this morning my question, why do some members of congress want dhoirn go hungry? plus, the pennsylvania governor who can't find a single latino in the keystone state. and students rallying to save their schools. but first, the gop in virginia is offering a slate of nothing less than right wing nut jobs. good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. after looking to president obama for the second time last year, the republican party was inspired to do a little soul searching. the grand old party took a long hard look in the mirror and realized perhaps it was time to get a little work done. smooth out some of the bumps and

wrinkles that caused the party to stumble during the election. a nip here and a snip there to get rid of some of the dead weight and maybe get a little color. tone down all of that glaring whiteness. having decided a facelift was the cure for what the ailing party was dealing with, the party didn't slink away quietly only to reemerge months later looking brand new. oh, no. republican party leaders telegraphed every gory detail of the process in advance. first, party chairman lance priebus let us know what they'd be adding and enhancing. >> the rnc cannot and will not write off any demographic, community or region of this country. we've also never been this dedicated to working at the community level to win minority votes, household to household. >> then louisiana governor bobby jindal let us know who would be getting nipped and tucked away. >> we've got to stop being the stupid party.

we've had a number of republicans that damaged with offensive and bizarre comments. i'm here to say we've had enough of that. >> as laid out by the republican leadership, the political plastic surgery plan promised a fresh new face that would be a lot more brown and a lot less stupid. offensive and strange. okay. last week after a post defeat recovery period, it was time for the big reveal. we got our first look at the new and improved party when virginia republicans unveiled their nominees for the state's top spots in the november election politically. there couldn't be a better or more supportive environment than virginia. for the republicans to unveil their new look. i mean, virginia today is a far cry from the virginia that was once the home to the capital of the confederacy. this is the virginia that was the first state in the nation or commonwealth to elect an african-american as governor by popular vote. this is the virginia that helped elect and then re-elect the first african-american to the

presidency. along with sending democrat and recent dnc chair tim kaine to the senate, changed the colors from red to deep purple. there's no time like the present for virginia republicans to slip off the fiery red fringe of the radical right and try on a cool moderate purple to compliment its overhauled appearance. at last, saturday's nominating convention, we got a look at the face of the republican party, the one we were told would be more inclusive and more sane than ever before and may i introduce, let him speak for himself. here's how the man who could be the second most powerful man in virginia introduced himself to voters when he ran for the u.s. senate last year. >> i'm e.w. jackson. candidate for senate in virginia. the president has said that we need to use a scalpel to cut the federal budget. i believe we need to use an ax. >> sir, your ax. >> okay.

so more brown and less bizarre. well, i guess one out of two ain't bad. bishop e.w. jackson, a baptist preacher whose biggest political claim to fame before now was losing 95% of the vote during his senate run was enthusiastically chosen as the nominee for lieutenant governor at last saturday's convention. as for bobby jindal's assurances that they would dispense with the offensive and stupid comments, well, let's take a listen at what e.w. jackson has to say about reproductive choice. >> been more lethal to lives than the kkk ever was. >> military has been decimated by this lesbian, guy bisexual, transgender policy that has now been implemented. >> that's just the tip of the

eww iceberg. give him a google to get to know e.w. jackson better. meanwhile, the guy above jackson at the top of the ticket need no introduction. virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli sounds familiar, it might be from when he was in the news trying to keep sodomy illegal in virginia because as he said in 2009, homosexual acts are wrong as he said. i think in a natural law-based country, it's appropriate to have policies that reflect that. or maybe it was from when he approved strict building code regulation that would put virginia's abortion providers out of business. the name cuccinelli might also ring i bell from that time he urged virginia's public colleges and universities to get rid of their policies that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. noticing a pattern here. after virginia voters showed their true colors to be royally purple, the republican party responded with its true new face colored with the same old

intolerant red. joining me today, the very man who won that historic election that i mentioned earlier, former virginia governor doug wilder and christina bell tony, political editor for pbs news hour and steve kornacki. he's our friend and neighbor next door on the 8th floor and founder of ptp organization and former senior media adviser to the romney and ryan campaign. thank you all for being here. glad to be with you. i want to start with you, governor. because this is your state. what is going on in virginia right now? >> virginia, you have described it. it is indeed a purple state. it's showed that twice. it carried as i predicted it would carry for obama and it did so again in the last election. i think e.w. jackson's comments quite frankly are all right for church, all right for his

sermon, all right for some other place. but to be the leader of the state and to be in that second position that you spoke of is not respective of virginia values. now, i remember when i ran for that office, particularly the governor's office, there was a considerable amount of pressure being applied to overturn roe v. wade. i made it a point to let that be a part of my plank and my platform. i would not let anything go overturned. i was advised, oh, you're making a mistake. i said you'd be surprised at the people who are not going to turn virginia back. i would submit to you that a lot of republican women voted for me based on that singular plank in my platform. >> this feels like a good point. christina, you've been following virginia politics as a reporter for a long time now. what do you see in terms of sort of how the populous looks, how the electorate looks versus what this slate of candidates looks like?

>> that's exactly the right question. because it's activists, republican activists, a few thousand of them that physically go to a convention that shows jackson to be their candidate. they chose a convention for a reason. it's one of the reasons ken cuccinelli ended up with a clear field instead of bill bolling running. still a conservative republican. so you have activists after this, four round of balloting. the other thing when you show the map of virginia, it's not purple everywhere. the biggest populations are in northern virginia because of the washington suburbs, the economy is good in virginia. it's had a low unemployment rate. it's at 5% maybe lower. >> government can create jobs. in part, because northern virginia has so many federal government workers, they haven't had the same kind of hit. >> technology that's happening in northern virginia. that's not fairly representative of the state. what's interesting here is it's not necessarily about what they're saying. it's about the actions. e.w. jackson does not have a

policy record here. ken cuccinelli does. he was a state senator before he was attorney general. he has long been a very conservative republican. they're both very religious. cuccinelli is very catholic. he's similar to santorum. he's against all different types of abortions, freedoms that you might say. this is a long-standing fight for him. it's definitely a platform he's going to run on. >> one of the odd things about the state of virginia is that the governor and lieutenant governor, although they run together are not linked. so in fact, e.w. jackson could lose and cuccinelli could win, right? that's not true everywhere. what do you see as you look at this deal? >> that's happened before. in 199 approximate in virginia. george allen was the republican elected governor. his running mate was a far right home-school named michael fair is. it might be a precursor to what

could happen this year. like christina said, it's a decision by the republican party to take the step beyond the primary and have the nominees decided at a convention. i remember when governor wilder ran for the senate in 1984. it was wild because the republican convention that year nominated for the u.s. senate oliver north. it caused a revolt in the republican party. an independent republican ran named marshall coleman and a democrat never ever should have been re-elected in 1994 but because of that was able to. >> >> you can remember the '84 race. you were like 5. >> virginia senators. >> of course. i generally try to make a rule to not use the word crazy. less so many things that when we're talking about folks who we disagree with. if we use labels of nuts or crazy. honestly, as i'm watching what's coming out of virginia and

labeling this in comparison to what the republican leadership said post 2012 loss. which is we're going to stop behaving in a certain set of ways and then this really does look like a doubling down or reaffirm mags of some of the most -- >> you're looking at it from the prism of a liberal or democrat. >> sure. >> liberals and democrats don't elect republicans and conservatives. in the same vain, there are a number of folks activists on the liberal side that conservative candidates or republican candidates have a problem with. >> but i don't disagree with all republicans. >> i understand that. i think you have to look at this. i think people are focusing on the wrong thing here. >> okay. >> they're missing the bigger picture of what really happened there. i was there a couple years ago when you talk about republican conventions. when michael steele went through a number of ballots to be elected. it was a -- i was there when steele was nominated. i wasn't at this particular one but i've spoken to folks who

were at this convention. it was chaotic. a lot of times this is how the sausage is made. it is a test -- but it's also a signal. whether you agree that look, there are plenty of activists, black pastor activists, he gets a lot of respect at black churches. he is the conservative wing's reverend jesse jackson. and al sharpton on the liberal side. >> oh, no. >> but let -- we'll continue to talk about this, i promise you. there are real differences like the fundamental things about human beings he said. >> the people that have spoken about who they'd like to support. it's not established -- >> it's not the people, though. it's the activists. more on this as soon as we get back. [ musick ] i knew there were a lot of tech jobs

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my name is bishop e.w. jackson, chairman of ministers taking a stand with a message to christians in the black community. it is time to end the slavish devotion to the democrat party. >> that was virginia's republican candidate for lieutenant governor. not calling african-american democrats slaves exactly. just kind of slavish. a questionable political outreach strategy to a population that voted by a 93% margin to elect a democratic party by 2012 and by a 95% margin to elect that same president back in 2008. we were yelling at each other a little bit before the break. >> were we? >> but look. >> passion. >> i do think that there are some very real sort of conservative issues that are

embedded in black politics that often don't get served very well within the democratic party, all of that. this is different. when you have bishop jackson saying that the devotion is slavish, i got to say that feels different than i have a different or an alternate perspective. >> i felt that way when sonny hoier said that about michael steele. calling him slavishly -- >> he wasn't running for lieutenant governor of something. >> this was a sitting -- a congressman. i think that you know, him being a pastor is one thing. he's now in the public light, of course. he has been nominated. certainly, there's a refining process that takes place. there's something to be said for that. at the end of the day, these were not the words that he used when he spoke. when he gave his speech. the things that got him the rousing applause for the standing ovation were things -- the first things he got up there and said talked about healing

racial divisions and economic and cultural differences and he talked about education and closing the gap with children and having -- getting them to have opportunities like he had. those are things that he actually spoke about. those weren't covered. it's the quote-unquote incendiary things he has to say. there is an appeal because he says things that still really pull at the heartstrings of conservative -- most blacks still are conservative whether they vote that way or not. jesse jackson was pro life. we've had conversations -- >> we're not talking about pro life. >> that's what he was referring to in some of the comments. >> we are talking about -- not just sort of incendiary, actually incendiary and awful things said about lbgt individuals. we pointed out earlier, christina, there's a religiousness that lays over this. on cuccinelli's stances and what we saw happen with the transvaginal question with bob mcdonnell, it's one thing to be religious and have ethics and

more or less that are privately held. it's another thing for those to become an overreach of the government into our private lives. >> one of the things fascinating about the way virginia's legislature is set up, republicans have controlled it quite a whole. but they're growing in numbers. with the republican fwof at the helm, they're able to pass legislation that actually changes policy, especially on the social conservative issues. it's actually where the lieutenant governor now matters far more than it did six, seven years ago. >> tie breaking vote. >> it can antibiotic tie breaking vote. a man named russ potts, one of my favorite people to cover, he ran for governor. he led the senate education and health committee. he was known as the stopping point for all of these bills. very many bills introduced by people like ken cuccinelli and bob mcdonnell. they would stop there, even though he was a republican in charge. he's long retired. you've seen a lot of those big changes. at the same time, it is democrats can't necessarily just

run against. they ran into this with bob mcdonnell. there was a question about a thesis he wrote. he was running completely on the economy. they lost that race in a big way. >> i'm wondering when i also think of the score i like the cautionary tales of moderation in virginia, i think about perry -- on the one hand, it liked like -- i'm making a claim that that moment exists. maybe moderates don't do so well. >> it's so dependent what year you run in. new jersey is a blue state. should have thought about that first. virginia, though, so stark, the difference between the presidential election in virginia and nonpresidential. if you look at obama in 2008 and obama in 2012 carrying that state. you look at the counties in northern virginia, you were talking about that earlier,

swung the democrat i can population. they call it the obama voters. they really turned out in '08 and '12. one of these counties in virginia that obama care i had both times. 2009, it went 57-41 for the republicans. it wasn't because swing voters switched leads. it was because the obama coalition stayed home in both elections. >> this is that off year. that surge and decline problem. you can say they went for president obama in '08 and 2012. it turns out a different electorate. not just in off years where you have the congressional but a truly off year. is that part of how you end up with a more sort of all the way off to one side republican slate here? >> i don't know that that's the reason for it. as you point out, the drop-off is very interesting. virginia has always prided themselves, don't judge us by the national levels. judge us by who we are at the state levels. the unfortunate thing is that the drop-off does hurt and if

you don't energize these people getting out, it doesn't make any difference what polls are showing. >> yeah. >> you've got to turn -- the other thing is, as far as what the republicans did, and i think you touched on it earlier, it doesn't end it because democrats still have got to run for something. >> right. not just against something. >> more on that as soon as we get back. there was that transvaginal probe situation in the old dominion state. but as you point out, it ended up not being so successful. more on that when we come back. all business purchases. so you can capture your receipts, and manage them online with jot, the latest app from ink. so you can spend less time doing paperwork.

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we've been talking about the radically right red agenda of the two men at the top of the ticket for virginia's november election. but wait, there's more. because the guy in the number three position has an interesting policy of his own.

meet state senator mark observe en shane. the republican nominee for attorney general. shouldn't be surprised that the sfat that brought us the transvaginal ultrasound and attempt to put abortion clinics out of business, the highest law enforcement official in virginia. a man who would have penalized women after a miscarriage. in 2009, he wrote this bill. that would have made a woman who had a miscarriage guilty of a misdemeanor if she failed to report the loss of her child and the location of the fetal remains to the police. he's also the person who rather than votes confirm an openly gay judge abstained from voting. along with 11 other social conservatives in the virginia state. this seems like too much, governor, that this is the one step too far. there are principal positions about being pro life. this is one step too far. >> i think that's the real question. virginians weren't balanced.

they don't have any problem with people having different views, right, left, that's not it. more people are inclined to be voting independent in virginia. they might call themselves republicans. they may call themselves democrats. but they vote more independently and you'll be seeing that the important thing in that a.g.'s race is that the democrats -- when you consider the "washington post" just endorsed justin fairfax and numbers of people on that, they're coming to endorse, fairfax for that position, and yet many people don't believe that party leaders want fairfax on the ticket. now you got e.w. jackson on the ticket. the african-american. interestingly enough, the richmond times dispatch, not known for great liberalism. >> that's an understatement, governor. >> just said yesterday in editorial comments that jackson will energize african-americans to vote for democrats.

>> i think -- actually, i think that seems possible. that seems very possible. look, i grew up in virginia. i have sort of a personal attachment to the state and all of that. but it's more than that. virginia matters, right? particularly on this question of pro life and pro choice. this is going to be a litmus test. >> republicans and -- have had problems with women. there is a lot of work to be done conveying -- better conveying the message through to women. you have to recognize there needs to be a broad swath of candidates that are -- that represent -- we talk about him being a black republican, e.w. jackson. one of the things the party fails to realize and conservatives fail to realize, it's great when we have adversity and inclusion. just republicans are not monolithic. there are socially conservative

blacks and fiscally conservative. democrats and republicans. that appeal has got to come through. you know, this past election, urban voters in virginia make up less than rural and suburban combined. but they voted overwhelmingly more for obama than for romney even though they make up a smaller percentage. >> richmond, petersburg, they showed up. >> yeah. >> republicans have got to learn to start courting also these -- at least more moderates in the party. it is a conservative party. we don't want -- they don't want to throw away principles and things like that. but you have to understand the dynamic of how do you start to relate, be relatable and have candidates that are relatable across. liberals want to malign all black conservatives. >> no. >> sometimes republicans want to malign those in the party who are more moderate and want to speak -- >> i see. >> keep throwing those folks to

the curb too. >> the office you're talking about matters. virginians have not elected a democratic attorney general in two decades. in fact, served with governor wilder that year. >> that's right. >> you go and look at mark observe en shane's voting record against ken cuccinelli. cuccinelli was voted attorney general. they have a similar voting record. i can guarantee you voted for everybody single anti-abortion measure that ever came past his desk. virginians have traditionally been okay with that. >> he has not held any elected office. he's struggling and having problems. it's no wonder democrats want to wrap themselves around something because he is behind. >> i was talking to dave washington, the political board in washington, he was talking about what his understanding of the convention last week that nominated e.w. jackson and nominated the slate. it was a wild seen, seven candidates. he said there were moderate republicans who were delegates at this convention who realized they did not have the vote to

put any of their candidates up. they decided they were almost going to sabotage this and e.w. jackson got votes from moderate republicans who wanted to use him as an example to give the far, far right the candidate snd watch him go down. >> here's what crazily do. stay with us. we have been talking about the far, far right. there is in fact somebody else running. that's the democratic candidate. i think it's important to talk about that side as well when we come back. you hurt my feelings, todd. i did? when visa signature asked everybody what upgraded experiences really mattered... you suggested luxury car service instead of "strength training with patrick willis." come on todd! flap them chicken wings. [ grunts ] well, i travel a lot and umm... [ male announcer ] at visa signature, every upgraded experience comes from listening to our cardholders. visa signature. your idea of what a card should be.

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lead. but the race remains a toss-up. >> don't forget, he ran for governor. last time around he lost in the primary there. that was in part because voters consistently were telling people that they didn't find him authentic or genuine. didn't find him to be much of a virginian. they knew him as a long time fundraiser. it's also important, we were talking about traditions and culture of independence. they have traditionally elected a party that won the white house every time they have the off years. mcauliffe is changing his tune to make this economic message, trying to connect with virginians the last four years knowing that he was going to run again. when you talk to voters, they still don't feel as warm about him. ken cuccinelli, long time state senator before he became attorney general, now he's trained to have been well-known and good retail politician. he has some political skill that has him connecting with voters

and he strongly believes what he's saying. he's very conservative and might not be in line -- >> but he believes it. >> it's that rick santorum thing, that connection and authenticity that has him doing well. he's either tied with mcauliffe or leading mcauliffe. >> we can break it down to look at who are the folks supporting. this part being a toss-up. the two candidates are basically tied neck and neck. 37, 38. but women prefer the democratic candidate african-americans vastly prefer the democratic candidate. he's got a strong with youth there. interestingly on the question of white voters, cuccinelli is leading but it's not a huge lead. so then again, the most recent quinnipiac, what does that say to you, steve, about what mcauliffe would need to do if he wants to win. >> jonathan -- write's new york magazine, the democrats have been dying to vote against. if you look at the returns from

2009, you lost the primary to -- he got crushed like a two to one margin. christina hit it on. it's like a d.c. mega bundler. he schmoozes with the people in d.c. this is a d.c. guy. it's very tough with the image. i was surprised what happened in 2009, he did not get a serious challenge from somebody for the nomination. he's so untested. >> that's the question. we've been -- i've been making fun of what's wrong with the republicans. what's wrong with the democrats in virginia. why couldn't they find anybody else? >> the name of the game, where is he going to come from? one of the polls cited, it shows cuccinelli's job approval high and the favorabilities high. much more so in some instances than mcauliffe's. the unfortunate thing, even though terry has been running for four or five years or so, if you go into the street and ask

anybody about mcauliffe, there's very little you can get. because he hasn't established that gravitas. >> he was called nothing more than a sleazy fundraising type. he doesn't convey well. i think that if you notice, he's running more -- he's not even running as a liberal in virginia. there's that moderate independent thing. running on small business and entrepreneurship. for cuccinelli, he's certainly -- whether you agree or disagree with him, he's built a name recognition. that convey that traffic -- i wonder if it will make a difference. >> there's no doubt that bill is going to come once it gets to a certain point. our friend former president bill clinton will show up and it will be interesting if that hits -- governor and christina are staying for more. up next, pennsylvania's governor says he can't find a single

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♪ if i gave one to you? ♪ we love talking here in nerdland. we strive to bring you the best discussions we can every week. with some stories, there's nothing to discuss. sometimes it feels like all you can do is shake your head and say wow, seriously? first up this week, vacation tours of the ghetto. the new york post reported that a company called real bronx tours was offering tours of yankee stadium, the bronx zoo and i quote a ride through a real new york city ghetto. a tour included stops outside st. mary's park where the guide warned her group not to walk without a new yorker and pointed

out a liven residents waiting outside a church food pantry. the company's website is now off line. but only after outrage from several new york city newspapers and bronx politicians. until they spoke up, the tour operators clearly thought turning poverty into a tourist attraction was good business. wow, seriously? and then there's pennsylvania governor tom corbett who turned heads when speaking at a roundtable forum hosted by the spanish language newspaper. >> staff members who are latino? >> no, we do not have any staff members. if you can find us one, please let me know. >> i'm sure that there are latinos that -- >> you want to be -- see? >> wow, seriously? it turns out he wasn't even accurate. press aides later reported to pennsylvania media that in fact all of one latino works on the governor's staff. one. maria montero.

the director of the governor's advisory commission on, wait for it, latino affairs. okay. in seattle washington, a mysterious gun rights proponent has papered telephone poles and posters comparing gun rights to gay rights. the posters appear in gay friendly neighborhoods like capitol hill. according to the seattle newspaper the stranger. their origins are a mystery but it seems clear that the artist wanted to capitalize on the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in washington state. but using lgbt civil rights to agitate against gun control just, wow, seriously? and finally, we turn to an issue we've discussed extensively here in nerdland. sexual assault in the military. on saturday, secretary of defense, chuck hagel called the matter a scourge in a speech delivered at west point. >> harassment and sexual assault in the military are a profound

betrayal. a profound betrayal of sacred oaths and sacred trust. this surgery must be stamped out. >> now, we're glad that the leaders of our military are taking in problem seriously and talking about it in strong terms. but you knew there was going to be a but, didn't you? but this week, right there at west point, the struggle continued when the army on wednesday revealed that a sergeant first class had been charged with secretly videotaping female cadets in the shower. that's after we heard a number of stories about military officials whose role was to prevent sexual assault being charged with assault themselves. we'll keep pushing for the military too as secretary hagel said stamp out the scourge of sexual assault. but sometimes it makes you want to say, wow, seriously? coming up, the lawmakers voting to let four children go hungry. we're naming names and that's next.

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this is the website for the house committee on agriculture. the guy at the top there is republican congressman from oklahoma, frank lucas. the chairman of the committee. the headline, house ad committee approves farm bill with significant savings and reform. they voted 36-10 to pass its version of the farm bill. the legislation that helps set our national agricultural policy and which must be renewed every five years. when they voted for it, those 36 members of congress pushed forward a bill that cuts more than $20 billion in funding over the next ten years from the supplemental nutritional assistance program or snap. previously known as food stamps. the house ag committee is proud to have slashed a program that has a 96% efficiency rate. proud to cut a program that lifts millions from poverty,

proud to have decimated that puts food on the table of children, the elderly and disabled. nearly 2 million people could become ineligible for the benefits if this farm bill becomes law. these 36 members of congress have voted to let people go hungry. as the website suggests, they seem to be proud of it. i think they ought to be ashamed. these are the members of the house agricultural committee. democrats and republicans who decided to slash aid to the neediest families. these are the 36 members who agreed that kids and families struggling to eat are the best one toss bear the burden of government cuts. these are the people who are proud of taking food off the table. but it looks like a shame scroll to me. joining me again are former virginia governor, doug wilder and pbs news hour editor christi christina. new to the table, james weill of the food, research and and lori silver bush the co-director of a

place at the table, a documentary out about food and security in nerk. at the bottom of the screen we'll run a list of every member of congress with twitter handles who voted for that farm bill and committee, therefore, cutting snap benefits. feel free to get in touch with them if you like. why are snap benefits part of the farm bill, christina? >> this was built in part because the agricultural bill, the farm bill mostly had agricultural sub sudden is. you only had people in the -- that wanted to support it. people in more urban areas weren't necessarily in favor of it. this was a compromise to get everyone together and pass something that would set the agricultural and nutritional policy. so it's been decades. the supplemental nutrition system's program, actually got senator tom coburn, a conservative republican from oklahoma wants to change that back to the name food stamps because he's saying it's not actually about nutrition because

you can buy soda and junk food. >> which of course is part of the reason those things are available is because the farm bill under writes the -- which sweetens those products. >> there's a lot of policy and gets at the nutritional foundation and the policy of this country. it's not an issue that should necessarily be looked at as a food stamp fight except that it end up being a huge portion of that actual bill. >> jim, i am -- i guess i must be enough of an optimist that i am still shocked that 36 members of the house, including democrats, would be voting to take food off of the table of children, of the elderly, of disabled people. why is it so easy for them to cast this vote? >> a lot of -- the democrats split, the republicans all voted. the democrats split. a lot of them who voted yes on this are from farm districts where they think their interests are supporting farmers and they

want to cut food stamps to do that. the participation for food stamps in rural areas is as high as it is in urban areas because there's so much rural poverty. so much low wage et cetera. this bill which targets mostly working families and seniors hits everybody's district really hard. we need rural legislators as well as the urban and suburban ones to understand that. >> what is it exactly that snap does? i think part of the reason the desire to go back to the food stamp language has less to do whether it's about nutrition or not and more about the idea that it's easy to label people with this food stamp language. >> there's no question about it, melissa. actually, when my co-director and i were traveling the country meeting people who were on snap, they defied stereotypes. we recently brought a bunch of them to meet congress people. one was a tax attorney, an eisenhower fellow. someone who travels the globe

teaching leadership goals and she said i was on snap as a child. you didn't even know me and you made sure i could eat. today you're trying to say that 17 million children like i was shouldn't have the same opportunity to repay society? these are investments. these are nutrition programs. not handouts. >> i'm looking up again at our screen. i'm looking at the names, going past. these are the names of the representatives, 36 of them who voted to cut billions from this program, would literally take food off the table and we're putting their names up because in part, this happened around gun legislation. this idea that people were unwilling to vote for man chin, fine, stand by that. you can see votes in committee, people feel the pressure. the reality is we're in a circumstance where we have folks voting to take food off the table. do you think that our shame scroll is effective, governor? >> i think you're to be commended for bringing the issue

to the forefront and letting people know what's going on. i was saying to jim earlier, one of my earlier acts in the general assembly as a senator was to introduce a bill that would have either a food stamp or commodity distribution. virginia had neither. i'm not talking about 100 years ago. >> right. >> this was in the early '70s. so once we finally got it into place, people had no idea who benefited from it. your story is so well-told in terms of people who otherwise wouldn't have been fared. education is key toward letting the public know what is going ton. what legislation contains, what is the actual level of debate and what the real issues are. that's why it's very good of you to do this. >> people don't believe that there are actually hungry americans. sometimes when we do our food insecurity work, people say no, not possible. in this country, i'm trying not to eat. i'm on a diet this week.

there are folks going hungry. >> it's made complicated by many people not getting adequate nutrition appear obese and fat. it's because people don't understand how the two are conflat conflated, as you pointed out, when foods are heavily subsidized they become inexpensive. if you have a limited income as a family, you spend as many calories you can get into your children. that's often raman noodles, junk food. it's penny wise pound foolish to think about cutting the nutrition programs that give kids the nutrition they need to learn. why are we investing in school if we don't have -- >> we're not investing in schools. we're going to do that in the second hour. >> these types of conversations are happening and no one is calling out the rampant hypocrisy behind this when you have the representatives and the senators in major agricultural states who are taking handouts left and right.

>> yeah. >> meanwhile voting to cut benefits, food for poor kid. >> that's where i want to go as soon as we get back. there are some members of congress not on the shame scroll at the bottom of the screen. we're going to be joined after the commercial by a member of congress who is in fact pushing back on the cuts to the snap program and pushing back against taking food off the table. he's going to join us live next. stay with us. there's more nerdland at the top of the hour. ♪ say cheese! shouldn't the photos you share from your smartphone be photos actually worth sharing? introducing the nokia lumia 928, only on verizon 4g lte. easily capture vibrant photos in near-darkness. even without the flash. sharing photos from the best low-light smartphone camera around. that's powerful. verizon.

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♪ who's that lady? ♪ who's that lady? ♪ sexy lady, who's that lady? [ female announcer ] swiffer 360 dusters extender cleans high and low, with thick all around fibers that attract and lock up to two times more dust than a feather duster. swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. and now swiffer dusters refills are available with the fresh scent of gain. welcome back. i'm melissa harris-perry. we're continuing our discussion about the recent approval in the house agricultural committee of a farm billie limb nating $20 billion from the snap budget cutting millions of people from food assistance. before that vote, two congressmen offered two biblical argument for why we should or should not cut food benefits.

first one was juan vargas of california. >> in matthew 25 he's very, very clear and he delineates what it takes to get into the kingdom of heaven very clearly and he says how you treat the least of our brothers, that's how you treat him. >> later, republican congressman steve fincher of tennessee offered this response. >> mr. vargas brought up a good point. being a christian, as many i, the bible says lots of things. i was looking at matthew 26:11. the poor will always be with us. then i looked at second thes loanians even when we were with you, we gave you this rule, the one who is unwilling to work shall not eat. so we have to be careful how we pick and choose verses out of the bible. >> now, it is certainly distressing to see our elected officials chapter and versing each other in florida. it's worse when they do it poorly. having spent years in seminary.

i'm down with the theological discussion about the responsibilities of people of faith to the needy. but i'm also going to need the members of congress to brush up a bit on biblical thoughts before they shout out things. second thes loanians is a highly contested epistle paul and it's about the second coming. >> having cleared up that piece of herm newt ix, you have to wonder what congress fincher was thinking when he as a farmer is one of the largest recipients of federal farm subsidies. according to the researchers at the environmental working group, mr. fincher collected nearly $3.5 million in farm subsidies from '99 to 2012. at the the table former governor doug wilder, christina bell antone i. jim weill of the food research and action center and lori silver bush, the co-director of a documentary of a look at food

and security. joining us is jim mcgovern who voted against the farm bill and those snap cuts. nice to have you, congressman. >> happy to be with you. >> i actually challenged any member of congress seeking to cut snap to first take what they call the food stamp challenge. this is something you and your wife actually took several years ago. what did you learn from that experience? >> we learned it's awfully hard to be poor. you can't afford healthy food. you can't afford very much of food. i mean, the average food stamp benefit today is about $4.50 a day. $1.50 per meal. it's not a lot. i want to point out going back to what congressman fincher said. there are millions an millions of people on snap today who work full-time for a living. but they earn so little, they still qualify for this benefit. this is not kind of a get rich quick scheme. this is hard living when you're on the snap program. >> right. your point that people actually

work, in fact, work full-time and still can't afford enough within their budget to eat. this is part of why it's so important. not just to feed people but because an economic stimulus effect, right. >> when you get a snap benefit, you have to spend it on food. that has an economic impact on our economy. it also, food is produced by farmers. it helps our farmers. this -- the way people try to pit farmers versus snap, i think, it's a false choice. look, the bottom line is, we have 50 million people in america who are hungry. 17 million are children. the fact that congress would vote to cut $20.5 billion out of snap in a farm bill, means that this farm bill, if passed as it is will make hunger worse in america. that's not only bad for people struggling, there's also a cost to hunger. there's a cost to kids who don't learn in school because they're hungry. lost productivity in the workplace.

avoidable health care costs. i can go on and on. the fact that we're not addressing this issue is problematic. >> let me ask this to you, jim. because the congressmen articulates what seems like common sense positions. if children don't eat they don't do well in school and could end up in a life of crime instead of a productive life. basic kinds of things. why is it that this however is not a voting issue? apparently these congressmen don't believe they're going to lose their job if they vote against snap. >> unfortunately, poverty too often isn't a voting issue. although we're voting to make it an issue. laurie and her husband are working on that. it's also a contribution issue. if you look at the contributions to the campaigns of the members of the committee from farm districts, from rural districts, they're very, very lopsided. so it's about money much more than it's about voting. is it possible to build a coalition of people who would say, look, this is a central voting issue for us.

we're not going to vote, we're not going to return you to congress if you vote against poor people and hungry people. >> i think advocates hope so. realistically, that's not the case. when democrats were in charge of every chamber and the white house, they actually put in place where you could use your food stamps at farmers markets. trying to implement a systematic policy change there. that's a real shift in policy. one of the reasons you're talking about a committee vote and not a floor vote is because this failed on the floor last year. it was a smaller cut to the farm bill overall and democrats could never get out of the house. this is not something that could pass the senate in the current form. they'll be arguing over the two versions. the place that this cut comes from, by the way, is from reducing people not to be automatically qualified for this before. if you're on other types of government assistance, you should be able to get food stamps. that would go away. >> congressman, let me come to you on this. congress is under a great deal

of -- >> what is in the farm bill that could be cut. given apparently that's what's going to have to happen, something is going to have to be cut. are there other possibilities. >> i would argue there's lots of fraud, waste and abuse in the crop insurance program. we ought to go after that. i had an amendment that says you can't cut snap until the error rate of crop insurance equals that of the lower roar rate of snap. at that failed, unfortunately. there are subsidies that could be looked at. the notion that you got to balance the budget on the backs of the poor basically saying we're going to hurt poor people to balance our budget is immoral. we're a better country than this. i think most people, i don't care what their political persuasion is, throughout the country, i don't think they want to see the burden on poor people get worse. it's not fair, it's not who we are. we can do so much better than this. we ought to be taking on the issue of hunger and poverty.

i've asked the white house to do a conference on food and nutrition to bring us together because we don't have a plan. we don't have a plan right now. if you want to end it, we need a plan. >> you just said we are a better country than this. laurie, is that true? are we actually a better country than this or have we been willing to allow the least among us to carry the burden. >> i think the answer is yes to both. once people know what's going on, they won't abide it. we've been taking the film hundreds and actually literally thousands of screenings of this film are happening all the time. afterwards, we are bombarded with people saying, i had no idea that we are asking hungry children to go without food and now trying to do that even more. people are a lot brighter than i think these members of the ag committee give them credit for. when they do become aware, they don't stand up for it. the truth is that we can afford

to make sure that food is available and that people can afford it. people who are getting snap are by and large working or searching for work. it's a terrible economy. the food stamp program was designed to grow when the economy shrinks. and it's doing what it was designed to do. these people who are trying to cut it, like to point at it like it's exploded, it's full of waste. truthfully, it's only so big because the need is so big. as the economy recovers, food snaps -- >> i like that. you put it all together. >> food stamps will go down as well. it is working. it's inadequate, needs to be updated. but it sure isn't fraudulent. has the least amount of fraud of any government entitlement out there. >> 96% efficiency. >> i think it's even greater than that. it's between 1% and 2% fraud. good luck finding a government

program or -- >> or a private sector program. >> any program. >> the average food stamp recipient is on it for about ten months. most people are working before or right after and just want to get back to work. this is not the welfare queen and it's a deliberate misinformation. >> but that welfare queen language has the ability to do this. it's about attacking an imagined enemy which is racialized and constructed from the 1980s. >> that's why i said you should be commended for taking this issue and letting people hear it. because that welfare queen designation resonated all over america. people just oh, look how badly this thing is being done. look who is doing this? yet we all know the words were empty because the utter ans of those -- >> when gingrich and others

tried to racial eyes it, the american people rejected that. the republican candidates early on kept attacking food stamps and it didn't stick. the people rejected it by the end of the campaign, romney was saying he wasn't going to cut food stamps. >> it's true. congressman, i want to ask you one last question before we head off to break. give me at least one of the solutions about if we're going to make this better, not just stand in the way of the cuts but actually provide more access to food, what's at least one thing we need to be doing? >> i think one of the things we need to do is not cut the snap program. 2 million people will lose benefits if it goes through. hundreds of thousands of people who qualify for the free breakfast and lunch program because their parents are on snap will lose that as well. we need white house leadership on this. we need them to convene a conference on food nutrition. bring the players together. let's have a comprehensive plan and implement it. snap is one tool in the toolbox to combat hunger. we need to do much more.

50 million people, 50 million people are hungry in america. that is wrong and shameful. we should not let it stand. thank you to congressman mcgovern in washington for your work there on the house side. let me also just say, if anybody else wants to spend time hanging out in the bible, trying to figure out what the lord said about food. i suggest to you john 21. three times the lord says do you love me? then feed my sheep. he asks again, do you love me? feed my sheep. >> third time. we are not done talking about how to make sure the sheep are fed when we come back. m breathi. so now i can help make this a great block party. ♪ [ male announcer ] advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day.

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so the senate version of the farm bill also cuts snap benefits. but by $4.1 billion instead of the house's $20.5 billion.

but senator david bitter, my home state of louisiana wants to eliminate something else. any chance of ex-felons, convicted of certain violent crimes from ever receiving food assistance, ever. for life. so the idea here is to cut off food benefits for ex-felons who have served their time in prison forever. so as they struggle to rebuild their lives, well, then they won't have access to food benefits. frankly, it sounds like a great recipe for recidivism. for encouraging these men and women to do something that will put them right back in prison. reaction to the amendment, timothy sneed willing of the university of wisconsin said "it doesn't save anyone any money. it makes a political statement that we don't forgive people for crimes once they pay their dues. we keep on punishing them forever." yet vitters passed without objections from republicans or

democrats in the senate. now, just a reminder. down at the bottom of the screen, we're running the names and twitter handles of the 36 members of the house ago cult rat committee who voted for the farm bill and the $20 billion in snap cuts out of committee. just in case any of y'all want to, you know, tweet them or e-mail them or contact them. so the senate, too, is playing this game. it feels to me particularly when you go after ex-felons, there's no money in this. this is really just about demonizing the need for help. >> it's unrealistic. in our state in virginia, governor mcdonnell, a republican, is a charge for a restoration race modernizing the difficulties. the only person that can do this is the governor. it's too onerous to put that burden on the governor rather than a commissioner or a department. in that process, it's been met

with some degree of success, but it needs more. what people don't understand, just a few years ago, what constituted a felony was writing a check for over $50 if it bounced. >> right. >> look at the numbers of people with convictions that are being overturned now by dna evidence. but they've got to go through the onerous burden of proving it through the court system. for you to pass a blanket piece of law that says that anyone ever convicted of a felony is denied is totally unrealistic, unproducti unproductive, counterproductive frankly. >> we went back and found 1969 nixon talking about being productive. this hasn't always been politicized. i want to do something we rarely do in nerdland. listen to richard nixon for a moment. >> until this moment in our history as a nation, the central question has been whether we as

a nation would accept the problem of malnourishment as a national responsibility. that moment has passed. on may 6th. i asserted to the congress that the moment is at hand to put an end to hunger in america itself for all-time. speaking for this administration, i not only accept the responsibility, i claim the responsibility. >> well, go richard nixon. >> he also put in place a lot of health care reform. >> environmental policy, yeah. >> go back to what governor wilder was saying and the restoration of rights. that's voting, all kinds of other things. if a felon can't get snap benefits, their kids can't get snap benefits. that is a bigger issue. when you put this all in political context, this is a bill that may not ever pass. you've got two competing versions in the house and the senate. they're likely not to get much done of anything.

it really goes right to the heart of what a lot of republicans are saying. to make government smaller. we've already seen sequester cuts across the board, 10% in others. this is a big picture issue so that it is symbolism but a way for them to say we're going to cut everywhere and why don't we cut where we judge people the most and have the least respect for them. >> i want to look at a moment from your film where there's a conversation about what you were talking about earlier. this idea that the impact of hunger on children's cognitive capacity, on their ability to learn. >> it affects their cognitive development, their ability to get along with others. >> they could be constantly sick, con tantly getting infections because they're not well-nourished. >> has he had any cold? >> he's actually a little sick right now. >> it can truncate a child's developmental potential. whether or not it affects their

growth outcomes, their stature and their weight, it affects their brain in a much deeper level. so we're starving the next generation of americans. we're willing to do that? >> it's just insane. as jeff bridges said in laurie's film. if another country was doing this to our children, we would declare war on that country. it's not just in the snap program where benefits aren't enough, but across the board is a crime. the vitter amendment, he's not interested in throwing a small handful of ex-felons off the program. one the application it will have a declaration i am not a felon, he's interested in humiliating people applying for the program and discouraging them from applying. and two, going back to the program, he's racializing the debate. >> yep. this point about humiliating the people who are recipients of

food assistance, it's part of why, again, i try to stay away from shaming. but in this context, the people who should be humiliated and ashamed, are those peoples who is names are going across the screen. those who vote to keep a child hungry. >> it's very damaging because it is deliberate misinformation to conflate snap and food stamps with criminality. when you've got a program that 43 million americans are forced to avail themselves of, i think that's insulting. i do think it's time for americans, average americans to understand that even if they're not receiving food stamps or snap, it's likely that a number of the kids in their children's classroom or may be showing up hungry. those are resource that is will be taken by kids who can't focus, can't accomplish in school. every one of us is impacted by this. >> you have taken us where we're going next, which is we're going to school next. thank you to lori, james and christina. the governor is going to stay around for more. up next, we're going to go to

school and talk about the cuts that impact our kids and the 9-year-old leading the charge to save dozens of chicago schools is going to join me in nerdland. you got to meet this kid. >> that is why we have to fight. . i knew devry university would give me the skills that i needed to make one of those tech jobs mine. we teach cutting-edge engineering technology, computer information systems, networking and communications management -- the things that our students need to know in the world today. our country needs more college grads to help fill all the open technology jobs. to help meet that need, here at devry university, we're offering $4 million dollars in tech scholarships for qualified new students. learn more at devry.edu.

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to support strong bones. and the brand most recommended by... my doctor. my gynecologist. my pharmacist. citracal. citracal. [ female announcer ] you trust your doctor. doctors trust citracal. see what is happening in these schools. i love that kid. that is 9-year-old deshawn johnson. part of a three-day march to protest plans to close chicago schools. despite the outcry, the board of education in chicago voted to close 50 schools on wednesday. it's the largest public school closure in chicago's history. 54 schools were originally slated for closing. but four were spared. sadly, chicago's not the only urban school system facing closures an cuts. on friday, may 17th.

student activists staged a massive walkout in philadelphia. they were protesting planned cuts. looks a lot like the students have their priorities straight. if only the adults could meet them halfway. at the table, doug wilder, former democratic governor of virginia. alice kel kenny, reporter for the nation who has been covering the chicago school closings. daniel denver at the philadelphia city paper writing about the protests in philly and a junior at benjamin franklin high school in philadelphia. she's also an organizer for the student union and part of the student walkout. joining me from chicago is 9-year-old johnson protested against the school being closed and won. and his mom who works for the public school system. i want to start with you. how did it make you feel to hear

that your school was going to be closed? >> it made me feel confused and sad because you're closing the school that is really good, has all the resources that cpes wants. but you're closing the school but it's not -- if you actually come into the schools and see that, you will have it taking it off the list. cps is known what all schools have. i don't understand why they're trying to close that school. >> a shawn, you saved your school in part. how did it make you feel when your school was saved? >> it made me feel very excited and happy because knowing that i would see all the friendly faces back at the school when i come next year to go to fourth grade. >> you work for the public school system and also are apparently an extraordinary parent because your son is amazing. was this his idea to get involved here?

did he want to be active in protesting these closings? >> he wanted to be active. it was his choice. we asked all the students and everyone in the community to come out, speak up, be a voice. a shaun wanted to be active. he wanted to go out into the community and let the neighbors know. he felt that people on our block and other blocks didn't know the school was closing. he wanted to walk around the neighborhood and let them know. he had been active with the school closings even before they were listed. he was active with the strike where we went on strike for seven days. i think that kind of pushed him to get involved with the school closings even more. >> shah ron, i want to ask you the same question i asked a 9-year-old. why get involved? he's nine years old, you're a junior in high school. why get out there and get in the streets and get involved? >> we don't want our schools to close. my original school closed. they turned it into a middle school. so they sent me to benjamin

franklin. benjamin franklin is not closing, but it would be merging two more schools next year. the classes are going to be overcrowded. the teachers won't be able to teach. we don't even have the right resources, the books and computers and stuff like that. we don't have that. >> you're a junior. what are your plans after high school? are you thinking about going to college? >> yes, i want to go to college. i want to succeed in life. we need the schools to stay open. >> do you feel like you've gotten good guidance counselors. you have what you need to take you from junior year to college? >> i would like her to stay there. the counselors and we really need her, because i'm going to be filling out college applications next year. she's been really helpful to me. >> she could make all the difference for you? >> yes. >> daniel, watching the images of the wung people like shah ron, lis toeng listenening to a

sean speak, how is it that he get it and we don't? >> it's a state of permanent crisis in philadelphia and other public school systems around the country that serve disproportionately low income and nonwhite student bodies. now almost every year in philadelphia there's a funding crisis because the state and federal government refuses to give philadelphia schools what they need to succeed. that crisis is then used as cover to push unpopular changes like closing 23 schools. even though there's no evidence that that will help students or even generate the desired savings. >> this feels to me like these two bizarro faces of what we call education reform. on the one hand, people are pushing, pushing for charter schools, breaking the backs of the teacher unions, for high stakes testing because it's so important that young people in poorly resourced schools have these opportunities. but then the realities are

they're going to close the schools, cut the nurses. how do we reconcile these two sides of it? >> it's interesting. you were saying it seems as though the same people who were nashing their teeth and saying save the children are now the same people saying we can't close these schools, we have to rush to the frontlines and support the students and the teachers. it's interesting that those two things are happening at the same time. it has been amazing. response to save the schools. 127 people were arrested in march just last week, 2,000 people were occupying city hall. there's always been a resistance to closing the schools an it's always been a coalition efforts. it's interesting considering chicago is an incredibly gentrified city. that's not reflective in the resistance to the closings. >> you've been a governor and a mayor of a predominantly inner city in richmond that had all of the challenges that come along with it. when i hear the philly budget story or the chicago budget

story, what's the story you can tell from the mayor perspective and the governor perspective about how you address this without making these choices? >> first of all, we're dplif delivering education in the same continuum that we've delivered in the last 100 years. we haven't changed much. 180-day school year. we have to let the kids get out early to let the kids help the parents with the farms. what farms? we've gone from a society which teaches greek and latin in high school towards now teaching remedial english in college. now, something in the middle is failing. so the question is what are we trying to do? are we really interested in educational reform? should we close schools that are unoccupied, yes? should we close sools that haven't been used? yes. because you've got the maintenance and the security factors of them.

but just to close schools to close schools without a plan makes no sense. >> i have to say, chicago has a strange criteria for what's considered underutilized. the definition is 30 or more students in the classrooms. what about special needs students. you can't have 30 or more in a classroom. doesn't make sense. >> small classrooms are considered a good thing everywhere else. >> asean and shah niece day with me. talk about your plans of running for mayor and how you're running the place when ee come back. she got a parking ticket... ♪ and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card. it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever. now about that parking ticket. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply.

the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ we're going to have a quality of education that's severely compromised. there will be an increase in class size and it won't just affect those schools, it's going to have a domino effect across the system. >> that was karen lewis, president of the chicago teachers union speaking with chris hayes this past friday and

noting the potential consequences of closing 50 schools in chicago. >> i want to talk with you because you're thinking about eventually running for mayor. how would you have handled this differently? what are your plans when you become mayor? >> my plans when i become mayor is to take all the -- from the black neighborhoods and the communities because walmart doesn't give back money to public schools. but i'll keep some walgreens because they do. they give back money to public schools. all the public schools equally. >> i don't even really know if we can go on, on the tv show at this point. first of all, you just got a bunch of votes not only here at the table but on the twitter feed. i think you may become the next mayor of chicago. you know, shah niece, let me ask

you about this. you as a parent in chicago. my sister is a parent in chicago of two school age kids now. between the teachers strike and this has been feeling like oh, my goodness, nobody seems to care about the welfare of the kids in these schools. how do you make a choice for a child as brilliant as asean. how do you make the best choices you can for his schooling? >> i tried -- i put him in private school and i thought that was the best choice being a product of chicago public schools and working in the system, i didn't think that cps was good enough for my children. so i had them in private school. once i became more involved in the public school system, i realized that we have some awesome schools, a lot of awesome schools. and i searched fsh a school and found marcus garvey. yes it is my neighborhood school but it's more like a magnet school. with the social and emotional learning. it's hard in chicago. because all the public schools

are not divided up equally. you have selective enrollment schools with the 98% and 93% in reading and math. he can go to any school in the city. of course he's going to lincoln park and rogers park where the awesome schools are. all of those students have high test scores. i wanted him to stay in his community because work r for cps, when you pull all of the hyperforming students out of the neighborhood schools, it makes the school perform lowly. that point is so brilliant. it's such a tough choice for parents, daniel. i got to say, to hear this mom say i need a great school but i also need a great school in my community. for those who don't know chicago, when you say rogers park and lincoln park, you're talking about predominantly white communities in that city. is this about race.

are these closings and cuts about race? >> about race and class size. they love to talk about american public education. what we have had and have had for a long time is a two-tiered segregated separate and unequal education system. some pour well to do white suburban parents and those who send their kids to private school and one for disproportionately urban districts and there's perpetual funding crises in these districts. they're used as an excuse to turn the schools into a laboratory for kormt inspired reforms to teachers unions in philly, they're demanding $120 million in concessions from teach toers pay for those less -- to close 23 schools. if they want to make schools for disproportionately low income black and latino students as

well as as the neighboring white students, they're not put through the modeled reform. give them the funds they need to be taught. >> cher on, do you feel as a student, do you feel like this is related to the neighborhood that you're from and where you live? >> yes. it's racism all the way. in philadelphia, they're only closing schools down in north philly and west philly. that's the black and latino community. they're not going to the northeast or to the south philly. they're trying to get rid of like all the black and latinos. that's not right. >> how does that make you feel about your city? >> my city -- >> or about your school system and how you feel about it? >> they're based on my education. my color. i'm a smart student and i want to succeed in life. just because i'm black doesn't mean i want to go to jail or be

in a war. >> although our governor, republican governor tom corbett who cut will $860 million to the budget is spending hundreds of millions of two dollars to construct two new prisons in montgomery county. >> he does in fact have a plan where to put folks. we're going to stay on this topic a bit more. i have to say goodbye to asean and your mother in chicago. the both of you are extraordinary. we are all rooting for you and we're watching you and we're going to be voting for you someday. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. >> absolutely. you next, a look at higher education in the forgotten world of community colleges. speaking of that growing inequality, a scathing new report coming up. asional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues... with three strains of good bacteria. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life.

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affordable education or a steppingstone to a four-year university. a new report released by the century foundation argues they're becoming separate and unequal. even as community colleges have increasingly poor black, latino student bodies, they're receiving a declining portion of the funds for higher education. at community colleges most students fail to gain even a two-year degree. on top of that, according to the century foup dags report, while 81.4% of students entering community college for the first time want to transfer and earn a bachelor's degree, only 11.6% of them do it within six years. my panel is back here in the studio and joining us now from washington is richard cullenberg, senior fellow at the century foundation. richard, what does this report show at its core in terms of this growing inequality? >> right. the good news, melissa, is that more students are going to college than ever before. the bad news is that there's

increasing inequality within the higher education system. so at the four-year selective colleges, rich kids outnumber poor kids by 14 to 1. at community colleges, the poor student from low-income backgrounds outnumber the wealthy students by two to one. so we have just as you were discussing at the k-12 level being increasing segregation, increasing inequality and this is compounded by the fact that at the community college level, we're not seeing the resources devoted. so at private four-year institutions in the last ten years, they've seen a $14,000 increase in spending and community colleges, just $1. >> so elton, i feel like this is the backside of the story we've been talking about. we're going to underfund them k-12 and send them to community colleges that won't serve them well. >> this is like the powers of

austerity. when they need budget cuts, it's usually after the communities of color, the elderly. it's not surprising that this is the result. this is what we see everywhere with all of our public services. richard, it feels like community colleges might be one of the ways to get to what president obama talked about in terms of sort of more access and yet, the report seems to show that it doesn't create more access. >> right. i mean, as you pointed out, you have most the vast majority of students wanting to get a four-year degree eventually and 12% end up doing so. we've been pennywise and pound foolish by skimping on funding for community colleges, we've ended up with a situation where we have very few counselors for thousands of students. we have lots of adjunct professors who are not able to develop the same strong relationship with students as

full-time professors. we advocate more funding. also more integration. that is, pathways for low-income students to get to four-year colleges, but also some attractive programs that will make community will make community colleges more representative, draw more middle class students as well as low n income students as a way of strengthening the institution for everyone. >> right. this is the point, richard, we have already decided in this society. we have determined that separate is always inherently unequal. we see this generating, we have to move to greater equality. thank you for your research and for the report out of the century foundation. thank you to richard in washington and to my panel. governor wilder, who hung out with me today, and who i will never forget when he was elected governor of virginia. allison, one of my favorite people and whose husband wants me to say to our friend mr. johnson, hi.

also to dan and sharon you're going to college. a big change for the boy scouts of america. changing the world is exhausting business.

with the innovating and the transforming and the revolutionizing. it's enough to make you forget that you're flying five hundred miles an hour on a chair that just became a bed. you see, we're doing some changing of our own. ah, we can talk about it later. we're putting the wonder back into air travel, one innovation at a time. the new american is arriving.

two decades ago my husband, james, became the first eagle scout from his troop 185. his troop leader has remained a role model, mentor and friend to james to this day. and both of them believe that all boys should have access to the lessons of character, are honesty, lead ership, and preparedness that come from scouting. thursday the boy scouts of america from their own commitment to access by ending the ban on participation by openly gay youth. it is a substantive but only partial victory because bsa continues to ban gay adults from serving as leaders. those of us who believe in scouting and are also committed to full equality face a challenge, how do we applaud progress but continue to push

for more? it's a problem that many have encountered before. last month i had the opportunity to interview civil rights eicon diane nash about her leadership of the nashville sit-ins. during the protest to integrate the lunch counters in tennessee a store owner confessed to her while he would like to integrate he was afraid he would go out of business because white customers would stop coming to his counter. nash recruited local white allies to eat lunch at his counter daily after he lifted the racial ban. and the visible presence of these respectable white women of the community kept the businesses opened and transformed the shop owner into a friend of the movement. nash's lesson is an important one because change is often painfully slow. let us acknowledge that the boy scouts decision to drop the ban on gay youth will cost them dearly. some families are going to bar their sons from participating. some churches will drop their sponsorship. some will cease volunteering. so those of us who believe that the scouts have done the right thing this week will need to support the scouts.

if we are to see them take the final steps towards full fairness. we need to go sit and eat it at the proverbial lunch counter to prove how many do support fairness and equality. this is the time to rally around the scouts and make allies out of former opponents. so sign your son up for the local troops, state presidents, encourage the next step forward. the work is not done but it has begun in earnest. and that is our show for today. thanks to you at home for watching. i will see you next saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern and, coming up next is "weekends with alex wi it tt." [ male announcer ] there are many ways to thank our military families. walmart and operation homefront are thanking them by offering a little help when they need it the most. operation homefront provides assistance to our servicemen and women when they have unforeseen difficulties.

[ mcmahon ] i was first introduced to operation homefront when we found out we were having a baby. even when i'm gone, she has a helping hand. thank you for everything you've done for us. [ male announcer ] walmart has teamed up with kellogg's to make a donation to operation homefront to help support military families. you can help too. find out how at walmart.com/heroes.

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another way febreze helps you breathe happy. [ slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium-rich tums starts working so fast you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums live pictures from oklahoma as tornado victims await a visit from the president six days after a killer storm took 24 lives and damaged an estimated 12,000 homes. good day, everyone. we're approaching noon here on

the east coast. 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." developing news out of moore, oklahoma, where on this memorial day weekend residents are in cleanup mode as they prepare for president obama to tour their devastated community. right to charles hadlock who has the latest. there has to be a lot of and s anticipation. tell me what the mood is like there today. >> reporter: hi, alex. the streets have been open so traffic is flowing. i was driving around a little bit this morning and one thing i noticed is that most of the church parking lots are full this morning. this is a faith-based community and they're relying on that faith to get them through this disaster. of course president obama will be here on the ground within the next hour, and he will tour the devastated parts of the area. a lot to see here, the devastation path is 22 miles long, a mile wide at its widest point. the president will meet with some of the victims and he'll also thank the first responders who saved so many lives in the first few minutes afterhi