last year, tom corbett cut the york city school district budget by $8.4 million or 15.7% the district is now facing a $19 million budget shortfall. they may have to close a couple of middle schools and combine those grades with elementary schools. eighth graders going to school with fourth graders. you want that as a parent? meanwhile, governor corbitt is in the tank for the school vouchers and charter schools, even though last year a study from stanford university reported mixed results on the quality of charter schools. the study ultimately concluded pennsylvania charter students on average are lagging behind students in regular public schools. but corbett's buddies in the private sector, they make huge profits from charter schools, so the governor continues to support them at the expense of public education. i'm joined tonight by pennsylvania state representative matt bradford and also kim schwartz, she is the president of the york education association and a fifth grade teacher in the york city school district. great to have both of you with us tonight. matt, you first, what is th

. >> well, like the rest of the country, pennsylvania in the fiscal year governor tom corbett cut $1lion the public education statewide and in philadelphia that has led to an incredible crisis. we have 3800 teacher and staff positions eliminated this year, and the state controlled school reform commission, and we have been under state control since 2001 have taken control of the crisis to propose what is one of the most radical dismantlings of privatization of public schools ever. >> and the one where i live in new orleans where we have been under state control called the recovery state control, and people think it is postrecovery is katrina, but it is not. and the state has been controlling the lsd, and in this case, the natural disaster rather than fiscal di ssaster t privatize and charterize most of the system. >> yes, in philadelphia, it is a a manmade di ssaster and made b the very same political forces and proponents of public education who are now proposing privatizing the system. and there was not kind of this big public democratic process about deciding how we as a city are

actually taken a stand for its users back in may of two thousand and ten pennsylvania attorney general tom corbettwanted to know the names of two anonymous twitter users who had to say were his biggest fans and corbett had a grand jury subpoena twitter for the users realize densities and twitter fought that court order coming to the to the defense of their users then in december that same year twitter received another subpoena this time it was the u.s. government looking for the personal information including addresses of users like apple bob bradley manning and julian assange and the subpoena came with a gag order that prevented twitter from notifying the users in question but a month later in january two thousand and eleven twitter won a fight to have that subpoena unsealed so that they could notify the users so that the users could actually challenge the release of their personal information in court now let's fast forward to twenty twelfth as i told you earlier balcombe harris has decided to fight his disorderly conduct charge in court and the prosecution has issued a subpoena to twitter for h

forced the image into your sightline ultrasound bill, which is supported by republican governor tom corbett of pennsylvania. >> making them watch, does that go too far in your mind? >> i don't know if you can make anybody watch, okay, because you just have to close your eyes. >> in this political climate, created by a whole new radical republican era of policy making on this subject, the issue of abortion rights is one where democrats are starting to feel less shy. democrats are starting to feel about their political responsibilities on this issue, given how far and how fast republicans are pushing on this issue on the other side. in the great state of michigan, in a congressional race in the state of michigan, support for abortion rights is becoming a major issue between the various democratic candidates who are vying in the democratic primary. the battle creek michigan enquirer reporting that while serving in the state legislature, one of the democratic candidates for this vulnerable republican-held justin amosh congressional seat, one of the democratic would-be candidates earned a 0% app

as we've been reporting, pennsylvania governor tom corbett's nearly $1 billion of cuts to public education has left schools scrambling, just to keep the doors open. york city school district has until june 30th to close a budget shortfall that now stands at $29 million. school officials are seriously considering a range of options to close the gap, such as requiring staff to work fewer hours during the summer, imposing a 17% property tax increase, and closing the district's two middle schools, combining those grades with the elementary school. 50 teachers have already been laid off and there will be more. the district is also can considering eliminating programs and positions like guidance counselors, art programs, gym, choir, band, kindergarten glasses, and not all, but some sports. does that sound like america to you? parent and students are fighting back. >> parents are starting a petition they plan to send all the way to the governor's office. >> so far just today, i have about myself, there are other students going around helping, i have almost six pages and there's 28 lines. >> repor

in 2010, you saw the republican, tom corbett, win the race by nine points and several congressional seats flip plus the senate race. so you've had several big exphngz that's what they're trying to capitalize on. >> ifill: not only are two of the three people you mentioned on the vice presidential list but it's also a map to the electoral college. >> absolutely. if you start with the base 2008 map that president obama won, and then you just look at these states that we've talked about-- virginia, pennsylvania, new hampshire, new mexico. and you've got 42 electoral votes up for grabs right there. now, based on these numbers, president obama would win reelection, but when you talk about some of the other changes in the state, it's going to be an interesting close race. >> ifill: are these campaigns actually looking at electoral college votes already? >> oh, yes, absolutely. and you don't see them wasting time in states they're guaranteed to win or guaranteed to lose. all the action is going to be in about 12 states, including the four you just mentioned, because they do have electoral colleg

tom corbett, at the governor of pennsylvania, said we must keep the boat in philadelphia below 50 -- vote in philadelphia below 50%. later on, he had cut $860 million from the budget for public education. ladies and gentlemen comment that is why tonight the national urban league is announcing our occupied the vote campaign. [applause] if we're going to have a voice on education in schools and teachers, we must vote. if we're going to have a voice on economic equality, jobs, policy, workforce policy, we must vote. if we're going to have a voice on this new discussion about what the plan for america is going to be to build a 21st century economy, we must vote. not only must we vote, we must resist efforts in 2012 to enact these voter suppression laws. 7 states have enacted these voters oppression laws. i am proud that the attorney general and the division as several rights refused to pre- clear south carolina's both your id log -- voter id law. we will join in encouraging that the department of justice refused to pre-clear any voter id law enacted by any state. our voice must be strong

tom corbett, governor of pennsylvania, said we must keep the vote in philadelphia elo below 50%. bett cut $50rpo million from the budget for public education. that is why tonight as a part of the 2012 state of black america, the national urban league is announcing an occupy the vote campaign. we must occupy the vote, because if we are going to have a voice on education, teachers, and schools, we must vote. if we're going to have a voice on economic equality, jobs policy, work force policy, we must vote. if we are going to have a voice in this new discussion in this nation about what the plan for america is going to be to build a 21st century economy, we must vote. not only must we vote. we must resist -- we must resist efforts in 2012 to enact these voter suppression laws. seven states have enacted these voter suppression laws. i am proud the attorney general and a division of civil-rights refused to preclear south carolina's voter i.d. mall. -- i.d. law. and we will joint in encouraging that the department of justice refused to preclear any voter i.d. law enacted in any state ri

tom corbett said i'm getting industries back into my state that i never thought would come back. there last summer. they're looking for people to work. truck drivers get $110,000 a year. i mean this thing is huge what it could do to the country. but if you don't want to do it, just keep getting opec oil because that's what's going to happen to you. but if we get out of -- if we get out of the dependence on opec oil, we can get our people out of the mideast and now we aren't going to kill people, our people. we're stupid to be over there. >> so when's your birthday, boone? >> birthday coming up may 22. i'll be -- i'll be 34 years old. >> 34 years old. >> plus 50! >> 84! >> 84 coming up, man. >> may 22nd. all right. he's looking younger today than ever. >> hats off. >> hats off. >> he can run circles around you guys. boone pickens, thank you very much. >> thank you, boone. >> tom, thank you very much. >> stay with us, tom. >> we've got our political round table coming up. >>> the editor of the koch political report joins us after the break. keep it right here on "morning joe." [ fe

. >> tom corbett, the incumbent governor, carried the philadelphia suburbs. >> republican. >> republican. no republican presidential candidate has carried the philadelphia suburbs since dukakis and president bush. so that's the key. in presidential elections, the independents, women voters, moderate republicans, don't vote republican because of this craziness. >> coming off of virginia, joe, take me through the electoral gains. even if romney takes florida and ohio, with the big hispanic deltas, the 20-point deltas, the nevadas and new mexicos, what's the road on the electoral map, if pennsylvania is really not in play? how does he get there? >> the same way george w. bush got there. but if he loses -- well, he's got to win florida. he's got to win ohio. he's got to win indiana. >> iowa. >> got to did back and win indiana. iowa. it's only three electoral votes but he's got to win new hampshire, arizona. right now, that's a tough one. you've got new mexico, obviously, that he's going to have to play. >> how does he win new mexico? >> listen, it's too early to tell. it's the final weekend.

tom corbett, at the governor of pennsylvania, said we must keep the boat in philadelphia below 50 -- vote in philadelphia below 50%. later on, he had cut $860 million from the budget for public education. ladies and gentlemen comment that is why tonight the national urban league is announcing our occupied the vote campaign. [applause] we must oppupy -- occupy the vote. if we're going to have a voice on education in schools and teachers, we must vote. if we're going to have a voice on economic equality, jobs, policy, workforce policy, we must vote. if we're going to have a voice on this new discussion about what the plan for america is going to be to build a 21st century economy, we must vote. not only must we vote, we must resist efforts in 2012 to enact these voter suppression laws. 7 states have enacted these voters oppression laws. i am proud that the attorney general and the division as several rights refused to pre- clear south carolina's both your id log -- voter id law. [applause] we will join in encouraging that the department of justice refused to pre-clear any voter id law