when arnie duncan was before the committee testifying, he was asked by republicans and democrats what he thought we ought to do. he ought use the market. one of my democrat colleagues said wouldn't it be better to just have a temporary two-year solution. he said no. he thought it was time for a permanent solution. now discussions are bubbling around. i spoke to senator alexander .esterday or the day before he is trying to continue discussions with the white house. what we need is presidential leadership to say "look, we have proposed long-term solutions, interest rates to the market, 10-year treasury, why don't we push the senate to pass some version of that and then we can hammer out the details?" if you can talk a little bit about the politics system. last year when this issue up in january and february e-mailing alexander and asking what you knew. if i remember right, you were not particularly interested in doing much. you did have some ideas but it was not until met romney came or word and said we cannot let this happen because of the economy that the entire issue kind of blew up.

thet seems to be focused on role of the education secretary and what arnie duncan and his people will have an authority. chambersns in both seem to want to undercut the secretary's authority to the point where he is basically little more than a cheerleader for state and local education officials. is this worth having to preserve some power? have some sympathy for the frustration that people have in terms of where we are right now. there has been a vacuum by not reauthorizing this for as long as i have been inc. congress. we were supposed to do this in 07 and 08. it has allowed the office to fill that space and through the waiver process that has too much power. in terms of driving education policy around the country. think you did what he had to do in terms of making sure these mandates did not come in with massive penalties. having said that, that is not an acceptable state of affairs. to the extent they're pushing back and saying we should have a law that says the ground that is democratically debated and agreed to, i think it is a better balance than having the secretary's office s

as assistant secretary, ruslyn is assistant secretary arnie's duncan's primary advisor. before she joined the department of education she was vice president of the education trust in washington, dc and was the founding executive of education trust west in oakland. in these positions she advocated for public school students in california, focusing on achievement and opportunity gaps, improving can urriculum and instructional quality and ensuring quality education for everybody. she served as an advisor on education issues on a number of private ipbs institutions, she is a teacher, a lawyer, and a very influential voice on all policy matters. she was also passionate about ending this issue of bullying and bringing everyone together to stop this disturbing trend so please welcome assistant secretary for civil rights, ruslyn lee. as i said, our moderator is not always our lieutenant governor, of course he needs to introduction -- no, i get to say something. i get to say something. as everyone in this room knows, youngest mayor in 100 years, right? youngest mayor in 100 years

i was there with certificate arnie duncan this morning where we were thanking him for the investment in promise neighborhoods and the school investment grants coming from the federal government. we have to keep that dialogue going and i'm adding to that. for example, i think to answer i have personally adopted all the middle schooled as my philanthropic goal as along as i am mayor of san francisco. all 12 middle middle schools are going to get more of the resources that they need to be successful. i adopted the middle schools for a direct purpose. i asked our school district where is the biggest drop-off in performance of our kids? where is the disengagement happening? what are we doing about it? and they said we are subject to the cuts in the federal and state programs, which have been the traditional funding sources for our schools. so i am going to take that up myself. and i can't -- i am not privileged to name the source of funding at this time, but we literally got notice that $3 million of private investment from companies that are invested in our kids and our future are going

arnie duncan says the states will now be able to seek waivers to shield for poorly performing teachersfrom being held to n higher standards. these evaluations are known as common core. they are part of a major overall to the no child left behind law. critics say it is the latest example of the obama administration over reaching and trying to control american schools. >>> there will be a game 7 in the nba finals. miami storming back from 13 points down in the 4th quarter against the spurs. ray allen nailed the three pointer with seconds left in over time. police were called in because many of the heat fans left they thought the game was over. the fans were founding on the doors to get back in. there's a new re-entry policy. miami wins 103-to-100. game 7 tomorrow night thursday night. heather that's our 5 at 5:30. >> can't blame them for wanting to get back in there. an all out defense of the agency's controversial surveillance program. he is doing this in front of law americas. >> they could hearn more about dozens of terror plots they were able to stop thanks to the programs in in plac

arnie duncan came to san francisco to hear more about itnd a perhaps help expand it to other cities. >> this is one of the more unique creative innovative entrepreneur ideas i have seen. >> reporter: the city has deposited $50 of taxpayer money into a college savings account for every child that entered kindergarten. one hundred dollars for low- income student. >> we are trying to make it a national model. >> >> reporter: recent studies show students with their own college savings account are four times more likely to go to college than those that don't have an account. the program has cost the city $600 thousand. school teachers and principals said they have seen attitudes change. it's more conversation about what they want to do when they grow up. >> reporter: it didn't happen before? >> no, not at much. >> reporter: the success or failure will not become apparent until they graduate from high school. but it's a program they start to catch on. >> >> well, it's the kind of contest that's not for everyone and it makes for interesting pictures it's the annual company he 'tis question

arnie duncan came to san francisco to hear more about itnd a perhaps help expand it to other cities. >> this is one of the more unique creative innovative entrepreneur ideas i have seen. >> reporter: the city has deposited $50 of taxpayer money into a college savings account for every child that entered kindergarten. one hundred dollars for low- income student. >> we are trying to make it a national model. >> >> reporter: recent studies show students with their own college savings account are four times more likely to go to college than those that don't have an account. the program has cost the city $600 thousand. school teachers and principals said they have seen attitudes change. it's more conversation about what they want to do when they grow up. >> reporter: it didn't happen before? >> no, not at much. >> reporter: the success or failure will not become apparent until they graduate from high school. but it's a program they start to catch on. >> >> well, it's the kind of contest that's not for everyone and it makes for interesting pictures it's the annual company he 'tis question

. >> in one form, education cert -- secretary arnie duncan, and several teachers discuss ways to prepare teachers -- students for the connected world of learning. they also recommended ways to improve schools. he was interviewed by andrea mitchell. this is about one hour. >> chris and are you thrilled to be able to ask some questions. usually we have to answer all the hard ones. we'll do it quite happily. i'll start, and we'd love to begin -- hope you guys had the three amazing teachers, all of whom i've worked with in different capacities, whether here or back home in chicago, and let's just start big picture, if we could step back, think big, if you could redesign schools from scratch. i know your team is thinking about designs. if we could redesign schools from scratch, what would they look like today? anybody feel free to jump in and happily engage kids very different until their own mind. >> well, i think we start by look agent things very differently. what we heard earlier today is a good example. i think we as teachers need to simply get out of kids' way, to give them the space to