you have the michelle rhee camp and the reformers and then over here.there a way to find a middle ground to be able to advance -- i think everybody has the same goal. we want education to be better for our kids. why can't we find a middle ground? is it even possible at this point? >> i think locally we are finding that middle ground. our opportunity 2k3wgaps are no closing, achievement gaps between people in the system and instead of sitting down and saying you need to work harder, we say, what are the real issues? we don't issue report cards for a to f for each school in our district to humiliate our teachers and embarrass our students and families. we say, we need to solve these problems. here are the problems. what can we do instead? >> you have the last 20 seconds. as people continue to watch and hear her, what would you like them to keep in mind? >> she keeps pointing out problems and never puts forth a solution. we are just tired of people coming in and pointing out things obvious to us. every child deserves the best education we can give them. ev

tonight a conversation with michelle rhee. her take no prisoners approach to education reform has made her a hero to some and a villain to others. as chancellor of the school system she took on a powerful teachers' union, closed schools, and are arranged or emboldened parents. she has written about all that in a new book entitled "radical: fighting to put students first recruit a conversation with michelle rhee. coming up right now. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the right thing. i just try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only about halfway to completely eliminate hunger, and we have a lot of work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: michelle rhee has been called a warrior. she took over the struggling washington, d.c. school system and challenge teachers on accountability, c

education chief michelle rhee is about to join us with a solution. answers than this guy. >> hi. i'm former male supermodel derek zoolander. and here at the derek zoolander center for kids who can't read good and who want to learn to do other stuff good too, we teach students of all ages everything they need to know to learn to be a professional model and a professional human being. i know what you're thinking... transit fares! as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year. no? oh, right. you're thinking of the 1.6 million daily customer care interactions xerox handles. or the 900 million health insurance claims we process. so, it's no surprise to you that companies depend on today's xerox for services that simplify how work gets done. which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. with xerox, you're ready for real business. you are gonna need a wingman. and my cash back keeps the party going. but my airline miles take it worldwide. [ male announcer ] it shouldn't be this hard. with creditcards.com, it's easy to search hundreds of

tonight, education reformer michelle rhee talks about teachers, unions, how california is failing itsand why she thinks she knows how to fix it. >> if we can move california, the entire dynamic changes. >> here is nbc bay area's jessica aguirre. >> whether you love michelle rhee or hate her, we think it's important that you hear her. tonight on an exclusive interview with rhee taped at the commonwealth in san francisco. before you baulk, not to worry, you will hear from an equally outspoken. she famously fired principals and teachers. cameras followed her every move. rhee landed on the cover of "time" magazine. >> you wake up every morning and know that 46,000 kids are counting on you and that most of them are getting a really crappy education right now. >> so you think that most of the kids in d.c. are getting a crappy education right now? >> i don't think they are. i know they are. >> now living in sacramento with husband and mayor kevin johnson, she's launched an organization called education first. it pushes for policies that rhee ch

we'll have more information as it comes in. >>> michelle rhee has been called a rhee-former. she's been given her own moniker, radical. and she's living up to the title. rhee's advocacy group issued its first-ever report card on how they think states are doing when it comes to putting states first. it should come as no surprise that california got a big, fat "f." in tonight's "class action," an exclusive talk with rhee, the radical. >> we used to have the best education system in the country. and we've gone from first to worst. it is astonishing actually to see how little progress the states -- this state has made compared to where other states across the country are. >> michelle rhee who you either see as school saver or education anti-christ is talking about the failing grade given to the golden state by students first. the grassroots advocacy group launched two years ago out of sacramento. the high-profile organization issued its first-ever state policy report card. california came in at the bottom, ranking 41st nationally, flunking nearly every measure the group promotes

so on that note please join me in thanking michelle rhee for an incredible talk. [applause] >> tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> this system of mass incarceration is now so deeply rooted in our social political and economic structure that is not going to just fade away or downsize out of sight without a major a people, a from the radical shift in our public consciousness. now, i know this many people today who will say oh, yeah, there's no hope of indian mass incarceration in america. no, no. , there's no. pick another issue. just as many people were re-signed to jim crow in the south and say yeah, yeah, that's a shame, it's a shame, but that's just the way this. i find it so the people today view the million cycling in andd out of our prisons and jails today is just an unfortunate but an alterable fact of american life. well, i'm quite certain that dr. king would not have been so resigned. so i believe that if we are truly, truly to honor dr. king, if we are to ever catch up with thank you, we've got to be willing, continue his work. we've got to be willing to g

join me next time for a conversation with education crusader michelle rhee. that is next time. we will see you then. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the right thing. i just try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only halfway to completely eliminate hunger, and we have a lot of work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more.

thank you, michelle rhee. >> thank you. john: one who says she has evil is joe del grosso. at the top of the show, he was in a meeting attacking charter schools and also doesn't like for-profit competition. >> market driven education belos on wall street, not broad street. john: you got a lot of applause for that, joe, thank you for joining us. >> yes. john: bob bowdon, made a movie calmed "the cartel," saying you're a cartel like a conspiracy of people trying to keep prices up, competition out. >> no. you're wrong about that. why keep competition away? >> you said it on the clip saying if it's market driven, it's bad. >> no, i said that i don't like for-profit education. that has nothing to do with competition. if school a wants to compete with school b, there's nothing wrong with than. non-profit charters are okay and private schools are okay for a voucher according to you? non-profit is okay? >> i'm not for religious institutions involved in public education. now, if you want something different for your child like my mother did for me, find another job, and get it for y

thank you, michelle rhee. >> thank you. john: one who says she has evil is joe del grosso. at the top of the show, he was in a meeting attacking charter schools and also doesn't like for-profit competition. >> market driven education belongs on wall street, not broad street. john: you got a lot of applause for that, joe, thank you for joining us. >> yes. john: bob bowdon, made a movie calmed "the cartel," saying you're a cartel like a conspiracy of people trying to keep prices up, comptition out. >> no. you're wrong about that. why keep competition away? >> you said it on the clip saying if it's market driven, it's bad. >> no, i said that i don't like for-profit education. that has nothing to do with competition. if school a wants to compete with school b, there's nothing wrong with than. non-profit charters are okay and private schools are okay for a voucher according to you? non-profit is okay? >> i'm not for religious institutions involved in public education. now, if you want something different for your child like my mother did for me, find another job, and get it for

somebody said on a talk show the other day or maybe weblog they said michelle rhee is wrong. the u.s. is not doing worse than it was doing before. she is sort of exaggerating the problem and that person is actually right when you look at the fact that the academic achievement levels of our kids in america in the 1960's and 70's is pretty much on par with where we are today. so it's true from that vantage point we have not gotten worse. the problem is that there are countries that are leapfrogging ahead of us. countries like what -- latvia and liechtenstein, i'm not kidding, they are growing at two or three times the rate of american kids. if we are singing the same because we are running the school system the exact same way that we were 100 years ago based on the agrarian calendar, and other countries have figured out that you know what, if we want to get ahead we have to educate our kids and put more time in, etc., then we can remain the serve in terms of our academic achievement levels but we are going to fall behind in terms of kind of the global positioning. >> is the ave

and we conclude tonight's prime time programming at 11:15 eastern with michelle rhee. the former d.c. public schools chancellor writes about education reform in her book, "radical: fighting to put students first." that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> bethty friedan's "the feminine mystique" was published in 1963. it would play an sweggal role in the second wave of federalism in the united states. a panel discusses the impact of the book 50 years after its publication. this is a little over an hour. >> um, well, first i want to thank the new america foundation for having us. um, i in particular am very honored to be a moderator, because up until now this late date in my career no one has ever found me moderate enough in my views to actually be moderator. [laughter] so i'm really happy to tonight for the first time in my life moderate a panel. and it's, obviously, a great honor to talk about betty free dan's "feminine mystique" on its 50th anniversary and, obviously, it's a book that has put the spark, um, under the culture and really it's that very, very rar

so, in that note, please join in the thanking michelle rhee. [applause] >> up next, after words with guest host jamie weinstein. this week, kim ghattas and her book: the secretary, a journey with hillary clinton from beirut to the heart of american power." she conditions miss clinton's role, and whether u.s. power is in decline. the program is about an hour. >> where we should begin is to talk about your biography. i think as much as this book is about hillary clinton and her time as secretary of state, it's also about your experience from beirut to covering the secretary of state around the world. so, why don't you just begin by talking about where you came from. >> guest: great. thank you very much for having me. i'm delighted to be here and delighted by your first question. the star, the biggest star in the book is hillary clinton herself. but this isn't just a biography of an historic woman. it's also a different take on the whole issue of american power, and as you mention i come from beirut. i grew up there i was born in beirut in the mid

public school system chance lawyer michelle rhee recounts her career with your thoughts on education reform. from hudson is to tune in new york city, this is 45 minutes. [applause]s. >> michelle, thank you for joining us. i may have had a couple busy days from last evening jonhere stewart, to this evening piers morgan and we are delighted to have our wonderfuli old frontier befr c-span filming this event, that many people can benefit from a lot of what michelle has his say. to get thin just to kickstart this this eveu come up with that fascinating interesting book evening did the name come from? >> so, i think the genesis of the name is an interesting one and that when i first got to d.c. it was the lowest-performing and most dysfunctidysfuncti onal school district in the entire nation and that was the pretty widely known truth. so i started doing things that i thought were obvious in that kind of state. i just started closing low-performing schools moving out and affected employees, cutting the central office bureaucracy in half and as i was taking all of these steps and measures peo

please join me in thanking michelle rhee. [applause] >> up next "after words" with author sarah garland. on her book "divided we fail" is the story of an african-american community that ended the era of school desegregation. it chronicles ms. garland's return to her hometown of louisville kentucky where african-american parents closure of a predominantly black school. for the sake of desegregation. this is an hour. >> host: why did you start to write this book with xml your first book was about gangs in central america and this is somewhat of a shift. >> guest: in some ways it is in some ways it isn't. i got into segregation in the suburbs in my last book and researching for schools and looking at the decentish in between school districts in long island so that spurred me to think about these issues. the reason i wrote it is i grew up going to a public school they are and i was blessed in second grade to a school that was in inner city surrounded by housing projects in a poor neighborhood in the city. it was something i hadn'

and we conclude tonight's prime time programming at 11:15 eastern with michelle rhee, the former d.c. public schools chancellor writes about education reform in her book, "radical: fighting to put students first." that's next on c-span2's booktv. >> up next on booktv, alec foege talks about the contributions made to our society by modern-day ben franklins and thomas edisons. this is about an hour, 15 minutes. [applause] >> well, i hope i can live up to the introduction. [laughter] first, i want to say it's a real privilege to give a talk on my book at the westport library because the westport library has been a real innovator in terms of bringing tinkering and the maker culture into the library setting. so it was just sort of a coincidence that brought us together, but it's worked out really great, and thanks to bill derry for helping make this all happen. um, as he mentioned in his introduction, um, you know, my book is a lot -- it's partially about what's going on in tinkering right now in the contemporary world, but it also touches on history. but more specifically, it talks about