the chance to be here with bill 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

we would not know any of that if it were not for the gates foundation. these 11 countries in africa are were doing it. that is the dilemma you face. >> in both the issue of hiv aids and malaria, on behalf of all my colleagues, this has been an area at time when people look despair of bipartisanship. bipartisanship has been superb on both these issues for years, and americans should know that is happening here in this body. >> the center menendez. >> mr. president, thank you for your incredible continuing service to this country and for the world, for what you are doing with the foundation. mr. gates, thank you for making a difference as an individual, using your resources to be willing to make a difference in a really powerful, positive way. i am fortunate to chair the subcommittee on all our foreign assistance abroad. i would like to take your experiences and try to extend out some of those experiences on how we may do better. mr. president, as the united nations special envoy to haiti, you have a tremendous amount of convening power as well as tremendou

we wouldn't know that without the gates foundation. these 11 countries in africa are doing it. that is the dilemma you face. you wind up maybe getting the price down if you can put a little more money into the medicine now. >> i just want to say in these issues of h.i.v.-aids and malaria, on behalf of my colleagues, this has been a time that people despair of bipartisanship. bipartisanship has been superb on these issues for years. i think americans should know that is happening here in this body. >> point well made, senator. thank you. senator mendsess? >> thank you. >> mr. president, thank you for your incredible continuing service to this country and the world. mr. gates, thank you for making a difference, an individual using their resources to make a difference in a powerful, pozztiff way. i would like to take your experiences a little bit -- and certainly i am with you foursquare on the global health initiatives. but to try to extend out some of those experiences on how we may do better. mr. president, you as the united nations spernl envoy to haiti have a tremendous amount

gates foundation. the foundation has been i want to be able to get more involved in the work and make sure the money we spend has the greatest impact possible. global health is the major focus as far as giving. we are working on other poverty issues. about the same time, if the u.s. government started a significant increase in global health spending this committee has been instrumental in making that happen. i wish that every american understood how well the investment in global health are working. the success of polio we are near to eradication. the success of malaria were the target countries are down 50%, including rwanda and zambia. the 4 million people receiving aid treatment that would have died years ago. my favorite statistics is that since 1960 the number of children who die every year has dropped from 20 million to less than 9 million. things like new vaccines deserve a lot of credit for that. the united states is the biggest funder of global health. we deserve a lot of credit for these advances.

the bill gates foundation and i have been involved in all this. i fell into this, too. i'm just as guilty as the next person. we did aids drugs, and cut the price, and then something on malaria. then we realized that the impact of all this is being drastically truncated because there were no systems for people to show up and get maternal and child health, offense. >> thank you. >> thank you. i want to add my thanks to everyone else's on the panel for both of you for being here today and for all of the work that you have ton. thank you both very much. for the last year, along with senator snow, i've served on the smart global health commission of csis, and we are getting ready to produce a report that will come out next week. it reinforces so much of what both of you have said today. many of your friends and colleagues have served on that commission with me. mr. chairman, i would like to ask unanimous consent if we can submit in the report an advance copy of the csis report on smart global health policy. one of the things talked about in that report is exactly what you bo

after the global fund and the gates foundation, the best thing that has happened was funded by the french airline tax on every overseas trip out of france -- a couple of bucks. about a dozen countries have followed suit and a dozen more kicked in funds from the general revenue. we are the purchasing agent for pediatric drugs and second line antiviral drugs, but they buy all kinds of medicines to help the poor people of the world. that is why it was set up. the director of that -- the chairman of that, the former prime minister of pfrance, and a global partner introduced something which will allow people in other countries, beginning in the united states, to make a voluntary contribution on their airline tickets to buy medicines for poor people. we have all the big ticket sellers, including online sellers, signed up. we announced it to the un a few days ago. we have a study that says it can produce between $600 million and $1 billion a year, and that is before we get chinese -- before we get china in. i believe they will participate, and many other countries. it is totally voluntary. they

partner of education, the gates foundation has really had an enormous impact on defining education policyfor the nation. i wish the gates foundation would spend more money on reducing poverty in america, reducing poverty around the world and back off a little bit from education policy because there's so much money that they're distorting the whole policy scene. and if they decide over 10 years from now they made another mistake, we will have messed up our school system yet again chasing rainbows. >> host: the issue of poverty and education is something that i think is ignored way too much by the current group of reformers, the notion that whatever goes on in a classroom is all that you need to turn around a school system i think is a huge fallacy, but you don't hear people talking about that. you don't people talk about a kid who comes to school hungry, who comes to school without glasses, whose two through. i mean, how big a problem related back? >> guest: well, see the issue here is we have swung from one extreme to the other. previously, sociologists and others with say what you can't

the end. weekend. we will have it all coming up. >>> microsoft co-founder bill gates has given away billions of dollars through his foundation. today he announced a new initiative designed to help the world's hungriest people learn to feed themselves. it launches a $900 million fund to help the world's poorest farmers. >> we are investing in small farmers is an incredibly infective way to fight hunger and poverty. >> gates and u.s. treasury secretary timothy geithner says it's time for other countries to make good on the bank pledges of $22 million for global security which was made last year by g8 and g20 summit. a quarter of a billion people who live in extreme poverty depend on agriculture for a living. the gates foundation is chipping in about $30 million. >>> ben franklin is back, he's rested and he has a new look and armed and ready to fight new crime as well. how new crime fighting cash is targeting crooks. >>> and two friends are not only growing old together, they are kind of growing out together. wow. meet the newest contestants hitting the scale for the brickover challenge. >>> currently at pioneer ridge elementary

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 upgrade their sk

. >> 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 mil

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dicated 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. s- - acneil/lehrer productions a- - edia access group at wgbha- ccess.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. >> 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 also

. >> 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 ev

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

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 immigrants? what are

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, -

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

not from people i know but from the bill and linda gates foundation. >> ok. thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator mruczkowski? >> i'm sorry i missed the testimony. i was at another hearing. but i did have a chance to read all of your submitted testimony, and i appreciate your advocacy. i appreciate your work. in trying to understand how we can really be making a difference with some of our schools. mr. mitchell, i was interested in hearing some of the comments that you had in response to senator franken. we've got some very serious challenges, as you know in the state of alaska as we try to reach out to our students in our very, very remote and very rural communities. i'd be curious -- you kind of joked about -- that's why i don't want to be a principal anymore. one of the challenges that we face in our state is we just can't get the administrators. we're doing a little bit better with our teacher recruitment and retention, although that's a serious challenge in some areas. but if all of these turnaround models really revolve around getting a new principal, what

this provides a foundation on which we and our allies can build a more secure future -- future. i believe this is the first unclassified npr in its totality. secretary gates for making this the most inclusive nuclear policy review in history. abnormal -- admiral mullen and the joint chiefs have been instrumental in working through many of the issues that have been raised. the department of energy has brought much to the table, and i am very proud of the role the state department has played. we will be working with partners to explain and implement this. it truly was a collaborative effort. it kept with the agenda and goals set by president barack obama. the complications -- this process included more than 30 of our allies and partners. we have provided them with a reassurance and security. the policies outlined in this review allow us to continue a stabilizing role. this antiart makes it clear we will cooperate -- this and p r -- this npr makes it clear that we will cooperate with our allies in reducing arms around the world. the president is going to prague to sign an historic new treaty with russia. they are tackling the most important threat we face to