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children's future. and, the true genius of hermione granger. but first, who will be in the room and who won't be in the room when the israeli prime minister comes to speak. good morning, i'm melissa harris-perry. right now israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is en route to washington, d.c. according to "the jerusalem post" before departing mr. netanyahu said he is quote, going as an emissary of all the citizens of israel even those who don't agree with me and the entire jewish people. the israeli leader will speak in front of the u.s. congress this week in a joint session called by house speaker john boehner. it's not the first time a foreign leader has addressed congress. it's not even the first time prime minister netanyahu has spoken to congress. he did so in 1996 and in 2011. but it's different this time.

the president of the united states is not on board with this visit. in fact, signs all point to president obama being furious about a speech by one of his allies. you see, the white house says speaker boehner seriously breached protocol when he invited the prime minister to speak without consulting the white house. administration officials say the speech is inappropriately, openly political, coming just two weeks before netanyahu faces re-election in israel. and it's no small thing that netanyahu will be speaking against a nuclear agreement with iran, which the obama administration has been working on for years. an agreement would allow iran to pursue limited nuclear energy projects and ease devastating economic sanctions while aiming to ensure the world has at least a year's notice if iran begins to work on weapons. netanyahu says he will urge congress to torpedo the agreement saying quote, the american congress is likely to

be the final break before the agreement between the major powers and iran. the talks are reportedly nearing their final stages with the framework possible by the end of this month. president obama's national security adviser, susan rice did not mince words in describing how the white house position views netanyahu's upcoming address. >> on both sides, there has now been injected a degree of partisanship, which is not only unfortunate, i think it's destructive of the fabric of the relationship and it's -- >> it's destructive of the fabric of the relationship? >> well charlie, take my point. it's always been bipartisan. we need to keep it that way. >> vice president joe biden, who is president of the senate and as such usually in attendance at such events will not be there. he'll be in guatemala. secretary of state john kerry will not be there either, he'll be in geneva continuing the

iranian talks that netanyahu is speaking against. more than 30 democratic lawmakers are also planning to skip the speech. many others will attending, even if they criticize speaker boehner for playing politics with the critical issue of israel's security. that's beyond pardon as far as i'm concerned. some democrats have invited netanyahu to speak with them privately, eager to express both their support of israel and their support of president obama, but the prime minister declined. a new poll out this morning from nbc news and "the wall street journal" shows that 48% of american voters believe that congressional republicans should not have invited prime minister netanyahu to address congress without first notifying president obama, while 30% believe the invitation was fine. joining me from washington is kristen welker. kristen, how is the obama administration responding to this upcoming speech which looks like it is in fact going to

happen? >> reporter: it is indeed. look, they are still fuming make no mistake about that. the prime minister arrives this afternoon and tomorrow will speak to the american-israel public affairs committee conference. susan rice and samantha power will also speak at apac tomorrow. these speeches underscore some of the tensions that you were just talking about, melissa. you're likely going to hear very different messages when it comes to iran. of course that's the crux of this whole dispute. israel thinks the white house isn't asking enough of iran in its nuclear negotiations and israel is arguing that that's putting israel's security at risk. president obama, on the other hand, counters that the negotiations are really the best chance to ease nuclear tensions. now, of course the main event of the prime minister's visit is what you were talking about, his address to congress on tuesday, which as you mentioned vice president biden is going to boycott along with at least 30 democratic lawmakers. that number could go. the public is paying very close attention to this fight.

47% of americans have a positive view of israel. not a surprise at all given that this is the united states' closest ally in the region. prime minister netanyahu is still viewed very well by many americans, 30% have a positive view and 17% have a negative view. look at what happens when you break it down by party. 49% of republicans and only 12% of democrats view netanyahu positively. so that disparity could very well be because of all of these tensions that we're talking about, the fact that democrats are still angered by this perceived snub. so a lot going on this week in washington. we'll be watching it very closely. melissa. >> kristen, we've talked a bit about the way that this will strain the relationship between the political parties, but what about the relationship already known to be strained between president obama and prime minister netanyahu? just how much is this speech going to make things worse? >> reporter: well that's an important point. president obama and prime minister netanyahu have historically had a thorny

relationship. they have clashed over a number of issues not only iran but the middle east peace process. you recall that awkward meeting that the two leaders had back in may when it appeared that netanyahu was lecturing president obama. still, i've been talking to foreign policy experts who tell me that this moment marks a new low in this relationship. some even believe there's no way out under these two leaders, that it will take a new president or new prime minister to resolve this. here's the bottom line. israel is a key ally to the united states. the u.s. needs israel particularly as it confronts new threats at home and abroad. israel needs the united states. so both countries have a real incentive to resolve these differences if only for their only national security interests. melissa. >> thank you to nbc's kristen welker in washington d.c. joining me now, congressman gregory meeks, a democrat from new york. congressman meeks, it is my understanding you are planning not to attend. can you tell me about that decision? >> well, to me this is a cheap political trick that's being put

on by speaker boehner. number one, he did not abide by protocol. number two what he's doing is damaging the relationship in the fact that israel has always been a bipartisan agreement where folks have worked and make sure that they are helping our strongest ally in the middle east. it seems that the speaker wants to make this a democrat and a republican thing. so i'm not going to play a part or play in the game that boehner was playing because also he's trying to insult the president of the united states. >> and on that question of insulting the president, it is clear that the congressional black caucus has been among the leadership in making this decision to not attend the speech. it's not exclusively the cbc but the cbc is in leadership here. is there a sense of this move being not only sort of a partisan issue but specifically about attacking this president? >> well this has never happened before, this kind of breach of

protocol and dealing with our foreign policy. generally that starts with the executive branch and there's some consultation. this is the first time that this has happened. and for me it is not only this president, it is an insult to the office of the presidency. i didn't agree with george bush several times, but when a foreign leader said something about george bush i came to george bush's defense. i didn't call him names or try to go against him. so this is an insult not only to president obama but to the office of the president of the united states of america. >> to me this feels like a key point, that our partisan divisions are meant to end at the water's edge is how we've generally talked about it. there will always be internal contestations but once we are in the realm of foreign policy the americans should present a united front, for example war policy or economic policy in our foreign affairs. if you're standing outside the

u.s. and looking back on us do you see this as harming the credibility of the united states in a broad sense? >> it can. you know i just traveled overseas and i traveled with a number of republicans. we united -- we generally unite when we're talking about foreign policy and go overseas or dealing with our foreign policy we want to show even though internally we may have our differences, we try to come together when we're talking to folks with our foreign policy. this is not helpful at all. and i think that's what secretary rice was saying when she was talking. i think it's completely taken out of context because then you get the ridiculous kinds of responses like i don't know who did it but someone put this huge ad in "the new york times" criticizing susan rice. that's not what we want to do here. you know it also changes what the facts are because president obama, if you look at his record with reference to israel has been very strong. >> and yet let me -- so this is tough, and we don't have a lot of time, but the fact is we have

at least one israeli newspaper saying that the prime minister is coming and saying i represent all jewish people. we have the congressional black caucus being part of the leadership of people not being there. will this strain a very long and old and genuinely positive relationship between jewish american -- >> no i don't think so nor will it when it pertains to issues with israel. israel is still the united states' strongest ally in the middle east so that part i know will stay and remain intact. it is just that this thing of speaker boehner and i think mr. netanyahu should have decided not to come until after his election because it makes it seem as if he's playing politics in the united states congress for his election in just two weeks so that's just not an appropriate thing to do. >> thank you, congressman. you're going to hang out with us for the course of this show so stay right there. she was a champion of civic engagement and waffles. my letter of the breakweek, after

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there's big tv news this week for those of us who are such political nerds that we even want our scripted television to be all about politics. yes, "house of cards" season three is available now on netflix. let the binge watching begin. but i'm not talking about the return of the diabolical machinations of the underwoods i'm referring to the final farewell to the far more amiable exexploits of a little agency in a town called pawnee and that's why my letter of the week is to a favorite fiction a.m. shero. dear leslie it's me melissa. we've had seven great seasons. okay, maybe six great seasons, the first was a little rough,

but even then, leslie, there was just something about you. we loved that you loved government. not the bloodsport of politics not the joggying y-- jockeying for power, you loved that it's a manifestation of our collective will, a tool for the civic good. the things we all need and want but can't supply solely for ourselves like parks and open spaces and public lands. your unreserved adoration of the power of local government to improve the lives of its citizens, your willingness to work thousands of intense hours to ensure the betterment of your town and your insistence on taking your job, but not yourself seriously made us adore you with the kind of devotion that you reserved for only one man. >> you must be leslie knope. welcome. >> my name just came out of your mouth. >> yeah, it did.

>> this isn't happening. this isn't real. >> indeed anyone can love the cool and powerful president but you, leslie knope, loved the vice president. who but a political nerd to revere a vice president. and of course you managed this unwavering devotion to government even while working with a man who had quite different notions of the meaning of government. >> this is your lunch. now, you should be able to do whatever you want to with this right? if you want to eat all of it great. if you want to throw it away in the garbage, that's your prerogative. but here i come the government. and i get to take 40% of your lunch. >> leslie through you we came to appreciate the independent libertarian spirit of ron swanson, to dig beneath april's sarcastic veneer and find her

leadership capacity. to appreciate outrageous honesty. to look on jerry larry terry gary with the soft eyes of friendly humor. you are our reminder that the beauty of democracy is its ability to bring flawed individuals together to make something greater than ourselves, to make our government. when you interacted with local media, you showed us how absurd it can be. when you lost your beloved city council seat you reminded us how painful it can be. but somehow that look on your face when you saw your name on a ballot for the first time and you cast your own precious vote for yourself it tells us that you would not do it any differently and it reminds us of how truly awesome the vote is. nope, you are a true public servant. your fervor for pawnee from waffles to little sebastian rubbed off on us. we didn't want you to leave. but we were also rooting for you to take on even bigger projects welcome back even greater reach.

>> i started my career 30 years ago in the parks and recreation department right here in pawnee indiana. i've had a lot of different jobs, including two terms as your governor. and soon a new unknown challenge awaits me which to me even now is thrilling. because i love the work. not to say that public service isn't sexy because it definitely is. but that's not why we do it. we do it because we get the chance to work hard at work worth doing. >> so good-bye sweet, honest enthusiastic, easily tipsy, best friend in our heads leslie knope. we're going to miss you. and we will remember everything you taught us. because we put it in a scrapbook. sincerely, melissa. it's just you and your honey. the setting is perfect. but then erectile dysfunction

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if what doesn't kill you makes you stronger then the affordable care act is one strong piece of legislation. president obama's signature law has survived repeal attempts power shifting elections, technological disasters and the supreme court. and the fact is the law is helping people. the number of uninsured adults in the u.s. has dropped by 8 million people. 8 million people that now have health insurance and can afford to see a doctor. more than 11 million people have signed up for exchange plans for 2015. the average premium for those plans after subsidies is $105 a month. but the fight is not over yet. the country's high court will get another stab at obamacare in the case of king v.burwell that the versus will hear this coming wednesday. at stake are billions of dollars in federal subsidies to consumers to buy health insurance in online marketplaces or exchanges. those are at the very heart of the aca. without the subsidies, people could not afford to comply with the individual mandate and the

law could not guarantee insurance coverage t for people with pre-existing conditions without tanking the entire insurance market. millions of people get those subsidies. more than six million of them get insurance on one of the 34 changes that the federal government operates in those states that would not or could not set up their own exchanges. but this lawsuit that the supreme court is about to hear claims that those 6 million plus subsidies are actually illegal. the plaintiffs argue they were never meant to apply to the federally run exchanges. they quote the text of the aca that the subsidies would apply to exchanges, quote, established by the state and the white house says that language actually encompasses all of the exchanges and that congress clearly intended the subsidies to apply to both federal and state-run exchanges. so what happens if the subsidies are struck down? well according to the obama administration it would be unavoidably catastrophic. as health and human services secretary, sylvia burwell said

in a letter to congress this week. we know of no administrative actions that could and, therefore, we have no plans that would undue the massive damage to our health care system that would be caused by an adverse decision. what does that damage look like? according to a study by the rand corporation, 9.6 million would lose their insurance in states with federal exchanges and premiums in those states would increase by 47%. still with me is congressman gregory meeks and is joined by a senior fellow at the manhattan institute. akeel amar and amy goodman, host and executive producer of "democracy now." congressman meeks, i'm going to start with you. what did you all mean when you said the states? >> we meant everyone. every citizen who is eligible in the united states should be eligible for the tax credit. that is clear. and i think that the language is

clear that's the only way the courts could rule. there's no way we were just leaving it up to the states. we know just based upon politics that some of the governors of the states are just trying to kill the affordable care act and not make it available to everyone. it was the intent of congress to make sure that the tax exemption would be available to everyone in the united states of america. >> so if it is the intent of congress, and i mean obviously congressman meeks doesn't speak for all of congress but if one could take a look at congress have a conversation with congress, find out what the intent was, does the court have a right to nonetheless strike this down? >> this was covered by c-span find the five members of congress -- find me one in house or senate whoever said that before the plaintiffs' lawyers came up with this too clever by half argument. look at the statute as a whole and its purposes and you'll see that it's designed to provide health care for all and to

subsidize health care because otherwise things unravel. look at the congressional budget office, which actually scored it under certain assumptions and no one thought that some of the states could opt out of the system with this kind of penalty. look at the -- look at all the journalists who were covering it in realtime. this didn't sneak by us una wears. thees ezra kleins of the world. no one said this. they all said -- >> but we're not looking at intent of the founders in other words, we're looking at intent of contemporary living sometimes still serving members of congress. >> and not just that. let's also look at contemporary administrators at the federal government to make this law work with all the other laws so look at the irs, look at the hhs, because the supreme court has said when you're dealing with a complex federal regulatory statute, and this is 2,000

pages, that's also sort of relevant how it actually can sensibly be administered. and finally, look at the constitution and remember federalism is important and actually under the federalism principles announced by chief justice roberts, it would really be a problem, a constitutional problem to have this kind of time bomb in the thing. oh, by the way, if you don't sign on to the program the way we make you, your state loses all these benefits. that would be a gun to the head of the states of a sort that actually would offend constitutional federalism principles and those are the rules of construction. play meaning of the statute, purposes, administrative agency, federalism. >> so under these circumstances, really is this anything more than a kind of attempt to undo a law that has been -- that clearly has been a partisan dividing line but using a legal

framework that isn't really about law, that's really about partisanship. >> i would actually disagree with some of the factual things akhil said. i've been writing about this issue in the law since 2011 because the legal language was there. and the legal language is spelled out. in fact the congressional budget office was a joint committee on taxation, they did not model of the subsidies based on a federal exchange. they assumed that every state would implement the aca as it was written. it wasn't until the obama administration issued a rule saying subsidies could flow through the federal exchange that then they said they can flow so we'll model it that way too. so one thing that's important to understand is that if the supreme court sides with the challengers in this case they will not be changing one word of the aca, all they will be saying is that the irs didn't have the authority to flow those funds through the federal exchange. >> but they would be changing the intent of living lawmakers.

>> absolutely right. >> that does feel to me amy, like a meaningful -- >> he said 2011. the statute wasn't passed in 2011. show me one person when the law was pending, we were looking at it that said that. >> it reminds me when you're teaching english and you say how a word can mean two different things. we have the states of the united states. that is the state. but you also have the government, the federal government. we also refer to that as the state. but, you know ultimately i think this is the biggest argument for medicare for all. so that you can't have loopholes and you can't argue over these points. ultimately why would it be that some person in one state can get a subsidy and a person in another state can't? ultimately all people in this country should be covered. health care should be a basic right, like education. >> it's clear that when you go back to when we were passing the law, we wasn't talking about only individuals in particular states. we were talking about everybody.

we wanted health care for everyone and everyone thereby would be eligible for these tax credits. >> and i presume that the language of the state here it means government it doesn't mean the states. >> it says exchange established by a state not by the state. >> no it says the state. it actually says the state and that is the thing that makes me think -- >> there are other passages in this complex statute that says if the state doesn't want to do it the federal government will step into the shoes of the state and provide this federal exchange on behalf of the state, so it's a cooperative federalism statute that must be read as a whole. >> let's take a quick break. after the break we'll let louisiana governor bobby jindal get his say. ng the olay regenerist luminous collection. the skin- brightening formula penetrates 10 surface cell layers deep and fades the look of dark spots. see bright, pearlescent, healthy- looking skin in just 2 weeks. when your skin is luminous, so are you. want more luminous skin day and night? try new luminous spf 15 lotion and overnight mask.

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like it or not, the affordable care act will once again likely be a major talking point in the 2016 presidential race. this week at cpac the conservative political action conference, presidential hope. s made sure to express, once again, their total opposition to obamacare. here's bobby jindal talking about his republican colleagues in congress. >> they're about to wave the white flag of surrender on appealing obamacare. i'm here to tell you we've got to tell them we won't stand for that. >> he is feeling betrayed by congressional republicans for not doing more to repeal the aca. i'll let him explain why. >> you've got republicans in washington to tell us the way to count success is not by reducing

costs and empowering patients but rather by counting how many people have insurance cards, whether they have access to the doctors they want in their network. >> okay. for real? he is the governor of what can only be understood as a poor state, a poor state with a large african-american population with a growing latino population. we know that african-americans and latinos have been disproportionately assisted by this. will constituents continue to stand for their elected officials at this point now actively taking away a benefit that they are enjoying. >> you look at louisiana, you look at texas, you look at florida, also places around the issue of medicaid expansion. so you don't have any kind of support and you also have the most disempowered people. maybe that's what the republicans are counting on is the most disempowered people hoping that they will not come out and vote. but this is a critical life-and-death issue. this isn't a matter of you

know choose your words here. and we can just play around with semantics. people will die as a result of not having health care. but again, i think the answer is not ultimately aca. i think everyone has to have health care. >> i think it's so interesting. bobby jindal actually called me a fake conservative in politico and a few other people republican health reformers, because he's making this argument that we should actually -- it's a good thing to disrupt health coverage for the people who have gotten it through the law, which makes absolutely no sense to most of us, even on the right, to talk about advancing coverage for these individuals. so jindal is staking a position that's quite different than the one that's a mainstream conservative position on health reform today. >> and i guess that's part of what i find surprising is that to take that position, to take it in a state where people are benefitting. so i know there's a lot of partisan discourse around this but in a very real way, especially without the medicaid

expansion, the idea of snatching subsidies in a state as poor and, by the way, as unhealthy, as the health outcomes in louisiana and never mind that there is an economic benefit to this for the building of hospitals and the reimbursement of -- it just seems strikingly against one's own economic interests. >> and here's what would happen if the plaintiffs in that king versus burwell case were to win, then actually states that aren't setting up their own exchanges would be leaving billions of dollars of aid to their patients, to their constituents and the hospitals and the doctors on the table. and, boy -- >> which is why they set it up in that way in that first place. >> be careful what you wish for because it's going to put a lot of pressure on bobby jindal and the governor of texas and florida to start playing ball with this in ways that actually you know are going to be hard for the republican -- difficult for the republican party. so be careful what you wish for. >> so let me ask you, congressman, because you talk to constituents.

you go and meet folks, shake hands, that kind of thing. do people have a sufficient understanding of aca that if this happens, that they will understand what has occurred to them? that always feels like one of the challenges that we're facing. >> no because what happens is the aca is benefitting individuals who historically have not had any help before who have not been involved in the system who have not been engaged because that's who we need to help. those are the ones that the aca was made to make sure they receive health care. so what they hear is 60 times or just about 60 times the republicans playing politics with it because over 60 times we voted already with the republicans trying to ending it. so we have to take this battle to the streets. i happen to agree with you that every american should have health care. it should not be a privilege for the few, it should be a right for everyone. >> the doctors and the hospitals will be putting pressure on republicaning and their republican constituency. >> now, i don't mean this as let's get a republican president

or democratic one in this case but is a republican president actually the best way to protect aca? if this is just a continuous political matter would republicans in the house and senate let it go? in other words the other alternative is a democratic house and senate but without that is the only way to make this go away to have a republican president? >> let me make an analogy to iraq and the 9/11 post-terror consensus. president obama has continued a lot of the bush initiatives. this is a fairly similar situation. if republican governors have to implement exchanges because otherwise they'll lose the money, if a republican president has to contend with the issue how do we maintain coverage for people that's going to get a lot of buy-in for something that's been quite partisanly debated. >> and that doesn't seem like the right reason. to go back to your point, amy, this has life and death consequences. when we're looking at the gop replacement bill what the

alternative currently on the table is it does not allow presifting conditions to be covered unless you've had continuous coverage. it eliminates the gloiremployer man date, has less generous subsildys and turns medicaid into block grants. it is an alternative but it would undoubtedly help fewer people in the short term. >> i keep going back to florida. it's where a number of presidential candidates might be coming from. rick scott made his personal fortune off of health care and now so many people -- i mean you can have a person who is paying $25 a month now with a subsidy of something like $220. they can't conceivably possibly afford to continue health care. then you've got all the young healthy people who are saying wait if i have to pay this much money i'm not going to do it. >> you can only have coverage for pre-existing conditions if all the millennials are in and

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and most insurance accepted. minuteclinic. another innovation from cvs health. because health is everything. president george w. bush's stab at reforming education legislation known as no child left behind was signed into law in 2002 and it would go on to become one of the most contentious laws of his administration. passed in a burst of post-9/11 bipartisanship, the bill called for public school students in grades 3 through 8 to be tested each year. and test scores were ultimately tied to federal funds for schools. now, the general idea was that if schools were held accountable for student progress then all students, regardless of race or economic circumstances would become proficient in math and reading. no one would be left behind. from a political perspective, everybody walked away happy.

republicans liked the idea that schools were being held accountable for the money they spent. democrats liked the promise of increased funding. senator edward kennedy, a co-sponsor of the bill painted it as a win for civil rights saying quote, it proclaims that every child matters. every child in every school in every community in this country. teachers were skeptical. the bill stipulated that by 2014 all students across the country must be performing at grade level. with the resources they were given, many teachers felt this goal was simply not realistic, and as time passed other critics joined the teachers. former president bill clinton called the law a train wreck in 2008. and by 2010 an economist poll found that only 15% of americans believe no child left behind had helped american schools. technically, the law expired in 2007 and congress has tried to rewrite it a few times in recent

years with no success. so despite the chorus of complaints, it has remained the guiding principle of federal education policy but that may be about to change. since gaining control of the house and senate republicans have said revamping the bill is a priority. of course there's no way to know if that will actually happen, but either way it's sure to be a legislative fight you are not going to want to miss. so what exactly does congress have in store for america's school kids? the woman who knows better than just about anyone joins us next. why are you deleting these photos?

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desk doesn't mean i'm not working. comcast business understands that. their wifi isn't just fast near the router. it's fast in the break room. fast in the conference room. fast in tom's office. fast in other tom's office. fast in the foyer [pronounced foy-yer] or is it foyer [pronounced foy-yay]? fast in the hallway. i feel like i've been here before. switch now and get the fastest wifi everywhere. comcast business. built for business. as the son of a tenant farmer i know that education is the only valid passport from poverty. as a former teacher, and i hope a future one, i have great expectations of what this law will mean for all of our young people. >> that was president lindonynnindonyndon johnson in 1965. he returned to his hometown and

seated next to his very first teacher signed the elementary and secondary education act, part of the president's war on poverty. it is the precursor in some ways to today's no child left behind. the law has been revised many times over the years and congress is gearing up for yet another battle. what exactly are they planning to do and will testing remain at the law's core? joining me from anaheim, california is lilly garcia who is president of the national education association. lilly, it's go nice to have you here. >> it's nice to be here. >> i know lots of folks are beginning to hear the idea that no child left behind might be reformed. does that mean testing is going away? >> let's see, congress and doing education policy that always ends up fun. we've got a chance to get it right. it's been wrong for 13 long years. we have kids who started as kindergarteners who are now seniors in high school who have known nothing but no child left untested. so everybody wants to get this

fixed. it's just how they're going to get there. we have an idea. they didn't ask one teacher back in 2002 when they renamed it no child left behind. if they had just asked us we would have said give us a dashboard of quality indicators. how are kids doing, success indicators, and success is more than one standardized test you give some kid once a year. there are lots of good ways to measure how kids are doing. but what they left behind was what are those opportunities to learn. what's a class size like in your most affluent school and what's it like in your least affluent school. who's got the advanced placement math classes and whob doesn't even have recess. why don't we have a whole dashboard of indicators that tell us does every single child have the civil right to the opportunity to learn. >> so, lily two important things have happened -- lots of important things but two important things that make this

more about is this a good or bad law in those 13 intervening years. teachers and teachers unions have increasingly become to be seen as the opponents of education reform as opposed to those who would be asked to help with education reform. and the second thing is there's now a market for education reformers and everything from private-based charter schools to these testing services that actually creates an economic interest for many to retain at least the testing aspect of the current no child left behind system. so how do you push back against that, no matter what you may be able to say about class sizes and opportunity? >> you know i'm a sixth grade teacher. we are just sick to death of all the gimmicks. some people are making billions and billions of dollars in the testing industry and the for-profit charter school industry. we are actually serious about getting things better for kids and that's why there's an opportunity here.

and by the way, i certainly don't want congress to become the national school board. you've got local school boards states are responsible for most of the funding, but the role of the federal government was to make sure every kid was treated fairly. remember lyndon johnson, thanks for doing that piece, 1965 this was part of the war on poverty. this was part of the civil rights movement because not all kids were getting a fair shake back in their school district. we got away from that. >> but also there is another thing that i think has occurred over time and that is what feels like some bipartisan support so hold on because i want to back up to my table one second. i want to play secretary of education arne duncan talking about reform but then sounding not so different than no child left behind. let's take a listen. >> let's dispense with no child left behind and give schools more flexibility. all states need to take annual statewide assessments. so if, amy onltd the one hand we

should do away with no child left behind but then the secretary of education saying everybody has got to take a test this year isn't that the thing driving education to the test? >> of course and it shows how washington all too often the difference between the democrats and the republicans does not reflect the real difference in the united states. how people feel. and this teaching to the test is a disservice to kids it's a disservice to teachers and it isn't good for education. we need true alternatives. both secretary duncan president obama, very much supporting charter schools. the money has to be poured into public schools. i was just reading a "detroit free press" editorial that said in the next six years, detroit, 80% of the kids poor could lose $200 million. this is unacceptable. it is about basic civil rights in this country. it's the great equalizer, education. >> congressman meeks, can you guys get a reasonable new bill

passed on education in this congress? >> well you said coming on that this is going to be a really big fight, and it is going to be a really big fight. and i think that from my viewpoint, when i was listening to lyndon johnson, that was me he was talking about. that's my generation. i wouldn't be here today if it wasn't about focusing on a quality education. i grew up in public housing in new york city with the public schools. that's what it was about for me then. today we live in a globalized world where our kids have to compete with kids all over the world and it's not just about a test. they have got to be able to comprehend what they're learning so they can make it into reality. so we can't focus just on a test. we've got to make sure that our kids are learning so that we can stay america, because that's our number one issue. >> in fact lily i want to come back to you on exactly that point. i was talking randomly about le

leviathan is. my producer said no one knows what that is. i read that in high school but that was before we had statewide high school every year. take a little time and read a little hobbs. >> i had authority in my classroom. i started teaching in 1980. i could pick -- my colleagues and i picked the reading program, the discipline program, we did the shakespeare play and the spelling bee. we had real authority. they have taken authority out of the hands that classroom teacher and someone who's never met our kids is telling us here's what you have to teach, here's what page you have to be on on tuesday. so as they have taken away authority, they have said and, by the way, if we picked all the wrong stuff, you'll be held somehow accountable for this. >> to you to lilly garcia in anaheim, california. also thank you to avik roy and thank you to my teachers in chesterfield county virginia who taught us political philosophy as ten tdth graders. coming up a state of voting rights as we prepare to mark the

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thanks to our subaru. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru. welcome back i'm melissa harris-perry. this time next week i'll be coming to you live all weekend from selma, alabama, for the 50th anniversary of the pivotal 1965 civil rights campaign that changed american history. the weekend of events will commemorate the bloody sunday assault on the bridge where 600 peaceful marchers were attacked by local and state police with tear gas and billy clubs. the five-day 54-mile march of thousands of nonviolent demonstrators led by dr. martin luther king jr. from selma to the steps of the state capitol in montgomery and the successful outcome of that movement the passive, the voting rights act of 1965.

on saturday president obama and the first family are expected to be joined in selma by former president george w. bush and first lady laura bush and at least 95 members of congress. and on sunday a commemorative march will retrace the footsteps of the courageous women and men who crossed the pettis bridge 50 years ago. this week in a rare moment of accord, the u.s. senate unanimously passed a bill to honor those true foot soldiers with congressional gold medal, the nation's highest civilian honor. the bill now goes back to the house which had also unanimously approved a version earlier this month. and yet in reaching a quick consensus around this honor, congress has been more responsive to the memory of those voting rights activists than to the living document they fought to enact. because nearly two years since the supreme court eroded one of the key protections of the 1965 voting rights act and charged congress with the responsibility to restore it congress has failed to update the law.

as the relatives of those who have lost their lives to racial hatred remind us not even a piece of precious metal is more valuable than justice. last year when the three civil rights workers killed in 1964 were posthumously awarded the presidential medal of freedom, some of their relatives were uneasy with the honor. the widow. michael schwerner told the a.p. there were not just three men part of a struggle there were not just three men who were killed, the struggle in this country probably started with the first revolt on a slave ship and it continues now. and in 2013 at least two relatives of the four little girls who died in the 1963 bombing of the 16th street baptist church rejected the honor. payton morris told the "birmingham news" who good would

it do now. it won't ease my mind. it might for the politicians behind it. and sar sawah collins rudolph still lives with the physical and emotional trauma and has no use for the symbolic comfort of her very real pain. she said now all of a sudden they want to jump and give us a congressional medal when our justice hasn't been fulfilled yet. i can't go to the store and pay for my doctor's bills with a congressional gold medal. i don't care how high it is it still won't do anything for me. and until congress does its part in the fulfillment of justice for all, federal recognition of the selma activists in remembrance of what they did will be a poor substitute for federal legislation in response to why they fought which leads me to ask if a medal is what those who marched in selma need or if they would be better honored by strengthening the 1965 voting rights act which remains gutted after the supreme court decision in shelby

v. holder. joining me now representative greg meeks. author of "give us the ballot the modern struggle for voting rights in america." akil amar and amy goodman, host and executive producer of "democracy now." those are tough medals that maybe these medals aren't what we want. what we want is a new formula. >> we have been working and i know that congressman clyburn and those on the judiciary committee are trying to work with many of those individuals, especially on the other side of the aisle, who we hope that if they're going to march or come next weekend, that they will then come back and do something and not just take a picture going -- commemorating the 50th anniversary. they can -- if they're going to march, i mean i urge my colleagues, if they're going to march on saturday they better

welcome back to washington, d.c., on monday ready to pass and strengthen the voting rights act because that's what this is really all about. >> the kind of base level symbolic political act of standing there while also standing in the schoolhouse door of changing the formula just feels to me -- it feels like the kind of thing that elected officials ought to be held accountable for. >> this congress has been all about symbolism recently and unfortunately not about substance. if you go back to when the supreme court heard the challenge of the voting rights act, on that very day congress was unveiling a statue of rosa parks, whose name is on the 2006 reauthorization of the voting rights act that the supreme court later gutted. so the fact is there's a lot of irony here. when john lewis and jose williams and 600 people from selma and marion marched on bloody sunday they weren't marching for a gold medal, they were marching for their right to vote. that right to vote is under attack today. so if people just go down to

selma, honor the history and don't engage with it today, i don't want to say it's a waste of time but it's betraying the memory of those who marched and what they fought for. >> in fact this is kind of real politics in this moment. amy, both senators from what is now my state of residence, north carolina, and the home state of the a.g. nominee, loretta lynch, both of those senators have opposed her nomination apparently because she supports the doj effort against the north carolina voter suppression act as many have understood it. >> and i see all those issues as a link we've been talking about. voting rights public education, when we're talking about basic health care. i mean if people are going to march, they have to then do something about this. by the way, one other thing interestingly, there's a petition at change.org to change the name of the bridge. he was a confederate general

captured three times. he would then go on to be grand dragon of the alabama ku klux klan and a u.s. senator. very interesting that that has become the symbol of the civil rights movement. >> indeed. that that bridge. but in a certain way i completely understand the desire to change the name. i also get why there's power in crossing over him, right. crossing over the confederacy, crossing over the klan and yet maybe it's in part because it's in black and white and we're so visual as a people and so we see the images and they seem distant, but they are not. we were saying in the break, akil, we're 50 years -- we had the march on washington in '63 and the civil rights act in '64 that we just marked the 50th and now of selma and the voting rights act, the war on poverty. here we sit 50 years later and it feels like we're undoing it. like we're being pushed back across the bridge. >> and health care too in '65, medicaid. talk about naming opportunities, so the renewal of the voting

rights act should be the john lewis renewal act and in fact the supreme court said oh that voting rights act, that's so 1960s. we're beyond that. you used a phrase living document. here's how we can actually revise the voting rights act because the court struck down a provision that said you're using old data for which states were compliant so let's update the database. >> and that's not a completely unfair critique. of all the things the court said in it it's not completely unfair to suggest that the south is still now uniquely troublesome when we saw pennsylvania, ohio these other states outside of what the old confederacy was. >> indiana, wisconsin. so here's what we could do. we could strengthen one part of the statute, it's called section 2, and say whenever a jurisdiction now is held by any court to be in violation of voting rights that puts you on the list -- that jurisdiction for preclearance for the next ten years and that would

automatically update the statute. that's an idea that joey fishkin at the university of texas has. >> on the positive side there are negotiations taking place. some of it not in the public's eye and we are hoping for many of us this was taking place this weekend is not a celebration of 50 years, it's actually a march against the push to have a change today just as it did 50 years ago. it's to put it in front of the american people. so it's not -- >> so it's not a commemoration. >> not a commemoration. >> it's an actual march. >> an actual march. that's what members of the congressional black caucus is saying. that's what i hope you hear from the president of the united states, that this is a real march about voting rights in 2015, not a celebration of voting rights in 1965. >> stick with us, because ari berman went to selma, he got in deep and, as you might guess, the struggle continues. in small business you have to work hard, know your numbers, and stay focused.

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ms. adkins remembers the terrible violence on the night protesters tried to march to the jail the night that jimmy lee jackson was shot. she remembers running into the church for safety wiping the blood from the face of a fellow protester and then going home to her children who were sleeping safe and sound in their beds and she still went back the next day. >> that was president obama recognizing mrs. maddie adkins one of the many unheralded participants in the 1965 civil rights campaign in selma. at a white house black history month ceremony earlier this week. mrs. adkins and her firsthand account are a testament to the fact that selma is more than just a symbol it's part of a living history, a real place and

home to people who have inherited the legacy of that city. as one of my guests today as written, it is a dual inherit inheritance inheritance. in a report for the nation, ari berman writes about the selma of today, a place with african-americans are politically powerful but living with the persistent racial disparities and stark economic inequality. ari, the piece is so useful but it also leads me to think i wonder if people look at the poverty, they look at the economic inequality they look at the blighted homes of these civil rights heroes and sheroes and say the vote doesn't matter. here on this sacred ground we got the ballot but it doesn't matter because it doesn't change the circumstances in our lives. >> it's a complicated question. as you mentioned, selma has been transformed so dramatically politically where a place where only 300 african-americans were registered to vote in 1964 to a place with a black congresswoman, a black mayor, a

black chief of police. >> a black head of the department of justice. >> all because of selma. on the one hand that's amazing. if you drive around town it's the poorest county in alabama. the schools are segregated the neighborhoods are segregated. there's such striking images. it really feels like you're new orleans post-katrina when you're driving around seeing these boarded-up houses. i think the problem in selma is politically it changed but economically it hasn't changed. even though there's black political hour all the economic power is still all white. if you look at who owns the land, who owns the big farms, that is all large white companies that have not invested in the community. so i think the story of selma that i've learned is that political power matters a lot, but that political power has to translate into economic power and that's the next phase of the struggle and that really hasn't happened. >> but we haven't finished up the first phase of the struggle. i don't make that claim that

economic disinheritance or inequality doesn't mean that the vote doesn't matter but it could feel that way, right? if they can elect terry sewell to the congress and a black mayor and help elect president obama and still feel like what difference does it make. how do we draw the line and say, no the vote still does matter. >> because it does. when you think about where we are right now and the fight that terry sewell is doing to talk about the economics and trying to make sure that she's attracting businesses and trying to also help the small black farmer, because that's who lost all the property and try to make sure that they get their rights. you know those little things as far as national power is concerned means that you've got your local people so they can have the overall power to make sure it's heard on the national level. we've been making some gains and i think that cannot be denied. but we look at what has taken place over the last few years, you know what my biggest concern has been nationally we

have more black electeds than ever before but the truth of the matter is we probably have less power than ever before because most of the us are in the minority parties, whether it be in the federal government and/or the statehouses. and that drives the impact. >> and look at the restrictions on voting. at least 40 restrictive bills introduced or carried over from 2014 in 17 states. i.d. laws making voter registration harder making it harder for students to vote reducing access to absentee ballots, making long lines worse. putting us in the context globally, you can go to some of the poorest countries and most people vote there. in that country it is not true and this has to change. the obstacles are put in place to prevent people from voting. >> so if congress cannot get a new formula written, how effective can the doj be likely no longer under holder likely under lynch.

>> also african-american. >> also african-american and the first african-american woman living at the intersection of those multiple identities and a southerner. how effective can her doj be in using section 2 in pushing against the very things amy is referring to here? >> well they're going to need to be more proactive because the court has gutted section 5, the preclearance provision to some extent because it didn't like the formula in another section, section 4. but here's another thing courts could do on their own even without congressional involvement, because they have been doing a lot of stuff on their own if you haven't noticed. they could read section 2 more broadly to actually to disallow all sorts of schemes that have disparate impact in voting rather than just the discriminatory intent. they could do that on their own as a way of offsetting the hole that they created. >> man, that is like word of the

day here in nerdland disparate impact. >> that's why it's important to vote and make sure you elect the right president. >> because we'll have openings in the court. >> and the president aports the members of the supreme court. >> think about the court when you vote. thank you to all of you. up next, a movie in theaters this week that you do not want to miss. we have the producer and director about one of the most buzzed about films at this year's sundance. or is it just me? every minute between you and red lobster's lobsterfest feels like an eternity. and who could blame you for craving our largest variety of succulent lobster dishes all year? dishes like dueling lobster tails. with one tail topped with creamy shrimp and a second tail stuffed with tender crab. i was hungry already and now you show me lobster lover's dream® let's make this dream a reality. a delicious, delicious reality.

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here we are on the 1st day of march when the college admission process starts to wind down and the acceptance letters start to come in. there's a lot of information to check out to make sure you're making the right decision. statistics on college rankings tuition, professor-to-student

ratio, they're all pretty easy to find. there's one bit of vital information that may not be so easy to find details on campus safety, especially when it comes to sexual assault. despite being mandated by the federal government to report such crimes some colleges and universities apparently do not. in 2006 the center for public integrity founding that 77% of more than 3,000 two and four-year colleges reported zero rapes on campus. the documentary "the hunting ground" which premiered friday looks at the wall of dismissal that many women face when they seek a university's help after a sexual assault. >> the first few weeks i made some of my best friends, but two of us were sexually assaulted before classes had even started. i went to the dean of students office and she said i just want to make sure that you don't talk to anyone about this. >> he lectured us about how we shouldn't go out in short

skirts. >> they told me that despite the fact that i had a written admission of guilt that i represented to them could only prove that he loved me. >> they thought if i told them they would take action but the only action they took was against me. >> joining me is the film's director, kirby dick and its producer amy zering. amy, the movie focuses on thein sent ifz that face universities but before we get to that that are the engines that drive sexual assault as a phenomenon on college campus. >> what we found is certain institutions provide perfect storm conditions for these to take place. you think if your campus is a safe place, they'll take care of you. what we founding instead is actually because it's a target-rich environment, because you have a lot of students that are young and naive and because there are no good adjudication and investigation processes for these crimes it's actually really a great place for predators to prey on students

and commit these kinds of assaults. >> and part of that perfect storm, it seems to me is these incentives that universities seem to face. this was hard for me honestly. i spent my entire career on college campuses. i work with people who are of enormous good will relative to our students right, and yet the film is hard to deny that universities seem to face a set of incentives that keep them from doing right by sexual assault survivors. >> right you're absolutely right. nobody in colleges or universities wants these sexual assaults to happen on their campuses, but they are concerned about having a reputation -- well, they are concerned about an incident of rape being publicized. so when somebody who has been assaulted comes forward, they often discourage them from going through the college reporting system or going to law enforcement because that would make it a public record. and so what they do instead is oftentimes victim blame them give them false information like if they -- in one case if they go to law enforcement, them have to tell their parents, which

isn't true. all this really to keep any discussion about sexual assault on their campus under wraps. >> in fact let's take a listen here to a moment from the film around someone who's addressing these questions. let's take a listen. >> so in your time at unc, how many students came to you and said they had been assaulted? >> it's hard to put a number on it, so at least 100. >> out of the 100, how many of the perpetrators were removed from campus. >> from what i remember, no one was expelled during that time. >> so these guys could just get away with it? >> absolutely. absolutely. and people could do it repeatedly. >> that goes to the heart not only to every young woman thinking to go to campus every parent. you broke my heart with this in the first minutes because it's all these kids getting their acceptance letters. you work so hard as a parent and as a young person to get into

college and then to see your dreams dashed on this kind of violence. >> yeah that's what's so heart breaking and surprising right? you have this idealism you think campuses are safe places. you think this is what you worked all your life for. you find that strangely enough the institutions are incentivized not to protect your child, but to protect themselves. >> and recent reporting i think has led to a sense that there is an enormous overreporting of rape or a sense that sexual assault allegations are as likely to be false as they are to be true. i mean that's been part of what has happened in a post-rolling stone moment. how do you respond to that? >> well statistically the amount of false reporting on this crime is exactly the same as any other crime. so why aren't we hearing outrage about the possibility of false reports of carjackings or robberies or -- you know so that is the completely specious

argument and really detracts everyone's attention from where it should be which is the preponderance of these crimes are reported accurately reported and truthful. that's where our outrage and concern should be. if 92 to 98% of reporting of rapes are true then why aren't we more concerned about that than the possibility of false reports, which is the same as any other kind of crime. >> let's take a moment and listen to an offender. >> i was incarcerated for six and a half years for sexual assault. i know i was at fault. you know like i said i guess the reason i really wanted to do this interview was to maybe help someone else out. you know maybe have them become aware of you know what they're doing wrong. >> the really practiced sex offenders identify groups of people who are more vulnerable. >> college is a place where lots

of alcohol is consumed and the number of victims is endless. >> i did a fully unscientific survey of my students and i asked them when you guys went off to college, did your parents talk to you about the issue of sexual assault? and none of the male students had parents who had talked to them either about being an offender or being a potential victim of sexual assault. and i was just stunned by that. that we're not talking to her sons about this when in fact our sons are those most likely to be in control of stopping this from happening in that males are more likely to be perpetrators, right, so we should talk to them about what this is right, or no? >> yeah but as the clip shows it's just a small percentage of men that commit these crimes. most men are not rapists and most men are not serial predators. it's a highly premeditated and calculated crime. what people and parents don't understanding, it's not a case of bad hookups or alcohol problem on campuses.

it really isn't. actually if you -- if there are institutions where there's no ways to investigate and adjudicate these crimes properly, you cannot stop them from being committed so the small percentage of serial predators will keep committing them over and over and over again. then they use the cover of the cultural misconceptions about this -- >> to cover up the predatory action. >> it's just a bad hookup she doesn't know what she's saying and the public all too easily believes that. >> amy, kirby, thank you for joining us today. the film once again is "the hunting ground." it is in theaters right now. up next we're turning to the topic of genius. did you know that 15% of americans consider themselves to be a genius? are you one? we'll finding out when we come back.

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discover card. hey, i heard you guys can help me with frog protection? sure, we help with fraud protection. if there are unauthorized purchases on your discover card, you're never held responsible. you are saying "frog protection"? fraud. fro-g. frau-d. i think we're on the same page. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. fraud protection. get it at discover.com all right. get ready for this. karl marx or paul mccartney? marie curie or steven spielberg. mlk or j.k. rowling. those are a few of the contenders in the running for society's pre'em negligent genius. all right, let me explain. this week msnbc is joining with new york city's project called seven days of genius where we explore what it means to be considered a genius. 16 people considered by some to be among history's greatest minds have been put in a

head-to-head bracket competition that you can vote for at our website. now, msnbc and the 92nd street y also commissioned polling on the very idea of the label genius. for instance 15% of people think of themselves as a genius while 36% say they wouldn't want to be a genius. now, you might think that all sounds a little silly or certainly quite subject i've but that's kind of the point. when it comes to genius there's no uniform definition no single test or attribute that determines the best and brightest among us. it is socially and culturally constructed. it can be a reflection of our existing systems of privilege or it can be a symbol of the kind of society we aspire to have. so what does it mean to be a genius these days and what does our definition of genius say about our society? joining me now, danielle allen, political philosopher and macarthur foundation fellow,

ai jin poo, author of "the age of dignity, preparing for the elder boom in a changing america." george lewis, fellow professor of american music and head of music composition area at columbia university and kelly remole, who is director of neuroscience outreach at the succeed er zuckerman institute. is genius located in our brains or in our minds? is it something that we could finding if we had the right tools to see it? >> we would love to know that answer. however, we are not there yet with the science. there are some clues that perhaps some areas may be important for creativity or processes that are associated with being a genius. so for example, the association cortex which is above and behind your ear, that area integrates senses and memories and emotions

and seems to be active when people are day dreaming. furthermore, perhaps this tooblt daydream or make new ideas is one thing that underlies the idea that we're a genius. >> let me go at that just one more bit there because you talked about making new ideas but also about making connections. is genius primarily synthetic, bringing together synthesizing what exists in the world, or is it primarily novel and innovative creating something new no one has thought about before, whether it's a piece of music or a scientific finding? >> i think it's important to differentiate between expert and a genius. an expert might be someone very adept at a certain skill. but a genius in a popular mindset is someone who tha creates something new, that pushes the boundaries and brings us where we've never been. you may have a great parent but then you have picasso. you may have a great scientist, but then you have albert einstein. >> danielle part of what happens, i think even in our

discussion just there about what is genius and the notion of it residing individually in our minds, we start to think of genius as a ssolitary cloistered, set of pursuits. 74% of people say geniuses work alone as opposed more likely to be collaborative. i wonder if that shifts what it is we think genius or even innovation is? >> i think it's not about working alone. i think there's a lot of togetherness and break-through work and i think in part to have a break-through you have to be banging your head against a problem, a really really hard problem and problems are thrown up by social circumstance by cultural conventions, by things that have gotten rigid. and it's only direct encounter with problems that we develop socially and culturally that you get break-through opportunities. >> that leads me to think we should have more social and political movement leaders as geniuses. we tending to think of genius as either the composer or the scientist or maybe the poet but

if it is about taking a set of rigid problems that exist in the world and pushing against it that sounds like social and political movement leaders. >> absolutely. i'm a big believer in the notion that genius is actually a collective process. if we think about it as ways of thinking and being that expand the realm of what's possible that in some ways ahead of their time and social movements, collective genius have driven that kind of change and that kind of thinking that has expanded the realm of what's possible. >> that's actually what some of your work is is around collective movement organizing and yet often people we don't think of as geniuses domestic workers and care workers, do you see genius in particularly these women and men who are working often for low wages? >> absolutely. i think that there's actually genius everywhere we just don't always recognize it as such. and what social movements have helped us do is actually bring -- create space for that

genius to emerge and i see genius every day in the way that people assert their dignity in the face of injustice or in the way that people actually bring care to families that they work in. i mean there's so many -- there are so many forms of invisible genius that social movements have helped us uncover. >> george i wonder also if we have a bias against the humanities and the arts as a space of genius. if we tending -- when you say genius einstein almost always comes to mind hawkings also comes to mind. but the ways in which cultural contributions count as genius how we think about that. >> well cultural contributions basically are often put up as ideas that connect with genius. but a lot of it comes down to whether you are authorized in a sense by the society to be a genius or to put up geniuses. for example, i was a member of the association for the

advancement of creative musicians, a musicians collective, so they're all looking at each in chicago in 1965, this collective of black experiment a.m.istalists and they're deciding for themselves they want to be creative. and that was something they basically valorized themselves. in that sense that alies with your sense of genius as a product of social movement. social movements both bring up genius and you can have genius as being integral to a social movement. let's say great migration, a leaderless movement of genius. >> don't go anywhere. when we come back i'm going to ask this would you know a genius if she were sitting right next to you? it's a question we might need to ask harry potter about his friend, hermione granger. in small business you have to work hard, know your numbers, and stay focused. i was determined to create new york city's first self-serve frozen yogurt franchise. and now you have 42 locations. the more i put into my business the more i get out of it. like 5x your rewards when you make select business purchases

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award season has just wrapped and hollywood actors know that win or lose they should publicly maintain it's

just an honor to be nominated. work, all work not just acting should be its own reward but let's be honest it's nice to be recognized, to have someone say, hey, i noticed what you were doing, i'd like to give you a promotion or raise or an award, maybe even recognize you as an official genius with one of those macarthur awards that several of my guests have earned. now, if i were in the award-making business, i would create a hermione granger award, named for the book-reading genius of the harry potter series. hermione granger awards would go to all those women who are rule following nerds who nonetheless prove themselves to know invaluable in sticky situations who demonstrate enormous capacity to apply academic lessons to real-life issues and who accomplish so much in a day it seems they have magic time turners, and who are easily described by colleagues as the brightest witch of their age. unfortunately, the hermione grangers of the world too frequently have to play supporting roles to the hero

harry potters, in their workplaces and classrooms making me ask do we miss the genius when it shows up as a girl. let me ask you that? >> no question about it. i think that's partly because we're looking for a boy so we go ahead and promote the boys. we ask the girls to play supportive roles. there's a preconception about what people should do. then the other thing is that i think young girls, particularly can be a little bit more self conscious about putting themselves forward about admitting what they can do displaying their capacity partly because it makes our peers nervous and they try to protect themselves socially by making their peers nervous. so go girls. we have to look for what the girls have to offer. >> i also wonder about the way in which geniuses presume to be perfection. i have failures and foibles about my opportunity to read off of prompter and i'll have people say oh you're dumb because you can't do that. no, i have strengths, i have weaknesses, but i wonder if girls in particular feel like if

i'm not good in every single arena, then i am not truly good. >> i do think that my personal experience is that there's a part of succeeding at anything which is about faking it until you make it all honesty. i do think girls are a little less willing to take that chance on faking it until they make it. >> i wonder if this goes back to what fields we're in. so music, math some of the sciences, tend to be dominated by men and also tend to be fields where we say genius exist. then fields dominated by women, teaching for example, where that's good hard work but doesn't constitute genius. >> well it's the beethoven complex in our field or the charlie parker complex. people sitting inspect rooms by themselves imagining themselves doing wonderful things. it turns out they are collectives that throw up genius. if those collectives aren't sensitive to gender and are basically not -- there are

studies in the u.k. that indicate at primary grades boys and girls start out in equal numbers in music. then year by year the girls fall off and when they get to the stage where they're trying to be composers, there's all kinds of ideas that sort of deselect women from it. >> is that part of what happens around the sciences as well? >> there's a wide range of gender imbalance in signs attainment from the undergrad level to graduate. what's interesting is even in the areas such as biological sciences with equal numbers that attain the doctorate there's a pipeline problem in that the highest genius level, the full professors, there's a big dropoff in women who achieve that level. >> there's some really good analogyies here in the world of work the way we value certain kinds of work over others. when i think about the domestic workers that i work with they take care of the most precious elements of our lives, our children, our aging loved ones and our homes, and yet it's the

most undervalued work in our economy today. i think of ideas and the realm of what kinds of intellect are valued and there's a really clear analogy there for me. >> she who can raise or he who can raise and nurture a really extraordinary child is a genius indeed. thank you to danielle allen and ai-jen poo, also george lewis and kelly re mole. up next it is a #nerdland tradition. we're going to take a peek inside the book, the book all my guests sign for my 13-year-old daughter, parker.

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is there such a thing as a sure thing in business? some say buy gold. others say buy soybeans. i say, buy comcast business internet. unlike internet providers that slow down when traffic picks up, you get speed you can rely on. it's a safe bet. like a gold-plated soybean. reliably fast internet starts at $69.95 a month. comcast business. built for business. this month marks the third anniversary of the launch of mhp. it's our third opportunity to bring you the annual review of parker's book. parker's book is the large black sketch book on the nerdland table that belongs to my 13-year-old daughter. when we first launched mhp, she asked me to have every guest on the show sign a little note to her. parker's book has become the historical record of nerdland. so to mark the completion of

another full year here on cable tv we take a peek behind the cover to see what kinds of messages she's been getting. here are a few of our favorites. >> wait, mom, i'm 13 now. i can read my own book. >> well all right then. ladies and gentlemen, my daughter parker. take it away. >> my thanks to all of you who have signed the book. here are some of my favorite messages. black girls rock. take the world by storm. from brittany cooper. >> now, brittany cooper is a frequent nerdland guest here. >> to parker the world is waiting for you. peace, pearl. hi parker you could be anything you want. work hard, senator barbara boxer. parker you can be anything, but you don't have to take my word for it. levar burton. >> from "reading rainbow." wow. >> with love and greetings and a big hug to parker. jesse norman. >> she's the grammy award

winning winning opera singer. >> peace, from one parker to another. the world is yours. eric parker. >> now, eric parker has the name parker like you, and he's the writer of a movie about the rapper naz. >> parker live laugh, love and shop shop shop. xoxo, robert. >> no wonder that's one of your favorites. trust me robert she already knows a thing or two about shopping. >> parker fantastic you're so connected to your mom's good work. expect more good from you. aim high. peace, jeffrey wright. >> man, parker and i love "the hunger games." >> to parker i'm thrilled to be on your mom's show. hope to meet you sometime. herbie hancock. it was so nice meeting your mom. she's so nice. thanks for reading for me. josh. >> we rooted for josh who was one of the contestants on season

two of the fox tv show "master chef junior." >> let's celebrate science and change the world. bill nye, the science guy. so miss parker remember that no dream is too small. dream big, and i got your back. >> one of the millennials that joined our show last week when we had a whole table of millennials. thank you, parker. it's been quite an adventure thus far. thanks to all of our guests for joining the table, signing parker's book, and thank you to our viewers for contributing to our discussions online and sharing this wild, wonderful journey we've been on for three years together. i said it last year, i said it the year before. parker and i will say it again. there's still a blank page in here for you, beyonce. that's our show for today. thanks to you at home for watching. next weekend nerdland is going on the road. i'll be coming to you from selma, alabama, commemorating the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday. plenty of special guests lined up for you.

it's a show not to be missed. so next weekend i'll see you from selma. right now, it's time for a preview of "weekends with alex witt." >> can i say the apple does not fall far from the tree? what a rock star daughter you have. >> thank you. >> hi, parker. let's get to this everybody. the what if scenarios in the fight against isis. we take a look at a new argument against sendings u.s. ground troops. 94% white, 100% male. that's who's in charge of hollywood film studios. so where's the diversity? and questions about whether vitamins really make us healthier and what americans really need in their diet. don't go anywhere. i'll be right back. perfect. but then erectile dysfunction happens again. you know what? plenty of guys have this issue not just getting an erection but keeping it. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache,

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israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu headed to the u.s. on what he calls an historic mission, but new controversy over his speech is swirling today. straw men. the big winners at this past week's conservative gathering. the question for the gop, can either win a run for president? frozen over.

a unique view of the hudson river as the bitter cold keeps its grip on the northeast, but it could be over soon. details in the forecast. too much too soon? does "saturday night live" cross the line with a parody highlighting isis? hey, everyone. it's high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." at this hour israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is headed to washington, d.c. on what today he is calling an historic mission in a move that's now stirred controversy for weeks. he's set to address the u.s. congress on tuesday to try to convince the u.s. not to cut a nuclear deal with iran. house speaker john boehner invited netanyahu without telling the white house, and that is something that nearly half of american voters say was wrong, this according to our news nbc news "wall street