the political wills to demand no more bad schools. for get us and them. it's just us. we'll talk about how to do it with arne duncan and randi weingarten. and why drop a bomb when you can send an e-mail? a computer worm hits a key nuclear plant in iran. silent. but deadly. all that, plus politics with our monday megapanel. did we already have a smoking gun? they don't care. and a new ad comparing the right wing to the taliban. show starts right now. both in perception and

performance, we know it and don't seem to have the political will to solve it. america's schools don't make the grade. nearly six in ten say the system needs major changes. according to our new poll, is data is overwhelming and yet, here we are. count president obama among the most concerned. here's his exclusive with matt lauer this morning. >> when we first set up the public school systems across the country, we were leaps and bounds ahead of the vast majority of countries around the world. that just is not true anymore. they have caught up and in some cases are surpassing us. >> two perfect examples, math and science both cht the u.s. ranks 25th and 21st in the world respectively. considering all the transportation, medical and technology in the world, they

are not that relevant. if you come in here and tell me we need to spend more on education -- only iceland spends more per capita. meanwhile, the white house today announcing a new goal. recruiting 10,000 new math and science teachers over the next two years. 100,000 over the next decade. the president insisting there's no more time to wait. >> we've got to boost performance in that area. every night, at some point, you have to say your job is to learn. >> nbc news in fact devoting coverage to the education nation across all of its platforms. planned on taking this particular show outside the studio to be live from the plaza here, but for the second time in less than a week, mother nature likes to keep us in the studio. we did bring our all-star lineup of guests and we begin with the star of stars. arne duncan, it's a pleasure to

see you. describe to me the difference between the country with the political will to demand good schools and a country that claims to want good schools. >> let me give you an example. when the president visits south korea, he asks what's working. he asked the president, what's the biggest education challenge your nation faces. he said mid le, my parents are too demanding. even the poorest parents demand a world class education and i have to import thousands of teachers. i wish parents in our country -- they have to demand the best and create the political will and political climate where failure is unacceptable. >> there's so many things to be frustrated about in this country right now. this just one of them. how do we channel the frustration?

people watching this show and reading these statistics, take the frustration and channel it to where it's beneficial to the solution and not screaming at their teachers, husband, government. >> every adult, every parent can do today, first, education has to be an issue folks vote on. we go to elections in november, every single candidate should be able to justify what they're doing to not perpetuate the status question, but drive education. it's like six, seven, eight on the list. we're paying a huge price for. you hit on it. that neighborhood school. whether or not you have children, go knock on the door. see if you can help tutor. help coach. be a mentor. everybody has to step up and be part of the solution in their community.

>> how do you get out of the us and them concept and back to the us concept of education? >> when adults fight, children lose. like in a family. so all of us, parents, teachers, unions, superintendents, principa principals, all of us have to have a single minded laser like focus on what's the right thing to do to help every child. adult issues, adult ideology and politics have to go to the side. we have to education our way to a better ecomy. >> am i wrong that the problem is not that we don't spend enough money. there's money everywhere, but the problem is what you described. >> we need to invest in reform. we have to continue to drive systemic change. our dropout rate is unacceptably high. our high school graduation rate is too low. we've seen around this country is what we're calling a quiet

revolution. states raising standards for everybody. states figuring out how to get the most committed teachers. there's a wave of reform moving. we need to invest in that, not perpetuate what exists today. >> thanks for sharing with us. america's students of course , failing, too many. the majority of americans believe it's because their schools are failing them. are they just playing us and them. 7 in 10 americans give our system a c or d, less than a fifth say they deserve a b. more than half say the politicians are to blame, but almost the same number say parents are at fault. teachers, unions, administrators, school diet. breakdown in culture, technology. i got a whole list for you. joining us now, randi weingarten, president of the

american federation of teachers. a pleasure to see you again. how do we build a bridge so that we get out of this entire you versus them versus them. >> first off, thank you for asking the question that way because often, when i start talking about the hows, people have been saying all week, you're taking too much responsibility. what about managers managing. i'm like look, all of us have to step up and talk about our accountability. >> build a bridge. >> exactly. number one, there's four things we have to do. number one. we have to do what finland and south korea and singapore do. which is they respect and invest in their teachers. they do great professional development coming in. they prepare them. they have the tools for teachers to work on shlgs but , but we have to make sure if somebody's not doik a good job, we weed the person out. we cannot let tenure become an

excuse. >> stop this. i want to play mayor bloomberg on the subject today. >> there is no business in america that would be prevented from taking results into account when making personnel decisions. that's exactly unfortunately what happens in our school systems across the country. it is wrong. it must stop and in new york city, i promise you, it will stop. >> do you agree and how do you solve it? >> i'm not quite sure what's happened in new york city that the mayor would say that because ultimately, under chancellor klein, at least half the teachers have gotten tenure since he's been chancellor and there's always supposed to be a performance aspect. that's what teacher evaluation is about. what the mayor is actually saying is the teacher evaluation system is broken and ultimately, the mayor, the chancellor and my

successor and the rest of new york state just got a race to the top grant because of the new evaluation system they're about to put in place, so the real issue becomes let them put that into place with fidelity instead of people blaming each other. what we need to do is have like they do in finland, singapore and south korea, you have to evaluate teachers. we have to have a process for continuous improvement for teachers. good teachers and principals who support them. don hurst did this in the daily news today. you heard the secretary talk about how 37 states have new high standards. you can't have high standards without the curriculum. we're not talking about curriculum in this nation today. we have to talk about how we help teachers have real kirk lum for kids. have real content knowledge.

it's not just their passion, but they have to have the knowledge to teach and also be able to differ instructions to the needs of kids. >> do you see that tuskegee airmen how would you do it? >> in our system of education, because we have -- >> 19,000 school districts. >> when people want to blame each other, they blame down or up, so ultimately, the standards are all of our responsibleties, so the union is starting to work with other people to create the kind of where with all to create real, robust curriculum. exactly. number three is that we have and i saw this statistic yesterday, over 40% of the kids who go to our public schools nationally, our kids under the poverty

level. so what we need to do is we need to make sure that kids who are disadvantaged have the same opportunities that i had when i went to school. >> agree. >> in harlem what they're doing in the say yes district in syracuse, they have services around the schools, emotional services. after school services. so if parents are working, kids are safe. health services. cradle to college services so that we level the playing field for poor kids. that is not a substitute for good instruction. we need good teachers, curriculum and we can solve t s this. that's what finland does. that's what we should do. >> it's an embarrassment that we are what we are. we know we're not number one. us and them is killing us. >> we have to do it together. parents, teachers, our union is

in. >> couldn't agree more and count the media in as well. as far as nbc is concerned. a pleasure to see you again. to newark we go. 15 miles from where sitting now, one of the most prevalent examples. look to newark, new jersey, home of one of the most troubled school systems in this country, now with hopes for a brighter future ahead. >> july, 1967. all hell breaks loose on the streets of newark, new jersey. disenfranchised black residents riots for six days. in the end, 26 people killed and the city entered a period it still hasn't recovered from 43 years later. on top of the list of problems, a broken educational system failing its students. fast forward to 2010, newark schools are still ranked lowest performing. that despite the state took

control 15 years ago. teachers are still making bank. among the highest paid of any district in the garden state. now though, a series of milestones with the blessing of chris christie, the mayor is taking back control of his schools and he's got some big time help. facebook founder, mark zuckerberg, to the tune of a $100 million grant. >> after we make the changes in newark, it will be a symbol that can be replicated across the country. >> he has challenged others to match him. mayor booker announced this morning on msnbc that he's nearly halfway there. >> i believe that newark, new jersey could help lead america back, but we have to let america lead. newark, new jersey. hoping to serve as a lesson to an entire nation that we can in fact change and save our schools. >> darrell bradford, director of

excellent education, joins us now. what's the most effective thing you think can be done with this money out of the gate? >> i think there are three big buckets that you could put reform in in newark. the first one is all about teachers. that's the one thing everybody keeps talking about. the number one reform we can do is get a great teacher in front of every kid or more importantly, a kid in front of a teacher. if you're going to do that, you have to set up your own channel to make sure you get them. what do we do to make sure we get awesome people in professions. the second thing, you got to pay them. >> hang on, in newark, they get paid. >> a lot, right? >> we don't get much of anything. you know that. >> the deal is across the country, we're paying some who are great not enough and some who suck way too much.

you just want to reorganize the way you compensate teachers. like overall. and then the third part of it is, i don't care what anybody says about due process and evaluation. tenure is a menace. you could talk about what tenure is supposed to be and what it is. and what it is is you having a job forever. no matter how great or terrible you are. the second part of this is about standards and transparency. like one of the things you'll see with the states race to the top application, a real, lots of data-driven stuff. on common network and other charter schools are very focused on what did my kid do today. it's very out there. if you don't know where a kid is with a great deal of precision, how are you going to get him to go where you need him to go. the other, a state legislation,

a private school choice program for kids in chronically failing schools of which newark has 38. the other part, charter school expansion. you shouldn't have to pay money to expand schools when you know we have space in newark public schools right now, that the schools are getting frozen out of. you have to address the immediacy of the kids in newark. they need relief today. so, you take all the things you're doing right now that are good. >> do more. >> do more of those while you work on the other stuff that's goimpk to take a little longer. >> if you work the way you speak, i expect it will go quite well. a pleasure to meet you. coming up here, shawn conry said it. you don't bring a knife to a gunfig gunfight. we'll look at the small business bill signed by president obama

and why it will not get the job done creating jobs in this country because the tax credits are not the solution. thank you, mr. president. back after this. we know why we're here. ♪ to connect our forces to what they need, when they need it. ♪ to help troops see danger, before it sees them. ♪ to answer the call of the brave and bring them safely home. [ female announcer ] around the globe, the people of boeing are working together, to support and protect all who serve. that's why we're here. ♪

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small businesses produce most of the new jobs in this country. they are the anchor of our main streets. they are part of the promise of america. the idea that if you've got a dream and are willing to work hard, you can succeed. >> president obama this

afternoon just before signing his $42 billion small business stimulus law, bill into law, excuse me. designed to get community banks lending again to small businesses and likely the last stimulus he'll get through congress before the november midterms. as we've talked a lot about on the show, the age of a firm more relevant than size when it comes to creating jobs, but talking about job creation is more effective than doing something that might lead to job creation like having good education, investment structures and allowing new businesses to form. the number of jobs created peaks in the first 12 month of a company's existence, typically declines there after as the firm begins to shed and decay. joining us now with an assess. a correspondent from the national journal, michael hirsch. put in context your view of the

job this government has done creating jobs. >> i think, you know, going back to the beginning of the administration and dealing with the financial crisis, it has not lived up to its promts. larry summers said when markets overshoot policy, policy make rs need to also. tim geithner talked about a powell doctrine. it's been too little too late and you know, simply falling short. >> i want to read a quote from the "new republic" and the tips point from the white house coming when they decided to honor the bonus contracts at aig even after the money that had been paid into the system. the quote says if you're going to pick a moment the thing

turned on obama, the moment -- aig bonuses. what do you think the president failed to understand about what he was doing with the financial system at the time of the crisis such as that he was willing to perpetuate the extraction being run by wall street on this country? >> i think he failed to appreciate that he needed very much to be something like the second coming of fdr, franklin dell nor roosevelt and we need add new deal. we have this wall street centered economy that's been skewed toward the whims of the street as you've addressed on often on this show. i don't think he fully understood how deep and systemic the problems were. this is not the subprime mortgage bubble collapse. this went back further. i don't think he realized it in

tool late. >> barry this morning wrote the following -- do you agree? >> not entirely. i would subdivide it further. my big issue is with wall street and the financial sector. and the failure of our policymakers as well as our exhibition profession to understand and to bring to bear the wisdom that we have known about for hundreds of years. the financial markets act differently. needs to be more oversight.

we've let that run away from us for the last couple of decades. i wouldn't demonize the entire corporate sector and turn it into a black and white fight of individual corp. raorationcorpo. i really think our problem is wall street and the financial sector. >> how did wall street get such total control over the democratic party? >> i lot of lobbying money and for a long period, you had this sort of overarching belief that markets do right and governments never do. there came to be this belief that what we were witnessing, this financial innovation was for the perfection of capitalism and we should let it happen. structures finance, we simply allowed the banks to sell to anyone anywhere and at enormous amounts of leverage.

i think that was a huge error. >> isn't that just a way for the politicians and bankers basically to steal the future? isn't all that is is a twi take the money away from people that don't exist so you can get rich and keep your job? >> i think so. it's a giant casino. it added little or no value to the economy as paul volcker said. it diverted some of our best minds and talents away from real professions, real sciences, engineers, physics, on to wall street, so they could make huge amounts of money. very little of what's been done in the nearly two years of the obama administration has changed that pathology in our economy. >> pretty amazing to watch. i won't marvel about it now, but two years on, the fact that the entire system down to the ratings agencies working for the banks is still in tact. it's impressive to see how much control money has over our

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u.n.'s office of outer space affairs. yes, that is funded and exists. recently, hundreds of planets have been discovered, formlating other stars. many think that makes the discovery of extra life. if you were concerned we were going without representation, fret no more. still ahead, the low cost, high-tech warfare of the future. a powerful computer worm hits a nuclear plant in iran. is it possible to eliminate another nation's nuclear capability with the simple click of a mouse? also, a new ad painting a conservative politician as a kind of american taliban. it's the monday megapanel in the moments to come. ♪ then output the final presentations ♪ ♪ sally, i'm gonna need 40 copies, obviously collated ♪

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good afternoon to you and now, a story that reads like the pages of a spy novel except for apparently it's anything but. iran's nuclear plan appears to be the -- a sophisticated cyber attack from a worm designed to infiltrate major industrial facilities. security specialists say the worm is most likely the work of a foreign government because of its stunning complexity, they say only a handful of countries could have pulled it off, the u.s. being an obvious one. we're joined by a former fbi special agent. e.j., what is this capability? >> it is a worm that to make it easier for the public to understand, it's a worm that would be like if you went to your car and somebody put a piece of code into your car and anytime they wanted to mess with your fuel system, your radio,

your brakes, it would shut it off. you take that and move it up to a nuclear power plant and now it goes in and it will turn off the lubrication for the reactor or the containment facility, anything of that nature, without the businesses really knowing what's going on or the people behind the keyboards. >> in this case, the nuclear facility in iran, that appears to be what happened. that nuclear facility is not on the dwrid. it's a free standing facility. how is it that an outside government or group of any kind could instahl a worm that does what you're describing? >> that's the key here is the vector of the attack. any worm that goes out there for any purpose, be it to steal financial data or shut down a some of this nature, you've got to get it in there.

it's been reported that this was put in there through a thumb drive, you know, a mini thumb drive that most people carry around. a replacement of the floppy d isc or cd. my bet is that if the manipulation, social engineering, sometimes when we want to get somebody to install something on their computer, we don't have physical access to it, whether he leave decoys for them around like a free thumb drive or cd. they end up grabbing it and sticking it on to their computer and now, their computer's infected. is it possible that one could duplicate what appears to have been achieved with the iranian nuclear facility, for instance, on every nuclear facility on earth. in other words, if a bad guy got ahold of this technology, could

you put a worm a la james bond movie, on the earth and then blow them all at the same time, technically, that would be a possibility. if you think of it this way, each system probably utilizes a different system of control and that's what's being attacked, so, yes, you could do this if you could get it on to the system. if i was doing this, if i was the bad guy running this, what i would do is giving out these free pieces of equipment, cds or things at conferences where these guys were going to show up and then hoping, quite simply, that they would stick them in their computer and install. >> i got to wrap this up.

whose work do you think the iran attack was? >> the u.s. has been looking at this. russia's been looking at this. the japanese have been looking at this. anybody could have done this. israelis possibility, but they had to have a way to test it out, so whoever did this had access to a similar system to test this out. >> a pleasure to make the-- and have learned something. moving to another perhaps -- lower grade, but equally interesting, if you will, technological phenomenon, as we become more tech literate not just on disabling nuclear facilities, it also means the phrase, a dog ate my home work, didn't cut it anymore. these days, there are more excuses without bringing the dog in. according to a study, i e-mailed

it, but it bounced back. my computer crashed. my printer ran out of ink. my old favorite, i don't have have it because someone stole my computer. any way. at least the dog is no longer being unfairly tarnished. up next, our monday megapanel talking cops, crooks, the taliban in america and gender gap in this election. we're back after this. i do a lot of different kinds of exercise, but basically, i'm a runner.

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big oil and their backers are spending millions to scare us. saying it costs too much to break our dependence on oil. what they're really doing is putting our security at risk. my big brother went to iraq to keep us safe. he came home in a flag-draped coffin. america lost another hero. big oil wants to talk about costs? don't let big oil lie to you about what our dependence really costs.

monday, our megapanel is here to discuss the big headlines of the day, the week, the world, the galaxy. krista freeland, alicia mendez, senior advise for the new democrat network. is there one for the old? and then matt lewis, blogger and columnist for politicsdaily.com. nice to see you guys. how you doing? it's all all together together. >> it's kind of nice. great organization. >> you two are the luckiest ladies in town sitting onset with matt lewis and dylan ratigan. i know. let's cut to it. allen, the guy's a master politician, but has he cross ed

the line with his most resent ad? >> religious fanatics try to take away our freedom in afghanistan and iran and right here in central florida. >> why submit yourself to your own husband. >> he works to impose radical fundamentalism on us. >> the thing is, this is the second ad that he's done. the last time, he falsely impugned his opponent's patriotism. >> they do that to me all the time. >> but this isn't about this race. this is an example of what we're going to see happening, about the john boehner affair that's going to come out. this is the strategy democrats don't want to run on their record. they want to run on negative attacks. >> name a politician that wants to run on the record at this point. >> i think this ad is an exception to what i agree to be

a rule. this opponent is whackadoo. have you seen his record? this is someone who in 1990 tried to pass this covenant marriage law so the only way you could get a divorce was proof of adultery. >> what he's saying in this ad, wives submit to your husband, husbands love your wives, he doesn't include the part about husband loves your wives as christ loves the church. it's not weird, but he's comparing every christian to the taliban. >> just because it's straight out of the bible doesn't mean we have to actually do it. >> but you have to agree with it. the bible actually has some sexist sections in it. it does have the idea of wives submitting to their husbands and some of us don't think that's a great 21st century way of living. my husband can actually confirm. >> this quote is first of all --

edited and also frankly -- >> aren't they all? >> accusing christians of being like the taliban. >> no, what its arguing is that you can have fundamentals in all relation and whether you are muslim or christian or jewish. it's saying to be governed by fundamentalist religious law, whether based on muslim religion, christian or jewish -- no, no, no. >> the taliban. >> not to her. >> and women are the focus group. >> let's move on. speaking of gender wars, the gap more prevalent than in recent years when it comes to voters. particularly when it comes to the tea party and those most angry with the current function of our government. matt, this does not surprise you. or any of the three of you.

irritate them some more. >> very little things -- i'll come back. >> it's fine. >> it doesn't really surprise me, to be honest. >> and it doesn't surprise me and i don't know it doesn't surprise you guys. at the end of the day, the people who have suffered the most under the bush policies have been the displaced middle and lower middle class men. >> "new york times" story last year, 82% of the people who lost jobs were men. there was a recent studies that show that men and in cultural parts of the country, greatly harmed when they lose their jobs. there was a study that came out -- >> because women are supposed to be mothers and get food. like it doesn't work. >> this is an economic story. the american middle class. that hollowing out is hitting men. >> 82%. the other thing is that men said

they would rather their spouse cheat on them than lose their job. >> when you look at these numbers it shows that some of the opportunities for democrats here, with unmarried women, married women voted for john mccain by a three-point margin. if they're going to invest in a demo here, this is turn out. >> a single for -- >> single gals meaning women like myself who have never been married, women who have been divorced. >> but if the economic model is based on the destruction of that middle class, the gambling of the midding class's capital base, does it matter whether the democrats or republicans are doing the destroying? in this case, the men suffering from it are the ones that are most disenfranchised. i feel like i've lost my mind quite honestly. they're destroying the country.

they both destroy the country. >> it's about which party has proactive solutions to rebuild and actually reshape the u.s. economy. it's really complicated and the thing which is scary going back to our point, the level of rhetoric -- but the level of rhetoric is very cartoonish right now and the actual challenges are so complicated and hard. >> and this reminds me of the -- >> isn't it mostly actually about the economy right now? if you ask people what do they care about most? is it wives submitting to husbands or people having jobs chblt. >> speaking of which the economy, mounting evidence today in which credit agencies -- they're worth learning something about. the credit rating agencies ignored proof of problems with their rating system during the housing bubble presumably to get

the money rolling in from the banks who paid them for the ratings. our friends, the banksters, sell bonds to the pension. those managers, pension managers for teacher, judges, cops, feel safe because the bonds they're buying from the banks are as rated triple-a. for an agency owned by the companies owned by your children's textbook publishers. it turns out what the bank is selling is a pile of crap -- not worth the paper they're printed on, suckering your pension fund manager in with that triple-a rating. it could have something to do with the fact that the banker is paying the credit agency so it can sucker your pension manager. we know the answer and yet even after the biggest transfer of

wealth in the history of the world. a 2300-paged piece of regulation from the democrats, this very simple conflict in which the credit rating agencies -- completely unresolved. how does this happen? >> it's really shocking. partly because it's really technical and complicated and a lot of people aren't really interested in the inherent conflicts. it's also about lobbying. it's excellent cover for every investor and fund manager. you can say look, triple-a rated. >> doesn't some of the responsibility belong to the portfolio manager and investor? i'm not disagreeing. i think this is utterly ridiculo ridiculous. >> in an ideal world, it does. let's play it out. i'm the pension fund manager.

figuring out what to do is hard. i'm the banker. figuring out how to -- high yield is to high risk. neither of us really like it. i'm like, this stings for me and you. what do you say we pay her, you're off the hook, i'm off the hook. >> a lot of those bonds were junk bonds. >> testimony that's come out -- some of the banks that were packaging these had an outside agency come in and take a look at the quality of the mortgages that were being -- >> in your car. >> a little test. >> what did they find? >> they found actually that a great portion of those mortgages being packaged were not good. >> you know what else is

triple-a? u.s. treasury bond. >> so they paid someone to see, you know, what's the quality of this bundled package and some came back and said about a third of it is rotten. and you know what they did? they just sold it on any way. >> triple-a, right? >> yes. they said the guys selling it to them, they said you have to give me a discount because i know it's rotten, but the people they were selling it to, they didn't say it is rotten. >> like a conspiracy where a bankers and fund managers don't want to deal, to do a corrupt system and take the money from the taxpayer and go play golf. nice to talk to you guys. we're building bridges and not motes. even the taliban thing was kind of a bridge. wasn't a mote. >> we're going to be grateful. >> we're not going to be submitting. >> no submission here.

a pleasure. thank you very much. coming up on "hardball," oil spill politics chris gaffney of the republicans helping the bp investigation. don't both parties work for those corporations? i don't understand why we talk about them being different when they show us every day they work for the big six to screw everybody else. but first, more stories from the job wars in this country. self-discovery through professional trauma. back after this. [ rattling ] [ gasps ] [ rattling ] [ laughing ] [ announcer ] close enough just isn't good enough. - if your car is in an accident, - [ laughing continues ] make sure it's repaired with the right replacement parts. take the scary out of life with travelers. call or click now for an agent or quote.

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we're back to wrap up the show after another story from the front lines of the job wars. john writes -- share your job wars stories and videos with us by going to facebook.com/dylanmsnbc to help us get america back to work. that's going to do it for us today. thank you so much particularly for joining us for our coverage of the educational issue ins this country. again, a country with 19,000 different school districts.