out of school. some of the children part of the study share some of the struggles that they face each day in school. listen. >> some of the schools don't have any desks and paper and stuff like that. >> when i walk around my school, i don't see a lot of, you know, teachers trying to help kids. >> joining me now from washington is the founder and president of the children's defense fund. thanks very much for being with us. those numbers are shocking. i mean, i know you guys conducted the study. 85% of black children are not reading at grade level? >> well, 85% of black children in fourth grade can't read or compute at grade level. as you already said, over half drop out of school. this is a sentence to social and economic death and we've got to improve schools and education. it's among the top four issues that black parents said was of