. >> i'm joined by randy weingarten, president of the american federation of teachers.st for those there. they are for the undecided voters watching this on tv. and this speech would suggest that mitt romney's campaign believes those voters will be influenced by attacks on unions, especially teachers unions. what do you make of that? >> well, look. that's been pretty consistent in terms of mitt romney's position throughout this campaign. remember, he said a few months ago that he would keep the department of education just to use it as a club against teachers unions. and, you know, for chris christie to say that yesterday when at a couple of weeks ago, he actually gave teacher unions great props for that bipartisan overhaul bill he took tremendous credit for yesterday. in fact, what he said a couple of weeks ago was you don't get anything done without teacher unions because that's critical to the input -- to get the input of teachers. so i think this is what's going on, chris. >> well, i also think that the romney campaign may be looking at that gallup poll recently tha

you will see for example, randi weingarten leads the new york teachers makes almost $500,000 per year. we get a lot of people on this list. 372,000, what is going on? >> salaries are enormous. how about dramatically from the american federation of municipal employees. he spent $325,000 on private air travel and private planes in a year and a half. his numbers don't realize that. these are the one for centers. these are the top guys. they give money to occupy wall street rate these are the one for centers. >> it seems to me that the actual numbers, not the leaders, should be leading the charge. >> they can't. less than 10% of union members voted for their union. you can keep your job unless you're a member of the union. gerri: many states are right to work states. if that were to happen? >> you saw what happened in ohio. they put in tens of millions of dollars. you have to understand that the government unions have become the piggy bank for the democratic party. they spent hundreds of millions of dollars, just the teachers unions alone, taking $2 billion a year into his. gerri: a lot o

randi weingarten is with us. >> it's great to be with the two of you. >> tell pea what the debate oughtut not the rhetorical we want to help all kids learn and achieve their potential. the debate ought to be about the house. for the last 30 years, every presidential candidate has said, of course, we want all kids to succeed. that is the way we build a middle class. that's the way we build a capitalist democracy in the united states of america. but what we've fallen down on is the house. so what the bush administration did in terms of the house was no child left behind which was an accountability test driven system across the country. what's happened is that parents and teachers have said, that doesn't work. the obama administration has started walking away from that because people know it doesn't work. but what we need to do, what will work is how to ensure that all kids get the skills that they need for the 21st century, which is is not rote memorization. but how to apply knowledge. >> what about race to the top. >> race to the top, in some states it's worked. in some states it hasn't.

goy who make $512,000 a year randy weingarten leading the teachers at $493,000 and she is the lady whonew york state union with a check with unused sick pay and vacation day. >> steve: is there a tran parency that you usually get on wall street? >> i am sure they know what they earn. >> brian: shouldn't they be outraged? >> who? >> brian: the workers. the management. >> if you make 343,000 a year you are in the top one percent. clearly all of them make more than that and they are in the top one percent and yet they are vilifying the top one percent. that's straight forward hypocrisy. >> brian: there are union bossesurn that and they are probably part of the two percent. >> one percent want to bes maybe. it seems like it is acceptable to be in the one percent if you are union guy and hollywood actor crony capitalist or friendly executive. but not from wall street or industrial executive company. don't be in the top percent there. you will be vilified but not if you are in the acceptable one percent. >> brian: no kidding. how the union dues go to these sal rows and causes. >> what happen

randi weingarten of the teachers' union, the most ardent free marketers -- they say they support schoolice. what does it mean? does it have any meaning left? i think not. you have to look at the specific policies. charter schools are still government schools. the approval of pedagogical approach rests on the authority of a government-sponsored board. private schools cannot apply, obviously. private operators can run the school. they cannot teach religion in the school. the diversity is limited by the prospective and vision of the charter of the risers -- charter authorizers, ultimately. the vouchers open up options in the private sphere, but doctors use government funds. -- but vouchers used government funds. this usually provides accountability of some sort to taxpayers who fund the program. tax credits are entirely funded within the private sphere and distributed through private, nonprofit organizations. the taxpayer is allowed to direct those funds to the school that comports with their values and they think is doing a good job. there are layers of private accountability there. accou

randi weingarten of the teachers' union, the most ardent free marketers -- they say they support school choice. what does it mean? does it have any meaning left? i think not. you have to look at the specific policies. charter schools are still government schools. the approval of pedagogical approach rests on the authority of a government-sponsored board. private schools cannot apply, obviously. private operators can run the school. they cannot teach religion in the school. the diversity is limited by the prospective and vision of the charter of the risers -- charter authorizers, ultimately. the vouchers open up options in the private sphere, but doctors use government funds. -- but vouchers used government funds. this usually provides accountability of some sort to taxpayers who fund the program. tax credits are entirely funded within the private sphere and distributed through private, nonprofit organizations. the taxpayer is allowed to direct those funds to the school that comports with their values and they think is doing a good job. there are layers of private accountability there. a

i have to say, randy weingarten has not done a great job for our city.ost the best superintendent we ever had in education and the school teachers have to explain that. i think this is something we can argue about. i think jeb bush made a very powerful statement on behalf of quality education tonight. >> you've got a debate, you've got a fight brewing here with my friend ed schultz and with al sharpton. >> i expected i would. >> chris, the six governors that were elected in 2010 have clearly gotten together and attacked public education and cut no less than $800 million, up to $1 billion in wisconsin out of education and ran a lot of good educators out of the business because they thought they were getting paid too much. they attacked their benefits, attacked their days off, atta attacked their training. attacking teachers is the philosophy of how to make things better in america when it comes to the republicans. >> ed, nobody attacked teachers. no one attacked teachers. >> no, they are, chris. they're going after how much money they make. >> who attacke