Who ignore part of the reform law. That brings us to our question for viewers. What do you think about the quality of education in your local schools . Special line today for this question. Parents of School Age Children can call 2027488000. Eachers can call 2027488001. School administrators can call 2027488002. Nd all others can call 027488003. We want to talk about the equality of education in your committee. Lets talk about how king talks about the new law puts more power in the states hands. Learning standards that will prepare all students for college and careers. The law supports investments and quality preschool and it requires the information on student progress to share through statewide assessments while reducing and improve state and local taxes. It builds on work already underway to raise expectations for students and establish tailored systems for School Improvements and states. The law shifts responsibility for develops strategies to support the highest needs students and schools to stay in local decision makers. And it creates opportunities for states to reclaim the goal of a well rounded education for every child. Host and hes talking about that new every child succeeds act. Thats the subject of our conversation today as we discuss the education at your local schools. Host Lamar Alexander charged the department with trying to implement new regulations that would require equal, not comparable spending per pupil. He accused the department that local School Districts must use when calculating whether funding between schools is comparable. A move that he says is not allowed under the law. He says that in a quote, he said during a hearing not only what youre doing is against the law but youre trying to do it against another provision in the law. Were talking about education today. Again, we have special lines for parents, 2027488000, teachers can call in, 2027488001. Administrators, 2027488003. And 2027488002 and all others can cool in at 2027488003. Well look at system of the other headlines which includes House Speaker paul ryans decision to take himself out of the running for the president ial bid. Amid growing speculation he might jump into the race at the convention in todays paper, we have a little more about that. It says the circus surrounding what in any other year would be a statement of the obvious, a newly installed speaker of the house does not wish to indo the wall undo of wills of thousands of voters and delegates at his partys convention is simply the latest strange turn in a race replete with them on tuesday, he said he would have none of it. Thats a little bit from todays New York Times about paul ryans decision not to run for president. But lets get to your calls about your thoughts on the state of education in your school. First, lets talk to michael. Michael, youre calling in from new kensington, pennsylvania. What are your thoughts of education in your local schools . Caller yes. Good morning. Thank you for cspan and thank you for taking my call. I come from a Different School district. I have students in the School District but now theyve grown and have gone on to work and things like that. Theyre out of the School System right now. But our School System, our School District is, i believe, does not have a high quality of education. Its gone downhill. It was a decent School District at one time. And now i think weve been ddled with a lot of problems whether its problems with kids that are troublemakers, that have been put into our School District for one reason or another. Its kind of an inner city school. And i feel bad for the kids who really want to get an education. Host michael, how do you think that things have changed since our kids were there . Caller well, i dont think theres as much of an emphasis on good quality education. I dont think they have a good standard good standards. A lot of the emphasis has been on sports. They spent a lot of money on a stadium and things like that for the kids which was not arranted, i dont think. I just dont see a lot of improvement on that. My kids had a good background and when they were in school, when they finally went to the public schools, they had a good head start on a lot of kids that had been in school for a long time. So i believe in school choice. I think that they need more competition, especially these inner city schools where, you good school from a district. And i think its unfortunate that things arent even but they very rarely are. Host ok. That is michael calling in from pennsylvania. Up next, we have eric calling in who is a parent in cedartown, georgia. Eric, what do you think about the quality of education of your Childrens School . Caller i feel like the quality of schools in certain minority neighborhoods is bad even in the rural areas. Theyre building new schools out in the suburbs. Theyre not building them, improving the schools in town, even in small towns. But we must first look at the background of education in the United States. First of all, it was illegal for black people to even learn how to read and write. It was illegal for somebody to teach this person to read and write. And that was not school for black people. Then you come with the separate but equal. In the school and the Education System in the United States have always been discriminatory toward blacks, africanamericans and the poor because without education, you cannot advance in life. Host let me ask you this caller just like in the black community. Host what ages are your hildren in school . Caller i found a way to get them educated. We have a voucher and we sent them to a private school in the next town over from where i live at. And they went on to college in different they even had a better education than me. When i went to college because if the parents dont believe in education, you know, they are not going to teach this to their kids and pass it on down. This is the way out of poverty. But you have to look at the discrimination that has happened in the past. I would like to ask this question. Can you tell me when it became legal for black people how to relearn how to read and write . Thank you. Host up next, we have erica calling in from charlotte, North Carolina. Erica, youre a school administrator. What is your role in school . Caller im a School Board Member. Im elected to provide governors to governance to the school. Host what are your thaws of education . Caller were truly at an impasse across the country. A number to have localities are underfunding the school. Here where i live in the state of North Carolina, education as a percentage of the state budget 2002 was 41. 5 of all revenue. In 2015, k to 12 education is under 40 . Its at 38. 9 as a percentage of the state budget. So were underfunding our schools. And what we see in North Carolina in particularly is low teacher pay. Were currently 46th in the nation as it relates to teacher pay. And thats really giving us a very difficult time in terms of recruitment and retention of teachers and talent. Host ok. Erica, let me ask you a question in todays Washington Post. Theres a story about teach for america, which is a program that recruits Young College grads to in nto classrooms to help some of the nations toughest classrooms to sort of help plant some of the teaching talent there. And theyre seeing their pools for application shrink. And the chief executive recently acknowledged that some of the recruitment problems are due to an increasingly vocally critics of teach for america saying that the toxic debate surrounding education and attacks on organization that seek to bring more people to the field is pushing future leaders away from considering education as a space where they can have a real impact. What do you think about programs like teach for america that seek to encourage people to pursue Educational Programs and do you think the pay issue is making it difficult for them and for others to go into teaching . Caller ive had the opportunity to meet miss beard and unfortunately, i would say i disagree with her on this particular topic. If you look around the country, the pipeline for teachers are slinking altogether. When you look at colleges of education enrollment is down about 30 nationwide. So when you dont have people coming into the pipeline the traditional way, alternative routes are going to see shrinkage as well. A lot of times, states are being very hostile towards Public Education in terms of regulation and statues that impact statutes that impact the classroom and impact the quality of life of the workplace for teachers. And i see that people are really reacting to those factors and just the reality of being in the classroom. E have more hard staffed subjects. Its very difficult to get teachers who are qualified and who will stay in those positions. I think youre just seeing the amal mation of all of those hings. Amalgamation of all of things. I think there is a role of government for education but in the last education, they were definitely overreaches. Hopefully, well see some course correction with the new authorization of the every child succeeds act but i think its really going to be up to the states in terms of how they interpret that law and its tenants and how they put it into place. I know some states are look at it as a tool to repeal the common court. I think that will be a mistake. Hopefully, they will save the court and standards. This will hopefully bring back more delole local school board into states. Host ok. That was erica, a School Board Member calling in from charlotte, North Carolina. Committee chairman Lamar Alexander talked a little bit about how the new education law changed the role of education. This bill passed by huge margin, 359 to 64 in the house. 85 to 12 in the senate. The president signed it and called it a christmas miracle. The reason we were able to achieve such unusual consensus is to put it bluntly, is that local school boards, Classroom Teachers and states have gotten tired of the United States department of education telling them so much about what to do. And that one just republicans complaining or governors complaining. You often hear that kind of thing when it comes to the responsibility. This came from the School Suspects superintendents from the American Federation of teachers, from the chief state officers. Almost everybody involved in education. There hasnt been a broader coalition in a long time. The objective has been a National School board telling kansas what its academic standards had to be, telling tennessee how to fix failing schools, telling Washington State how to evaluate teachers. So the legislation we passed not only got rid of those things, we went further in a remarkable way and have explicit prohibitions on what a how much secretary might do. This was all a dramatic change. Its called the biggest evolution from the federal government to states in 25 years. But its not worth the paper its printed on if its not implemented properly. Host and that was Lamar Alexander talking about new federal law that replace the previous no child left behind law. And up next on our caller line, we have fuller calling in from maryland. Fuller, youre a parent. What grades are your children in . Caller my daughter can you hear me . Host yes, i hear you. Caller my daughter is a junior in high school. My son is in the eighth grade. And im part of Prince Georges County public school. It has a terrible reputation. But a child can get a very good education if they know what theyre going in. I can talk about that in a minute. My daughter is a junior. She was in high school here. It was a horrible experience. She did have a the Administration Just really messed things up. And she had a number of challenges. So we ended up taking her around. Shes now in a Catholic School which fortunately my wife is a math instructor teacher. Son, however, is at a fascinating Charter School which is directly connected to the university of maryland. Learning a 100 online environment. Its phenomenal. Now the caller who talked about black and im an africanamerican, blacks and education and economic. The problem with that that what he was referring to isnt that people cant get an education. Now the problem is the legacy. In other words, percentagewise, youre going to have a whole lot less africanamerican families that can have a legacy of Higher Education or a legacy of economic capability. But today, i am confident that anyone can get a great education. The bottom line is the family and the cultural value that talk about you know, family, how can a parent survive . My wife was a teacher over at collegiate public Charter School in d. C. District seven. It was a horrible environment. Host well, let me ask you this. Fuller, you said that one of your children had the opportunity to go to a Charter School and the other had the opportunity to go to a private school. What about parents that dont have that ability . If they have to send their children to public school. Do you still think their families can ensure the same level of education for them . Caller if the parents have the capability to fight and deal with what they have to do. You have to interact with the school. And its hard being a parent. Trust me. I got teenagers and this is the hardest thing ive ever done, raising teenagers. Its hard. So when the culture and around you is hard, the drug, the premarital sex and the fact that you cant have mommys and daddies anymore. My son he has friends who tell him that he likes girls. These are pressures thats hurting us as people. It makes it hard for us to raise kids and to be able to interact with children. They have the have to be so aware. Its tiger. You come home from work and you have to do homework. Its hard. We need something in our value system that says hey, lets care about the family because thats really what the education is occurring. Its not the school. But the bottom line and i as a parent going to do whatever i can to ensure that my children get educated. Working with the teachers and with the administration. Host up next, we have charlotte calling in from tallahassee, florida. Charlotte, youre a teacher . What do you teach . Caller Higher Education, preparing the next generation of teachers to bring forth the methodology that is needed to create and improve our education. What i wanted to speak on and really, the gentleman from georgia, the lady from North Carolina and now, the gentleman from maryland, i think kind of capsizes the full of it where weve gone from the Historical Perspective that the man from georgia brought forward and the lady from North Carolina bringing in from the Administrative School board elected oversight. Yesterday with mr. King having the review, i think for our local schools, i live in a majority minority School District. And we are a college town here in tallahassee. So we have the opportunity of having a very high educated populous in this area and therefore, we have a lot of teachers who are quite capable. I wanted to speak, really, in relationship to the Recruitment Retention and the inAdequate Funding that is not supplementing but rather supplanting. The pipeline for teachers as i come from a large generation of teachers, male and female in the family, in k through 12 as well as higher ed. And now we have the reverse going on where we do not have a pipeline in hbc use. We had, my father who was a science and biology major went into the navy and then had to come out and be a teacher. Could not go into the area that was in fact his discipline. Host well, charlotte, let me ask you this. What do you think would be the solution to increase the pipeline into teaching and also what do you think about programs like teach for america that try to encourage College Students to go into education and teaching . Caller thank you very much. My niece, i have two nieces. One that just graduated in math. Shes a teach for america in atlanta, georgia high school. I have another niece that was a biology major three years ago, planning on going to medical school that was a teach for america. We do have teach for america having made an impact. As the lady administrative said, i think that the criticism of teach for america is really a combination of multiple things. But the biggest point that i want to make, maam, is that accountability with the new Education Bill and the local control content is about the Adequate Funding that is not been there to supplement the intervention needs and we have a teacher forth that really needs to, i believe, move forward. Im in my 60s. So i think we have a teacher forth that needs to move forward, let our young people come in who have been given, i think, kind of a different training, to come into the school with the intervention of technology and also we need to have an accountability on the federal