order of education supreme court decision. -- brown versus department of education supreme court decision . retired supreme court sidese john paul stevens with the legalization of marijuana. manufacturing of the u.s. is at record levels. those are some of the stories we will be talking about this morning on the "washington journal." south carolina college production highlights political battle between lawmakers and public universities. dianeg us on the phone is itch. what happened at the

college of charleston recently? college each year selects a book that it gives to all freshmen at this -- as a shared reading assignment. summer. that this past groupwas a conservative that was concerned about the a gay theme.it had they raised some concerns. it came off well. there were no protests or anything. february, the state budget writing committee cut the $62,000s budget by

which was the cost of the college reading program. another college upstate cut that schools budget as well for a reading assignment. there was a lot of outrage over this. they looked at what else they were going to do with this book, because they usually do more group reading assignments and use the books throughout the year messaging tool. they thought about this play. there was an off-broadway play going on. they couldn't do the play this -- themselves. some people at the college had connections with the crew for the theater company in new york.

volunteered to come to play, "funand do the home," which was a pulitzer finalist, actually. they performed a concert version of that play at a theater in charleston. bit of protest, but it was a gift to the college. >> can you tell the story about the resolution on academic ?reedom what about the reaction from the state legislature, how much influence to they have over the college of charleston? in south carolina we don't have a board of regents or a governing board.

they have a lot of influence in the state. recently, there was a panel that was screening the candidates that were up for reelection. expressede candidates concern to the panel about the book. up the bookd held selection for next year, even though it was controversial. there's a lot of concern on campus. especially among faculty. march, the board did approve the resolution of academic freedom. i think most people would think that is a wonderful thing and a very happy with it, although there is still some mistrust

members, because of the who had told the screening committee that they didn't approve of the book, and because the process had been held up. i don't think there is total trust of that yet. knich has been talking about one aspect of academic freedom. that stateeports lawmakers around the country are brandishing their budget plans to penalize public colleges and universities for what they teach, what the professors say and which organizations the schools work with. it talks about the south carolina case that we just talked about. it also says that last fall, state lawmakers in kansas about to withhold appropriations from -- university of kansas

those are couple of examples of academic freedom issues. that is what we want to talk to you about this morning, academic freedom on college campuses. is there a need or a reason to restrict it? should there be a wall of separation? you can see the numbers up there on the screen. we're talking about academic freedom on college campuses. what kind of say so can a state legislature or a campus that gets public money, what kind of restrictions, if any, should they have on what they can teach

and how they can teach it. from facebook, so we are getting are along this line. this is lawrence comment. .et rid of the liberal shills

talking about academic freedom on college campuses. go ahead and dial-in. we're going to go through a couple articles in the meantime that are playing to the papers this morning. here is from "the hill" newspaper. from "politico" is this article.

also in the paper this morning, from "the hill."

we're going to begin with a call with regard to academic freedom on college campuses. i am a conservative and a republican, so i come at it from that perspective. i think there is incredible academic freedom on america's are of aampuses if you liberal/progressive viewpoint, world viewpoint. you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a story in the about a conservator for

someone with conservative leanings being, i don't say persecuted, that protested a restricted or whatever. they're good to give an honorary degree to a muslim woman who had spoken out pretty actively against islam and how it treats women. that was taken back because of protests by the left. if condi rice at the university of minnesota. in a nut shell, if you are a liberal, if you come at the world from that point of view that college campuses are very hospital to your point of view, -- very hospitable to your point of view. if you are a christian and speak ill of islam or if you are against illegal immigration, then college campuses are not for hospitable towards you. the case we are talking

h involved diane knic a gay themed play which conservatives were protesting. o you think that -- caller: caller: that is a rarity. host: should it be allowed? caller: i don't agree with that at all. i think that college groups and college associations, whether they be christian-based or gender-based, should be free to operate and host events and so again, i don'tit mean to be disparaging, but a situation like this will prevent itself where maybe a leftist group or a group that tends to lean toward that worldview is made being called out or being protested. everyone is up in arms. this happens to conservatives every week.

we had some on here who is fired, he was not supported. he eventually won his case. --re is an activist investor a povertywho runs organization. he was told to provide a disclaimer that his opinions were not those of the university. here protesting. the university simply asked him to identify himself because he is well known. he is a public figure, he is a law professor at the school. like i said, when someone from to be attackeds

or questioned about what they are doing, it is a cause celebre . mike, do you work in education? caller: i don't. show enjoy calling your and i enjoy what you guys do. host: i appreciate your input this morning. page, jim saysok there is no freedom at public universities for faculty the challenges liberal orthodoxy. doc is calling in from baton rouge on our independent line. i want to echo what the

last guy was saying. i like the way he thinks. i like to call these college breeding grounds for bolsheviks. they are not liberal, they're way past liberal. i got into an argument with several of my professors, some of them and my political science classes, some of them in my history classes because they as much as they can to favor the liberal agenda. when you question them on it, they threaten me with your grades, can you believe that? that is doc in baton rouge . from "the new york times" this morning.

louise, fredericksburg, virginia, republican line. caller: i think people are getting conservatives and they put them in neat

little categories. i'm a republican. i do not support israel. i am not against islam. ,ome people just generalized and i am really sick of that. let's go to the issue of academic freedom that we were talking about. caller: i think there is a problem and colleges as there are in libraries. you can't go to history category and read many books by different historians about the same subject. you can't do that because they actually have no history section. any college campus people should be able to expand their thinking. that is what it should be about. it should be about all points of .iew and similar subjects you can read whatever you want to teach whatever you are being taught.

what you should be taught is how to read history, how to do science, how to do the things that an education is all about as opposed to this political divide that is happening. it is really crazy stuff. host: that is louise in fredericksburg, virginia.

christine is calling in from buffalo, new york. democrat. academic freedom on college campuses, what do you think? caller: i believe that the colleges are a breeding ground for the future leaders of america, ok? the matter what your viewpoint andpeople come together discuss what it is that they can accomplish in the future. it is a visionary breeding ground, ok?

my daughter is a librarian, and to the person the spoke to before, library can do anything they want. it is freedom, ok? life is what it is. host: all right, thank you for calling in. times," caroline kennedy says she will back hillary clinton in a run for president. politico" --

pamela is in blytheville, arkansas. we're talking about academic freedom. i also support hillary forton and her running

president. i have come to learn how to become a survivor. ,ack in time when i lost my son bill clinton was a president. i do believe that the academic freedom of children are the future of america will need to come together as a whole in the world and make a difference. thomas, you are on the washington journal. yeah, i'm hearing a lot of i want to say older folks commenting on the subject. i am personally fresh set of college. i graduated 2013 from a very liberal school. the issue of academic freedom strikes me as a non-issue. we are in the nature the lot of

technology, a lot of information out there on the internet where you can decide whether or not a college seems to have any sort of bias one way or another. peoplelike a lot more are more susceptible if there is a bias than others. host: you said you and your liberal college and your liberal college in your calling on the republican line. you feel like your views are challenged or changed anyway ? caller: i very much had to dilute them. it is very easy to get caught into a machine of ideological norms. you have to learn how to talk to people at diverse opinions. ideology was not too

dramatically altered by the influence. to think that state legislatures or the folks that control the money should be allowed to influence what a college, what professors are teaching? caller: in what way? host: we read a couple examples this morning where the college of trust and got their funding cut because they sponsored a gay themed book and play. a professor at the university of kansas tweeted about guns. we're going to read a story in a minute about kids passing of constitutions on campus. caller: oh, that particular issue, that funding came directly from the state, not from a pool of student fees from student government? they cut the funding of

what it cost to bring a book to everybody reads. caller: it was concluded that that was definitely the aim of the funding cut? host host: let's presume it was. let's go to the question. at what point to state legislatures have the right or not the right to step in and cut funding? beler: when taxing needs to cut in spending needs to be cut as well. that seems ridiculous. has anybody seen or heard of the show cabaret? it is a classic and there's lots , bisexual themes. if a state legislature wants to cut funding just for doing a show with seems like that, that seems ludicrous. what you doing these days

after graduating? i work in a law firm and i am on my way to law school this coming august. in.: thank you for calling randy in millington, michigan, a democrat. upler: i would like to start a thanking you in all the fine folks behind the scenes that we never see helping you put on the show. you have a good topic this morning. i was on the school or for six years. you have to have academic freedom. biggestnoticed the difference, and this is nothing against anybody or where they send their children or anything, education is important. when i talk to the kids that were at arriving or parochial schools, there wasn't as much of a diverse opinion on some of the more -- you didn't hear any controversial topics with those two schools. you have to have them. i have family members who have kids that go to parochial

schools. i can bring subjects up to them and have never heard of them and they are in the news. we can't have indoctrination. we want all our kids to have an open mind. let them decide heard look what they are doing now. i have all the confidence in the world that these kids will grow up to be old, smart people like the rest of us calling in this morning. let them have their trips along the way because that is the only way they learn when you make a mistake once in a while. these kids will know what weight -- what they do. thatthis internet and all stuff you have out there now, it is a lot harder to indoctrinate anyone if they allow them to have that freedom. i want to thank you very much for this. host: thank you for calling in, randy, we appreciated. attorney general eric holder will remain until after the midterm elections. this is on page 82. inquirer,incinnati

boehner mocks gop colleagues on immigration reform.

that is in the "cincinnati inquirer" this morning. the former head of the national security agency will be the first guest on comedian john oliver's new hbo show "last week tonight." vincent, syracuse, new york. independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for having me. i push it what you're doing.

the people and congress don't like to hear us. -- the people in congress don't like to hear us. i think our academic freedom on college campuses is very crucial aremerica and the ones that going to end up running the country when it is their turn. if our congress would get out of the way and let some of the , becauseple step in they obviously don't want to do , and job on certain topics maybe we can get some things done in this country and come to an agreement. i think academic freedom is for important because right from the get-go, you are taught one way in elementary school and a lot of people don't question that. lies when ilot of grew up in high school.

they were trying to mold my precious mind. i think independence and the ability to explore is very important. ,f they try to censor college what direction are they going, then. what is next.

this is an article from "the daily caller" this morning.

patrick is calling in from carnegie, pennsylvania on our democrats line. what is your opinion about academic freedom on college campuses? ironic because you truly hit the nail right on the head when it comes to the constitutional rights of the , which iseople literally evaporating right before our eyes, particularly when you look at the politics.

our children are so misinformed about what is being -- what is taking place in the world. america's former ambassador to the ussr indicted our country as in the ukrainian and crimean crisis. you'd think that this narrative would be everywhere and the press. he basically said that they used backing relatives derivatives and so forth, along with the territorial land grab heard this is our ambassador to the ussr. all right, patrick. we will leave it there because it is getting off where we denise,on the topic. we're talking about academic freedom on the campuses.

caller: i'm considering that the legislative has the right to change. thee the question as exchange --islative which the koch brothers are in charge of. they have been since 1983 changing the educational and economic system. to bringg they can events to the way they wanted. i have a problem with the word academic freedom, because i see this as the way of the koch brothers getting changes that they want. that is how i see it. if you want to continue this conversation, you can go to

facebook and twitter. dial-in ande to talk with us about this issue, .02 is your you code area this is from the foundation for individual rights in education.

cg in mount holly, new jersey. so grateful to hear what is being spoken this morning. i'm really interested in making this point.

, it should beom based on the truth that you can compare on anyone's idea or variation from whatever, let's say degree of thought or believed and so on. when there are certain groups that come together with those of your freedom is questioned or stifled. ,oes my comment this morning why is it that it is questioned if there is a variation or difference when anyone's thought should be able to be respected or compared to search the truth for oneself? host: from the "washington

times" this morning --

there is a review in the wall street journal of her new book, "a fighting chance." she is a member of the journal's editorial board. this is how she concludes her review. "liz wants descriptions of herself may the most interesting part of "a fighting chance. " she orders treasury secretary

gardner to wear seatbelts again, this is a review in the "wall street journal lowe's quote this morning. tony is calling in from myrtle beach, south carolina. are you aware of what happened at the college of charleston with the funding cuts? caller: i'm sorry to say i wasn't. we have a really good college carolinastal

university. we have complete security on any kind of open-minded thinking. we are very corrupt chamber of commerce here. this is a great job place. one of the kids at university started a petition. he was so quickly shut down with that, to the point he was arrested. that is just to tell you how the security of this open-minded thinking. more thing, if i could, peter. i'm a big watcher of c-span. i think it is great that you give us a chance to air, across our country, from one and together. i would like to ask if you could just give us a little more time in the morning. maybe a week of open phones. you want to get the pulse of

america? give us a week of open phones. give us three hours of all of us . maybe the producers of "washington journal" heard you. i would get in trouble for that.

this is in the "washington post." from the "wall street journal,"

in case you're interested in reading this. the front page of the "washington times." that the show you national rifle association is having its annual convention. the meeting in indianapolis. that is just beginning. their top part of this morning -- their top article this -- what they do here is show some statistics. the ones we will show you right here, these are mitt romney percentages. he won 47% of the vote in 2012

and in california he won 38% of the vote. of the was white vote 59% -- robert in windsor mill, maryland. thank you for holding. you are on "washington journal." i'm calling about the topic. i got a rude awakening when i started my college career back in the early 90's. i had a philosophy teacher who took an extreme issue with me

based on the fact that i corrected him regarding the greeks and egyptians. that actually was my first wake , unlessregarding teachers or professors in general are open to various viewpoints, you're not going to have an open forum for different thinkers. i also got a rude awakening years later in history class. again, another class you think would be open to dialogue. extremehis person took hubris and offense to me because i pointed out some facts. open topic and open dialogue, i don't see where college campuses really have changed all that much. i'm a teacher now, myself and i

take graduate-level courses. again, unless you are willing to and speak torward the judeo-christian indoctrination in the universities, he will open yourself up to reprisals considering her grade. that is what i want to express. abraham is calling from arlington, virginia. i really appreciate that caller that i heard just now, because i think he hit the nail exactly on the head of the issue i was going to point out. i would just be brief and reiterate what he said. universities,se you have teachers that are hired specifically because of their particular viewpoint. if you express any dissent, if you express any idea that is contrary to that lyrical viewpoint, you will get smashed. when you couple that with the

that with our intelligence community, the amount of information that is being collect it on everyone, including their phones, even the education system, a lot of these teachers, i feel, exist only to make sure that whatever the is, it isview du jour being prompted and pushed. if you have a dissenting opinion , it is going to be reshaped. a lot of these universities ton't as open-minded educational and academic exchanges as it should be. that is a very -- that is very bad for our country. finally, rhea here in washington dc. graduating in 15 days.

right here in washington dc. but we are forgetting is that students ultimately have the power. if students feel they're being oppressed by the institutions and organizations that are running them, then they have the opportunity to band together. if they feel like they're going to be somewhere with a can disagree with the university, with the professor and with any of the policies and so actively work to make change, they can come down to the university of the district of columbia. the main point is really that we have to remember as people that we have the power to make any change that we would like to make happen. if we band together we have that right to collectively affect the policy that affects us. it is not about somebody telling us what free speech is or what we can say, it is about what inisions we want to say

places and tables and seats that we are at. that is what i am learning at my university, which i'm very happy to be graduating from and 15 days. you for calling into the "washington journal." we will be talking about the status of public schools and segregation a little bit later. we are also going to be talking about a bipartisan policy center .lan on savings coming up next is robert woodson talking about conservatives as theh to poverty l"ashington journal continues. ♪ >> i remember on saturday a conversation i had with a group of people at the table. it was about ukraine. it was about politics and our

beliefs on education and religion. from that moment on i thought wow, this week is going to be intense. i could see the evolution of our friendships and bonds. we have been talking about our experiences, what we have learned, who we have met. his is an experience i will never ever forget. i can never really go that far in politics, and politics is such a caustic environment. of chipping away at that opinion. it has been so ingrained in my head. i thought maybe i do want to make a difference and run for something local and stay local in my community, because, like president obama said yesterday, he said don't get cynical. i was knackered to help us relieve the problems that we have. we are able to express our

opinions very easily. we can just send a tweet about what we think. i think that starts conversations and we like to talk a lot, so there is conversation in social media and we like to get our opinions out there. has think this whole week been about learning. i come from a small town where it is very politically and genic -- homogenic. with the other delegates has really given me an opportunity to learn other viewpoints and to get my ideas out without being shunned for thinking differently. >> high school students from across the country express her participation in the u.s. senate youth program, a weeklong program held annually in washington, sunday night at 8:00 on c-span's q&a.

>> washington journal continues. host: robert woodson is the founder and president of the center for neighborhood enterprise. can we get your reaction to something paul ryan recently said on bill bennett radio interview. here it is. >> we have got the tailspin of culture in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning to value the culture of ork --" caller: i think he was absolutely correct. he was mimicking something someone else said that i like to quote back in 1978. i quote, "our children are living in depressed neighborhoods and on the verge of economic collapse.

people finally contribute to the politics of decadence, a generation of people lacking the moral and physical stamina necessary to fight a protracted civilizational crisis is a danger to itself, its neighbors, and to future generations. " that was reverend jeb -- jesse jackson in ebony magazine. the crisis we're facing today in terms of poverty, you cannot generalize about poverty. some people who are just broke. there are three categories of poor people. there are those who are aaracters in place, intact, factor is moved out, a death a breadwinner. people like that, if they are given an opportunity, they use welfare as they're supposed to come as an ambulance service and

not a transportation system. they have category to, of people a single mother who saved $5,000 of her money to center dot to college. when officials found out about it, then guided her charged with a felony. the rewardsd that for saving were not worth it. then there are the people who are poor because of the chances that the taken the choices that they make. there's is exactly what paul ryan is talking about. these are people who are poor because they're living irresponsible lives and getting drugs and want money and support. this injures them with a helping hand. what they need is intervention. this will help change the culture of decadence that jesse jackson said. ryan was merely

echoing what everybody that deals with the population understands to be true. host: he was criticized pretty perverted -- pretty severely by the congressional black talk caucusr making -- black for making a racist statement. anytime you talk about the inner city that is supposed to be a metaphor for race. i don't think it is helpful to racialized. yet many members of the black caucus becoming an official ance industry. 6000 blacks are murdered by other blacks when only 30 are murdered by other races. that is a 9/11 every six months.

anything about this outrage. in chicago over the easter weekend, 50 people were shot, including a three-year-old girl, but this does not rise to the level of protest or even acknowledgment. one member of congress making a statement like this, paul ryan, suddenly it becomes national news, it becomes a subject of outrage. why aren't we outraged by the slaughter is going on in our own community? host: robert woodson, what is a conservative approach to poverty? the conservative approach to poverty -- i do not use the word myself. i consider myself a radical pragmatist. i am a cardiac christian who is a radical pragmatist. i want what works. what we are talking about is a conservative meaning that we respect individuals.

be helped to become agents of their own transformation and uplift. liberals tend to believe that if you are poor then people must care for you. people are in poverty and the back community -- in the black community. liberals believe they must be rescued. in the past 50 years we have spent about $12 trillion on poverty programs to adjust the needs of the poor. $.7 of every dollar goes not to the poor but those who serve four people. this provider industry asks not which problems are solvable but which ones are fundable. we have created a commodity out of poor people. you have a class of people --

social workers, psychologists, drug counselors. people whosetry of careers depend upon having a dependent population to serve. there are perverse incentives for us to maintain people in poverty. a conservative approach does not conservatives, i believe, have strategic interests that are compatible with the interests of the poor. they do not profit from the existence of having large numbers of poor people. therefore, since they are more oriented towards the market, i believe that poor people have a potential ally with conservatives. because conservatives are the people who run businesses. they need people who are responsible and who can come to work everyday. capable of being retrained every seven years. a conservative approach would promote independence and self-sufficiency. a conservative approach would define success by not how many

people are served and dependent. many people have been rescued from self-destruction. how many people are now andpendent and moving on starting their own businesses are starting to be self-sufficient. host: can you give us a pragmatic example of how a conservative approach would manifest itself? guest: yes. ofe years ago, a good friend mine, a pastor in detroit, michigan. he took over as a pastor and he had 50 boarded up houses in his neighborhood and drug dealers. the church had about $230,000 in , he decided to renovate those houses, using men of the neighborhood too helpful stop he was training members of his

conversation -- of his congregation in financial literacy and homeownership. he renovated these houses at the cost of $40,000 each. he could not get additional financing because the insurance companies would not and sure in and the bankood would not loan. if he went to a liberal supporter, they would have hired an attorney to sue the insurance company for redlining and sue the banks. we went toe to us, the executives and the insurance company and asked them what were the barriers they face insu ring. they said we do not know how to make character judgments in these communities. i brought the executives in and they had a chance to see his program and how he was developing people. they brought their risk assessment team and handset maker following for changes and we will in sure you -- they

brought their risk assessment team and said make the following changes and we will insure you. the bank purchased the mortgages and the pastor was able to take that capital and move onto other developments. they financed a restaurant and the community that all the experts said you cannot operate because of violence. they hired as a dishwasher a guy had spent 13ho years in prison. the restaurant got associated with walt. which means that it was protected. using -- that would be the conservative approach. rather than vilifying wealthy people or vilifying companies. what we did was enlist them as enterprise partners in the restoration and uplift of the community. that is what we must do, it seems to me, rather than vilify

people or talk about class warfare or racial grievance. we should look for an opportunity to cooperate and come and help to rebuild communities. host: why did you found the center for neighborhood enterprise? i am a jobt of all, out from the civil rights movement. i led demonstrations in the 1960's. did people who sacrificed not benefit from the change. i remember leading a demonstration outside a theyaceutical company, and hired nine black phd chemists who said we got these jobs because we were qualified not because of what you did. the wrongi was in struggle. i began to work on behalf of low income people of all races. so, but then i worked in the civil rights community, the urban league. poor peoplezed that were being used as a bait and switch game by a lot of

liberals. they were using the demographics to demand changes in and benefits. when the benefits arrived, like with the chemists, it did not benefit those in whose name it the middleed, but class. i left the urban league and came to the american enterprise institute, a conservative think tank. then i realized that to many conservatives, while they are theyto change and debate, mistakenly believe that all you have got to do is open the doors of a free enterprise system and meritocracy will determine winners and losers. i found that that was problematic for me. one thing that was good is that the conservative movement at least welcomed challenges and debate and discussion. openingssatisfied with the doors of the free enterprise

system. and so what i did was establish a center 33 years ago so that i could concentrate my efforts and help low income people to better make their way into the mainstream of the economy. woodson is our guest, talking about conservative app approaches to poverty. edward and georgia. caller: good morning. i wanted to say hello. coulded to ask if he speak on the fact that the democrats were led to believe that obama was not going to raise taxes on the poor people. just a few days ago, i found out that because of regulations, beer companies are going to have

million forith $13 new regulations. they're going to pass it along to the consumers. poor.s another tax on the could you speak on that? guest: one of the worst taxes on re theor i ever found a families of prison inmates. we have 2 million people in prisons and we are concerned that 90% of them are going to come out. we are concerned that they should be rehabilitated. it is amazing. they suffer the largest tax of any group. there is a group called global links. it is a telephone company that has a monopoly on prison -- they have contracts with 470 different correctional systems around the country. they actually pay a $40,000 signing bonus with a correctional system. and that is correctional systems

can make as much as $270 million families ofarging inmates seven times what the rest of us pay for telephone calls to and from prisons. this is -- this company has billion.of $1.2 and yet this is not discussed. and i really think if we are to reintegrate people coming from prison, it is important for them to maintain their relationships otherheir families and social networks. this is made more difficult if they have to pay 17 times -- seven times the amount in telephone costs. that becomes a tax. that is outrageous and i intend to do whatever we can to bring about change. host: james, lansdowne, pennsylvania, you are on the "washington journal." caller: good morning. host: go ahead.

caller: good morning. i have been a long-time watcher and first-time caller. is jim jackson from lansdowne, pennsylvania. i am a former neighbor of -- turn the tv down. i am a former neighbor of what's bob woodson. you are a disgrace. i do believe you believe anything you have said. you remember me, don't you? we used to wash dishes at the restaurant in the summer. remember me? sisters and a younger brother. guest: what you just say what you have to say? caller: you grew up in a normal neighborhood.ce we lived in a nice neighborhood. we had doctors, lawyers. a whole array of people that

lived in our neighborhood. homes were clean, we respected each other. bob went to school everyday and clean clothes like us. point?ost: what's your fromr: i read the article the former succulents under -- from the former south carolina senator two weeks ago. he said you came from the get hetto. you came from a privileged area. i don't know how the republicans brainwashed you. that was james in lansdowne, pennsylvania. mr. woodson? respond to not

personal attacks. my work speaks for itself. truces negotiated gang .n southeast washington 17 years ago, there were 53 murders in a five square block area. people goingzed in, we brought leaders to my office in downtown d.c. as a consequence and benning , violenceighborhood went down to the point where relateds not a crew murder in 12 years in that community. we were able to develop what we call violence free zones using the same principles in the city of the walkie, wisconsin. -- city of milwaukee, wisconsin. host: what is the significance of your being raised middle-class? guest: i have no idea. i'll lay know is that my dad raised in aas

pretty stable home and neighborhood. ableoint was, if we were to achieve that kind of stability during a period of segregation and during a time before the poverty programs. back then,ppened -- we were not afraid. elderly blacks were not afraid of their grandchildren. all of that has declined. the question is why have those declines occurred in the midst of civil rights gains and having people of color running these various governments. whyquestion that we have is are so many blacks failing in school systems and other systems run by their own people if race is the principal problem? host: tweeting in. "the war on poverty is run by politicians."

we are moving into the 50th anniversary. a lot of civil rights programs, the war on poverty, what in those 50 years have we achieved? --st: on the positive side when johnson started those programs and bobby kennedy walked through appalachia, we had children dying of starvation. you had elderly people in miami dying with no food. the government rightly intervened when a child nutrition programs and support for the elderly. we do not have those horrid conditions anymore. that is good. the sad part about it is that we have created an industry out of serving poor people. we took money that was intended for the poor and converted it into services to the poor. and then these services are chosen by people that have no vested interest in solving the problem. it is not that people working inside the poverty industry are bad people.

but they weren't in bureaucratic structures that cause good people to do bad things. so we are injuring people with a helping hand in the name of rescuing them. on ourob, pennsylvania independent line. you are on with robert woodson. caller: good morning. i just want to say -- the poverty problem. people have got to start caring. look how our politicians just sent our jobs overseas. i was in a shop the other day, looking at a jeep. $56,000 and it was made in canada, china, and mexico and sent to detroit. not only the car but everything in that car could have been made in this country. not because the

billionaires do not want to share their wealth. the guy that goes across the bridge in the city in his limousine and has the family under the bridge, he does not care about that family. --il people stopped caring until people start caring it is never going to change. i have got a quote i want to read. men, you make just as bitter pill for the poor and oppressed. righteousness and fair play are fictions to you." that is a quote from god. guest: we do a disservice when we are defining the problem as vilifying the rich and suggesting that people are poor because they do not have enough money. some of them do not. that is false. the top 20% of earners in america pay 93% of all federal income taxes.

and the bottom 40% pay no federal income tax. in fact, through earned income tax credits, receive a check from the government. i do not think the issue is a maldistribution of wealth. i remember some years ago when others kennedy and passed the luxury tax. they said we are going to tax luxury yachts and cars. so rich people stopped buying them. factories closed and a lot of middle and lower income people lost jobs that were building these yachts. it was quietly rescinded. i really think it does a disservice to the issue for us to suggest that the reason that we have so much poverty is because rich people are rich. poor people are not poor because rich people are rich. what we need to do is establish a bridge so that those with

wealth will be encouraged to invest in these communities. any low income ethnic groups, their participation in the american economy depends upon their small business formation rate. business -- a healthy community generates 2.5 million businesses per year. in the black and brown community it is more like 300,000 people per year. we need to improve that. host: tweeting in. "the approach to get rid of poverty and education." barbara follows up on what you talked about in detroit. conclude it was ok for insurance companies and banks to be racist in their policies and make blacks jumped through hoops. guest: it is not a matter of

making it racist. it is a matter of people need to understand how to make judgments in certain communities. if you are an -- insurance company and the neighborhood is run down. there is violence and crime. it is very difficult for them to make a logical conclusion that you can bring about reform. so what you have got to do is bring people in and introduce them. thatat i can see evidence there is regeneration in that community to respond to. i do not see many other people like that. minorities setting up businesses in the high crime areas. i see asians doing it. i do not see some of these people who point the accusing finger, coming in there themselves.

what we're trying to do at the center for neighborhood enterprise is using a lot of the organizations we support, ex once their character changes, we are trying to set up a taxicab company in high crime areas. run by people that have access to those communities. owner occupied. we need to use our energy more creatively to try to create wealth. and use the talents of skills of people who are in their and build on the strengths. host: shelton, chicago, republican. caller: i have to remind you, mr. woodson, about the story of the good samaritan. i would caution you in this way. there was a man who was discovered living in a porta potty in the winter.

he died inside the porta potty. everybody is now 21 years old and can join the rat race. in to the buy american enterprise institute's statistics and recite them is disturbing. there are a lot of people within the strata that simply cannot be a taxicab driver because they cannot sit for two hours or three hours. greatings you suggest are for those who are in their teens. there are many people who face the same reality of living in a porta potty when you are no longer a youth. this is when the government steps in and guarantees housing and that sort of thing. guest: we do need to help.

there are some people who are physically disabled and we have to provide long-term care for them. but we should not treat everybody as if they are going to be forever dependent. it is shameful that a person can be on a waiting list for section 8 housing for 15 years. there is something obscene about that. havei am advocating is we got to begin to go into low income neighborhoods. instead of always concentrating on the 70% of the households that are raising children with out of wedlock births, we need to go to the 30% of households in lower income neighborhoods people ableare to raise children who are not dropping out of school or in jail? what is it that they are doing that is different from their neighbors and what lessons can

that he just? -- lessons can they teach us several children living in homeless shelters and sleeping in their cars, yet there are about 10 of them that even with these difficult circumstances are now in college. these are the people who are achieving against the odds. there are organizations, for like the first baptist church of somerset gar dens in new jersey that is demonstrating that .5 million children in foster care, there is a solution to that. they are placing hundreds of them in adoptive homes. they have a foster care system that has a 90% retention rate for the children. and yet the state has a negative retention rate. roll up oured to

sleeves and begin to embrace remedies that come from the communities suffering. is the antipoverty agenda. i am trying to advocate for more imagination and more creativity. we must build on the strengths of communities rather than be polarized and always looking for villains and victims. joseph, howiumph of today's community healers are reviving our streets and neighborhoods. this is the cover of mr. woodson 's most recent book. it was joseph? is a metaphor for the way the poor and the rich should be coming together. born, was one of 13 sons he had these dreams and he told his brothers and fathers these drains and it provoked envy. so he was sold into slavery and faked his death. joseph endured a lot of

hardships in slavery in egypt but he would remain wrinkle to this got. -- he would remain faithful to his god. he was imprisoned but he became neverst prisoner and succumbed to victimization. when the pharaoh had a dream that none of his experts could explain, he was summoned before pharaoh and he told pharaoh there would be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, save 20%. josephpharaoh appointed second-in-command of egypt. which meant if it was not for the rich pharaoh, there would be no joseph. they formed a partnership. pharaoh knew that joseph had integrity because he refused to bow down to pharaoh, he would only bow down to his god. so he knew he had integrity. the bible says together they ca

me and four 500 years, egypt prospered and fed the world until there are rows a pharaoh that knew not joseph. pharaoh had to reach across race, class, a lot of barriers. but he put the interest of the state of his country ahead of all of these racial and ethnic. and then joseph, the modern-day josephs are in our city. there are some justice who are raising children that are not dropping out of school. and then there are those who and gangtitutes bangers and became reformed through god's grace. they are witnesses that redemption and transformation is possible. what we do at the center for neighborhood enterprise, we go, like a geiger counter, all of

for these high crime neighborhoods and we go in and look for people like the two types of josephs. people who are in poverty but not of it or people who have been redeemed from it. and we provide resources or access to resources so we can learn from these josephs to determine how we can then rebuild low income communities from the inside out. and then we are recruiting toraoh's -- good pharaoh's partner with us. they have money, expertise about to build businesses. rather than vilifying the rich, why don't we ask the rich to show us how to create wealth and generate jobs in our communities so that america can be rebuilt and return to the rich traditions that make us exceptional. host: byron, baltimore,

democrat. caller: am i on? host: we are listening. caller: how are you doing, sir? this is really disturbing. you are all over the place. you mentioned paul ryan. and what he said about the inner city. it is a code. if you look at inner cities, it is full of mainly black minorities. what he said was generational. did your father or grandfather work? my father worked hard, i work hard. how dare a black man cannot see that this racist comment of paul ryan of all people and how they send e-mails to each other calling black people monkeys and all those other stuff. and then you have these black conservatives who downgrade a person like barack obama who dispels all the stereotypes of white racism.

and yet they still cannot see that a man like barack obama, who is fighting for health care -- not only health care that they have a standard of health insurancecrap where companies can rip people off. and then you talk about income equality. on the one hand, he says we are vilifying the rich. but the rich are getting loopholes and sending their money to offshore accounts. they are vilifying the poor. we have -- host: byron, when it comes to solutions mr. woodson has been discussing, where do you disagree? caller: where i disagree is that -- ok. whoe have been other races have been through poverty. and the government came in with resources. we need resources. hbcu's are being cut. just like need help, barack obama said. people need a hand up to get out of poverty. host: we and you say resources,

are you talking about federal government resources? caller: yes, black folks should be helped just like every other race, the irish and the jews. people forget about all that. the government came in, just like with the v.a. bill. black fullscope not move into certain areas, they were redline. on andupremacy is going it is not only hurting black folks, it is hard and white folks, too. he said it was a personal attack about how he grew up. lying that you did not grow up in abject poverty, that is not a personal attack, it is the proof. conservatives, the only good thing about them is that the older ones, 10 or 15 ones, they will not be on this

earth. host: give us a snapshot of your personal story? caller: by personal story is that my grandfather, my father, and myself, we work very hard. there was a time that black folks did not have much. we lived in poverty and we were quiet. as soon as we wanted to move into other areas, all hell broke loose. they went black folks to be quiet, with in poverty, and shut up. i think everybody -- black, white, mexican, whatever should have the opportunity to live to their fullest. these corporations are making more money than ever and they are purposely not hiring people. they are sending jobs overseas like the guy said. it is a disgrace. host: byron, thank you. dr. woodson? guest: it is unfortunate that people like you do not understand when you're being hustled. if you look at the city of detroit, detroit is a disaster.

for thehas been around past 50 years by black, liberal democrats. the southside of chicago. the second congressional district in chicago has been around for the past 33 years by three corrupt members of congress. who, rather than using their influence to address the problems that resulted in 50 people being shot in some of those communities over the easter weekend, they are using it to enrich themselves. and i can go on and on, city after city. we have got to confront the enemy within if we are to move forward. rather than always looking for a next general excuse. nothing is more lethal to anyone that a good excuse for failing. and not addressing the enemy within. as long as we believe and buy into the lie that our problems are always external and it is

only white people -- and if only white people would do something better for us, our condition will improve. as long as we stay on that drug we will always be complaining. what we need to do is roll up our sleeves and say the victimizer might have knocked us down but we have got to get up. if our forbearers could prevail businesses in a segregated society, if we could build durham, north carolina, if we can build these great institutions, tell me why we cannot do the same thing to that? our forbearers did not whine and complain about what white folks did. took responsibility for building our own institutions and that is what we have got to return to. i reject this notion that i think is white supremacist to

assume that somehow why people are responsible for delivering us. we are responsible for delivering ourselves. host: tweeting in. history of discrimination and slavery left off or can america and unprepared for free enterprise. help -- left african-americans unprepared for free enterprise." case, if that were the how do you explain the fact that in 1860 three in baltimore, maryland, when 1000 blacks were fired from the docs, we established a railroad company. when we were denied access to hotels, we established the hotel in atlanta. we established hotels in miami and new york. the st. charles in chicago. city.major

youngstown, dayton, ohio -- there were institutions that were billed by blacks and financed by blacks. the 1920's, we had a real estate company that employed over 200 people. when lakhs were discriminated against in the building, we purchased the building. we have a rich tradition of achieving in the face of discrimination. thate who are a guard of history will always live with this feeling of personal impotence. weehow because of slavery were unable to help ourselves. that is just not true. host: tweeting and "it is evident that c-span's "washington journal" has a racist agenda." [laughter] april 30, there is a budget hearing you go be testifying in,

what will you be saying in paul ryan's hearing? guest: first i will be making a likefor supporting efforts i talked about. harvest of hope in new jersey, they are demonstrating how they can pull kids out of the foster care system. 70% of the people in our prisons have spent time in foster care. that is going to be one remedy. there is a church that if we were to take what they have done and expanded around the country, we can rescue children. we are going to talk about reducing the tax on the families of people in prison. can take this burden. we ought to allow the poor to keep more of the money that they change having governors -- theser is burdensome taxes on the poor. withe going to be sharing

the budget committee specific and concrete recommendations. milwaukeeprogram in that is revolutionary and the sense that for the past eight years they have maintained 800 or 900 convicted felons, rather than sending them to prisons where we spend $100,000, they are caring for them in their own community. being rigidly supervised and many of these young people, instead of spending their lives in prison, they will be spending them working and being productive citizens. incidentally, it is what this program did was present the county commissioner in milwaukee with a mock check of $63 million. that is what this initiative has stated tax players by not sending these young blacks to prison. we want to present to the budget

committee recommendations about how to change it. we want to destroy this false that help for the poor is determined by how much the government spends. we are showing that it is quite possible to help more people and spend less if we invest in some of these neighborhood interventions that have the consequence of improving lives for people and reducing demand for these services and therefore the cost will also be lower. host: robert woodson has been our guest, the center for neighborhood enterprise is the group. thank you. two more segments coming up on the "washington journal." about america's savings issues. and whether or not we are saving enough for retirement. then we're going to talk to nicole hannah jones, she has a big piece in the atlantic. it is about the resegregation of public schools.

those other two segments coming up on the "washington journal." ♪ >> some independent scientists looked at monsanto's koran after it was on the market and found a gene that was normally silent was switched on. that gene produces an allergen. someone might die from eating the corn that is genetically engineered an unlabeled. the process of genetic engineering created a switch on of that gene and the change of 43 other genes as well as the shape of proteins. a sevenfoldoy has increase in a known allergen. this was not intended, this was a side effect of the process of genetic engineering that is used to create the soy and corn we eat. organizations.

no problem with gmo's. are these part of the conspiracy that a person with no scientific learning has uncovered and telling us about? if that is not enough for you, here are other organizations. these are not organizations with scientific sounding names. these are real, medical and protective organizations. in europe, which is very anti- gmo, all over the world, there is the epa. which we pay attention to when it comes to global warming. they say it would not pose unreasonable risk to human health and the environment. i could come up with dozens. >> how safe is genetically modified food? saturday morning at 10:00 eastern. this weekend, the los angeles times festival of books.

the realities of war, feminism, journalism, world politics, and financed. saturday at noon and sunday at 1:00 eastern on c-span2. andie morris on title ix the education amendments of 1972. saturday at 8:00 p.m. and midnight on c-span3. "washington journal" continues. steve bell of the bipartisan policy center, does america have a savings policy. guest: very serious. most people underestimate how little americans are saving. the one trend you recognize right off the bat is a downward trend. it has not just been because of the recession. there has been a trend for the last 40 years and this country.

even though people are getting older at a faster rate, 10,000 to 12,000 people take medicare every day. rate has gone down. at the same time, our big social programs, social security, disability insurance, are running out of money. i know people do not like to hear that. have a they believe they trust fund with their name on it and there is an account at treasury, which is not true. right now, social security is actually paying out more in benefits every month that it takes in a new taxes. onannot -- that cannot go forever. in two years, the disability insurance fund will become insolvent and congress will have to do something. between personal savings declining and real problems with the federal programs, it is pretty much an emergency. host: why has this rate been going down? can you explain this chart. there is a green line and then the red line.

guest: what we try to do, there have been variations year over year, that is the jagged line. the red line tries to track out theking variations. you can see the trend is totally downward. on thehe upward jags line seem to happen during down economic times. guest: right, people save more. we saw that during the recession we are coming out of. increasee savings rate because people were afraid to spend and make new commitments. kind of a heart problem. you want people to save money and at the same time, 70% of our economy is based on consumption. it is a very tough situation. k,e good times come bac which they certainly are, people want to buy things. why has that trajectory

gone down? is there a cultural reason? are we too dependent on the government, do we think the money is there for us? guest: i was named something called a federal retirement thrift investment board by president reagan. we had just started this new plan for federal employees. you can keep your civil service retirement plan and you could broaden over into what is called a defined contribution plan. you put in a certain amount of money. you do not know how much it is going to be 50 years from now. as opposed to a defined benefit and they promise you retirement. we found something interesting. the treasury department, for all the smart people, had a very low participation rate in the new program. people at the department of defense had a very high

participation rate. i suspect one of the reasons, we never approved of this, was that the military came up and said sign this form. and it was a much more pleasant prospect at treasury. we were surprised at the difference in people participating in a plan in which if you gave 5% you would automatically double your money. part of it is education. part of it is habit. part of it is kids in their 20's think they are immortal. by the time they are in their 40's, they say whoops, i have a child, i had a mortgage, i might have college loans. they find they cannot save. we are -- host: we're talking with steve bell, senior director at the bipartisan policy center. he used to work for senator pete the budgeto ran committee in the senate. you have worked at the thrift appointed by said,

president reagan. we will be talking about money and savings rates and a bipartisan policy center savings initiative, which we will get into. we has on our phone lines differently. for this segment, we want to get you involved. we have divided them by age. if you are 50 years or under, the number to call is (202) 585-3880. we thought this might add to the conversation when it came to savings. 51 to 64, thes mid-level range. where you are starting to hopefully think about retirement and things like that. (202) 585-3881 is the number for you. those of you who are 65 years old and older, call in at (202) 585-3882. steve bell, what is the new initiative put out by the bipartisan policy center? guest: what we announced the day before yesterday is a commission of about 20 men and women

representing all the stakeholders in the retirement question. former senate budget committee chairman kent conrad and former pension corporation had jim lockhart are the cochairs. weyou take a look at what have put together, we have everyone from people who believe everything ought to be federalized to people who believe that is part of the problem. our job is over the next 12 months to bring together these people. members of the board of social security, bob , andhauer and chuck come up with some solutions and recommendations. the question is why are you doing it because congress has such an aversion to this question. here's why we think it will be useful. with thein 2015,

disability trust fund nearing insolvency and probably going to become insolvent in late 2016 or early 2017. maybe in an odd numbered, when they mights to act, decide to take on the entire question of private savings, public savings like social security. and we really might be able to get some reforms. part of this is rolling the dice. certainly by 2017, they are going to have to have federal legislation. host: do you have specific legislation you would like to see passed? yet.: we have not there are four big plans out there from congress. dave camp, the alkaline ways and means chairman. tom harkin of iowa, who is retiring. the new chair of the senate finance committee, ron wyden, has a number of ideas. and someone you were talking about earlier, paul ryan, has a

combination of anti-poverty and retirement ideas. you have both sides, left and right, we are trying to bring them together. through ant to go couple charts, more households at risk in retirement. this is a percentage line over here, this is 40% right here. bar goes ups red to 50%. what does this mean? guest: part of that is from the recession. even though the savings rate went up. and part of that is that people simply are not taking advantage of federal programs and programs that were where you match a 401(k), for example. or and ira, regular or roth ira. there are incentives in the tax code for people to save money. it is so complex. there are so many different variations of those tax incentives that really and truly

most people -- i am not talking about people who do not care. i am talking about people who are nearing retirement age. only about 46% of people who have access to this at their jobs take advantage. -- human beings are strange creatures. they would rather have immediate gratification and hope for the future. are inhen you say they danger or risk in retirement, what does this mean? guest: let's assume that the average person lives to be 85 years old. 82 years old, with the medical advances. .ut retires at 67 years old you have almost 20 years of retirement ahead. yes, you get social security. and there might be a couple other things. you might have a small pension. if you wish to keep your same standard of living that you have now, and you will have some

things you do not pay for. you will not buy as many new clothes. want to keep your basic standard of living the same now as it is going to be in the future, that is what we mean by are you at risk of running out of money? the fact of the matter is, many americans are at risk. of running out of money in retirement. households near retirement did not save enough in 2013. this red bar. households with retirement accounts, $100,000. all households, $12,000. interpret this. guest: even people who have returned account tom alike we talked about, the 401k and the even people who have retirement accounts, like we talked about, the 401k and the ira. $100,000 is not going to get you through 16 years.

you are going to have to have some social security with it. even with $2000 a month or $2200 a month, you are going to find you are running out of money. the people who have no retirement accounts, $12,000, depending on where you live, will barely get you through half a year, even in the cheapest part of the united states. host: let's take some calls for steve bell. we begin with a call from rick in glen arm, maryland, age 51 to 64. how old are you and what is your savings rate? caller: well, thank you for c-span. i was smart enough or stupid enough to work a full-time job plus three or four part-time as a hospital pharmacist early in my life. and i saved whatever i could. in my earlyy half

to mid 40's. i was brought up to save pretty well for the future. i have been hit with some arthritis stop it is disturbing to hear that there are only two years left on the disabilities with ssa. -- ink the rain reason think the main reason by the grants are going down with family savings. people, whether they are college educated or sixth grade educated, realize the money is not where it is next year. that is why they have not been putting it away. it is not social programs or that aspect. it is just common sense. they might see the boxes -- they look the same on the inside but when they look at a deeper, it is not 16 ounces anymore, it

is 14 ounces. .nd yet the prices the same it is still an insidious form of inflation. whether it is people at the fed to print the money, they knew what was happening. host: thank you, sir. guest: this erosion of the issuecy is a very serious . the way he he saves does. we are in a very difficult economic time. we have not had a good recovery. this is one of the slowest recoveries in our history. we are doing it only because the federal reserve board is really buying, a buyer of last resort for a lot of things like mortgage backed securities and other trade instruments. there is this erosion. economicnot some

theory, the dollar has been growing weaker for a long time. i used to work for a man named warren buffett when he took over our firm in new york. one thing he has always said is he will bet on a weaker dollar. he has been right now for about 25 years. worth means more pressure is put on people in retirement. as the dollar's value goes down, a year, and% inflation is 2%, you have to pay 2.5% return on wherever you put your investment just to break even. at a time when you only get 2.7% from the 10 year treasury note, it is really hard for people to find things that you didn't even. -- that keep them even.

there is a little bit of this is a losing game, i might as well who a tv, 52 inch now, knows what's going to be around the corner 30 years from now. who is people -- for people are familiar with it, that is a problem. host: matt tweets in. "is there any correlation between income and savings?" guest: i think that is absolutely right. our problem is not that rich people are not saving enough money. that is not the problem. workinglem is the middle and lower middle class in this country is not saving enough money. areuse, in large part, they not making enough. and we talked about the currency the dollar'sd, value going down. if you take a look at the last one a five years -- at the last

25 years. the median income after inflation has barely moved up. we are talking about 25 years of new costs, inflation, people buying homes and putting their kids through college. and yet after inflation, they have seen very little increase in their income. that is a very important part. host: glenn in pennsylvania, how old are you? caller: i am 48, sir. host: how would you describe your savings for retirement? guest: i only have $10,000. i came here when i was 27 years old from jamaica. one thing i want to ask mr. bell. please tell the american people how much money the federal government holds in the social security trust fund. i work,r thing -- where and a $1000 a week.

$140 goes to the federal government and the rest goes to social security, medicaid and medicare. they take that out of my check -- [indiscernible] they take the rest. tell me and tell the american money the much government holds and the social security trust fund that they kept from social security? guest: the zacks number is about $2.6 trillion is in what is called the social security trust fund. that is a little misleading. it 1983, we set up a system where we would ask people to put more in the social security trust fund than we had before and we change the retirement age people we could prefund

who were retiring in the 1980's, the 1990's, the 2000's. your point is right. ironically, this is the most disturbing thing. er, socialearli security now pays legitimate beneficiaries every month more than it takes an in taxes. now for most americans who earn a paycheck, they pay lower in a taxes than they pay in federal income taxes. the important thing to remember fica taxes are paying present beneficiaries. it is not like you put $100,000 into a trust fund and every year it goes up by 3%.

actually, someone like me who is over 70, i am getting a reasonably good return on social security i put in. reasonably go. the next-generation after me, my kids and my grandkids guest: working people now are paying my social security. this can't go on forever. it some people call it different names. i don't think all in a derogatory names is good. it can't go forever. you can't have a situation for the next 20 years where social security pays out more than it takes in. 2036.oney will run out in if you're 35 right now, that means you will be 57. you will be looking at retirement in the next 10 years. that social

security will not pay you. you contributed to it. you contributed to it for the people who came before you. serious.taxes is very they comes right out of your paycheck. >> here is a chart put out by the policy center. you come up with $2000 in 30 days? guest: that summarizes the problem. 44% who couldse or would have to sell their possessions or go to a payday loan. it is very difficult for those people to save. one of the things we hope to do in this i partisan policy center

is figure out how we can help people in lower income brackets save more. $2000 goes up. realize, i people made a joke recently, i was in new york talking to some people, none of whom will depend on ,ocial security for retirement how do people live on $46,000 a year? $46,000 is a good salary in mexico. i wonder if people in new york there aregton realize people out there that really do not make a good deal of money and to whom savings is a luxury.

it is not the first thing the comes to mind. to do we change federal law encourage savings. james sense in a tweet. guest: thank you so much. host: thomas is in frankfort, kentucky. caller: i don't mean to be insulting to you. the song you just sang is the most popular song going around all of the talk shows in this day and time. to draw 75% going of your social security. johnson rated the trust fund to pay for the vietnam war. he knew that was futile. in 1983 you put a fix on it.

they still have their hands in the cookie jar. why isn't someone making these people pay this money back? a week ago i picked up the newspaper and i read an article where one of the agencies of the federal government is missing $6 billion that they can't account for. they reported this to the administration. why isn't someone doing something about this? host: we are going to have to leave it there. i think the main reason we can't pay back the money to people who have given it to the what iund goes back to said earlier. there is no trust fund except in name only. what you are doing when you pay your fica tax is funding people

like me, present in a fish year he is. i am not getting back the money i paid in. so thatgiving me money i can maintain my social security. take $2.7y we can't trillion back and give it to the people. we would have no social security payments to anyone. irsink we know about the payments to people who owe back taxes last week. $6 billion were lost in unaccounted for. people try. congress ont in these kinds of issues is much less than it used to be 25 or 30 years ago. the demands of campaigning and fundraising really have made the committees that are supposed to

look at this and suggest things to do to fix it, they have little time to really perform that oversight function. that is a sad thing. it is a bad thing. mark in texas, how old are you? i am 58. i am doing pretty well. i have been saving since i was in my 20's. i have always lived frugally. i live in a house that is half the size that a realtor would try to sell me. that ie i always make is don't save or live like an american. i live and save like a european. i save about 20% of my income. i have more money than i ever thought i would.

people in this country live way beyond their means. and above, thes poor, i don't know what you can do for poor people. incentivize consumption. it does not do nearly as much to support savings. takei retire, i can't $250,000 and say it is tax-free. if i sell a house, it is tax-free. that is my big problem. there is a lot more you could do to incentivize savings as opposed to consumption in this country. i listen to the economists quite a bit. this is the magazine. one of the things that they talk about is the united states, if you put all of its indebtedness indebtedness is

everywhere in this country. state, federal, local government throughout the united states have pension liabilities that they will never be able to pay. guest: that last comment is exactly right. we don't have to look at detroit. we don't have to look at the towns in california that declared bankruptcy. they have. the reason they have is they have made commitments in the form of future benefits, pensions and health care, that they could not afford to make. it is easier now to give agreementand reach with the workers than it is to say 20 years from now we are not going to be able to afford this. most of those people will not be in office.

indebtedness is a serious problem. we are very lucky that we have the reserve currency. saved first point, you and my father's family saved. there weren't many new close. i am not saying that everybody should live like my father's family in west virginia. they never really ran out of kept theirse they needs very close to their wants. or maybe vice versa. if some he starts now with 15% of their payroll, if you do that for 30 years you will not have a problem. will get rich slowly. we have a tweet. cap shoulde that the

be raised? guest: we raise the medicare cap. that has done a fair amount to help medicare, even though it comes out of the paycheck of people. i think we're are going to have formmitted some point some of means testing in social security. i don't know how it will happen. we have a form now. at some point, we need to have that if someone is a millionaire and lives in palm beach, florida, that person probably ought not receive as much social security regardless of how much they put in as someone who lives in new mexico and is barely scraping by.

i don't know if our commission will recommend that. between private savings and social security is one of the most important interactions in retirement. we know where social security is. we have to do something about improving incentives to save. tv, you are not seen people saying don't buy a new car and save that money. i had a 55 oldsmobile. i was living in el paso, texas. i drove it for a couple of years and sold for $90. it sounds absurd right now. that was 50 years ago. thele are realizing that engines and cars will get

200,000 or 300,000 miles. the object of advertising is to tell you you don't have the right radio. this is old. i have a 1993 toyota pickup truck. it gets me to work every day. the guy next to me drives a very expensive car. he looks at me and thinks i am poor. i look at him and say why did you waste all that money? host: we have a caller in macon, georgia. how old are you? caller: i am 32. i am a disabled veteran. i just got out of the military. this is thes this: greatest country in the world. we should be doing a lot better.

we should start with high speed rail. we need to create more jobs. then we can have social security when i am 62. i think we need to work harder to do things like that instead of wasting time. we could create a lot more jobs and do better. people can put more money into the economy so we can start creating more jobs. host: thank you sir. guest: that is probably the most important point. unless we have economic growth in this country, then of these programs are going to work very well. you speak of railroads and bridges, are infrastructure is in terrible shape for a country of our wealth. we have 60,000 bridges that

don't meet code. we have railroads that aren't as good as they should be. we have taken a chance on roads. we have a transportation bill coming up that we have to fund this year or next year. we don't have the money right now to fund that bill at any level. we start building roads and fixing bridges, the higher people. rages -- wages and they pay taxes. the problem is very simple. the last five recessions as we have come out of them, each one has been slower in recovery and the growth rate has been slower after the recession ends. we are at one percent -- 1.8% gdp growth after this one. we need to improve our

infrastructure. we keep talking about it. how are we going to pay for it? host: this is a last call for steve bell. caller: i am 64. i'm in the top 20%. i have two homes. one of them is on the beach in mexico. was my wife's for a one equivalent and the match the employer gave. entire savings other than real estate. put the kids through college with my money. money, if theny wife divorces me i am in big trouble. [laughter] i worked in health care.

i have seen a lot of poor people. i see how they live. god forhelp but thank my situation and have no helping that god was not as kind to as myself. seniors is an issue. they have revised how they calculate the consumer price index. they always revise it down. they turned it down again. the elderly are slowly starving to death. they're viable income goes down and down. the social security cost-of-living does not keep up with inflation. that needs to be fixed. , just turndon't save on the tv as you mentioned. -- economy is driven by

consumerism. even the service jobs went overseas. credit was easy. we got ourselves in trouble economically. see that you can buy a , you don't think that the interest rate or whether or not you can make the payments. you want to do something to encourage savings, have some that puts a limit on your credit card. make it $1000 for a working adult. scale.sliding that might be a good idea. we are going to have to leave it there. thank you for calling in. guest: this is really interesting. 401(k) his wife's

offered at work, she probably had a match, they sound like they have taken full advantage of that match for the past 20 years. they pay off their debts. they put their kids through school. they have done it in large part because they have saved it. that is a we need to encourage. you just heard a very good story about what a working family can do. if you go with a full match on a should you require employers over a certain size to offer a 401(k). instead of letting people opt

in, you would automatically enroll them in the 401(k) and they would have to opt out. other countries do that. you get very high participation rates. it is sometimes double the participation rates we have here in america. at,thing we will be looking what if you told people you are in the plan and we will give you a match unless you choose to opt out in the future. you would see a lot more people with 401(k)s and a lot more money saved. host: workers with access, less than half of americans have access to a retirement account? guest: this is people who have access. even among those that that chart shows you, even those who have a majoritys than

takes advantage. let's say you work for a medium-sized company and you get matched up at five percent. that is called doubling your money. that is a very good deal. you can put in a little bit more over that, but they don't match it. let's just say that you do the match. every single time you do that, you have doubled your contribution. greatime, there is a power of compound interest that works in your favor. indianapolis, in we have an e-mail. guest: that is a great idea and we don't do it now. i'm going to take it back with me because it is a very good idea.

our website is very accessible. sometimes it has a lot of material on the the people might find boring. sometimes it is useful. host: steve bell, come back and talk with us again. we have one more segment. this is the article in the atlantic. by nikoletten hannah-jones. ♪ >> thank you mr. speaker.

this is an american tragedy. often this results in the murder of trayvon martin is repeated in the streets of our nation. people allhe young across the land who are making a and thet about hoodies real hoodlums in this nation. racial profiling has to stop, mr. speaker. just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum.

these wordsaches us . must resend the. mercy, as you walk calmly with your god. testament, luke teaches us these words. the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good words. to proclaimme freedom. it to set yourself free. he'd these lessons. may god bless trayvon martin's

soul and his family. >> the chair will ask the theeant at arms to enforce the core. the chair must remind people prohibits the wearing of hats. the donning of the hood is not consistent with this rule. members need to remove their hoods or leave the floor. >> more highlights from 35 years of house coverage on our webpage. we were created 35 years ago and brought to today as a public service wire local cable or satellite provider. "washington journal" continues. host: now joining us from new york is nikole hannah-jones. forhas written this article

the atlantic monthly magazine. "segregation now..." is the title. wast: central high school created by a federal court order. operated a virtually all-black high school and a predominantly white high school. judgers after brown, a said enough of this. it is time to desegregate the schools. it ordered the merger of the two high schools into one. they created central high school. every public high school student and tuscaloosa attended that school. host: until when? guest: until 2000.

2000. --from 1979 to so, from 1979 to 2000. they believe the court order was the cause of the problem. even though central had gone on to become a very storied high school, it was the second largest high school in the state, it was an academic and athletic powerhouse, city officials believe that you to break apart the school. they went before a judge and rape of to get the segregation order dismissed. they voted to break apart the school. central was divided into three high schools. central remained. there were two integrated high school and central was he organized -- reorganized as a black high school. happened toas

desegregation of high schools or schools in the united states since brown in 1954? while brown was a landmark ruling, it did not order the integration of a single school. that would come later. sawss the south, you virtually no integration following brown. he didn't start to see it pick up until 1964 and the civil rights act which allowed the justice department to start suing school district that were not complying. rulingseme court issued that closed the loophole. you did not see real integration in the south until the mid to late 60's. and then, because of the becamement, the south

the most integrated region of the country for black students and hell that for 30 years. ,eginning in the early 90's hundreds of these court orders have been dismissed. school district have been released from their mandates to desegregate. they re-segregating. host: is there support for the resegregation? where is it coming from? think they call it resegregation. school officials with say they need neighborhood schools. neighborhoods are very segregated. orn you and magnet programs draw attendance lines around racially segregated areas, then you get segregated schools. there is a great deal of gerrymandering that goes along. antral high school is

neighborhood school, but it does not draw its students from its neighborhood. the neighborhood is predominantly white and racially mixed. the students come from the west and which is two miles down the road. that is almost entirely black. we see this notion of neighborhood schools and school district that are building schools in segregated areas as opposed to building them on the borders. there are areas where they can schools, they are not calling it resegregation but it is having that effect. host: is this just a southern issue? guest: absolutely not. i found it interesting over the last few weeks since the article ran. a lot of northerners have looked down their noses at the south and sent comments about the south being backwards.

the south is the only place in the country that did desegregate. schools,of segregated the northeast and the midwest have never undergone any desegregation. they have had high levels of segregation for 40 years. dems? guest:alicia she is the student in my story. i tell the story of segregation and resegregation for three generations of her family. she is a senior at central high school. she is an all-american girl who has done everything that can be done to be successful. she is an honor student, she is class president at homecoming queen. she is a state champion athlete. she has taken a very rigorous curriculum.

that, she has spent her entire 13 years in segregated schools. she has never had a white last night. school has been low performing. despite taking the toughest courses that her education is offering, she cannot get a high sat score to get into college. host: why is there a difference? school, why isck the achievement lower? guest: i think that is an interesting question. our national rhetoric has gone separatehis concept of but equal. they are talking about taking these schools and make them equal.

is neverresearch shows in the history of our country have we done that. we did not do that in 1954. we don't do it in 2014. four years, central high school did not offer physics. it did not offer ap courses. they were not getting the same opportunities as other students in the same school district. they were not getting the same quality of teachers. saidmer superintendent those schools were the dumping ground for bad teachers in the district. the question is why would a district do that? when they decide to break up the integrated would beblack students written off. a lot of people say that is exactly what happened.

these kids were out of sight, out of mind. they come from the poorest part of town. did not seemcials to think it was important to make sure that these kids were getting proper resources. host: this is a 9000 word article. how much participation and cooperation did you get from school officials in tuscaloosa? guest: i actually got a great deal of cooperation. superintendent. he has been there less than four years. he is trying to address these issues. to go to any school that i wanted to go to and spent time at central high school. i got all access to the school. the principal knows the issues. he knows what he is up against.

certain people are very action -- anxious to have the story told. host: why are school districts being released from court cases? we put the phone numbers up on the screen. we divided things a little bit different. them on the one most appropriate to you. why have so many school district been released from their integration or desegregation obligations? think it is for number of reasons. the supreme court really made it clear that these orders were not to be permanent. it wanted to see these orders released. it made it easier for districts to do that. once the standard was they had to eliminate all vestiges of

segregation. that changed to they only had to do it to the extent that it was practical. a district could still have all-black schools. now they could say that it is ofause of a different kind segregation. it is become a lot easier. an integration fatigue. everybody from judges down to parents and school districts don't think that this is necessary anymore. you don't see a lot of judges who are ruling in favor of keeping these orders open. they have been around for a long time. people think that these are relics of the past. schools were put under orders in the late 60's. people have come to believe that we are post-racial and we should

not be dealing with 40-year-old court orders anymore. i am sure you have seen the comments at the end of your article online. there are pages of comments. i pulled off a few of those i want to get your response. this is one. although the author does not explicitly say so, the implication is that this is a result of resegregation. nonobvioustion seems . the funding for the school is equal. how would having white students in her class change her a ct score? score? guest: it is not just about having white kids in the

classroom. it is the fact that resources follow white students. this is indisputable. anybody can go to the u.s. department of education. they collect a host of data on this. white teacher -- students get the most experienced teachers. schools that have very few white students get the least experienced teachers. they have high teacher turnover. they are often taught by teachers who are teaching out of subject. they are not getting the same curriculum. for 10 years, they did not offer physics. if you are taking a test on a class on never had physics, how can you do well on that test. her school did not offer

advanced placement. the integrated high school has 12 advanced placement classes. the other thing is when they did an audit they found the teachers were giving kids elementary school worksheets. the level of education is not the same. you can provide the same amount of funding to a school, you have a lot greater need. i don't understand how there can be an expectation that child can compete at the same level. i really tried to make that case in the story. this is not just my opinion. this has been backed up with decades of data and research. is ourikole hannah-jones guest.

she has a story in the atlantic this month. she has her undergraduate degree at the university of notre dame and her masters degree from the university of north carolina. liz, you're on the washington journal. caller: thank you so much for speaking out about this type of discrimination with regard to the different schools. am appalled that this is still going on. 1980's, i was the only black person i would see in class when i was in college. i got my masters back in 2009. i saw this same thing going on.

i would hope that 20 or 25 years later this would change. you are african-american? why was it important to you? what if you want to go to school with white kids. guest: it wasn't that i chose it. there was a school that had a major that i wanted. to be a white university. that is how that happened. dot of the white schools seem to have the better curriculums. they have better equipment. they have computers and better teachers. i did not just plan to go to a white school. they just had what i was looking for. i had a rough time getting into the white universities. , maybe therewhat

is some follow up on it. host: she really wanted white classmates. guest: she wanted the american experience. her ex.'s in tuscaloosa where everybody is black is not the american experience. she wanted to be around people who were different from her. -- haveed to be conversations in a classroom with people who had a different experience or upbringing than hers. that is something we as americans say we value, but when you look at these schools, there are over 6000 schools in this country now that are one percent or less white. kids, to expect them to go compete in an integrated

world, we have not paired -- prepared them for that. host: i am going to read for tweets. that what is not really related. the issue of housing and where people live, how important is this? it is critical. before i started working on this project, i spent years working

on housing segregation. these two things are linked. they are very closely linked. of why itast question is highest in the liberal northeast states, residential segregation is very high in the northeast. they are in the northwest and the midwest. these things are very closely linked. i also think they drive each other. there has been reach her son that-- research on this shows that when schools are integrated, neighborhoods are integrated. what happens is when you have busing, you have a community where you may not go to your neighborhood school. if you can't pick a school based on the neighborhood, that leads to more integration. if you move to a neighborhood,

you might be going to a school across town. i may not be able to get a homogenous school. both of these things are linked. i think it is important to point out that there is also a lot of gerrymandering. blamed onis can be residential patterns. school district are also getymandering districts to certain racial balances. a neighborhood can mean many things. schools do not have to draw lines around a neighborhood. this is particularly women of the devastating effects it can have on certain students. host: what is tuscaloosa's reputation as a southern city in race relations? alabamahen you think of you don't hear about

tuscaloosa in terms of the civil rights movement. selma, thoseobile, are the cities that you think of. tuscaloosa is a more moderate southern city. when it first started public 1800s, manyhe districts did not bother to open public schools to buy children. won awspaper had pulitzer prize. they had a reputation for being more moderate and progressive. as we know, that does not necessarily mean that when it comes to schools that officials are going to support integration. from newy is coming york. caller: hello.

i am from new york. raised up in white schools because of my mother. i live in a virtually white complex right now. boys,ing we did teach our they had great learning skills in new york. they all went to college and finished college. i was allowed to stay at home to raise my boys until i could go to business school. in a corporate firm.

realize now that we were .eading books i don't like to say black and white. we are all one color to me. i would love to leave these united states if i could. i hate it now. i don't vote anymore. i stopped voting a long time ago. host: mary, thank you very much. any comments for that color? -- caller? guest: i don't know what i would respond to. host: we will move on to linda in texas. caller: i just wanted to say

that i would to school in the 1970's when integration for started. to,junior high that i went most of the blacks lived across the street from the school in that area. they came across the street. the girls came with curlers in their hair. they had their how she is on. we had a pe teacher who was half black and half white. on those girls so bad for coming to school dressed like that. she compared them to the white girls. there was such tension at that school. the police had to be called all the time. my dad would not let me go to school. up getting outnd

of that school at some point? caller: no. i stated that school. -- i stayed in that school. one of my friends got in a fight with a black girl. her mother was on the school board and took her out of school for the rest of the year. there was tension. questions. flight, but white also was america prepared for force integration? guest: it was force integration. that is because there were hundreds of years of forced segregation. it would be silly to believe that it would not be difficult, that there would not be tensions. the sure that there were

experiences that she describes. i talk to people all the time who said that it was difficult. of course it was difficult. we had a system of racial caste that required black people to be separated from white people. that we are going to change this. i would not assume that it would be easy. blacked to some of the students who are now grandparents themselves who helped desegregate the schools. they talked about having rockstar at their buses. they talked about their parents following the bus to school today to make sure that they were not beaten down by a white mob. i talked to people who sat in

the cafeteria where white students would be pouring bowls of soup on their heads. difficult was very and tension was coming from both sides. fabric of a social vastly unequal system will not be easy. i am sure it was difficult. i think that is to be expected. host: what about white flight? it is been a major problem starting after brown. one of the misconceptions about the is not understanding role that local officials made in launching that. -- in alabama, you had state officials there were shutting down schools and blocking desegregation and

encouraging white parents to go to private schools. alabama, they allow teachers to take their public school pensions to private schools. alabama, theyy, agreed to send their kids to a desegregated school and then they shut the school down. it began with official action. it increased over time. we have also seen white flight in cities that never had busting. you saw it in northern cities that were never under court order. you can't blame it on desegregation. once it became clear that some white parents about what their kids in school with black students, it did not matter whether it was because the

neighborhood was changing or because it was ordered by a court. percentage that white parents could tolerate. it is called a tipping point. i don't know that there is one percentage that works across regions and in every locality. black soul gets to be 70% , that is the tipping point where you see all of the white parents leave. that is regional. in the south, you see a lot more integration and uc schools where schools where there i don'ter relations.

thing to see many schools in the midwest and northeast that are going to have that higher percentage of black students. it is very regional. it ends end of the school in some ways. host: derek is in minnesota. caller: good morning. just a quick question, how long the content ofh your book? guest: it's a magazine article. on this particular story i spent a year. caller: a fair amount of time. we have a big dirty secret in minnesota. cities have pushed everybody out.

we have an issue here. some people have then doing things about it. you think that school choice and letting those dollars go with the families where ever they want to go, do you think that would help? the schools it is that are doing this? what is the reason why the funds are not going to the schools that need it the most? host: the issue of school choice. might doesnted that too much of a choice issue. it is not really my area of expertise. it is very controversial because a lot of times school choice does increase segregation. a lot of charter schools are highly segregated.

what school choice does in some cases is brain drain. most of the kids in these low performing schools will not get to leave their school. it operates for a handful of kids. what about the ones that are left behind? the majority of kids in low performing schools will have to remain there. orlando.a is in good morning. caller: good morning. i want to touch on the topic. unique.se, it is brown was passed so that segregation would not happen. filed duease that was to racial discrimination on my job. my case is lisa black versus the

department of veterans affairs. job training program. these are adults. we had a job training program that came down from washington. -- they were not sure how it would work out. host: we are getting a little bit off-topic here. we're going to have to let you go. this is a call from a teacher in ohio erie it laura, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. my, has to do with charter schools. i have been a teacher for 25 years. is extremelyohio conservative right now with a conservative governor has been pushing consistently for charter schools. particularly, one

of the things that has happened is we have had a white flight from the public schools into charter schools. has beenpulation leaving the public schools, we now have less and less funds to ,und education for the black hispanic, and other minority students. the quality of education in public schools has naturally gone down. is population that we serve mostly poor families. many of them are single mothers. host: we are almost out of time. one of the things you talk about in your article is economics. absolutely. it is not the only factor.

what we are finding is the segregation we are seeing now is a long racial and class lines. more middle-class black students are more likely to go to integrated schools. the ones left behind in low performing schools are black and latino and high property -- poverty. from poor homes. it is the concentration of poverty that is detrimental to learning. there is so much need. a lot of children come in behind. also learn more from being in a class where people come from mixed incomes. it is a devastating affect. .-effect host: what is her status today?

looks like she has gotten an official offer from miles college. we close the article with. it is a historically black college. i never doubted that she would find a way to go to college. the girl is very determined. that is good news. host: rank you for joining us. -- thank you for joining us. that wraps up "washington journal." c-span2, c-span3, book tv and american history tv. rg as well.to ahtv.o thank you for being with us. enjoy your day. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014]