ms. nelson and mr. fox or their efforts to keep this current and really make it more meaningful. when we adopted the strategic plan, one of the things that i know was your interest as well as mine is that it be a document that we could use to hold ourselves accountable and that the public could use to hold us accountable, that it would not be a document that we celebrate and then put up on a shelf and forget about, but that we use it to drive the decisions when making everyday budget decisions, such as the one we are contemplating today, the policy decisions, and without specific metrics, such as the standards that are imposed and the improvements to them that the audit called for, we would not really have the specific means, so i know it is a little dry and a little rushed, but i think it is very important, whether we have much discussion now or later. we will certainly be bringing back our performance or our results, but based on these standards, and i think that is a big part of the accountability that we need to bring to the mta. chair brinkman: director hein icke? director h

ms. nelson, the crowding on our system is increasing, and some folks to write some of the bus lines that carry a lot of school kids after school know that some of those lines are already at crush status. we have estimated what costs will be for the additional service to we now have to provide as a result of making this free for the low-income young people, but those really are not factored into our expenses, so to the extent that those costs materialize, that is going to be within our operating budget, still looking at the impacts we get, the impact in terms of truancy and the other goals of the program, i think it is important. that is why we do pilots to take a small slice and see what the impacts are. the other issue is that since the funding was largely one-time in nature, at the end of the pilot, we will have a hole in our budget. the more we limit it, the smaller that will be in two years to fill. supervisor campos and the other advocates have been very insistent and determined it to work with us to find additional funding sources, and i have no doubt in their sincerity and desire

nelson. i'm going to ask the final question, there being nobody left. so i'll have to roll several into it. ms. whiting, you were very interesting the way you answered senator pryor's question because you really hesitated when you talked about the effect of technology leading to rural coverage. you didn't -- you had an answer, but it was awhile in coming. i thought that was honest and i happen to agree with that. the business of when rural state senators talk about rural people or poor people in far-off places and people say, well, they're just pandering to their constituency is really not at all the case. this is a basic american precept. mr. diller has said that a number of times, everything has to go to everybody. that's such a fundamentally american concept. it's also a concept which is so probable, can be probable, with this proliferation of platforms. and delivery areas. however, i think this committee has done a very good job in three areas of all this. and that is we started the e-rate. every classroom was done on the third day. others didn't do that. and so it was a much longer proces

ms. her ridge. wonderful job. >> every day this week on c-span2 at 7 p.m. eastern q&a interviews on education in america. tonight carrie nelsonpresident of the american association of university professors. he says social, political and cultural forces are undermining academic freedom at colleges in the u.s. on tuesday naomi schafer riley on college professors and tenure. wednesday, gerald turner, president of southern methodist university. and on thursday, andrew ferguson, author of "crazy u: one dad's crash course on getting his kid into college." and finally on friday, madeleine sackler who made a documentary on the lottery system used to select students in new york city's charter schools. q&a on education every night this week at 7 eastern here on c-span2. >>> and also in prime time booktv. tonight we'll get a glimpse at the lives of former and current u.s. senators. starting at 8:30 p.m. eastern with former pennsylvania senator arlen specter's "life among the cannibals." at 9:25, john shaw on the senator from indiana, richard g. lugar, statesman of the senate. and at 10, a book party with former senator alan simpson and