12/17/19 12/17/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy nonow! >> we are protesting the citizenship of the people. taking advantage of the name of religion and this is what we do not want. amy: protests erupt across india against a new anti-muslim law that gives immigrants from afghanistan, bangladesh, and pakistan at path to citizenship -- unless they are muslim. police have responded with

violence, leaving at least six people dead. we'll get an on-the-ground update from new dehli from neha dixit, an independent reporter who just received the 2019 international press freedomm award from the committee to protect journalists. then aung san suu kykyi, the nol peace laureate who spent over a decade fighting against the burmese military, is now defending it against allegations of genocide against rohingya muslims. >> regrettably, gambia has placed before the court in incomplete and misleading factual picture of the situation . yet it is of the utmost importance that t the court asss ththe situation obtaining on the ground in rhakine dispassionately and accurately. amy: then we look at the historic democratic presidential forum on public education that drew seven candidates to lay out their positions on quality pre-k to affordable college.

>> all across america, in so-called red states -- obama, west virginia, kentucky -- we have seen teachers standing out fighting not only for their rights as workers, but equally andrtant, for their kids decent funding so the kids could get the education they deserve. amy: we will pay high like to get response from activist education all across the country. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the house of representatives is slated to vote tomorrow on two articles of impeachment against president trump -- abuse of power and obstruction of congress. today, a number of democratic lawmakers from conservative-leaning districts announced they would vote for impeachment, all but guarananteeing that trump will becocome him the thihird presidt in u.s. history to be impeached. on monday, the house judiciary committee released its 658-page

report arguing trump "betrayed the nation by abusing his high office." there are more than 500 pro-impeachment rallies planned for tonight, with activists expected to take to the streets in every u.s. state. if the democrat-controlled house votes to impeach, then the impeachment trial will play out in the republican-controlled senate. on monday, senate democratic leaderer chuck schumer called on ththe senate majority leader, republican mitch mcconnell, to demand testimony from four current and d former white house aides during the impeachment trial. >> of leader mcconnell doesn't hold a a full and fair trial, te american people will rightly ask, what are you, leader mcconnell, and what is president trump hiding? amy: meanwhile, trump's personal lawyer rudy giuliani told "the new york times" monday that he repeatedly briefed president trump about how giuliani believed united states ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch was impeding investigations that could politically benefit trump.

the president then connected giuliani with secretary of state mike pompeo and yovanovitch was then ousted after a smear campaign engineered by giuliani. the impeachment inquiry centers on how president trump withheld military aid from ukraine in order to pressure the ukrainians to investigate his political rival, joe biden, ahead of the 2020 election. the house rules committee is slated to hold a hearing today to set parameters for wednesday's impeachment floor debate and votes. you can go to democracynow.org for the full ruling hearing today. vowed to boycott the primary debate thursday if the labor dispute between food workers union and a company is not resolved. the union, unite here local 11, says the company does not provide decent yearly wage increases, affordable health care, or year-round work and has vowed to stage a picket line

during thursday's televised debate if an agreement is not reached. the union has been in negotiations with the food service company since march. all seven candidates slated to take the stage during thursday's debate have vowed not to cross the picket line. and where the big news, new jersey senator cory booker and eight other democratic presidential candidates have signed a letter to dnc chair tom perez, urging the dnc to change its qualification criteria for upcoming debates in january and february. the efeffort to change the criteria comes after volker and julian castro, two of the most prominent candidates of color, did not make the threshold for thursday's debate in los angeles. the seven candidates who did qualify for thursday's debate, only one candidate, andrew yang, is a person of color. republican south carololina senator r lindsey graham says president trump may announce a

drawdown of u.s. t troops in afghanistan before the year's end.d. graham waspepeaking fromom the afghan capital kabul monday. he said trump may reduce the number of troops from 12,00000 to 8 8600. graham's vivisit to afghanistan and his announcementnt comes a post"fter the "washington published an extraordinary trove of secret u.s. documents, known as the afghanistan papers, revealing how u.s. officials repeatedly lied about the u.s. war in afghanistan and hid evidence the war had become unwinnable. in india, protests against the controversial citizenship amendment bill have spread to over a dozen cities, with the indian government deploying troops, imposing curfews, and shutting down internet access in an effort to stifle the growing protests. many have denounced the citizenship bill as a major step toward the official marginalization of india's 200 million muslims. it provides a path to citizenship for immigrants from

afghanistan, bangladesh, and pakistan -- unless they are muslim. security forces have clashed with students and shot dead protesters. this is india's opposition congress leader prpriyanka gand. >> the government has attacked students by entering universities, so we will fight for the constitution. we have said it time and again we will fight against the government. amy: we will go to new delhi to hear more about t the protest in india after headlines. pakistan's former president and military ruler pervez musharraf has been sentenced to death in absentia for high treason. the former leader seized power in a military coup in 1999 and ruled pakistan as president until 2008. he is now living in self-imposed exile in dubai. the high trereason conviction stems from musharraf's decisionn to declare emergency rule while in power, in violation of the constitution. today's ruling marks the first time in pakistan's history that an army chief has been convicted of treason.

in china, the state-run media outlet cctv canceled the broadcast between two teams after the star player of england's arsenal, mesut ozil, criticized on social media the chinese government's violent abuse of uighur muslims. on friday, ozil, who is turkish-german and muslim, called uighurs "warriors who resist persecution." chinese authorities have been accused of systematically separating muslim children from their families in the far western region of xinjiang. an estimated 1 million adults from the uyghur community are being imprisoned in camps without trial. boeing is temporarily suspending production of the troubled 737 jet after t the airplalane was grounded worldwie following two crashes in ethiopia and indonesia that killed all 346 people on board. last week, a former boeing manager testified to the house transportation committee that he

tried one boeing executivess about safety concerns before both deadly crashes, but hisis warnings were ignored. to see our full interview with consumer advocate ralph nader on the 737 max passenger jet, go to democracynow.org. the nader family has sued over the death of his grandniece e wo died on ethiopian airlines flight 302. a new audit has revealed how the sackler family withdrew more than $10 billion from their company, purdue pharma, as scrutiny mounted over purdue pharma's role in the opioid epidemic. the sacklers distributed the money among trusts and overseas holding companies, raising even more questions about how much money the family actually has and how much the sacklers should pay to compensate victims of the united states' opioid crisis. local and state governments have brought thousands of lawsuits against purdue pharma. letitia james, the attorney

general of new york, said -- "the fact that the sackler family removed more than $10 billion when purdue's oxycontin was directly causing countless addictions, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and tearing apart millions of families is further reason that we must see detailed financial records showing how much the sacklers profited from the nation's deadly opioid epidemic." a new study reveals how 91 of the fortune 500 companies effectively paid no federal taxes in 2018. the study by the institute on taxation and economic policy shows how amazon, starbucks, chevroron, duke energy, halliburton, and others paid an effective federal tax rarate of% or less. in san francisco, california, dozens of activists blocked roads and shut down the pg&e headquarters for hours monday,

demanding the massive utility company stop its chronic power outages and invest money to ensure communities of color and disabled people are guaranteed stable electricity. this is one of the protesters. >> people rely on electricity to live. pg&e has not been maintaining their power lines and giving money to shareholders, not investing their money and making it they. frankly,y, utilities should d ne privately owned and for profit. they should be serving people. amy: in october, nearly one million pg&e customers had their electricity shut off as wildfires blazed across los angeles and northern california. the unprecedented blackouts followed last year's devastating camp fire, which killed 85 people, the deadliesest blaze in california history. investigatators found poorly mainintained pg&e transmission lines sparked that fifire.

in north carolina, a police officer who slammed an 11-year-old middle school student to the ground twice has been fired. the assault at vance county middle school s s caught o on survrveillance tape, which shows thschool resesource officer and a small l boy walking downwn the hallway when the officericks the boboy up and throws him to e grground. the e officer then picks t the y up again and slams him to the ground again. the officer, who has not been publicly named, was initially placed on paid leave. he was then fired as the video went viral. and here in new york, thousands of undocumented people waited in lines at dmv's monday to apply for a driver's license, marking a major victory for immigrant rights. new york governor andrew cuomo signed the green light law in june, which allows people to apply for a driver's license using alternative forms of identification instead of

providing a social security number. meanwhile, in the neighboring state of new jersey, legislators also passed a bill monday to allow undocumented people to apply for driver's licenses following emotional testimonies at the new jersey state assembly last week. among those to testify was a 9-year-old new jersey resident named david. >> [indiscernible] i came here today because i support the licenses. on monday, as new jersey lawmakers approved the bill to grant undocumented people driver's licenses, supporters erupted in cheers and chants of "si, se pudo" -- yes, we could.

new jersey governor phil murphy has already said he will sign the legislation into law. and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in india where a wave of protests continues across the country in opposition to a new anti-muslim citizenship law. many see the so-called citizenship amendment bill as a major step toward the official marginalization of india's 200 million muslims because it provides a path to citizenship for immigrants from afghanistan, bangladesh, and pakistan -- unless they are muslim. we are protesting the citizenship amendment bill, which is taking advantage in the name of religion and this is what we do not want. india is a secular country and let it remain secular.

amy: prime minister narendra modi has responded to the demonstrations and more than a dozen cities by deploying troops, enacting a curfew and shutting down the internet. police have also violently confronted protesters, leaving at least six dead, including four people shot by police in the state of assam. students protesters at jamia millia islamia university in new delhi clashed with police over the weekend. in one video that's gone viral, police officers can be seen beating a male student as a group of female friends try to protect him. the police continue to beat the young man with their wooden batons despite the women's pleas. one of the female students who hurled her body in front of the police batons, 22-year-old ladeeda farzana, later told reporters she's fighting for her very existence in india and encouraged others to do the sameme. happenedhappened, it

first with kashmir. at that time we kekept quiet, we kept the p peace. the we lostst our faiaithver judiciary in the verdict later on, when it came to thahat a, we ar a aerting they will be t targeting thehe whole of i. dod't think you are a woman or sosomeone donon't thinink of t, out.get out. raisyour voice. women are alalways told, m maker vovoice low, resespect men.. raise e your voice. amy: despite the police violence, protests against the citizenship bill are continuing. they come amid a broader crackdown on india's muslims by modi's government. in the muslim-majority region kashmir, access to the internet has been shut down more than four months. and modi has already enforced a

citizenship test in the state of assam, which borders burma and bangladesh, requiring 33 million residents to provide evidence they or their ancestors lived in india before 1971. more than n 2 million people, my of them muslims, failed to pass the test and are now at risk of being held in mass detention camps. meanwhile, prime minister modi himself has been accused of sanctioning the massacre of more than 2000 muslims in gujarat in 2002 when hehe was chiefef minir there. for that massacre, he was banned from the united states for years. well, for more, we go to new dehli, india, , where we're joid by neha dixit, an independent journalist who has been covering the protests against the new citizenship bill. her investigative reporting focuses on politics, gender, and social justice. last month, she received the 2019 international press freedom award from the committee to protect journalists. welcome to democracy now!

thankk you so muchch for joinins fromom new delhi. tell us what i is h happening. >> t thank you so much, , amy. things a are quite disturbrbingd bad at the same time. on december 9 9, there was a bil introduced in the parliament, and the lower house wasas to understand her 11, -- on december 11, thehe law was passd in the upppper house. the citizenship amendndment act right now, like y you said, excludes muslims, partrticularl, and six other communities, immigrants frorom six communitis have been allowed citizenshipip under t this act. no explanatitions have been givn why theyey have bebeen allowed. this goes completelyly a againse tenant of f the kind of inclusie --eo and d diversity inclusivitanand diversitity. it is unconstitutional and illelegal.

even though it was set in the protests ththate have broken out in various parts right now, 24 universities in india protesting this act, the gogovernment has t been -- the debate that has come up regarding this act. most of f the protesters have bn met with police violencnce, pole brutality. wassterday and the e day before students protesting at several

, -- the country is burning and no one is ready to accept this kind of sectarian law the government has passed. complete islamaphobic agenda in mind. i also want to say it is important to recall the current , theycal party in power had the manifesto and the general elections and this time, this iseral election -- a step forward -- "the new york times" headline today on the front pages "india erupts in protest as modi presses vision for hindu nation." actions he different

has been involved w with, going back to the massacre of 202002 r which he was banned from m the united states for r years.s. >> absolutely. member which isa .he e parent body one of the main tenants is to been, india -- have always phphobic. m minister whenef several l people w were massacr. there was no investigation. people invololved a drip involvement the political party in power whwhich was thee bjp ad there were lots of other afaffiliated statitions involve.

there been several, several documementations to prove that.. jusust jouryujarat is the prime m minister, he coconstantly has been saying things w which have been isislamaphphobic in nature. promised in the agenda they were going to stop p the pk revolution, which was s a direct -- owns ae to new deal number of slaughter houses in inindia. in 2014rative started -- in the last six years until now, we have seen a number of lynchings of people, particularly from the muslim cocommity and also the hindu order, we have seen a

number of those lynchings. we have seen the policice undedr , again, frominister --, must 5000 [indiscernible] even now yesterday prime minister modi is campaigigning. responding to the e protest, h e said you c c make out from thee kind of attire the people are protesting who they are, whwhich isis a direct referenence to o e attire the muslim community wears. he is against tryining to create this device betwtween people.. i would like to place on record

globally we're talking about several autocrats. the whole idea of ththe global islamaphobic t trend tt is going on [ [indiscerninible] he was r recently in t the unitd stateses with the howdy modi campaiaign. -- therehis agenda been several invesestigative reports. i've also dodone one w with the hindu body bebehind bjp h have n traffificking several childrenn from northeast indndia and takig them t to other partrts of indio and they arareem told how mususlims are the invadeders andnd christians aree invaders and how to fight them.. thisis kind of nararrativeve han propagated post narendra modi has been at the helm. amy: can you describe just

yesterday -- as we try to reach you yesterday, you are in the streets for hours. we just described what happened at jamia university. at a level of t the police violence and the number of deaths that has resulted d from that violencnce. timim thatthe first -- jamia millia islamia university is essential central universityty. ands not just muslims professionals in various department's have attended the university across religions. first of all, the government itself is trying to put it out as a university for muslims, which it is not. what happened in the last three days is on friday, several students were out there just carrying on a peaceful march and protest against the citizenship

amendment act. the police within an hour of that march, targeted it with , stonesnnons, tear gas and then the students, they would shoot. the students went back the next day when they came back again, is policeman -- reality that unheard of. they w were inside the library. students were trying to hide and them the police main halls of the university. the police tried to break the window panes and fired tear gas shells. according to the united nations guidelines, cannot fired tear gas inside confined spaces. several people were injured during that. people could not breathe. they could not escape. several had locked inside --

themselves inside washrooms. accounts from eyewitnesses i gathered yesterday, the first thing the police did was to break the cctv cameras in these and slapped several students and apart from that, confirmed two people at least ami have been shota with bullets. these are not rubber bullets, at. onee actual fired of the studentnts -- a repeports beenen confirmed that they were bullet injuries. students who just try to hide from the police, beaten up in this manner? the unfortunate part is, the next day the students had -- a lot of students were just in the reading halls preparing for examinations the next day.

as a result, the university has declared a vacation for these students. suddenly, most of the students are from outside, from kashmir, where people cannot reach their parents. in the university has shut down in the students have been advised to evacuate the university. several students are stranded. several women students on the campus are stranded. they are terrified. -- lots of people are scared, panicked. this is completely unheard of. there has been no action. the proctor of the jamia millia -- policeiversity required permission but none was taken.n. we have not heard anything positive or constructive from anybody from the administration or the government.t. amy: neha dixit, wally wood and

cricket stars play a huge role in india in shaping public opinion, yet they have been largely silent here. can yoyou explain why? , it is veryrysimply important t to point out thehe -- the same groups are part t of theolitical rties nonow and power.r. the same groups on cricket leagues or teams i in the premir league. fund thee groupss bollywood film industry. the one or two independent voiceses that we have seen haha been crushed completelyy because

they are not given work anany longer. there is no freedom of sech and the e kind of environment we are in. either there is a boycott econonomicalally or a lot of s g and harassment t that happens. reports thahatral suggest the current political party in power has an o organizd of f threatats kinds to peoplwho o speak up.. there is no action ever taken. we have lolo people, w we've sen up.l w who spoke journalilis killed.. walllly would d stars haveeceivd all l kinds of t threats that he spoken up. there's an envirironment full of hate.

[indiscernible] amy: i want to thank you for being with us. would you describe india as a democracy? say evennow, i would though india has a democratically elected leader, wewe are in a democracycy undera dictator. so we are not aa democracy, we'e only a democracy for thehe privilegege of firsrst cast hinn this country another -- and none of t the othther community''s wo haveve existed i in india for so many years. amy: please stay safe. neha dixit is an independent journalist based in new delhi, india. her investigative reporting focuses on politics, gender,r, d sosocial justice. she just received the 2019 international press freedom award from the committee to protect journalists. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war peace

report as we turn right now to break. we will be back. ♪ [music break] amy: we turn to the hague where aung san suu kyi has asked the

u.n. international court of justice to drop the genocide case against her country. more than 70700,000 more forcedo flee into neighboring bangladesh in a brutal army crackdown in 2017. international aid groups say thousands of rohingya have been murdered and a quarter of a have million been forced to flee into neighboring bangladesh. aung san suu kyi, who spent over a decade fighting against the burmese military, is now defending it. last week she appeared in person at the hague to dispute the charges and called the allegations of genocide against rohingya muslims incomplplete ad slslting. >> in n my requestst to the couo remove the case. in the alternative, three-judge the request for provisional measures submitted by the gambia. thepresident, it is vital present and future that are civilian and military criminal justice systems functions in

accordance with thee constitution. were a country has a military justice system, neutralizing the sysystem by externalizing justie in effffect surgically removes e critical limb from the body. helps armed forces to self-correct, to improve, to better perform their functions within a constitutional order. amy: during international court hearings, aung san suu kyi repeatedly tried to deny thehe burmese military has carried out genocide against the muslim rohingya, although she never once used that word "rohingya" during her speeches. gambia brought the genocide case to the internatitional court, accusising burma of trying to "destroy the rohingya as a group, in whole or in part, by the use of mass murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence." for more, we go to barcelona, spain, where we are joined by reed brody, a counsel and spokesperson for human rights watch, also helping gambian victims seeking to prosecute the former dictator yahya jammeh.

welcome back to democracy now! can you talk about the significance of aung san suu kyi the genocidetive against the rohingya, others call it the rohingya, did not take place? >> this was a spectacular moment for international justice, with the eyes of the world live-streamed to myanmar, around the world. you had gambia laying out the case that the government of myanmar was committing genocide. and aung san suu kyi, the de facto leader, was there listening and participating. obviously, she went there for domestic political reasons, to

solidarityhe was in with the military who continue to rule, in many ways, the country. in solidarity with those hateity in the country who and despise the rohingyas and have mistreated them, not just for the last couple of years, but for many years. it is a spectacular fall from -- ace for a woman who was nobel peace prize winner, an icon of the human rights movement, now to be sitting therere, standing there forcefuy defending her government, a government which, as you said, has displaced over one million rohingyas, that has committed systematic rape and the destruction n of villages. and to have this transmitted all

over the world -- i don't think from an international point of view this was a disaster for her. if somebody is accusing you of a crime of genocide, no less, you usually want to run away from those charges, hide them. by going to the hague for domestic reasons, she guaranteed the world would be watching, that the cameras of the world would be focused on these very accusations. to: so auaung san suu kyi goes the hague. the case was brought by gambia. explain why gambia. is a fascinating story, actually. the orgaganization of islamic ofperation, 57 member group islamic countries, have obviously been concerned about the treatment, the crimes against the rohingyas. they created an ad hoc group to

look at different legal recourses. the attorney general of the gambia was at a meeting of the oic in bangladesh. , my work with very issues, whoambia hahad been a prosecutor himselft the rwanda war crimes tribunal and prosecuted cases of genocide. he said, when i went -- in fact, he told the court, when i went to the border, i saw genocide. i smelled the stench of genocide. cooperationmuslim agencicies were looking for what to do, he actually proposed this gambiaand proposed that would take this case to the international court of justice. within gambia, there's a lot of

-- gambia is going through, as we have talked on your show, a very painful process of accounting for its own past abuses, of its own dictatorship. and a lot of people in gambia are, why are -- what do we have to do with that? kilometers, 5000 miles away from the gambia? but i think the attorney general has made the point that it is precisely country like gambia, a democratic country dealing with that is thees -- kind of solidarity, amy, that we don't very often see these days. a small african country standing up for the rights of a know,uted minority, you 5000 miles away. amy: reed brody, i want to thank you for being with us. just give us the chronology of what happens next. two days of hearings. what is the international

criminal court decide? on gambia'sngs were request for the equivalent of an injunction. and is very high. this is a very conservative court made up largely of former divert -- government officials. they don't want to interfere in international affairs. the quote you played of aung san suu kyi played exactly to that. gambia is asking for the equivalent of an injunction. we are assuming, given the urgency and given the eyes of the world on this case, that the court will rule on that requestt for provisional measures within the next month. amy: we want to thank you so much, reed brody, counsel and spokesperson for human rights watch. and hisistoricck, presidential forum on education. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the last democrat presidential debatate at the yer this thursday in los angeles, seven candidates appeared saturday at a historic democratic presidential forum on public education in pittsburgh coming event organized by public education groups, unions, civil rights groups. for more we're joined by three guests. in atlanta, georgia, keron blair is director of the alliance to reclaim our schools.

in chicago, jitu brown is the national director of the journey for justice alliance. and in new york carol burris, , executive director of the network for public education action. she recently authored a report titled "still asleep at the wheel: how the federal charter schools program results in a pileup of fraud and waste." i spoke with them and asked them about this forum that did not get very much attention. we began in atlanta with keron blair and ask how they organized the forum and what he felt was so critical. >> good morning. it is so good to be with you. i can say that the director of the alliance, we pulled together a number of groups, including the folks who are joining me, the journey for justice alliance and network for public education. we all put time and staff and energy into making this forum possible. for us, it is historic because it is one of the first times in recent memory where public education was at the center of the conversation with folks who

are looking to be president. the ididea for this forum emerged months ago after we worked together to actually introduce the key power packed act and people had a meeting where we said, given the importance of this issue, we need to figure out how we raise education to the national level and really get folks on the record on issues that we care about. for months, folks have been pulling together resources, staff, relationships. and saturday was phenomenal on a lot of levels because what we had come again, we had parents and students and educators, educational professionals, school staff, higher ed advocate in one room come under one big tent, naming the issues we cared about like investment in public schools and ending the school to prison pipeline. , deepening movement

our commitment to racial justice and infrastructure and what we know is required to make learning possible. so we are happy to have been a part of that and happy to have onned our partners in labor the community side, parents, students, school staff come in making this event possible. amy: i want to turn back to the moderator asking elizabeth warren aboutut charter schools. >> right now the majority of children who find themselves in public charter schools are minority children, black and brown children. some parents of those black and brown children say, what do i do while i wait for my public school to get up to speed to provide my child with the kind ofof academic excellence that ty deserve? what do you say to those parents who are looking for the public charter school option? >> i have met with many parents and grandparents who have put their children in public charter

schools. i have no doubt about the sincerity of their efforts to educate their children, and they're looking for the best educational opportunity they can find. i believe that. but i believe that it is our responsibility as a nation and will be my responsibility as president of the united states to make certain that every public school is an excellent public school. >> iesco that his future-oriented. we have been spending billions of dollars in education reform in this country for decades, and we are not there yet in terms of the academic excellence. you know the nation's report card just came out and said in terms of our students being able to read. >> i'm not proposing cutting funding for children who are currently in chcharter schools. i believe that for profit charter schchools should be closed, for that is a different issue. i also believe that alternative

schools should have to be exactly the sasame requirements that all other public schools have to meet. amy: so that is massacachusetts senator presididential candidate elizabeth warren. carol burris is with this, who wawas also at the formm on saturday, executive director of the network for public education action, who recently released titled "still asleep at the the report titled "still asleep at the wheel: how the federal charter schools program results in a pileup of fraud and waste." she priestly served as a principal of a high school in long island, new york, and before that, teacher at both the middleton high school level. this issue of charter schools divides the democrats will step respond to what senator warren said and then what you have found. >> i think senator warren is right on target. it has been a shame because the advocates of charter schools misrepresent her position.

they keep saying she's trying to cut off funding. that is not anybody's position off i know of, to cut funding for present charter school's whether it be state funding or federal funding. but there is a real concern expressed by the naacp. it has been expressed by our organization and also by some of the leading candidates that the continued proliferation of charter schools without real reform is becoming a national problem. in the federal partner schools program has been complicit in all of this. especially under betsy devos. the charter schools program has spent over $4 billion starting new charter schools all over the nation. what we found and are report was that a lot of the money goes to charter schools that don't even open, ghost schools. hundreds of millions of dollars also go to charter schools that open and then close, some within a matter of just a few years. some longer.

so the program has been very veiled. and what we're doing is we are deep into the data. and all of the evidence we have shows about $1 billion has been billion has been wasted on charter schools that have not open or have closed. at the same time, we see a lot of fraud, we see a lot of problems with mismanagement, we see a lot of turmoil from schools that open and then close, and we see a tremendous amount of drained resources from our public schools and our community schools that need the funding the most. so what elizabeth warren and bernie sanders are advocating come is,nd the naacp hey, let's take a cause. let's take a look. our position at the network for public education is, let's make charter schools true public schools. let's have b boards of charter schools elecected by thehe peoee instead of, very often, being

boards composed of milillionair. amy: what is your assessment of the presidential candidatetes, especially the dems you're divided on this issue of charter schools, whose proposal did you like thehe best? there wasn't as many spoken about as i would've liked, but we did get little hints. we certainly know michael bennet charter schools. amy: and his history and education? >> he was the superintendent of the denver public schools where he really instituted a lot off the racece to the top reforms tt have now been abandoned by the -- weatic party. we have were very happy and surprised to hear joe biden talk about he would like to see betsy devos and her charter schools as well as her policies on sexual harassment go. that was the first.

mayor pete says he is against for-profit charter schools, and we find that to be very disingenuous. the only state that has for-profit charter schools is the state of arizona. for profit allow management organizations to operate their charter schools. he has yet to come out and say he is against that. that is part of elizabeth warren's platform and also bernie sanders. amy: i want to bring jitu brown into this conversation, speaking to us from chicago, though he was there on saturday at the forum. he is national director of the journey for justice alliance. can you respond to what you felt was most noteworthy about this historic public forum where a number of the democratic presidential candidates laid out their education programs, what you found inspiring and what you found lacking? >> yes, ma'am. first of all, thank you for

having me. i appreciate you always been a platform for justice and a place where our voices can be heard. so thank you for the work you do and having me this morning. the first thing i would say is the fact that it happened was a major victory. the fact that democratic presidential hopefuls had to speak to the breath of the education justice movement. unfortunately, corporate media in their laziness always saidd teacacher unions arere leading e way. but if we really know what is happening on the ground, often the tip of the spear are community groups, parent organizations, student organizations who are cutting the issue at a very grassroots level. in particular, issues of racial justice. so young people that have been fighting against assaults by school resource officers are the ones who led the fight to put

regulations in place to protect students civil rights. community groups that have fought against the closing of our schools and fought against the sabotage of public education have often been the tip of the spear and saying the school closings happen in certain communities. the question of equity as opposed to only funding was a community-driven initiative where -- so you saw the name of the forum, equity and opportunity for all. so i think the breath of the education justice movement was , on saturdrday. and i think that was important. so that was inspiring to me. the fact that you had i in the beginning keron blair setting the tone for the event, jonathan setting angel goldberg the tone of the event.

but then you also had lily garcia from thenea, randy weingarten, and mysyself, frame event for the audience, for peopople understand why this moment was so important. so those things were important to me. i think -- it speaks to the growth of this emerging education justice movement across the united states. i know as being with the journey for justice alliance the people are fighting for education justice all over the country. young people in camden, new jersey, organized to 1600 student walkouts protect their teachers. young people in chicago, illinois, are organizing to make sure there are more counselors in the schools and police officers -- and police officers. are -- parents and educators in chicago put the

demand for 20 sustainable schools in the contract and 15 years of funding for 20 sustainablee s schools in the cy of chicago. i i can go on all over the unitd states. amy: living current to divide to johnson of detroit action for a new economy. this is johnson questioning senator bernie sanders. >> today i come to tell you i never felt safe with police in my schools. since 1994, because of the crime bill, more than $1 billion has been spent on putting police into schools. so senator sanders, my question to you is, are you committed to ending the school to prison that blackd ensuring and brown students both feel safe and welcome in their schools? and if so, how? >> absolutely, i am committed. and that is one of my highest

priorities. we have a criminal justice system in general, which is not .nly broken but it is racist we have more people in jail than any other country on earth, including china, four times our size. so we have a long proposal on criminal justice. but one of the aspects of it is if you want to keep people out ofof jail, then you and best in jobstion, you invest in rather than more jails and incarcerations. amy: that is senator sanders response. jitu brown, your r response to what senator sanders said in the position of all of these candidates? >> i think the issue of equity is critical. itsquity reels -- rears

head not only course offering, but also in regards to how administered in school. if you view children as precious, as viable human beings, then you will treat them as such. if they struggle, you will counsel them. you will find out what their problem is and you will help to alleviate it. if you view children through a racist lens, then you will look at a five and six-year-old and he would be willing to suspend that five or six-year-old. you would be willing to police those children as opposed to understanding. so i think that senator sanders -- as many democrats have moved -- and the right direction to regard to student discipline. we know black children are suspended five times as much as their white counterparts for the same infractions. amy, this gets to a point. some 65 years after the passage

of brown the board, we have not honor that mandate. the reason why we have pushed the issue of equity because we have done everything but equity. you've done virtual schools, zero-tolerance policies, storefront schools, storefront charter schools, charter schools in the basement of churches, alternative schools -- everything but facing our ugly, which is that we have a system that views black and brown children through the lens of hate. and that is the sickness. our children are not the problem. the problem is racism that infects public policy. the fact that bernie sanders has moved on the issue of privatization -- where he was not on the right side four years ago. elizabeth warren has moved. now mayor pete is attempting to adjust his platform. it speaks to the strength of our collective organizing. parents, and people, and

educators working together to say we want an education platform that is rooted in racial justice and rooted in equity. so i think that is a sign that we are moving in t the right didirection. just because we had the candidates there, that is just the beginning of the work. we will have to hold whoever goes into the white house accountable. but the fact we were able to get them there and begin to move them in the right direction, because the failure to implement the mandate of brown v board is a bipartisan failure. people complain about betsy devos. but if there was no arne duncan, there would be no betsy devos. what is the difference between the two of them except vouchers? arne duncan was just as unqualified as betsy devos was. amy: that was jitu brown of journey for justice alliance in chicago. keron blair with the alliance to reclaim our schools in atlanta, georgia, and carol burris,

executive director of the network for public education. .e will be like i very happy birthday to my

thank you for joining us on "nhk newsline." i'm kyoko tashiro in tokyo. the u.s. pacific air forces commander is suggesting north korea's threat of a, quote, christmas gift might be a long-range ballistic missile test. general charles brown made the remarks to u.s. media on tuesday. he was referring to what may happen i if the u.s. didid not north korea's year-end deadline to lift sanctions or make other concession bilateral denuclearization tatalks. brown said