captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> sreenivasan: and i'm hari sreenivasan.oo >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight, president obama approves the largest single release of guantanamo bay prisoners yet, in a push to close the controversial detention center. >> sreenivasan: also ahead this tuesday, the candidates take one the battle against isis. we compare the strategies laid out by donald trump and hillary clinton to defeat the terrorll group. >> woodruff: plus, the struggle of early childcare workers to make a living, and why children are the ones losing out in the end. >> the care and education of young children, before kindergarten, is just as complex as teaching children who aret older. but we haven't restructured our system, and invested the public dollars that it will take.

>> sreenivasan: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.i >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> some say it's a calling. some say they lost someone they loved.lo many say it's to save lives, as many and as often as possible. there's 100 reasons why someone becomes a doctor, but at m.d. anderson, it's because there's nothing-- and we mean nothing--n we won't do in making cancer history.

>> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.n and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: the toll from days of historic flooding in louisiana kept on climbing today. local officials raised the number of fatalities to 10. early estimates indicate at least 40,000 homes have beenve impacted.. the water did start to slowly recede in areas near baton rouge.t meanwhile some residents managed

to return to their homes toed assess the damage. governor john bel edwards acknowledged recovery efforts have been tough. >> this is a very difficult situation to get assistance out to where we need to. we still have about 34,000 meters without electricity that's customers, so that's homes or businesses. we understand that there is still a lot of people suffering. >> sreenivasan: the governor also reported about 8,000 people remain in shelters, a number het expects will rise. >> woodruff: in california, crews have gained ground on a massive wildfire north ofou san francisco. it's charred nearly seven square miles, and destroyed 175 homes and other buildings. but local officials said the fire is now about 20% contained. the progress came as authorities arrested a man they believe set the fire. he was charged with 17 counts oi arson, and is suspected of starting several other fires in the area. >> sreenivasan: the nation'sas

third largest health insurer, aetna, has announced plans to leave most of the healthcare exchanges set up under presidenh obama's affordable care act. it will sharply cut its participation from 15 states to just four next year, citing heavy financial losses. aetna is the third major health insurer to pull out of the a.c.a. in recent months, joinin. united health and humana. >> woodruff: russia widened its bombing campaign in syria today, this time, launching air strikes from iran. the warplanes took off from a base near hamedan, about 175 miles southwest of tehran. they targeted islamic state fighters and other militants. it's the first time russia has used another country's territory for attacks in syria. an american military official said the u.s. was warned in advance. >> they informed us they were coming through, and we ensured safety of flight as those bombers passed through the area and toward their target and then when they passed out again.

they did not impact coalition operations in either iraq or syria during the time. we knew in time. it's not a lot of time, but it's enough and it was enough time to make sure that we could ensure safety of flight. >> woodruff: it's believed to b: the first time tehran has allowed a foreign country to use one of its bases for military operations since the 1979 islamic revolution. >> sreenivasan: one of britain's most well-known radical muslim preachers has been convicted of rallying support for the islamic state. anjem choudary was found guilty in a london court last month. that was unreportable until now due to legal restrictions. his followers have been linked to a number of high-profile attacks, including last year's beheading of a british soldierye in london. choudary could face up to 10ac years in prison. >> woodruff: here in the u.s., regulators today unveiled new fuel efficiency rules for large trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles. the caps will cut greenhouse gas emissions by over one billion tons, and save over $170 billion in fuel costs.

by 2027, heavy-duty trucks will be 25% more fuel efficient than those sold in 2018. 2 heavy-duty vehicles account for more than 20% of transportation- related pollution. >> sreenivasan: stocks slipped on wall street today, due in part to a lag in phone and utility company shares. the dow jones industrial average lost 84 points to close at 18,552. the nasdaq fell nearly 35 points, and the s&p 500 dropped 12. >> woodruff: a passing to note: renowned tv host john mclaughlin has died. he was the creator, executive producer and host of "the a mclaughlin group," a long- running weekly public affairs a show. mclaughlin was too ill to host this past sunday, the first time he's missed a taping in 34ti years. he was also an international journalist, and served as a speechwriter for presidentsnaee nixon and ford. john mclaughlin was 89 years old.d >> sreenivasan: and now some highlights from today's summerm games in rio.

the u.s. women gymnasts ended an exhilarating olympic run where they began it: atop the winners' podium.po simone biles won her fourth gold of the games in the floor exercise. her teammate, aly raisman, was at her side, taking the silver. and in the men's finals, american gymnast danell leyva grabbed silvers on both the parallel bars and the high bar. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour, the largest guantanamo detainee transfer under president obama. how donald trump and hillary clinton plan to defeat isis. allegations against fox news' roger ailes spark a larger discussion on workplace harassment, and much more. >> woodruff: when president obama took office there were 242 detainees being held at theg guantanamo bay prison. he stated his priority was to close the facility in cuba.

but finding places for the inmates to go, even after they had been legally cleared, haste proven difficult. yesterday, the pentagon announced the latest transfer out: 15 prisoners to go to the united arab emirates, meaning the number left is down to 61. william brangham has the story. >> brangham: on his first day in office, president obama promises to close guantanamo. he's called it expensive, unnecessary and a "recruitment brochure" for our enemies. while congress has blocked the transfer of high-risk detainees to u.s. prisons, the administration has focused on moving those who are cleared fon release to other nations. but monday's announcement, which was the single biggest transfer for this administration, has been criticized by republicans who say these 15 men are dangerous and should never havem been let go. i'm joined now by charlie savage of the "new york times."he he's covered gitmo and the war on terror for many years. charlie, help us understand, who are these 15 men who were recently released. >> hi. thanks for having me on. ure so these men, these 15, 12 of

them are from yemen and 3 of them are from afghanistan. they were approved for transfer to a stable country that could provide various security assurances some time ago in many cases, either by a task force in 2009 or later by a parole-like review panel, in both cases made up of six security agencies, central intelligence agency, the defense department, the statest department, the justice department and sode on. these are career officials, not political appointee, and they unanimously agreed these men no longer posed such a threat to the united states that it wast necessary to keep holding them in indefinite detention without trial, but because they came from, especially in the case of the yemenis, countries that werw not stable, in fact chaotic and had a weak central government, they were stranded until some other country that could meet these security assurances wasty

willing to take them in. and in this very sizeable transfer, the u.a.e. solved that problem for the united states and brought them to its country and is now putting them through a rehabilitation program. they have not been released onon to the streets. they are still in custody but with an eye to eventually moving them out toward half-way house and then life in relativea freedom in that country under monitoring. >> brangham: severalng republicans have pointed out,t they argue that these 15 men are very dangerous and they pointoi out in a prior classification, these men were ruled as being very high risk. so what has changed in their status as far as the u.s. government's view of these men? >> right. well, there are two things toto understand about that. one is that it has become a politically potent sort of partisan fodder to say that any transfer release from guantanamo is endangering national security as a way of attacking the obama administration.

and it polls well. no matter who is released under what circumstances, this is a recurring theme. so it has to be understood as part of this policy debate. now, as to your question specifically, what they're t referring to is there was a group of reports or dossiersrs prepared by the military about everyone at guantanamo in thein first few years that they were there under the bush administration. but later they became public when they released by private through wikileaks. and they raised the threat level of the detainees and describeedb who the military at that point thought they were. almost everyone who was theree was rated it's ear medium or a high risk. most of the men in this group were also rated a high risk that. is a snapshot in time based on the military's understanding in the year 2004, 2005, 2006. so what happens later, as years continue to pass is that then the obama administration came in and appointed that task force i mentioned earlier. and then later since 2013 thata

parole life review board with these six agencies. so they come back and they take another look at these men. how have they behaved in custody. what kind of trouble have they gotten into or do they comply with the rules? what have they said over the years? what are their family members saying about them? what kind of situation would they go into? and now things are different in that we have this very well-developed system, some of it imposed by congress over the obama administration'sti objection, that requires detainees to go to a place where there are adequate security assurances of monitoring and other steps to reduce the chance of recidivism, whereas in 2004, 2005, 2006, if someone was released, they really were just simply let go. so what could be a threat, what could be perceived as a threat at the time of those reports may or may not still be the case ten 12, years later, but that is the basis of the attacks that you're hearing in the political sphere. >> brangham: we have 61 men who are still at guantanamo now.

what's likely to happen with those men? >> so 20 more of them have also been recommended for transfer if security conditions can be met b in the receiving countries. and the obama administration is clearly trying very hard to get that list down to zero or as close to zero as they can get it before president obama leaves office. and a few more names may be add to it over time by that parole-like review board. but there are still going to be dozens of men, currently 41, who are not recommended for transfer, either because they're facing charges before a military condition, or more likely because by numbers they are simply deemed too dangerous to be released but untriable. they will have to be housed somewhere. president obama's plan to close gitmo was not to let them go but to bring them to a different prison on domestic soil. congress has forbidden him from doing that. so most likely come january 20th, when the next president takes office, those

men at least will still be there. >> brangham: all right, charlie savage of "the new york times," thank you very much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: one of the most contentious issues during the current presidential election is how to confront isis and who wao responsible for the rise of the extremist group.ou margaret warner reports. >> warner: this was the scene recently in a village not far from mosul, in northern iraq. newly uploaded video purports to show islamic state fighters doing battle with iraqi kurdish peshmerga forces. despite battlefield setbacks in iraq and syria, the militant group remains lethal. how to fight isis has become agr central theme in the 2016 u.s. presidential race.

>> isis is honoring president obama. he is the founder of isis. i would say the co-founder would be crooked hillary clinton. >> that was last week. yesterday republican nomineest donald trump delivered a fuller anti-isis message in youngstown, ohio. >> my administration will aggressively pursue joint and coalition military operations tn crush and destroy isis. international cooperation to cut off their funding, expanded intelligence sharing, and cyber warfare to disrupt and disable a their propaganda and recruiting. >> warner: he also proclaimede that he would end what he called "an era of nation-building," and would take harsh steps to stop isis from penetrating the u.s. h >> the time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today. i call it extreme vetting.

i call it extreme vetting. >> warner: it would screen outut those who sympathize with terror groups, and those who have, in his words "any hostile attitude towards our country or its principles."ny >> those who do not believe in our constitution, or who support >> warner: in a web video released last night, democrat hillary clinton's campaign tried to turn trump's own words against him, saying he wouldp' fail the test he'd set for immigrants. last november, clinton said she would defeat isis by massing more u.s. ground troops against the group, though with limits. >> and we should be honest aboun the fact that to be successful, air strikes will have to be combined with ground forcesou actually taking back more territory from isis. like president obama, i do not believe that we should againho have 100,000 american troops in combat in the middle east.

>> warner: that fits with the picture of clinton in a joint "washington post"/"pro publica"i report today about the early e obama administration debate over whether to fulfill his campaign pledge to pull out of iraq altogether. it notes that clinton was "one of the most vocal advocates for a muscular u.s. presence in iraq after the withdrawal deadline" at the end of 2011. clinton lost that argument, and all u.s. fighting forces left. it's also been widely reportedpo that in 2013, clinton and then c.i.a. director david petraeus proposed arming and training so- called "moderate" rebels in neighboring syria, but the president rejected it.je those u.s.-backed rebels are still doing battle against syrian president, bashar al- assad, but with mixed results. in the brutal five-year old civil war that continues to this day. for the pbs newshour, i'm margaret warner. >> sreenivasan: so what are the differences between how donaldtw

trump and hillary clinton would combat isis? for that, we turn to walidto phares, a foreign policy advisor to donald trump.p. and wendy sherman was under secretary of state for political affairs while hillary clinton was secretary of state. she's now an outside advisor to the hillary clinton campaign. walid phares, what's the key strategic difference that donald trump wants to make in the fight against isis that the obama administration has not? >> first of all, very important to know that between now and 2017, many things will change on the ground, and they will change for either mrs. clinton or mr. trump. so anything we're projecting right now has to do with the moment. there are major differses. first, in looking at iraq, syria and of course libya has to be dealt with. level number one, what forces are going to be engaging isis o the ground? is it kurdish forces? the iraqi army? or others in syria? why do you ask this question? because we don't want to end up

with a sect controlling another sect on the ground, which will sound the next war. second, there is also who will take over after liberation from isis. should it be the locals, national, the governments or a coalition of regional forces that will help them? and thirdly, of course, what is the future of civil wars such as in syria. who will stay? who will go? i think we have tremendous differences in how to go in, how the manage and, of course, the negotiations for the future. >> sreenivasan: one thing donald trump has said is he's open to 20,000 to 30,000 u.s. troops being on the ground is. i that necessary? is that the right course?t >> mr. trump made that statement. he may make other statements. these are decisions that only when mr. trump is the president hopefully with his national security cabinet, they will decide upon the time. president obama did not want too send forces to the region after his withdrawal from iraq. he had engaged in a warfare situation. these are national security decisions that would be decided once there is an evaluation of the situation on the ground. the american public has no an

title for sending tens of thousands, but each situation has a condition. >> sreenivasan: ms. sherman, president clinton has also called for ground troops in a limited capacity. what do you see the differences between what mr. trump is proposing and what mrs. clinton would carry out? >> well, first of all, all of the things that walid just outlined were not discussed in mr. trump's speech at all yesterday. in fact, the strategy that mr. trump put on the table, other than the extreme vetting, is exactly what president obama and secretary clinton have worked toward, that is an international coalition with local troops on the ground, having a very aggressive strategy in the cyber world to stop the financial flows. all of these are part of a multi-vector strategy that has been under way under president obama for quite some time now and is actually having success. just today secretary of defensee

carter said that syrian democracy forces had indeed taken back a very key transit point and now opens the way to ultimately getting to raqqa, which isil has said is its centerpiece for a caliphate, which is disappearing on theg ground in syria. there is a very complex environment in the middle east. in that walid is correct.ec but it can't come without some knowledge and some background, and every day we get a different message from mr. trump. i'd like to know, does he still support torture, which is not the american way and does not bring results?lt does he still believe that we ought to be killing innocent civilians if there is a family of terrorists that have nothingi to do with the terror? is he someone who still believes in, as you pointed out, harry, sending thousands and thousandsn of troops?

mr. trump has been on all sideso of that issue over the history of the least several years. so it's very difficult to know whether mr. trump stands and whether he has an understanding of the complexity of the situation and the progress that's being made but the progress that is still absolutely needed to protect our homeland and to make sure that americans feel safe and secure. >> sreenivasan: one of the things she said about extreme vetting, what does that mean? we've heard there might be an ideological questionnaire, but if i'm the terrorist, wouldn't i just lie?ju >> the final goal of this is to intercept jihadists from comingm to the united states. everything else could bebe reconstructed. he needs to have the input of the national security agency. one of the problems with our national security agency over the last eight years have been encountering is that the ideological discourse that the jihadists have among themselvese has been removed from the analysts. very difficult to be preemptive in the sense to understand when there is

radicalization. this is something our liberal democratic allies in france, in britain and also in other countries and also in the arab world have not done. we have retreated from the ideological element. it's in the that we are against one or the other ideology, but we need some indicators thata these people are jihadists so we can vet them. extreme vetting is not a physical extreme vetting. it's an intellectual exercise that would bring us back to where we should have been, understanding better the ideas i that radicalizes these jihadists. >> sreenivasan: one thing mr. trump also said yesterday is the similarity that existed between orlando and san bernardino, the attacks, is they were carried out by children and grandchildren. is there a particular generation that is patriotic enough that they would not fall under the spell of isis? >> we also have immigrants and sons and daughters of immigrants from the arab and muslim war who fought in our armed forces and who died for america. what he meant by that is despite

the fact of integration, the french are telling us the same thing, the germans are tellingin us the same thing, the integration is not the answer. it's basically deradicalization. so we want to make sure that this ideology does not go to a third generation. it would be the same case for a neo-nazi or an anti-semite. it's not about a social problem. it's about an intellectual, ideological problem.ca >> sreenivasan: wendy sherman, one distinction that exists between hillary clinton and president obama is the institution of a no-fly zone over syria.ov president obama even as recentle as the g-20 said that would be counterproductive. what would a president clinton do in that case to make it work? >> first of all, hari, in answer to your question about what extreme vetting is, quite frankly, i didn't understand walid's answer. this is not an intellectual exercise. this is about our immigration policies, and they are very strict and the vetting is very

tough. and our authorities are always looking at ways to make sure that we are as clear as we possibly can be, as walid himself knows, he's not a muslim, but he came here himself in 1990 when he no longer felt personally safe in lebanon because of his own history, which we could discuss at another time. so i don't quite understand yet what extreme vetting means, other than a nice sound bite on television. to your point about a no-fly zone, secretary clinton has said that she wants to explore whatever alternative may deal with the really tragic humanitarian disaster, which has played out in syria. you know that there are literally millions of people who are now refugees. there are millions of people who are internally displaced. the leader of syria, bashar al assad has used starvation as a a weapon of war, has used chemical weapons against his own people, has used chlorine gas probably against his own people.

and so the question is, in fact, how do we create some humanitarian safety for all of these millions of people who are really in a desperate situation. we have put enormous pressure on turkey, on jordan, on iraq. and now on europe as migrants and refugees pour out of syriay looking for safety. so i applaud secretary clinton in wanting to explore every alternative, even knowing some of these are quite tough to do and she will look very carefully to see what is doable, but we can't not try to see if there is an answer to this humanitarian tragedy. >> sreenivasan: all right, wendy sherman, walid phares,wa thank you both.yo >> thank you.. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour. child care workers struggle to make ends meet on near-minimum wage.

a new book explores the history of poor white americans. and inside the extraordinary nose of a search and rescue dog. but first, an update on the fallout at fox news, over allegations that its co-founder, roger ailes, sexually harassed women employees for years. ailes resigned in late july with a reported $40 million severance package.e. that, after a lawsuit by former fox anchor gretchen carlson alleged that her show was cancelled because she'd rebuffee sexual advances from ailes. in the following weeks, a growing number of women, including prime time anchor megyn kelly, reportedly came forward with similar stories of impropriety. ailes has called ms. carlson's accusations "false," and an internal investigation by fox's parent company is still underway. for a closer look, not only at this case, but at the wider matter of sexual harassment in the workplace, we turn to sarah ellison, a

contributing editor at "vanity fair" who recently reported on the ailes allegations, and shelley ross, a former network television news executive, best known for her 17-year tenure at abc news. she recently wrote about her own professional experiences with roger ailes, and the news business at large, in "the daily beast." and we welcome both of you to the program. an we should note at the outset, roger ailes back in the news today because of a "new yorkth times" report that he's now advising donald trump'sal campaign. and we should say the campaign denies that. but sarah ellison, i want to turn to you first. what is the state of what is known about roger ailes' alleged harassment of women at fox news? >> well, we know... largely whaa we know is what we've learned from our reporting, which isic that the internal investigation that is ongoing that you referred to earlier has identified at least women in the double-digits who have come

forward and spoken to the internal investigation, and wega know that it was something that implicated ailes certainly. there are people who have come out and told their stories, but there are people who have not yet come forward, and i think we'll see even more women come forward in the coming days. >> woodruff: we should say he's denied any wrongdoing. >> that's right. >> woodruff: he did reportedly receive this $40 millionli settlement when he left fox. does that mean he's legally free and clear, whatever is discovered? >> well, no, i don't know that any kind of a contractual arrangement could put someone legally free and clear from any kind of behavior. one of the things that we know and that i reported last week was that there are in the course of these discussions that have been going on with the internal investigation and also with the women who initially brought a lawsuit against roger ailes,r gretchen carlson, is there have been some settlement discussions that have begun. at issue in the settlement

discussions are tapes that multiple women, including gretchen carlson, have made of their interactions with roger ailes. and the fact that those are now circulating, at least among then people who are discussing this possible settlement, just makes every bit of this a bit more explicit. >> woodruff: sarah ellison, is there the potential for more legal action against rogerin ailes? >> well, what we have seen in the press, again, he denies any kind of wrongdoing, but there are beyond sexual harassmente charges, there are sort of intimidation and bullying and leaking stories about people. it's not clear to me if he was using the company money to settle multiple lawsuits against multiple women and not disclosing that. i don't know at what point that reaches the level that corporate governance experts or fec people

would be interested in or at what point any of this becomes criminal. >> woodruff: which is a w question we can't know the answer to at this point. shelley ross, you did write that you've known roger ailes sinceer the beginning of your career practically. you wrote of meeting him over lunch. he proposed what you described as a sexual alliance as you were going to work for him. your lawyer contacted his lawyers. he then apologized. you did work with him. you have since stayed in touch with him over the years. but you go on to say in this article you wrote in "the daily beast," you said "sexual harassment in network television is pervasive." how pervasive is it? >> it's everywhere. it's everywhere i worked and it has many levels, many facesc being thrown into a swimming pool on a company picnic iss sexual harassment. it's an act of hostility.

i was the one at abc, i was the producer doing this very first stories on sexual harassment around the time of anita hill's testimony against clarence thomas, and my boss presented me with a birthday cake with a phallic on it. it's a hostile environment. i know executive producers who w turn to their young girls on their staff, "i haven't had my morning hug." i was once... as i was leaving abc, i had a correspondent grabr me and grab my behind and said to me, "i can do this now that you're no longer my boss." i stepped back and said, "no, you can't." it's pretty ugly. it's the reason i wrote this piece in "the daily beast" isea that we've got to stop, we've

got the end harassment now. >> woodruff: shelley ross, let me just ask you, do you think it's worse in the news businesss than it is across the board for women? >> no, i don't think it's any different. it's just you think since we report on it that our colleagues should know better, that theyhe should be a little more elevated, and they're not. >> woodruff: go ahead. what were you going to say? >> it's men and women. i've had a lot of men and former male colleagues reach out to me since i wrote "the daily beast"l article to tell me things have happened to them years ago, and they sound as scarred as women in the workplace. >> woodruff: and you do go on, shelley ross, to write about what you think needs to be done, that there just needs to be more candor. explain what you're talking about. >> well, i think even at fox, fox has the opportunity, now

that bill shine, who was roger ailes' number two, has become president, i think everybodyer thinks he's a really good guy and he's very popular, but he has an opportunity to become a hero. he could say, i want fox news to become the safest place in the world for men and women. i think there has to be public airings. what usually happens, which happened at fox for 20 years, is a woman is sexually harassed. where do they go? they go to human resources. human resources is working for the corporation. they don't want a lawsuit. so there is a settlement.nt there's hush money paid. and there's a non-disclosure. so everything is swept under the carpet, and it goes on and on and on, and i say we need something akin to the truth in reconciliation hearings after

apartheid in 1974. >> woodruff: in south africa? >> yes. nelson mandela had a great idea to say, come forward, clear the air, without any retribution, and we can all move forward safely. >> woodruff: well, let me turn to sarah ellison, having written as much as you have about what happened at fox. whether it's something exactly like shelley ross describes or something akin to that, what do you see as a real potential solution here, or is there one? >> well, i mean, i can tell you what is happening at fox news with the internal investigationn that is ongoing, and this iss that someone very close to that said to me this is not a therapy session for the women involved. this is a law firm that has been hired to give legal advice to 21st century fox. i think what shelly is proposing is quite interesting and thereng has been some lip service paidid

to the notion that they want to create a very safe place to work, but when you look at how pervasive this is in something like television, where people are invited to comment in the newsroom on how someone looks on air, and people are constantly talking about appearance ande weight and hair and make-up. i think it's a very difficultcu environment. i can tell you only what i'm seeing unfold so far, and it's not that promising. >> woodruff: well, it's a subject that's much, much bigger than what we have time for tonight. we thank both of you for certainly giving us something ti think about. shelley ross and sarah ellison,l thank you. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: now a look at

how pre-k teachers and early child care workers struggle to make ends meet, earning little better than subsistence wages, even as parents, and the obama administration, say they increasingly value what they do. its part of our weekly education series "making the grade," produced this week in collaboration with thewe "hechinger report." >> what color is this? >> sreenivasan: chanee wilson teaches at the salvation army's child development center in oakland, california.t this year, the center received a top quality rating from the state. >> our teachers are doing a really good job. they're not just babysitting, they're actually teaching. >> sreenivasan: but program director cheryl murray says despite the high rating, she is not able to pay her teachers a livable wage. >> we're unable. if we pay them more, then wehe would not be able to serve theer families, and the families really need the service.

>> unfortunately, i wish i coulu hit the lottery and pay more for them. >> sreenivasan: the center serves low-income families and gets 80% of its funding fromfu state subsidies. families pay on a sliding scale based on their income and teachers are paid minimum wage or slightly higher. one issue is staffing. because they have younger children, childcare classes require more teachers than kindergarten.il chanee wilson lives in section i eight subsidized housing with her two children and receives a small amount of money in food stamps.ve she makes $13.25 an hour. >> it's a struggle every month, paycheck to paycheck. you have kids and you have bills. we more focus on the needs like providing the roof over their heads, the clothes, the food, and things like that. >> sreenivasan: her problem is a common one.iv labor experts say child care workers all over the country

fail to earn a livable wage. >> early childhood jobs are amongst the lowest jobs across j any occupation. >> sreenivasan: marcy whitebook is the director of the center for the study of child care employment at the university of california, berkeley. >> 46% of childcare workers are relying on some type of federal income support. the wages are so low that somebody working full time isn't making a living wage, and what that means is that in order to meet the needs of their families, they need to get assistance. >> sreenivasan: wilson has her associates degree in early childhood education and isio attending weekend and night classes to earn a bachelor'san degree. but even with a bachelor's degree, her salary will still hover around the minimum wage. like lead teacher le rhonda rainey, who makes $12.55 anle hour. to make ends meet, rainey, who has a bachelor's degree, works as a security guard at night. >> i think most of our teachers here really teach from theur

heart. because if their heart is not in it, they wouldn't be here because of the wages. >> college graduates who majoreu in early childhood have the distinction of having the lowest lifetime earnings compared tome any other degree. that's hardly a recruitment and retention strategy. >> sreenivasan: in fact,an whitebooks says the situation has led to less and lessle colleges are offering early education degrees because students don't see their worth. at blue skies for children, another high-quality preschool in oakland, co-director claireal bainer can't find the skilled teachers the program strives to recruit. >> it's very difficult. this year especially with the economy up, people can get jobs, even with our high minimum wage, flipping burgers, and working the parking lot attendants and things like that pay the same, and much easier work. >> sreenivasan: teachers here are paid more, but bainer says

on top of a bachelor's degree, she wants them to have extensive training in early education, and be good critical thinkers. >> children are learning to talk and learning to negotiate. so it's very important to have an articulate, smart teacher who knows how to help the children develop those skills. >> sreenivasan: as a result, the school, which operates on parent fees and fundraising, will increase their tuition this fall.si >> we can't hire anybody at the amount that we're paying the teachers, so we have to do a fee increase. that only translates to parents paying more. poor parents, it's terrible, it's a lot of money. >> sreenivasan: a recent study by the economic policy institute reported infant care in 33 states costs more than in-state college tuition and care for four year olds exceeds collegeor tuition in 24 states.

♪ ♪ at the same time, early educators say preschool is increasingly valued, and point to new science about critical brain development occurring weln before kindergarten. >> the care and education of young children, before kindergarten, is just as complex as teaching children who areea older. but we haven't restructured our system, and invested the public dollars that it will take. >> sreenivasan: for her part, program director cheryl murray wants her staff to be compensated equal to what k-12 teachers earn. >> i believe they should be paid as well as secondary teachers. >> sreenivasan: even some conservative think tanks are exploring the idea of expandings public funds for early education.f katharine stevens heads the american enterprise newly launched early-childhood program. >> if we approach this in a smart, efficient way, what we would be able to accomplish is getting the neediest kids off to

a good start. if kids are arriving in kindergarten that are better prepared, ultimately our k-12 system will cost less, we will be reducing special ed costs, we will be reducing grade retention costs. however, throwing money at the problem is not going to assure us of that kind of results. >> sreenivasan: stevens cautions that new pre-k programs should not repeat the mistakes of schooling for older children. >> it would be a really big mistake to scale up huge public spending programs without any idea about whether or not those are going to be effective,in because it's going to be veryo difficult to roll that back. >> sreenivasan: recently, the obama administration proposed investing $82 billion to expand childcare to working families and help providers hire, train,o and retain a highly qualified workforce. for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan.

>> woodruff: now, a look at the history of poor, white americans. that's the focus of the latest addition to the newshour bookshelf, and to jeffrey browno >> brown: "this book tells many stories... arguably the mostor important is the one we as a people have trouble embracing:pe the pervasiveness of a class hierarchy in the united states." that line comes from a new book with the provocative title:k "white trash," which makes awh provocative argument that, from the nation's earliest history tn now, ideals such as opportunity and upward mobility haven'twa characterized the lives of manyh americans. author nancy isenberg is a professor of history at louisiana state university. welcome to you. >> thanks for having me. >> brown: i think what hit me most is the idea that the poor have nothaha only been acceptedt

expected, that it's a part of our national d.n.a. that's the argument you're making? well, i think one of the things we forget is that for half of our history we were an agrarian nation. so "white trash" really comesme out of notions of world poverty, and it goes all the way back to british ideas, because in the colonial period and well throughout the 19th century, the mark of being a successful american was being a property owner. and what we've forgotten is that large numbers of americans did not own property. for example, in thomas jefferson's virginia at the time ofvi the revolution, 40% of whie men were landless. >> brown: so when you refer to "white trash," and i want to be clear, the term is literally used with terms like waste, who do you mean? >> yes, the words "white trash," at least as far as we've been able to discover, first appeared in newspaper print in the 1820s. but it has a much older meaning,

because if we go back to some of the leading promotors of british colonization, when they imagined what were they going to do with the new world, the new worldor first of all was manninged -- imagined as a wilderness, a wasteland. it was the perfect place for literally dumping the idle poor. and these were referred to as waste people. >> brown: so those are the beginnings, but your argument is that that has pervaded to our own time, that we have a national myth of opportunity and social mobility. are you saying those don't exist for everyone or they don't exist for one subset of people? >> new york i think there is clearly you can find examples of people who have been able to rise up and improve themselves. the problem is that we exaggerate the idea that at the time of the revolution we abandoned the class system, we created an exceptional society where we celebrated upward mobility. but, in fact, what the founders like franklin and jefferson

really believed in is similar to what the british had in mind, that the poor would be allowed to move into the frontier, what was known as the southern backcountry and the old northwest, and what they were really promising was horizon mobility, not upward mobility. >> brown: land then was the key factor, not education, not energy or earning, but whatha about now? >> i would say land is still extremely important. class has a geography. if we think about the way most americans live and the other measure of class that i highlight is home ownership. if you're poor, the same way they have different names for the poor, they have different names for what they live in, a shack, a shebang or if we talk about trailer trash, what we live in today, we live in class-zoned neighborhoods. we have taken into account the importance of racial segregation, and we know that history, but we also live in neighborhoods that are divided

by class. if you live in a better neighborhood, you have better amenity, better infrastructure, better schools. so geography still plays a very important part, and owning a house is a very important measure of being a member of the middle class. c >> brown: i know you wrote the book before we got into the politics of the currentt campaign, but how do you see class driving politics today?to >> i don't see donald trump and the issues brought up by bernie sanders as that surprising because at crucial moments when politicians are involved, they do use class language. they do heighten and emphasize class distinctions. so that gets pulled as we get pulled in two directions therect too. sometimes politicians say we are all in the middle class or we're all capable of being in the middle class. that's when they want to draw from a more positive stripghtd.r but at other times i talk about

politicians who use class as a way to mobilize political divisions or to accentuate political divisions in our country. >> brown: let me ask you briefly. does anything at all that you've studied through history give you any hope that we can lessen these kind of class divisions in the country? >> our history forces us to confront things that at time we don't want to deal with. we would prefer to have the myth. but i actually think it's healthy if we can get to the point where we can talk about class not just use it as a slogan, not just use it as political rhetoric, but to actually think about it more deeply and to think about how it affects who we are. i often like to refer to the use of "my fair lady." we judge people by the way they dress, by the way they talk, by the unwritten code of class behavior. >> brown: the book is "white trash: the 400-year untold

history of class in america."" nancy"isaac mizrahi: an unruly nancy isenberg, thank you very much. y >> thank you. u. >> sreenivasan: everybody knows that a dog can detect smells fas better than humans can, but do you know why?ec our science producer nsikan akpan has the answer in the latest edition of "science scope." >> meet stinker the rescue dog. dogs are relentless smellers. their noses can catch a vent from a mile away, five times further than we are. these dogs can follow a smell for hundreds of miles, which allows them to save lost people. there are millions of reasons why the canine sense of smell is better than ours. we'll tackle all of them in the next three minutes. ready, set, sniff. let's start by hopping inside a dog's nose.

weeee! one key to a canine super snout is its long and intricate nasal cavity. >> it's like a little cathedral inside your nose full of these bones. >> allow me to introduce a neuroscientist at the university of california,t berkeley. and she's obsessed with how dog's noses work. >> all these plates control how air moves through the nose. >> they create a labyrinth of corridors that filter odors toward a different part of a dog's nose. t-bone steak lands here. a catalans there. at the same time, a dog gets to smell in stereo. so they can tell whether or not your gym socks are to the left or right. this leads to funky behavior, like circling. >> they circle when they have the scent but they don't know is it going off in a different direction. >> in our last episode of science scope, we showed you how

an o. .. isn't a uniform cloud. its shape is straggly and its portions are stretched like taffy. sitting inside this odor plume doesn't tell you much, but traveling along the edge of the odor gives you context and direction, that's why dogs circle. they're looking for the edge. >> so what they do is they do a circle to pick up where the scent is. then they start exploring in that direction. >> remember those millions of reasons i promised?. a dog has 300 million smell receptors, also known as olfactory receptors. humans only have five million. many think dogs are great sniffers because of all of those smell censors, but jacobs disagrees. she says the animal's sense of hell decides with the size of its head. smell information is sent deepe into the brain.he >> in carnivores like woferls and coyotes and foxes and if you look at the size of their home range, the olfactory goes with

the side of their home range. >> they rely on smells for short distances, which may explain why human olfactory systems are smaller.sm can you mel -- smell that. cookies in the break room. i'll be right back. oh, man. oh, where were we? jacobs believes deep down all animals react to mel the same way. her lab is testing this theory. dogs, human, hermit crabs, two types of cockroaches and the leopard. >> they all move in the same way. they all track odors in the same way. we think there has to be a common algorithm they're all using. >> jacobs is part of a nationwide team trying to code those smell also rhythms. i'm nsikan akpan and this is science scope from the pbs "newshour." >> i didn't know there was a smell algorithm. >> you can watch our

>> sreenivasan: you can watch our first sciencscope episode online at pbs.org/tag/sciencscope. >> woodruff: also on the newshour online right now, what's it like to swim next to michael phelps?gh one columnist remembers theer record-smashing olympian as a 12-year-old athlete, still year away from fame but already showing signs of greatness. all that and more is on our webh site, pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: and a correction before we go tonight. earlier in the news summary we said followers of anjem choudary, one of britain's most high-profile radical muslim r preachers, were linked to last year's beheading of a british soldier. that incident actually happened back in 2013. we apologize for the error. and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, miles o'brien takes us to the edge of the most studied volcano in the world. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff.enru join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbsr newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. e woide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.coovat, nt >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.su >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.m o

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>> this is "bbc world news america." funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and aruba tourism authority. >> planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. you can find it here, in aruba. families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny da,