PROFILE
FROM Randi Weingarten
Are American Children Being Left Behind After All? The Bush Administration established No Child Left Behind — a federal law designed to raise student achievement in America's public schools. The Obama Administration followed up with the competitive program, Race to the Top . Have the resulting pressures on educators — and children — cost more than they're worth? In Atlanta, administrators and teachers have been sentenced to prison for falsifying the results of federal mandated standardized testing. In New York, thousands of public school parents are telling their kids to opt out of taking federally mandated tests. And, in Washington, there's a rare, bipartisan effort to re-write No Child Left Behind. We hear about a growing consensus that education reform needs reform.
Can Obama's Education Chief Save the Nation's Schools? Democrats are sharply divided between school "reformers" and so-called "traditionalists." They circulated competing manifestos during the presidential campaign: one side wants charter schools, merit pay and accountability for teachers; the other says don't blame teachers for failing schools, provide flexibility and better resources. Barack Obama has chosen an education secretary who has endorsed both sides. Will that mean gridlock or will Chicago's Arne Duncan finally overcome the "tired… debates" that have stalled real education reform? What about " No Child Left Behind ?"
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Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
Will the Senate write a healthcare bill in secret? While Democrats and Republicans argue White House relations with Russia, another question is being decided behind closed doors: who gets help buying health insurance and who doesn't? We hear how the pros and cons are being shrouded in secrecy.