tonight on "kqed newsroom," a supreme cou nomination in jeopardy as kavanaugh faces sexual assault accusatills. talk with the bay area lawmakers who was the first member of congress to hear about the sexual assault allegation from christine blasey ford. research reveals an alarms achievement gap that starts at a young age. >> welcome to "kqed newsroom." we begin with t high court and politics. trump nominee for the supreme court brett kavanaugh is being accused of physical and sexual assault. ford said he assaulted her at a high school party 30 years ago. ? july ford described details of the alleged attack to r local

congresswoman. ford and kavanaugh have been asked to testify before the senate judiciaryco mittee. >> and joining me now bykype from her office. is congresswoman. thank you for beinghee. >> good to be with you. thank you. >>cayou take us back to the day in july when you met with blasey fordn your office. how did she seem as she told you her story? >> i was struck by the following. she is an intelligent woman. she is highly educated. very devoted to her family. concerned about her family. i think it was wrenching for her to share the story. difficult t tell. it was had a layer of etion over it. which is not untypical of sexual abuse victims. victims of sexual abuse are

terrified. terrified that their name will get out. what pple will say. they will be blamed. ere's a whole raft of issues to touch to that. and i also shared with her that i was not here to tellha her i thought she should do. but rather ifre t were something she wished me to do on her behalf that i was prepared to do that. >> did you believe her? >> at the entd of meeting i said to dr. ford i want you to know that i believe you. i did then, i do now >> president trump posted tweets this morning say suggesting he has doubts about ford's story. onat's your reac to that? >> he's so misguided and all he had to do was to check with his own department of justice to understand that there are these are facts, that two

out of three sexual abuse cases are not reported. and there are many good reasons for that. again, the victims are frightened. and many cases when they're young they don't want their families to know. they feel ashamed. they think they are going to be blamed. so i don't think the president is the in the authority on this issue. let's leave it at that. >> miss ford says she will restify. kavanaugh has y agreed to testify. there are no other witnesses sul mono-ed. what's your reaction to the process olunng? >> it's been a rocky road. it's been a rock ri road becase i think that the over all that the committee has been more inclined in the following way. that is a rush to judgment.

just rush it all, bring it to the floor and vote it. thget it behind m. this is one of the most consequential decisions that the united states senate makes.e of the most consequential decisions for the american people. and i think the country and the american people are being left out of ts. it's an appointment to a lifetime position. on the highe court of the land. so, i think that there should be a full hearing.bi the should investigate because these are new allegations. the administration is said that judge kavanaugh has been vetted veral times. and he has. and that's propriate. but dr. ford's story was not part of the vetting. i also believe that mark judge should be subpoenaed. he was the third alleged party

to be in the room. and for him to be left out is a glaring, glaring i think purposefut.over sig >> we live in a different era than from the 1991 hill, thomas he it was a panel of all white men questioning ms.ll. now the committee has four women. four people of color. and thee too movement. do you think we have come far enough and will tat make a difference this time around in terms of what we're seeing with the ford kavanaugh situation. >> it's important to note the change which ar so welcome. they are on the democratic side. the women. several of the senators on the republican sideere there for the aneat hill hearings. and they are still there. it's in all white mle older cast that is in the majority. and hf course theyve the

power to subpoena, they haveth power of whatever the process is that's determined. so one side changed. and i would say the other side hasn't.he i think the most change has taken place is across the ountry with the american people. because there is b aoad and deeper knowledge and appreciation for what the sexual abuse is in our country. that is needs torebe aed. that it needs to be taken seriously. and tha those that come forward need to be respected. >> with thete m election seven weeks away we're hearing facebook isetting up war room. this is to root out false news andtsake accouas we head into the election. how much confidence do you have in facebook's efforts here to try to curb foreign influence in ourltion?

>> well i think it's important that they a doing what they're doing. relative to their platform. and appreciate that. i think it's important. but it doeslt re the over all issue that we have in our country. of relative to the security of our voting system. we know that the russians interfered. in 2016. our national elections and votes that are cast if those are tampered with, then the democracy has been attacked. and so i would fault the majority in congress that despite our pleas, despite the legislation that has been ritten. the congress is not really lifted a finger to assure the am tican people thatey are secure. >> here in california the state ature hads passed a net neutrality bill that iswaing for the governor bill. this goes against recent moves

by the trump administration. it would stop internet providers from blocking and slowing certain web sites unless they ouy more. where do stand on the bill? >> my colleagues i think out of affection dubd me the mother of net neutrality in the house. i have been on the iss for a long time. and have written with all of my colleagues the northern california coressional delegation urging that governor brown sign that bill. >> all right. we thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> for more on the conversation between kavanaugh and ford and a look at california poli cs chl i'm joined by president of the democracy in color. republican political strategist. and senior writer at plit co. good to have you back. we'll talk about the kavanaugh blasey ford show down in a moment.

the "new york times" is reporting todayhat deputy teinrney general rod rose wanted to secretly tape meetings with trump and invoke the 25th amendment to have him removed from office? what do y make from this. he's denying all this. any credibility? >> hs having a bad night at happy hour. he got a professional hit on h by people within his own agency. both at the department ofce justnd the fbi. based on the fact they don't think he's standing up enough te pre trump. on releasing their material on russia and a host of oer issues. >> it's ironic the president has disparaged the "new york times" as a failing paper. for so long. he's tweeting out this story. as h son is. and standing up to the story. as you said rosenstein is denying it. the other point it does seem suspious. it is anonymous sources.

>> what's it do to the credibility of all of thoseti intions? it's difficult to know what to believe now. >> this really is damaging to our federal government. particularly the top law enforcement. >> speaking of institutions. let's move to t supreme court. that is what has been the major story all week long. christine blasey ford is saying she will testify. we don't know when. there was some resistance to it in the beginning and still a little bit now, to the timinghe and conditions. how is all of this playing out? >> look, senor feinstein has taken criticism from both sides of thefr aisle. president trump and her u.s. senate challenger. and at the same christine ford is in this center of this orre s her defenders say she wants to testify. she just wants to meet and have conditions met by the senate. it lookske there maybe some

accommodation there. not all the way. the fact is what we need to look at is how is this gongo affect the confirmation. the timing. which is critical. the first monday in october when the supreme court sits and then how did it effect the turn out in the election and energy on both sid of the aisle. there's so much at stake for both sides. >> i was reading spea "new york times" the op-ed that hill wrote. i grew up watching her testify. >> we all did. >> years ago. do you know, she pointehe out structure the senate judiciary committee and senate has to deal with the claims of sexual harassment hasn't changed in 30 years. fen knew that. she's been in office. >> she road the year of the woman. all the way to office. right after the hill hearings. >> she does bear responsibility. about the rules still in place. that make it difficult for eople to have some level of transparency. there should be a way.

for and ao process deal with and discuss and investigate claims. and there isn't. so those should be changed in a long term thing. but think senator feinstein and i think her citizens here in california expect her to do everything shecan as a democrat to at least of what is going on with kavanaugh light of the fact papers and his writings haven't been released to the public. or leaked. i think she fell short on that. >> it's a curious suation when you have the senate challenger agreeing with president trump. thing. which is a both feel like feinstein mishandled this situation. for different reasons. >> she still won't win the senate district. he's trying. >> in this instance, is murky. feinstein had this for six weeks. it could have been looked at and

vetted. it could have been pae of t process going forward. there's a lot of republicans who feel that ruth bader ginsburg gets put forward 97-3. ginsburg comes up and smokes a marijuana smoked and knocked out. every republican that comes up goes through abuse. what republicans feels abuse by democrats on the partisan basis. i was in the bush white hous for the thomas hearings. on the other side. i was the jr. staffer that was staffing this hearing.d eople felt then this cake up in the last minute a last mip attack. from republican perspective they think these are rank, politic bias issues. this is a serious charge. and it needs to be looked at in a credible way. and if evidence comes forward or credible, then it should be taken. >> rushing to aearing and rushing to a vote. without involving fbi and other

investigation. ense?it make we have to move one year ago. from a democratic party. i will say that president obama had a supreme cot nominee. garland. for a listening time. and the republicans delayed and delayed until they got to make their pick. and so from my perspective, the republiaren't playing fair on this. it's not a transparent process. >> senator sfin feinstein in her defense says theprivacy was the over riding concern. and couldn't ask for a investigation or turn it over without betraying the >> a week before the hearings it goes off the table. >> how did it get leaked. >> a bush member of the bush has said there's no reason why th can't do the fbi investigation. that should be the bottom line. >> i would say she should bee

heard, he should be heard. if evidence or testimony comes up. that then goes to the next step. you can stop. look at exactly what she said. she hasn't talked to the a staff about thismatter when they want to interview her in close door session or talked to the senators in close door. will the her be heard. if this is credible and other witnesses come thforward, vote immediately. >> the burden of responsibility a pof of innocence is on kavanaugh. >> it's not. >> it isn't c onistine ford. this is the same reason there was a me too movement ifthe st place. women were not believe and so we should be in 2018 operating from a different point of view. trump's recent tweet saying if it was that bad you should have gone to the fbi shows the attitude of hasn't changed. it'so ridiculous say that about a 15 year-old girl. >> have to move on. clearly a lot more to discuss on

this. i'm sure this will carrynto next week. we may have you back.e in thetime let's move to the congressional races and midterms. because of course hanging over all of this the kavanaugh hearing, are the midterm elections. republicans areetoping to it wrapped up as soon as possible. before the election. we have democrats nowrying to flip 23 congressional house seats. seven in california. key battleground state here. what is happning in those races? >> they're becoming tight sfwl very tight.k let's l at congressional district 39. redistricting has made the population shift. it's 68% peoplof lor. rt 30% asian pacific islander. the reason i point that out is because a across the country and in california primary there have been late surges and pollste

and people have been surprised. by those who made it through primaries without establishment su. in fact one of three of the nominees that are on the november ballot are women of color. people who came through without democratic party blessing. what's happening in orange county is that a sort of similar suation. where we have a heavily people of color population. and so it's all about turn out. and pollsters are saying it's slightly republica advantage. they're not looking at the incredible g wwth ofen and women of color. in that district alone. that will be the x factor. they're not counting it now. he it's thert of the revoluti i was in orange county this week. to see the turn out of women at these events. it was impressive. many said they have been involved politically was a the women's march.

many women of color. it's going to be interesting see. did they come out and vote? you're seeing signs at yes the energy is there now. and we may be in for abig shift in orange county. >> with tse key tight republican races, do you think there's enough momentum on the democratic side for a blue wave? >> i think the actual kavanaugh process now has had a bit of a negative impact on the races. i think replicans are getting more solidified thinking there's r politics being played and may raise the number of republicans that turn out.'r yo right. young kim is a woman of color. asian woman. and she will do well in the district. i think all said and done across the country the race probably comes down to w african american women come out in large wnumbers. >ll rest there. shawn walsh, amy and colin. thank you all.

>> turning to education. a new research project reveals big aievement gaps by race, income and ethnicity among california 6 million school children. thest achievement gapts in kindergarten. while student test scores are improving. fourth and eighth grade students still perform low in reading and math. black and latin students hawong se out comes than white peers. >> joining me onow. of the researchers who contributed to the report called getting down to facts too. also san francisco chronicle education reporter. jill tucker. welcome to you both. heather, one of the most troublingndings in your study was the achievement gap be even before kids enter kindergarten. how is that so? >> great qestion. this set of studies we want to

find out where the achievement gap was happening and who it was affecting most. we have known for a long time we have gaps in fourth and eighth grade. we have those by race income lines by laatuage s. to what this paper and set of studies contributed is that we can see the gaps before students even set foot in school. >> what contributes to that. >> it's a fragmented early childhood system. a fragmented and under funded system. that some say isn't a system at all. children have -- sohen they start, they're on differentfo ting. based on their characteristic coming into school. li in terms of q of child care or preschool education? what are the things that a rt of the patch work quilt that you point out. >> any parent who has a child this age knows that right now in our state child care is very expensive. ed also t quality of child care is not highly regulated.

acrote the s so a lot of kids that parents can't afford to put in child care at all. and of the kids that are in a early childhood care or training or education,here's a lot of variation. in terms of what they get from an educational perspective. there's a lot of variation in terms of the teachers that are in those positions. serving them. it's not a high wage position. there's not a t of regulatio around training. >> when i think was so interesting about that aspect of the study, the one thg i thought was really interesting about that information aboi ren coming into kindergarten behind was once they gotnto kindergarten california schools and the children kept pace. with other states across the country. which means if they could actually start on equal footing, our schools arein ke pace in terms of teaching them once they get there. it gives this really narrow zone

of where to focus some of the efforts. if we can get them io kindergarten at the same level as peers across the country. they'll keep up. >> what needs to happen to close the gap? prior to. funding alone the difference? >> there's a variety of issues with that. access, it's quality. and so many in the state have been calling for universal preschool for many years. which would allowore control over that system. r we haven't been able to. we made baby steps. we have transitional kindergarten. and we have preschool programs for low income family. it is a bit of patch work right now. it's not universal for all families and children. to sort of get us to the start line. funding alone is never enough. we haveow sacross all of the

36 studies that we need more money in the system. know from decades of education research that if you put money into this system othes theed to be in place to make sure that money is well spent. it's the sa with this early childhood situation. we need to make sure we have a good data system. so we can undstand the service ts that the youngest children are receiving. and how that's affecting th out come. we need to train those early childhoodte hers. so all kids are getting that high quality instruction. and make sure everyone gets that place in a classroom. >> there' anchievement gap. once they get into the public school system we're able to help them close that gap. but is it enough for the to completely catch up? on par with students in otherat . or do they start so far behind they never catch up? >> they are not able to catch up. because of that gap and how big it is onay one, our schools are doing better than schools in

other states actually at closing it. they're not able to accelerate it to completely close the gap. so what we see in california most affluent students are achieving compared to the lefls in other states. our lowck income our b students and eveninglish langua learners. al>> the research teamsornia used to be a leader in early school education. but havet fallen behindr states. how did this happen? >> great question. one of the things this is why we have tried to step band think about the entire system. why we look at prek through 12 education chlts all of these pieces are relatat. and e have seen is there is a huge emp ss on k 12du tion in the past decade. and we have madey some rea vast improvement in the area. around funding and around chato the accountability espport. system. and so not only do we still need

improvement in k 12. but the early childhood paces haven't been attended to. >> jill,ng fun alone can't fix everything. you would think some of thepr lems would have been mitigated because california hasz put in place finance reform. aimed at improving education. since 2005. a formula that lets local districts determine hen to s state money. but best serves their students. so why haven't we seen more improvement? >> we have seenme s and some places. but we need to look at how to focus tho dollars better. the report also states that california is last when it comes to counsellors and things like that. $100 per kid we could have better mental healthcare andca heal for all students in the stay. the report says that to adequately fund schools compared

to other states we need another $22 million. which is about a thirdmo . so it's not money solves all the equation. but money is part of the equation. and according to the study, we're about a third bind of where we should be. le i want to ask you about englishners. a million of nem in california public education system. 40% of califnia students who enter the school system are english learners. how are they faring? >> some of the problems i discussed earlier are most felt by is group. so their achievement at lower.garten is they aren't able to catch up to peers. and there's a lot of reasons for that. a few identified in the 36 studies at we conducted are around the quality of services that are provided to the students and around teachers. the teachers that those students have. we didn't talk yet about teacher shortage is something that's identified as a looming issue. for the state.a it's not everywhere. we have teachers shortages in

urban areas andural areas. and specifically for the students in groups. and english learners are particularly hit by that issue. >> all right. thank you for bringing us up to speel heather.r and thanks for your time. >> that will do it for us. asin always more of the coverage at kqed.org slash news room. thank you for joining us.

robert: september surprise. intensifying battle over supreme court nominee brettavanaugh. i'm robert costa, welcome to "washington week." president trump: to see what's sad. to is just very, very you say, why didn't someby call the f.b.i. 36 years ago? robert: president trump questions the credibility of the allegations against supremene court nomie brett kavanaugh, firing off a tweet aut the accuser and her parents. mr. trump wrote, in part ," i have no doubt that if the attack had bee asad as she says, charges wod have been immediately filed. kavanaugh denies the allegations and says he is