captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> i am about to sign into law the civil rights act of 1964. my fellow citizens, we have come now to a time of testing. we must not fail. >> ifill: nearly 50 years after that watershed moment in america's struggle against discrimination, civil rights leaders and four of the living presidents gathered in austin, texas, to commemorate the landmark legislation. >> because of the civil rights movement, because of the laws president johnson signed, new doors of opportunity and education swung open for everybody.

>> ifill: good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. tonight, gwen leads an extended roundtable discussion on the civil rights act-- how far the country has come, and how far it has to go. >> it's really hard to talk to that today to young people because they can't imagine places in atlanta you couldn't go, or shop or try on clothes. >> many children in our country still grow up today and maybe college or their first job is the first time that interact with people of another race. >> ifill: also ahead this thursday, two takes on education. hari sreenivasan profiles one new york city high school putting its kids on the fast track to a college degree for free. >> i can make something out of myself with this degree so that i'm not another stereotype, that all women cook and they don't build, and they don't wire and they don't program. >> woodruff: and a global perspective from the former u.k. prime minister, gordon brown, on the challenge of expanding children's access to education. >> ifill: those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: a wave of selling hit wall street today. technology and biotech stocks were especially hard hit. the nasdaq fell more than 129 points to close at 4,054, its worst day since november, 2011. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 267 points to close at 16,170. and the s&p 500 was down 39 at 1,833. the drop came despite a report that new claims for jobless benefits are now the lowest in nearly seven years. a federal judge in new york has

sentenced s.a.c. capital in a major insider trading case. the hedge fund will pay a record fine as part of a plea deal totaling $1.8 billion. eight s.a.c. employees have already been convicted of insider trading, but founder and owner steven cohen has not been charged. investigators in murrysville, pennsylvania, tried today to understand why a teenager stabbed 21 people at his high school. 16 year old alex hribal was tackled and arrested after yesterday's attack. he faces multiple counts of attempted murder and aggravated assault. today, one of the victims, brett hurt, told of being knifed in the back as he walked with a friend. >> there were so many people in the hallways, and someone said they saw blood or something. everyone just started screaming, but when i got hit everyone noticed and started running in

different directions. gracie was screaming and asking me if i was all right, and was trying to keep pressure on my back and take me into a safe room. >> woodruff: the defense lawyer for alex hribal says he had no history of mental illness and that the attack seemed to come out of nowhere. three of the wounded remain in critical condition. searchers looking for the missing malaysian airliner are now analyzing a possible fifth underwater ping. the australian air force detected the sound today using sonar buoys in a section of the indian ocean that's about the size of los angeles. in perth, australia, the head of the search effort said they're listening for more pings before sending down a robotic vehicle. >> bear in mind that the time spent on the surface we're covering six times more area in any given time than we'll be able to do when we go underwater. so, with the batteries likely to fade or fail very shortly, we

need to get as much positional data as we can so that we can define a very small search area. >> woodruff: the hunt for debris on the surface has already narrowed to just over 22,000 square miles. that's about a quarter of the previous search area. the united nations security council is ready to send close to 12,000 peacekeepers to the central african republic. today's council vote means the u.n. force will take over from 5,000 african union troops in september. the mission is to quell violence between christians and muslims across the country. nato warned russia today to pull back its 40,000 troops along the border with ukraine. secretary-general anders foch rasmussen spoke in prague and said any further russian intervention could have grave consequences. >> you have a choice to stop blaming others for your own actions; to stop massing

your troops; to stop es ca lightsing this crisis and start engaging in a genuine dialogue. >> woodruff: rasmussen also said nato is considering its own deployments within eastern europe. russian foreign minister sergei lavrov shot back that even talking of deploying troops near russia is a violation of existing agreements. meanwhile, russian president vladimir putin issued his own warning over natural gas. he said ukraine must start paying in advance or deliveries may be halted. in washington, there's word that enrollment under the new health care law has now hit 7.5 million. the announcement today is an increase from 7.1 million last week. open enrollment officially ended march 31, but many people were given extra time. house republicans have pushed through a non-binding budget that promises to wipe out deficits in ten years. budget committee chair paul ryan wrote the plan, including large

cuts in health programs, food stamps and grants for college students. >> we are offering a balanced budget that pays down the debt. we are offering patient-centered solutions. ( applause ) we are offering patient-centered solutions so patients are the nucleus of the healthcare system, not the government. we're offering a plan to save medicare now and for future generations. >> woodruff: democrats decried the bill, led by minority leader nancy pelosi at her weekly briefing.

a conservative talk-show host on comedy central's "the colbert report" since 2005. still to come on the newshour, commemorating the civil rights act 50 years on and our roundtable discussion on the struggle against discrimination. also: the global push to get all children educated; one new york high school putting students on the fast track to a college degree; and the department of justice slams albuquerque's police for using excessive force. >> ifill: now, a key moment in the fight for equality that still resonates half a century later.

>> let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our nation whole. >> ifill: president lyndon johnson, speaking as he signed the civil rights act of 1964 into law. the landmark legislation outlawed discrimination based on race, ethnicity and sex. today, at the l.b.j. presidential library in austin, texas, georgia congressman john lewis, one of the surviving heroes of that era said, "the presidential pen-strokes on that july day, nearly 50 years ago, changed everything." >> without the leadership of president lyndon johnson and involvement of hundreds and thousands and millions of people in this civil rights movement, there would be no president jimmy carter, no president bill clinton, no president barack obama. lyndon johnson using his skills

and his power made this possible. when people say nothing had changed, i say come and walk in my shoes and i will show you change. ( applause ) >> ifill: just getting the bill passed was a momentous struggle. president john f. kennedy proposed it the summer before his assassination. it did not become law until the following year, in 1964, when johnson and a bipartisan group of lawmakers overcame what turned into a two-month senate filibuster led by southern democrats. in the decades since, that part of his legacy has often been overshadowed by the vietnam war, but this week's anniversary summit at the johnson library sought to change that. >> i have lived out the promise of l.b.j.'s efforts. >> ifill: in his keynote address today, president obama's remarks turned personal. >> because of the civil rights movement, because of the laws president johnson signed, new doors of opportunity and

education swung open for everybody. they swung open for you and they swung open for me. ( applause ) that's why i'm standing here today, because of those efforts, because of that legacy. ( applause ) >> ifill: mr. obama was one of four living presidents to address the three-day summit and praise the texas democrat who fought his own party. >> he knew that he had a unique capacity, as the most powerful white politician from the south, to not merely challenge the convention that had crushed the dreams of so many, but to ultimately dismantle for good the structures of legal segregation. he's the only guy who could do it. and he knew there'd be a cost, famously saying the democratic party may have lost the south for a generation. >> ifill: the president was not

the only one to caution that challenges remain. former president jimmy carter spoke tuesday. >> we kind of accept self congratulations about the wonderful 50th anniversary, which is wonderful, but we feel like, you know, lyndon johnson did it and we don't have to do anything anymore. >> ifill: former president bill clinton took on voting rights, criticizing last year's supreme court decision that allowed states to impose new restrictions without federal approval. >> and all of a sudden there are all these new barriers to voting to make it harder to vote. is this what martin luther king gave his life for? is this what lyndon johnson employed his legendary skills for? >> ifill: former president george w. bush, addressing the crowd this evening, is the summit's final speaker. earlier this week, i traveled to the site of the summit for this conversation. we are joined now at klru

studios in austin, texas, by four guests who bring different perspectives to the upcoming anniversary. >> woodruff: shirley franklin former two term mayor of atlanta was the first african-american woman to be elected mayor of a major southern city. she is the barbara jordan visiting professor of ethics and political values at the lbj school of public affairs. robert kimball is the former legislative aide to republican congressman john lindsay of new york, as director of the republican legislative research association, he served as the chief aid te to the house republican leaders in the leadup to the passage of the civil rights act. >> and director of the civil rights clinic at the university of texas school of law, and linda bird johnson rob is the daughter of president lyndon johnson and board director of the lbj foundation. welcome to you all. lyndon johnson rob, was the civil rights act, your father's most significant achievement as president? >> well, i would have to say all of the civil rights

acts. because there were three an even say the immigration act which i think also is the civil rights act, maybe on a global perspective. that he cared very, very much about it. he wanted to emancipate the whites as much as people of color. because he knew how, particularly in the south but not only in the south, we were so restricted and he wanted everybody to live up to the best that god gave them. and use those tools of education and have good health care, to be able to do the things, to make america great. >> ifill: i know years later here in austin one of the concerns of the lbj library is to try to reorder people's memories of your father's term in office. and do you wonder that vietnam in many ways overshadowed that? >> no question about it. he hated the war. he hated having anybody put

in harm away. but he believed that what we were doing is what we had to do for our commitments with cto, for many reasons. and he was carrying forth a policy that he had inherited. and he tried and got us to the peace table in 1968. and then as you know, the south vietnamese were told that they could get a better deal under richard nixon and they left the pea table. >> ifill: so much drama involving vietnam, so much drama involving the civil rights act, robert kimball, you were 28 years old, an aide to john lindsay. at the people don't remember that what happened in the house republican caucus determined the outcome of this act in many ways. >> the republicans played a crucial role and it's hard to believe today. but there were positive, they worked very closely with the administration and we participated in the negotiations that lead to the compromise three weeks before kennedy's death.

>> ifill: what's interesting to me is that in some ways the people who drove this act, a southern president, and republicans in the house and ultimately the senate, wrote this and it is counterinfewive to the politics we understand now. >> yes, it's very -- >> how did it happen. >> first of all there were many more moderate and liberal republicans back then. the democratic party still was split. you had the southern group who was going to vote against the bill. and people who would support it. we needed a coalition between both parties. we all knew that and we knew also that it had to be a massive coalition and not just a one vote victory. so we strove for that and it was passed through the house at 290 to 130 which is a big margin and that was very important for the future of it. >> and in the senate those were the days when a filibuster was a real filibuster. >> it was a role filibuster. >> how long did that go on? >> several months. >> several months. and finally passage. so i want to ask shirley franklin, at that period of time, you were obviously

just a glean, but enough to be aware of who the sung and unsung heroes were at that period of time then in a sense. >> well, i went to college in '63. and i was in washington d.c. at howard university. so i was very much aware of what was going on in terms of the debate. there were students who were organizing across the south, whoot and black students. and some of my classmates were actually some of the organizers. i was curious but not brave enough to join. and really didn't have any idea how fast the changes would come to america from that period. but was really proud of the country and the president for stepping up. >> there is so much conversation as we look back about the heroic members of congress and people in the white house. but there were a lot, you mentioned snic, civil rights organization, they were almost to the side lynns in some way in this discussion.

>> well, they may have been on the sidelines in a way. but they were very much active in the streets. the edmond-- bridge, the march from selma to montgomerie. i recently went to the 49th bridge crossing and it's just as inspirational today, not nearly as dangerous as it was in the 60s. but there was a lot of activity in the streets and churches. it was not unusual for the minister in my church to talk about the civil rights movement as part of his sermon. and for there to be dinner table conversation about it. so i would say that most of us who were young people were included because we were included in the so-called adult conversations at one level. and then in college and in high school there was lots and lots of discussion. >> and in a place such as atlanta, changing public accommodation laws had an immediate impact. >> absolutely. and my generation of young people in the south grew up in the segregated south.

something that i didn't experience, but everyone almost 70, between '60s and '70s had that direct experience and it's really hard to talk about that today to young people because they can't imagine there were places had in atlanta you couldn't go. or shop or try on clothes over colleges and universities. i talk about that at the university of texas as well. barbara jordan was not able to come to university of texas at that point. and so there is a huge change in american culture, as well as in the law. >> there is an immediate effect of the civil rights act and then an eventual affect. how would you measure those two. >> i think the civil rights ago was a tremendous achievement. what its did was dismantle the racial hierarchy that crist existed through slavery, through jim crow it is not undoubtedly one of the-- but one of most

constitutional moments of our nation's history because it made the 14th amendment whole again t made it vibrant. in terms of its eventual legacy, i think of course in addition to eliminating racial hierarchy t set the stage for a truly integrated society. and there is obviously progress that we have made and a lot of progress that we still have left to make on that front so we find that there are racial disparities, active disparts still in many areas of life. and many children in our country still grow up today and maybe college or their first job is the first time that they interact with people of another race. and so with respect to integration, we still have a long way to go. >> well, you know, lyndon johnson rob saying this was not only a civil rights bilk, but there were a series of them. do you think that then what happened was we began to see fallout on gender equality and social equality and gay equality, all of that as a result? >> that's absolutely right.

the civil rights act was the by near legislation and what followed afterward marked everything down from age discrimination, gender discrimination, disability discrimination and it really ended all of those sort of formal categories of discrimination, subordination and hierarchy. i think that if you take all of that legislation together, it really opened up the american dream to most americans in a way that had not been before. >> when you think about what happened in 1964, how much of this was driven, robert kimball by insiders and how much of this was driven by agitation from outsiders, or public opinion. >> it was both. the civil rights group had a leadership conference and many organizations including church groups. and they were all very active. and they were constantly, on the hill, talking to us. the key event, of course not so well remembered as others was the church bombing on september 15th.

the conscience of the country was aroused. people were horrified. and that clearly was the event that lead to the passage of the bill, more than any other. the march was very important. but it was more symbolic. it was so peaceful and so impressive but it was the church bombing that frightened america, and lead to what happened which was very important. >> and it also seems, the assassination of president kennedy was also, the bill was moving along and it was making its way through the house. but when the president was assassinated and your father became president the very first thing he said when he went to the role of the house was we have to pass this nows. >> absolutely. i think he shamed a lot of people into voting for it. >> including southern democrats. >> well, you found people who were not in favor of it who were not just in the south. and that's why he had to work so hard on dirkson that we all needed to do this, no

matter where we lived, whether we were in peoria or whether we were in montgomerie that this was something that would help fulfill that american dream. and that it was really holding us all back, not just people of color but all of us. and part of it is shaming. you know, how could we call ourselves this great country and we are still these little black-- little black girls are being killed while they're going to church. and shame, shame. >> shirley franklin, programs you wouldn't have been mayor of atlanta without the passage of this and other voting rights acts, other acts along the way. but there was a difference between passing a law like this and getting it enforced. do you feel like that the u.s. policy, that the government follow-through on the promise of that outreach -- >> it took awhile and certainly it took a lot of energy on the part of people on the ground as well as

leaders. over the years, we've seen the explosion of political figures from all walks of life. some have opened the door for people from all backgrounds, whether gay, lesbian, people from limited means. there was a sense when i was growing up that you had to be from a certain side of the tracks in order to be an elected official. you had to be lucky to be a be elected official. and with the passage of this, and the voting rights act and all of that entailed, all of a sudden a childlike me could not be mayor of atlanta when i was born, when i graduated from high school, when i graduated from college, but some years later i had the opportunity. because of the legislative initiatives but also because of the shift in the cultural, forms in the cultural tradition. >> i just want to you bring this to today.

what is left undone? >> there's a lot to be done still it so there are still some formal categories such as you mentioned earlier lgbt individuals and families and formal discrimination. and obviously we've seen that campaign for greater equality and freedom unfold over ot last 20, 30 years. and it's rapidly progressing. but beyond that, there are still main problems with respect to racial equality in terms of access to public goods and public benefits. and so, for example, whether it comes to housing k through 12 education, access to college, we see that there are racial disparities. for white families they can get into better rental housing and into the housing sale market easier than asian families, african-american families, latino families. with respect to african-american children and latino children in our public schools, they have fewer opportunities for college readiness and for college prep education. then do their white counterparts. and what we see is even when we have eliminated intenseal

forms of discrimination, these racial and ethnic disparts persist. so how do we get at them and how do we construct policy to really insurance enequality for everyone, that's the challenge. >> say there is a 12-year-old here at the table who has grown-up in a time in which none of this seemed to be a problem for them. how do you begin to explain to someone of that age who grew up in, with the benefits of civil rights legislation and protection that this is still important today, shirley franklin? >> well, i have a 14-year-old grandson who i have had to explain that to. there was a lot of discussion about their rights in the georgia legislature and it was important for me to explain that not too long ago the integrated school that he was in was not possible, that he would not have had white and latino and asian friends. and that, in fact, he could have been at risk of his own life if he had fought out-- is out out friends. and in a matter of a few

minutes he got the message because he is accustomed to having friendships and relationships across cultural and racial and ethnic backgrounds. >> i think education is very important as shirley mentioned. i was at a women's history presentation at my son's preschool and we have to start early and keep educating about the civil rights movement. i'm a beneficiary of the civil rights movement. so for me it's a process of educating myself. there is a lot of good research out there that shows it that one of the things that we need to do as a society is confront our implicit buyases. we all work with stereotypes in our head no matter how hard we try to rid ourselves of them so there is work we need to do individually as families, as communitites to think about how we work with and how we live with an interact with people as other culturals and other backgrounds. >> i think we can all say that everyone at this table and probably everyone we're all beneficiaries of that civil rights ago. thank you all. >> thank you.

>> for participating in our conversation. shirley franklin, robert kimball, and linda johnson rob. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, thank you. >> woodruff: next, a pair of education stories-- one about too few children attending school internationally, the other on a promising pilot high school in the u.s. let's start with a major global problem, especially pronounced in developing countries. there are more than 200 million children who should be attending school but simply do not because of a variety of barriers. that problem is at the center of a new u.n. initiative to get 57 million more children in school by the end of 2015. former british prime minister gordon brown is spearheading that effort as a special envoy for special education. i met up with him earlier in washington today before he spoke at the world bank to make his case.

>> woodruff: what is at stake in this initiative you're now deeply involved in? >> i think it's the future of a whole generation of young people. if we cannot provide today's young people in asia and africa with the opportunity of education and then the chance of employment and starting a business or whatever, we are going to have the most discontented youth. we're going to have a generational problem because they know the opportunities that people have in other countries, they can learn about it through the internet and through mobile phones, and they're aware that the inequality of opportunity that they face is unfair. and i think we've seen the makings of a civil rights struggle in the young people to get education, to stop child marriage, to stop child labor, child trafficking and sex discrimination against girls. and if you don't do something about it, there's a whole sort

of welter of discontent that is building up in populations of asia and africa. >> woodruff: the numbers are almost impossible to comprehend. i think it's 250 million children not getting a primary education, and then you're trying to put down a number, 57 million you would like to get into school. how do you-- how do you reduce that to something you can actually make a difference? >> well, 57 million children are the numbers of children that are not going to go to school today or any other day. some of them are in child labor. is some of them are in child labor, some of them are-- some of them are simply not schools to go to. some of them are girls who the taliban is preventing from going to school. but it is relatively inexpensive to pay for the education for the young child. so $6 billion if we could find the extra funds next year we could get almost all of these children to school. and there is no technical or scientific breakthrough that's needed to do this. we know what it is we've got to do. we've got to get teachers, and also buildings, and have the educational equipment. and, of course, we want to increase the quality of education very quickly, but at

the moment we've set a goal that by the end of december 2015, every child should be at school. that's the millennium development goal. everybody's promised this and we could deliver it if we could provide these extra resources. so it is both manageable, and it's also in my view necessary. if you make a promise, you should try to redeem it. >> woodruff: but even before you talk about the money, there are the cultural, the ingrained practices in countries where child marriage, for example, is considered-- a young girls married off at a very young age, other countries or places where families see children as an economic necessity to have them working out in fields or doing whatever they're doing to bring money in for the family. how do you change all that? >> and you're absolutely right. there are ten million children who are married off before the age of 14 or 15. there are 15 million children who are working full-time at the moment an they're under 14. but i see great change in the attitude of young people. i've just been in pakistan.

a year and a half ago i went after the young girl who was shop and i found the population that was tired, that was worried that was anxious, that was fearful of the taliban. and then i went back a few days ago, and i found girls in pakistan, 12, 13, 14, 15, determined to fight for their education. and they no longer want pakistan to be seen by the rest of the world as a country that is failing to get girls to school, they want to be known by their successes. girls getting into school and getting qualifications. so girls themselves are fighting for their civil rights. this is a huge change from a few years ago. and once this change happens, you can't... you can't hold it back, because these are girls who are aware of their rights, aware that you can stand up against the patriarchs who try to marry them off, aware that there is discrimination being practiced by the taliban, and they're taking it on. and there are many, many hundreds of courageous girls in pakistan who are saying, "we demand our right to be educated now." that's going to happen in the rest of world, too.

>> woodruff: but over a long period of time. >> but the changes in the last year-and-a-half have been, in my view, very big indeed. but now you've got girls agitating for education. you've got child marriage being created by girls themselves where they are saying we the girls will refuse to marry even if our fathers tell us we're go to be sold into marriage 's going to refuse. and these movements of opinion, have protests in india, the big anti-child labor campaigns that have been mounted by young people themselves, something in changing around the world and we are too slow to react to that and to help these children with the resources to get them into education. >> you mention >> woodruff: you mentioned $6 billion, you said relatively a small amount of money. but how do you get governments that we see have been reducing the amounts they've been spending on education? how do you get them to understand it's a priority? and i'm talking now about the

recipient countries. >> yeah, i think, first of all, the governments of pakistan, nigeria, afghanistan have got to do more themselves, because nobody is going to just throw money at a country that's not prepared to take action itself. so i'm trying to persuade them. to persuade and i think we've been successful in persuading pakistan and niger that that they have to spend more themselves, then we can incentivize them spending more by saying if you do this, we will do more to hip. and i think what people are looking for is results in developments. and if we can show that we can get results, childrened involved, teachers actually turning up, the quality of the curriculum, results in terms of qualification, i think the world will be prepared to make the necessary amounts of money to make this happen it is actually incredibly small in relations to the overall amount. >> but when you look at what donor countries have been spending, though, they cut back the amount they spend. >> there are new donors coming into the field. so qatar, united arab emirates, saudi arabia, there are many donors.

china is starting to donate, many into education for the first time. korea is coming in. so yes, i would like america to do more and i would like the rest of the west to do more but there are many potential donors in the future. and they begin to see that if you back a country that is educating its children, you've got a skilled workforce as well as having met the moral requirements that every child should have opportunities. >> woodruff: how much does this depend on the persuasive powers of someone who's internationally known, like, if you are gordon brown and how much-- and you are-- the force of your personality? >> well, i wish i could be more successful. but the truth is that i know from being a leader in recent years, that if there is not public pressure, and if there is not a demand from the rest of the world, then there are other priorities that you're going to address. we've got to persuade these leaders, there is no country in the poorer parts of the world

will ever be a rich country, will ever be a high-income country if it doesn't invest in education. and i think we are getting that argument across to the leaders. on one hand, you've got this great civil rights struggle that is now starting, in my view. on the other hand, you've got a recognition that no matter what else you've got to do as a country, you've got to invest in education if you're going to be a successful economy. and i can persuade them that this is a necessary element of their economic policy. >> woodruff: you believe they are feeling this kind of pressure and feeling their consequences if they don't make these changes? can we will be pressing governments around the world. we've got hundreds of yot ambassadors appointed to put pressure on government. we've got what is called youth-- quite rad ral these are young people agreeing that on a particular day they will be bt parliamentarians and they will speak out for the case of education, we have

national petitions in individual countries so the pressure is building. it's not there strong enough yet but it will become very strong over ot next few months. and this is an opportunity to help countries develop their educational opportunities for children in a way that they have not done before, but it's also an opportunity for us to show that development aid can be incredibly effective. >> woodruff: gordon brown, the u.n., united nations special envoy for global education. thank you. >> thank you. that conversation discusses on-line when we discuss moves to get syrian children displaced by the civil war into school. and on our world page we spoke to two young girls who were sitting beside malala when taliban gunman attacked their school bus about their fight for access to education for all boys and girls. >> ifill: our second education story is about a brooklyn high school that has not yet graduated its first class, but it's being closely watched for its approach to providing lower-

income students with college tuition and the special skills to get a job. one of its distinct features: a lot more time in the classroom. president obama sang its praises again this week and announced two more schools like it will be opened. hari sreenivasan has the story as part of our "american graduate" project, a public media initiative funded by the corporation for public broadcasting. when it comes to high school should sixiers be the new four t is a question that clitis has times to think about every day as he rides new york city subway from his home in the grontion broncs to a school in brooklyn, a journey that takes him an hour and a half each way. he is a junior at pathways in technology early college high school, or p-tech. p-tech is a six-year public school where students like clitis are expected to leave with a high school deplom at and two year associative applied science degree finck community college for free.

>> it means we start what i want to do my future, where i want to against. >> sierra copeland also a jun crer says she was ready to be challenged and having the opportunity to take college courses as early as the 10th grade was the push she needed. >> i came to p-tech, they gave me not a push but a shove and they shoved me into it. and it's beneficial to me. i feel like for me it's been a learning experience. it has helped me to grow up faster. it taught me to prioritize. >> srennivasan: getting students from low income families the chance at free college tuition was the brainchild of a public private partnership developed by ibm, the new york city education department and the city university of new york. the job opportunities for the 21st century require a level of skill that is far beyond a simple high school diploma. >> srennivasan: ibm stanley littout a former deputy schools chancellor for new york city helped starts brooklyn's p-tech in 2001 and since eversaw the

creation of similar schools in new york an chicago. students have longer school days a tend classes year-round and get hands on training in job skills that companies like ibm say their entry level employees often lack. >> you get those people to have the problem-solving skills and the technical skills and the writing skills, and presentation skills. we don't do something different about transforming high school in america, we're going to be in big trouble. the u.s. is not going to be competitive. >> srennivasan: schools like p-tech which has only been admitting students for three years are attracting more attention and last year received an endorsement from president barack obama. >> what is going on here at p-tech is outstanding. and i'm excited to see it for myself. >> srennivasan: after the president visited p-tech last october, he announced a $100 million competitive grant program, encouraging similar partnerships between high schools, private industry and universities. 16 flu p-tech schools will open across new york in september.

and leverage the support of other businesses to focus on areas including manufacturing, clean technology, and health care. more than 1500 students applied to brooklyn's p-tech last fall but the school was only able to admit 144 9th graders. >> the kids are the every day average new york city student, we're just giving them a different opportunity. >> rashid davis is p-tech's founding principal. davis says his students are chosen entirely by lottery and come from all five boroughs of fwhork. the school he says was started with one goal in mind. >> it's how do you make sure that we can divert the workforce with students who are not generally on a path to think of themselves as either college or career ready. and so there is no academic screening. there are no type of tests for admissions. the idea, if you are interested, we will help make you academically strong and prepared so that way you can have that pathway from high school to college to industry. >> srennivasan: ibm

initially invested $500,000 to get p-tech off the ground. money spent to develop the curriculum and provide teacher training. but from now on, all ibm is investing is our time and talent. >> srennivasan: and when it comes to paying for the additional two years built not model, the state of new york picks up that tab. the first p-tech is located in a rundown section of brooklyn's crown heights neighborhood, surrounded by low-income housing. it was created as part of a federal turnaround initiative that is also phasing out of poor performing high school in the same building. principal davis called the two years of free college tuition a game changer for his students. >> once you have the two years under your belt, you have a better foundation to complete the four year degree. and so this becomes very, very important. so that free degree can be a great sense of admiration for families. >> p-tech students take some of their courses on the campus of new york city of technology, part of the

university of new york. but they're also eased into the rigor by having professors teach at the high school. >> what else? >> bonnie august is the probe host of city tech stunted that the design is work despite the fact that it is new and relatively untested. >> i personally am waiting until we've graduated not just one group of students but several groups of students. these are not easy programs. they're very challenging programs. >> srennivasan: ibm sees the associates degree as a good starting point but they believe nor support is needed for students to learn about the world of work so they offer internships and provide mentors for every p-tech student. a product line manager for the company was paired with sierra copeland three years ago. most of their interactions are done on-line and benita says she was initially surprised by the questions she received from sierra. >> what are my interests, what kind of book does i read.

what do i do when i'm a little frustrated at work. don't you have issues at work, how do you manage. i have seen her grow and be very mature in her conversations with me. >> sierra whose focusing on electromechanical engineering says that she along with ptech have open odd her eyes to the opportunity in a career and fields dominated by men for years. >> i can make something out of myself with this degree so i'm not just another stereotype. because that is a stereotype that all women cook and they don't build and they don't wire and they don't program. >> srennivasan: ibm stanley littout stopped short of promising jobs to ptech students once they graduate but de say they will have the skills the company is looking for to fill entry level position that include software specialists and tech support representatives. >> over the next ten years there are going to be 14 million new jobs created for students with those kinds of credentials and those kind of skills. if through a ptech program

that we are involved in they will be first in line for jobs at ibm. >> clitis wants to attend mis after he graduates then hopefully medical school which would please his mother. >> education is very important to me because i -- get that opportunity. >> she moved the family from ghana to new york. so her children could get a better education. when her son got into ptech -- p-tech she was thrilled the school offered free college credit. >> i want him to be some better person, like maybe a doctor. >> srennivasan: but if that doesn't work out, he already has a plan b. >> i will always have that associate degree so i can go into the technology field, get a bachelors or masters and just keep going. >> there are two specific associate degrees. >> srennivasan: educators from across the globe are regularly visiting pirx-tech to see if lessons learned here can be replicated. >> you can follow our american graduate reporting team on twitter where she shared more television on

p-tech. we rounded up those resources and you can find them on the rundown. >> woodruff: the u.s. justice department today released a scathing report finding what it calls a pattern of "unjustified force" in the albuquerque, new mexico, police department. jeffrey brown has that story. >> brown: the report cites incidents dating back to 2010: 37 people shot by police, 23 of them fatally. the most recent occurred just last month and was caught on videotape: the fatal shooting of james boyd, a 38-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness. that led to a violent street protest against alleged police brutality. gene grant, host of "new mexico in focus" on new mexico public television, has been covering this story and joins us tonight from albuquerque. well, gene, the justice department cited a pattern of excessive force, so they're seeing something that links all these

shooting, right? explain that. >> you for example it's interesting, as you mentioned there were 37 incidents, 27 of them fatal and what they were looking for quite specificallyly f there was an unconstitutional pattern of fourth amendment rights being violated here. and they were quite strong in their opening statement right off the bat of the hearing this morning, that in fact they're findings did find in fact that the albuquerque police department had a number of situations that they found unconstitutional and did violate those rights. what that actually did was opened up a lot of dialogue about what is going on here. what is the pattern. and the big problem out here for us with this situation is folks who are mentally ill or in some crisis of some sort. and what the doj found was especially in those cases apd is coming up short. there is excessive use of force, sometimes deadly, but they mentioned also using tasers, they were not

pleased with that parbted of it as well, as part of a pat person. not just deadly force you go excessive force was very much part of the situation. they laid out a whole criteria of changes they would like to see. they made it quite clear they intend to stay around the doj for a bit and work with apd and the city of albuquerque and mayor richard berry on some of those reforms. however, what we don't have at this point and is apparently being discussed tonight between doj and the administration and the albuquerque police department is taking it to that next step where the possible consent degree or a possible federal monitor that will be on hand for a period of time. now as we know from other cities where this is-- sorry go ahead. >> i was going to say just to step back here first, because this has been building over a number of years. what's been the police reaction along the way? and where are they now? >> that's a great question. you know, it's interesting. we have a new chief, chief gordon edden he came to

replace ray schultz where a lot of these shootings happened under his watch, ray schultz. in that time, what happened was the use of lapel cameras became part of the reform a year and a halfing two, two years ago. and that is what happened in this james boyd case, you know, it went global. the video took it to a whole new level. the reaction from the police has been fairly muted so far but until this point today it's been a bit of a circling of the wagons. a bit 6 everything is okay here, going back a year and a half, two years ago or so. i think the police department now just basically has its hands tied. they know the community is to the going to accept the status quo any more. we've had three protest marches, one of which made the news globally. i went to the first march, the peaceful march last tuesday, an enormous march by albuquerque standards, people have pretty much had it. so for the police department it's a difficulty. they really don't have anything left to say now that the department of justice has had its say on constitutionality of these issues. >> well, when i interrupted

you earlier you were starting to talk a little bit about what happens next. because that is, of course, the e question as you said, in some citieses it, this has lead tie federal oversight. that's one possibility here. what is on the table? >> you know, it's interesting to try to figure out what is on the table because the mayor came out about noon today, mayor richard per and said we have a lot of work to do. however he also said three weeks ago that he would prefer and ask for a federal monitor for the situation. he actually came without being pressured to do so. so what does that mean in these negotiations with its doj. we don't know, is it going to be something in between. the big question is what will the community accept, jeffrey. you know for a lot of folks here there is going to be nothing left than a complete takeover, which nobody thinks is going to happen. it won't be enough. but something has to happen where folks feel like the police department is not correcting itself. we've been through that for 20 years now and now it's

time for something else. and that is what doj is in essence saying. it's time to turn the page and try another way. >> how big a deal when you refer to the community, we saw some of these protests, some of them turned violent, especially after james boyd was shot. how big a deal is it? how much has it really galvanized the public there? >> you knows what's interesting, its a as big a deal as i can remember for anything here. i have lived here forego 27 years. and it really, when i went to the protest on tuesday the cross-section of albuquerque was startling. this was not, you know, a a young leftie crowd out there to cause trouble. these were single women, families, strollers, elderly a lot of elders. and they were just very up set with the whole situation just saying look, enough is enough. this is going to be stop it is an enormous thing. it's some naturing the news here, dominating the bloc blog, certainly dominating talk radio and talks, you go

around town, everybody has an opinion. it's amazing its cross-section by the way of people not pleased with apd right now. a lot of folks who would be naturally inclined to supported police department are now saying wait a minute, we got a problem here. you can't have 23 deaths, you know, and most of them a lot of them mentally ill and not have a problem. so everyone is looking for a solution here. it's an economic development issue, it's a quality of life shox it's a civil liberties issue, it cuts across all constituencies. >> brown: gene grant, thanks a lot. >> my pleasure. >> ifill: again, the other major developments of the day. health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius is resigning. wall street had a rough ride,

matt obama will no nature cilia burr well director of the office and magazine to replace her. and wall street had a rough ride, as selling drove down all the major indexes. the nasdaq fell 3% for its worst day since 2011. the dow industrials lost more than 260. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, 75 years ago today, one of the most influential books in the history of medicine changed the lives of people struggling with addiction. "alcoholics anonymous" introduced americans to the famous 12 steps and to personal stories designed to give strength to millions seeking recovery. medical historian dr. howard markel recounts the inspiration behind the book on our "health" page. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on friday, we'll look at the role of words in the civil rights movement-- jeff brown and poet laureate natasha trethewey travel to mississippi and alabama as they explore

"where poetry lives." i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks among others. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

that's bae systems. that's inspired work. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org 

this is "nightly business report," with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. the bulls get trampled, the dow drops more than 250 points the nasdaq has its worst day since november 2011, the reason? nobody can explain it. here come the banks, j.p. morgan and wells fargo report earnings tomorrow and what they say could determine how the selling continues. game changer, now that the curtain is being pulled back on how doctors are being reimbursed on medicare, are more changes ahead? all that and more on "nightly business report" on thursday, april 10th. good evening, everyone, a nasty and dramatic selloff on wall street today with