be hosted by tom brokaw. his special guest arne duncan, the secretary of education on what next for our schools at the time of crisis for our country. follow us on twitter. up next, tom brokaw right here. held loaf. i would like to welcome you to our education nation summit. it's our children, our grandchildren. representing nothing less than our future and the 3.1 million teachers in the united states, those who help meld our children into future businessmen, engineers, politicians, teachers, whatever we are begins in the american classroom, but there is a problem just over the horizon. many of our teachers and principals are part of the baby boom generation. in fact, a study conducted by the national commission on teaching and the future found

more than one many of our nation's veteran teachers and principals will be retiring over the next decade. a wave of retirlt expected to reach its peak sometime during this school year. so today we're going to talk about solutions to this this problem. joining me here at rockefeller center is secretary of education arne duncan. how he hopes to fill the classrooms with a new generation of educators. over the next hour the secretary will be taking questions from college students who are joining us from around the country and from distinguished educators who are here in the audience with us. mr. secretary, it's no secret to us in this room at least that you have some ideas about how we can fill this coming void in our teaching ranks. >> first of all i want to thank you and msnbc for your extraordinary leadership. we think we're going towards a tipping point. your movement has been huge. we do have some ideas. i want to take a moment to talk

to young people today, to our college students who may be watching. i want you to think about what you do post graduation, to think about becoming a teacher and think about coming into education. it is tough work. it is not for the faint of heart. you need courage. you need tenacity. you need to believe in your heart that every single student can learn. if you have that, we desperately want you to come and be part of our team. all of us can point to the great teachers who made a huge difference in our lives. the average student will be a year and a half to two years ahead. three bad teachers in a row will be so far behind they may never catch up. in education talent matters tremendously. i was fortunate to have great teachers throughout any k-12 education career. the one i always talked about was my high school english teacher, mrs. campbell. she was tough as nails. they would come back with more red ink than blue. she pushed me to think better. she pushed me to write better. she is interesting.

she asked us all tons and tons of questions. but there was never a right answer. it's about getting us to think critically, to express ourselves verbally and on paper. but also to hear the arguments of the peers. that ability to listen is so hugely prnt. i would never have begun to be able to do what i am doing today was it not for mrs. mccampbell. you said we have a challenge but we have a huge opportunity. we're so pleased to hay nouns a new national campaign to recruit the next generation of teachers into education. why is it so important? two facts. we have a baby boomer generation moving towards retirement over the next five, six, seven years we anticipate as many as a million teachers retiring. our ability to retract and retain great talent will reshape public education. it is a generational shift. we're going to pull out all the stops and travel the country to help bring in the new generation

of talent. we've launch ad new website. they'll have an explanation of what it takes to become a teacher. there are a couple thousand teaching jobs available today. many individual celebrities even giving testimonials about what their great teachers did in their lives. second as a country what we're doing now isn't good enough. two quick statistics. first, we lose almost a million students each year from our high schools to a streets. a dropout rate that is staggeringly high. everyone today knows if you drop out of high school, you are basically condemned to poverty and social failure. there are no good jobs out there. secondly, just a generation ago, we led the world in college graduates. today we're ninth. in one generation we've dropped, and we're paying a huge price. when you look at the dropout rate, when you look at the lack

of college completion, that is economically unsustainable and miranda rulely unacceptable. we have to work together and i'll say it repeatedly. this is the civil rights issue of our generation. if you want to make a difference. if you want to work in tough neighborhoods, we desperately want you to step up and be part of our team. education the is the answer. great teachers, great principals, great schools. we want all of you to consider joining us in this fight for our children and for our country. thank you. >> what's happening to higher education students around the country in terms of trying to direct people to education? a couple years ago colleges were overrun by people who want thod be on wall street or wanted to work for a hedge funtd somewhere or wanted to work for a big multinational corporation. >> we have to elevate the status of the teacher profession. having great universities encourage their hardest working and most committed to go into education. it's a huge part of the solution.

looking at countries that jout perform us, finland, south korea, singapore, they're getting the best and brightest to go into education. we want to replicate that. five years from now i would like the best teaching workforce in the world. that's what we're committed to doing. >> let's give you hard statistics, however. we're in an economic downturn. in the 2010-2011 school district, 80% of the schools in the country will eliminate as many as 27,000 jobs. that doesn't look like the most promising job market to a lot of people trying to assess for their immediate future, maybe. >> well, it's a little bit tough short term. today, tom, if you look at teach.gov, there are a couple thousand teacher jobs available today. in january we have another set of folks retiring. there will be many more job opportunities. as the economy bounces back, you'll see the numbers change. we have to look over the horizon. big picture, we're going to need a million new teachers. this is going to be a booming sector of the economy. great, great jobs for individuals committed to making a difference.

>> well, it's been embarrassing as i think back to my own years as a youngster. mrs. peterson, wonderful teacher. mr. holm, mr. holstead. they were paid near poverty. now the median wage is $47,000 to 51,000. the top can learn 75 to 80. do we need to change the numbers? >> we do need to change the numbers. we need to pay the teachers more and i would argue pay great teachers more on top of that. where you have teachers making a phenomenal difference in students lives. where you have teachers volunteering to work in inner city, rural urban communities. the president challenged us to add 10,000 new math and science teachers over the next two years. math and science teachers, special education teachers. they should be paid more. we have to be much more creative. if we want better results, we have to do things very, very differently.

rewarding excellence, putting more money into harder staffed areas and rewarding great teachers to communities that need the most help is a agreement answer. >> we have seen in the last 24 hours on the education nation the kind of simmering feud going on between a lot of reformers and the the futureers unions, for example. why would i want to step into that as a young person? >> there's much more common ground a than people realize. this debate is healthy. we have to get better. you guys are helping us. the nation is talking about public education. no one is defending the status quo. let's have the debate. let's move forward. we've seen hundreds and hundreds of local unions partner with management to put in place bold reforms to take public education to a new level. all of us have to change. unions have to move. superintendents need to move. all of us have to be part of the solution. let's stop pointing, blaming, pointing fingers. how do we get to where we're

leading the world in college graduates? >> a couple numbers before we take a break and then we'll come back and hear from the audience and college campuses around the country. there are about 17% of the student population made up of african-americans, but only 7% of the teachers are african-americans. latino students, 21%. teachers, 7%, and washington, d.c. with michelle reid, she went out and actively recruited african-american males because there are not enough role models in the classroom. >> we talk about a million new teachers, that ha to be a diverse workforce. i'll give you tougher numbers. less than 1 in 50, less than 2% of the teachers are african-american males. if you put african-american males and hispanics together it's 3 pntd 5% of the teaching workforce. our young boys of color desperately need mentors, role models and coaches to help them aspire to do something positive. many of them grow up in single-parent homes. we're going to have a huge focus on diversity and a huge focus on

bringing in men of color. >> secretary duncan. stay where you are. we'll be back in a moment. when we come back secretary duncan will take questions from students from university of phoenix. but first, we'll hear from musician john legend on how one teacher made an experience in john legend's life. >> we need a new generation of teachers to join those already in the classroom. people need to understand what the value of a teacher is and the power that teachers have to shape society. linda bode, she had this amazing passion. what makes you want to keep going? >> when one kids says, oh. >> great teachers convince the class they're on a mission. they're driving towards something special. they have the conviction and the passion. i didn't think i could write before i got to your class. invest lt in the future. inspire a child. you exercise an, but your blood sugar may still be high, and you need extra help.

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we're having a special conversation with education secretary arne duncan, who has just made a national appeal for young people to get engaged in the teaching profession. michelle is watching with hundreds of students. what can you tell us about their reaction? >> hi, tom. many of the students are in the school of education and miami-dade college has the largest enrollment of any institution college or university in the united states. a siren just went off. pardon that for a second. hopefully you can still hear us. but one thing here in florida

that we find is that teachers according to studies on average make thousands of dollars less than the national average. one thing that we saw here and elsewhere when times were better were incentives for teachers to enter the profession, free housing, signing bonus. one student, a potential teacher here has a question about incentives to enter science teaching. tell me about that. >> correct. i was interested in entering the sign profession, and the problem has been that the programs are being cut because there's not enough people for studying science or math. so a lot of schools are cut the programs completely. what incentives will they give to science teachers like us? >> i have to tell you, i'm a huge fan of miami-dade. i visited there earlier this year. it's a premium college in the country that's just doing an amazing job. we think about the next generation. 10,000 new math and sign

teachers, we have to be more creative at bringing them in. you look at the stem results, math and science around 21st, 25th. we're nowhere near where we should be. so how do we do that differently? pay math and science teachers more money. not everyone agrees with that. we have critical need. figure out 5,000, 10,000 to bring them in. we need to think of creative internships where they can do research, partner with companies in the summer. we have teach grants available today, $4,000 a year, $16,000 that anyone can apply for. math and science teachers would be fantastic. they can apply for that as an undergrad as long as they commit to working in a poverty school for four years, $16,000 will come off of their tuition in college. we want incentives on the front end. in the back end, paying science teachers more is part of the answer. last week we put out over $400 million to teacher incentive

fund grants to reward excellence and have folks think differently about math and science. districts are starting to do that. >> the mayor of new york city, mike bloomberg announced a new compact with ibm. they're going to create a new school. grades 9 through 14. ibm will be a full partner the in teaching people. >> i love it. having ibm step up. having us all work together. when students graduate with real skills, they can continue their education, go straight into the workforce. those partnerships, we all have to move outside our comfort zones and work together. that partnership here in new york i think can be a model for the country. >> mr. secretary, we're going to move across the sun belt now. we're going to go to arizona state university in phoenix. where syleste is watching with students at the campus.

>> reporter: they're responding well. there's about 70,000 students on the campus. 5,100 are majoring in education. we have amber reyes here. she's considering a degree in education. she's here as a freshman. what's your question for the secretary? >> hi, secretary duncan. you guys mentioned that many school districts are cutting teachers. and actually my sister and her husband, as well as many of their colleagues were actually pink slipped last year. in their low-income inner city school that they work at. so i was wondering what are you beliefs concerning the allocation of funds between standardized testing, classroom technology, and creating and sustaining teacher jobs and training? >> so a couple different questions there. arizona state is one of thes that's absolutely revamping their school of education and making it much stronger.

i appreciate the leadership there. thanks to the president's leadership in congress and support, we were able to save 160,000 oo teacher job this is year school. we would have been devastated. we had to get much better. but people are still hurting. districts are really hurting. we have to continue to invest in education. we have to invest in all of these areas. we have to invest in technology. we have to support that next generation of teachers coming in. our investments have to be in reform. they can't be in perpetuating the status quo. i think we spend far too much on testing. one huge breakthrough thanks to race to this the top is now you have 36 state who is have raised standards. college and career raised standards. stop dummying down things. stop lying to parents. bad for children, bad for the economy. they're working together at much higher standards. behind that you have 44 states working on the next generation of assessments. if all these states do that together, we're going to save a

lot of money, we're going to be much more comprehensive. it will be the right thing for children. the savings to the country will be in the billions, tom. that's money away from testing companies and into teachers and into the classrooms. >> we have heard from students in the two states that were particularly hard hit by the recession, by the downturn. florida and arizona. are there other parts of the country where the environment is better and they're looking for teachers? >> oh, yeah. right now on our website there are a couple thousand teacher jobs available today. so folks are hiring around the country. it is still tough times. that's a reality. as we move forward we'll see hiring continue to move forward and pick up. big picture, five years, 1 million teachers we're going to need. >> mr. secretary, stay there. we'll take a break and be back with norah o'donnell at howard university. we'll also hear from distinguished educators here in the studio with us. back with more on the education nation on msnbc in a moment. ♪

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words alone aren't enough. my job is to listen to the needs and frustrations of the shrimpers and fishermen, hotel or restaurant workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. bp has taken full responsibility for the clean up in the gulf and that includes keeping you informed. our job is to listen and find ways to help. that means working with communities. restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund to cover lost income until people impacted can get back to work. and our efforts aren't coming at tax-payer expense. i know people are wondering-- now that the well is capped, is bp gonna meet its commitments? i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here.

i'm gonna be here until we make this right. ann stevens taught english and drama where i got to this be the star of the play. there's no way there would be a microsoft without what they did. invest in the future. inspire a child, teach. that's microsoft's bill gates on his favorite math teacher and the impact he had. that teacher has bragging rights, i think it's fair to say. we're back on our education nation with education secretary

arne duncan. classrooms are hiring, but a lot of crickets are cutting back. i'm joined here by tamron hall of msnbc. tamron, i have some distinguished educators here in the room with us. >> yeah, they're lined up and ready to talk, tom. i have with me monica from chicago. what's your question? >> my question is with all of the work that has been done with race to the top towards accountability for teachers, are there any tangible methods that are being put in place to hold parents accountable as wel >> that's a great question. she teaches at one of the best schools in chicago, pershing west high school. i'm so proud of your leadership there. when we were reopening the school, my wife and i would help build a playground there. we love the work you and your team are doing there. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> the parental piece is huge. parents are always going to be

the children's first teachers and most important teachers. if parents aren't part of the solution, we are never going to get where we need to go as a country. my wife and i have two young children at home, 6 and 8. the most important thing we can do is talk to their teachers on an ongoing basis, figure out what is working and what's not. how can we help our student's teachers and the school to be successful. we're talking about pushing everybody to change. i've said repeatedly our department of education in some ways has been part of the problem. we have to change, too. one place where we significantly underinvested was in parental engagement. we want to double our investments in great parental programs. $270 million. we're partnering closely with an epa doing great work. where participants step up, when parents and teachers partner, i promise you great things are going to happen for our nation's

young people. >> that's easier said than done. this is a real dilemma. there are neighborhoods where you have a single parent. that parent is probably working two jobs. they're disconnected from the daily school. there's a little school here in new york. they're thinking of keeping the library open until 6:00 at night to make it a community center of some kind. but they have to go through a lot of hoops to get that done. >> they shouldn't have to. that's hugely important. one thing i was most proud of us is we had 150 schools that were community centers opened 12, 13, 14 hours a day. the idea of schools being opened six hours a day, five days a week, nine months a year, that was based on a different calendar. none of our children work in the fields. our schools have to be open longer hours. academic enrichment being the heart of the afterschool. the ged classes, family literacy nights, family math nights, food helps. pot luck dinners. if we want parents engaged we have to open up the doors.

we have 95,000 schools. they all have classrooms, gyms, some have pools. they don't belong to me or to the principal or the union. they belong to the community. we had schools in the toughest neighborhoods of chicago where you had 150 parents coming to school every day for their own education, not for their children's. good things happen when families learn together. our schools have to be the heart of the neighborhood. >> tamron, you have another question? >> yeah, we have keith from los angeles. your question was the hot topic yesterday at the town hall. and it's about unions. >> yes, i lead a foundation called big task weekend. what we focus on is real collaborative action for social reform. it seems to me the union issue can't be ignored. it's a divide that that has to be closed. the question is, what advice do do you have? we have individuals like steve bar from the green dot, which has managed to facilitate some collaboration with unions. last night we heard, of course,

from d.c. where they haven't done so well. what specific advice do you have so we can actually bridge this divide and stop the arguments? >> well the arguments get the attention because it's controversial. the media doesn't acknowledge the hundreds of boards working together. we had in 12 wins states and through 36 states that applied to race to the top, we had hundreds of unions sign onto bold reform. whont to do the r t for adults but more importantly children whether you look at delaware, d.c., pittsburgh. 80% of the teachers voted for the contract. they wanted something better and different. what we can do better is better spotlights. better highlights. we love the media help as well. those places where people are quietly but very courageously providing the leadership to

break through and reduce the dropout rate ls and make sure every single young person is college and career ready once they graduate from high school. >> we have many questions for you, mr. secretary. hin colluding some from howard university. we'll get to that in just a moment. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 absolutely. i mean, these financial services companies

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we are back on education nation on msnbc. secretary of education arne duncan opened this hour with a direct appeal to young college students to get involved. there be an acute shortage as a result of the baby boomers retiring. one of the places in america where education and teaching has become an explosive issue is washington, d.c. and one of the most distinguished campuses in the country is there. it's howard university. and nbc's norah o'donnell st there now. >> good day to you, tom. we are here at howard university. of course, the leading historic black university in the nation's capitol. how many people here are considering going into teaching? so you can see, tom and

secretary duncan, a number of students interested in teaching. a lot of us want to know about incentives. what incentives are there to go into teaching. ? >> yes. thank you. my question is you talked about the incentives to join, but how are you going to make sure after they join it they stay in the classroom? >> great question. we talked about the 9 through 14 school that will be created here. one thing howard has done in a creative way is they run a phenomenal charter school on the campus. it's not just the series of education or a philosophy of education. they have a fantastic school where the students are going to train. as we start to think in a more creative and innovative way, i would love to see more universities like howard pop up and create the pipeline to enter great universities like howard university.

i talked about the teach grants. something else we fought for so hard that passed in july, not only was a $60 billion increase in pell grants, something called income-based repayment. you can get more information on our website. income-based reat the same time after ten years of public service including teaching as we move forward, tom, ten years of public service, all your college debt is erased. forgiven, gone. so many people historically wanted to go into education. so many phenomenally talented people who had education in their heart. they had $60,000, $80,000 in debt. now loan repayments are reduced to 15% of your income. whatever is left after ten years. if you're a teacher or doing other public service work. all the debt is literally wiped out. trying to put a huge financial incentive into going into education. finally we have to think of career ladders.

we have to find more ways to keep them in the classroom. reward them for mentoring the next generation. historically you have to leave the classroom. and become an administrator. you see school districts coming up with very creative, thoughtful, career ladder programs so the individuals proving to be super stars, we have a number -- if we can stop for a moment. we have some of the best teaches in the country today. if we could please give them a round of applause and thank them for their hard work. >> mr. secretary, let me just -- we want to share a graphic with the audience. 33% of the teachers leave their jobs in the first three years. 46% leave in the first five years. what did you determine about why they leave so early?

>> men is about sixth on the list. they don't go in to make a million dollars. they want to make a difference in students' lives. they don't get support, the mentoring. they don't get the induction. they weren't well prepared. they don't feel supported. they burn out. the mentoring, the induction, the mastered mentored teachers helping the young teachers through the tough days is hugely important. we have to recruit them, but we also need to retain the great talent in real support in the early years is hugely, hugely important. teaching is a craft. teachers are much better their 20th year. the cost of education and the cost to young people the huge there. >> we're going to go to your part of country, to michigan state university.

in east lansing where has been watching with michigan state students. devon, what do you have for us? >> hey there, tom. welcome to michigan state university. spartans are undefeated. they're a little giddy around here, tom. but i think as secretary duncan noes in michigan we feel doubly pinched by this problem trying to make it less reliant on manufacturing. we have a real problem in michigan of losing our best and brightest, hanging onto our young people let me bring out a senior. just about on the launch pad. you question for the secretary. >> you mentioned money as an incentive for inner city teachers to come to the inner city. and, i was wondering what besides that would be your incentives? i'm a product of detroit public schools. those types of urban districts,

teachers really need motivation to stay and get there in the first place. >> let me be very clear, tom, money is only a small part of the answer here. i would strongly encourage her to come back to detroit public schools. that's a school system that desperately needs reform. definitely needs the next generation of talent. far too many young people in detroit, 50%, 60%, drop out of school. they're starting to make real reforms, but they need the talent coming back in. we have to do everything we can to encourage great folks to work there. money is a piece of it. it takes a great principal to be successful. it takes a great principal to build a team of like minded hard working committed, passion not educators working together. those supports is what is succe successful. putting a great teacher in a dysfunctional situation, they'll leave in six months. you're going to see magic happen. you're going to see children in communities historically underserved, you'll see the check achievement go to a

different level. there are schools in chicago, tom, that would underperform for decades. new adults and a new culture. new expectations. same children, same building. same tough family situation. same violation in the community. same challenges. different set of expectations. radically different results for children. that's got to become the norm, not the exception. we're seeing that in tough urban districts around the country now. we have so many islands of excellence, pockets of excellence. we have to make that the new norm, the new expectations. not the separate from the norm. >> there was a time in american education, if you want to be a principal, who had to be a white male and stand in line and wait until you get to be a certain age. >> we have principals now who are 30, 32, 34 years old doing an amazing job. by far the part of my job i love the best is getting into hundreds and hundreds of schools around the country. and you're seeing not just, you know, veteran principals but

young principals being this coheart of passionate and committed teaches. 95% minority. now 90% graduating. that has to this become the norm for every child in the country. this next generation of talent will help lead us where we need to go. >> i was at ps 126 the other day here in new york with bill gates, who was down there with his program called measuring effective teaching. the young woman who came up and introduced herself as a principal of that school. i said to her, if i were a bartender, i'm afraid i would have to charge you. it is jammed. we're going to be back with more on education nation with secretary duncan after this.

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of the education nation. those are campuses around the country in miami-dade, arizona state university, michigan state university, and howard university. yooel be going there to hear from students in just a few moments after they heard from the secretary of education, arne duncan make an appeal for more of them to join the teaching ranks. here in the hall in studio hh we have a distinguished group of educators and people very interested in education through foundations and think tanks. they have some questions as well. tamron? >> yes, tom, i'm with tim from utah. he's following up on what we were discussing before the commercial break. you said it's not the money, but we need respect. >> mr. secretary, one problem with attracting and retaining teachers, i believe, is that we have a hard time with the professionalism. that we're not given the same amount of respect as say an engineer, a doctor, a lawyer. even though we may have the same amount of education, putting in the same number of years?

is it that everybody had a sunday teacher? or is it something else? >> we have to change it. it's a real issue. we have to address it openly and honestly. teachers have been bitten down. teachers should be treated with the same respect as doctors and lawyers. i would argue teachers are doing the most important work in society. not the third. not the fifth. not the eighth most important. the most important work. we have to elevate the profession. we have to give teachers the respect they're due. it's interesting that other countries, skout korea is one of the countries doing better than us. their teachers are known as nation builders. this is about economic security. it's about future prosperity. as part of this campaign as we move forward we're going to do everything we can to elevate the profession so that teachers get the respect they absolutely need and deserve. >> let's see if we can get in a number of more questions. let's go to miami-dade and michelle kosinski.

>> the administration mentioned how much it needs and wants to recruit candidates. you're an honors major. on the fence of teefing. what the number one thing holding you back from becoming a teacher? >> one of the main things that hold me back from deciding to go into the teaching industry is basically right now i'm in indecisive on where i want my marine biology career to go into. the pay rate is not as promising as other opportunities. >> we hear that again and again. what is your question for secretary duncan. >> i've been hearing many complaints about how much teachers in today's schools are mainly prepping students up for standized test instead of teaching the material for the student to comprehend the material and be ready for college and the things expected of us. >> big question. >> and you would like to see a

change in that? >> yes. >> so i would like to challenge to get off the fence and come help us. come be part of the solution. and i need more men. i need more men of color. i need more men who are great at science. jonathan can have a huge impact on the next generation of talent. it can be a huge part of the solution. one of the difficulties we've seen with no child left behind is the nailing of the quick one. just math and reading. one thing we're emphasizing is a $1 billion investment. we have to stop steech teaching just simple tasks. we have to give students a world renowned education. reading and math is importance, so is science. so is social studies. so is financial literacy, environmental literacy. we're trying to put the money where the mouth is. let's build the foundation. not just high school students, but 5 and 6 and 7 and 8-year-olds a chance to have the

great well rounded education. we need the next generation of marine biologists. >> we have another question from howard university and nbc's norah o'donnell. >> hey, we're joined by thomas who spends his summers in chicago with the do you care campaign. father michael flager working on chicago's south side. so he knows you well, secretary duncan. what's your question for him? >> secretary duncan, earlier today you spoke about the importance of teaching students to think critically. but when students exist in an environment where their first thought isn't about math and science, but how am i going to make it to school safely, what priority monotof the department education's campaign is being implemented across the board. >> that's a great question. the work they're doing is so hugely important. tom, that was by far the most difficult part of my job in chicago was dealing with the devastating level of gun

violence and far too many of my young bright students were shot down senselessly. they're doing nothing wrong. it's something that we have to take on. let me take it up a step. there's a series we have to put in place to make sure our children can think about biology and going to college. i have far too many kids in chicago talking about if i grow up, not when we were going to grow up. we never worried about if we were going to grow up. you have many people today who don't know if they'll live past 18. we as community leaders, religious leaders, we as parents have to step up and put in place a set of strategies in a comprehensive structure so people can get to and from school safety. children have to be fed. if children are hungry they can't learn. if your stomach is growling, it's hard to concentrate.

we have to feed children. we have to give them eyeglasses if they can't see the board. we have to make sure they're safe. if we do the building blocks, put those in place, then the students can flourish. if we don't, we put a huge ceiling upon what they can accomplish. >> we'll be back with final thoughts from secretary duncan on education nation after this. maybe you want school kids to have more exposure to the arts. maybe you want to provide meals for the needy. or maybe you want to help when the unexpected happens. whatever you want to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer, or donate for the causes you believe in at membersproject.com. take charge of making a difference.

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arne duncan opened with an appeal to teachers. final thoughts? >> first of all, again, i pleesht the opportunity so much. fantastic questions. this is about a call to service. if you want to make a difference if your life. if you want to have an impact, we talked about the challenges, tough economy, fighting the civil rights issue of our

generation. for all the challenges we face, i am very optimistic because we know what works. we are the answer. great teachers, great principals. great schools will help the country's economy. it will help strengthen us to an international leader and will give every child in the country a chance to fulfill their social potential. if we can get the next generation to come in, we're not going to fix education for the next couple years, we're going to fix it for the next 30. i think we will do something to last for generations and generations to come. this is a big deal. >> certainly, we're very grateful for your presence today and for your very strong message. i want to thank my colleague tamron hall and across the country, miami-dade college, arizona state university and phoenix. michigan state and east lansing and howard university in washington, d.c. thanks to all the students there

and my colleagues there as well. to all of you in the audience on education nation. we'll have continuing coverage of the critically important subject here on msnbc news and msnbc all week long. of the shrimpers and fishermen, hotel or restaurant workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. bp has taken full responsibility for the clean up in the gulf and that includes keeping you informed. our job is to listen and find ways to help. that means working with communities. restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund to cover lost income until people impacted can get back to work. and our efforts aren't coming at tax-payer expense. i know people are wondering-- now that the well is capped,

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