thomas was a high school head coach for 37 years. 34 of those at appleton, parkers berg. monday that the lessons he taught would live on forever. >> you can tell how many people he touched. it wasn't just us and it wasn't just the students. it was people across iowa and people across the country that he touched. his legacy will live forever. >> we wouldn't have missed it obviously. ed has been a tremendous influence in my own life. and, you know, he just meant so much. how do you put that into words. >> always tried to get the best out of people. >> if i can carry that on to anybody and teach kids how to do that, i'm going to do my best. >> a moving tribute to a great, a great american, great iowian, who we loved and respected a great deal. >> what we have to do to get ready. the coach isn't here. >> the coach would want us to carry on what he started. carry on. i have equipped everyone well to do this, carry the torch for me. >> authorities have charged a 24-year-old former player for thomas with first-degree murder. he remains in jail on a $1 million bond. >> our top st

there are great things happening in green bay in appleton and all over the u. p. and there are things that can be reproduced. my question is, when will the focus be on reproducing those things, smaller classrooms, creating communities in your classrooms, and moving the focus away from single-day testing and test-driven outcomes? [cheers and applause] >> all right. i first of all, thank you for teaching. my sister's a teacher. i think there's no more noble a profession than helping to train the next generation of americans. [applause] >> you know, i completely agree with you that there's a lot of good stuff going on in american education. the problem is that it's uneven. and well, let me put it this way. there are actually two problems. in some places it is completely broken. in some urban communities where you've got 50% of the kids dropping out, you only have one out of every 10 children who are graduating atde

now, in other places, green bay, appleton, many communities throughout wisconsin and michigan, the average public- school is actually doing a reasonably good job, but can i still say that even if you factor out the urban schools, we're falling behind when it comes to mass -- comes to math, science. we have kind of settled into mediocrity when we compare ourselves to other advanced countries and both countries. that is a problem because the reason that america over the last 100 years has consistently been the wealthiest nation is because we have also been the most educated nation. it used to be by a pretty sizable factor that we had the highest high school graduation rates, the highest college graduation rates, the highest number of the doctorates, the highest number of engineers and scientists. we used to be headed shoulders above other countries when it came to education. we are not any more. we are in the middle of the pact now -- pack now amongst industrialized countries. even with good schools, we have to pick up the pace because the world has gotten competitive. the chinese, indians,

in other places, green bay, appleton, and many communities throughout wisconsin and michigan, the average public- school is actually doing a reasonably good job, but can i still say that even if you factor out the urban schools, we are falling behind when it comes to masth,