>> john: kids aren't learning but school spending through the roof. why, what has gone wrong? the burr rock skras wrong. >> it's the blob. it is. >> john: it's like the reformers are up. the unions and paper pushers. >> let's destroy the system. >> john: good bring on the destruction. who would disagree. teacher's unions disagree and they are mad at me and mad at reformers about city schools. >> city schools are terrible because of unions and the test scores. >> john: how do you know in f had he 42 are learning anything? >> i know my kids are learning something. >> john: give me a break. they opposed this charter school. >> unions are mad because they conspire. >> a teacher wants to teach.

they say teachers need tenure. >> why else would you take a [ bleep ] salary. >> at least now there is good news. at some schools where teachers can be fired, kids learn. >> give us the worst schools anywhere in america and we'll outperform the other schools in five years. >> john: how goog gootd are the test scores in his charter school? unions say charters avoid the problem kids. >> no way. i love school. >> john: but sadly up to you to now, they have run the shot and made us stupid in america. >> school spending has tripled in the past 40 years. we spend much more than other countries but what do we get? more assistant principals but student learning? no improve.

here is the line. 40 years, scores have been flat. much more money, no improvement. this is awful. there is some good news. around america, some very cool things are starting to happen. >> john: school is boring. yes, it is, grade school was boring. so was high school, so was princeton. except for the party part. but fourth grade you have to learn reading and writing. that is work. >> reading is work but it's rocking awesome. >> rocking awesome? and they say school is fun. how is it fun to learn? >> so do you guys look forward to going to school in the morning? >> these kids charter less the school escapes the bureaucracy

of regular schools. including teacher union roles. this is at risk of failure but these kids learn. >> 70% are on top of the game right now. >> going to our school is ticket for educational success. >> this woman runs several charter schools. all gets outstanding scores. >> do you it with the same amount money weewlgs have to do it for less. >> john: how for less money do they get the kids so interested? you are interested in have interested in math? and reading. learning is work. [ laughter ] >> the school here is longer and they have to stay until 5:00 p.m. charter teachers can be asked to work more and they told us they don't learn. >> it's not an option for us.

we have our hand in the pie with these kids. they use all sorts of new teaching techniques, sometimes teachers wear ear pieces and sometimes they are coached by their bosses. what are they telling you? >> they are telling me things, if i don't sympathy of a great question in the moment. my principal is able to feedback to me in the earpiece. you are see teachers at athletes in the olympics and they need coaching to be at the top of their game. >> kids constantly raise their hands a around and confused me but then the students explain what they call active listening. instead of interrupting class, can i go to the bathroom? the students make hand gestures. high test scores made them so popular that parents line up hoping to get their kids

admitted. >> this line goes on and on forever. it goes around the block. >> so many applicants but not that many spaces. >> john: what do you do when you have thousands of people and a few hundred slots? they hold a lottery. >> the winners are happy but sadly there are many more losers. another charter chain in oakland use different methods. >> here is what i say, give me the worst school in oakland, black, mexican, give us the worst school in america and we'll take it and we'll outperform the other schools in five years. >> john: benchavis created the model on right in the heart of a rough neighborhood. >> now, these are hard workers. the kids american indian schools have some of the highest test

scores in california. >> you can do that on the same amount that you give all the schools. >> we get less than other schools. >> the kids in the american indian schools are scoring so far above the average for public school children there isn't even a word for it. >> john: they use different techniques from the charters in harlem, they pay kids to tutor other kids. >> we hire our students and pay them. they are xreitd and they are going to make some money. >> john: he has been chris size forward imposing strict rules. >> they really want us to succeed. >> john: a teacher made this student do pushups in the hallway because he didn't follow

directions. >> in the other school we didn't have as much homework. but in this school we have six subjects of homework but the teachers were a lot nicer meaner. >> john: but no students have been expelled. >> i love the kids that get in trouble. you can take a kid who is acting like a fool or gets in trouble and you use them as an example. >> it's kruirl your critics say, you have a sixth grade student that will be asked to sit on the floor in an eighth grade class. >> that is true. >> and to keep people in line whether we want to admit it or not. >> we play games in p.e. but here, we run or run around the block. >> john: you fired teachers have one day?

>> yeah. she was incompetent. >> last year i thought i was going to get fired a few times. it can happen at the drop of a dime. >> that is not true for government run schools. union teachers are happy they can be suddenly fired but these charter teachers can be. >> you can get canned in a moment, does it bother you? >> if i'm not doing my job and i was fired for that, so be it. >> if i was doctor and i wasn't good, i wouldn't have a job with the company. >> i would hope not. >> john: you have to maintain quality. >> have you fired more than ten? >> in three schools in eight years, yes. >> john: while bad teachers may get fired, good teachers are given freedom. >> they can choose their texas books and teaching methods as

long as they know the students are learning what they need to know. >> in harlem 100% of her kids pass. if such charters work why isn't there more of them. >> john: because unions and supporters of traditional schools hate them. this protest was outside of eva's charter. >> i hope it's not personal but it may be. >> he calls it his schools. >> over my dead body. >> does he get to stop them. i'll confront the unions about that and other strange things and other things union bosses say we shouldn't judge teachers how students do on tests. >> how do you know if they are learning anything to say? >> i know if they are learning

by looking them in the eye. >> more stupid in america when we return. [ oswald ] there's a lot of discussion going on about the development of natural gas, whether it can be done safely and responsibly. at exxonmobil we know the answer is yes. when we design any well, the groundwater's protected by multiple layers of steel and cement. most wells are over a mile and a half deep so there's a tremendous amount of protective rock between the fracking operation and the groundwater. natural gas is critical to our future. at exxonmobil we recognize the challenges and how important it is to do this right. yeah, i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ]

thank you! that's the cold truth! try smart balance buttery sead. 's heart-healthier than butter. with omega-3s. 64% less saturated fat. andlinically proven to help support healthy cholesterol. ♪ put a little love in your heart ♪ i'm ready. let's do this! i'm so ready. [ female announcer ] when you're prepared for your check-up, you just know you're going to ace it. ready for your check-up?

i'm so ready. [ female announcer ] crest pro-health invigorating clean rinse. its invigorating action lets you know it's working to fight plaque and gingivitis. and provides all these other benefits. crest pro-health invigorating clean rinse. clean, protect and invigorate your way to better dental check-ups. [ laughter ]

those great new charter schools we showed you. in i just wish there were more of them. more competition because competition makes everybody better. but there are some people who don't like my saying that. >> shame on you! >> shame on you! >> the teachers' union. five million members strong. this group is mad at me. >> we are here to demand an apology from 20/20's john stossel. >> i had done another show called "stupid in america" that said it was impossible to fire bad teachers. the union boss stai said becauf my program. >> educators all over the country feel that they have been kicked in the teeth. >> they were surprised when i came outside to hear them.

the union said i should be educated. >> the crowd liked the idea of me teaching for a week. >> see john teach. see john teach. >> i think i surprised them again when i said okay, i'll teach. but then they changed their mind. union president randy wine garten won't talk to me any more but t two other union loss did. the head of union teachers

>> i think i know why the union doesn't like testing. >> your results are awful. they are among the lowest in the nation. >> you make an argument that it is the lowest in the nation based upon the test scores. now, i would say that ours can get better but i he would say that ours are -- >> your predecessors, the unions have been saying that for years. >> i think the unions have a pretty strong history of advocating for high quality public education. >> but not achieving it. >> our test scores are not what we choose to focus on. we choose to focus on teaching kids. >> you but ho but you how do yw if they are learning anything if you don't test them and compare. >> i know my kids are learning when i look in their eyes. >> the protests had celebrity support. actor matt damon. he was asked from reason tv about the rules that make it hard to fire a teacher. >> in acting there isn't job

security. why do you think there is that in teachers. >> do you think job insecurity makes me work hard. i want. >> you take it mba style thinking, right? >> mba style. business school idea. >> well, yes. charter schools, vouchers, even obama's race to the top are based on the idea that competition is good. if ks are free to take their school money to any school, competition among schools including for profit chains will force all of the schools to get better or go out of business. the best schools will expand. but the unions don't like that market competition. >> there is a profit motive behind all of the extra testing. >> we need to get the corporations out of the schools. >> the union says school of choice would enrich corporations but further immoverrish poor teachers. ♪ >> teachers paid enough?

>> no. >> you got some teachers making over $100,000 a year. >> and they aren't making enough. >> matt damon agrees with that. his mom is a union teacher. >> a teacher wants to teach. why else would you take a [ bleep ] salary and really long hours. teachers make a [ bleep ] salary? well, maybe to matt damon. but today american teachers make more per hour are than accountants, nurses, architects. >> i can guarantee you this, it is not about the money. >> kevin is a former d.c. politician. >> when i was chairman of the education commission on the d.c. council i gave the school system 300 million new dollars. the teachers got more money than ever to educate 1,000 fewer kids and the test scores went down. they grew central office. they had more deputies to the assistant to the deputy to the assistant. they grew the bureaucracy. >> and the former district chancellor found that the

bigger bureaucracy didn't even get school supplies to the kids. >> walking in to school and seeing that there were no books in the library. kids didn't have supplies and pencils and then the following week i visited the warehouse of the school district where there were boxes and boxes of books and scissors and blue glue and computers. >> why didn't they get to the school? >> exactly. that was the question. >> why didn't they get to the school? >> it was just a complete and utter sense of dysfunction and the lack of accountability. >> the reason they call the school bureaucracy the blob, it is like this blobbyjaba the hut thing that can't be budged. the blob is the teacher's union, janitor's union, the school board bureaucrat and if you try to make a change the blob says. >> we don't do that here. we recruitin requisition downt. it is crazy.

>> both union leaders escaped that bureaucracy. >> you went to private school. >> that's correct. >> kind of made me feel that i had better do pretty good in that school or else. >> i will confront the union losses when we return. why can't other people have the choice they had? also, why does it cost a third of a million dollars to fire just one union teacher? what is wrong with these people? there's only one bottle left ! i've got to tell susie ! the vending machine on elm is almost empty. i'm on it, boss. new pony sorry ! we are open for business. let's reroute greg to fresn growing businees use machine-to-machine technology from verizon wireless. susie ! the vending machine... already filled. cool be. because the business with the best technology rules.

this is not how witness protection works! when we set you up with that little hardware store we didn't intend for your face to be everywhere. but fedex office makes it so easy. not only do they ship stuff, they print flyers, brochures -- everything i need to get my name outhere. that's the problem. now we need to give you a third identity. you're paul matheson. and you're gonna run your business into the ground. erik gustafson would never do that! there is no erik gustafson. hey that's erik gustafson!!! there is no erik gustafson!!!!! [ male announcer ] small business solutions. fedex. solutions that matter.

look who sent their kids to private school. nan nancy pelosi. hillary clinton. al gore. the. >> the people who are making the rules already have choice. you know, the politicians and i

used to be a politician. the politicians have a choice. >> yet all the politicians who sent their kids to private school oppose school of choice for regular people. >> thank you for taking my question, president obama. i wanted to know whether or not you think that mallia and sasha would get the same high quality rigorous education in a d.c. public school? >> if i wanted to find a great public school for malia and sasha to be in we could probably maneuver to do it. >> but apparently he didn't want to. the president now sends them to sidwell friend. the same school the vice president's grandkids attend. tuition, $32,000 a year. and the union leaders? >> you went to private school. >> that's correct. i graduated a catholic high school. >> the head of newark's teacher's union. a tough negotiator. at this school board meeting when the chairman said he used up his speaking time he marched up to the front to demand more saying my union contract

mandates seven more minutes than i got. >> the rigidity of the stupid union contract is why the kids suffer. your union is the problem. >> i think you know better than that. >> he opposes letting kids escape his rules by, say, allowing them to attend charter schools in existing school buildings. >> over my dead body they are going to come there. i'm going to be there and physically try and stop them. there is certain things that don't mix. oil and water you can't emulsify. >> this is no room? the half empty schools. >> there is not half empty schools. >> he says charters favor rich kids but newark public schools spend almost $400,000 per classroom and the charters get less. >> not that much less. according -- >> but they get less. it is hardly the rich versus the poor. >> happy for them. >> then let them into your schools. >> don't want them in our

schools. why should you be -- >> you are not happy for them then? >> does fox and cnn are they in the same building? i don't think so. >> but fox and cnn can't been aish the competition. competition is good. competition is why we have fox and cnn and msnbc. whistling you have a choice of what channel you are going to watch or what school you attend, competition makes things better. he understands that about his own education. >> my mother paid for me to go to it and it kind of made me feel that i had better do pretty good this that school or else. >> sounds like you are argue against the unionized public school. >> i'm not arguing against them. >> most of the independent schools are still catholic schools doing a great job for less than half of the money you spend. >> i wouldn't say that. >> $17,000 versus $5,000. >> john, tell them to have another bingo game and get it over with. >> catholic schools fire bad

teachers but government run schools really can't because teachers get tenure. why have tenure. most professions don't have tenure. >> when you got into original are niced crime and got to be a made person there was a ceremony but not like tenure. >> kind of like organized crime you are in forever unless you die or are kill. >> there is that perspective of it. you are good teacher there shouldn't be a problem with it. >> here is one problem. not every teacher is good. some are really lousy. >> it is impossible to fire these tenured teachers. >> whbut why? >> because there are a million steps. >> there haven't. there is only one. >> it is not one step. it is all these steps. >> let's see. >> this the list of steps required to fire a teacher in my town. this is why most principals don't even try. they look at the list of of appeals and just give up. or they push the worst teachers to transfer to another school.

stouth a common way to avoid the schools there is even a name for it. dance of the lemmon. it would be funny except it leaves some kids stuck with terrible teachers. >> this is crazy. >> this former police investigator says it takes years to fire even an abusive teach. lots of people said he hit kids. the kids said it. >> lots of people said he hit them and other teachers said that there were present in the classroom. took me four years and $283,000. a $127,000 in legal fees. plus what it cost to have a substitute fill in all while he is sitting home having popcorn. >> so being paid by the state. >> still being paid by the district. >> he couldn't even fire the teacher who faked his doctorate. and -- >> he went to sleep in class. >> and he was quite disturbed when the supervisor came in and woke him up. >> he complained. >> it never ends. it never ends. >> when we return, meet someone

who successfully fired hundreds of teachers. >> fired your own daughter's principal. >> that was a chilly night at home. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole gin oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios.

live from america's headquarters, right now republicans are getting ready to vote in a straw poll. it may give it's h us a better idea who can win as president. some of the contenders will bring you the results later this afternoon. a florida millionaire has been convicted of murdering his wife back in 2009. bob ward was stoic as the verdict was read. ward could get up to life in prison. and it looks like planet earth is safe. a 6-ton nasa satellite crashing through the atmosphere, it was

over california. nasa is unsure where it landed but most of it burned up. sonar no reports of damage and nobody hurt. good news. i'll see you again at 6:00 p.m. eastern. now back to stupid in america hosted by john. "stupid in america." as we see, education in america is a mess. what will fix it? who might fix it? >> somebody needs to fix this! you you can do it! >> oprah thinks this woman can fix it. >> thank you, michelle. i'm rooting for you. >> michelle is michelle reid. >> michelle reid acting chancellor. >> five years ago, the mayor picked her to manage d.c. schools. >> you would never run a school system before. >> i had never run a school before. and that is why people thought that adrian was nuts. i was a 37-year-old girl from

toledo, ohio. >> and people said what? who? >> yeah. people said he's lost his mind. >> her friends said she had lost hers. >> i have two kids. two daughters, 9 and 12 and they -- i put them in the d.c. public schools. >> the schools were a disaster. test results among the worst in america. chancellor reid quickly learnd that although only 8% of the kids were on grade level, there was something odd about how the teachers were ranked. >> when i looked at the performance evaluations of the adults in the system. >> how good is the adult doing. >> right, how good are the teachers doing, i found that 95% of the adults were being rated as doing a great job. so how can you have a system where all of the workers are thinking we are doing a great job and a great job for the kids and what we are producing for them is 8% success? >> she visited schools and saw empty classrooms. >> i walk into this one school

and go to the first classroom. five kids in the classroom. same classroom. nine kids. third, three kids. seven kids. i'm thinking what is going on. finally i get to the fifth or sixth classroom and ask the teacher. i said where are all the kids? and she said well, it's friday. i thought really? i just couldn't believe that was the answer. so i said is that all? and she said no. >> i thought great, okay. she is going tell me some are on a field trip or something like that. she said it's raining, too. >> turned out that not every classroom was empty. attendance varied by teach. i'm walking through and finishing my visit and i walk into one classroom and there are 30 kids in the classroom. there in fact are not enough desks for the number of kid there's. there was kids sitting on the radiators and what not. i go to one of the kids and i said what do you think about the teacher. he said this is my best teacher, bar none. as i was leaving the school,

and this was about at 10:00 in the morning that young man and two of his friends were walking out of the school in front of me. so i tap them on the shoulder and i said excuse me, where do you think you are going? >> they said our first period teacher is great so we came to school but our second period teacher is not so good so we are going to roll. >> i thought this is not the picture that the american public have in their minds of true wants. they are making a conscious decision to wake up early and come to school for first period because they knew they were going get something out of it and then to leave after that because they weren't going to get any value out of it. >> and the great teacher gets paid no more than all of the other teachers. >> that's right. gets paid no more. if we were doing seniority based layoffs would have got laid off first. >> she decided to pay good teachers more and fire bad teachers. >> that did not go over particularly well. >> reid must go. >> a few you weeks into this i

was visited by my then general counsel and he comes rushing into my office and says you have got to stop firing people. i said why? i mean if the people are not doing the jobs that he this are supposed to be doing, we need to move them out. and he said welcome to d.c. public schools where we never fire any one. >> but you did fire a lot of the people. >> eventually we did. >> she found a 90 day loophole that let her close some lousy schools and fire some teachers. >> nothing short of a firestorm surrounding the future of the school system. >> 30 principals this week. >> it was a plan, a plot even before she took the job to get rid of people who have been around who have tenure. >> you fired. >> closed 15% of the city schools. fired your own daughter's principal. >> that was a chilly night at home. >> she upset families, communities, students and teachers. a lot of people got fired.

she. >> she said they deserved to be fired, the system needs change. >> many of those is thought she needed to be fire. >> people really hated you. hate you still. >> yeah, yeah. i was the wicked witch of the west. they called me the hatchett lady. the dragon lady. the topper term are nateer. >> big bad witch. time magazine even put you on the cover with the broom. >> i took the broom to mean sweeping house. >> the blob didn't want their house swept. the union says poorly performing teachers need a second chance. >> don't you have some union teachers who are just lousy? >> we need to lift up the low performers and help them do better. >> why not fire them. sorry, maybe teaching is not for you. >> there is a cost to firing teachers. the quality of life of that person is deeply affected by that termination. >> so therefore nobody should ever be fired? >> well, what we should do is

help people improve their skills. >> people would say to me, well, if a teacher is not effective, you should talk about spending the time and effort to professionally develop that person, right. i would say okay, but whose children are we going to put in that classroom for this year? >> who are you going to practice on? >> right, who are you cboing to say oh, it didn't work out, sorry. you only get one chance at first grade. i made the decision we will do the layoffs by quality instead of seniority. and this really upset the apple cart and people, you know, were protesting. >> why would it upset the apple cart? it is just common sense to do it by quality. >> common sense to you and me but it was absolutely counter to what the district had always done. it is the way that unions operate, right. i mean seniority. >> it cheats the good young teacher, don't they get mad? if forget the young teachers.

it cheats the kids. >> kids were a little less cheated under reid. test scores went up when she was chancellor but in the end the union won. >> you can get her out. >> we are going to fire her. if we have to be here every day all night we will. >> the mayor who appointed her was voted out and when lost, reid quit before she was fired. >> michelle reid becomes a casualty of d.c. politics. so so she lost in d.c. but elsewhere in america all sorts of new schools are succeeding of new schools are succeeding and exciting things are

that's why i recommend crest pro-health clinical gum protection. it helps eliminate plaque at the gum line, helping prevent gingivitis. it's even clinically proven to help reverse it in just 4 weeks. crest pro-health clinical gum protection.

people who try to start charter schools often say oh, bureaucrats make is so hard and put up all of the obstacles and there that is why there aren't enough chart ares yet to have a real market except in one town most kids now attend charters. how did that happen? >> hurricane katrina on track to make a direct hit on the low lying city of new orleans. >> it happened because of a hurricane. >> all eyes on new orleans. not only a famous city but below sea level. >> the entire city will be under water. >> mother nature is in charge and now mother nature has dealt one horrific blow.

>> when katrina flooded new orleans it didn't just destroy much of the city, it also destroyed the school system. some school reformers thought maybe that is what needed to happen. >> it was probably one of the worst school districts in the country. it was a horror. >> before katrina, our schools, i mean they were just failing. >> the choice was do you rebuild what was there or build something entirely new. >> louisiana built something new. they made it easy for people to open charters. >> you tell the state here is my plan. >> ben started a charter school called sci academy. he was the only employee. he drove his car around new orleans until 3:00 in the morning putting up signs advertising his school. >> and you see this number right here, that was my cell phone. >> he had to advertise because students had to choose to go there. they didn't just get sent here because they live nearby.

>> we are putting these up everywhere. >> he went to people's houses to recruit. >> living in new orleans we never had that. >> her son reggie goes to sci academy. >> he came out and interviewed and talked to me and then talked to reggie and was explaining to him about the hours and academics and stuff. >> when the school opened only a of the students were pressurent on state tests. now, sci academy test results are among the best in the city even though the school itself is just a bunch of trailers. >> there is a plan in my mind to have a permanent building but if you walk in a school and first thing they tell you are complaints about the facilities they are probably not focused on the right things. >> how did they do this? >> well, teachers have to perform because the principal can fire at will. >> yeah, we have at will contracts with the school. >> sharon clark runs another new orleans charter and she, too, fires the weakest teachers.

>> i call it freeing up a person's future. >> the charter law also allows parents to fire a school if they don't like this school they can send their kid to another. >> sharon needs to work hard because she worries about losing her charter. >> yes, every day, sir. >> good morning, class of 2013! >> good morning! >> the competition drives schools to try different things like this morning ritual at sci academy. >> who are you? >> education is my future and the future is now. >> why are you here? >> this seems a little cult like and some kids didn't take it seriously but something worked. >> it is an amazing difference. since he has been here he has become more sponsible. thinking. >> even though i didn't like the school at first as i went to school i started to want to go to college more because i saw how important it was. >> now, reggie's mother is

getting ready to start college so reggie tutored her for a test using skills he learned at sci. >> this is how it should have been before katrina. >> is this charter has gone from one employee into another school that is so popular it holds a lottery to decide who gets in. >> we are going to have a waiting list of 200 students long. >> this is the first by far. >> as you saw in harlem, nervous kids and relatives sit anxiously hoping their name will be called. some go away happy. >> yeah! >> most do not. >> it just goes to show, this kind of school is badly needed in the city and this kind of education is exactly what we need to be offering every single kid. >> today, most kids in new orleans attend charter schools and test scores across the city are better. >> many of the greatest cities in the world have been reborn amid crises. the chicago fire resulted in a

greater chicago being built. the san francisco earthquake resulted in a much more dynamic safer city emerging. the fire of london resulted in a much greater capital emerging. well, you know, people in new orleans are rebuilding the city for the better. >> the school of choice movement is here to stay and it will never go back. >> and next, some more good news. time from the internet. the blob should be worried because look how excited these this is not only the master of all droids, it's the master of all machines. so powerful, anything you download on your computer is available on your droid bionic, instantly, wirelessly, at verizon 4g lte speed. never sync with a cord again. the droid bionic by motorola.

control it and you control everything.

do your kids have a good teacher?

how do you know? maybe the teacher next door is better. maybe there is a better teacher in another state. maybe there is the world's best teacher or several. wouldn't it be great if your kids could have that teacher? well, today, yes, you can. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> these kids are this excited about a math website. >> it is amazing. >> negative four minus four and we are done. >> taught me a lot of things. >> five years ago, hedge fund analyst sal khan created videos like these to tutor his cousin. >> that worked out well so i started tutoring her brothers and cousins and all the rest and i had to do the same lecture all over again. i had a friend who said why don't you put your lectures on you tube. i decided to give it a shot. >> welcome to the presentation on basic addition. >> soon, thousands watched his lectures. >> i started getting letters from people and comments on youtube and they are not like

hey, i think this kind of might of helped on my math exam. they are like i failed calculus the first time. i start ared watching the videos and now i'm acing the class. >> the youtube numbers kept rising and he got letters from the middle east and africa. >> what sal khan has done is amazing. >> now, he is funded by bill gates and offers web lecturers on everything from history to economics to computer science. his videos are viewed millions of times. >> even if god forbid i got about it by a bus when i walked outside it will still reach millions and maybe eventually billions of students. >> just happen to be good at teaching. >> i will take that as a compliment. >> it is a compliment. he is a great teacher. >> i hope that helps. see you in the next video. >> it is really helping us learn a lot more. >> it is exciteing that he gets kids so excited about math. >> in most parts of life, things have gotten much better, cars, computers, cell phones.

education not so much. >> right, you know, you rewind, 80 or 90 or 100 years and you would have the local band that if you had a party that was the only gig in town. >> each village might have a story teller. >> exactly. >> or a sing. exactly. once you have mass media coming out they will say wait, why don't we take the best musician and actor and story teller and whatever way and record it and put it out on radio, put it out on records or whatever and i think in theory that could have happened with education before. >> but it hasn't. >> even for basic math, multiplication tables i thought they would be using video games. why not? >> they don't want to change the system. >> the blob people call it. >> what is fun from our point of view we are able to reach students outside of the blob. >> this california school district started using khan's

videos in 5th grade classrooms. the teachers were skepti skept. >> they are excited about math. it is like oh, we have math this morning. this is great. >> we assume that most people on their own don't want to learn or don't want to get engaged in mathematics. >> i think they are just frustrated because most of them are in classrooms that are not catering to them. >> at first teachers worried that the online instruction could replace them but -- >> i think it is so wrong as my teachers would tell you they have taught more math than they ever taught before. >> now, teachers can tutor kids one on one. >> i notice you were having some issues with fractions. >> you request go on your own pace. >> and because kids can go at their own pace. >> i have students working on easy multiplication. >> some kids enjoy the lessons so much they study at home.

>> some of them are doing two and three hours a night at home when i'm asking for 15 minutes. >> when i'm at home and i have time i log on. >> so finally after all of the years of kids being bored in school and not learning math, that is over? >> i think is might be. >> hope so. if it happens it will be thanks to the online classes or the charter schools or other experiments that break out of the union dominated government monopoly. let a thousand flowers bloom. it's competition that has given us better medicine and transportation, technology, everything. don't your kids deserve that, too? that is our show. i'm john stossel. today i own 165 wendy's restaurants. and i get my financing from ge capital. but i also get stuff that goes way beyond banking. we not only lend people money, we help them save it. [ junior ] ge engineers found ways to cut my energy use.

[ cheryl ] more efficient lighting helps junior stay open later... [ junior ] and serve more customers. so you're not just getting financial capital... [ cheryl ] you're also getting human capital. not just money. knowledge. [ junior ] ge capital. they're not just bankers... we're builders. [ junior ] ...and they've helped build my business. yeah, i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth!

>> heather: i'm hea