if of a website dedicated to education issues. and then erin brockovich. ♪ host: good morning, it is 2015.y, august 18, with the summer wanting to a close, hundreds of families are preparing for the start of a new year. 5 million are set to attend private schools. this morning on "the washington journal," we are asking to hear about the state schools in your community. we want to hear your thoughts on curriculum, facilities, class size and the quality of the teachers in your school. parents can call (202) 748-8000.

teachers (202) 748-8001. all others, the phone number is (202) 748-8002. you can also catch up with us on social media on twitter, facebook or e-mail at journal@c-span.org. good tuesday morning. the back to cool -- back to school stories have already began. here is that tallahassee democrat. students welcomed back at the first day of school. talking about the 4000 students in leon county who had their first school day yesterday. in the miami herald, a story about technology in the classroom. medical challenges, educators and software developers are and apparently turning to serious gains to help engage students. to the front page of "the los angeles times" today, a story

about one of the last year round campuses in the los angeles unified school district. that school had begun its school year july 1, talking about how year-round schools have faded over the course of the year. we will hear from our viewers about the state of your local schools. tell us about your curriculum and your facilities. we have lines for parents, teachers and all others. we will be looking for your comments as well on facebook. private schools excel, public schools have good marks but most are behind by years. twang onrom bot facebook. our local school does really well. we need to abolish common core because local schools were doing very well before common core,

but since we've adopted these new set of standards our districts have had to spend way to touch money to cover materials, teacher training and anything else you can think of with the smallman of money we receive from top funding -- small amount of money we receive from top funding. from acceptable to outstanding. more are closer to the outstanding level in spite of the tragic underfunding and the rise of the horrific, for profit, charter schools. you can start calling in now. lines for parents (202) 748-8000 . teachers (202) 748-8001 and all others (202) 748-8002. we will get to your calls in just a second but we want to focus on this recent story from the new york times. teacher shortages spur a nationwide hiring scramble. credentials are optional. joining us on the phone is rich.

i appreciate you being with us on "the washington journal." we want to start with white district are struggling with shortages of teachers. are we just a few years removed from large teacher layoffs? >> definitely certainly in the number of states. during the downturn a lot of state budgets were crippled for the severely. simply less money for public education and there were a lot of jobs lost. the situation was particularly acute in california which lost something like 82,000 jobs and that was only as recently as 2007 and 2012 and things have turned around. the economy has picked back up in some state budgets and california is a striking example that have recovered governor jerry brown helped pass a measure and 2012 that added a lot of tax dollars to the public education system so suddenly they have money to hire again

and there are more kids in school and more kids with different needs. suddenly all of these districts are turning around and hiring and in some cases they can go back to the pool of people that they laid off. in some cases there simply are not enough people out there predominately because during the recession when all of these teachers were getting laid off and people were hearing in the media students were saying i'm not going to major in education and get a degree i paid a lot of money for and racked up debt for if there will be a job at the end of it. is it the macro economics and the larger number of students in classrooms across the country and how much is the factor of teachers being concerned about standardized testing and changes to teaching in general and leaving the workforce? guest: that is a great question on a heard a lot from readers who were themselves currently teachers or had been for many years. teachingway in which has become incredibly

politicized has been chronically underfunded in some districts, increased usee and reliance on standardized test particularly to measure teacher performance. there has been a wave of change among how teachers are in evaluating. laws passed across states to require that the evaluations include tough scores and also the introduction of these new academic standards which have been very politicized. there is a lot of controversy and attention in the air about teaching and a lot of teachers themselves who said we do not like our jobs anymore. if you're a student considering a career and paying attention, that might put you off and also there have been perennial issues about teaching. starting salaries are very low and as the economy rebounded, the kids -- or the young adults living with her parents, having graduated with a lot of debt, unable to find a job except as a

there are -- barista, a lot of opportunities around and high demand. people have been spending the last three to four years and hourly wage jobs were suddenly because they take the computer coding class they are able to jump into a $100,000 per your job. school in the united states is going to pay a starting salary of $100,000. >> in the scramble to hire teachers, scramble being a word in the headline of your story, as you describe what is happening around the country, is there adequate training for these teachers? guest: i think there is a concern about that. found thereing, i were many places that were hiring teachers who did not yet have credentials and had not gone through preparation.

there were people who were either in the midst of their training which was the best case scenario that they had already decided or committed but had not finished it yet. so the district saying why don't you teach full-time while finishing training. a lot of those on initially, the education field is really grappling with the fact that it hasn't necessarily always done a good job of preparing teachers for the reality of the classroom. the preparation has been very academic. in this case they are shortening that process. in some cases people are going into the classroom very little not evene having completed their academic training and of the urgency of hard to fill areas like math or were beingple recruited who had not even started a credentialing program or some kind of training program.

people were going into classrooms with literally no experience. host: if you want to read more about it, you can go to the c-span website. motoko rich is a national new york times reporter. we appreciate you. guest: thank you for having me. host: we are asking viewers to weigh in on this segment. terrance and teachers and all others tell us about the quality of your local school. we'll start with brody from alexandria, virginia and is apparent -- is a parent. caller: i have a son going into sixth grade in the fairfax school district. we have a great school district but the problems i have seen is that the grading system makes no sense to the doesn't tell a child anything because it didn't get a four and it is pre-much saying you know everything so you are an a plus student. then you have the effort grade

that shows the effort. it makes no sense. is thater issue within you have to take a class. you have to go there to understand the grading system and most parents are working. the other thing i am seeing is that i am all about utilizing technology but how do you teach a child math if they have to take the test on a computer. if they click the run button, the question is wrong -- wrong button, the question is wrong. you're not looking to see if they can apply what they are learning -- the application of math. sometimes these bureaucrats are tying teacher's hands from traditional learning as opposed to say it is so stringent as opposed to this way or that way.

host: how involved are you in the school itself? do you share these concerns with other students parents? i don't to the pta because i am us and a parent works full-time but i do share my concerns with teachers and i share them with the principal. i am a very involved parent. somethinghat there is my child needs, i am his biggest advocate so i am completely involved. but it is such a bureaucratic system. it is taking away from traditional learning. because i think they want to utilize some much of the technology which is great but there is a time and a place for technology. >> timothy is up next. washington dc, good morning you are on the washington journal. good beer today.

host: one to school begin for you -- when does school begin for you? but thei go back soon, bureaucracy of being a teacher that she was just talking about, i have taught elementary school, private school public school and i noticed that in the inter--- inner cities where you are actually teaching there is a huge disparity in reference to gender and gender leadership if you have a lot of males in the school and most of the principles are females and psychologically engender biased dealing with leadership in males, especially a blackmail in the inner cities. if you are in the more affluent , a lecture a like chevy

chase high school and things of that nature, you see a huge gap there in resources and things of that nature. maestrore they have a -- a bistro inside of the school. you can get a cappuccino. the disparity in reference to various demographics and geographical locations things of that nature -- it needs to be addressed. host: how do you address that? caller: i would address it dealing with the actual diversification of learning. schooleaching elementary in a very depressed area in the southeast in the early 2000's and the kids knew nothing about the world.

so we did passport applications at that time and had to fill out what a passport was -- they didn't know. what is thech them purpose of a passport. just exposing them to various arrays of knowledge. not so much in the strict framework of bureaucrats, in which they want you to teach and students to learn but opening it inand becoming very fluid the aspect of knowledge and the very branches of knowledge. so i took students to the various think tanks around the and where policy is made they sat in at lectures in certain seminars referenced to education you also have to take them out of the classroom. host: timothy in washington dc.

speaking of other countries around the world and his passport story, didi fredericks says maybe we should send educators to china and korea to find out what they are doing to prepare their workers and their students. center hasearch looked into the comparison particularly on math and science in the united states and other countries around the world. the united states ranks 35th out of 64 countries when it comes to student math scores. you can see in the same realm as lithuania and the russian federation and the sweden and hungary. as students did in those countries as in the united states. for the science scores the countries were students were the sameg at about level work denmark, spain, lithuania, france, latvia, norway and italy and several others. information ont

the pew research center's website. there are five facts about students in the class of 2015 and in this country. we are asking our viewers to weigh in this morning. what is the quality of the schools in your area. bill is in massachusetts and is apparent. good morning. >> i am a grandparent. of sending my children to school are long gone. but i would like to talk about that call you just took about passports. the money that we spend on is-k, common core facilities humongous in this country. it is very easy to point the fingers at the teachers and to say the buildings should be better or we should have more computers. before we spend a nickel and sending a child to pre-k which

in my day was called nursery school. not kindergarten but nursery school now it is glorified expensive daycare. we should have these children before they are admitted to pre-k, they should be made to have to pass a test for it a simple test but these children are going into pre-k at four years old. so it is reasonable to expect these kids to be able to demonstrate the ability to use please and thank you. example of when please and thank you is required to -- required. host: what happens if they do not pass the test? caller: the parents of that child who cannot say please and thank you should be reported to local child welfare facilities in whichever state they reside in. it should be intellectual child abuse.

if they cannot teach their kids by the time they are four years old to say please and thank you teachers we expect the to take this unproductive product, four years old they are gone because the parents did not do their job. a child says it at home and out but is scared to say it in a school setting or something like that? caller: say that again? host: what if a child is intimidated to say it in a testing setting? how would that work? would there be a couple of chances that a child might have? caller: you just have a nice room with kranz and stuff like that maybe a cookie and when you give them a cookie, does the kids a thank you? caller: that his bill in buzzards bay, massachusetts. the quality of the local schools in this first segment. for parents, teachers and all others. linda is in miami, florida.

how are you? host: i am good. go ahead. caller: i teach middle school in miami and we are considered one of the worst schools in the state of florida. my comment is, i want to ask the put --to please host: go ahead. caller: the please put the issue back on the parents. if the parents would be more receptive, coming to the school, helping the teachers with their children it would be better. much goingre is too on with free food and free breakfast. the kids through the food and have food fights. they do not respect teachers and they talk back to the teachers. it is difficult for us to teach it's difficult for the

administration to help as we do andhave help from parents teachers are walking out and do not want to teach because of the violence. there are no repercussions when these children fight the teachers. what are we to do? we pray and bake and we do not know. the government is setting us up for failure. host: one of our viewers brought up the issue of common core. what are your thoughts on that program? -- : caller: the main problem is the fact that no one is paying attention to the children. we're trying to teach and they -- [indiscernible] host: you are going in and out but we appreciate the call on the line for teachers. ift number (202) 748-8001 teachers want to join the conversation.

speaking of common core, the editorial board today talked about that program. common core is not a takeover edge -- of education. they developed the standards and accepted them voluntarily and implemented them with local flexibility. the federal government merely encourage states to adopt them, as it should have. until the advent of testing they were able to hide their failure andducate court -- poor minority students. you can read more on that in the washington post. christina is waiting on the line for parents in kansas. good morning. caller: good morning. fascinated with this common core deal. who thinks anybody this is a good thing to teach

children -- print off some sheets of the math. use sit down and you try to do that math. don't give up. you do the whole thing. it is horrible. it is horrible what they are doing to teachers. i agree with everybody. the elderly gentleman in the lady who is evidently a teacher, parents have to be involved. you cannot replace parents. there is no teaching standard that can ever replace engaged parents. have a unique perspective because i also work in the court system. we have so many people that come through that are addicted and have children. those poor kids. i live in a small area. i cannot imagine what a large city has to deal with. of these parents are

coming through and they are so into their own lifestyle. those poor kids are completely and totally neglected. >> can i ask you about the pta and the involvement of the parents in your school. is it something that a lot of parents are active in deco >> no, not really. not like they should be. we don't have anything like a pta. that went away years and years ago. host: how do they make their voices heard. >> you make appointments, whenever school your child is out. you can go to the school board it is very hard to get people involved in their kids lives and it is hard to get people to speak up. i think they get a little bit intimidated as they are not sure -- especially without having pta, you are not sure exactly how your child will be perceived in the school district if you make too much noise. and i know most teachers

wouldn't do anything. but all it takes is one. that is all it takes to make your kid's life miserable. we've had good experiences and bad experiences. pretty much all over the board. right now might make concern with my child is the bath. -- math. you have to know what you are doing. with common core it is horrible. it is almost indescribable. host: christina in kansas. this morning we will be talking more about common core and other educational issues in the next segment of the washington journal. we will be joined by campbell brown. so the next 20 minutes or we're just hearing from you, our viewers about the quality and the local schools. for the amount of money we spend on education we stink is what he writes this morning.

here are some stats on u.s. thepupil education in elementary and secondary spending. the states that spend the most per-pupil is new york with 19,000 $818. 6500has the lowest with $55 and the average in this country and the 2013 fiscal year was $10,700. that is across all states in this country. some stats to show you this morning especially about the quality of local schools in your area. kerry is in illinois. it morning. caller: good morning. i am the teacher but have two daughters that are teachers. one is in the william penn district in philadelphia and i have one teacher in illinois.

she has three certificates to teach in pennsylvania, florida and illinois, and cannot get a job because she doesn't speak another language. .hich is very difficult which i think is unfair, because we are spending so much time on the kids that speak a different language and the kids that just speak english are not getting as much time to learn a different language. losing. are basically i would not recommend -- like i said, both of my daughters have masters degrees. there is no money. below 40,000.y is caller: did they both accrue debt to get those degrees? mastersey got their

going through a program called responsibility where they put them in very low school districts. one daughter was in camden new very lowich was a school district and you couldn't even drink out of the water fountain. the water was no good. it was yellow. andbathrooms were horrible the teachers that were in their were more than qualified but parents are not really involved. not to the degree that they should be. what i have seen with some sad,ing, which is really as they cannot be parents -- educators. and behavioral people. it is crazy. it is sad they went into this

just --on -- it is there is not a lot of money in it. my one daughter in pennsylvania has tenure, but she cannot go to another school district. she has to stay in her school district forever. host: she is talking about her two daughters. have a specific line for teachers. parents and all others. damon is apparent in houston, texas. good morning. touch on would like to a couple issues. i have a unique perspective. i have a child in high school, but i have also been a teacher for a brief stint. i am the parent of an older son, too, who is college educated. and working on his masters. i noticed something in their

pass through school. they have been going to exemplary schools in the suburbs of houston and the racial disparity in the classroom, in the suburbs is terrible. thatlates to the child in they don't have someone who i feel is an advocate. i have talked to the school several times to address issues with my children who are very smart with teachers who basically refused to teach them. my youngest son who is about to be a junior in high school had african-american teacher since the sixth grade and he is about to be a junior. all of three african-american teachers since sixth grade. that is a disparity. in the classroom, i have had a teacher flat out refuse to teach him.

his mother and i went to school to address an issue. she told her what was wrong. what would help them. and said i am not going to do that. flat out. teacher, i was unable to effectively help children because the administration would not allow you to go beyond a certain threshold when it comes to interaction with children. these were problem children. what more did you want to do? heard a caller speak earlier about a little bit more personal interaction. not so much sticking to the curriculum. you have to humanize people. you have to socialize people and when you stick to a particular is basically

throwing things at them and hoping that they retain it. when you are not able to relate to that individual, that child developed in a way that lets them relate to you as a person and their peers -- it kind of creates what i feel is just a product and not a person. i think in education the most important thing is to learn and relate to who you are within that educational experience. we will get back to more of your calls in just a second on the quality of your local school but we want to touch on some of the other headlines around the country today. of course the race for 2016 continuing. a front-page story in today's new york times about the big donors contributing to each party in the 2016 campaign. the story noting that republican

presidential candidates have gained a near monopoly on donors of $1 million or more through super pac's in the 2016 election and 56 give at least that much to committees supporting republicans like senator ted cruz of texas or jeb bush of florida and former governor rick perry for a total of $124.2 million which is about 12 times as much as democrats's biggest donors and you can read that story in the new york times. or if you want to see it and a chart format specifically for the republican party from big donors. here is a chart today in usa today that you can check out showing the percentage of each candidate's pack donations that came from donors who give them $1 million or more. you can see ted cruz letting that followed by rick perry, mike huckabee, or caribbean and so on. hillary clinton coming in with

7.9% of the donations to her super pac from donors who gave one dollars or more. of course the iowa state fair can continue doing and lots of candidates headed there to talk to voters in the early caucus state. here is the front page of the des moines register noting another three candidates stepping up to the soapbox there to give their stump speeches. carly fiorina is one of those candidates who talked from a soapbox there we have been covering them on c-span. the show you her speech yesterday talking about her candidacy and taking a not so veiled shot at bill clinton. fiorina: i've had a life that is not so possible here. the young woman who can start as a secretary and go on to run for the presidency of the united states. i, unlike everyone else in

life have had my share of hardships as well. i battled cancer and in that battle i learned the power of love and the solace of faith. we lost our younger daughter to the demons of addiction. each one ofll that us sometimes needs a helping hand and someone to take a chance on us. i will not give you a speech today. i want to answer as many questions as i can and to get the ball rolling by will tell you about a question that i was asked. early on in my presidential race. i was asked on a national television program whether a woman's hormones prevented her from serving in the oval office. can we think of a single instance in which a man's judgment might have been clouded by his four months? any at all? host: that was carly fiorina

yesterday at the iowa state fair. continuing today including senator marco rubio of florida and he will be speaking at about 11:30 this morning. the other presidential candidates will be speaking. speakingch of ohio about 5:00 p.m. today. you can watch both of those here on c-span and all of the soapbox speeches on our website. we are talking about the quality of your local school as the school year is getting set to begin across this country. mitchell, good morning. you're on the washington journal. >> let's face the facts about this discussion. i think we blame parents and we blame the bureaucracy and the we are quick to blame a lot of people and a lot of things and one aspect of this discussion that is overlooked is

the children. it's that they are not that interested in math and science and i think that is one of these things that we have to face facts that there are other things in children's lives like cartoons, and your games, the league and sports and other organizational activities that occupy their time and there is not much of an interest in math and science at 8-12 years old. there are other things going on in their lives and that point needs to be emphasized. job tos it the parent's focus their attention away from some of those things? distracting from the math, science, education and learning? caller: of course it is but it is like putting a square peg into a circle. kids want to play they were to run around the what to interact. made ammentor earlier suggestion about humanizing. kids are humans.

we are all humans. whereone of these things there are other things going on other than math and science. one could argue that it is a cultural issue. we think of the chinese and the south koreans there is some literature and research suggesting that there are cultural aspects. confucianism for example that enable students or encourage students to emphasize math, science and technology and these types of subjects. whereas in the nine states culture there is more of an emphasis on sports independence. these types of activities. host: kimberly is our next caller from florida. good morning. when does the school year begin in auburndale? caller: it actually starts on

the 24th. it hasn't started yet. but i want to -- host: we lost kimberly. we will go to jason. sorry, kimberly. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: go ahead. caller: i think the big problem is that teachers are terrified to fail anyone. there is massive pressure to especially if it is special education or minorities. gender or race. and if laois and is making everything relative. 50% rules were students can i that is one of the biggest problems. you are not able to fail anyone. failing is not an option. host: you are on the line for teachers.

have you ever done that and moved somebody along we did not feel was ready? caller: there isn't a teacher in the station who has not done that. eighed on that decision for you? when you were passing that student or students? caller: it is the bureaucracy of the paperwork to fail the student. it is the legal ramifications depending if it is a special education plan or 504. it is the deals they make up. if you fail someone that you have to give them a packet of worksheets. if you look at no child left behind -- with the state testing in maryland, everything was going fine until they get the actual data and realized some of the students will not pass the test. you have schools with a 30% pass rate and then they changed the

game. education never sees anything through. they constantly change when they do not like the answers they are getting. let's go to kevin on the line for all others. you are on the washington journal. just to let you know my name is evan. host: sorry, go ahead. caller: it is ok. i graduated from commuter to montessori in indiana and our elected officials should be shifting the conversation on how and which ways we can get parents more of an option when it comes to publicly educating our children. time, inor a long recent years our public education system has taken such a wrong turn because of high-stakes testing and standardized testing and we need to figure out how to shift the conversation and innovate so we can teach -- figure out wasted

teacher kids that doesn't involve just high-stakes testing. it puts teachers in a really bad position. i have been firsthand in this. i just graduated from the school. i've been to both sides. i graduated from a montessori school and went to a public high school that was more traditional and i have seen both sides of the education system and i know what worked rest for me and i've talked to teachers from both sides and i think that standardized testing is one of the major problems that we have right now. >> let's go to sean and florida, on the line for parents. you are on the washington journal. is i think everybody is looking at this all wrong or same in thethe united states as they are in china and teachers do the same thing. it is the system itself. systems andg at

tried to figure them when the problem is the system itself. like the lady called talking about common core. i have a daughter that starts college this week and i have a son in elementary school. graduated with a 3.49 or something like that and as i'm going through my son -- he knows physics and calculus and all of those kind of classes and i am good at math. i am doing his math and it is the stupidest thing in the world. i am teaching him how to count and he is seven problems in math and i wonder why he is having problems because i know he is a good student. so as i really thought about this something that popped into my mind as i look at the math and switch it a different way and i tell his mom, they are trying to teach these kids how to think.

they are programming them. that is why the guys talking about the system changing so much. you are a teacher kids how to think a certain way and the only way you get out of that is if you take your kid to a private school. so some kids are susceptible to this and they go along with it and some don't and the ones that they classify them as adhd or they say they are not interested in this or that or they have a learning disability and in all actuality most of those things they are talking about just the kids reacting to not being in the right environment. host: we will go to charles calling from birmingham, alabama on the line for parents. good morning. caller: yes. --ant to talk someone about years -- one of those persons

and if they can control the school system for 12 years, they would control the minds of all the kids. thanks. host: that is charles in birmingham, alabama. .nother tweet this morning and -- this morning. i wish teachers could fail parents. in our next segment of the washington journal, keep calling in with your comments about your local schools. here is the story in the new york times about the ongoing lobbying campaign coming out of the white house. even when the president is on, vacation he is making calls and lobbying over that deal. it's continuing today on the front page of the opinion poston of the washington

and wish they say rather than and the iran nuclear program, the steel industrialize is the program of the leading state sponsor of terrorism. problem --ions process is deeply flawed. lobbying efforts against the deal happening any run. -- in iran. the supreme leader says he would not allow a deal with the u.s. and six world powers to become a tool for meddling. the story noting that the supreme leader's remarks on monday came amid rising criticism in the conservative press about the nuclear deal.

waiting here to talk about the quality of local schools here in d.c.. go ahead. caller: good morning, how are you? host: i am good, dee. caller: thank you to c-span for the wonderful work you do in bringing our voices to our readers and giving us common ground on which to speak. i wanted to briefly make the point, that since the 1980's the prison industrial population has grown from 500,000 to 2.3 million people and our country spends over $70 billion annually. there is a huge disparity between what we spend on that and the cost of education and i think we as citizens need to motivate and encourage our readers to try to reverse this trend. if we can put our minds of the

fact that it is more profitable to invest in productive citizens versus trying to make it dysfunctional and to confine them to prison. we can try to get on the pathway of moving it forward. thank you for the call. she was our last caller in this segment but we will continue this education conversation with campbell brown who recently started a new website devoted to issues in america. brockovich will be with us to talk about the ongoing's -- fallout from that river spill in colorado. washington journal is taking a closer look at policing and rebuilding trust between the police and communities of color. we will be live tomorrow morning and joined by police chief of for durham.

powers who leads the training academy as well as the mayor dwight jones. during our visit to richmond to prepare we talked with captain angela green of the community youth and intervention services but the role of that apartment -- department's community care unit. community care unit is actually comprised of many different entities. whichst community care deals with our citizens out here in the community. gaps really to bridge the between the police department and the citizens. greatt to forge partnerships, to be transparent and let them know what we do. our roles and our responsibilities and safeguarding the communities that we serve. community care we put together many programs where we not only put together neighborhood watch we do

business watch as well. so the business owners can get involved and also put on our themed academy which is our citizens academy, hispanic academy and our leaders academy. where also helping to mentor children in the city through mentoring programs which is the middle school aged children and we partner with police officers as well as the afterschool programs and the elementary schools and our young adult police commissioner program which is for the high schoolers. is to bringtogether the community closer to law enforcement. we don't what the community just to see officers as one that you call when something bad happens. we want to show the other side of law enforcement where we want to prevent crimes from happening. to educate the citizens on how to prevent themselves from becoming victims to protect themselves, their property and

their businesses and educate children on how not to be fearful of law enforcement but to understand we are here to protect them and to make sure they live in a safe and healthy environment. host: join us tomorrow morning, live from richmond, virginia's police department as we take a closer look between rebuilding trust between police and communities of color. now we turn to campbell brown, an award-winning journalist known for her activism with educational issues, she recently added a new title to her resume -- editor in chief. explain what this latest venture is. guest: good morning to you, john. the 74 millionts children in this country under the age of 18. i was a journalist for most of my adult life and i was at nbc news for a long time and cnn before that.

and education when i became a mother became a passion of mine as it does for most new parents as they start to think about how to raise their kids and what is best for their children and i found it was very hard in mainstream journalism to focus on issues in depth, the weight you are able to do on a show like this you can get below the talking points. a sourceit to do be for political information about the debates going on but also just a tool for parents and teachers. for them to hear stories about what is working in different communities, about interesting innovations happening in schools and inspirational stories about people doing great things on behalf of kids in different places around the country. to me it has always been an issue that if you look at all of

the polls we all talk about how important education is in this country and how much it means to us as parents -- in terms of the future of this country how we educate our kids and yet it always seems to not get the attention it deserves. whether it is a political debate or any forum. goes throughdia this massive transition it was an incredible opportunity. i think anybody in this universe who is creative and entrepreneurial has an opportunity right now to try to do things. there were so many journalists we found interested in taking that leap also and getting away from the big media companies and they wanted to focus on single issues and to go deep. this i found to be a passion for many others, too. we have only been live for about a month but hopefully people are getting a sense for what we are trying to do and are enjoying it. host: as people find out about

this website and go there, with your background since leaving television and education activism you face some questions is this advocacy? is this journalism? both? what do you say? guest: there are lots of different articles on the site. it doesn't represent my opinion necessarily. but i have always felt as a journalist -- i don't know how you feel about this but we develop opinions about issues -- always. media hasears the really lost credibility with the audience. look at how journalists rate in polls. i think part of the problem is the lack of honesty that we have had with our viewers or our readers about where we're coming from.

to me if you have a strong view on an issue it doesn't mean you cannot talk about it or cover it but you have to be honest with viewerwer or reader -- or reader about your coming from. to pretend you can be completely objective is not true. better way to cover and present issues if you are straightforward. some of the issues around education -- the inequality that currently exists that gives choice and opportunity to people with money in this country and doesn't for low income people. the people who are not able to have the same opportunities to are largely minorities. their schools are not as good and we are not doing enough to help them and to me the issues that create that dynamic are black-and-white. it has been politics that has kept us from addressing them. for me to approach these issues

and say -- on this hand you can argue this, or this site you can argue this. it is not right. i have hadecause certain opportunities, i can afford to send my kids to any school that i want, and give them all my opportunities. for a mother who doesn't have the resources to do that, that she is forced to send her child to whatever school she is zoned for even if it is a failing school is unfair and it is impossible to argue that is fair and i think we should be doing more if we believe in the american dream which is that education is the path to prosperity and social mobility. we have to give people an opportunity and a way out. we are failing our kids, who are the most disadvantaged, they have no chance. there is no great area.

want to hear fewer opinions and views you have questions. phone lines are open for (202) 748-8000. for teachers (202) 748-8001. administrators (202) 748-8002. all others the number is (202) 748-8003. brown, i want to ask you about the education issue in the 2016 campaign, a subject you will be exploring in depth tomorrow in new hampshire, talk to us about that. we invited all of the presidential candidates to participate in new hampshire. we have six of the presidential candidates on the republican side. only about educations, one-on-one conversations for 45 minutes each for each of them so we are able to get in depth on a lot of these issues.

we will do something similar with democrats in iowa in october. governor bush is participating, carly fiorina, governor scott walker, governor chris christie and governor bobby jindal all taking part. one thing that will be interesting -- common core will be a big part of the conversation. the fact that you have so many governors running for president will make it also i really interesting and rich dialogue because they have experience with what it is like to try to implement these things at the local level. they know a lot about what works and what doesn't and they have had experiences in their state. i think we will get a wide swath about what is happening, whether on the school choice front or if you look at new orleans, we are coming up on the 10 year anniversary of katrina.

it is such an incredible story of the progress that has been made in new orleans. with a chance to go deep on that and figure out what worked there and what hasn't. with charter schools, with vouchers -- tax credits. people are trying to expand choice for parents. hearing from them on all of those issues -- common core is a tough one. for me, as i follow this debate and talk to people around the country, about their feelings on it -- it is different in different states. it has led me to conclude that a lot of it. is how it has been implemented. . in some places it has gone better than others. they were prepared there is a lot of backlash. host: a lot of viewers already this morning expressing opinions about common core. jesse is up first calling in from chicago, illinois.

you are on with campbell brown. caller: good morning. i will be very brief. first of all i think we ought to have all of our officials who pass the laws should be made to send their children -- past lost a say they have to send their children to public schools. administrators should have to send their children to a public schools and all teachers. i taught 37 years in the city of chicago. i taught primary, preschool and college. what you find is whenever a program is working they rename it and make it more difficult for the teachers to be successful because they give it another name call it a new paradigm. that went on for 37 years. can youpublic official name who sends his child to a public school. governor christie when asked about his children said it is none of your business.

most public officials know the purpose of the public system is to produce cheap labor. how many people do we need to graduate from college to run a company. how many people with a have it everyone graduated from college took jobs at minimum wage? who run companies know it, the politicians know it, and none of them -- name one for me who sends their kids to public school. host: your thoughts on jesse's proposal? guest: he makes a really good point which is that you have to have skin in the game. you really do. i'm always curious to ask people, and we have a poll coming out soon that does assess thision of parents, -- ask question of parents, if money were in issue, would you send

your kids to public school? it was astonishing to me looking at the early results that they would. is that they can. that is what is frustrating. he is right. is that they can. that is what is frustrating. he is right. politicians, people in power, do have a choice. if you are at a disadvantage, i don't have money to choose a private school, or don't have educational options where you don't.ou that is not fair. that goes to the heart of the inequality piece. host: some of our viewers want to check out that poll, is it on the website? we just completed it, by think we put up a post with the early results, with the summary. check it out. i don't have my computer in front of me, but i'm pretty sure of how thatiece

will summarize that for you. it is quite interesting, and there is some stuff about common core, and some other things. host: why did you change the name that you did for the website? 74," it is the74.org. it is the 74 million people under 18 that we are a voice for. next fromell is up maryland. caller: good morning. off speaker.our sp i am a teacher in a predominantly african-american and hispanic county. i find the amount of males in the classroom, especially those of that demographic -- what can we do to get more those , in thet demographic

classroom around the country so they can have someone to relate teachingoks like them them. guest: your document in teaching positions or mentoring positions? caller: certify classroom teachers. guest: that is a great teacher -- question. i was just in new orleans, where the sad thing about katrina was because of the devastation and school system was wiped out, they had the opportunity to start from scratch. one of the opportunities that they faced in new orleans was -- the challenges they faced in new orleans was they lost the local teachers. a lot of people came in to help after katrina. there were people coming in from all over the country to rebuild those schools. to your point, they were part of the community. they of people felt like did not have a stake in the

reforms that were taking place, and try to make things better. they were people that the kids could identify with. they were part of the community. that is something they are trying to rectify now, which is recruit people, as you are saying, who can be there to be part of their lives. iher than more outreach, believe that we should be doing everything possible to try to , andssionalize teaching raise the bar in terms of how we think of teachers and treat teachers. average teacher, if you factor in teachers with years of seniority, makes $57,000 per year. the kind not recognize of effort they have to put in for these jobs, and the challenges they are facing. we don't pay teachers enough. we don't reward great teachers,

and it is hard to attract real talent. we need to change the way we think about this, and not only recruit people who can work in communities where they really have relationships, but also across the board. raise the way we think about this fo profession in this country. host: along with our viewer calls, we are looking for your tweets as well. you can follow along the conversation, @cspanwj. beverly wrightson, to fix education, we must deal with zip codes, segregation, housing, and all underlying issues, not just choice. haley is up next from baltimore, maryland. the line for parents. caller: i just wanted to comment that i think another big problem with baltimore city schools is thatpeople do not notice

there are other minorities, which happens to be the caucasian race -- everybody forgets that in baltimore city. in baltimore city, we are the minority. you have may be about five white students in the entire classroom. that doesn't really necessarily mean that the child is not going to learn, but they will not bullying.here is b a lot of parents don't even know this is going on. i take my child out from school -- i pick my child out from school, and i see how many other parents are there, and there are non-, on either side of the race. you are lucky to see maybe 10 out of 30 students' parents there. you have kids who do not even have booke bags or pencils.

it goes active parents, i feel the parents are not involved, the way they should be. bullyingkids who are because they are so frustrated with their home life. they take it out on other students. the board is supposed to magically fix everything, but they can't. the parents come, and they don't care. host: i will let you jump in. guest: there are so many factors .hat you are touching on obviously, poverty in this country is an enormous challenge n enormous have a norm i impact. you wish every parent could be like you, and could be there at the beginning of the day and end of the day. unfortunately, because people are working long hours, it is not always as possible to be as

involved as each parent wants to be. when you deal with these issues, we can't pretend that there is a silver bullet, one answer that will solve this problem. it is tackling it from a lot of different angles. whether it is trying to increase parental engagement, or dealing with neighborhood poverty, or the stress that comes from things you are dealing with at home, and how that manifests in a school. there are interesting organizations, one called "turnaround," that tries to go into schools and deal with emotional stress that kids experience. because of other things going on in their lives, that prevents them from learning, and leads to acting out. there experimenting with -- they are experimenting with programs that put a social worker and school to deal with the mental health peace and help these kids

through some really difficult times so they can be in a space where they can learn, and where the other kids can learn. that is a really tricky problem. we have toefore, tackle this from so many different angles because there is no one answer that will just all the things you are talking about. educationking of organizations that are out there, i believe the last time you were on the program you were working with the partnership for education justice. what is your status with that group? "the: since i launched 74," i am not involved from the day. i was one of the founder of the organization. it is helping parents and new new yorke, -- in state, and potentially other states, to challenge laws on the books that prevent us from getting the best teacher in the classroom for every child. ofre is a concentration

braided teachers, especially in new york, where this is happening, in the schools with the most disadvantaged kids. the wealthier schools are getting the most highly effective braided teachers -- rated teachers. this goes back to the inequity piece that we are talking about before. it is challenging laws on the books that prevent the chancellor from making decisions about staffing. in california, some families challenged teacher tenure and dismissal reductions that give rightsber-due process that make it impossible to remove a teacher who has abused a child, which i don't think that ay thinks is ok --

teacher who abuse a child in some way can be in the classroom. it makes it incredibly hard for other teachers, who are trying to do the job, to have someone like that in their school. int case was successful california. the partnership for educational justice is a legal organization that basically helps parents, or tries to help parents, who want to take legal action with pro bono attorneys, and support that they need to get those cases off the ground. campbell brown, now cofounder and editor in chief of "the 74." she is here to take your questions and comments. judy is up with us very early from hawaii. caller: how are you? host: good, go ahead. caller: i just want to talk a little bit about common core.

obviously, it is a big issue in 16 election. it is not popular. in fact, one of the things that is troublesome is that the federal government is not supposed to be involved in education at the state level. it is unconstitutional according to the 10th amendment. -- they don'te want to cause a curriculum, but it is -- was not at all written by educators. educators or administrators of education were iolved in putting this program together. put togethere testing. now, the same people who put together testing for third,

are now fifth -- k-12 -- going to be writing the testing. the exact same people will change the testing on the sats. host: do you want to weigh in on the common core debate? guest: i think it will certainly be a hot topic at our forum. issue inbeen a huge the presidential campaign on the republican side. she is right. i am astonished at the degree to which these politicians have completely slipped their positions on common core from where they started. this was something that, whether you love it or hate it, was embraced by a lot of republican governors from the get-go. the problem she was addressing about the federal government is -- just to give viewers a sense for how it works -- when common

core was created -- common was created, there were financial incentives to adopt it. that was in place from the very beginning when common core launched. i struggle a little bit with the republican politicians who flipped their position on this. on the one hand, they're saying they are opposed to, core and want to get rid of it altogether, but for the several they werer to that, fighting to get those federal dollars for the state, so they were supporting common core. now that they are running for president, and hearing from people like the woman who called in, they are changing their position. to me, it goes to more the issue of credibility, and what you really believe. has it not worked out in your of a, or is is more

political issue? if we could get past the politics, what i think is important is what your caller is talking about, how it excellent being implemented. if it is not going well, it is an issue that has to be addressed. she is right about the testing explosive almost around the country as a result of many of the incentives in race to the top. in many places, there is over testing. of course, there will be a huge backlash. in your, we had some 200,000 families who did not participate in the test, who opted out. aere was a situation where test was in place, a national test that dealt with reading and math, but most teachers don't teach reading and math, they art. science or

they started creating all these different tests. rightly, parents got to the point where they said, wait a minute, mike kidd is taking six understand what is happening. leaders didn't do a good job of explaining to people what the behind, gore, getting states to raise their standards. and many places, the implementation has not gone well. host: many leaders on the stateside expected to be at that form, that education summit, that the 74 is putting on tomorrow in new hampshire. anmon core also the topic of editorial from "the washington the right and left 40's and common core with inflammatory rhetoric.

sam has been waiting in west virginia on the line for parents. go ahead. us 23rd in showed math. where were we at in 1980? walgreenst, cbs, and -- i am watching three generations of kids being lost to drugs. of the lottery money, where are the trillions of dollars of lottery money. i think the football coach in millions ofaking dollars per year. right.he is if you go to our website, there peelekit that key and

did, making a joke, but they are making a point -- their skin is what if we treated teachers and paid them like we did professional athletes. what would the world be like? it is funny, and worth watching, but very poignant, and makes the point that the caller was trying to make their about the discrepancy that exists and how we think about some of these things. -- the numberts from the of pupils per teacher overall will be about 16, that is about the same as in 2000. some numbers from the national center for education statistics. mark is up next from norfolk, virginia.

, miss: good morning brown. i am a fan of yours from cnn. guest: thank you. caller: i want to echo the gentleman from florida, he was 100% correct. this system is wrong. like he was saying -- i see the way math is being taught with my children. we have four school-age children. it makes no sense. what the caller from florida the system is trying to teach our children how to think versus doing just math or english. the second point, very quickly, i have to push back, as a student of journalism, i have to disregard with why journalist are polling so low.

i do not believe that it is a journalist point to be able to infuse their opinion. a quick example. my mind, was one of the best journalists i had ever seen. was,er knew what his face what his political affiliation but every person that sent out with him, every sunday .orning on nbc, got grilled he did not let loose. i think you can take your opinions, passions, and make sure that through interviewing, that person is accountable and responsible for all points of view, as it relates to accuracy of facts. let you respond.

i believe tim russert was a mentor of yours. guest: yeah, i'm so happy to hear you say his name. i was hired for my first network television job by tim russert erie there was no one better. he was an amazing mentor and boss. tim trained to be in the ways of old-school journalism, which is what you are saying. in my day, when i worked at nbc thinkingi went to work there are two sides to every deserves a side look, and your job is to referee the match. tim also taught me not to be a ographer, which is what you are saying, call people out when they're not being truthful or honest.

you made another point, which i think is critically important, i'mch is you may see -- feeling very comfortable now, having left my old job at nbc or cnn, sharing my opinions. mom, i have views on these things, and i want people to know what my views are. but, you will never see anything columns that is not grounded in facts. that is such a critical point that your caller made. you can make an argument for one side of the other, but make it a fact-based argument. thertunately, some th of debates we are hearing around the country, you will hear people say things that are factually inaccurate. it makes it impossible to have a serious debate about it. i think you can disagree on many issues, and have a really

substantive conversation, as long as it is grounded in fact. even opinion journalism, or report is where they are making judgments on things, they have to make sure there is accuracy behind what they are reporting and writing. that is so critical and what defines could journalism. in this day and age, i can't believe we have to make that point, but it is worth reminding people. host: west palm beach, florida, where dennis is waiting period you ar. again we are talking about school reform, and i don't think there has been the school year in my life where we don't talk about reforming the schools. i don't know what's going on. .t is mind-boggling to me also, we have an organization called the american civil liberties union, but the first

amendment says we have the right to exercise our religion. mine says that i should put my kids in a catholic school. why does the aclu say that is unconstitutional, and the supreme court has already ruled that is constitutional. who is trying to prevent kids from going to religiously affiliated schools? host: go ahead. i agree with you. i am an advocate of school choice. i think parents should be able to make the decisions, and i think federal dollars and state dollars should go towards the child. as a parent wants to send their kids a catholic school, they should be able to send their kids a catholic school. earlier point about why we're talking of school reform -- here is what is fascinating to me. think over the last century how our lives have changed and so many ways because of technology. .or 100 years

we are living vastly different lives, except for how we educate our kids. we are educating our kids today, and our grandkids, in exactly the same way we educated my grandparents and great grandparents. we have not had innovation or advancement in the same way and education. -- in education. fail to see gains because of that. people are watching what is happening in our economy, which is really scary for a lot of people, because we are going through a huge transition because of technology and the way the world is changing. a lot of jobs will disappear because of automation. that is terrifying, understandably, for a lot of people. globalization means a lot of

jobs have left this country. i think, the one thing we can do is help our kids the better better prepared for this. we can't turn back the clock and make this technology go away. it is here to stay. how we educate our kids and get them ready for this 21st century , andmy is really important we have to think about the future for their sake. host: there is a front-page story from "the miami herald," on rethinking games as teaching pools. -- tools. megan is up next from knoxville, tennessee, line for parents. caller: thank you for taking my call.

from a parent vie this is not about how we have learned what we have learned. the truth is it is not a great way to teach, do not ask why, just divide and multiply. you do not learn what that function is doing. you are not able to apply that and extrapolate that into the world i am in and around. worried about how their teaching math -- math will but we do know more, and we are trying to teach that in the same amount of time. you have to take on strategies

kernelsow you to learn of knowledge that can be extrapolated to different situations and areas, maybe not even in that subject area. host: campbell brown? anst: she brings up such interesting point. i will be honest, i am dealing with this, and a couple callers have raised this issue, which is kids come home with homework that we don't understand, and it scares us. my kid is now being taught singapore math. i did not know what singapore math was. if you go to our website, there is a story about singapore math because i've was confused about it and wanted to understand it better. taughtot the way i was math, and it is very different. when he brings his homework home, i can help them because i don't understand what he is doing. i talked to his teacher about it, and she explained it to me, and i have since read about it,

and i do think, as the caller have learned a lot, and we are trying to teach kids in a better way that makes them think ,ore, rather than just memorize and understand what wider doing things the way they are doing things so they can apply those skills to the rest of their lives. it has been a little hard for me, to be honest, watching my child do this homework that i can't help him with, and i don't really understand, but i have said to myself, tg has evolved, the way we think about this has evolved, and it has evolved for the better. i think he will be smarter and better at math than i was because of the way they are teaching him, and because they are trying to expand the way he thinks about these things so that he can tackle more challenges than i was able to with the way i was taught. i ultimately have come down on

the side that this is a good thing. i totally understand the frustration paren of parents whe kids may come home, especially with the common core outlined ways of thinking, and your first reaction is what is going on -- i have the exact same reaction. if you take the time to talk to the teacher, and read about it, and learn about a little bit, i think it is the right direction for where this country is headed. go to more parents will our website, read about some of the stuff, learned about some of the stuff, as t that is why we created the 74. host: as we said, we have been looking for your tweets this morning. one person writes, the problem with schools in america is choice -- a choice to abandon the public schools and undermine them.

you can follow along at @cspanwj . joe is in maryland, line for parents. good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for c-span. one, youy two points -- talk about the changing of technology, i couldn't agree more. one of the things you see happening now is three levels, the kids in the middle, and the kids at the high end, who are photos, and the kids on the end. have we ever thought about using some sort of incentive on them so that if they pass, have a special event for them, or maybe give them money for passing? , and ifincentives work

it is something where they get an immediate result for their efforts, maybe we see more returns. host: campbell brown? guest: the caller makes a great point. those are all great ideas. unfortunately, because we haven't been able to innovate as quickly as we have needed to, that is something that has happened in schools. the kids in the middle -- teacher cannot teach everybody. she or he doesn't have the tools flexibility so those were any more quickly can be challenge, or those who need extra help -- how did they give the kids extra help that they need and deal with ?verybody else there are lots of cool and interesting technologies that are trying to individualize lesson plans so that these kids can move forward at their own we're giving them more

of the kind of individual attention that they need to progress so the kids on the high end can be more challenge and the kids on the low end came take their time and get the help they need, and hopefully free up time for the teacher to help those kids more. althea in louisiana, can you make it quick? caller: yes. i'm calling because i have a couple of corrections for your guests. .atrina was man-made then, teachers were fired. 5500 in new orleans were fired. they were not scattered and couldn't come back. they were fired. i am hoping and praying that some reporters will come to louisiana and see what is going on in new orleans. -- if youw flowers

check ratings, people in louisiana would never vote for bobby jindal for president or anything else. host: i will give you the last 30 seconds or so here. guest: she is right, the tedious work fired. after katrina, a decision was made in louisiana -- and that is where i am from, by the way -- when they were tried to figure out how to rebuild the school system, they made a choice to basically take almost all the schools in new orleans and make them charter schools. take the handcuffs off, put the give contracts aside, and those goals the ability to be innovative and do different things than what they were doing before. before katrina, new orleans was schoolthe worst will sy systems in the country. it was appalling, and

heartbreaking to me as someone from louisiana, that we had failed so many kids that way. regardless of what you think of bobby jindal, or the governor before him, that decision to remake the school system has proven, without question, massive gains for the students there. it is still a long way to go. it is far from perfect, but there has been tremendous progress in new orleans because of the decisions made after katrina. it is heartbreaking that there would have to be a disaster like this, where you have a clean slate to start from the beginning to make this kind of progress. disagree with your caller, the progress is amazing, and all the research and studies out. that out -- bear that there is a lot of information on our website, and will be coming out next week when we mark the ten-year anniversary of katrina.

that is a story that people need to hear. it is incredible, the progress they have made. the7 the website again, 4million.org. campbell brown is the founder and editor in chief of that site in newting a summit hampshire with several of the presidential candidates. you can look for information on that on the website. thank you for your time. guest: great to be here. thanks for having me. host: up next, we will be joined by an environmental activist, erin brockovich, to discuss the ongoing fallout from the toxic river still in colorado. and, we will talk about the national park system, it is be birthday.ces' 99th we will talk to the director of the service, jonathan jarvis. ♪

>> i wrote to the white house coverage of the presidential r road to the ou white house coverage of the presidential candidates continues. as the candidates what the fairgrounds and speak at the "des moines register" soapbox. this morning, marco rubio at 11:30. john kasich at 5:00. on wednesday, rick perry will speak at 11:00. on friday afternoon, it is senator ted cruz. on saturday, chris christie at noon and bobby jindal at 1:00. joined the twitter conversation. campaign 2016, taking you on the road to the white house.

>> with the senate in its august break, we will focus booktv programming weeknights at prime eastern.rting at 8:00 here are a few booktv special programs. on saturday, we are from jackson, mississippi for the mississippi book festival with discussions on harper lee, civil rights, and the civil war. on saturday, september 5, we are live from our nations capital for the 15th annual national book festival, followed by our "in-depth" program with lynne cheney. booktv on c-span 2, television for serious readers. >> "washington journal" continues. host: you probably recognize erin brockovich from the 2000 movie bearing her name.

the environmental activist joins us to talk about her concerns in the wake of the toxic river spillin colorado -- river in colorado earlier this month. what is the state of the cleanup effort and what danger is still being posed to the people downriver from the spill? cleanupt will be a long effort. it is a point to remember that this bill did not suddenly happen with 3 million gallons. this has been a known leaking situation into the river for 10, 20 plus years. it will be a long cleanup and along monitoring process. what is important for people to understand -- you will see governors giving the all clear -- it is not all clear. all of these heavy metals are now in the sediment at the riverbed. it will be a very long process. we have been discouraged with the response from the epa. for me, what is most disturbing

is there has really been lack of transparency. we have a superfund system that is failing. it is absolutely not working. for 20 years, they have known of this leaking situation, and nothing was really done about it. hey are so overburdened and underfunded. there is no power for them. they cannot get to these locations, and this was one of them. it is very concerning for us that there was a better oversight. it is not just going to go away. it will be an ongoing problem for numerous states for a long time to come. the epa administrator gina mccarthy spoke about this bill last week in d.c. before she headed to the site. [video clip] >> the release of mining waste and colorado is not just

impacting colorado, it could impact new mexico, the navajo nation as well. it is really a tragic and unfortunate incident. the epa's taking responsibly to ensure that the spill is cleaned up, and the most important effort we are ensuring right away is the health and safety of the residents and visitors near the river. we are committed to helping people throughout the fork corners -- four corners region who rely on the river for drinking water, irrigation, and recreation. we know how important it is to them. as you know, there are thousands of abandoned mines throughout worksst, nepa routinely to clean up spills. crews were using heavy equipment toenter the gold king mine begin pumping and treating the

water inside. in response to the incident, we have used the full breadth and depth of the agency to respond with other partner agencies assisting as well. it takes time to review and analyze data. i understand frustrations, but we have our researchers and scientists working around-the-clock. our commitment is to get this right and make sure we protect public health. host: that was epa administrator jim mccarthy last week talking about people's frustrations. here is a headline from "the washington times" last week -- erin brockovich: apology isn't enough, epa must fire people in colorado spill. who are you talking about their? the epa administrator herself? guest: there are good meaning epa andnside the

state agencies. yes, it is at the higher level. people want to do right, and they're out there finding information, but often times their hands are tied. this agency in particular, the neutered.een shshe said something interesting there which they often times don't do, which is the oversight of public health and welfare. we have all of these superfund sites, and no one comes in to check in on the health and welfare of people down the road. listen, i have been doing this for 22 plus years. my job is not to say here and i've on the epa, again, said it repeatedly, their well-intentioned people, overburdened, understaffed, and let's be honest, they are not given any money. they have very little oversight power or enforcement power. we have a huge national crisis with our water. are tens of thousands of superfund sites that they have

never cleaned up. we've never come back to check on the health and welfare of communities who are reporting to , series health impacts. she had a good point, but is something i've not seen happen in 20 years. it has passed from the epa down to the agencies for toxic each state down to agency, and we are still not getting the job done. ,t is very frustrating for me and for many people in this country. why are we not having, up on this hill, a conversation about the national crisis going on with our water in this country? from lack of enforcement, agencies, failing

amoebas, all algae, to what is happening in colorado currently where you have five similar mind situations ready to do the exact same thing. i'm frustrated, perplexed, i appreciate her statement, but i will continue to say this, the epa is not getting the job done in protecting our water supply, cleaning up the pollution, and the health and welfare of citizens in its exposure to tainted water. host: our phone lines are open if our viewers want to chat with erin brockovich. we have divided our phone lines of regionally. if you are in the central or eastern time zones, (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or

pacific zones, (202) 748-8001. we particularly want to hear beenyou if you have impacted from the spill on the animus river. you mentioned that the epa has little funding, and one of your problems is that they have not had money to do the job. who should pay for the cleanup of this spill? should it be the mine? guest: absolutely. we see this all over. these mining companies, and other companies, common in and do whatever they need to do, and then they pack up and go away, and leave this mess in its wake. i think that has to be looked at from the mining company, and looked at at the state perspective, who actually let them come in, and you could actually set a fungicide so that when these things happen, the money is therefore the cleanup -- is there for the cleanup.

it will be a collective effort from numerous parts. when you have a clean up like this, it is very costly, and it is a little too late because the damage is already done. host: so, the funding is not really in place now -- it is almost too late to act for the mining companies to prepare for these types of spills? future, weink in the should, and it isn't it just in conversation to have state-by-state when they know the danger, especially to the water supply, that they need to .ave a price tag to pay so when this happens, we have .he funds available to clean up you are looking at just on the mining cleanups, about $72 million of cleanup. we are in short supply of money

as well. it is a conversation that should be had between the company and the state, and also have available federal funds for when you have a disaster like this. host: "the washington times" also had a map of the abandoned mines in colorado alone. the purple on the map. gold mines,s, silver mines. we are showing you a map of where the spill happened from the gold king mind down the animus river into new mexico, and also downstream into utah and arizona. david, you are on with erin brockovich. caller: i find this just a pile of garbage right now. the epa has been nothing but political hacks for the left that do nothing. with waterer people

puddles and take over their land, and run their lines. and with this bill, they say, it is no big deal, we have it under control. it is a bunch of garbage. it is a leftist tool to destroy people they don't like. host: erin brockovich? guest: there are many people that share your restoration, and i do as well. anyver look at the epa, or situation regarding the safety of water and our water supply -- a republican be a issue or democrat issue. it is everybody's issue. . agree with you this argument that we have about commodity is the most precious one we've got -- more precious than gold or water. or silver, it is

water. i'm sick of it too, the arguing that goes on in this country over our water. it is pathetic and needs to stop. everybody needs to get together. this is the most important thing to all of us in this country. . appreciate your frustration we are certainly going to keep doing what we can to try and make it better. host: as you talk about the politics of this, do you think epa's critics will try to use ll undermine other efforts? very: i think it is possible. it is clearly noise going around. clearly, they look for those moments. nags easy to say here and on the epa. i'm very frustrated with them across the country, but at the

same time, remember, it is the administration about february the hands are tied in so many instances to do what they need to do. i do not think there is room for this constant political argument -- i don't care if you are republican or democrat -- this is a human issue. this is our water supply, and is in peril, and we need to find a way to fix it. host: environmental activist erin brockovich is our guest for the next 25 minutes or so. edward is waiting in manchester, connecticut for you. caller: good morning. thank you for my call. call. taking my i am fully aware of complaints that people have. they are always different, but they are always connected. me, myself, dealing with problems we had every day, the

one thing that keeps me going in a positive direction is having clean air to breathe and .eautiful sites to see i respect nature. i tried to work with nature -- y to work with nature. why didn't we have a response spill.e bp i all of these mines we have and up with the same problem. feel them off at the entrances, so that you can protect children's lives, if they end up going in there, because the beams are rotted. plus, we don't know how much .ater is contaminated another thing is on the political end of the deal, all of these different problems --

and the only time something might get done is if there is enough publicity, people standing together, because it is water,ople problem -- clean air, these are things that can affect our health and our children's health. american indians respected the worked together. the chief was not the one who set the rules, it was the indians sat around the fire and talked about where they would migrate, how about the winter would be, and what not, and worked together. the majority of the indians and what they thought would be best would bring this up to the chief. the chief would not decide where to go, he would count heads. host: here is the front page of

post,"rning's "denver talking about the fallout from the gold king mind e spill. erin brockovich, i will let you jump in. guest: your caller is very accurate. it will be all of our issues. we have a great gift before us. , bys one that i was taught a republican, it is the greatest gift we have, clean air and water. it is the one thing that we do not respect anymore. i think that is an enormous problem. and all of these problems we are dealing with, there is a lack of

respect, a loss of the value system. the most precious gift we have. the great frustration from an idea that was meant to do good with these agencies to have oversight and protection. it is so big, and there is no money. it is so out of control. we have set ourselves up for an absolute national crisis. we are already seeing it happen. you're right about the mines, there are 500,000 abandoned mines. you have about 4400 uranium .ines the navajo nation is clearly upset, and we should learn something from them. this is sacred to all of us. it is really time for us, as you said, identified these mines, seal them up, so we don't have another disaster. that is key. that has been a lot of our frustration with the administration, they are

backlogged. there are solutions to these problems. complacency,s, disrespect, and loss of the value system. host: washington, d.c. is next, ned is waiting to talk to you. caller: good morning. inad a real estate company colorado in 1973. we did not know about that facility. we used to ride our bikes in durango up there and back. the animus river is where butch cassidy and the sundance kid jumped into. it was a beautiful river. we went kayaking on it. this is a shame. the epa is not the villain. time.pens down th they are doing things that need

to be done. let's grow up and think of our water and the world environment. thank you. i agreed. well said. we do need to grow up. i have said this before, i don't the to say here and pick on epa. a very intelligent and well meaning people. it is the system, the administration. again, set the politics aside. we have a problem, let's find a solution and get busy to get better and right for everyone. this is all of our problem. host: jake is waiting in denver. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, jake. caller: all i asked the listeners to do, and ms. moneyvich, is look at the . everything that involves collection of money and large

amounts is driven by political issues. stopspublican party everything that is collective in nature, and they are doing get in order to put the president in bad light so that they can run and say the government doesn't work. they have consistently done this for the entire eight years. i suggest your listeners look at that as a viable issue here. thank you. guest: thank you. a lot of it does oil down to il down to money. one thing that i am always optimistic about is people, like who has, and everyone called in today, and people i meet with across the nation, there is a growing frustration, and they are starting to unite,

use their voice, and push back in a productive and good way. i'm hoping we can look at the bigger picture here and have a leader that will step up and make some decisions, especially when it comes to our water issues. host: when you talk about the epa's hands being tied by the administration, one person asks, what do you mean about the administration? at thewhen you look budget, about 50% will go to the military, but in the pie chart, goes to the epa. from there, trickling down. engineers and scientists in this agency. host: could the president cut through the red tape? guest: i would like to think the president of this country could do that, and step up, and say,

as our leader, this is a problem, stop the bs, and let's fix it. yes, i would like to believe that. host: let's go to arizona where eric is caller: i know how you can fix min problem with all the es, used the pot money from colorado. host: a good suggestion from arizona. woodstock, illinois. lydia is waiting. thank you. i appreciate all the work that you've done, both of you. i want to put into context the wasation regarding the epa put on hold for katrina. put on hold in the executive , in that process, there was a law that the

companies come if they damaged the water supply, had to report it. every day, that report is put in the paper and they are find. that process was put on hold and directed into the legal venue. -- i put that out to you as a complement. you are not just an activist. activists are extremely important, but if you look up the word in the dictionary, fee lawyers question authority, put out information to make a case against the process and they are the ones that save us from disasters. i would like to see you become more active in educating the .ublic on the process thank you very much. guest: thank you. that was very nice, thank you. -- we havectly

started the erin brockovich foundation. that is a way to get into these communities and inform and educate. when we can do that and create more awareness to make in to makes can beg different choices, more information is available, they can work at local levels and state levels whether it be for cleanup or solutions or for the prevention of destroying the water supply. fightl continue on that and it will be my life's work appeared i cannot think of anything more important -- i was a small girl born and raised in kansas. the greatest gift we have is water. fairfax, virginia is up next. john is waiting. caller: good morning. i think the american people really need to know and complain

that there is no loyalty for gold extractors. i would like to know what other extraction is done without any kind of royalties that can be set aside for these cleanup projects. guest: question. we were discussing that earlier. -- an excellent question. that conversation been cap what dutch being had with the state to have that money set aside. these breaches do occur. we are seeing it happen. i'm thankful that the media is putting this out here. it is going on everywhere. that could be a part of a bigger solution to what happens when we have a next been, where there is a breach, how we can have the funds available to begin the necessary cleanup process. host: is there an industry model the would suggest?

is this happening in other drilling sectors? guest: the answer to that here is no. i see it happening with other countries where they set up -- it wouldittees need to be done at a state-by-state with some oversight. it could be a model, that could be a solution. that could take care of this type of situation. jason chaffetz as they chair of the house oversight and government reform committee. he tweeted last week that that committee will be investigating the toxic spill. we are talking with erin brockovich for the next 10 or 15 minutes about this subject. another john is waiting in virginia, fairfax station, virginia. caller: good morning.

thank you for c-span and the opportunity to speak with erin brockovich. you to like to ask revisit your response to an earlier question were a caller was complaining that epa .egulates puddles and ditches earlier in the segment, the problem of algae blooms and dead zones came up -- it's important to recognize the nutrients and pesticides and fertilizers that contribute to these problems do and from draines wetlands into larger streams and ultimately cause these problems. you fully agreed with that caller, but i would like you to perhaps revisit that answer. guest: algae blooms do occur. watershed a lot of issues, not just from mining. when we talk about algae blooms and we've seen that happen in

ohio where we have to shut down days.pal systems for 5-6 those do occur from agricultural runoff. it's something that has to be looked at and controlled. that is what affects the water. savannah, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. passionate about this issue, i will try very hard to get through my comment and i have one personal remedy for myself but on saturday, you opened the conversation, how many people have been impacted and what are the greatest risks at this point? i could not get in, but at this point some of the biggest travesty- the greatest

in thee toxic exposures ongoing exposures wherever we live in this country is because they slowly by all cumulate on a cellular level in our bodies and it may take years, decades or generations for health impacts to manifest. there will be no provable correlation between the causation -- the only way to eliminate this toxicity that we are all exposed to is to detoxify ourselves. information -- the bottom line is, we want to hold epa accountable, but we cannot rely upon this government to help us get well when they are the ones making a sick. god bless us all. guest: you bring up a very valid

point. we have accountability for ourselves as well. this is why conversations like today, the media's involvement in the community and the people speaking out, we are aware of these problems. education implementation come andeness, taking action finding solutions and that can take time. ,n the meantime come absolutely be accountable for yourself and your health and welfare. on twitter -- money set aside for spill cleanups. that could be. everybody is going to have opinions. we have to appreciate every opinion. i can understand why she says

that because it's happening all the time. at a state level when these companies come in, some of these permitting them to do this. asidehas to be a fund set in a trust where politicians cannot get to it. affectsl disaster that tens of thousands of people. host: a superfund designation is a way to move money to a specific project. you said this has been happening for years, this bill had been ongoing before the epa was there on august 5. why wasn't this designated? what were the political or economic reasons this did not happen? there's tens of thousands of places waiting to be on the national priority list. the have a long criteria of what

a contaminant is, what the levels are, where they are at in the water and the soil. it's a time issue and a money issue. level, it is simply not working anymore at all. sounds like i'm picking on someone, but somebody somewhere has to start taking a look at this situation. it's a super failure. i'm in every single state and there is a superfund site sitting there that has not been cleaned up or touched for five years, seven years or 10 years. the list is so big, there is not enough people to get their. there's not enough funding to get there. their hands are tied. something is stuck up in the process here and you have a program called superfund -- the

sites are not getting cleaned up . they still exist today. their criteria is take forever, they have a whole host of reasons for that and a whole host of reasons why they are not getting there. as we continue to see more and more disasters and we get more and more frustrated public and more interested media and more tossure on the leaders to be start finding solutions in this issue. host: just a few minutes left with erin brockovich. matt is waiting in northport, washington. good morning. caller: good morning. i've been involved with an environmental issue up here in northeastern washington where the epa has tried to determine whether we are a superfund site over lead and arsenic that was dumped directly into the river for 100 years.

, industry and the media have an interesting way of relating this story of the epa and how they treated this spill. cityiced comments from the and mining industry, they claimed the spill in colorado -- they did not want the epa to stay there because they did not want it to become a stigma for the local community. , here in northport, we dealt with the same issue, dealing with the smelter across the border in canada that has dumped slag in the river up until 1995. the media has a responsibility to tell the story like it really is and not the story that industry and people that have

financial gain from these mines to be telling their story. they are not telling the whole story. guest: a very valid point and i know the area where you are at and thank you for calling in. everybody's responsibility. that's the one thing that becomes so frustrating to myself ann callis communities is the lack of transparency. the american people can handle the truth if you tell them the truth. when you know the truth, the people, the community, the local agencies, the local estate moreistrators can make informed and better decisions on how to deal with that water crisis. from the media to the people to the local all the way up. this conversation is finally starting to be had.

to have one oversight epa be the pooba of millions of sites, we will be screwed in the future. it's time to start acting. conversationshese and get up off our butts and get busy. there is a total lack of transparency. we need to start disclosing the truth. host: two different takes on the spill -- time for one or two more calls with erin brockovich this morning. barbara is waiting in westport, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. think to first of all

this discussion for getting to the public ear. indigenous nation peoples, one of the nation's s here. i'm hoping people will begin to understand how the indigenous people such as the navajo people have always lived pre-colonization which made this livablepristine and so through many many nation people. years that all these we have been trying to teach our philosophy and our way of living with nature because we will not live without it. we need nature more than nature needs us. until we come to that honest

talk -- you talk about going back to the truth. the truth is we need to stop listening to the ways -- start listening to the ways of the indigenous people that kept this land so pristine. andl the invaders came started digging up stuff that is not supposed to come up above mother earth. very well said. very true. we had a gift. it was pristine. we are ruining it. we will have to be the solution to it. that was very well said and thank you. host: sharon from long creek, oregon. caller: i have a much different opinion of epa that possibly other people. to epary much opposed

waters of the u.s.. i'm working with my representatives in congress to stop epa. in oregon, we have the water resource board. we have the act water quality management plan could i serve on the committee. every two years, we update. we have our plan in action and it is working. we have the board of agriculture, i serve on that. i believe oregon is extreme we responsible and can manage our own water. d.c.you get washington, and the administration involved, it never works as well as if you have a state that takes control and will work for water. i'm a rancher and conservationist. we take care of the land, i respect the land, i respect the

water, i produce high-quality food. we've heard from all these people from the eastern side of the united states. we need to hear from the west, too. a state like california and oregon, we produce an abundance of quality food. please keep in mind, epa is out of control right now. i want oregon to administer their waters and do it well and do it with those agencies we have. i give for allowing me to speak this morning. -- thank you for allowing me to speak this morning. guest: that was very well said and we had that conversation earlier. we have a field agency, we have a problem here and needs to be everybody's responsibility and it will begin state-by-state. i live in the state of california. called the mayor to step up.

we still wait for the epa. a very valid point, something we all have to talk about as we move forward. i may sound like a broken record, but the time has come, that bs has to stop, this is everybody's issue, this cannot be a political issue, this is water, every man, woman and child issue. we have to start finding solutions and ways to deal with these problems and not just continue to sit and wait and blame everything on the pa. a good group of people exist there. it's a broken system, but we have to get busy. looking at with the truth is, the complexity and how massive group,ue is and group by person by person, state-by-state, begin to address this issue. host: check out erin brockovich 's work on brockovich.com. up next, we will talk to

national park service director jonathan jarvis about the 99th birthday of that agency and a state of the west national park system. we will be taking your calls to hear about your experiences in national parks this summer. where you think the national parks are succeeding and how you think they could improve. we will be right back. ♪ tourllow the c-span cities as we travel outside the washington beltway to communities across america. >> the idea behind the city tour is we take programming for american history tv and bookkeeping to produce pieces that are more visual that provide a window into these cities that viewers would not normally go to that have rich histories. >> a lot of people heard the

history of new york and chicago, but what about albany, what is the history of them? >> we've been to over 75 cities. we will have hit 95 in april of 2016. >> most of our programming on c-span's event coverage. shorter, they take you some place they take you to a home, historic site. cablepartner with affiliates to explore the history of literary culture of various cities. >> the key entry into the city is the cable operator who contacts the city. it's the cable industry bringing us there. >> they are looking for great characters. you want your viewers to be able to identify with these people that we are talking about. >> we will take a program where we are taking people on the road to places where they can touch things, see things and learn about -- it's not just local history because it plays into

the national story. >> it should be enticing enough that they can get the idea of the story but also feel as if this is just in our backyard, let's go see it. >> we want viewers to get a sense that i know that place from watching one of her pieces. -- our pieces. leads tospan mission what we do on the road. >> you have to communicate the message of this network to do this job. is done the one thing we wanted it to do, build relationships with the city and our cable partners and gather some great programming for american history tv and bookkeeping. watch the cities tour on the c-span networks to see where we are going next, sea schedule as he's been.org/citiestour. >> "washington journal" continues. asking our viewers

to give us a call if you visited a national park this summer. you are advised to washington when it comes to running this country's 408 national parks. photos.to see your our phone lines are open. 202-748-8000 in the eastern or central united states. 202-748-8001 in the mountain and pacific regions. you can start calling in now. this month marks the 99th day of the national park service. joining us on the phone is national park service director jonathan jarvis. how it are you celebrating 99 years? guest: we looked pretty good for 99 years old. we are celebrating across the system by inviting the public to

share their stories just as you have indicated. we have defined your park website and people can post their photographs to celebrate our 99th birthday. host: the official birthday next tuesday is the official 99th birthday and then begins the 100th anniversary, your of events. -- in europe as. of events. we have stats on visitations to give us a sense of how the americans go out to national parks? guest: we are sending records this year for visitation. over last year. in 2014, we had 292 million visitors come to the national parks. already this year, we are up about 5 million over average for the summer.

regions,untain southwest utah parks seeing 2 million increased visitation over 2014 going to the mighty five. it's been excellent weather for visitation is hard parts of the country -- in some parts of the country. host: what is the park service to incentivize people to come to the parks? the hill newspaper had a piece theichael talking about need to increase millennial awareness of our national parks. another editorial from the houston chronicle noting that visitors to national parks are disproportionately white and non-hispanic. parks, these our last reserves in peril if more

of us don't learn to value their natural beauty. guest: that is spot on. oal for created a g the centennial to connect with and create the next generation of supporters. we have a number of initiatives around connecting this next generation. we have a latino heritage initiative and historical american black college internship program connecting with diverse youth to get them out into the national parks and create experiences as well. we just came out of the the civilennial of war which just happened to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement. storiesd those two

through things like the walking classroom where we invited high school students from around the nation to hike the selma to montgomery trail and interact with the soldiers of that period and connect the issues of 150 years ago to today with the issues we deal with with civil rights. this is a core value of the national park service. .e keep these stories alive by doing so, we develop relevancy to the next generation. host: to run a participant of whatarks and pay a staff, is the budget of the national park service and how has it been impacted by cutbacks? guest: the total budget of the entire national park service is roughly $3 billion. out of that, we have to do everything from fight fire to

search and rescue to run the basic infrastructure of parks, run systems, law enforcement andrity, all those things meet and greet the public when they show up and make sure they have a good time and are safe and learn about the parks as well. employees.00 we beat that up in the summer with another six or 7000 seasonal employees. i have an army of volunteers, 250,000 volunteers that work side-by-side with us across the system in order to provide easy goodwill places for future generations -- incredible places for future generations. we are in decline. and we don't go up

get an increase in our budget to take care of those things. we have a very robust request for fiscal 16 and we are hoping that the congress will see fit to provide us the funding we really need to greet all these visitors. host: you mentioned two things, water issues and firefighting. the animas river spell and all -- havefires out west parks been impacted by those two events? guest: no impacts to national parks by the animas river's bill, but we do have a number of fires burning in glacier and yellowstone. -- by the animas river spill. the park service is part of the interagency fire response across the nation.

firesbeen about 40,000 this year already. firefighters000 out on the line as we speak taking on this fire season. host: jonathan jarvis is the director of the national park service and appreciate your time this morning. we are asking our viewers to call in. have you visited a national park this summer? suggestions you have for washington when it comes to running this national park system. tweet us your photos. here he is up first in sterling, virginia. good morning. -- gary is up first. caller: i go to george washington memorial park 10 times a week. the only suggestion i have is they cut the grass longer. it rains in

virginia, the potomac turns red because of the clay. when it rains in west virginia, it is bluegray. everybody's cutting their grass too short. anaindrop goes 40 miles hour. when it hits, it breaks up the soil. moths and bugs eat the slugs. it consumes co2, makes poor oxygen. -- more oxygen. using these herbicides, you are wiping out the biodiversity. gary in sterling, virginia this point. your stories about visiting national parks this summer. the 408 national parks in this country, covering 84 million

acres in every state. in largest national park alaska at 13.2 million acres. several parks much smaller than that. michael is up next in new jersey. hello. i just visited the rocky mount national park in colorado. had a wonderful time. i camped there for six days. i just got back last monday. i'm 68 years old, i have a senior pass that i really honor and value and i think it is a great idea. i've been visiting the national was amajorly ever since i child. i lived close to philadelphia and would visit my parents -- my dad would explain the history.

was 22, ilder, when i started exploring the national parks on my own. the year before last summer, i was at yosemite national park. ishink the park service great and i support them 100%. it's always an education. i enjoyed the evening programs. that they give the rangers with people that are visiting parks. host: jean from ohio writes on her twitter feed -- we are asking our viewers to call in.

getting your stories if you visited a national park this summer. how often you use national parks . beverly is up next in delaware. i have a question about senior pass because we were just in mount rushmore and were told that they would not take it. you had to pay $11 for parking and they did not honor the senior pass. i would like to know about that. my husband has had it for over 10 years. is it still being used? i would like to know about that. host: i will point you to nps.org for information about passes and entrance fees. dayst 25 is a free entrance

at national parks around the country. one of nine free entrance days where there is no fees to get into a park around this country on that day. 27 -- 127 of the parks usually charge entrance fees. keith is up next in washington. thank you for calling. about: i wanted to talk hurricane ridge. .'m 72 years old i really enjoyed the national parks. the trick is to keep them natural, which is very difficult. withave to be careful parking garages and stoplights and all kinds of asphalt all

over the place. it begins to look like a kmart parking lot if you're not careful. how do you balance accessibility in a national park with the concerns you are worried about? director jarvis talking about wanting to get as many people as possible to national parks. part of that is accessibility and building the infrastructure there. yellowstone and some of the crowded parks are starting to use shuttles quite a bit. , that seems tome be extremely effective. that is a great idea. i know you run into people on schedules. you see them zooming from one point to the next. the parks become straight-line

highways come extremely dangerous. i know it's not easy if you keep it natural. it's a challenge. that's about it. thanks a lot. host: keith in washington. george is up next in bethesda, maryland. caller: good morning. i have gone to national parks, i'm 82 years old, for many years. this year, we went to the shenandoah national park. it was glorious. it is so well cared for intended -- and tended and they are so careful about preserving it. we went to see the perseid meteor showers. it was a marvelous experience just driving there. i've climbed a lot of those mountains when i was younger. even now, even in a car, it is so beautiful. bear. to see a

which i thought was fun. we were in the car, so we were safe. the people were courteous. host: are there other national parks you've been to where you are concerned about pollution or the effects of too much human traffic? aller: we used to go to national park -- it got so and there were some people on the trails that we gave it up and left it for others. that does happen. where the in the east recreational areas in the northeast and central east are not that large or numerous. i'm concerned about that. they do a wonderful job with

what they can. not all of their volunteers are as good as they might be. they have to have volunteers. host: george in bethesda, maryland. on pollution in national parks, this from the national park conservation association. a nonprofit set up to advocate on behalf of this country's 408 national parks, they put out a polluted parks report. the highest possible air quality the things they rated in that report, healthy air, seeing clearly and impacts from climate change. the 12 parks most harmed by air pollution, including sequoia national park, kings canyon, the and sodes, joshua tree

on down the line. you can see their letter grading system on each of those subjects. james is up next in mississippi. good morning. natchez, live in mississippi. the southern end of the natchez -- i've been to many parks. just happen to live in one. it's one of the largest national parks in the country if you consider length. natchezr, the city of is having his 300th anniversary -- it's 300th anniversary, the tri-centennial. it's a beautiful place to live, a beautiful place to see. i have enjoyed many national parks, i've been to all the majors, i've been to the grand canyon three times. each time, it's like tears crop

up. , smokyen to yosemite mountains, too many to name. it's the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to a country. host: if you had a chance to talk to director jarvis who joined as earlier, would you have any suggestions for him? you've been to a lot of the places his service manages. well, i don't know -- i'm real qualified except to -- we need to never lose the national park. after hearing erin brockovich talk about the environment and all the things about this bills -- the spills, we need to make the whole country national park. i get so frustrated when i hear

these people that want to get rid of the epa, they think the national federal lands should be exploitation of things we will run out of anyway, it's very frustrating. i don't know what to tell the director of the national parks. suppose it's a political appointment or something, i don't know. hurtingntry is really with protection of our people. i live in a national park now because maybe it will be -- they are trying to frack in this area. they are trying to drill right in the middle of the city because this guy cannot afford to maintain one of the most beautiful houses.

i would like to send everybody to natchez to see our beautiful area. the town is a national park, which is very unusual. int: the number of visitors 2014, those numbers also from the national park service conservation association in terms of the number of racial visits last year, about 5,800,000 people. the park unit that had the most visitors in 2014 and is consistently high on the list, the golden gate national recreation area followed by the blue ridge parkway and the great smoky mountains national park. michael is up next in misery. -- missouri.

caller: i agree with james all the way. i've been down to the trails in natchez. i did love it. a wonderful experience. i live right in the middle of mark twain national forest and i'm right on the border of arkansas and missouri. it's the ozarks. they consider the ozarks that whole area. we are right in the middle. forest, and a little bit more open. there's access, but it's kind of rough access. trails weresignated you cannot have any motorized vehicles. the white river which used to be a main artery to the mississippi river before they started putting all the dams up runs

through it as well. from largeerything mountains to plains. there is entertainment if you want to do that, to make. i will stick to the woods. too. do that, a good segue from erin brockovich to our national forests. i wish you guys would have a your dish with all of everybody that has worked on the program. that would be interesting to see what you had to say. host: we want to keep the focus on you, our viewers.

especially in this segment as we are talking about whether you've visited a national park this summer. give us a call and share your suggestions.hould j 202-748-8000 in eastern or central united states. 202-748-8001 in the mountain or pacific regions. kim is up next in massachusetts. good morning. caller: hello? host: go ahead. to 10 nationalen parks this summer. i'm on a mission to go to as many as i can. i want to see as much of the country as i can. host: how many total have you been to of the 408 that we have cited so far? caller: i don't actually have a number, but i have the passport

book and it's getting pretty full. i've been to a great number of national parks. a lot of them are in d.c. you cannot knock out 22 wright on the wall. 22 right onnock out the wall. i went to big bend national park. finished up in glacier national park. i went to the mexican border and canadian border. host: if you have pictures from et.r trip, twea wayne calling in from nebraska. good morning. caller: hi. please to live on one way up to -- and has lots of

seeds. aboutyou are worried invasive plants? caller: definitely. spread.l they are hard to kill. they are in the park. host: initiate the park service have to deal with. paul is up next in indiana. good morning. caller: thank you. the civil visiting war battlefields the last few years. we took thelly portals into shiloh to vicksburg we've also been out into the and over to's creek

the east, gettysburg and antietam and this year, we're hoping to get to cedar creek. with thest few years sesquicentennial, the park service has done a marvelous job cleaning up the parks, getting it back to look the way they did during the civil war. i want to give them a shout out for how much work has been done. host: do any of those reenactments -- do they happen on park grounds or do they happen outside of the parks? i'm wondering about the conservation angle. that the understand national park service does not allow reenactments on the parts themselves. like perryville , kentucky, they allow reenactments on national battlefields.

the national park service does not. there may be some that do, but i don't -- i know for certain that gettysburg is not. host: i want to point you to a recent column by don buyer of eyer ofa -- don b virginia. he had a piece in the huffington post late last month. his first job was as a park ranger at lincoln memorial national mall. ken burns calls our national parks america's best idea. thehigh praises based on public access to our parks versus the european tradition of rich only exclusivity. as we approach the centennial, we know that our parks face challenges come outdated infrastructure companies and species, climate change, drought, air pollution, like management and backlog of repairs.

millennials are aware of top parks like yellowstone but those places seem distant. it's time to find your park. we are getting your thoughts come which parks have you found this summer? judy is up next in washington. caller: good morning. i have volunteered in two parts. i wish jarvis would have been more supportive. they are in real trouble. when you visit the parks, they look like paradise. they do. underneath all that, you have the decreasing budget, the decrease in the number of rangers at each park.

if it wasn't for volunteers, the parks would not be able to keep going. the rangers are not paid a lot. the seasonal rangers are really treated very badly. , when theyred in move the seasonal job, they have k. apply to another par they may or may not get the position. system.very cumbersome they lose their housing, lose their insurance. they are like nomads and they get paid very little and they are the backbone of our park. they are not hiring more permanent employees. volunteers, when you look at it, they cannot keep up the environment of the park. without the rangers. point, the senior pass

is ridiculous to have $10 for a lifetime. seniors should pay at least five dollars a year. support the help park and protect the park. seniors use it a lot. they travel a lot and use it a lot. that is my comment. park, it isk at the hurting badly. environment and supporting our treasure. host: i'm sure director jarvis is watching us this morning. in tallahassee, florida. good morning. caller: good morning. say i reallyto appreciate you and the rest of the hosts on c-span for doing a great job. host: thanks, glenn.

caller: i will just echo the sentiments of the lady that just helping the seniors national park service by contributing. we get a free pass. there is too much of that. -- we need to help more. i visited smoky mountain national park this year and the national battlefield in shiloh. they are pretty well taken care of thanks to volunteers as much as anybody else. i have spent over 30 years in the u.s. forest service. decided federal lands

are so geologically important and archaeologically important that they created the national parks. the rest of the land that was more or less -- i won't say mediocre -- regular national made them available for the national forests. they are so mismanaged these close tos not even being what it is -- i graduated from college with a degree in forestry. we were taught to take care of the soils, wildlife and all the rest of the organisms. do what weing to thought was right in the national forests and the environment lists, the radical

once took over and now the national forests are a disgrace as far as i'm concerned. host: we've been asking our viewers to tweak in their photos with their pictures from national parks. -- tweet in their photos. appomattox and bryce canyon. --hael writes in a shot from the bunker hill monument. the national park service pushing to get millennials more interested in national parks. column -- the find your park campaign has been going on this year. here is a bit from one of the

advertisements that the park service put out. [video clip] >> there are oceans. places where fish swim and birds fly. ande mountains spring up trees and grass grow all around. made, art is created, things happen that should always be remembered. setss emerge, a woman people three: a man makes light, a leader steps forward. people help each other out, and make their own places to run and play. pride and gratitude and fun. t belongs to everyone. a can be a place, a feeling, a state of mind. get up, get out there and find

your part. .- park host: what parks you have found over your summer vacations in summer travels. canton, michigan. ian, good morning. ♪ good morning. -- caller: good morning. i recently visited the shenandoah national parks. i feel the parks are a great way to interact with the public. it's a chance for them to learn nuances about outdoors. one thing i would like to see more is how people might be able to apply the things they've learned. in shenandoah, they had a ranger presentation talking about black

bears. they have an opportunity to point out that there are potentially venomous snakes or poison ivy, general hazards. is helpful for educating the public. to the potential of collaborating with agencies like the epa or state conservation agencies, that can be a trend as well. often times, when a public hearing comes forward, a lot of people don't know what is in their area. whether groundwater come the local geology. the second item, because i came from michigan and i was visiting a different part, i know there

best practice in new zealand to prevent invasive oftentimes they will have guests scrub their gets so plant seeds don't communicated into new environments. having some sort of screening or recommendation for when guests enter i feel might be a good catch for potential hazards early on. ian with his suggestions for the national parks service in their 99th birthday. the national parks service celebrating on tuesday of next week, the official birthday. we appreciate your calls this morning. that will do it for today's show. join us tomorrow morning for a special show from richmond, virginia