captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. millions this day celebrated the holiday even as blizzards disrupted travel in the midwest. >> warner: i'm margaret warner. the latest on the storm that brought snow to the midwest including the latest on last night's attack on pope benedict xvi at the vatican.

>> brown: one of chine's leading dissidents was sentenced to jail. >> warner: the controversy over the future of pensions for retired state workers in california. spencer michels will have a report. >> people -- beneficiaries would not be at risk because we're on the hook for those payments regardless how well and how poorly pension funds do. >> mark shields and david brooks look forward on health care and back on the decade. >> warner: efforts to reform washington, d.c.'s public schools. then tells us what's ahead. >> we have been totally disrespected. we have been treated like we don't matter. >> reporter: that's all coming on tonight's "pbs newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by:

monsanto. producing more. conserving more. improving farmers' lives. that's sustainable agriculture. more at producemoreconservemore.com.

>> chevron. this is the power of human energy. and by toyota. and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: this christmas day with all the christmas festivities and observances but it was also marked by questions about the pope's security and by misery in the american midwest. >> we need help. >> we need some help! >> brown: for many people in the nation's midsection, there was no way to be home for christmas.

a massive winter storm kept piling up snow and ice that closed down airports and made highways impassable. >> at some point you reach a breaking point, and you just want to see your family. >> brown: oklahoma declared a state of emergency, and scores of families had to abandon cars and take refuge in churches. entire towns in iowa had no electricity. halfway around the world, the issue wasn't weather, but distance. american soldiers in afghanistan sang carols and ate a hearty christmas lunch. some even dressed for the occasion. >> i miss my family tremendously, but if you look around at everyone that wears one of these uniforms, regardless of whether it's army, navy, air force or marine, we're all family and i'm here to, hopefully, make it a little easier for them being away from their family. >> brown: but for one american in afghanistan, it was a christmas in captivity. the taliban released video of army private bowe bergdahl, captured five months ago.

he said he'd been treated well but he said of the war: "this is just going to be the next vietnam." such statements are generally assumed to be made under duress. and nato forces in afghanistan condemned the video's timing and content. president obama addressed u.s. troops abroad, as he began a holiday stay in hawaii. he spoke in a pre-recorded message, joined by the first lady. >> to all our men and women in uniform spending the holidays far from home-whether its at a base here in the states, a mess hall in iraq or a remote outpost in afghanistan, know that you are in our thoughts and our prayers. and this holiday season-and every holiday season-know that we are doing everything in our power to make sure you can succeed in your missions and come home safe to your families. >> brown: british soldiers received a similar tribute from queen elizabeth in her annual christmas speech. 106 british troops died in afghanistan this year,

>> i am sure that we have all been affected by events in afghanistan, and saddened by the casualties suffered by our forces serving there. our thoughts go out to their relations and friends who have shown immense dignity in the face of great personal loss. >> brown: in rome, pope benedict xvi also spoke of war and peace and hopes for the world in his annual christmas blessings. >> ( translated ): today, to the human family, deeply affected by a serious moral and economic crisis and by the wounds caused by many wars and conflicts, the church repeats, in a spirit of sharing: 'let's go to bethlehem. there we'll find our hope.' >> brown: the pontiff did not mention a christmas eve incident in st. peter's basilica. a woman jumped a security barrier and briefly pulled the 82 year old benedict to the ground.

it turned out the same woman, susanna maiolo, unsuccessfully tried the same thing last year. today, a vatican spokesman said there's no such thing as "zero risk", but he promised a security review. >> ( translated ): look, i don't think we can act much differently. we've seen that security intervened promptly once again, i think they did their job. sometimes you get there in time, at other times you don't, but it seems to me that this time the incident was not so serious for the holy father, who was able, as we have seen, to recover in a couple of minutes. >> brown: indeed, the pope was unharmed, but a retired vatican diplomat broke a hip in the scuffle. in the meantime, religious celebrations in bethlehem were relatively upbeat. crowds packed the church of the nativity, marking the traditional birthplace of jesus. >> warner: now for the other news of the day, here is hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: a passenger

allegedly tried to blow up a delta airlines flight as it landed in detroit. it happened as the airbus 330 was coming in from amsterdam, the netherlands. a senior counterterrorism official quoted as saying the suspect tried to set off a bomb but it failed. initial reports said passengers set off firecrackers before being subdued. there were minor injuries reported. police in pakistan say they plan to charge five american muslims with violating their antiterror laws. the men were taken to a magistrate today after being detained earlier this month. they allegedly had maps of a pakistani air force base and power plants, plus emails linking them to militants. the pakistan case could hamper efforts to return the men to the u.s. to face charges of aiding a terrorist group. a christmas-eve bus crash in the andes mountains of peru killed at least 42 people, most farmers and merchants on their way home from the holidays. the bus plunged 250 feet into a ravine.

the peru accidents often blamed on poorly maintained mountain roads and underregulated bus companies. at least 40,000 filipinos spent christmas day in shelters to escape the eruption of the mayon volcano. the volcano has erupted 40 times over the last 400 years forcing evacuations. this was the first time people have been forced to flee an eruption during christmas. those are some of the main stories. i'll be back at the end of the pram with a preview of what you will find tonight on the program's website. back to margaret. >> warner: the fight over the value of pensions in california. the analysis of shields and brooks. and the conclusion of our series on attempts to reform public schools in the nation's capital. that follows coverage of the sentencing today of one of china's most prominent dissidents.

liu helps been convicted of the crime of subversion in a trial that lasted just two hours. >> warner: outside the number 1 intermediate people's court in beijing this morning, police kept a few protesters at bay. as inside, the sentence against liu was handed down, one supporter said it carried a clear message for would-be political reformers. >> ( translated ): this shows that the government has destroyed the spirit of legal society and harmonious society that it has been claiming to advocate. >> warner: officially, liu was convicted of "inciting to subvert state power" a broad charge often used by chinese communist authorities to jail opponents. more than a dozen western diplomats were denied entry to the proceedings; but a u.s. embassy spokesman denounced the verdict outside the court. >> the united states government is deeply concerned by the sentence of 11 years of prison announced today in the case of prominent chinese democracy activist liu xiaobo under the charge of inciting subversion of state power.

persecution of individuals for the peaceful expression of political views is inconsistent with internationally recognized norms of human rights. >> warner: that "peaceful expression" included "charter 08", an open letter co-authored by liu and signed by more than 300 top chinese thinkers. released on the internet last december, it called for open elections, free speech and rule of law. the 53-year-old liu was detained that same month, not the first time he's run afoul of chinese authorities. in 1989, while a visiting scholar in the u.s., he returned to china to take part in the tiananmen square uprising. he was jailed for 20 months after the government cracked down. his wife, liu xia, spoke today after briefly meeting with her husband. >> ( translated ): he hopes that he is the last one charged with a crime for practicing freedom of expression. he thinks the government is aware that this is illegal and wrong, and he wishes that one day the government will come to

realise that they should not hurt their own citizens by charging them for non-existing crimes. >> warner: but chinese authorities have increasingly clamped down on freedom of expression, beginning last year, before the beijing olympics. the tightening comes even as china is growing into a economic powerhouse, and is making beijing a key player on global issues ranging from iran's nuclear program to climate change. >> warner: for more on the meaning of today's conviction of liu, we turn to sharon holm, executive director of the advocacy organization human rights in chine aa long-time professor at the city university of new york school of law, and douglas paul, vice president for studies at the carnegie endowment for international peace, he served as an asia expert and a director on the national security council staff during the reagan and george h.w. bush administrations. welcome to you both.

miss holm, how big a deal is this? how significant a development? to have a leading chinese intellectual like this get this kind of conviction and sentence. >> it's an extremely significant case both domestically and internationally, one because it's not the first chinese intellectual or lawyer or journalist or activist who has been charged, convicted and sentenced for this crime of incitement to subvert state power, and sadly, he won't be the last, so it's extremely significant as what's really on trial is the chinese constitutional rights that are supposedly protecting and the human rights amendment and chinesea's willingness to respect international human rights including freedom of expression, so the significance of the case is what it's really demonstrated is that the chinese government cannot and will not abide by its international obligations to respect human rights. this is very clear to chinese,

inside china, it is clear to the international community, it's clear to the governments. this is actually a message that the chinese government has been sending for many, many years and one would only hope that this time, the message is clear that something very serious has to be done to address the human rights abuses inside china. >> warner: do you think that's what this says, doug paul? and explain why, for instance, liu xiaobao was offering this charter was seen as threatening to the chinese government. >> it rings memories of the late period of the collapse of the soviet union when vaclav havel in czechoslovakia organized his movement and got dissidents to speak up against the rule of the communist party. china learned lessons from that period of 1989-1991, they studied and found a lot of was wrong from china's perspective. they put emphasis on economic

growth in exchange for no expansion of individual personal freedoms -- certainly no political freedoms. >> warner: would you say that's the basic bargain, miss holm, that the chinese government is trying to strike with the chinese people? "we'll give you a lot of economic growth, and more economic freedom, but in return, do not challenge our monopoly on power"? >> i think that's in part a very good statement of the bargain that was struck, particularly post-crackdown of the june 4, 1989 crackdown. that is, make money, yes. democracy, no. the importance of charter08 is beyond a petition to what doug paul just said -- charter-08 presents a cogent analysis of the last almost wond years of chinese history and enumerates a -- almost 100 years of chinese history and enumerates a list of human-rights disasters and this has all been laid at the foot of the regime that does not allow

freedom of expression, independent, civil-society voices and then what the charter sets forth is a call to implement international human rights in the chinese context, so i think that is in part why there is such a strong reaction from the authorities, but the other reaction is because charter-'08 in december 2008 was signed by 300 of the most diverse group so in addition to intellectuals and scholars, it was signed by workers. it was signed by petitioners. it was signed by journalists. it was a diverse group. and now, more than a year later, despite almost a year of chinese police, security forces, and the whole machinery intimidating, detaining, questioning individuals who did sign it, you actually now have over 10,000 signatures, so what the significance of it is is, despite the intimidation and the detention and the 11-year

sentence, individuals in china continue, and will continue, to demand the kinds of democratic reforms. you now have over 450 individuals have signed an online petition who have said, "we claim collective responsibility. we signed charter'08, and if liu xiaobarks bao is guilty we are guilty for signing," in fact the intimidation tactics are not working to silence the chinese people. >> warner: doug paul, if so many people signed this and he had so many co-authors, why did they go after him in particular? how important a figure is he? >> he's the key intellectual sparkplug for this movement. he's a proven hero of the movement because he went to prison after coming back to tiananmen to protest in 1989 -- >> warner: when he could have stayed at columbia. >> could have stayed at the university and been under american protection but he's a brave person. he's taken on the state in the most direct way that an

intellectual can, and he represents a big threat to the state as an individual and as a representative of this movement. >> warner: professor, what does this is a, do you think, about the often-advanced theory that the more that china experiences prosperity, the more it gets integrated into the global economy, the more that will lead inexorably to greater political freedom? is that just not going to be operative in china's case? or do you think that the chinese government is trying to hold back a wave here? >> clearly, there has been -- in terms of macroeconomic growth, there has been progress in china, but at what cost? and the cost has been the sustainability of the environment. there is massive environmental degredation. and really at the cost of cracking down on an independent media, on an immediate civil society, so there has been

economic development but it has also been at the cost of resource extraction from tibet and that is not benefitting the local population, and perhaps liu xiaobao's own words would be appropriate here. he wrote in 2006 that this was not inevitable, that economic progress would inevitably lead to political reform. we've seen that that has absolutely not been the case, and in terms of global democratization, he writes, "china is a key player." without china in that game, the game -- china needs to be in the democracy game for the game to be alive. in other words, if china does not democratize, the consequences are quite serious for the region, for the world, in addition to the chinese people. >> warner: yet, doug paul, the chinese government today just dismissed all the foreign criticism as "crude meddling in china's internal affairs." what do you see as the

relationship between china's growing global role and its continuing crackdown like this? >> it's contradictory. the chinese have just have 20 of the best years of the last 250 in history. a lot of prosperity. college students today don't remember tiananmen but they do know their country is standing taller now, that they have more individual freedoms than they have had in a long time as long as they don't challenge the state. over against this, you've got a regime that's concerned about movements that might emerge, that's terrified of ethnic violence and repression in -- in sinjian and tibet, who had to confine president obama during his visit to china so that he wouldn't be able to reach the chinese people, so it's a contradiction between the self-confidence of power, of prestige, resources, over against fear of internal threat. >> warner: and a contradiction that will continue, no doubt, for many years to come.

douglas paul and professor holm, thank you both very much. >> you're welcome. thank you. >> brown: now, in a weak economy, what may be a ticking time bomb for many states, cities and towns. hundreds of billions in pension liabilities that are currently underfunded. in california, governor arnold schwarzenegger warned just this week that his state will need billions more from the federal government for basic operations, even as longer-term pension requirements loom. "newshour" correspondent spencer michels reports. >> reporter: when 86-year-old john canfield retired from his california state job, he was making about $50,000 a year. as a senior engineer, he had designed highway bridges used by thousands of californians. >> destructed all over the state

of california and i take pride in that. >> reporter: today with yearly increases for cost of living, his state pension totals about $63,000. that's more than the average for state workers because canfield was one of the higher paid employees. >> i feel that i earned that retirement pay. i considered it a contract between me and the state of california. >> reporter: for decades, retirees like canfield drew their pay with little notice but no that taxpayers in california and other states are being told to pone up for underfunded pension plans, questions are being asked about the amount pensioners earn, the way pension funds are invested and how the pension boards themselves are being run. david crane, special economic advisor to governor arnold schwarzenegger worries that unless those questions are

answered, pension spending will eat away at key state-supported programs. they already have diverted $3.3 billion from the state budget, a figure that is rising. >> we are diverting, really, billions of dollars from the university of california and health and human services to pay off pension promises that were made decades ago or even joust a decade ago. >> reporter: since crane and other reformers cannot change what others will earn, covered by contract and court orders, he wants to change benefits for future employees. >> bring those levels down to at least below what they were when they were increased in 1989 or reduce current compensation for employees today. >> reporter: mars frafritz says other changes are needed as well. she says high pensions in california and other states are often the result of spiking the final year's pay, by adding in

car allowances or selling back unused vacation days. >> in lieu of pay increases they'll say give us a few more days off, and then they don't take the days off, they accrue it so that taxpayers have to pay off the money, and that goes into authority final pay for pension purposes. >> reporter: fritz has put in a measure to stop that. she has a list of retirees making more than $100,000. the ones that drew the most tension were four retired officers of the san ramon fire district near san francisco. they were said to be collecting over $245,000 each, more than what they earned while working. fire chief richard price says those pensions are deserved. >> these are top-level managers who are administering large districts, large numbers of employees, large budgets like

any c.e.o. running a corporation of similar size. >> reporter: now, under pressure, the fire board has come up with new rules to curtail what some see as pension abuses. >> my tierm, and the retirement of the managers of this -- >> my retirement and the retirement of the managers of this district are considerably lower than they would have been before our board took these action. >> reporter: david lowe,a lobbyist who serves on the governor's committee thinks the notion that the pension fund is in trouble because of high payouts is misleading. >> the reality is it's the majority of the police and firefighters get a reasonable and fair benefit for putting their lives on the line, and they're not going out with these huge pensions. >> reporter: the california public employees retirement system, calpers agrees. it pays benefits amounting to $10 billion a year to 400,000

retirees. pat macht. >> 70% of those who retire with us get about $36,000. we have folks like bus drivers, school workers who get less than $1,000 a month. >> reporter: lowe instead blames the rise and fall of the stock market since most of those calpers payouts comes with investments made by money contributed by employees and employers. >> those investments had been doing so well that employer contributions were curtailed but in 2008 the fund lost a third of its value and that's when the state had to pony up more than $3 billion. >> reporter: it was a wrongheaded investment strategy, according to governor's advisor david crane. he says cal pers as well as pension funds elsewhere had been too optimistic. >> all public pension funds have done this -- is assume very high, fantastical rates of returns far in excess of what stock markets have historically

returned and bonds have historically returned and by doing that they induced governments to put away less than was necessary bht promises were made. >> reporter: some critics also allege calpers and other funds made risky investments in hedge funds urged on by middlemen who got a cut. still, calpers argues it has no trouble paying retirees what they have been promised. >> we take in more than enough cash. we're in a really strong position to need our benefit payroll. >> reporter: but crane says that's not the point. it's the state, not calpers that has to come up with the pension money and next year it will need increased contributions because of the investment losses. >> calpers could lose every penny tomorrow and the beneficiaries would not be at risk because we're on the hook for those payments regardless of how well or poorly pension funds do, so it doesn't make sense to even ask them whether they're solvent. their assets are insufficient to meet our liabilities and the

result is they're underfunded and we have to come out of our general funds to make the payments. >> reporter: the debate over public pensions will only get more intense as the legislature takes up reductions in benefits, as marcia fritz's group tries to qualify a ballot measure to curtail abuses and as unions fight to contain benefits they think may be in jeopardy because of the zeal to reform. >> lehrer: now to the holiday analysis of shields and brooks. welcome. happy holiday. we had a health care vote yesterday. i'm from boston. i want to try out my boston marathon analogy. sometimes the winner comes through arms waving, ready for more, sometimes he or she falls to the ground exhausted. what did you see yesterday? >> there was a greater sense of relief than celebration but like winning the marathon, it's just a real and understandable, legitimate sense of accomplishment. >> lehrer: david?

>> since woodrow wilson presidents have been trying to do this, certainly since eisenhower, none have succeeded, obama has or will succeed, that's a tremendous accomplishment. i would point out you haven't finished the marathon, you're in the first mile. >> lehrer: now they have to get together with the house. >> i think that part they'll do reasonably well. i can't imagine anybody is going to hold us up. the biggest difference is the financing. the house has a provision that would have a surtax on millionaires, the senate wants to pay for it through high-cost health insurance premiums. the whole thing would fall apart if they didn't go with the senate's measure and that's substantively a good thing, because those employer tax exemptions for these insurance plans is fiscally insane and bad for the health care system because it subsidizes these cadillac plans. >> i think that there will be a mix of financing. i think there will be a tax on individuals. and i think there will be a tax

on the higher -- the real cadillac plans -- i think to call the plans that many organized labor workers have negotiated called cadillac plans is a misnomer and an embellishment but i also think there will be a fight over the trigger on public options and there will be -- and i think there is a great chance they'll come out of it with a hard trigger. if, in fact, the expenses of health care exceed the c.b.o. estimates, i think there is a very good chance that that is acceptable to both sides. >> republicans are quite clear they're not for anything so the fight is among democrats. >> the fight is among democrats and competing visions. the house bill covers more. it's more democratic with a large d traditionally speaking -- it was a consensus coalition -- you saw it put together in the senate. nancy pelosi was true enough as speaker of the house to keep it all in her office -- in the

senate, it was pretty open, pretty visible and probably not what our teachers in democracy and civilization had in mind in high school when they taught us. >> some of the things in the house bill are better than the senate bill. >> i agree. >> the exchanges in the house bill are more competitive but if they have a fight over this tax exemption, to me that would be a big deal because first of all, i don't think you can pay for it especially over 20 years without the full tax on all those plans. that tax, because it's not really indexed for inflation raises $1.3 trillion in the second 10 years. if they're going to say this balances the budget, that's just a ton of money they need and they need to tax it all, and secondly, i think there is a consensus at least among health care economists -- you've got to raise taxes from within the health care system because nothing else will keep up with the rising costs, so if there really is resolve to fight this, especially on the part of the unions -- and there probably is -- that could make it trickier than maybe i anticipate. >> as we sit here at year's end, where does this fight --

particularly, this fight leave the parties? one thing that happened this week was a defection from democrat to republican. >> a freshman democrat from northern alabama -- huntsville, alabama, parker griffith, who democrats have been a very competitive seat -- retiring congressman bud kramer who had been a democrat -- was a democrat. democrats spent a million dollars to win that seat. and anytime anybody leaves a party -- and especially condemns the party or -- or indites his party on the way out as he -- indicts has party on the way out and joins the opposition it's not insignificant -- mr. -- mr. griffith probably nobody had heard of before this week tried to cast it in moral terms that it was a philosophical move. >> brown: that went over well with his colleagues. >> it's about self-preservation -- it makes you yearn for the unvarnished candor of arlen

specter who, when he left arlen specter became a democrat from pennsylvania earlier this year -- he conceded very frankly he couldn't win the republican primary, he could not win in november as an independent so he became a democrat and there was something -- there was no paul on the road to damascus, some epiphany, this was all about self-preservation but the democrats have become the majority party in the house of representatives by winning seats they weren't supposed to win, in the border states and in the south, so -- in this sense, it may not be a harbinger but it's not good news for the democrats. >> there are retirements on the democratic side -- all the signs that it's going to be a tough year for 2010 for democrats -- they're all out there -- and you know, one suspects they won a lot of those seats in north carolina and the south and the near south, they're going to lose a ton of them, 20 seats in those areas, they're democrats and looking at political suicide in the face. i want to say one thing about the parties and how they're reacting. i really think this health care

plan is a huge event in our political history. when the new deal was successful programs, it created, really, democratic majorities for a long time. the great society, on the other hand, created republican majorities for a great, long time. i think, however this health care bill works out it's going to have -- maybe not quite as seismic effect but a huge effect. if it's a success it will become a safety program, and if it's a failure -- >> brown: you're not putting on the crystal ball. >> i lean slightly one way but i do think we should think of it in those terms. >> brown: are the consequences that big? >> the consequences are enormous and i think it will be a success -- this has always been a difficult thing -- why it's a signal achievement for -- for harry reid, for the democrats in the senate, for the democrats in the congress, in the house of representatives, nancy pelosi, for the administration is this -- this -- this is an item, an issue, that has never come to the floor for a vote under richard nixon, under bill

clinton, under harry truman. now, it's passed bog -- now it's passed both houses. that's important. but the important thing to remember is this. we passed medicare in the middle of the 1960's which was probably the apex of american confidence. we were doubling the nation's gross national product in that decade and there was just a sense of unlimited possibilities. to pass this -- this major, major difference in a time of uncertainty which itself produces uncertainty to -- among people, 80% of whom have health care -- 83% of whom have health care is a signal -- signal achievement to do that, because american confidence and optimism are among their lowest -- >> with 35 or 45% support depending on how they ask the question with the majority opposing, which is a risky thing to do and the other thing i would say is in the short-term if you oppose the bill or support the bill, there is i think -- even the supporters acknowledge a short-term problem which is a lot of the benefits don't kick in immediately, the taxes do, second you're going to

have this increase in demand for health care without an increase in supply, that's going to drive up costs in the short-term so that's a political problem for 10 years. >> the end of the year -- end of the first year for president obama so i want to talk a little bit about how you see his first year. >> brown: jim asked the president in that interview earlier this week. so let's take a look at president's answer to get started. >> i think that we have managed an economic crisis of monumental proportions, two wars, a whole host of other challenges, very well. i am entirely dissatisfied with where we are right now in terms of jobs and the fact that families out there on the eve of christmas are still really worried about being able to pay the bills or send their kids to college or have health care for themselves. and so i don't pat myself on the back at the end of this year,

but what i do have confidence in is that we've made good decisions, that we've applied sound judgments to some very difficult situations, and that -- ah, if we stay on a path where we are -- ah, working hard, maintaining a -- a -- a sense of possibility for the future, we're willing not to defer tough decisions around health care or energy or education so that somebody else deals with them -- that america will be strong again, and i think that -- i think i've shown, this year, that i can make hard decisions -- even when they're not popular -- and that i take a long view on these problems, and i frankly think that that's what america needs right now. >> brown: david? himself and yourself with him? >> i more or less agree with him. the emphasis on the decision-making structure, the soundness of the decisions, judgment, that's so quintessentially obama -- he's

not talking about some impassioned thing for the american people, it's about his slow and deliberate decision-making process. snoot process. >> he's got, that i give him credit for that, he's got some things he's failed othe middle east process was a failure, a setback, cap and trade going nowhere, financial region regulations, iran hasn't worked out but on the other hand as he says we've come out of the worst financial problem. he did pass health care. he had a very sound process deciding afghanistan. i would have to give him a b or b-plus which is roughly the range he gave himself so i think you would have to regard it as a successful year. >> brown: mark? >> the president lays down the premise which was that he did -- comes to office at a time arguably the worst economic time since the depression, with two wars and a financial crisis of historic proportions and he got up every morning which was

impressive and kept going and still his equanimity in his interview with jim, but at the same time he initiated two major objectives -- i mean, health care is enormous. as is climate change. and i agree with david, the climate change is probably in pretty precarious shape right now, but he's going to achieve health care, and -- you know, i -- he gave himself a b-plus -- not in jim's interview, and came back and i was surprised at that, because if he had been grading me in my academic years i might have been a serious contender for class valedictorian because i think he's a little easy and soft on himself and i was surprised that he didn't have -- i was not a valedictorian and was never a threat to be but he didn't say "i'll leave that to the ultimate authorities." >> brown: a b-plus is practically an -- >> a generational thing. but -- you know, interesting thing to me is this.

his job rating today in the gallup poll is 50% favorable, higher than that of ronald reagan who went on to win 49 states three years later and it's lower by 21 points than george herbert walker bush and lower than 10 points by jimmy carter was at this time both of whom were denied a second term, so when he talks about the long-term, he's talking about 2012 whereas democrats who are nervous right now are on the ballot in 2010. >> brown: was it a good year for american politics? >> not exactly. we've had a bad -- a bad decade for american politics. >> brown: you don't know -- decade -- >> a bad two centuries -- it's been fine. you know, the anger after the fight for health care is worse than ever, he promised a new age, we're not red america, we're not blue america, that hasn't worked out, not his

fault, as long as you have a congress run by john boehner and nancy pelosi you're going to have a partisan congress, as long as you promote your leadership on the basis of fund-raising you're going to have this. i don't necessarily blame him but it hasn't worked out. >> brown: bad year, indifferent year? >> it was not a happy year -- the pledge of the campaign to be transparent -- obviously couldn't be fulfilled on health care -- to the degree it was, it was a problem, and to bring a new era had in washington. i think that's the biggest disappointment. i do not fault the president for that. i think that is a decision that has been made on the other side -- the house has never been a place of great collegiality, nancy pelosi did, i think, a remarkable job in passing climate change and passing health care but the senate is -- is really a far more brutal place than it's ever been. they have used the filibuster more in this session of congress, than they did in the

entire decade of the 1960's when it was changing the civil rights law. >> brown: really? >> yeah. that is really, i think, a commentary -- when everything has to get 60 votes -- i mean, a mother's day resolution has to get 60 votes. >> brown: that's a bit of a bummer -- >> david -- >> george iii was a little concerned about that. >> brown: the next it will be new year, new decade, for new happy holiday. >> thank you very much. >> warner: finally tonight, we close out our week-long series on the high-profile campaign to change the public school system in the nation's capital. this week we have been revisiting key developments in this story as told by the "newshour's" special correspondent for education, john merrow. we go back to november to look at how chancellor michelle rhee and her schools are faring in

the third year. >> on a thursday morning in october six weeks into the school year, members of washington, d.c.'s teachers union gathered to send a message. >> and our schools. we will not be controlled by fear. their message was for d.c. schools chancellor michelle rhee who had unexpectedly laid-off 229 teachers to close a budget shortfall. >> we have been totally disrespected. we have been treated like we don't matter. >> i was laid-off on friday. on saturday i look online on the newspaper, "the washington post" and it's about it's good we got rid of the plan lessons.

>> the city council took up the issue weeks later alleging that rhee overstepped her authority in making the layoffs and engineered the budget shortfall in order to get rid of teachers she didn't want. >> by your own admission, you have stated on the record that you made an administrative decision regardless of the law and the process that is in front of you to follow. >> my understanding is that i do have the authority as the agency head to make the decisions about moving budget from one place to another. >> these people sitting out here lost their jobs because that's a decision you made. >> correct. >> what is the council supposed to do at that point? >> my understanding is that i do have the authority -- >> before you move to your understanding, i'm talking about the law. >> michelle rhee has been no stranger to controversy since she took control of d.c.'s public schools over two years ago. she's closed 25 schools. replaced almost half her principals. and battled the teachers' union over a new contract.

but some believe rhee's latest actions pose a threat to her larger reform effort. >> yes. in the back. >> reporter: even as teachers across the country were losing jobs, rhee hired 994 new teachers between spring and fall. that's double the number d.c. usually adds. but by fall, the picture had changed. in october, rhee declared a budget shortfall of nearly $44 million with nearly half coming from midsummer cuts by the city council, then came the layoffs, called a reduction in force or rif followed by an explosion of accusations. >> i think the way this was conducted -- there are going to be many lawsuits. >> reporter: george parker is president of the teachers' union. >> i think to some degree, there might have been an intentional effort to target some teachers to get rid of them and the way you do that is that you go out and you hire additional teachers because somewhere down the line you intend to use those teachers

to replace certain targeted teachers. >> reporter: fueling parker's suspicions are public comments by rhee and her team. early last year, her head of professional development spoke with us about washington's teachers. >> 50% don't have the right mindset, and there is a possibility that more of them don't have the content knowledge to do the job. >> reporter: and rhee has been open about her operating style since our first interview two years ago. are you a rule-breaker? >> i think what i am is somebody who is focused on the end result that i think needs to happen, so if the rule is standing in the way of that, i will question those rules. i will bend those rules. >> reporter: at an education conference two weeks after the layoffs, i asked rhee and her boss, mayor adrian fenti about the controversy. >> they're saying because you overhired, you have a surplus and then, since you're not doing seniority, the principals can go

and they can say, "ah-hah, we have to get rid of some people." >> in d.c., we cannot do that. by law, we can only move a personnel action form forward if there is a vacancy at a school level and then there is a budget to support -- >> reporter: why are you riffing? you are riffing for budget reasons? >> these are terminations tharp a result of a budget reduction that we had to take. >> reporter: because rhee tied the layoffs to budget pressures she was not bound by the existing teachers' contract. to make the reduction in force, principals used a formula devised by rhee in which seniority count -- in which seniority countered for just 5%. >> what typically happens in a school district, you know that 250 people have to go. it's last in, first out. that's just the way that it goes but that's not the way it should go. >> the model we're pushing toward is a model wherein the

principal has the autonomy that you find in a charter school or private schools. >> reporter: in order to change the system permanently, to alter the way principals hire and fire teachers, rhee needs a new teachers contract. the union is now suing to overturn the layoffs. despite the standstill, rhee has some backing on the city council which has oversight of the schools. >> i don't believe she overhired with the intent then of firing teachers that she didn't want there. i don't think that's what happened. and even if it did, so what? you know -- you know, michelle rhee is in charge of the schools. >> reporter: even supporters like jack evans are worried. >> yet we are sitting here in a chamber where the tensions couldn't be higher. we cannot -- we cannot continue to have this craziness. >> you clearly don't trust the stakeholders, it's obvious the stakeholders don't trust your office, so how do we repair this? >> i will fully do my part to

the extent that people have suggestions about how we move forward, some of the difficult decisions that we make will, indeed, cause some people to be unhappy, but we know we have to push forward on those decisions because they are right for schools and kids. >> reporter: rhee remains confident that, in the long run, results will prove her right. >> warner: that story was filed just a few weeks ago. earlier this week, gwen ifill spoke with john to get an upon where things stand now. she began by asking him whether there is still a standoff between chancellor rhee and the unions over contract negotiations and her decision to lay off teachers. >> reporter: that's where we are now. the union appealed that decision and the judge looked over the facts of the case and threw out the appeal, so she won there, but there is not any movement on the contract. that's been going on -- those negotiations have been off and on for the entire time basically, and they're basically off right now.

>> ifill: both of us have been watching reports with interest, want to know the bottom-line answer to the question about what improvement -- how you measure improvement. do we know if what a school chancellor like michelle rhee is doing -- do we know if it's working? >> reporter: there is one piece of solid evidence. there is a national test called the national assessment of educational progress or nape and that's the gold standard, gwen, and only four states and the district of columbia showed significant gains in fourth and eighth grade math on the results that came out in fall, that's pretty remarkable and it happened on her watch. on the other hand, you would have to say that strife is up and morale is down. but in terms of the economic gains, they are there. >> ifill: what can other school systems read into what rhee has gone wrong and what has worked and what hasn't worked? >> reporter: she has had a significant impact. she set out saying she wanted to make a difference nationally and

she's had i a significant impact in at least three ways. for one, the conversation about linking teacher pay to student performance is now in the air -- i mean, that's even part of the federal effort called race to the top, and michelle rhee has pushed that forward. people are talking, now -- questioning tenure in ways that they haven't before, and michelle rhee has pushed that as well, and finally, charter schools are much more in the public consciousness, and they're growing, and she has said that she doesn't care if she loses students to charter schools, she just wants students to go to charter schools. i would say she's done this very visibly. a couple of other superintendents -- andre zalanso in baltimore, robert bennett in denver before he became u.s. senator, they both have been achieving remarkable things under the radar, quietly and without all the furor and without all the alienation, so michelle rhee has paid a price for what she has accomplished. >> ifill: it seems like, aside

from her personal price there is always a tradeoff in these things. charter schools some say weaken other schools, some say teachers say the idea of linking performance to tenure doesn't encourage teachers to stay and grow. these debates are still going on. >> reporter: these debates are going on. for a journalist, it's a fascinating story. as a national policy issue it's important, we need strong public schools and she's one of the people trying to figure out if we will get there. she may win on the big issues but on the other hand she has made an awful lot of enemies and people waiting for her to fall, so if she falls, she will fall hard. >> ifill: john merrow, thanks for all your good work. >> reporter: thank you, gwen. >> brown: the major developments of the day. a man allegedly tried and failed to set off a homemade bomb on a delta airlines flight as it landed in detroit. news accounts name him as a nigerian who claimed a link to al qaeda.

white house officials called it an attempted act of terror and said the president was monitoring the system. millions around the world celebrate -- millions around the world celebrated christmas as blizzards disrupted travel in the u.s. harsvene in our newsroom previews. >> on the rundown there is more from john merrow and what the plight of d.c. schools can shape the nation. you can also find a link to watch the full series on schools in both d.c. and new orleans. also, check out our roundup of all our recent coverage on the health care debate both on air and online. you will find reports on what the new legislation may mean for you, the political road ahead and what policy makers can learn from innovative models in local communities around the nation. all that and more is on our website, newshour.pbs.org. >> brown: that's the newshour for tonight. i'm jeffrey brown. >> warner: i'm margaret warner.

we'll see you here and online. have a nice christmas weekend. thank you and goodnight. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: >> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what is that energy came from an energy company? everyday, chevron invests $62 million in people, in ideas-- seeking, teaching, building. fueling growth around the world to move us all ahead. this is the power of human energy. chevron.

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