gates. i think he and melinda and his father and the people at the gates foundation have not only amassed more money for health advances but actually spent the money better and promoted more innovation and saved more lives than anyone could have imagined. i count it a privilege to work with the gates foundation in many areas. i will mention a couple of them today because i think they reflect how you should consider the global health initiative in the administration. i want to thank both of you for your bipartisan support of large increases in health care investments. the malaria initiative, which began under president bush, was literally an order of magnitude beyond anything our country had been able to do before. in my second term, we were contributing 25% of the total the world was spending on hiv and aids, and my last budget was something like $300 million a year. the biggest thing we did was the millennium debt relief initiative because all of those savings have to be spent on health care. when you have done here, i think, is very important. i also want to thank you for repeatedly and expl

it was selected as one of four districts to receive a grant from the bill and melinda gates the invasion of $100 million over seven years. bill gates spoke about the changes needed to the egypt -- educational system at the 2009 ncsl conference in philadelphia. >> you'd think we should identify the top teachers. we should award them. we should retain them. we should make sure other teachers learn from them. >> regarding the grades of the hillsborough county school district, becky phillips the education director said it is all about the importance of teaching. it is the seven-year experiment to get the best teachers possible in the classroom. our ultimate goal is to dramatically increase student achievement, raise graduation rates, and to insure college and career readiness. the way to do this is to ensure our teachers are inspired and have the support they need. local administrators i spoke with feel that better teaching of the teachers is key to success. >> what the first things we do is allow professional development for teachers. the teachers take training sometimes on the weekends, so

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the u.s. gulf coast watched and waited today, hoping much of an oil slick can be burned off at sea. it was all a race against time, before the oil reaches shore. the coast guard ignited the first of a series of small, controlled fires this afternoon >> this burn will occur in a very small area within 500 feet of fire-resistant boom. puting this in perspective, the controlled burns will not be the same size or scale of what we observed on the deep water horizon as it was on fire. >> work boats were set to corral several hundred gallons at a time. the oil would be towed farther out, then set afire. satellite images showed the oil now spreading over an area 100 mi

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation.eserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the president's message today was part rebuke, part appeal for help, to prevent another financial meltdown. he made it in new york city to leaders of the financial community, as a showdown looms in the u.s. senate. >> woodruff: mr. obama chose cooper union college as his venue-- just a short ride from wall street. the speech was sharply worded, taking the financial sector to task for the meltdown of 2008. >> a free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. that's what happened too often in the years leading up to this crisis. some-- and let me be clear, not all, but some on wall street forgot that behind e

move on to another target >> reporter: the study has recently received a boost from the bill and melinda gates foundation to expand it's research. the foundation also funds the newshour's global health coverage. doctors hope these early steps in understanding the molecular mechanics of h.i.v. are early steps in finding a vaccine that has eluded researchers for 30 years. >> woodruff: finally tonight, looking at a dramatic moment in american labor history through poetry. david mason is the author of "ludlow"-- a book-length poem that tells the story of a 1913 colorado strike by miners, most of them immigrants, that ended in violence. >> my name is dave mason. i am a poet who grew up in washington state but i had family roots here in southern colorado. and when i came back to colorado in the late 1990s, i decided it was very important for me to try to write about colorado. when i wrote this first novel "ludlow," one of the things i was trying to do was not only to root myself in this area but also to create a sense of the evasiveness of identity in america. "what does it mean, nation of immigrant

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 upgra

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> lehrer: president obama played host to dozens of his counterparts today at a world summit. they focused on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. jeffrey brown begins our coverage. >> brown: it's the largest gathering of world leaders ever held in washington. today president obama greeted dignitaries from 47 countries. on hand for a two-day summit centered on preventing nuclear terrorism. which the president has called the most immediate and extreme threat to global security. the gathering here at washington's convention center is intended to focus the world's attention and push country to take concrete steps to secure the materials that go into making weapons. it's als

major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: officials don't know whether four missing miners at a west virginia coal mine are still alive, and the effort to find them will take time. the explosion, blamed on methane gas, killed at least 25 other miners. rescuers were forced to call off the recovery operation early this morning as flammable gases began filling the mine. hope remains dim for the missing miners, but crews today drilled holes deep into the earth to release those gases and make it safe for searchers to return. west virginia's governor joe manchin said that may not happen before tomorrow evening. but families of the missing were still hopeful. >> any still hold out for that miracle. four of them

it was selected as one of four districts receive a grant from the bill and melinda gates foundation of $100 million over seven years. bill gates spoke about the changes needed in the educational system at the 2009 ncsl conference in philadelphia. >> when we see the power that the test scores have for the teachers we think we should identify those teachers. we should reward them. we should retain them. we should make sure they learned from them. >> regarding the grants in the school district, vicki phyllis, the foundation's education director, said it's all about the importance of teachers. it is the seven year experiment to keep the best teachers possible in the classroom. mary ellen said our ultimate goal is to dramatically increase student achievement, raise or attrition rates and inshore college and career readiness. the way to do this is to ensure that our teachers are adept, in spite of and have the support they need. local administrators i spoke with feel that better teaching of the teachers is the key to success. >> one of the first things we do is a lot of professional developm

>> we were one of four districts in the country to receive a grant from the bill and melinda gates foundation. this money will be spent on improving the classroom. they want to identify the good teachers and use them as mentors for others. >> why did you think increased government spending does not help the state of achievement? >> i think that we just need to focus more on how it is spent. i also think we need to place more emphasis and a value on education. students need to realize that they need to apply themselves more in school. >> thank you for talking to us. congratulations. here is a portion of his documentary. >> many people consider the united states to be the leader of the free world. as the leader, shouldn't we have the best education system, so that we can continue to make the world a better place for all? do we currently have the best education system? according to the pisa test, we only rank as average. >> to watch the rest of the winning videos, go to studentcam.org. host: gene karpinski is our guest, the president of the league of conservation voters, here to talk about energ

>> we are one of four counties to receive a grant from the bill and melinda gates foundation. this money will go to teachers in the classroom. they want to identify good teachers and use them as mentors for other teachers. >> why do you believe increased government spending does not help student achievement? what i don't believe it hurt student achievement. i just believe we need to focus more on how it is spent. i also believe we need to change our culture and place more emphasis and value on education. i think students need to realize that school works for them, and apply themselves more. >> thank you for spending this time talking to us today. congratulations on your win. here is a portion of this documentary. >> many people consider the united states to be the leader of the free world. as the leader, should we not have the best education system? we should continue to make the world a better place opposite. do we currently have the best education system? according to the pisa test, given by theoec oecd, we only rk average. >> to what all of this video or any of the others,

. >> i went to seattle to talk with melinda and bill gates about what they're doing globally.eak them down. children's health fund. what is that? >> children's health fund. is that the one that you went -- >> that's not the one i did. but it was singer/songwriter paul simon. he founded it. it helps for pediatric care. >> then you have malaria no more. >> larry: i thought we wiped out malaria. >> we eradicated it here, but not in other parts of the world. but it can be eradicated. i think that's what's amazing. bill and melinda are 100% behind the eradication of it. and have the resources to do it. >> larry: what's feeding america? >> feeding america is something i just learned about recently, and i went down this morning. david arquette is involved. i think he's the chairman. it was called second harvest, they renamed it feeding america. in the last few years, it's amazing. you assume that the people that are hungry in our country are people who are homeless and that is not the case. with the recession, there are a lot of people -- i met a family, this guy is an eighth grade m

it was selected as one of four districts to receive a grant from the bill and melinda gates foundation. bill gates spoke about the changes needed in the educational system at the 2009 conference in philadelphia. >> when we see the power of the top teachers, we should identify them, we should retain them, and we should make sure other teachers learn from them. >> the foundation's education director said, "is all about the importance of teachers. it is a seven year experiment to put the best teachers possible in the classroom." another woman said, "is our ultimate goal to raise graduation rates and ensure college and careers readiness." local administrators i spoke with felt that better teachers ensure better success. >> we have teachers taking, sometimes on the weekends -- teachers taking trainings, sometimes on the weekends, sometimes after school, and sometimes with a substitute making it possible for the teacher to go out and get training. >> there is a cooperative learning strategy they train their teachers to use. >> the problem is the replacement cycle. when students get something