captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. there was new hope for travelers today as some flights took to the skies over europe for the first time in nearly a week. >> warner: and i'm margaret warner. on the newshour tonight, officials said all of britain's airports have reopened, although a massive backlog of flights remains. we get an update from ray suarez, one of many still stuck in london. >> suarez: thousands of stranded vacationers trying to get out of britain and trying to get back

from the continent have passed a landmark they never thought they'd see from the air, the white cliffs of dover. >> brown: then, marcia coyle of the "national law journal" details today's supreme court ruling striking down a ban on videos of animal cruelty. >> warner: kwame holman covers the questioning at today's congressional hearing on last year's collapse of the investment firm lehman brothers. >> brown: paul solman tells the story of some homeowners who've stopped paying their mortgages, even though they can still afford them. >> warner: we look at community colleges' struggle to educate and graduate more students. >> brown: and gwen ifill remembers civil rights icon dorothy height, who died this morning at age 98. >> early in life, i learned it was important to have some goals, and i chose to put my life's work in the direction of equality and justice. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour.

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and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: the skies over europe reopened to flights today, including britain, late in the day. but airlines remained in turmoil after being grounded six days by volcanic ash from iceland, and thousands of people spent another day stranded. ray suarez is in london with our report. >> suarez: british authorities had raised hopes that the country's airspace would begin opening tuesday. the volcano dashed those. an enormous plume of smoke and ash rolled out of eyjafjallajokull, and headed toward the british isles, wrecking plans to start the move toward full service today. brian goulding works for britain's official meteorological office.

>> the volcano is still erupting, as far as i understand it. eruptions going to between 10,000 and 20,000 feet, which is putting new ash into the atmosphere. that ash is still moving towards the u.k., south-eastwards from iceland. >> suarez: an unseasonal bout of april weather has made the threat from volcanic ash worse, pushing the cloud toward northwestern europe and keeping it there. the french and germans began to open their airspace to commercial traffic, but then backed off their initial, optimistic statements. as the travel chaos approached the one-week mark, business and government representatives are asking tougher and tougher questions about the european response to the volcano, whether the mounting costs really reflect the risks. peter van dalen, a dutch member of the european parliament, says europe needs to find a formula for dealing with the expense of problems like these.

>> ( translated ): now, major airlines, which have attached importance to safety, are impaired because there so much money being lost. so we need a realistic, pragmatic approach which takes into account a future filled with the concentration of volcanic particles. that means we need a good, safe, responsible policy that weighs up the proper bans, a balance between safety and the economy. >> i think traveling will probably change a little bit now. >> suarez: industries and governments have to learn lessons from the eruption's after math. she speaks for the association of british travel agents. >> i think in the beginning both the industry and the government potentially thought that this would be a very short-term problem. you know, we have got very good contingency plans in place for normal operational delays and cancellations. and that's what normally happens. now this is a totally different situation.

>> suarez: thousands of stranded passengers ended up passing a landmark they never thought they'd see from the air-- the white cliffs of dover. the ferries have been doing unusually heavy business since late last week. unable to fly, thousands flocked the calais-to-dover route, then connected with buses, trains, and rental cars. it seems like everyone who lands has a tale to tell of two-hour flights home that turned into two days on european highways. douglas arbuckle was on a quick golfing trip to spain; just renting a car cost him $2,000. >> we drove from malagar out to saint sebastien. it took us 12 hours. we stayed overnight at the border with friends. then we drove from there up to another place where we stayed with friends. we left this morning at 4:00 and we had a breakdown in the car.

we got rescued from there in thick fog. we go to calais around about 10:30 this morning. we came over. >> suarez: and he's not even home. there's still an 11-hour drive back to scotland. >> tell us, where were you? >> we got the last flight out or the last flight going to europe in rome. then we're going through five different countries to arrive back in the u.k. >> it took us about two days to get from poland. we've seen cities we've never seen before. >> suarez: you hear a lot of that-- acceptance with a world- weary smile, and the story of a sudden, unexpected obligation to spend some serious money getting home. the nixey family got stuck in florence. >> we thought it would be a three-day holiday in florence. it's now cost us about 3,000 pounds extra for the extra stay in hotels, food , and then all the trains.

>> suarez: oh, my goodness. that's a lot of money. >> it is. >> suarez: and unless they were on a package tour, they say they've had to figure out what to do on their own, piecing together trips across hundreds and thousands of miles, without an airline or a government to help them out. this week, in europe, you had to pull your own weight, whatever your age. >> brown: and more from ray. gwen ifill talked to him from london's heathrow airport a short time ago. >> ifill: ray, good to see you. what's the latest you can tell us on which airports are open, which airports are closed. what's going on. >> suarez: gwen, about half of all the flights in europe were canceled today. some 14,000 out of about 27,500 but some airports are starting to show a glimmer of light. paris is running at 30% capacity. amsterdam is running out some flights. frankfurt is running flights at low altitude until they clear european air space. denmark is handling long-haul flights only.

and not domestic flights. but just before air time tonight, the british government announced it was allowing heathrow to reopen. one of the biggest and busiest airports in the world. and though it does take a while for a place this big, this complicated to lurch back into life, it will not be the place that i just wandered through empty corridors in a few minutes ago to get here to talk to you. staff is starting to arrive. people are waking up in the various corners in nooks and crannies where they've been sleeping out for days and starting to head to airport counters to ask about flights and when they might actually get out of britain. >> ifill: it's probably too much to talk about normalcy but after 95,000 flights were canceled last week, when did they expect things to get close to normal? >> suarez: you know, crews are in the wrong place. equipment is in the wrong place. passengers have to be notified and given a decent amount of

time to show up for air flights that they were told were not going any time soon. unreeling this thing is going to take several days. of course, there's always the possibility that the volcanic ash could intrude again, but gradually things are coming back into operation. if all goes well and if the weather stays good and if the ash cloud doesn't interfere, by friday/saturday, you should see very heavy schedules. they're trying to bus through some of the nighttime flight restrictions to clear out some of the passengers who have been waiting several days to fly. we'll see if that happens. but if they can operate more hours of the day out of places like holland, frankfurt in germany, heathrow here in britain, it will help move more people to more places faster. one big breakthrough.

flights that are in the there and on their way to heathrow from the west coast of the united states from asia and africa will be allowed to land. they were already in the air when they were told they were going to be diverted to other places like brussels but now they will be allowed to land here because the airport is resuming operations once again. >> ifill: so, ray, you've been trying to get home here to the states for the last two days. what are your options at this point? >> suarez: i have to get in touch with my carrier and see if they're putting back into the schedule some of the flights that have already been scheduled. and then it's a mad dash to get in to the line to see if you can get one of those very precious seats. i've been bumped from friday to sunday to tuesday and now to thursday. if my family is watching this, stay tuned. >> ifill: we're watching. we look forward to seeing you when you get here. thanks for your reporting, ray. >> suarez: good talking to you, gwen. >> warner: still to come on the newshour: a free-speech ruling from the

supreme court; new criticisms over the lehman brothers bankruptcy; defaulting on home mortgages on purpose; questions of quality at community colleges; and remembering the remarkable life of dorothy height. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: u.s. food companies went on notice today-- they may be forced to go easy on the salt. the institute of medicine recommended the food and drug administration regulate sodium content in food. it called for gradual reductions to cut average consumption by half a teaspoon a day. the institute is an independent agency chartered by congress. it said americans take in more than twice as much salt as needed, raising the risk of high blood pressure and strokes. the nation's young people are getting fatter, and it's hurting the military. a group of retired officers reported today that 27% of young americans are too overweight to qualify for service. they said school lunches are a major factor. retired army brigadier general

clara adams-ender urged congress to mandate changes. >> america is only as healthy as our nation's children. childhood obesity is now undermining our national security, and we need to start turning it around today. for security's sake, we call on the congress to pass a strong child nutrition bill this year. >> sreenivasan: the group also proposed taking junk food and high-calorie beverages out of schools. a bill to overhaul the school lunch program is currently awaiting a senate vote. a high-ranking regional leader of al-qaeda in iraq has been killed. ahmed al-obeidi died in an early morning raid by u.s. and iraqi forces in the northern province of nineveh. he is said to be in charge of al-qaeda operations there and in two other provinces. on sunday night, iraqi and u.s. troops killed the two overall leaders of al-qaeda in iraq. in afghanistan, a shooting incident sparked a new dispute

over civilian deaths. nato troops killed four unarmed people in khost province last night. they ignored warnings to stop as they drove toward a convoy. nato said two of the dead were "known insurgents". afghan police said all four were civilians. arizona has moved a step closer to a new crackdown on illegal immigrants. on monday, the legislature approved a bill that makes it a crime not to have an alien registration document. opponents said it would lead to racial profiling; supporters said it would bring law and order. it was unclear if republican governor jan brewer would sign the bill. arizona has approved a series of tough immigration laws in recent years. wall street made more headway today. the dow jones industrial average gained 25 points to close at 11,117. the nasdaq rose 20 points to close at 2,500. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the newshour's web site. but for now, back to margaret. >> warner: the u.s. supreme court today struck down a federal law outlawing commercial

videotapes that depict graphic violence against animals. congress passed it in 1999 in hopes of curbing animal cruelty. today's eight-to-one ruling was a major victory for free speech advocates and a blow to animal rights groups. the case stemmed from the 2005 conviction of a virginia resident for making and selling dog-fighting videos. newshour regular marcia coyle of "the national law journal" was at the court this morning and she joins us now. again, marcia, welcome back. >> thank you, margaret. >> warner: this law has been on the books for 11 years. how did this case end up at the court now? >> the goal of this law was to get at animal cruelty by drying up the commercial market for depictions of animal cruelty. this law imposes a penalty of up to five years in prison for the commercial creation, sale and possession of video... of auditory and visual depictions of animal cruelty. congress was really trying to

get at dog fighting videos and so-called crush videos which appeal to a sexual netish for women in high heels stomping animals, small animals. robert stevens, as you said, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. one of the of three videos he had involved dog fighting in japan where it's legal. he appealed, challenged the constitutionality of the law. the lower court struck down the law. the obama administration brought the case to the supreme court defending the constitutionality of the law. >> warner: chief justice roberts chose himself to write this majority opinion, 8-1 majority opinion. on what grounds did he find it unconstitutional. >> he did two things that were important here. first, he rejected the government's argument that the court should create a new category of unprotected speech for depictions of animal cruelty. the court in the history of the first amendment has only done that a handful of times, most recently nearly 30 years

ago when it upheld laws prohibiting child pornography. other categories of unprotected speech: obscenity, defamation. he said there was a long tradition in the law , in american law, of prohibiting animal cruelty. but not a long tradition prohibiting depictions of animal cruelty. he rejected the government 's test for whether this was protected by the first amendment. he said the test which would require the court to balance the value of of the speech versus this cost to society was free floating and dangerous. then he looked at the law itself to determine whether it was overbroad. if a law is substantially overbroad, it violates the first amendment. he found that this law was that. he gave us an example. hunting is illegal in the district of columbia. there's a huge market for videos on hunting, publications on hunting.

hunting is legal in many states. if those publications or videos got to the district of columbia, the law's prohibition would apply . >> warner: he was saying that the law the way it was written was so broad that it could sweep in other kinds of videos that weren't aimed at the so- called extreme cruelty. >> that's exactly right . >> warner: justice alito wrote his lone dissent. what were his arguments. >> he had two problems. he felt that the court should not have examined the law to see if it was overbroad. that's a doctrine that the court uses as last resort. he said the case should have been sent back to the lower court to see if the law was unconstitutional as applied to these three videos. he also took on the overbroad argument. he said most of the examples the court relied on here-- hunting, fishing regulations-- they were exempted under state animal cruelty laws, and they would fall under an exception in the federal law. he said this was not substantially overbroad.

it had many constitutional applications. >> warner: was justice roberts essentially saying that he doesn't think this kind of cruelty to animals is in the same category as child pornography in terms of the damage it does to society? >> no, not at all. he was saying that the depictions of animal cruelty that this law tackled did not have... did not have the same kind of tradition of prohibition in the law as other categories of unprotected speech. he's not saying animal cruelty is protected. it's just the depiction of it. >> warner: you're saying that it doesn't rise to the level, that is, the depiction of it, that say the depiction of children in obscene or provocative poses does. >> the real distinction here is that the commercial production of child pornography, he said it was so inter-related with the harm to children

that it could not be protected. he the did not see that connection with animal cruelty depictions. >> warner: what happens next with this issue? >> the chief justice did leave something of an open door here. he said that the court did not have to decide and would not decide whether a law narrowly targeted specifically at dog fighting and crush videos was constitutional. almost immediately the humane society of the united states announced that it was going to seek that kind of a law. the other possible impact is until we have another law, it would... the court's decision will revive the market for these depictions of animal cruelty. law enforcement said that after the law was enacted, the market almost dried up. once the law was struck down by the lower court, it came back again. >> warner: very interesting. marcia coyle, thank you. >> my pleasure.

>> brown: now, a two-part look at the fallout from the financial crisis, as it plays out in washington and in the housing market. first, newshour congressional correspondent kwame holman revisits a key moment in the meltdown, the collapse of lehman brothers. >> holman: the lehman brothers bankruptcy 19 months ago sent shock waves through markets around the world, and it helped fuel the push to overhaul the u.s. financial regulatory system. those two things-- lehman's past and the future of financial reform-- collided today before the house financial services committee. treasury secretary tim geithner said reform would let regulators break up ailing firms like lehman in a way that protects the broader economy. >> with financial reform, if a firm like lehman still mismanages itself into failure, the government will have the ability to wind it down with no exposure to the taxpayer. this is bankruptcy for banks.

it is essential to deal with moral hazard, the risk that investors and executives will take risks in the future in the expectation the government will step in to bail them out. >> holman: but republicans, such as alabama's spencer bachus, said, in fact, the lehman debacle shows there's no reason to have any confidence in the overhaul plan. >> the regulatory proposals that have been offered by this administration are now being considered by congress double- down on these same failed policies. the same regulators-- in some cases, the same individuals-- that failed us two years ago and made lehman's collapse far more damaging than it should have been are still with us. lehman is gone, but the failures of the fed and the s.e.c. are still with us and should not be rewarded with new regulatory powers. >> holman: mixed in with the debate over wall street reform were questions about who was in fact responsible for lehman's demise. last month, an examiner for the federal bankruptcy court found

that lehman hid $50 billion in bad debts through an accounting maneuver known as "repo 105". it allowed the company to sell toxic assets at the end of a quarter, wipe them off the balance sheet, and then quickly buy them back. but the chairman of the federal reserve, ben bernanke, said the central bank never knew. >> however, knowledge of the lehman's accounting for these transactions would not have materially altered the federal reserve's view of the condition of the firm. the information we did obtain suggested that the capital and liquidity of the firm were seriously deficient, a view that we conveyed to the company, and that i believe was shared by the s.e.c. and the treasury department. >> holman: the chair of the securities and exchange commission in 2008, christopher cox, also said, in written testimony, his agency had been unaware of lehman's tactics. the current chair, mary schapiro, said the s.e.c. now is investigating whether other large banks are using a similar accounting move. >> we've sent a letter and demanded information from the

largest financial institutions to explain to us exactly how they're using repos, how they're accounting for them and disclosing repos, and the impact on their balance sheet, whether they've changed their accounting models over the last three years. and, importantly, what has been their average debt balances over the period, so that we don't just have them dress up the balance sheet for quarter-end, and then have dramatic increases during the course of the quarter. >> holman: as the day went on, the committee dug into details of the federal bankruptcy examiner's report. and ultimately, the former head of lehman brothers was called to answer the accusations of accounting gimmicks and hidden debt. the court-appointed examiner, anton valukas, discussed the findings from a report that ran 2,200 pages. he said warning signs were there, but no one acted on them. >> by at least 2007, various agencies of the united states government were concerned at the highest levels with the prospects for lehman's survival. but concern did not translate

into action. government agencies gathered information, they monitored, but no agency effectively regulated or compelled lehman to alter its conduct. >> holman: valukas charged the s.e.c., lehman's main regulator, did little to prevent the investment bank from spiraling into bankruptcy. >> the s.e.c. did not know that lehman was manipulating its balance sheets to make its leverage appear better than it was by using repo 105 transactions that i describe in detail in my report. the s.e.c. did not know this because it did not ask the right questions. its failure to ask about off balance sheet transactions in this post-enron era is hard to understand. >> holman: later, former lehman brothers executives had their first public comment on the examiner's report. former chairman and c.e.o. richard fuld denied knowing about the accounting maneuver. >> i have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of hearing anything about or seeing

documents related to repo 105 transactions while i was the c.e.o. of lehman. >> holman: fuld said representatives of the s.e.c. and federal reserve monitored lehman's activities daily, and could have stepped in if they thought there were problems. he voiceed regret for the bank's downfall. >> i'm very much aware that, one day, we had a firm, and the next day we did not. a lot of people got hurt by that. and i have to live with that. i take full responsibility for the for the decisions that i made, and all i can say to you is that i made those decisions. i had the information at the time that i thought was accurate, and with that, made a

prudent decision. >> holman: the house hearing came as the senate is preparing to take up financial reform legislation in the coming days. >> warner: next, moving from the failings of wall street to homeowners in florida who have decided to walk away from their mortgages. our story comes from newshour economics correspondent paul solman. it's part of his ongoing reporting on "making sense of financial news." >> reporter: meet 28-year-old josh bartlett-- west virginia native, now a restaurant manager in fort myers, florida. he lives in a condo he bought in 2005 for $210,000 with a mortgage of $190,000. and what's it worth today? >> $45,000. i can go across the street, pay cash, and never have to worry ever again about a mortgage payment. >> reporter: across the street, around the corner. with a 60% vacancy rate, bartlett could buy at least four units in this development for

what his place cost. but as for never worrying about a mortgage payment again, well, it's not as if he's sweating over his current obligations. >> in december of 2007, i made my last payment. every previous payment was on time, and i told them that if they didn't adjust any kind of rates, any kind of principal, that they would not see another dollar from me. >> reporter: and that that was the last time you made a payment, december 2007? >> yes, sir. 2008 was a free year, 2009 was a free year, and so far, four months into 2010. >> reporter: so, you could afford the payments that you're not making. >> yes, i could afford that. but when it's only worth $45,000, i would much rather flush my money down the toilet. >> reporter: as far as bartlett is concerned, he and the bank are even. >> i made a $20,000 down payment. i paid them two years of interest only, which adds up to

about, you know, roughly $30,000, so, you know, i'm... i'm willing to walk. >> reporter: bartlett is a part of a growing breed in the post- boom bust-- strategic defaulters, those who can afford to make their mortgage payments but refuse. with their home values way below what they owe, they figure, why throw good money after bad? >> at some point in time, you have to cut your losses. >> reporter: golf pro jason welsh figures he can rent for less, and save money for his kids' college education. >> it's the smart business decision. it's not about whether i can afford the place or not; it's more about taking care of my family. >> reporter: but what about the seven years of bad credit scores that punish all defaulters? >> i just feel that i can rebuild my credit score faster than i'm going to get $100,000 equity back in my house. >> reporter: and with lenders overwhelmed by so many foreclosures like jason welsh's, and legal complexities galore, they're not going after his other assets, even though, in florida, they could.

according to economist luigi zingales, strategic defaults now account for a third of all foreclosures in the u.s., a significant increase from just a year ago. >> people who know other people who walk away are more willing to walk away, so this points in the direction of a contagion. >> reporter: and that, says zingales, could made a bad situation even worse. >> if most of the people that are underwater walk away, then house prices will drop even more, and then that will induce more people to walk away. so we can have sort of a vicious circle in a lot of real estate markets, local real estate markets, that could be really dangerous. >> reporter: in florida, where nearly half the mortgages are underwaterwalking away is becoming, if not yet commonplace, at least nothing to be ashamed of. >> you watch the news, you talk to people in this area, it's... it's not so bad now. >> reporter: besides, says bartlett, businesses do it all the time.

in december, morgan stanley stopped making payments on five san francisco office buildings worth half what they cost in 2007. in january, developer tishman speyer gave two manhattan apartment complexes on which it had borrowed $4.4 billion back to its creditors, including the california teachers pension fund. current market value-- $1.8 billion. and in february, the mortgage bankers association sold its washington headquarters, on which it owed $75 million, for $41 million. continued ownership, said the mba, would be economically imprudent. >> yes, i'm defaulting. yes, i'm walking away. but i'm not going to keep running a business that is losing money as the days go on. >> reporter: so a lot of folks aren't bothered by walking away any more than they're embarrassed by having bought

during the boom-- the latest one or, for that matter, the one that created this corner of florida in the late '50s, when the rosen brothers, a couple of salesmen from baltimore, thought to develop cape coral. historian gary mormino. >> they bulldozed everything over, they brought in an aggressive commissioned sales force, they brought tourists to cape coral by airplane. if you forgot your checkbook to make your down payment, they had blank checks from every bank in america. and cape coral was one of the great success stories. >> cape coral, with more miles of waterways than venice, italy, has become a legendary way of life on florida's gulf coast. >> i took one look and said, "that's it." >> reporter: half a century later, local realtor kevin jarrett said pretty much the same thing. >> stood right here, put my hands on the counter, looked out onto the water said," this is it, this is where i want to be. this is the dream." >> reporter: in 2006, jarrett bought this home for nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

but his dream of living on the water soon had him drowning in a nightmarish sea of debt. >> soon after i bought the home, everything started crashing and i didn't have the cash to pay it off like i expected to. so i started paying the minimum, and then the below-minimum, which just kept putting... adding on to the back end of the house. >> reporter: while his mortgage amount rose, the value of the house plunged; ultimately, by more 50%. >> i tried to keep everything going as long as i could, waiting for something to change, because everybody said that this market crash was going to last six months. well, obviously not. >> reporter: jarrett didn't walk so much as stumble away, broke. the bank moved to foreclose. >> during that process, i also lost my family. my... i went through a divorce. my wife and my daughter now live up north. i mean, i have literally lost everything. but right now, i'm just trying to do what's right, you know. and i'm in a bad spot, in a bad situation, but it has nothing to

do with a business decision where, you know, i'm walking away because my house is upside down. >> reporter: jarrett's foreclosure, in other words, was no strategic default. but had he had the option, he says, he wouldn't have gone that route. >> if you buy a car, it loses value as soon as you drive it off a lot, but you still keep making the payments for that vehicle. i don't see the difference with the homes. what right do you have to say, "well, i'm going to not pay because now you're taking money from other people because i... i want to take care of my family." well, so, somewhere along the line, ethics have to come into play, you know. and i just don't think it's right to do that. >> reporter: neither-- you probably won't be surprised to learn-- does banker bill valenti. >> when the value of the house was going up, you know, no one ever came to the bank and said to me, "bill, i've just sold my home, made $100,000. here's $10,000 for the bank. thanks for helping me," you know?

but yet, when the value of the home is going down, notwithstanding the fact that the borrower can repay the loan, they expect the bank to take the loss, or the person that bought that mortgage in the secondary market. in my opinion, it's just simply not fair. >> reporter: but most mortgages aren't owned by banks anymore, right? they're owned by investors who own shares of pools of mortgages, and those investors are all over the world. >> and you and i may be investors in those pools by virtue of the fact that we've invested in a mutual fund or... or some other investment vehicle. so, some other human being, not an institution, is going to lose money as a result of their decision simply not to honor an obligation. and where does it end? how can a bank make a loan in the future if it runs the risk of knowing that the value of that property, if it goes down, the borrower has the right to leave it? >> reporter: so what are you doing here at this point? >> well, some people would call it squatting. but they could still have me,

you kn, to make paeng1ts, to refinance, to lower my there's a million things that they could do but are not willing to. >> reporter: but you have made out like a bandit. >> i've made out like a bandit, yes. but i'm willing to work with them. i'm willing to say, hey, look, we all made a mistake, we all got a little crazy in 2007." >> reporter: three years later, it's a mistake bartlett, like so many other americans these days, is no longer willing to pay for. >> brown: how well are community colleges doing at educating and graduating students? in an economic downturn and with costs so high, the nation's nearly 1,200 community colleges play an increasing role in higher education, with an enrollment of nearly 12 million, or 44% of all undergraduates. but there's growing concern that too many never complete their coursework or certification.

today, leaders of community colleges announced new plans to tackle the problem. joining us to discuss this are: mary spilde, president of lane community college in eugene, oregon, and chair of the board of directors for the "american association of community colleges"; and hillary pennington, who oversees higher education programs for the bill and melinda gates foundation, which is providing funding for the new effort. for the record, the foundation is a newshour underwriter. mary spilde, i'll start with you. first fill in the picture for us a bit. who is today attending community colleges and how do you see your role as having changed within higher education? >> well, many of our students are underrepresented, underprepared students, first- generation students. but we're seeing in this downturn in the economy an increasing number of people with degrees who are coming back for job training to learn a new skill. >> brown: how does that change

the role within higher education overall? >> well, community colleges have always been open-access institutions. we intend to continue to focus on access. i think one of the things that we're understanding1i disaggregate the data on how the students are doing is we need to do a better job of completion. graduation is only one measure for our students because many come back to do a couple classes to upgrade their skills for work. but nevertheless even having said that, we do want to make sure that we do a better job of assessing what students' goals are and then bring student service supports to bear to make sure they achieve their goals . >> brown: hillary pennington, how serious a problem is this of lack of completion? is it your assessments that community colleges are not paying enough attention to it. >> it is a serious problem not just for community colleges but for four-year institutions as well. fewer than half of young

americans have achieved either a two- or four-year degree by the time they reach age 30. community colleges are key because they are the open access institution and particularly for low-income students who want to start at a college that is affordable and close to home. large numbers of them go to community college. they do go to community college expecting and hoping to get some kind of a credential. they're not the students coming back for a short-term course. >> brown: so why aren't they finishing their course work or their degree? >> well, there are many reasons for that. mary spoke to one of the most important ones that our data shows as well, which is remedial education. the large numbers of students who start take tests that are placement tests for putting them into college credit classes and they fail them. 50% of all students who start at community colleges get put into remedial education. no fault of the community colleges. they come academically underprepared but once they go into remedial education community colleges can do a

much much better job of innovating to help students complete those courses much that's what we're excited about working with community colleges to help them do. >> brown: staying with you in a nutshell, what else are you proposing that should be done? >> we... in addition to working to reinvent and get breakthrough results in remedial education, we are working to help create... (audio problem) we think technology can be a huge asset for colleges as they try to help today's students do better. one of the challenges we have is that most education institutions for higher ed were not built for today's students. 75% of all students who are in college, two or four year are working, they're combining school and work. we think that technology that helps students do wert while in school and be able to get access to education in non-traditional hours is an important piece of the puzzle as well. >> brown: mary spilde, your group announced voluntary guidelines to go forward with

this. tell us about that. what is it that you think would get to the heart of the problem? >> well, what we do today was sign a call to action to our over 1100 community colleges across the nation. to really try and develop a culture of completion. we have been focused on access and quality. now we need to just have increased focus on completion. we're really calling on our colleges to start the discussion about how they can build on existing good practices for completion and have more focus for students, thing like more intensive advising, tutoring, supplemental instruction. as hillary mentioned, looking at how we can help technology , have that dealt into the pedagogy in the classroom. of course, as she mentioned, developmental ed is a very important piece of what we do because of the fact that so many students come underprepared. >> brown: is everyone in the

community college community feel that this is a problem? i mean i know there's been some question of counting people as degree students or not. you know, a sense of what exactly do students come there for? is there, do you think now, a general agreement that this is an important issue? >> well, i think there has been concern about evaluating community colleges using a university lens. that is the degree completion. but even with that, i think all of us who are committed to community colleges and the kinds of students that we serve understand that to be competitive in a global economy, students need to be credentialed. therefore, we need to do whatever it takes to help them complete certificatess, degrees, and get ready to move on either to universities or to work. >> brown: what kind of measurements or yardsticks are being talked about to really see if there's progress being made?

>> well, we do have a group working on a voluntary work of accountability right now to think about the kinds of measures that would make sense for community colleges. but there are some very successful models out there right now. for example, the state of washington has been working on momentum points that basically packages a course of study together at different points along the pathway to a degree. they're having some success in using those data to figure out what kinds of things need to be done to improve completion and lead students along the path to a degree. >> brown: hillary pennington, weigh in there on this notion of yard sticks. are there... i guess your money that will help fund this is sort of a carrot. are there some sticks involved in really pushing this to make sure that, you know, that students are being measured, that the institutions are being measured for outcomes? >> we think it's very, very important to begin to have

data. you know, one of the striking things is because we've not asked ourselves this question, we have very, very poor information that a college could use for its baseline graduation rates or to track what it does that helps it improve. one of the things that mary spoke about, the program here in washington state, but all along the line we think that it will be important to create structures that help students go further faster. you know, the way we structure education today where they go three times a week for a one- hour course, there's got to be a way to help students move more quickly, we think, through programs of study. so partly we want to help colleges get data and information that will help them understand where they start from and if they do better. i think over time, we need to look at how higher education is financed. most states finance higher education based on a full-time enrollment. they base their funding based on how many people enroll and not how many complete. we understand that that's a very complicated issue. but i think over time we need to be looking at both the

enrollment and the completion . >> brown: i'm wondering just as you said given the differences in low cals and states, is it possible to create a national rubric for the funding questions for the standards questions? >> i think a good place to start would be to agree on a national measure for measuring what a graduation rate looks like. >> brown: is that possible, mary spilde, given the differences that many of your members must face? >> well, it's true that we have state systems and we have locally governed community colleges but obviously we're very committed to student success. i think the voluntary framework of accountability that is being worked on right now actually funded by the gates foundation and other foundations will give us some measures that local colleges will be able to adopt. >> brown: all right. we'll leave it there. mary spilde and hillary pennington, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you.

>> warner: finally tonight, remembering a heroine of the civil rights era. and to gwen ifill >> ifill: dorothy irene height always made it her business to be in the room, whether it was working with eleanor roosevelt and mary mcleod bethune, or advising martin luther king, jr., and roy wilkins. after a lifetime of activism, she received both the presidential medal of freedom-- from president bill clinton in 1994-- and the congressional medal of honor-- from president george w. bush in 2004. >> early in life, i learned it was important to have some goals, and to have a sense that you're not just a worker but that you had a mission, and to have a sense of a life's work. and i chose to put my life's

work in the direction of equality and justice. >> ifill: height returned to the white house earlier this year when president obama unveiled an oval office copy of the emancipation proclamation. today, the president hailed her as the "godmother of the civil rights movement." height served as president of the national council of negro women for 40 years, and was a longtime board member of the ywca, where she began her career as a social worker. i spoke with her in 2003 when she published her autobiography, "open wide the freedom gates." in it, she recalled the history she'd witnessed, including her first meeting with a future civil rights icon. >> i first met martin luther king, jr., when he was just 15. he'd come to morehouse college as a gifted student, and he was living with a doctor, and i was living with dr. and mrs. mayes, because at that time, i could not be accepted in a white hotel.

and dr. mayes wanted me to meet his favorite student. and it was really a tremendous experience to sit there and hear a 15-year-old talk about whether he wanted to be a doctor or enter law or medicine. but you had a sense of purpose in him. and ten years later, 1955, he responded when rosa parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, and we all know the rest is history. >> ifill: height was often one of the only women in the room, or on the stage, at pivotal moments in history. here she is seen standing to king's left during 1963's historic "i have a dream" speech. >> i think i was born a feminist, because i think, all my life, i've been proud to be a girl and to be a woman. but it was a very significant experience to be the woman member among those men. >> ifill: was there a downside to that?

>> well, it was hard for them sometimes to realize, as in the march on washington, the importance of women's rights. i mean, i think that we were so absorbed in the racial situation and in racism. if you remember, at the march on washington, despite all of our efforts, and many women joined me, we were not able to get a woman to speak. but in the face of things, we worked through that and we supported the march, as everyone had to do, because it was a tremendous moment in american life. >> ifill: but her involvement did not end there. in 1964, she helped create "wednesdays in mississippi," which sent interracial teams of northern women to mississippi to discuss racial justice with their southern counterparts. known for her trademark hats,

her sharp memory, and her astonishing tirelessness, dorothy height never quite retired. >> so long as god should let me live, i want to be out there working to help to see what needs to be done and making whatever contribution i can make, doing it not for myself but for others, not by myself but with others, and for the betterment of us all. and i hope that, as we leave this ceremony, all of us will feel that new sense of commitment, and will do it in a spirit knowing that we do not work alone. >> ifill: and in her final years, height worked to make sure that younger leaders would follow her path. >> i would like very much to see our younger generation, who have inherited open doors, take more

time to be patient enough to learn their own history, so that they will see how they build on what has happened. >> ifill: dorothy height was 98 years old. >> brown: again, the other major developments of the day: air space reopened over most of europe, including britain, late in the day. but thousands of people remained stranded after six days of flight disruptions. and the u.s. supreme court struck down a federal ban on videos showing graphic violence against animals. by eight to one, the court ruled the ban violated the right to free speech. the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan is in our newsroom tonight and previews what's there. hari. >> sreenivasan: there's more on the life of dorothy height-- read a blog from gwen, who remembers how height touched lives. on the lehman hearings, we asked a roundtable of experts what they'd ask if they were on the committee. politico reporter eamon javers

explains why this week in politics is so important for wall street. jim lehrer managed to launch his 20th book and his first blog post all in the same day. he sent us a postcard from a speeding train after an appearance on npr's diane rehm show. a conversation with judy woodruff, just honored with a lifetime achievement award from the edward r. murrow school of communication. she describes her early years in the newsroom and offers advice for budding journalists. plus, find a link to tonight's "frontline" on the dancing boys of afghanistan, an ancient tradition where boys are dressed in women's clothes and taught to entertain male audiences. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff. >> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm jeffrey brown. >> warner: and i'm margaret warner. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thanks for being with us. good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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