before we let you go, what to you say to people who look at a person like robin williams with all of the fame and wealth and they say he couldn't beat his depression, his mental health issues, how can i make it? what would you say to those people? >> guest: that's a perfect question. someone like robin williams had all the money in the world in order to get the right kind of treatment. but what happens when you are severely mentally ill, you can no longer think straight, and maybe some of your viewers or listeners would call in and say we should never force someone into treatment. i say for the most part absolutely true. but with a brain disease with where a person can no longer think and understand clearly, they no longer know who they are, where they are, what they

are. they don't have that same kind of -- it's a time when family members and others want to intervene and say, let's get you help, and that's what difference is. where there is no help there is no hope. and we want to make sure we're reaching out, that those who are in need, those who have these kind of problems, understand they can get help. help does make a difference with psychiatrists, psychologies, people trained to do this. we can make a difference. i don't want people giving up hope. i want them reaching out for help and if they can't, i hope their families are reaching out. >> host: congressman do you worry at all this topic will recede back into the shadows the farther we get from the death of robin williams? >> guest: well, when you look at what is happened over the last year or so since i've been doing my investigation in the treatment of million illness america, the 1/2yard shooty, sandy hook shooting, shootings at the army base, these things will continue on. the tragic suicides, the

arrives, the homocides, the victimization of the mentally ill that are beaten and robbed and assaulted more than the rest of the population. every one of these i consider to be a signal. so i hope all of this keeps a lying bright in our hearts, to understand we can't keep turning away. we can't become numb to this. we can't just turn our face away because mental illness in america, the problems with the mentally ill are worsening, and if we don't do something, shame on us. that blame rests in our hands and we have to step up and do something. >> host: congressman tim murphy, republican of pennsylvania, cochairman or their mental health care caucus. appreciate your time this morning. >> guest: thank you very much. >> host: we want to get our viewers in p comments on the state of the federal healthcare system.

>> host: michael from alabama on our line for democrats. good morning. >> caller: good morning. first of all, wish you al would allow those who call not cut them off so quickly. you had a wonderful author on islam and christian relations and their history. i'm the one who phoned in that sunday, q & a, and talked about allah -- protestants down here getting the -- telling islamics they worship a false god -- >> host: michael, stay on this topic. we have people waiting.

>> caller: well, anyway, was cut off when the host asked me what political affiliation i was. okay. i have three concerns i'll try to list them very fast. law-abiding -- and let me tell you about these before i mention these concerns. i have oc -- i'm coming from the perspective of somebody recovering from obsessive compulsive disorder, borne with appears his si and a adult add and also a social work art therapy christian volunteer for different united way type people groups. here are my concerns. a., law-abiding citizens who own guns, but they have mental illness in their families, in their homes, and the nra being blase and silent about this and the mental health community saying that this will violate

confidentiality of their records. there's got be some way around the that problem. >> host: quickly this eother two. >> caller: teacher training -- this is a personal thing of mine -- about having rare autism, aspergers syndrome, which i still have, but being in rural schools that were not trained where the teachers were not trained in the 1970s. additional teacher training like with their last segment, for dealing with the mentally ill students and autistic students as well as the deaf and blind, and, third, how to prevent police departments from just locking up people who even first-time marijuana users as well as those who have never -- who are not committing crimes. my gosh, some of these are outstanding military veterans who happen to have post traumatic shellshock or whatever it's called, and these republicans say they love our veterans but it seems to me they

love giant defense spending on expensive weapons, cold war style, morn they do actual returning veterans and their families. >> host: that's mikeol on our line for democrats. on the line for republicans, suzanne in new york. good morning. >> caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. it's sad what happened to robin williams. i do know where his mindset was. it's like a very dark cloud that hangs over you, and it's actually the serotonin, melatonin. there's not enough in your system, and you go into this black death and you can't get out of it. it's like you have to wait for it to pass. and this really nothing that you can do about it. you can take medication, you can go see a healthcare provider, but it's just something that your body just goes into this depth and you crawl in a corner and hide until it passes.

i know that because i had ptsd and i wasn't in the service, however, i think what has changed in the healthcare-related issue here of mental health is, what i'm finding is the changes of the escript files where private doctors who are psychologists or psychiatrists have to use a computer, and a lot of them use paper and pens still. and it's quite costly to get that computer and software. so, a lot of them have closed their doors. also, across the state, a lot of the states are shutting down the state psychiatric centers because of budget cuts. and it is very difficult to find a psychologist or psychiatrist, so now we're looking at our own doctor to prescribe us medication for depression.

>> host: we're talking about the conversation of mental-1/2 in the united states prompt by the death of, the suicide of actor robin williams. the "washington post" have something statistics on suicide deaths in the united states. noting that robin williams was in a group facing higher risk of suicide, old are white men with depression, white males, far leading the number of suicide in the country, these stats from 2011, followed by white fee fail mails-followed by blackmails and then asian pacific islanders 'then the story also nowedding suicide death by age group as well, noting those in the 45-54-year-old range are in the highest risk groups for suicide deaths in the united states. that story from the "washington post" from august 12th if you want to read that. let's go to sue wait income austin, texas, on our line for democrats. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i would like to say before i get

to my point, y'all tell people all the time to turn their sound down. you should also tell them not to watch, because even though their sound is turned down, they're seeing the digital cues of people conversing, and it's still throwing them off. even when they're sound is down, they're going -- but you're not talking right, you know what i mean? >> i appreciate the suggestion. what your thoughts on the state of the u.s. mental health system. >> caller: i just happen to be 63 years old and i happen to be fighting a severe case of depression at the moment. and i discovered that just finding a psychiatrist is almost impossible in the state of texas, and it's got nothing to do with obamacare, although shame sure people will try to say it has. it has to do with the fact they want to charge rates higher than

any of the insurances want to pay so they just don't take insurance, period. and trying to find a doctor is almost impossible. but with robin williams being 63, and i, too, am 63, the question you asked just before you quit speaking with the specialist, that's what -- if they can't fix robin williams, how can they -- i expect them to fix me? because he had to have had so many things available to him. but what i'm seeing is that part of the baby-boomers, my era's problems, are that we're seeing our bodies break down, and it's unacceptable. still so much we want to do. and it's just not going to happy

because we're breaking down. and i think the fact he had parkinson's is a major factor in what would have driven robin to what he did. but it's so much deeper than people just say, you're letting someone have control over you. or you're not looking at things from the bright side. you should always try to see things brightly. it's just an impossible when you're in the depths of depression, and my daughter, when she heard about robin williams, she said that she was disappoint by one of her heroes because this man had been response for giving her so much joy, and that she felt he was not only letting down his family, but the world, and i thought, what kind of responsibility would that weigh

on you? that the idea that you have to stay alive not just for your family but to keep the world happy? >> host: sue in austin, texas, appreciate the call. ledy writes in on our twitter page think sad reality of depression is most people with it feel ashamed to ask for help. as long as stigma is here more people will die. facts about u.s. mental health. this from the national association of mental health. one in four adults, 62 million, experience a mental illness in given year. 20% of youths aim 13 to 18 have severe mental disorders in a million. patrol 6.7% of american adults live with major depression and approximately 60% of adults and almost 50% of youth with a enemy health illness receive no mental health service in the previous

year. let's go to hunter now calling in from templeton, california -- i'm surery -- andrew in ontario, canada. good morning. andrew, are you with us from ontario, canada? will will go to hunter in templeton, california. good morning. >> caller: hello? >> host: hi, go ahead. >> caller: hi. good morning, america! and i'm from not from templeton. >> host: sorry. >> caller: i want to give my heart, heartfelt condolences to the williams family. i am a former standup, and we're manic depresssives. i started comedy bus my son was kidnapped and you don't know dish got no help from the fbi, i got no help from the police department, i had to find my son.

on top of that i had to make a living to hold my house up. i had to take care of family. i found my son six weeks after he was kidnapped in mexico. the perpetrators were not punished because they were millionaires, a family kidnapping, trying get my son into russia because the family is full-blooded russian. i stopped it to this day they're living high on the hog and my son is in a bad state of mind up in northern california, and i have to deal with this daily. and robin did have the weight of the world on his shoulders, but i do believe that if he just got out of rehab, and anybody getting out of any form of rehab, you need to have someone, a constant come pannor, so we need to develop a constant companion organization to where these people who are get ought of any form of rehab, have a constant companion with them for at least 90 days because 90 days

after any form of rehab your mind can athletic left and you'll do something drastic. >> host: that's hunter in tempington, california. we raul try get to as many calls as we can. as we talk about the state of the u.s. federal mental healthcare facilities and programs. paula, good morning. >> caller: hello? >> host: go ahead. you're on "washington journal." >> caller: himself thank you. i want to talk about a population that really hasn't been mentioned, not in the segment before this, and just barely touched upon in this segment. and that is elementary age children. i am a school social worker. i've been a school social worker for almost 20 years. and prior to that altogether i've been a social worker for 24 years.

and my experiences in the the public school system is i went from a time where psychiatrists believed that children could not suffer from major depresssive disorder, to finally accepting that, then finally accepting they can suffer from other mood disorders such as bipolar disorder, and now we have moved on to more children this past year than in all 20 years that i have worked, where we have had suicidal children, and they range in ages from second grade, which is about seven, to fifth grade, which is about ten or 11. and it's very frightening, the lengths they will go to while in

school to hurt themselves. i had this one student who would take those little pencil sharpeners, those little plastic ones, that they have in their pencil boxes, and take it apart because there's a little razor blade in there that does the sharpening. >> host: all right, paula. we're going to lorena -- lower low rain in wisconsin. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i want to know if they check out what kind of medication that robin williams was taking? because i'm taking a medication for seizures that -- and the slip that comes along with the mid indication says if you -- medication that says if you have thoughts of suicide, then see your doctor. but then when they have stuff advertised on television, they always say, side effects of --

for -- that can lead to suicide. so, if they check that out besides any illegal drugs, check out what he was taking for his depression. >> host: okay. don't have any information for you on what robin williams may or may not have been taking. here's a story from the ""wall street journal." robin williams' different suffering from the early stages of parkinson's disease, along with severe depression, at the time of this suicide. drawing public attention to the correlation between the diseases. the story notes that more than half of those who suffer from parkinson's also experience clinical depression, according to the national parkinson's foundation. 50,000 and 60,000 people are diagnosed each year with parkinson's in the united states. it typically affects people older than 50. let's go to bernadette, waiting

in new mexico on our line for democrats. good morning. we're talking about the state of the u.s. mental health system. >> caller: yes good, morning, and thank you. i have a couple of really major questions that i would like to ask, and it is -- i'm finding different segments of the population are being -- i'm going to use the term targeted -- for specific illnesses. do we have someone out there -- i hate to say the government -- playing god with people's lives? number two, regarding mental -- the mental health workers or providers, how qualified are they? what is their mental capacity? because many times people have been misdiagnosed, and been given medication that actually drives them to mental illness. so, i have questions regarding that. >> host: let's go to vicki in florida in our last couple of minutes here. vickie is on the line for

democrats. >> caller: hi, and thank you for c-span. this is the best program that allows regular people to have sense of belonging across the nation and beyond. i think the mental illness is what it boils down to too. we all want a sense of belonging, and we want to a healthy mind. i know this economy, personally, has taken a toll on me where i thought i could have blown off my head last year. and it was just because of the economy. i mean, we as americans should feel the sense of belonging wind our own country, and we're so scattered with the things that are happening, and so i hope that this -- the representatives that talk about this in commitees, really take this economy into consideration because just regular people out there that are touched by this massive depression that is happening and causing suicide, calling this dilemma in mental

health rise. in my age group, between 50 and 70, and anytime we need to make that comment because this temporary crazy that we have is really affecting us, and i think the economy and our financial state is really -- needs to be considered. ...

>> we'll hear from author seamus mcgraw, tom wilbur, greg zuckerman and russell gold, all of whom have books on the subject. on c-span3 at 8, it's american history tv. tonight's theme, the civil war, looking at a series of battles in virginia in may and june of 1864. and on c-span at 8, we'll take a look at the debate over genetically-modified foods. here's a preview. >> so we're going to talk about something that's in our food, and you may or may not know about it, genetically-engineered food. it's in nine food crops, soy, corn, cotton, alfalfa, zucchini, yellow squash and papaya, and you can ask me to say that slower during q&a. now, the reason they're on our plates is because of a sentence in the fda policy from 1992, and that sentence is that the agency's not aware of any

information showing that gmos are significantly different, therefore, no safety testing is necessary. no labeling is necessary. so companies like monsanto, the biggest gmo producer -- who had previously told us that pcbs, agent orange and ddt were safe -- they can determine on their own, and maybe get it right this time, that their gmo seeds and the crops that they produce are safe. now, it turns out that that basic sentence which is, in fact, the basis for the u.s. policy overseas, it's for the state department, etc., etc., it was a lie. it was complete fiction. we didn't know about it in 1992, but we found out about it in 1999. because 44,000 secret internal memos from the fda were forced into the public domain from a lawsuit. not only were they aware that gmos were significantly

different, it was the overwhelming consensus among their own scientists that they were different and of high risk. >> a house subcommittee recently looked into the medicare appeals process, and according to officials, there's a current backlog of about 460,000 medicare appeal claims that are waiting to be heard by administrative law judges. by statute appeals should be completed within 90 days, but due to the current backlog, some claims are taking up to 28 months to process. this is just under 90 minutes. >> good afternoon. we apologize for a little bit of delay. we'll have additional delays this the moments ahead. ms. speier and i both were on the floor doing some debates. the votes, we understand, will be called for that in the next 15-20 minutes, so this is an opportunity for us to be able to go through our ong