>> building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc7 news. ♪ kristen: i'm kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers" on abc7. every day, we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and we get answers for you in real time. today, u.s. stock futures tumbled bank crisis grew. it is human psychology responsible for the panic? and if so can arrival of the u.s. cause a collapse here through social media manipulation? we will talk with a leading expert of behavioral economics. also fans of cooking shows, listen up. maybe area program -- a-- bay area program turning out great chefs through an affordable education.

but first, the mass does not add up. -- math does not add up. the district's controversial policy to ban algebra classor ei grade. may ecmendinaltate of blchl students. oneone ofutrsrecent op-ed in the san francisco examiner which says the district's delay of algebra one until high school has created a nightmare of work arounds that are most hurtful to kids from lower income families. joining us now is grandfather of a lincoln high school sophomore, and a board member of the parent teacher student association as well, as well as david m., a material who has co-authored several patents. thank you for joining us. you are one of the co-plaintiffs, rex. the lawsuit was filed this afternoon.

literally just came out. what is your claim in the suit? >> the claim as the kids -- is the kids who were not assessed before entering the ninth grade. my and granddaughter, we put her in an algebra hado p and taa gebra a geometry in the ninth grade. we didn't even know that she could have actually tested out of having to take algebra 1 because she had taken a test. of the things -- the lawsuit is one of the things, not assessing things in order to be able to be exempt from having to take the class twice. and the other is -- that is my granddaughter there. she's actually taking a precalculus class at uc berkeley because she has that good at

math, i didn't want her to get trapped into these so-called compression courses, which is algebra 2 and a little bit of calculus in the 11th grade. she is really good at math. the district really holds back kids from excelling, when they are able to actually do the work. kristen: i'm good -- i'm just going to pull back a little bit. one of you can explain how in 2014 the school district said no more algebra until ninth grade. before that, because were advanced in math like your granddaughter, who could do it in eighth grade. the stated goal was equity, lowering the number of underrepresented minority and low-income students from failing algebra one in eighth grade, so they can eventually governmental higher level math. so the district says by that measure because it produced a number of students failing courses, this has been successful. what evidence do you have that it hasn't been successful? >> i can answer that. first of all, it was just political as far as i'm

concerned. in order to lower even the test scores out for eighth graders and create equity or show equity, what they did was move algebra one to a ninth grade -- to the ninth grade. but that actually didn't happen. the disclosure of data proved that they claimed 40% failed, when in fact only 4% of the eighth-graders failed the algebra. they were hiding equity a grade level. we have proof that is not the case. kristen: you are asking for what, the restoration of algebra as a middle school -- >> that's exactly right. algebra as a middle school option. kristen: dave, can you talk about why anyone who does not

live in san francisco or have kids in san francisco should care about this battle? >> absolutely. the california math framework is using san francisco unified as a model for its proposal. so this is a proposed framework. what it does is it prevents guidance -- presents guidance for the math education for 6 million public school students. the first draft of this proposed framework explicitly recommended algebra want to be delayed until ninth grade. used san francisco -- it used san francisco as justification for these claims. but then families for san francisco exposed to be misrepresented. so the second draft which is the current draft that removed all mention of san francisco, but still you have statements in the framework like "this framework recommends that all students take the same mathematics courses in kindergarten through grade eight," when they say the same, they make it clear that algebra one for all students in

eighth grade is not what they are talking about but they put in ninth grade. this is still in the framework even though it is not explicitly mentioned. if a person wants to learn more, a professor of mathematics from stanford and brian conrad has made his public comment that he made available [indiscernible] to me -- to learn more about this problem. kristen: your signal was a little shaky. i may have to rely on to cover you with the signal. a recent shift on the state level and part of the reason they are considering this california framework change is away from the rest of the top with the top being calculus and no one being left off early on, having different branches of mathematics that could lead to calculus but maybe not, maybe it is ai, statistics, something

else -- why is taking algebra in eighth grade so important if not to get to calculus? why is that your goal and why should that be the goal for all kids? >> if you take algebra 1 in eighth grade, you can clearly get to calculus by the time you get into 12 great. if the algebra 1 is great -- you've got algebra 1/8 grade -- algebra one in eighth grade, a clear trajectory. right now they have algebra one in the ninth grade. so you have to take geometry in 10th grade and algebra 2 in 11th grade and precalculus and 12 grade, so you'll even get to calculus -- so you don't even get to calculus. they a compression course they have a compression course. a letter cosigned by

department heads of stanford, harvard, ucla, and uc berkeley told the district that they don't approve of this "compression course," because the kids are not getting precalculus for college. kristen: what you are saying what they are saying is sufficient and cons has higher level math is not being recognized by the uc's or top schools. this conversation can go on for a long time. we want to get the school district involved. but they just got the lawsuit, as i understand. we have reached out for comments but we have not heard back. we do thank you for coming on today to discuss the lawsuit that was just filed against san francisco unified to get algebra back in middle schools for those kids who are ready for it. thank you both so much. >> appreciate you. thank you so much. kristen: behind our nation's

current banking debacle is a certain herd mentality that drives investment decisions. up next,, and expert in behavioral finance chairs has insight into understanding that mentality and how it could help secure your financial futur

kristen: today shares of first republic bank plunged to a record low as the bank struggled to convince wall street that it was not in trouble and that another rescue and infusion of cash was on the way. first republic is the latest regional bank to fall victim of a panic in the sector after the sudden collapse of another bay area-based bank, silicon valley bank. this herd mentality is causing u.s. senators to raise the issue of how easy it could be for foreign country -- for a foreign

country or malicious act or to use social media to inflict great financial harm to the u.s.. joining us live now to talk about behavior finance is the chair of finance and the libby school of business at the santa clara university, professor shafran. thanks for your time. >> great to be with you. kristen: what is behavior finance? it is suddenly getting a lot of attention, your area of expertise. what does it have to do with what's happening here? >> behavioral finance is application of psychology to understanding financial behavior by individuals and corporations and bank executives and markets as a whole. a bank runa -- bank runs in particular have a strong component. kristen: that's what we saw with silicon valley bank. someone pulls out their money and everybody else starts running to the bank. and banks don't have enough money to give all the money out all at once.

many have long-term bonds and things like that and they don't have the cash and that is a bank run. please professor go on. >> no problem. so what you have is -- psychology tells us that when people get fearful, there's an automatic fight or flight response that takes over. and so, what we have with a bank run is a slight component that you have depositors attempting to flee from the bank with their deposits before they believe the bank will go under. when a few large depositors take their money out and let it be known, then you have grout psychology taking over and that is what leads to this collective run for the bank. kristen: this is problematic for the system as a whole. but isn't that a rational individual decision to say, if there's potential danger, i'm going to save what's my? >> there's a rational

component to it. you are absolutely correct. a lot depends however on whether your deposits are insured or not. some people whose entirely safe because they are insured by the fdic nevertheless feel the need to join the crowd, because their own internal brains are getting danger messages, and they are responding accordingly. now, if you truly believe and have good information to ss a bank in terms of its soundness and judge correctly that your deposits are in danger, it does make sense. that is rational. but silicon valley bank was solvent when it went under. kristen: right. >> so what you had was true panic on the part of depositors. the wealth was there. you are right when you say that banks don't keep all the cash on hand.

that they would need to have one all depositors want to withdraw at the same time. every bank is like that. that's why we have deposit insurance and backstops in order to deal with these issues. it's problematic when got crowd psychology taking over. kristen: how do you battle or manage that crowd psychology? does the government up the guaranteed amount by a lot more? it was at $250,000. they made everyone hold even if you had millions -- above that $250,000 mark. should it be raised? how do you restore confidence? >> two things. there was enough value in svb make depositors hold. you didn't need anything to come in from the outside. you needed the cash. it was a liquidity event. not a value event. but what should you do?

well, i'll tell you, honestly, barney frank, when he co-authored the dot frank act, was very clear to say 250 $1000 was fined for individuals but for corporate checking accounts it needed to be higher. but he couldn't get political support for that. so we wound up having that in place. at the same time, you want to remember that there are several people or agents who insured deposits. it's not just the fdic. the bank's shareholders are the first line for providing a stopgap. they are the ones to take a loss if something goes wrong at the bank. what you want to have is a lot of shareholder capital as a cushion. especially at a bank like silicon valley bank or first republic, which are more in

danger because more of their deposits are uninsured. kristen: right. also the same kind of herd mentality also is what is putting all these other midsize regional banks at risk right now. is it the thought that if it could happen to silicon valley bank it could happen to all the others that look like it? >> that's right. psychologists study attention. what has our attention? two weeks ago, three weeks ago, we were not thinking about major bank runs around the world. that's not where our attention was. but it just takes one event like wha has happened at svb to generate a global panic. kristen: i want to get to what senator tim kaine said today, he warned foreign actors could possibly beer easily manipulate social media to trigger a huge collapse for the whole economic system. do you think that is true,

based on what you've seen here? >> i think it would be difficult to do. but i also want to say, we have seen the power of social media when bad actors -- cambridge analytica, if you remember that event, that did have a real impact. the russians did have an impact and manipulation -- in manipulation. it is possible to have an impact and he is right to raise the issue. we were not prepared for what happened several years ago, when those events took place, the ones i just mentioned. so i think that we do need to take that issue seriously and be prepared to counter it. kristen: can you give us the 10 second summary of what is a take for those of us who are just small individual investors? >> if you are a small individual investor, you can rest assured,

your deposits are likely to be safe. so, i think, go to sleep without worrying that you are going to have a sleepless night, because in the morning, your money is going to be gone, it will be there. kristen: thank you so much. coming up -- a culinary challenge turning up the heat in san francisco. we will dish about a special dinner challenge tonight

kristen: no studio lights, cameras, or temperamental chef judges, but there is a high-stakes culinary challenge happening in san francisco tonight. the annual culinary clash to benefit city college of san francisco culinary arts and hospitality so this program. joining us live right now is raymond v., the general manager of the intercontinental sf hotel and student chef armando r., one

of the chefs taking on the challenge. thank you both for joining us. >> thank you for having us. kristen: raymond, this is the third of three nights tonight at your hotel's acclaimed restaurant. tell folks what this event is all about. >> thank you so much rigging must -- so much for giving us the opportunity. this event started 20 years ago. one michelin star chef came to the city college, so the idea was born to do a competition. monday usually we are close tonight we are fully booked because we have this competition going on. the idea was students a chance to see what it's like not only took a cantilever a culinary experience -- and deliver a culinary experience but also manage a

restaurant, make decisions on how many guests will try will be entertained. we have judges that are celebrities and influencers. regular guests that are chefs themselves. and they create the menus. after the series of the three days, we have a winner. it serves us, too, because last time we ended up hiring a chef that is still with us today. kristen: that is fantastic. raymond, i was quite honored to be asked to be a judge. i would've loved to. my bad that i'm missing it. armando, i'm going to bring you in here. looks like you guys are preparing here. it looks delicious. how exciting is it to be a part of this and kind of get into such a high level restaurants and kitchen and put out this amazing work? >> it was a very exciting opportunity. personally i have not worked in a cage too long and this was one of my first chance is to get into a kitchen --

kitchen too long and this was one of my first chances to get into a kitchen. working with the team was exhilarating, nerve-racking, exciting overall. kristen: look at you. look like you belong there. what went right and what went wrong? when you see the cooking shows, you know something did not go right. what was your drama when you competed? >> nothing went right the first two days. everything that could possibly go wrong did. [laughter] from baking, to just getting our pork belly right. it was giving us a hassle. but that's how the kitchen works. we figured it out and found new ways to go around. and yeah, just came through. kristen: it was a three-course menu. what did you serve? >> yes. to start with, we did an agua chile inspired. a pork belly entree with mole on the side. for dessert, we did a tamarind base jelly with a corn cake and

sweetcorn ice cream on the top. kristen: so exciting. raymond, i think you had two teams competing per night. two teams of two chefs. tonight is the third one. how is it going to work? are you planning the winner after tonight? >> it will take us a little bit of time because not only the judges, but every guest that comes tonight has a voice. we tally up the results, it takes about a day. we invite all the students as well as the city college, the longest-running culinary program in the city, so they come with a few people, then we crowned the winner. kristen: what does the winner get? >> there is a scholarship. this is not a for-profit event for us. we donate over $200,000 to the scholarship as well as the college combined. kristen: that is fantastic. armando, what do you think about the education you

have received in the culinary program? >> it's like nothing else i've ever experienced. we start from the get-go with the baking experience, down to cooking mass production. i can't imagine getting this kind of detailed and in-depth experience anywhere else. kristen: and it is and accessible for so many people. are there other ways your hotel has supported city college, or doing partnerships? >> yeah, actually, we with the intercontinental here in particular, it is important to give back. we do at least one charity a month. the city college has been a resident of those. there's many different ways we try to assist. giving back is really important. armando is really humble. he said that things went wrong, he actually did really well. they were the earliest to

there, latest to live, helped clean up, so they got to really see what is like and sit down with our chefs. we have our executive chef, norma, and our sous chef heavily involved in the process. they can both ask questions, like what we -- like why would you go with the mole? story of how they learned to cook the when they were younger from their mother, it is nice all around. kristen: luce as a fantastic restaurant, you run a first rate hotel at the intercontinental. this is a first rate culinary class. i would tell people how to get tickets but tonight's event is sold out. don't worry, you can always enjoy next year's event. raymond, you guys will be back then. good luck, everybody. good luck

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kristen: thank you so much for joining us for "getting answers." tonight, breaking developments, after former president trump claims his arrest is imminent. tonight, could donald trump become the first former president in u.s. history to face criminal charges? the grand jury here in new york city investigating the $130,000 hush money payment, just ahead of the 2016 presidential election. a new witness testifying before the grand jury today. fences now being put up in new york city. police now on alert. and tonight, trump's potential opponent, florida governor ron desantis, taking a swipe at the prosecutor, but not before taking a swipe at donald trump. jonathan karl with late reporting tonight. overseas, vladimir putin welcoming china's president xi to moscow, calling him, quote, a dear friend. meeting for more than four horses today. will china help