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Why education is portrayed in a negative light
>> education is one of the biggest challenge s facing our country. we have not heard about it much. except for santorum calling the president a snob for suggesting that some kind of higher education should be available to all. on fox news sunday, santorum tried to wiggle out of that after the host pointed out that the president only called for the president to seek higher education in some ships. we have the previous chancellor of did department of education in new york. let's talk about the op-ed that you wrote today approximate in the -- today in the washington post p what are we missing here?
>> we are issuing the most important issue that the country is facing. we are in a position where a large number of kids are not being educated to the level that the 21st century is going to require. we go longer live in a world where kid s dropping out ofhigh school or graduating from high school will be able to committee and yet, we are not performing remotely like our foreign competitors, this to me is the ticking time bomb and if america wants to have real economic equality in the country in terms of ensuring that we have a growing and expanding offense ensuring we have a growing and expanding middle class , we have to get serious this. 1% of the questions have been on educati education. it's a joke.
>> one of the things that was pointed out is that teaching as a profession is not valued highly enough. we have seen the contrast in the way finland and shanghai as well as singapore treat teaching as profession. the kinds of salaries they pay. what can we do to recruit the top college graduates and make them be interested in serving as teachers in public service and even if the salaries are not as high as they should be?
>> it's so important. i think we need to improve salaries. we have teach for america bringing more and more young kids from all over the country, top of their class. we have to keep those kids by inspiring them and rewarding excellence. we have to understand that our teachers are our heroes. it's a title of honor that they bestow on their teachers. i think we need to move away from the current model. they're not really selective fluff. in finlantds it's harder to get into that education school than othergraduate programs . that's the model that we need. our best and brightest have got to become the hallmark of teachers. they have to inspire the kids. we know from experience now, we've seen it happen time and again that we get very different results.
>> it starts with good teaching.
>> shame on us if we don't get it.
>> thank you for keeping at it. keeping on the subject, writing and speaking out. thanks. good to see you again.
>> great tot be with you.