starting on this side, george burrell, nonprofit exec, journalist larry platt. >> good morning. >> communicationsxec nia meeks. on this side, we've got columnist christine flowers, attorney ajay raju, and documentarian sam katz. we've divided up the subjects. let's jump in. we'll start with larry taking a look at education. we all talk about the problems -- the budget holes, the poor test scores, the failing infrastructure, the violence. where do we begin to turn it around? >> well, this might sound counterintuitive, but i think we could learn something from, of all places, cuba and fidel castro. in 1960, fidel castro and che guevara made 1961 the year of education. they had an illiteracy rate of 27%, which is ours, as well. and within a year, they dropped it to 4%. how'd they do it? they had the political will to attack adult literacy. and they closed the schools. brigades of teachers and students went out into peasant fields, taught reading, taught writing. and within a year, it was turned around. and not only that, but today, cuba has the greatest literacy statistics in the world. and i talked

starting on this side, george burrell, nonprofit exec, journalist larry platt. >> good morning. >> communicationsnia meeks. on this side, we've got columnist christine flowers, attorney ajay raju, and documentarian sam katz. we've divided up the subjects. let's jump in. we'll start with larry taking a look at education. we all talk about the problems -- the budget holes, the poor test scores, the failing infrastructure, the violence. where do we begin to turn it around? >> well, this might sound counterintuitive, but i think we could learn something from, of all places, cuba and fidel castro. in 1960, fidel castro and