Vehicles and sat us on the frond front line in vehicles where artillery rounds rained around united us. Moving into the deadliest laces on earth with camera in hand. This is real money and im ali velshi. Americas Public School system fails to make the grade in many ways. What to do about it is where the fierce debate begins. By now you need know the flash poits opinion. Points. More charter schools. President obama proposes 5 increase in discretionary funding for the department of education. But most spending is determined at the state and local level so the thinking is that this extra federal money will be offset or will offset some of the cuts the states made in recent years. Meanwhile, more choice this the form of socalled education savings accounts, this would send state money to hundreds of thousands of families, depending which state were talking about. Parents can then turn around and design their childs education and use that public money for tutors, home schooling even private schooling. 21 states already subsidize schooling through vouchers or tax credits. Free Public Schools that are sometimes operated by private exraiptions privatecorporations. And an increasing full of places seeing the privatization of Public Education is part of jeb bushs education reform agenda choice. David schuster has our inside look at the big changes and big money behind the 2016 president ial contenders. If we were designing our School Systems from strach, what scratch, what would they look like . Jeb bushs signature effort. Its going to take a big political fight. Monopolies do not go quietly into the night. And in that funding to take education out of the governments hands, bush created a national initiative, they support opening state education budgets to privately run Virtual Schools and more choice through digital and online learning. But critics say its really only a boon for Education Companies looking to cash in on the taxpayer dollars spend on k12 education. Up to 789 billion a year. What bush has done is combined both business and politics in pushing education reforms that benefit a small number of forprofit education firms. Some of these firms are some of the worst actors in education today, actually underperforming some of the worst Public Schools. For profit schools like k12 inc. Can now be found in 34 states and the district of columbia. The enrollment and revenue of these firmings firms have nearly quadrupled since 2008 but have Graduation Rates below state averages. And in the past year they have lost managements contracts or been threatened with shut downs in several states. The bottom line is the thing they are most concerned with and in many cases the bottom line conflicts with what we consider good education. Despite the industrys mixed outcomes, experts say nobody answersbeen more instrumental in big business than jeb bush. If jeb bush holds a meeting people are going to come. Far more than lobbying and comparison contributions its access. Bush and his foundation sit at the center of a complicated web of money and policy. Take the state of maine as an example which began considering privately run Virtual Schools in 2011. Companies like k12 inc. Donated money to bushs election campaign, and steven bowen, a member of bushs for change group. Part of the American Legislative Council or alec unites government officials. It is a joy to be with alec this is the fountain head of a lot of interesting ideas. Forming the education agenda in 2011 and that same year many alec bills that allowed privately run schools passed in the state house. Jeb bush declined comment and stepped down from his position earlier this year to concentrate on his run. But demonstrated gains in achievement and blowaverage test scores can be attributed to a disproportionate amount of low income students and those already underperforming at other schools. Still analysts say bushs role in expanding corporaterun schools could prompt some voters to give him a failing grade. When you look at the words for profit and you put them before things that didnt really have to do with profit, you could see for profit education, at an elementary and High School Level that in and of itself is saying, here is a robber baron, that should be capitalizing on things that should not be about making money. It is one of the problems that romney had in 2012 and one of the problems jeb bush circulate have if it looks like hes going to run in 2016. David, for profit schools voucher schools, are these burning issues for enough voters that this is going to help jeb bush in terms of hurting him . It could hurt him in a big way. Democrats say look education should not be for profit. And bush says improve k12 by having for profit firms and that would be a fundamental choice. But here is where it would hurt him in the primary, jeb bush supports comor common core, he is an outlier in the republican field for that he will get hammered in the primaries on education for that. Then for profit will take him to the general election. Does he just play this down in the nomination process . Well, thats the interesting thing is hes promoting this. Hes promoting this like he is promoting immigration accredit reform, he says look we as republicans we agree that education has to be improved. We can use conservative economic principles to do that. Through things he has demonstrated in florida, this hasnt really improved the test scores of the students involved. David, thank you so much for that. Next, Randy Winegarten says, the are the unions sang in the way of progress . Youll hear about that. And the lindsay adario will tell us why she risked life and love to tell her story. Tweet me alivelshi, keep it americas first climate refugees this is probably a hurricane away from it being gone. Whos to blame . 36 of land lost was caused by oil and gas industry. And a fight to save americas coastline. We have kinda made a deal with the devil fault lines Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. Today they will be arrested. Ground breaking. Theyre firing canisters of gas at us. Award winning investigative documentary series. The disappearing delta only on Al Jazeera America an Al Jazeera America special report unfortunately, you cant should have, all we can do is move forward a nation forced to take a closer look at race. Check which ethnicity. I checked multiple boxes. This is who i am. What does it really mean to be the minority . Black history comes up, everyones looking to hear what you have to say, because youre the spokesperson. How can we learn from the past . And create a Better Future . An Al Jazeera America special report race in america all next week part of our special black History Month coverage on Al Jazeera America wanted to continue the conversation were having on education. Jeb bush says the biggest impediment to education rornl reform are federal government and teachers union. Randy wine garden. She says that wush talks a good game about wanting whats best for students but hes just siphoning much needed public money into private hands. Randy, always good to see you. Let me ask you this. He has whether you agree with his methodology or not, had made education for low income people a priority and hes brought a lot of attention to that cause. Hes talking more about it than any republican president ial candidates do in any detail. Whats your Biggest Issue with what hes saying . Look i love that hes talking about it but think about it. You cant actually improve schools if you dont talk to the School Teachers. So then when you make what the School Teachers voice is, you know, your biggest biggest biggest enemy then youre basically saying you just want to pit and divide. Economy. There are a lot of people in the Republican Party that love that the economy works for some. And there are many of us that say wait a second, we have to make the economy work for all. We have to have that ladder of Economic Growth for all. For anybody who wants to pull themselves up the same is true in terms of schools. You can find a niche market, you can point to a school or two that can work for anybody. Look at all the private schools in america. Our job is for everybody. And what happens when half the kids in our United States of america who go to Public Schools are now poor, when we have more segregation in the last two decades than less then we need to actually help all kids. And this is a really sad secret. Which is that when you actually factor out part poverty, our schools are the best in the world. Absolutely. And i loved when he watched the section beforehand when k12 inc. Which is a forprofit company that does terribly, when somebody says why are you doing so terribly, theyre like poor kids, why are we not reclaiming the promise of Public Education,. Kids were not porpg in the first performing inthe first place. At the speech he gave at the Education Summit in november he had something to say about teachers unions. Listen to this. I know one thing, we wouldnt start with more than 13,000 government run politicized monopolies who trap good teachers and administrators in a system you cant escape. First off let me say this. Mr. Bush if hes going to run for president he should have his facts right. Half the schools in the United States of america dont have unions and the three states that are most unionized are the three states that do the best. So lets stop demonizing people who want to work and make a difference in the lives of kids and the hardest thing is lets Work Together to turn around struggling schools as opposed to doing the opt outs that mr. Bush did. Because the things he did in florida didnt work. Lets talk about the stuff that jeb bush and other conservatives always have to say about teachers unions. You are here in new york so you know what somebodys accusations are. Teachers this cannot be released from their jobs, tenure, rubber rooms, where teachers who are low performers end up coming to work and sitting in a classroom. Those things tend to get stuck in peoples craw. Can we not maintain our focus on Public Education and clearly get rid of teachers we need to get rid of . Youre right. Both Michael Mulgrew my successor and i tried close the rubber rooms, both with mayor bloomberg and mayor deblasio. But you cant have process that goes on forever and teaching cant be perceived as a job for life. But at the end of the day, what we need to do is make sure we actually recruit retain and support the best. Because our biggest problem is half our teachers leave within the first five years and our really big problem is that we have to actually attract and retain Great Teachers judge is it the money . Is it the system . Maybe we do need a little bit more of a merit based system as opposed to a time on the job based system. What weve tried to do is do both which is to actually negotiate career ladders. So that when people are in the system for a little while if they want to do other things they can get additional pay to do those other things or they want to be master teachers or they want to help. What is really unfortunate ali is the unions throughout the country whether its new york city who did this amazing new contract with mayor deblasio or the abc system or new haven weve done really good things because we want to make sure were Research Based more importantly that were helping every child succeed. So unfortunately, the people who dont want to spend money on Public Schools would rather blame teachers and their voice than actually roll up their sleeves to do the work we have to do to help all kids succeed. When people say we actually have to help and work on teachers being the best they can be were all in. Thank you very much. Randy winegarten is the president of the federation of teachers. She survived two kidnappings and more and still went back for more even after she got pregnant. The story you cant believe and you will hear it in just two minutes. Tomorrow morning, diplomat and author Nassir Abdulaziz alnasser. When there is consensus youll see great results. Battling extremism. Religious leaders have a big responsibility. Advancing peace. Today the world turned into a global village. Promoting change. I think United Nations should be reformed. Every sunday, join us for exclusive. Revealing. And surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. Talk to al jazeera. Tomorrow morning, 9 30 eastern. Only on Al Jazeera America. Well, the subject of journalists dictate and war zones are in the news for all the wrong reasons. Im talking of course about the controversy about nbc news anchor Brian Williams and what didnt happen to him in iraq. My next guest is a photojournalist who has covered conflict across the globe for 15 years. Lindsay adario, all happened before she and three colleagues from the New York Times were kidnapped in libya during 2011. I spoke to lindsays husband paul de bendern. Who is also a journalist. When you hear from her next what are you going to say to her . Im going to say you know you got to come back here because you know we got to have kids you know . Thats my ive been trying to you know to get her to you know come back. Well, that interview and the happy story of the birth of paul and lindsays son in december of 2011 are part of her fascinating new book, its what i do a photographers story of life and love in war. Lindsay, its exciting to see you and talk with you all in the past tense because when i talked with paul it was pretty intense. It is something that makes me pretty emotional. You know, for him saying that to the world i was sort of in denial for the time it was for me to have a baby. I kept procrastinating. Its a hard subject for a professional woman. Your story has been sort of nonstop. You femme in love with the camera your dad gave you and you sought out as any journalist would, you had your baby and still gone on. Im trying a way to navigate the train, i dont know many female war correspondents that have children, its happening more and more but there are not many role models. I was in afghanistan three times last year and in iraq two times but im trying to stay away from the front line. Trying to cover more civilian stories, refugees, things that i can mitigate the danger. If you didnt have to try and mitigate it, if you didnt have to navigate this new terrain wouldnt things have been different . Because things would be different, the idea of a moth to a flame has gotten people killed. Even if i didnt have a son the terrain has changed incredibly. Game. There is no negotiating with i. S. I. S. Surely journalists are not respected, we cant go into a war zone and assume we have some kind of protection because of our job. That is something i really did used to feel. I felt that in afghanistan and in the early days in iraq and so i think that has really changed. In fact journalists used to not with pride but it was a note of safety with the vest or hat that says press. Now, a lot of people say dont show your affiliations. Now i go into a war zone and im dressed in a head scarf and try to look at local as i can. Knowing that some of them have it on spec, many of them are not employed, as you were not in the early days, you would sell your material to others. News organizations that know that thats less risky for them than sending their own people. How do you feel about that . Its a hard subject. First of all ive never been staff anywhere, im still freelance. Im at a point where ive been through so much that i will only work for organizations that have my back. I know if something happens to me they will try get me out, do what they can. There are something publications that say, you go on in your own and sell it to me. Organizations that buy from freelancers need to up the price or give freelancers some kind of security. What kind of security can they offer . When you were kidnapped you had two things for you. You were kidnapped by sort of a quasigovernment organization, i dont know how that helps these days and had you New York Times media. Did you know that people were working actively to get you out . Judge no, in prison it was the first time no, in prison it was the first time our blind folds were off and we were saying, do you think anyone even knows were gone, that was day two or three and really, i think it was tyler who said, of course we are four New York Times correspondents and to me i thought, god does anyone even know were gone . Youre in such a bubble and when you are being held captive you have no idea whats going on in the outside world. You cant make any assumptions about whats happening. And there were some scary moments. You were paraded first of all they shot your driver. We dont know if he was shot in cross fire or executed. Because no one saw it. Then you were paraded through towns. The first three days were incredibly violent. We were told to lie face down on the ground. They were going to execute us. They put their guns oour heads. They decided they werent going to execute us, they tied us up and sat us on front lines in vehicles where artillery rained around us. Fighting got so close at some point, they decided to shift our position. Then we spent a night in the car, we dont know where, they threatened us repeatedly with executing us and were hitting my male colleagues, and i was groped so many times. Eventually we were thrown into the back of a pickup truck tide up blind fooded and tied up and blind blindfolded and driven in the back of a pickup truck and eve