you know, i think our family really needed this. it's really gonna bring us closer together. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. introducing our best-ever family pricing for instance, a family of four gets 10 gigs of data with unlimited talk and text for 160 dollars a month. only from at&t. good morning. i am ari melber in for melissa harris-perry. we are talking about the fight over reproductive rights and president obama's education plan and we begin with the breaking news of the sudden disappearance of a malaysian airlines flight. it was carrying 239 people. that includes three americans, two of them young children. the flight was first reported missing yesterday at about 1:40 p.m. eastern. this morning the first indication appeared that the plane may have crashed.

vietnamese air force planes have spotted two oil slicks in malaysia and vietnam. it was bound from kuala lumpur to beijing. it was an emotional scene where friends and relatives initially gathered to hear any news about loved ones on board. the u.s. is sending a naval ship, the "u.s.s. pickme" to the coast of vietnam to aid with search efforts. we go to tom costello who covers aviation for nbc news. tom, what can you tell us about the plane and the search and what we know right now. >> reporter: it's a mystery. i think this is one of the most extreme cases of a plane disappearing suddenly and without explanation and still missing this far into the experience. this is a very experienced pilot. the 777 200, a very great plane with a great safety record. it is a very early model of the

777. this particular one that was flying, 11 or 12 years old. importantly though, it did have an incident within the past two years or so. it hit another plane on the ground, on the tarmac, china plane, and the question is whether it might have suffered any damage in that incident. we don't know yet, but at this point with this plane having disappeared and now having been out of communication for so long, everybody is hypothesizing about what might have happened. here's the time line once again as you look at the flight path there. flight 370 left kuala lumpur 12:40 a.m. this was early morning, red eye flight from beijing. 2 hours into the flight or so air traffic controllers lost contact. not just radio contact but radar contact and no radio contact with the home base either. we believe it went down f it went down we believe it happened somewhere near vietnamese air space, near vietnamese water.

supposed to arrive at 6:30. total crew numbers, 227 passengers, 12 crew members, 3 americans including 2 children. aviation experts talking about what might have happened. terrorism is on the table, but most terrorism experts at this point don't see anything that would suggest that there was an operation or that this plane was a target. we also know that this plane operates in a highly corrosive environment, salt air with the malaysian environment there up against the ocean. was there a catastrophic breakup in flight in some fashion in which suddenly and without warning the flight loses air pressure? if that happens, if there is no air pressure inside the plane, everybody would lose consciousness very quickly. so a lot of factors at play here and nobody has any real answers yet. you can imagine that there are a lot of people asking. >> yeah, a lot of questions there in beijing. we're seeing reports of families waiting, waiting in a holding room, not getting any real good

information yet on this. speak as well to the reports of an oil slick in the water, what we know, if anything, about what investigators think about that. >> reporter: well, we don't know, and that's the problem. we have only reports from two vietnamese pilots who reported an oil slick in the water. that's it. now this is a part of the world where there is an awful lot of traffic on the water, an awful lot of, you know, fishing traffic and troller traffic and ship traffic so it is premature to jump to a conclusion that that oil slick may or may not in any way be associated with this missing plane but you can imagine that that is why now the vietnamese navy is moving towards that location. the chinese navy is also assisting. the philippine navy, rather, is doing the same thing, same thing with the malaysian navy. a lot of assets to bear. this is also a part of the world where we do not have great radar tracking abilities.

when you are flying over the united states or you're flying over europe, for example, you are never out of radar contact. when you're flying over vast stretches of water, there are gaps in the radar coverage. >> yeah. nbc's tom costello, thanks for your reporting and careful attention to details here. we will keep an eye on the story. as rescue crews continue their desperate search for this missing malaysian air flight and the 239 passengers on board, investigators are trying to work swiftly to figure out what happened and what they can do. for more on this fast-moving investigation we go to greg fyfe and assists on international incidents. joining us from denver, walk us through what an investigation looks like at this moment. >> right now, ari, there is a lot of, you know, speculation going on and not a lot of information, factual information. investigators are going to try and get as much radar information leading up to the

loss of two-way communication and any radar coverage that was there. i would expect that investigators are using other assets, military assets as far as radar coverage to see if there's any additional information to give them a location to really zero in the assets looking for the wreckage. so the early stages are getting initial information from the malaysian dispatchers and flight operations group and, of course, using any kind of assets to try and pinpoint the exact location of where the bulk of the wreckage may be. >> greg, when you look at this plane going off the grid about two hours into the flight, that is everyone's worst nightmare if you're ever tracking a plane or a loved one on a plane with over 200 people in that predicament. what happens when they go off the grid like that? how long before alarms go off or the investigative work that you used to do, how long before that kicks in? >> right now there might even be

some confusion. if you look at some of the public websites, a place called flight aware. if you look at their tracking data it shows that the airplane may have gone off the grid an hour into the flight rather than two hours. all of this has to be verified because that's going to determine really where this search and rescue operation is going to be focused. for the families, unfortunately, because of this lack of information, they have no ability to get any kind of closure and, of course, malaysia airlines, until they get confirmation aren't going to really tell the passengers or the families of the passengers that there is a confirmed airplane down. so there's a lot of questions yet to be answered and for investigators, they can't provide those answer zblers right. we will keep an eye on that. we thank you. we'll turn now from one international story to another important one. in russia president vladimir putin was in sochi friday for the paralympic games. the russian team marched in to

the song "good-bye america." earlier today a ukrainian official on a military base in crimea, they said pro russian troops crashed a truck into a base in an attempt to take it over. the tensions in crimea are high and the country or i should say the region now is moving forward on a plan to hold a local referendum on whether its residents do want to rejoin russia. that is scheduled now for next sunday. today the ukrainian acting foreign minister said that very vote is illegal, a point president obama has been pressing. suh we go to nbc news correspondent jim maceda in moscow. jim, russia's president vladimir putin is facing pressure from the u.s., much of the western world. we mentioned some of the back and forth here and some of the symbolism at the paralympic games. what can you tell us on the ground? >> reporter: hi, ari. well, putin's been responding to the pressure like vladimir putin. whether it's diplomatic pressure from secretary of state john kerry or man to man pressure, if

you will, from those two phone calls with president obama or economic pressure in the guise of sanctions or the threat of sanctions, putin has been and will remain defiant warning that sanctions against russia will only back fire on the united states. for instance, if the u.s. freezes russian assets in u.s. banks the kremlin is saying that it will freeze the $22 billion in u.s. assets exposed to russia. so putin really seems confident that the west will not be able to deter him from what appears now to be his main goal, and that is to control the crimean peninsula, and eventually to own it just like the old soviet days. for now experts are telling us in moscow that he doesn't have to go to war with ukraine, he doesn't want to go to war with ukraine. he has to build facts on the ground. he's got 20, 30,000 pro russian troops and militia now. it's now only pro russian media

being heard and seen. all the ukrainian media is off the air. crimea is already, aftri, de fao russia. not surprisingly putin said crimeans should have the right to self-determination. crimea, as you say, will vote. it's primarily ethnic russian. it's likely to vote to secede from ukraine. putin is holding all the cards here. he may have lost kiev but he's not about to lose crimea. >> jim maceda in moscow, thank you. back home, ukraine is on the minds of our political leaders, that turns out to mean many republicans. cpac, have a look. >> you look at the last five years of president obama as hope has diminished across the world. the people of ukraine have seen russian tanks move into their sovereign land, as the nation of

israel has been left without its friend and ally, the united states of america. >> we're going to get what we see today in the ukraine where vladimir putin has a strategy and obama has nothing, where putin has a growing defense budget and ours is shrinking. >> the president loves to point to ronald regan and said, reagan talked to russia. reagan talked to the soviet union, why can't we talk to iran, but there's a difference. reagan dealt with the soviet union because they had nuclear weapons and he wanted peace but he never accepted the soviet union. >> how can we appease a syrian tyrant and embolden his russian ally without the bill ever coming to you? there is a price to be paid for policies that destroy our economy and embolden our foreign enemies. >> well, to put those foreign enemies in context as well as neoconservatives and tea party conservatives we have a pretty tremendous panel on the roots

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this evening the conservative voters of cpac will conduct their straw pole, an unscientific but it will tell who has ascended. rand paul edged out marco rubio. attendees will hear from sarah palin. mitch mcconnell hoisted an award from the nra shaped like a rifle. ted cruz, bobby jindal, yes, unfortunately donald trump. sometimes you can tell more about a painting from its negative space. what wasn't at cpac this year? well, this is the first cpac since the supreme court's two

big rulings on marriage equality and passing on california's prop 8 case. the conference comes amidst a shift of opinion, now 50% of americans, let me say that again, 50% of americans believe same-sex couples have a right to marry. they told gay conservative leaders they could attend as guests, but they couldn't be speakers or panelists. >> we need to repeal every single word of obamacare. >> the nra will not go quietly into the night. we will fight, i promise you that! >> i believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damn business. >> amen, brother. paul ryan also played down the idea of in fighting. >> i don't see this great divide in our party. what i see is a vibrant debate.

we are figuring out the best way to apply our principles to the challenges of the day. sure, we have our disagreements. and, yes, they can get a little passionate. i like to think of it as creative tension. >> who doesn't love some tension? but ted cruz was actually itching for a family feud. he even brought out the older generation. >> and then, of course, all of us remember president dole and president mccain and president romney. they're good men, they're decent men, but when you don't stand and draw a clear distinction, when you don't stand for principle, democrats celebrate. >> now, look, that is certainly a recurring theme in politics. liberals and conservatives will tell you that they lost elections because they weren't pure enough. here's what's different right now though. the tea party has moved the gop towards more of the principles

that cruz wants. house republicans are running a hard right strategy from shutting down the government to rerererererepealing the aca. the republican party is already the party of ted cruz, so why, why beat up on the moderates of the past right now? to help answer that question and a whole lot more about the state of conservativetism we have a political strategist who's worked for president obama and the campaign to hillary clinton. sam tannahouse and christina greer, assistant professor of political science at fordham university. welcome to you all. this is a super panel. christina, let's start with that question. ted cruz reaching into the history to say, no more moderation. >> well, we know that the republican party is in a civil war, right? they can't deny it. we know that chris christie and

ted cruz had a mixed message at cpac. ted cruz said we won't deal with obamacare, we won't, we won't. chris christie says we need to stop being the party of we can't, we're not doing it and the obstructionist party because he recognizes that this may be the strategy for ted cruz in a primary but they want to see bipartisanship to some extent. they have to be for something as a party. they can't be an obstructionist party as they've been in the past eight years because it doesn't work, especially on the presidential level. yes, you get votes on the house. yes, you may get some votes in the senate. if they're actually thinking about a gop presidential strategy, we know that 2016 is a great opportunity for them, sort of a last opportunity. if they don't capitalize on that, then we know the electoral map shows it's a democratic presidential game. >> you're hitting on something that's important which is the difference between ideology and cooperative posture. i want to put up on the screen senator dole's response.

kruds should check my voting record before making comments. i was one of president reagan's strongest supporters and my record is that of a traditional republican conservative. ellahay, what he's saying is i was a strong conservative on policy but i could still work with people. that shouldn't be a dirty word. he's telling senator cruz to, you know, keep his name out of senator cruz's mouth. >> yeah, i mean, i think this is really illustrating the divide between a lot of republicans who say that they are conservative but newer stars, people on the scene are trying to depict them as being establishment republicans. and to be fair, i mean, if we're talking about mitch mcconnell or john corn nin, they've been around for a while in washington. if you look at john cornin, the his voting record is extremely conservative. how much further can one be? this tactic that ted cruz has introduced has been absolutely

no -- we have to stand against -- against working together with democrats, working together to find any way forward and that's what the democrats are saying. if you look at the debt ceiling vote, for instance, republican leadership wanted it to play out so that no republicans would have to vote for the debt ceiling in order for it to pass. now ted cruz called him out on this and he basically was saying, look, if you want the debt ceiling to be raised, you have to cast a vote in favor of that. so he forced a situation in which there is a procedural vote and so some republicans, 12 republicans ended up voting for that including almost all of the republican leadership. >> in defense of bob dole, i frankly don't believe i'm stating that sentence, the idea that ronald reg began who ted cruz brings up all the time did not compromise is an utte utter kinard. if you want any proof of that google the size of the deficit. that number alone is proof that

that guy couldn't cut a deal. sam can talk to that further. certainly bob dole when he was senate majority leader in the reagan years cut a lot of deals. chris matthews who's on this network can speak to that. his former boss, tip o'neill, cut a lot of deals. what people liked about ronald regan was he unified people, brought people together as opposed to us versus them rhetoric which you've heard nonstop at cpac. >> i agree with everything that's been said here. let me add a couple of things to think about. one is that if you are ted cruz, what you want to do is smoke out everybody. this is a tactical thing. cpac -- we know who wins cpac. somebody who is not going to get the nomination, that's what's happened the past couple of years, but if the competition for the base is where they are here now is going to be a competition to the right, you're ted cruz, you make everybody else go as far right as you can. when they stop two inches short, you've won. it's a saying, politics is, the

bolshevik. your enemy. infantile left wing disorder. somebody who's two steps to the left of you is the enemy. the other thing i'd add to that as well is cpac essentially is a kind of side show and so i wouldn't confuse it too much with some stuff that's fairly interesting that's going on in the conservative movement that policy people are working on that may end up being more important. >> this is a failed long-term strategy, right? the people who are paying attention to cpac are far right wingers and lefties who want to discuss it. they don't represent the bulk of what the larger gop wants and needs them to talk about and understand. the fact that marriage equity and marijuana aren't on the table lets us know that this whole three-day exercise is actually missing so much of the meat and potatoes of what larger republicans will recognize will come through in a general election. >> which is why it doesn't matter. >> that's an important point which i want to go to in the

next segment. this is supposed to be the conference of ideas. this is the idea logical section. dignity as one state moves forward to shame those in need. nothing dignified about that. stay with us. some things you have to squeeze to make sure they're soft. other things, you don't. [ female announcer ] charmin ultra soft is so soft you can actually see the softness with our comfort cushions. plus you can use up to four times less. enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft. [ mala body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief

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take senator rubio, he wants to repair our safety net. he wants to streamline those government programs and give working families a boost because we believe in this country it should always pay to work. we believe in the dignity of work. >> that was republican congressman paul ryan on thursday at cpac arguing government benefits must not deny the dignity of work.

the local level some republicans are erecting barriers on benefits that haven't already been cut. take this indiana proposal. it looks less like an appeal for dignity than suggesting indignity. the indiana senate voted 34-14 for a bill that forced drug testing on people who get benefits with a conviction. if it passes the governor might sign it into law and indiana would become one of the ten states that require drug testing in order to receive public assistance. is that about ensuring that benefits aren't wasted or is it some kind of attempt to shame people on public assistance. christina? >> first, i need to say any time i see paul ryan, i say you should have delivered wisconsin. the second piece is this is a war on poor people which this republican -- certain factions of the republican party consistently blame poor people for poverty. we'll talk about it later in the hour when we think about reproductive rights, but there is absolutely no reason why we

should make people who make a certain amount of money second class citizens when they should be given benefits that are promised to them by the national government. >> yeah. and one of the things that would be really great if conservatives emphasized is the -- they talk about the dignity of work. i didn't see it in terms of policy a whole lot of honoring of the dignity of work. didn't see any of that. didn't see programs aimed at people who get up every morning in this country, take the bus to work, try to make ends meet. how would conservatives help them? you never heard any of that. what you heard was let's cut taxes for wealthy people and hope it trickles down. that's more or less what paul ryan was arguing. and, you know, he says, well, you're calling me mean spirited, etc., etc. well, yes. his proposals are mean spirited. if you are somebody who makes $30,000 a year in this country paul ryan would make them much poorer. there would be less money because you won't get as much on social security, you won't get

as much on medicare and medicaid. and what is really fascinating about that was the one person who called paul ryan out on that interestingly enough was donald trump who actually said that, you know, i don't agree with paul ryan on these medicare, medicaid and social security cuts. i don't see how we win with that. that was the only logical thing donald trump said in his speech. >> where does that debate fit in the history of the party here? >> if you think about cpac, i think sam can also talk about this, in the 1970s there was a legitimate policy discussion about crime, the cold war, stagflation and the terrible economy. the way to look at cpac is the con ser va tifr equivalent of the consumer electronics show. you go to cpac to see the latest in conservative entertainment starting with donald trump ending with sarah palin, an colter. mark levin got the andrew breitbart award. ted cruz is not a legislator,

he's an entertainer. the greatest proof of that is the thing that cpac loves the most is hearing people who are basically unelectable. chris christie a year ago, he was the most popular republican governor in the country and was riding high, winning democrats and minorities and all of those people, cpac wanted noing to do with him. bridgegate, he's unelectable, they give him a standing ovation. >> you've written about this. >> yeah, last year he was purposefully not invited because after superstorm sandy he appeared with the president. a lot of republicans felt like that gave president obama a boost ahead 206912 elections. this year i think actually a lot of the media attention on chris christie and what's going on in new jersey with bridgegate and everything, a lot of conservatives, oh, one of us is under attack by main street media and the liberal left and it's endeared him to the conservative base. i was there at cpac and heard his speech. the response was quite positive to chris christie. >> that's absolutely right. we were talking about the 1970s.

the hard right in the republican party hated richard nixon who many say this is the last liberal president merge had until watergate. once the media and the establishment went after nixon, then they rallied around behind him. similarly the way the left did with clinton. the left wing of the democratic party didn't love bill clinton until the impeachment scandal, then they rallied around. christie is really the beneficiary of being attacked by my newspaper, that's how it's presented, "the new york times," and the rest of the so-called establishment. mccain, too. remember when mccain got in trouble. there was a big story that my paper did in the 2008 election about mccain's relationship with lobbyists. that was the best thing that happened with mccain with the right. >> that goes to the point that was being raised. if it's not a proving ground but more of an entertainment complex, then being beleaguered, being a, quote, victim can be a

great story for them. >> sure. it's being interviewed by barbara walters and she makes you cry. >> right. we have to go. shay and sam, thank you very much. you guys are great on this. i appreciate it. you two are staying with us. stick around and have some kiwi or a little pastry there if you want. up next we're going to bring you an update on the breaking news this morning. the search for the missing malaysian air flight. it was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members. it vanished yesterday while en route to kuala lumpur to beijing. we'll go live to beijing for the latest on that important story when we come back. [ female announcer ] the secret to luminous, shiny color?

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227 passengers and 12 crew members were on board when it took off from kuala lumpur in malaysia. it was supposed to land 6:30 saturday morning local time in beijing, china. that's where we have cnbc eunice yoon. we have jim tillman, a retired captain. eunice, what are you learning on the ground in beijing on this story? >> reporter: well, ari, as countries are starting to look into the fate of their citizens, there are two governments that have told their local reporters that their citizens who are on the passenger list weren't actually on the plane. both officials from italy as well as austria have told their local press that they called the families of those citizens and that they found out that both of those citizens were actually safe in different countries. now the curious part about this

is that both of those citizens had said that they had their passports stolen in the recent past. now this is raising a lot of questions as to the identity of the people who were actually on the plane, why there would be false identities being used on that plane, and how that could potentially relate to the fate of this airliner. ari? >> right. we've been speaking to investigators here. there is not concrete public information on the nature of the missing airplane, that is to say, what happened, why it's missing, where its ultimate result was, but what you're saying is at least from some chinese officials there are reports regarding the identification which raises questions, at least, about whether this was an operational failure or some other kind of incident? >> that's right. it's -- well, in terms of where it's coming from, this is actually reports from the

italian press as well as the austrian press. basically showing that foreign ministry officials from both of those countries had inquired into the families to check to see what was happening with their citizens and just to see what -- you know, what had actually happened to them, but they were able to verify to their own country reporters that the citizens in question who are on the passenger list were actually not on the plane. so, again, that is raising a lot of questions as to who the people were using those identities and those passports on the plane. now, in terms of what the chinese authorities are doing, they have been very much trying to help in the search and rescue effort. they've been informing their people and even from the very top have been trying to say that china needs to do as much as it can for the people, the hundreds of people who are waiting here

at this hotel hoping to get some information about their loved ones. >> stay with us. i want to go to jim on the phone. with your experience as a pilot, what is your take on what we are learning so far? >> well, it's confusing, and it's frustrating because there's so little that we really do know for a fact. we have some hints. we know how long it was in the air. we can predict pretty much where it may have gone down. we do know, however, that something really catastrophic had to happen. there's nothing routine about this. there was no distress signal. that always gets my attention because it means why didn't they make a distress tone? did they have absolutely no warning, no time, no anything else? there are lots of means aboard that airplane to send information to the ground.

all of them shut off at the same time. very peculiar situation. >> right. that's well put. good context. those are the kind of questions, of course, investigators are looking into and that we will continue to report on as we have been throughout the hour and this morning here on msnbc. i want to thank eunice yoon jim tilmon. up next i have a letter this week, with friends like this, who needs enemies. only know on: up so we're up early. up late. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com

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on wednesday we saw a twist in senate republicans' efforts to block presidential nominees from federal posts. this time the block aid was made possible by not just republicans but by seven democrats as well. they voted against the nomination of the leader of the civil rights division which is responsible for ensuring fair access to the ballot. they voted no despite his credentials, one who took the defense of the voting rights act

all the way to the supreme court last year. in my letter today is to one of those democratic senators, heidi height camp of north dakota. it is me, ari. let's start with how you explained be your vote this week. quote, i was very concerned about a nominee who would face such staunch opposition from law enforcement officers from day one. that opposition, as we've reported, is based on his role as an attorney with the naacp's legal defense fund where he worked on the appeal of jamall who was convicted in 1982 of a murder of a philadelphia police officer. as the national association of police organization said, quote, here we have a nominee who's made his name defending one of the most notorious and unrepen tent cop killers around, end quote. now many police officers and their families sincerely oppose anyone who had anything to do with jamall's defense. that's their choice. that is their right. but for you, senator, to say

that the act of providing counsel to someone accused of a crime disqualifies a lawyer from public service, that's an outrageous precedent and as a former state attorney general, you, senator, should know better. in fact, had that standard existed in, say, 2005, it would have preempted the confirmation of chief justice john roberts. he once consulted on the death penalty appeal of a man convicted of murdering eight people or it would have disqualified the hundreds great, qualified, honest, american patriotic attorney niece who worked on behalf of detainees at guantanamo bay and it would have disqualified john adams who said his defense of the british soldiers of the boston massacre was one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life. but, senator, you here are sending a dangerous message to our nation's lawyers and law students and future lawyers.

don't stand up for the constitutional right to counsel. don't work on these cases if someone says they're controversial. don't help a poor defendant appeal a death sentence. you're encouraging a choice between upholding our constitution and serving in government itself when it's precisely the people who have taken these kind of hard cases to defend our constitution that belong in government. but opposition to his nomination also runs deeper than his defense of abu jamall. for some it was about his work and against voting restrictions and voter i.d. if you drill down into the attacks you find things like this, quote, adegbile hales from the naacp legal defense fund, an organization that pushes radical racial agendas including attacks on racial integrity measures. senator heitkamp, you recommended the president

introduce someone not so controversial. anyone who has a record will be controversial in the eyes of those who seek to impose those restrictions, and now you risk looking like you fell for a smear campaign that worked against the very values that you actually claim to stand for. indeed, they're the ones that on the very same day of a vote you championed in a fundraising e-mail saying you would work to, quote, protect everyone's right to vote. president obama called this vote a travesty and if this is the precedent that you want to set, that no one who defends controversial clients can serve in our government, can serve the public, then it's a travesty for all of us. sincerely, ari. [ male announcer ] covergirl presents the making of a bombshell starring new bombshell volume with the bombshell boost system. extreme volume meets intensifying topcoat and tada. 10 times more noticeable lashes. new bombshell from easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl.

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to nbcuniversal's coveragens of the biggest loser olympic winter games ever, with the most coverage of the most events on every device. and the most hours of streaming video on the nbc sports live extra app, including the x1 platform from xfinity. comcast was honored to bring every minute of every medal of nbcuniversal's coverage to every screen. so what's next? rio 2016. welcome to what's next. comcast nbcuniversal. welcome back. we have something pretty exciting. sally field is one of

hollywood's most beloved actors from her roles as gidgit to the flying nun to academy award winning performances in norma ray and places in the heart and best supporting nominee in last year's biopick, lincoln. however, it's also her notable activism off screen that we're going to highlight now. sally field is a board member for vital voices global partners. it supports female leaders around the world. just this morning she helped lead the vital voices mentoring walk on the mall. two other walks are taking place in seattle and san francisco as well as in more than 30 countries around the world. wow. it is an honor on international women's day to welcome sally field to the program. good morning. >> good morning. >> really psyched to have you. let's start with talking about this work. you've served on the board of directors for vital voices for a while now, since 2002. >> yes. >> how did you get involved? what's important about this work? and of course the walks and leadership you guys are doing today. >> wow. well, i was very, very fortunate

in that i got to attend the beijing women's conference in 1995, and i went with my then 22-year-old son and what we learned and what we saw really changed our lives. and it certainly changed mine. i was so moved because i saw it through his eyes and how moved he was and what really has to be done to heal the planet is we need to empower women. it's the untapped resource of the planet. and vital voices was forming sort of at that time, was co-founded by hillary clinton before she was secretary of state and milen vivere who is a remarkable woman. it really is the gold standard for women's leadership and they identify and invest in emerging women leaders in 144 countries. i didn't even know there were 144 countries. there are. and they have mentored 14,000

women at this point and these women go back to their communities to realize their visions that in most cases are inspired and they empower these women with skills that they did not have, business skills, entrepreneurial skills, communication skills. >> you mentioned that and of course secretary of state clinton, senator clinton, can't list all of her titles but i'll list some of them -- >> i know. i hope there's more to come. >> i want to get your reaction to that. let me put her -- >> we were talking about this. yes. >> her comments at the u.n. on friday. take a listen. >> when women succeed, the world succeeds so our new development agenda must be a universal agenda. the goals must apply to every country according to its level of need. >> now you've spent time with hillary clinton as part of this effort. tell us about your work together, how important it is that she joins what is now

several women who have been in charge of diplomacy for the united states. >> she's leading the effort. she really is, you know, in bringing this awareness to the world, and not only that, but i mean in vital voices' case, in actually helping it happen one individual at a time on a human rights level. when they bring visibility to these women they also ensure that perhaps the people that are trying to eradicate them because they're the forces that they're standing up against in the first place have a harder time eliminating them when they have that kind of visibility. hillary clinton is a hero in this respect. it is the untapped resource and statistically what they bring back to their community when they're allowed to participate fully at the table is that their cities are -- and villages and countries, if it goes that far,

they're more economically sound, environmentally sound, on a human rights level they're safer and politically safer. they're more democratic. it's just a statistical fact. it's an economic boon that we are not using. >> yeah. you know, sally, it's actually interesting talking about this in international women's day and this effort at a time when, of course, we have other unrest in the world. >> yes. >> soft power and this kind of bottom up international diplomacy is also a huge important thing. obviously you've been working on it as has hillary clinton for some time. it was really exciting to have you here. i hope you will come back on mhp and msnbc again. >> i'd love to. thank you. >> fantastic. joining us from washington, sally field this morning. thank you again. coming up in our next hour, a story you will see only here on mhp literally. msnbc.com reporter irene carmone, she's coming here from norman, oklahoma, where the

anti-abortion activist community are taking on people from clinics to schools, abortion ban without exceptions, and they're not afraid to shock or offend in the process. >> what do you think should happen to women who have abortions? >> well, when it's made illegal, their death should be treated like the death of other people. so we want the laws for murder to apply to all people. >> more of that reporting and more nerdland at the top of the hour. when jake and i first set out on our own, we ate anything. but in time you realize the better you eat, the better you feel. these days we both eat smarter. and i give jake purina cat chow naturals. made with real chicken and salmon, it's high in protein like a cat's natural diet. and no added artificial flavors. we've come a long way. and whatever's ahead, we'll be there for each other. naturally. purina cat chow naturals.

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my sinuses are acting up and i've got this runny nose. i better take something. truth is, sudafed pe pressure and pain won't treat all of your symptoms. really? alka seltzer plus severe sinus fights your tough sinus symptoms plus your runny nose. oh what a relief it is welcome back. i am ari melber in for melissa harris-perry. there are new signs that a missing malaysia airline flight may have crashed. the missing boeing 777 was bound from kuala lumpur to beijing when it came up missing.

they were the first signs the plane may, may have crashed into the water after disappearing over the south china sea. officials from the u.s. embassies in kuala lumpur and beijing are in contact with families of those three americans confirmed by the state department who have been on board the aircraft. the state department says it's working to confirm if any additional americans were on board the flight. i want to go now to michael goldbar, former faa chief of staff. he's in our bureau in washington. good morning. what can you tell us about this fast-moving and obviously concerning story? >> good morning, ari. thanks for having me. i think you've had excellent reporting by tom costello and greg fyfe about this plane suddenly having some kind of catastrophic problem. we know it's an excellent aircraft. it's had some problems, some regulatory problems. they've been fixed. the plane is a workhorse. it's an efficient, safe aircraft. planes don't fall out of the sky

at 36,000 feet. the catastrophic incident some hint that perhaps corrosion because malaysian airlines flies oceanic routes will cause reduction in air pressure that would cause passengers and the crew to lose consciousness in a matter of seconds. whunts again, they have a good anti-aging program. the plane is 11 years old. we don't know anything. one of the problems going forward is the awful example of the air france crash in the south atlantic several years back. it took investigators two years to find those so-called black boxes, flight data, cockpit voice recorders. from the faa and other authorities around the world, this is the worst nightmare of the 777 going down. we need to learn. every accident teefs us ways to make things safer. >> michael, let me jump in there. we talk about risk assessment. we know other activities are broadly riskier like driving

fast on a highway. it is the nature of this that scares people so much. when people think of flying so much or imagine their loved ones are on the plane. it goes off the grid and we still are being told by investigators they have very little idea where it is, what it is, what happened? >> right. 1 in 90 million chances, ari, of being in a crash, let alone 95% of crashes aren't fatal. so it doesn't matter because people in their gutt who fly get very nervous about this when they're on an airplane. off the grid, no ground control, oceanic is limited to radio reporting, they literally don't have a clue. the fear is if it's in the ocean it's going to take significant amount of time if that black box -- so-called black boxes are buried on the ocean floor, a protracted period of basically not knowing do we have a problem with 777s around the world. that's the worst nightmare for regulators. >> that's a larger policy question of course that many governments are going to be

looking into when you see this kind of incident although, again, a word of caution and data from you on the larger context. michael goldfarb in washington, dc, thank you. we'll turn back to news at home now. thank you. this news comes from texas as house bill 2. the most restricted set of state level abortion laws passed in 2013. it claimed another wave of abortion providers that shut down since the law was enacted in november. the law bans abortion after 20 weeks, bans medical abortions after seven weeks. it makes a woman have multiple visits before having an abortion. the last provision about hospital admitting privileges was, as we've reported, particularly difficult for clinics to help cut the number of abortion providers in texas by half, from a high of 44 in 2011 down to now just 22 in 2014. this week comes news that two more abortion providers have been subtracted from the tally.

on thursday two clinics in texas border towns, one in beaumont and this one in mccallin, they both shut down. they were the last remaining abortion providers in texas. the loss of these means as a practical matter that women in these communities which are primarily low income, uninsured, african-american latino women, they would have to travel 90 miles for multiple visits that we mention are regulated, required, to complete the procedure under texas law. the dwindling number of providers faces another round of closures later this year. another of the law's requirements is to have on site ambulatory surgical centers would put 14 more of the state's remaining 20 clinics out of business. we're running down these numbers for you because when you do the math it leaves a total of just six abortion providers in the country's second largest state. with me at the table is elahay

and national reporter for msnbc.com and david mascone and back with us, christ nineteen greer as well, assistant professor at fordham university and author of "black ethnics." joining us from tampa, florida, amy hackstrom miller, ceo of whole women's health. you have managed to keep five of your clinics open this week. why did you have to make the decision to close these two. walk us through this law's impact. >> you know, this decision was not an easy decision to make. we've served the women in the community in mccallen and beaumont for over ten years. i purchased those clinics from physicians who had been in the community for 30 or 40 years. they've had safe access to medically professional abortion care since roe and we serve the women who really need us the

most. we serve a diverse group of people from both sides of the border, louisiana, texas, mexico, texas. you know, texas is 49th out of 50th as far as people in our state who have insurance soond there's a lot of people who fall through the cracks so it was really difficult to make the decision to close these two offices, but i just have felt, you know, there's nothing more that we could do. we've had political interference from the state on a number of levels over the last ten years. the laws have just combined cumulatively to make it virtually impossible for us to stay open. in mccallen we were unable to obtain privileges for any of our obgyn physicians at any of our hospitals there. in beaumont we have privileges for one of the physicians who's 75. the writing is on the wall coming up in september. he's unable to keep up with the patient care that we need without being able to privilege a second physician. none of the hospitals would grant us privileges or even give

us an application for privileges in beaumont or mccallen specifically because of the work we're doing. coming up here in six months -- yeah, go ahead. >> i want to jump in and ask you, amy, do you feel like this law is targeting these particular communities that are bearing the brunt of it? >> absolutely. abortion is one of the safest medical procedures in medicine. abortion has a lot of challenges for a lot of people, both medically and ethically. i think our opposition has preyed on that and tried to tell a story that they need more regulation and they're unsafe. we all know that's not true. here we are being able to provide really safe medical care with compassion and dignity for the women in these communities and this law did nothing to prevent the need for abortion so what we're going to end up with is the same amount of women in these communities needing the service but being blocked from accessing it safely and medically with dignity. we're seeing people take things into their own hands. >> what happens when they do

that or when they feel that they don't have other options? >> you know, so we have women who come to us. i mean, we've been open in mccallen, unable to do abortion procedures but open with the doors open. the same number of women have been coming in in the last three months telling us, what are we going to do? how are we going to take care of our families? we can't travel north. we can't go four or five hours north to have a procedure and spend two days or three days in san antonio. a lot of these women are telling us we're going to go over the border, we're going to try to get medication over the internet. i've been drinking this tea that i was told about. i'm hoping it's going to help me pass the pregnancy. we've been trying to help people both pre and post self-induction to try to help them manage their lives and keep healthy. >> stay with us. i'm going to go out to our panel and back to you. when you look at the impact here, i want to be clear, the folks passing this law -- these laws say, well, they're not trying to hit any particular part of texas.

they say they're trying to add safety requirements. and yet we can't as citizens or journalists look at this and not see the incredibly disparate impact. >> as i said before when we were thinking about the war on poverty. this is not only a war on poverty but war on women. it's a conflation of the two. these are the same legislators who will not keep these clinics open yet they don't want to provide health care, they don't want to provide head start, they don't want to provide condoms in school. they don't want to provide good schools. they're anti everything that would provide good decisions. it's frustrating because it is this conflation of this constant attack on people who don't have as. , right? and we do know as amy said, people have to take things into their own hands. this is not the 1960s, right? why are we rolling back so many democratic provisions that we've worked so hard to get. >> let me go back to amy to get

a final word on this. the question ultimately is does it matter if roe v. wade is on the books if it's not practically an option for people in so many of these communities anymore? >> right. ari, that's a great question. what you have is something that's legal on paper but in reality it's a complete abstraction. i mean, it almost doesn't matter for people. if it's out of reach, if it's inaccessible, the legalty is on paper. abortion is still legal. >> right. that really is the issue. we're going to continue on that. the mhp team wanted to have you on it given your work and your view from the ground. amy, thank you. >> you're welcome. thank you. now if you think this is an isolated story or if you think, well, i don't live in texas so however problematic this is, my rights are not being restricted, well, we would argue, think again. this is happening in states all

over the country. when we coming back, we'll get into states going to the most extreme lengths yet with some original reporting. hen i'm on m? with tampax radiant -- whatever i want. [ female announcer ] tampax radiant protects 30% better. plus, it comes with a resealable wrapper for discreet disposal. you'll be ready to wear anything with the tampax radiant collection. you'll be ready to wear anything explaining my moderate to severe so there i was again, chronic plaque psoriasis to another new stylist. it was a total embarrassment. and not the kind of attention i wanted. so i had a serious talk with my dermatologist about my treatment options. this time, she prescribed humira-adalimumab. humira helps to clear the surface of my skin by actually working inside my body. in clinical trials, most adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis saw 75% skin clearance. and the majority of people were clear or almost clear in just 4 months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma,

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. welcome back. this week a bill passed by lawmakers in alabama can give the state to the title of toughest abortion law in the nation. the alabama house voted to approve four restrictive abortion rights. one is after six weeks. a heartbeat bill would end the vast majority of abortions in the state of alabama. while it includes exceptions for the life of the mother and the likelihood of a possible still birth, it doesn't make exceptions for rape or incest. there are three additional measures passed by the house, one of them would extend the waiting period from an abortion from 24 to 48 hours. the bills have to pass the alabama senate before going on

to governor robert bentley for his signature. if they go on to become his law, the alabama measures may face the same measures as passed in north dakota which also approved a six-week ban and arkansas which ban an abortion at 12 weeks. what is the political context for this? >> so in 2013 22 states passed 70 measures relating to some sort of abortion restriction. in 2014 activists on the right, antiabortion activists are looking to focus on this issue also pushing forward legislation that would prevent women who receive government subsidies to help pay for government health care to be eligible for plans that provide abortion access. they're hoping this will also motivate the conservative base and a mid-term cycle when you're not having as many general election voters come out. this is an issue that they believe plays very well on the right. we talked about cpac at the top of the show, the big conservative con fence.

there wasn't very much mention about abortion there. there was no panel there. last year there was a big main stage panel. a lot of antiabortion activists were upset there wasn't greater focus on this. >> let me dive in on that and go to david who's been researching this. what you're saying is it's open season in the states but it's not being messaged at cpac? >> yeah. it appears that there's a lot of hesitation, at least on a national level for the gop to really go hard on this issue and be very vocal and be very specific after 2012 when you had the todd akins. people feel they need to talk better about this issue. >> david, people feel when you look at these issues, todd akins, they were not just bad statements politically, but they were accurate about where a lot of the party is. >> right. if you look at what's been happening in the states, they've been very active in prohibiting abortion -- not prohibiting abortion but restricting abortion in all different creative ways. the six week ban in alabama and

north dakota, the 12-week ban in arkansas, these are flatly unconstitutional. these are extreme measures that will never become effective laws. they are symbolic measures. they impose costs on people in the state. a, it sends a signal that abortion is not welcome here. b, the state is going to wind up footing the bill for these legal challenges that are going to be successful. so the taxpayers are going to have to pay. if the people in these states want safer abortions, they need to look at policies that will double the number of clinics that amy hag strom miller has. she operates safe clinics that are woman centered and if the people of texas, the people of alabama want safer procedures, we need more clinics. not fewer. >> of course, they don't want safer procedures, they want fewer abortions. they cannot go after roe wholesale. they have to go after it in an incremental way. the actual impact is to restrict abortion.

they have not had much success on the demand side of restricting abortion which is to say convincing women not to have abortions. what they've realized is if they want to lower the abortion number, go to the supply side. close down clinics and make it nearly impossible. the old backstops that used to put the brakes on these are not actually as solid as they were before. i was in the courtroom in texas where basically a panel of three female judges said, i don't think it's an undue burden to have to drive 250 miles because texas is a big state. >> let me jump in there and bring in christina. when you refer to undue burden you're referring to the 1992 supreme court case, planned parenthood v casey. yes, there may be rules and restrictions but they can't have a huge or undue burden. it seems in our courts when it comes -- i'm saying something obvious but necessary to say, when it comes to some of these words, applying them for the protection of women or minorities, they suddenly recede. >> well, we saw this in the 1950s and '60s with the civil

rights movement, this vague language that left it up to the states to make the decisions. we're seeing it now withstand your ground and stop and frisk. we're seeing it on local levels as well when this comes to black and brown men and how police can treat them. we know vague language can work, flight what's really frustrating is that 250 miles for someone who may not have a car who may have to take off one, maybe two, maybe three days of work for a minimum wage job and maybe not have that job waiting for them when they come back. that is a huge burden. where will these people stay? we've heard about tons of women sleeping in the car of a friend or having to go by themselves because a friend couldn't take off work. this is a much larger situation. it's 250 miles. that could be three and a half to four hours to say nothing of gas money and other added costs. they're costs to dock anything in your daily life. this is to say nothing of the emotional costs that women have to prepare themselves for.

>> we'll come back to you and your piece. you're hitting the connective tissue which is saying if you need a driver's license to vote and you need a car to make a medical decision, this is not how it's supposed to work. we're going to come back to you because they're in my ear about timing. next, we have a report on the ground from norman, oklahoma, and you may not agree with some of the peel people she met with there but you do need to hear what they told her. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. when my son was born, i remember, you know, picking him up and holding him against me. it wasn't just about me anymore. i had to quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. chantix didn't have nicotine in it, and that was important to me. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood,

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to help you avoid surprises with your credit. good. i hate surprises. surprise! at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. get the it card and see your fico® credit score. this is mike. his long race day starts with back pain... ...and a choice. take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve... ...for all day relief. "start your engines" reproductive rights add voe casts have an extreme agenda. one group growing in popularity thinks the move to bana borings hasn't gone far enough. they're not okay with regulations to shut down clinics. what they want is an absolute ban to abortion, full stop. no allowances or exceptions. they're not afraid to shock,

target high school students with their message. they reject the pro life label and have reached back into history for another term to describe themselves, abolitionists. an exclusive msnbc report, we have a reporter who traveled to the heart of red america to follow these crusaders as they make their case outside of an high school for what they call project front lines. >> in general i like to spend time with the anti-abortion movement in part because it's pretty clear to me what the pro choice side believes and these people have been wagging a long war for the 41 years that abortion has been legal in the united states and you could really argue that they're winning. i mean, they believe they're losing but they have managed to stigmatize abortion, they have managed to pass untold laws. i think they're getting closer to their goal. >> did you guys get a hand zblout did you guys get one? >> we're standing here outside

of norman high school in norman, oklahoma. it's been quite a heated morning. project front lines is kicking off today. that is an effort by abolish human abortion. the kids have been really, really interested in talking to people. they have come right into the thick of these conversations. they have confronted them on the graphic images. >> why are you showing that? >> hey, get on the internet and find me a study that that actually affects. those kids probably watch "walking dead." >> this is real though. >> if you want the choice to have an abortion, you should have the choice i am not saying that if you get pregnant you have to have an abortion. what i'm saying is that if you believe that you should for whatever reason, then you should be able to have that choice. >> the abolitionists of slavery, that's in textbooks of high schools. you know what i'm saying? i saw that and showed that to

people back in the day. guess what they were? >> we don't think that all pro lifers have thought this through. they're following leaders who have maybe, but when we -- if you ask the bold question, who are you more sort of combative with, yeah, pro lifers. >> what do you think should happen to women who have abortions? >> well, when it's made illegal, their death should be treated like the death of other people. so we want the laws for murder to apply to all people. we don't want the laws for murder to be bias and only apply to certain people, okay? so just like african-americans back in the days of slavery, we want the laws of protection of humanity to be applied to all people equally. >> so women who have abortions should get life in prison or the death penalty? >> i mean, i'm going to leave what happens to them up to the legislators, but in my opinion, yes. i mean, if a woman maliciously goes in and pays a hired

assassin to rip the arms and legs off their child, she should go to prison for that. >> you're reporting there. what did you learn? >> well, i think every movement has its passionate soldiers. we're trying to make the rest of the movement listen to them. the anti-abortion movement has made its peace with this sort of incremental strategy that we've been talking about, which is to say we want to make abortion clinics safer, we want to pretend we're talking about making it safer. we're talking about shutting it down. they want to push the movement to be more zealous. they call themselves agitators. in some cases they're having a lot of success. >> the question is where do they fit in on the spectrum? if you look at the gallup poll which we can put up for vow viewers, what you see is a pretty consistent support for roe. what you see is you have people basically saying we don't want to overturn roe by well over the majority and then pluralitiys

with other views. where does this fit in? the groups that you're studying do think they're losing, and that's one way they are if not in public opinion but in the statehouse. >> they use the phrase they're dissenting from the culture of death. they realize the odds are stacked against them and that's why they're going to high school students. they think going to the abortion clinic is going to the final line. going to the front line is going to the high school students. one in three women will have an abortion. women choose to have abortions for all kinds of reasons and without stig maine advertising that woman's decision you're going to hit a wall if you say we want to end abortion. >> david, you've studied these groups. we forget because we hear about it in politics. we forget to her point, it's not that polarized in public opinion. i want to put up when you ask women and men and minorities and white voters, what you see is that flat line of 50% or near there people being pro choice and fewer being pro life down in

the low 40s. this is one of the few areas that is discussed a lot in media, on the campaign trail has a big diverse coalition. >> right, big, diverse coalition that hasn't gotten smaller over the years. the anti-choice movement has not succeeded in moving the needle. in fact, if you look at the graphic you just showed, it's not that there's 50% who are against abortion, it's a smaller group who actually want to bana borings. >> pro choice? >> right. >> pro life is even smaller. >> they want to outlaw it. the people who are profiled in this piece, they're part of a small extremist group who not only go to high schools and talk to students, they protest doctors at their home. they stalk clinic workers on their way to and from work. they picket people at churches. just this week a clinic in montana was vandalized. all of their equipment was destroyed by antiabortion

extremists. >> christina, your thoughts on abolition? >> well, i can't roll my eyes because i'm sotomayor ure my mo watching. we need to make sure that the concept of class isn't always given to poor women. there are several upper middle class black, white, latina and asian women who have had abortions. the argument gets stig maine advertised that it's poor women that have abortions which we clearly know isn't the case. number two, when he was talking with this, he's against death, right? well, if we think about some of the martin luther king latter radical speeches, what he calls death is actually starving american children without providing them with not just nutrition but the educational nutrition that they need. these are the arguments that the gop completely ignore but that's actually the fundamental american democratic principle we should think about. >> you are talking about life. life is one of the buzz words here. i want to thank all of you.

elahi, erin and david greer. a massive rift within the democratic party over what is best for our kids but, first, we do want to update you on this morning's breaking news briefly. the search for the malaysian airlines flight mh 370. the plane that was carrying 239 people including 3 americans, it vanished yesterday while en route from kuala lum poor to beijing. vietnamese airplanes have spotted a 12 mile long oil slick in the waters between malaysia and vietnam. the u.s. is sending a ship to the coast to help with the search efforts. you can stay with msnbc throughout the day for the latest on the developing story. we'll be back with the education wars up next. way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips.

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washington elementary school and visited a pre-kindergarten classroom. >> and this is part of the reason why we're here today, that education has to start at the earliest possible ages. so this budget expands access to the kind of high quality preschool and other learning programs to give all of our children the same kinds of opportunities that those wonderful children that we just saw are getting right here at powell. >> how wonderful? well, the president's budget seeks to pump $68.6 billion in discretionary funds to education. that includes some specific expansions of public preschool programs. now as the president discussed in previous state of the union addresses he backs more early education for young children and programs targeting the achievement gap in all schools. national leadership matters but most education funding and choices happen at the local level. the battle over prek and charter schools was a huge political fight. from washington to new york and

back again. mayor bill de blasio is pushing forward with a plan to tax wealthy new yorkers with new pre-k and after school programs. he would block three charter schools from using free space inside new york city school buildings. two of the preschools were pushed by a group of charter schools that has been backed by mike bloomberg and some democrats and republicans from wall street. while de blasio aides emphasize, a majority went untouched for the charters, the move proved controversial. last week on the cover of ""the new york post"" they pick up a critical post where eric cantor singled out bill de blasio over these charter schools and andrew cuomo joined with moskowicz tuesday for a huge rally on the state capital. their message? charters work. >> i am committed to ensuring

charter schools have the financial capacity to physical space and the government's support to thrive and to grow. >> mayor de blasio led his own rally two blocks away returning to push his plan for universal pre-k. >> we are closer than ever to opening next school year with 54,000 full day pre-k seats in new york city. that's tens of thousands more full day seats than we have today and that is a game changer for our children, a game changer for our families. >> joining us now to talk about the schools, the drama and the students we have a professor of sociology at nyu and regina

dowdell a parent of a new york city charter school student. also, steve bar, founder of green dot schools and the future is now as well as university prep high school in the south bronx university and dan cantore, executive director of the working families party which might be the most progressive thing on the ballot. this is an all-star panel for a very important discussion. i want to start with you, pedro. your view of this battle, both how it relates to students because we care about policy and why it's attracting such political heat this week. >> well, it's attracting heat because charter schools have emerged as an alternative to the traditional public schools. some of those schools are quite good. i'm sure we'll hear more about that later. we should keep in mind that 95% of kids are not in charter schools. it's ironic that the governor would weigh in so heavily on this when we know that most kids are not in charter schools. there's been no policy set for what role charter schools should

play. i think mayor de blasio's push for preschool is important. we know the foundation for learning that it sets is critical to learning throughout a child's life, but this issue has become so divisive in new york city it's largely issue over space. where do we put kids? >> regina? >> i think that it's such a huge issue because there are so many children who are affected by this. so although only 5% of the children are actually in charter schools, there are so many families who are hurting who don't have other options if they don't get this co-located space. it is something that's important that the governor should have weighed in on. >> you have to back up what's going on seems to us is the free market fundamentalists and wall street idea logs holding aside remaking public education. they want to disinvest in public education. they like private things.

they want competition that produces winners and losers. it's a very different view of how public education should exist in our society and i think it's a dangerous view. >> you think it's wrong that governor cuomo has teemed up with eric cantor? >> he's killing my brain. we strongly like what mayor de blasio is talking about. they don't like the mayor for this. they're using this issue to weaken de blasio and advance their own ambitions. >> you have people in maryland debating about how to hold a gun, you know? immigrants are bad. poor people are bad. >> what do you mean? >> the cpac. >> oh, sure. the republican party. we i assume are all democrats. we probably agree on 80, 90% of the stuff and yet we're fighting. you knee, instead of problem solving. >> steve, let me push you that. we do that a lot. we do it in media, the family, politics. i don't come home to my family

and talk about things we agree on. you've been in this movement. you've been something of a middle ground. you said you don't want charter schools to be anti--union. you want something that can scale -- and it's a unionized school. it's a high school. it's the fourth best high school in new york. all of the adults are pulling together. it gets easy after that. >> pedro, a lot of the concern here is there's so much attention on a few charter schools that by and large can be more expensive and need an assist from public schools which the public school community says is draining their resources. >> right. and some of the best charter schools, i'm not saying this is

true for steve's, are receiving additional funds and from their corporate backers and that is demonstrating that it actually takes more money to educate kids well. but that's not a reason to oppose the schools. i sat as an authorizer of charter schools in new york state for several years. i finally resigned because of the absence of policy. what i mean is that we see communities being pitted against each other. in this case, when one school goes in, another school goes out. so you're talking about which kids deserve a right to a building. and that is a decision that should not be fought out at the level of the school. our elected officiwfficialoffic put charter schools in schools that are clearly failing. >> regina, let me read you something from an education analyst. i'm going to read. mayor de blasio should stop the expansion of charter schools and stop co-locating charter schools in public space.

this is from diane wrarathers. more than a dozen of the charter schools are earning more than public schools. they're earning more than half a million dollars a year. does that bother you or as a parent your view is this is working for your student, as you've written, that's the first priority if the charter schools are working? >> not just my student. there are hundreds. i know a lot personally where charter schools are actually working for their children. so, of course, it does bother me because there does need to be some degree of equality, but like pedro said, they need to look at that balance. so when it comes to the co-locations, that's why there is a procedure in place. here's what needs to be done before a school can be co-located. it can't go over this capacity. it has to be approved by the building they're going into, all of those different things. that's why that's in place, to ensure that there's equality. >> we'll continue on this. mayor de blasio was getting hammered so hard that he went to

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the national debate when charter schools reached hip-hop radio station hot 97 in new york city on thursday. sound the air horns when mayor bill de blasio joined host peter rosenberg. >> so, de blasio, the big deal right now. charter schools, pre-k. i'm feeling like they're making you look like you're anticharter school. i don't think that's the case but explain to us why this is playing out this way. >> well, you are absolutely

correct, it's not the case. so the bottom line is of course we're going to work with the charter schools. there's a lot of good charter schools but we're going to treat them with an equality as the same way we treat traditional public schools. we're not going to favor them the way the bloomberg administration did. >> the mayor has talked politics on hot 97 before. this time it may have been a strategic move as it includes andrew cuomo but thousands of constituents including many students and parents of color who have strongly objected to barriers for those three charter schools in harlem and say it's key to improving education around the city. regina, you wanted to get in on this. >> i did. first he said they're not adverse to working with charter schools and they're not against them. throughout his campaign he said something quite the opposite.

also, my organization, families for excellent schools, we reached out to him several times before he was elected and after to work with us to get on the same page with charter school parents and he rebuffed us. we had a mayoral forum that i moderated back in june. he quit on us maybe a half an hour before we were to start. so he's not affected can say, h it was only a few schools, you guys can work it out. but to the families who were affected by it, this is a big deal. >> i hear that. >> listen, we should stipulate, all parents love their children and want them to do well, and want them to be in schools that are well-run with well-trained teachers who love their work and so on. we also want to live in a society in which people's live chances are not determined at birth. and the people who are driving a lot of the corporatization of education actually don't necessarily agree with that. they want to skim this 5%. what about the 95%? either we're going to have one system, it can have charters, it cannot have charters, but all these children need to be treated equally. and they're not.

the analogy where you'll have a co locater. >> 7.500 people, somehow they're skimmed and there are special parents is silly to all parents. literally, what are you doing, degrading their intelligence, degrading the teachers who leave the system for better work conditions, and they're proving things. instead of putting that down and reading off talking points, we should -- i want to go to schools and say what are you doing and how can i replicate that. i want to go to great public schools and do the same thing. my neighborhood in los angeles, great elementary school i want to scale up. >> final word from pedro. >> i think we should be learning from these schools. that was the vision behind charter schools. that's not happening, because we created a competition. but i would also challenge governor cuomo here. he is trying to change the conversation on education because of the disastrous rollout of the common core standards. most suburban communities where his base lies don't know what charter schools are. if those charters were located

in the suburbs, you will see an uproar of a backlash, because often when the charters come in it means resources taken away from the public schools. so this is why the governor needs to establish a reasonable and fair policy. right now he's grandstanding and picking on the mayor and the mayor needs to develop a policy for the city. but the governor needs to exercise some responsibility, not just on the charters, but the common core. >> we're out of time. i think that's a key question. that's why you've got people in the house republican caucus weighing in on this, peel following new york figuring out what works here. like i said, we're out of time. this was fun. i would like to do it with more time soon. i want to thank you. steve var and dan cantor. up next, a big challenge from melissa harris-perry herself. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients.

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before we go, did you know this? a 2008 study by the center for american women in politics at rutgers found that only 3% of

women state representatives had children under the age of 6. that's compared to 8% of male state representatives. are you intrigued? well, there is a chance to find out each so much more about this, through the first-ever nerd land scholar challenge. melissa harris perry is going to launch an interactive online experience. sign up by going to mhpshow.com. and that is our show for today. thank you for watching. it was fun. i'm going to see you again tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. if you come back. now, it is time for a preview of "weekends with alex witt." >> oh, my gosh, you did sell it. we were talking about that during the commercial. good job. thank you very much. mean time, busy saturday, noon in new york, breaking news all morning. what happened to a malaysia

airlines jumbo jet that vanished with 239 people on board. an intriguing twist. a live report. and also what happened in the hours and days leading up to it this disturbing scene on daytona beach where police say a florida woman intentionally drove her kids into the ocean surf. cash crop. as colorado gets ready to release its tax figures from marijuana sales, we talk to patrick kennedy about his anti pot crusade. and some are celebrating, some not so much. don't go anywhere. we'll be back in three minutes. [ molly ] this is one way to keep your underwear clean.

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