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Rick's List
America's Education Crisis; Where Is Wall Street Reform?
Aired March 11, 2010 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: (voice-over): Here is what is making THE LIST.
Why this talk of closing schools?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now it's getting personal. I have a boarded-up school on my block. The taxpayers will deal with you.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
SANCHEZ: Shortening the school week? Where are our priorities?
Meanwhile, two stories of students out of control. This is not just a hockey brawl. This could be assault.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, oh, that is terrible.
SANCHEZ: And students in Indiana accused of viciously attacking one of their own on a school bus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am deeply troubled and upset.
SANCHEZ: And we want to give them less structure?
The man who wrote the book on Karl Rove responds to this:
KARL ROVE, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BUSH: If you wrestle with a pig, you are going to get muddy.
SANCHEZ: And this:
ROVE: The right decision was made, and the world is a better place for Saddam Hussein being gone from power.
"Bush's Brain" author, Wayne Slater, joins me live.
And why is Wall Street still getting its way? Where is the financial reform we were promised, Mr. President?
The lists you need to know about. Who's today's most intriguing? Who's making news on Twitter? It's why I keep a list, pioneering tomorrow's cutting-edge news right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SANCHEZ: There is so much that we need to talk about today, so much information that needs to be told straight.
But at the top of THE LIST: While we are thinking -- and you heard that right there in that tease -- while we are thinking about less structure for a lot of students in the United States, you know, cutting back on school hours, et cetera, et cetera, I want to show you a couple of stories.
First, in Indiana, several students are being investigated on sexual battery on two freshmen on a bus. And then there is this. You are going to lean in, folks, as you watch this. Let's look at it together. This is a hockey fight. All right? I'm going to take you through it.
Now, look at this. You are thinking, OK, fights happen from time to time, but this is no average fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- came out of the box.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the goalie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Now they are waylaying into each other.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-two came out of the box.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Yes, they are coming out of the box, all right. This is between Kennett High School and Portsmouth High School. Now, watch, as you keep looking, what's going to happen here, because it gets even more violent. Stay with the video, Rog. Stay with this video. The fight continues again.
All right. Oh, is that it? Wait. Is that it? Is that the end of the video? All right. Yes, let's replay that. I think we are missing the best part, or maybe I looked down and I missed it. All right. It happens right in the middle, by the way. Hopefully, we didn't cut it wrong.
All right. Something is going to happen over here just on the right. And the question here is at what -- OK. Look at that fight there. Look at those two guys right there. You see number 22? Now, watch this. Boom. Watch the ref. Down goes the ref.
All right. Let me bring in Vinnie Politan in.
Vinnie, I have a -- you are "In Session" host from our sister network on truTV. He is also the host of the "Me and Vinnie " Sirius XM Radio. I have been wanting to get you out here for quite some time. Thanks for being here.
(CROSSTALK)
VINNIE POLITAN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I made THE LIST. This is tougher than getting into Studio 54 in 1978. Come on.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: You are on THE LIST, my friend. As I am looking at this, I am thinking, yes, I understand hockey brawls. I have been around sports my life and I have been in a few of them myself, not hockey, but football.
POLITAN: OK.
SANCHEZ: But there are incidents here that possibly could be charged as assaults, could they not?
POLITAN: By the letter of the law, maybe, Rick.
SANCHEZ: We're not talking adults here. We're talking 16-, 17- year-old kids.
POLITAN: We're talking kids, so they're going to be in juvenile court anyway.
The last one you are talking about is number 19 here when he comes over and it looks like it's unprovoked.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Right.
POLITAN: Here is the problem I have, slippery slope for prosecutors jumping on to the playing field, because you know about the contact that happens in all game. Where do we draw the line?
Well, maybe you draw the line with what number 19 did. It looked like it unprovoked. I don't know what happened just before that. I don't know if number 19 was cross-checked. I don't know if that same guy he went after him there hit him with a stick in that big melee. I don't know. It's not that clear to me.
(CROSSTALK)
POLITAN: And I think it is a slippery slope generally speaking for prosecutors try to jump on to the ball field.
SANCHEZ: But this is unacceptable behavior.
POLITAN: OK. There's other ways to deal with it.
(CROSSTALK) SANCHEZ: Well, I will tell you how they are dealing with them. They say they are considering discipline in this case. Considering discipline?
POLITAN: A couple of things to do. They are in some sort of division or some sort of league. You can suspend the team. You can take the players and kick them off the team if the school wants to do that.
There's a lot of things you can do. I don't think you need, in this case, to bring the criminal justice system on to the playing field.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Let me take you to another case, though.
POLITAN: OK.
SANCHEZ: Same day, different story. This is one is in Indiana. Basketball players, they are on a bus. There are two freshmen in the back of the bus. The freshmen apparently go to sleep. They take it upon themselves then while these freshmen are asleep to do things that I can't even describe on television.
Suffice it to say it is being called potentially criminal deviant conduct, sexual battery with the threat of force and the use of force and criminal confinement. What they did to these kids, some would categorize as sodomy, which is a whole 'nother story. You charge them?
POLITAN: Oh, absolutely. This is completely different. This has nothing to do with sports. This is hazing. This is taking advantage of someone else. This is violating that person. It's not during the -- it has nothing to do with the game, nothing to do with the sport.
To me, this is proper injection of the criminal justice system. And I hope the schools and the coaches, whoever else found out about this, called police immediately on this, because this needs to be investigated. This needs to be prosecuted if that happened.
SANCHEZ: Is there -- can you understand -- I know you play ball because I see you downstairs at the gym. I play ball myself, been playing ball my whole life. Can you in your wildest imaginations fathom what would get into a student, athlete or non, student, to what they're saying they did to these kids? It is sick and crazy.
POLITAN: Yes. It is sick and crazy.
My guess is, and I don't know anything about this school, but from other cases like this, it was always some sort of a tradition. So, these guys who are seniors had it done to them when they were freshmen, so they waited, they waited, they waited. Now we are the seniors. We are in charge. We are going to go after the freshmen. We're going to haze them. It was just a rite of passage. This is what we do. And my guess is, that is what is happening there. The problem is, these seniors are 18 years old. They are in trouble. They are kids, but they are adults in the eyes of the law.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: I get the hazing thing, Vinnie. I don't understand --
(CROSSTALK)
POLITAN: I don't get it either.
(CROSSTALK)
POLITAN: It didn't happen in my school.
SANCHEZ: There are parts of my body and other people's bodies, and especially in this setting.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: No, you just don't go there.
POLITAN: No.
SANCHEZ: I don't understand this. And they are basketball players. What the --
(CROSSTALK)
POLITAN: But there's ways to -- if you want to do this so-called hazing, you don't do it that way. There are other ways to do it. You make the kid stand up and sing the school alma mater.
SANCHEZ: Right. Right.
POLITAN: You make him do something like that, if you even want to do that, if you even want to do that.
I think you have got to point a finger here. The coaches the school, did they know about any tradition? Did they know about this incident? Because if something is happening on the bus, there has got to be adults on the bus.
SANCHEZ: That is what gets us to the other stories that we are going to be following today where the argument seems to be all over the United States of late that maybe we need less structure for students. Some people are talking about getting the school day back to four days, instead of five. Some people are thinking about shutting schools down, in other words, less supervision for kids of this age.
And we are going to be picking up that conversation. I'm glad you got us there. Thanks for stopping by.
POLITAN: Thanks for putting me on THE LIST.
SANCHEZ: Appreciate it. You are now officially --
POLITAN: On THE LIST, baby.
SANCHEZ: -- on THE LIST, Vinnie boom-boom.
All right, look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The electricity went off and I heard it. Here it come. I didn't have time to go to the storm cellar.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: What would you do in your home in a tornado just as it is approaching and then just as it's above you? You are going to see what these folks did. They recorded it. I'm going to share that with you.
Also, he is holding up health care because of abortion, but here is the question in this case. Is a woman more apt to have an abortion paid for under the present plan, in other words, the status quo, what we have right now, or the government plan that he is opposed to? That is Stupak. The answer may surprise you. It may surprise him. That is ahead on THE LIST. Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: This is an interesting point. Many of you are reacting to that conversation I just had with Vinnie Politan. Look at this one here.
Hadn't thought of it this way, but a lot of people are making this their point: "There is no excuse for the fighting in hockey. But it is widely accepted. Let that happen in basketball, and it would be vilified."
What is the point that Kim is making here? I think you know exactly what Kim is saying. And it is an interesting perspective.
All right, with Reynolds Wolf joining me now, and we have got to go through a couple of things here.
First of all, three different tornadoes. I understand one person has been killed, three injured, dozens of homes and buildings damaged. We have got some video now --
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Indeed.
SANCHEZ: -- that you can take us through. It is a couple who shot this home video of a tornado. This is in Saline County, Arkansas.
WOLF: You are correct. SANCHEZ: We will pick up a little bit of the sound -- 1,600 homes and businesses are now without electricity because of this thing. Let's pick up a little bit of the sound there, and then you pick it up.
WOLF: Absolutely.
SANCHEZ: All right. Do it, Rog.
Guess what? There's no sound.
WOLF: It happens sometimes. It's live TV.
Well, this was actually, Rick, sent in by Ross (ph) and Theresa Reeves (ph). They live on Highway 5 in Saline County, Arkansas, one of 75 counties they have in the state. They shot this video of the funnel cloud. They did something that we don't advise people to do. They got in their car and they decided to chase it.
When they noticed that the funnel cloud appeared to get a little bit bigger, that indicated it was moving in their direction and they began to hightail it.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: By the way, it's -- I had to look at this until I could figure out what it was. You see the two light spots there?
WOLF: Absolutely.
SANCHEZ: Those are basically the umbrellas of the cloud. The dark spot and the big area on top is the funnel cloud --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: -- touching the ground there, right.
WOLF: Yes, where you have like the white spots, that is basically open sky behind you. And what you have there is, you have condensation. You've got the cloud that basically forms the V-shape that the viewers are seeing across America, that basically making contact with the trees.
And there is the result, widespread damage, as you mentioned, what, 16 structures?
SANCHEZ: Yes, one person killed, three people injured, and at least 1,600 homes right now without electricity, which means this thing knocked out power lines and really did its damage mostly to the infrastructure there, right?
WOLF: Wow. Yes, hard to believe. What is interesting about this, Rick, is during the month of February, we didn't have a single tornado report anywhere in the United States.
Here we are moving into March. They say March in like a lion. Well, it does appear that it is doing that. We have had a very active season so far. Here we are. We're not even to the middle of March, and we have had a fairly strong tornado --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Is there any way that you can prepare yourself for something like this, or does it just come out of nowhere? I mean, usually, you know if there's going to be storms in the area, but what are you going to do if you are sleeping?
WOLF: Well, the number-one thing, the best place you can possibly be for a hurricane -- or I'm sorry -- for a tornado -- would be underground.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
WOLF: But let's be honest. How feasible is that for everyone to do, to have an underground shelter? A storm cellar is the best place.
And many people in this part of the world, especially in the Central and Southern Plains, as you know, they have got storm cellars, at least basements. Not so sure about the people that were, of course, injured, and of course the one death that resulted from this.
SANCHEZ: And then there's all the folks who take out their cameras and shoot this video, for which we are appreciative, but we recommend that you never do this in such a way that you could put yourself in jeopardy.
WOLF: I hear you, man.
SANCHEZ: It is important to make that point every time we show these videos.
Thanks for coming out. Appreciate it. Good to see you.
WOLF: You bet.
SANCHEZ: All right, take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me and my sister were at the bathroom calling 911.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Listen to me. Take a deep breath. I already have the police coming.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Can you come really fast? Hurry up.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: This kid is a superstar, OK? He's on our follow-up list today. Remember the 7-year-old who secretly called the police about a break-in in his home? There is more to this.
And Wall Street firms still getting away with the damage that they did to our economy. Where is the financial reform? Where? Are you outraged, yet? Jessica Yellin understands that outrage. She's going to join us next to take us through this.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. This is THE LIST.
And we are coming to you from the world headquarters of CNN in downtown Atlanta. Glad you are here with us. The fight over health care reform is getting all the headlines, right? But there is a showdown in Washington that you probably are not hearing a lot about, and I want to make sure that from now on you hear a lot about it, because it is important, it is impactful, and, by impactful, I mean it's going to have a real impact on your lives, everything from your credit cards to how and how much you pay on your mortgage.
CNN's national political correspondent, Jessica Yellin, has been keeping a very close eye on financial reform, yes, the financial reform fight.
Do you know, folks at home, that most Wall Street firms can still pretty much do what they were doing when we got into the financial meltdown that we are still suffering the consequences of now? Think about that. Those suckers can still do the things that they were doing back in November of a year-and-a-half ago.
Jessica, thanks for being here.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for focusing on this, Rick.
If there were one issue I could reach out and tell every viewer who is watching this to pay attention for the next few months, it is this one. Nothing will impact them from Washington to the same extent that this issue will, because it is everything to do with our economy and with -- as you said, their credit cards, their mortgages, and it is so important, and it is sort of stuck.
SANCHEZ: Well, why -- yes. Why is it stuck? Why is this issue languishing for months and months? What is up?
YELLIN: Right.
So, there are a lot of people asking the same thing, and you would be surprised. It is not just consumer groups. Even some business people, business people who didn't get rich on Wall Street, want action now. I will give you three basic reasons. One, the White House put health care first. They prioritized that. Wall Street reform has sort of languished on the side, slowly moving, but not getting a lot of heat attention from any of us frankly.
SANCHEZ: OK.
YELLIN: Two, there has been a move by the Democrats to negotiate with Republicans, just like they did on health care reform, but the negotiations have dragged on and on and slowed this thing down to date.
And, three, this is something one top senator said to me on background, wouldn't use the name, didn't want me to name this person, but said, look, everybody is terrified of the banks, all -- everyone, both sides. They don't want to enrage the banks. They control too much of the economy.
SANCHEZ: Yes. But you know what? Right is right. The American people get it. All of us know that we screwed up by deregulating everything and allowing them to do credit default swaps and Glass- Steagall and all the other things that we all suddenly became experts on, words we had never heard of before.
And we know that it was wrong to get rid of those things. We know that it was wrong to deregulate. So now let's start doing a little bit of the regulation or at least put a little pressure on them so they can't get away with this crap.
YELLIN: Well, two points. One is, people need to put pressure on members of Congress for them to get organized, because the banks are.
Two, yes, the members agree that something needs to be fixed. Nobody likes the status quo really. Even the banks don't like the status quo, because they know regulation is coming and they would rather know what that regulation looks like than live in this limbo, which is where we are.
But the bottom line is, there is still disagreement over the details, and, in the meantime, banks can still take huge risky bets that put the whole system at risk, and we have no way of unwinding them. Do people realize we are still as taxpayers on the hook for another bailout if one of these firms should get in trouble?
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Well, here -- OK. Let's name names here. Who is on what side? Who is holding up the financial reform legislation? Is it the Dems or is it the Republicans? Who is trying to get it passed and who is stopping it?
YELLIN: Well, there is a movement among the Democrats -- the Democrats are pushing a bill right now that would -- the big fighting point, sticking point is this consumer financial protection agency. The idea is that you would have a new agency in America that would do for your credit cards and your mortgages what, for example, the FDA does with prescription drugs. There is an agency that makes sure your prescription drugs are safe. Well, this agency would look over consumer financial products, make sure your credit card company is not playing games with you.
There is a big fight over whether that should exist at all. Republicans don't want it. Democrats vary on whether they do, and there is a debate over where it should be located.
SANCHEZ: I am still bothered by something you said a little while ago. I'm bothered by the fact -- and maybe that is the problem with our system, you know? Maybe that is the problem with our system. Maybe the problem with our system is what you just said, that they fear the Wall Street banks.
YELLIN: Yes.
SANCHEZ: That they -- but, listen, they fear the Wall Street banks more than they fear you and me, more than they fear us as a populace. That's screwed up.
(CROSSTALK)
YELLIN: Yes, but let me add a level of nuance to it.
It is not just that these people are getting cash from the banks or that they're in their pocket. These are well-intentioned people, most in Congress. It is also that they know that the banks control the economy to such an extent that if you have this person with so much power from the bank coming to Congress and saying, if you do this, we are all in trouble, the system goes down, that is worrying.
And so, there is not even enough education in Congress. They don't know as much as the bankers, so they have to rely on bankers for their advice, to some extent.
SANCHEZ: Yes, boy, knowledge is key, isn't it?
YELLIN: Right.
SANCHEZ: That's interesting. They don't know as much as the bankers. So, when guys like Hank Paulson come up and say, if you don't do this, we are going to go into the depression, they go, oh, my God, yes. Let's -- what do you want? Here, let me sign my name on whatever it is you put in front of me, then, right?
YELLIN: Well, and the -- yes, to some extent, because they are worried. They are worried. They're more cautious now, after the bailout.
The other point I would make is, I don't want to tar the Republicans as not worrying at all about consumers. They disagree with the Democrats' vision of what this consumer protection should look like. So, you have maybe principled people on both sides in such disagreement over the details that nothing is getting done in the big picture. And if people don't put pressure on them to act, they will just stay squabbling about the details.
SANCHEZ: What a familiar theme. Nothing is getting done and they are squabbling over the details.
YELLIN: I know.
SANCHEZ: Where have we had this conversation before?
YELLIN: Sound familiar?
SANCHEZ: Great stuff. Hey, let's stay on this, huh? This is a real good topic that I think we -- it's even easier to get, it's more concrete and less abstract than health care, right?
YELLIN: And we can get into some specifics in the future, credit cards, mortgages, you name it.
SANCHEZ: We will do that. All right, thanks, Jessica. Appreciate the conversation.
YELLIN: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now it's getting personal. I have a boarded-up school on my block. The taxpayers will deal with you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am really sad. It is a great school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I deserve a right to be able to make a rational choice based on facts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Based on facts. How does America prioritize its children? Or does it? Why are we talking about closing schools and shortening school weeks?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Let me ask you the question. Are you under an investigation right now by the Senate Ethics Committee and/or the Justice Department?
SEN. JOHN ENSIGN (R), NEVADA: Well, you know, we -- I will let the -- those folks speak for themselves.
There are so many other bigger issues. I have commented all I needed to comment on those kinds of things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Well, guess what? Those folks are now speaking for themselves. The FBI today releasing more e-mails on the questions that I tried to press Senator John Ensign to answer. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: We talked big about two stories a little while ago, and we're getting big responses on our Twitter board.
Let's go there, if we possibly can, and you will see what folks are saying, and they are saying lots. "We need way more regulation, especially in Wall Street."
And then on the lead segment we did about the kids seemingly out of control with the unbelievable stories and the video we showed you: "What is with kids? Parents not parenting. Mediocrity is called exceptional, and people thinking that they are entitled to do whatever they want."
Our thanks to G_True and Mike for that.
All right, on our list now of most intriguing is a person who is so fascinating that a CNN crew took two years to try and craft the portrait of them, two years. This is a story about a struggle and identity and pain, and it is intriguing.
This person lived what looked like a normal life in Largo, Florida, married, a child, city manager, successful, but knew something was wrong and different and was fired after a newspaper revealed a personal secret. Show it, Roger.
Now she is Susan Stanton, but was born Steven Stanton. CNN went along with her and her family on a journey from manhood to womanhood. And her story, "Her Name Is Steven," premieres this weekend.
Susan Stanton, certainly one of today's most intriguing people in the news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very proud of myself that I kept it together as long as I did, but once I heard the screams toward the end, I mean, honestly, I am holding the phone and I'm in tears. I can barely talk. I'm shaking. I'm in tears, because all I hear is them screaming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The dynamic duo that stopped robbers in their tracks unite.
Also, this. Yes, look at these pictures. What are they rioting about? You are going to hear it and see it for yourself. That's next on THE LIST. Also, are you more apt to have abortions paid for under health care reform or the system that we have right now? Who is telling the truth here? We wanted to check for you. So, we did.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: One of the reasons we call this show THE LIST is because we keep lists, lists of what you are saying, the viewer, and we also keep lists of people who are relevant to the news, people who are commenting, whether it be celebrities talking about another celebrity or politicians talking about another politician.
And you can tap into the lists whenever you want to. All you have to do is to go to my Twitter page, and then you can see right there on the right all of the lists that we compile so that you can work your way through them as well.
There is something else I want to do for you now. I want to go overseas. This is number within on the lists of stories on the foreign front. This is about civil disobedience, and it makes THE LIST in "Fotos del Dia."
This is not good. This is riot police with tear gas and pepper spray on one side, and angry crowds, mostly young people on the other. This is Athens, Greece, where as I am sure you know if you have been following the news everyone who works has been angry.
There is a lot of strife with labor unions. Most went on strike today. Starting at midnight, thousands of people in several cities are clashing with police. They are fired up about a government plan to cut the salaries of union workers to try and save money. Everything is shut down in Greece right now, airport, hospitals, TV and even radio stations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wonderful.
SANCHEZ: Yes, it is. Animals and modern art collide in Tampa, Florida. Here is a shocking look at the underground modern art black market where horses spend hours creating oil paintings for their owners to sell.
Just kidding. Actually this lady has been teaching her horses to paint for eight years and says all four of them are into it. If I could teach my dog Gordo just to write and print some news copy, I could get rid of people around here. Just kidding, guys. I love you.
Also, from art to the "not supposed to happen" department. Just watch and listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CRASHING)
(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: Oh, my god. Down goes Frazier. This massive crane came crashing down thanks to a winch that went bad. I'd say.
It was setting up support for a dragline system in Australia. No one was badly hurt, but it sure made a mess. Those are the pictures of the day on "Fotos del Dia."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Let me ask you a question -- are you under investigation by the ethics committee and/or justice department?
SEN. JOHN ENSIGN, (R) NEVADA: Well, I will let those folks speak for themselves. There are so many bigger issue, and I have commented on those kinds of things all I need to comment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Well, those folks are starting to speak for themselves. The FBI obtains more e-mails on the questions that I tried to press Senator John Ensign to answer. We will take you through what is new and show you a little bit of what we tried to have answer as we continue.
Also, why are we creating less structure for kids, but continuing to fund other things? I mean, if you could not tell, I am pretty passionate about this because I have four kids. In fact, sometimes it makes me downright crazy when I go to schools and see that they are locked, that we don't have access to them.
And now we are talking about closing schools in different places, and we're talking about changing school systems to four days a week instead of five. That is why I have Steve Perry with me. It is about priorities, folks.
By the way, if you want to join us, all you have to do is dial 877-4CNN-tour, and you can be right here in the studio while we are doing it and we can talk about all kinds of things in the commercials. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: All right, this is one of the things that I am really fired up about. Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. This is THE LIST, I'm glad to bring it to you and glad you are here.
On the list of reading, writing, and arithmetic, did you hear what is happening in Kansas City? The school board voted last night to close almost half of the schools in the Kansas City school district.
Kansas City is not the only school district facing tough times. Many school districts in 17 states are thinking about going to school four days a week. That means they will have them for four days and you get them for the fifth. Are we shortchanging our kids? What is happening in this country? I have called on education contributor Steve Perry. I want him to talk to us about this.
And you know what, Steve, forget the two cases that I brought up, because we are not going to sit here and have discussions about one school system or another school system. What bothers me is this, as a dad, all right -- I'm going to put my biases right here on the table for you.
I have four children. They are all I think about every single waking moment. That is all I care about is my children. And I am bothered as hell when I find out that schools in my area will close or put locks on the doors when the kids leave.
If want to go play catch with my kid on the schoolyard or play on the basketball courts I can't do it. If I want to go take my kids to some area for recreation, there are no adults there, but only the kids in the corner smoking pot.
It seems like we are not prioritizing children, but every city is loaded to the gills with police officers. And we have got no problems making arguments about, you know, military spending. It just seems like there is something wrong here, man.
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: There is something wrong. Police officers, military and prisons -- we don't have a problem spending $80,000 to lock up a kid a year, but we can't seem to find the money to give them $12,000 to send them to a school of their choosing.
We have created a cognitive dissonance when we say on the one hand we care about our children, but yet when they look at the offerings we give them, there is not much proof that we care.
I will give you another one. You say you speak as a father, I speak as a father, but let me speak to you as a principal. I just left the building a moment ago and one of my folks who works to send kids to college said to me, on a good side, we will send another 100 percent of our kids to four-year colleges, but on the bad side at least 50 percent of them won't be able to go because there is not enough financial aid for them to be able to go and their parents are being turned down for student loans.
I've never seen this in my life. At least 50 percent of our children who have done every single thing we have asked them to do are now going to have so stay home even though they have been accepted to college.
SANCHEZ: But don't we know -- how hard is this principle to understand? I used to be the, the spokesperson for DARE when it first started down in Florida about drug education. I remember I would say the way to keep kids off of drugs is to get to them before people come to them and offer them drugs.
The way to keep kids off of the streets, and the way to keep kids out of the jails, the way to keep kids out of the crime is to deal with it before they become criminals. In other words, you have to put water on the fruit or the flower before it spoils, and it is cheaper that way than to deal with them afterwards.
Why is it so hard for our leaders and the Americans and people to understand?
PERRY: Because thoughtful people like you who care more about the kids than the employees of the school are not speaking up. There are not enough people out there who understand, wait a minute, when I think back of the high school experience, I think of the things after school.
Sure there were a lot of great teachers during the course of the day, but they are cutting the programs that tend to mean the most to the children. They cut the sports and the arts programs and these other programs that really help us to develop the character that we have over our lives.
It's not because we want all of our kids to go on to become great athletes, but it is because we want them to learn how to play well with others.
And also think of the following. We need to understand that we are in a dire financial situation, and they are going to need to be significant cuts, and we have to talk about that and talk about spending differently than before.
However, this is when parents have to come up and man-up and we have to decide that the building will stay open because we will volunteer in the afternoon.
SANCHEZ: But even if you delve into the other areas, where is the creative financing here? I know exactly what you are talking about. My parents $9,000 a year combined income when I was growing up. Guess what, my mom had a job where she got home 6:00 or 7:00 working in a factory sewing shoes, and my dad had two jobs including washing dishes at hotels on Miami beach.
I get what it is like not having parents there, and I was lucky where the schools were open where I learned to play ball and football and after-school activities. If these kids don't have that, the damage that will be done generationally is something that we can't even begin to imagine right now.
PERRY: Well, we can imagine it, because if we start to look at where we are -- if you don't think the rest of the world is beating our behinds in the academic arms race, think of the following. Go to the doctor and see where your doctor comes from. And if that doesn't work, call tech support for your IBM or Mac.
SANCHEZ: I want to take a quick break because I am fired up about this, and I want to keep you on. Why can't this president or this administration or this Congress -- what Americans want is jobs. Why can't we create the kinds of jobs so people don't have to just collect unemployment? Not that there is anything wrong with collecting unemployment. I understand when you lose the job, but, you know, give a guy a whistle and put him at the school after the kids leave and have him coach and make a football team or a baseball team or divvy them up or teach them about something. Where are the people who could do this?
And by the way, what is wrong with taking a police officer one day a week, and instead of having him with a gun and badge, give him a whistle and coach's hat and have him work with those kids? It seems so many creative solutions out there, and nobody thinks about it.
Stay right there, I want your response when we come back. Stay there, folks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: I don't know if I have to apologize or not about for being so passionate about this, but the idea that in America children are not the priority that perhaps they used to be is troubling for a lot of people as well it should be.
Look at this from Rugged Cowboy. This is a tweet we got, he is listening to our conversation, and he writes, "My wife said, how about we name schools the bank of education, and then they'd be able to get their own bailout." Sounds like a plan to me. Talk about prioritizing. That is right. If they were on Wall Street, then we would come up with all kinds of money to make sure that things work for them.
What about the idea, Steve Perry, our education contributor, what about the idea to come up with easy creative solutions, where, for example, every politician who wants to be elected mayor will put up signs to say he will protect you and have more cops on the street, blah, blah, blah -- god, it is tiring.
And we as suckers go along with it and say, great, I will vote for that guy because he will put more cops on the street. And then more often than not we realize we don't live in a place of high crime, but we have more cops than we need, but nobody is working with our kids.
What about the idea of making those police officers -- not making, but asking them, Friday, you can work with the kids at the school and create a sports program, or somehow finding funding in other areas. Why is that so hard to do?
PERRY: Because there are so many people committed to the status quo. That's why. Because people want to accept the fact that police make you safer. Police don't make you safer. Good schools make you safer.
SANCHEZ: Right.
PERRY: I will take it one step further. If you were to say to people like me who struggled to pay the bills to get through college, I will pay for your college if you return to your community and provide service, then I'll pay for your college, because where our children are right now, so many students -- and we're not talking about poor and completely -- we're talking about middle-class children who are deciding to go to the military because that is the only place that will pay for them to go to college.
So they have to go to Fallujah and put their lives in danger in order to come back to work a desk job when they return. That not the way this country is set up, and that is why we are falling so far behind. On the PISA test, we are 27th out of 40 industrialized nations.
SANCHEZ: What does that mean? I don't know what PISA is.
PERRY: It's an examination that tests our math and science versus other industrialized nations, and we are getting stomped. We're getting stomped, and we don't seem to care about it.
We seem to care more about the adults who are involved in the system and making sure that they get to keep their jobs as opposed to making it possible for the young people in it to get their career started.
SANCHEZ: By the way, this is not a cop out for the parents, because I get that as well.
PERRY: No, no, no.
SANCHEZ: Look, there are too many parents out there who think that parenting has to do with getting home from work and knowing your kids are somewhere in the house, most likely in the basement, sitting in front of a TV or video game, and then they are wondering why their kids are screwed up. I get that.
But in defense of parents, like mine, who work two jobs and can't there be to be with their kids, it would be nice if our government, instead of putting all the money in other places, spent money to try to help us help our kids when we are not there by creating safe environments for them with professional adults as opposed to the gin the street that wants his son to be a famous quarterback and has to be the one that coaches everybody.
PERRY: We can print money, it seems -- w can print money to send children in harm's way, but we can't seem to find money to take care of our children when they want to go to school.
Think of what we're saying to kids -- go to school every day. Avoid doing dumb things. Avoid drugs and alcohol and all those other things, and you do those things and we will have something for you at the end of your stay in school, and then we don't. Not only do we not, we raise our tuition by 30 percent.
When you raise their tuition by 30 percent you said you are not going college. There is no way you will be able to come up with 30 percent more dollars from one year to the next. We as a country have to begin to decide how important education is to us.
SANCHEZ: Prioritizing.
PERRY: At this point we made it very clear that it is not. We wouldn't be as bad at education if we cared as much as we say we did.
SANCHEZ: Boy, they should keep and you I away from each other, man.
(LAUGHTER)
This is too passionate, I think. People may be complaining. Steve, I really appreciate your passion, actually, and I'm glad you were on.
PERRY: Thank you so much, Rick.
SANCHEZ: All right. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had to act on what we knew at the time. It is nice in retrospect to say oh, well, you know, somebody should have known. But everybody did examine this carefully.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: You heard Karl Rove with Wolf Blitzer. Now you are going to hear the guy who wrote the book on Karl Rove share his take on Karl Rove. It is an interesting take at that. You will be able to hear it and see it right here. It is coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: This is a story that will put a smile on your face. Remember the seven-year-old boy who saved his family from home invaders by hiding in a bath room and calling 911? Here is a bit of that. We showed it to you yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: When you were in the house, tell me exactly what happened, OK? Just stay where you are and don't hang up whatever do you.
CARLOS: OK. The guys, they have --
(SCREAMING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That's the scary part, but there's nothing to be scared about. Everything turned out fine. He was frightened when the bad guys opened the door. But the bad guys ended up being more frightened of him and they headed out of the house. They didn't even steal anything.
They just left because they were afraid because they found out the little boy, his name is Carlos, was on the phone with 911. So they said we better get out of here because the fuzz shows up, right, the police show up.
And here's what happened since. The woman on the phone with him, right, she was the 911 operator, they reunited them so that they could me because she felt so bad for him. Here is that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the tape, confused, there was screaming. Was that Carlos screaming?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that was my sister.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: The rat. "That was my sister. I wouldn't scream like that" he says to reporters that they are interviewing both of them. What a great kid. You do want to hug him.
In about 15 minutes, much more from Carlos. You will see what happened when he met the woman on the other end of that 911 call.
All right, Stupak --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STUPAK: Mr. Speaker, the rule being debated --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Congressman Stupak holding up the health care vote because of public funding for abortion. But the question is, is there public funding for abortion? The thing that he's complaining about, does it really even exist?
And two, wouldn't there be more funding for abortion the way the system is right now, as in what we have now, as in the status quo? I want to take you through this because it is an interesting conversation. Smart. It's next on "The List."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Topping our list of embattled politician on this day, Senator John Ensign, again, because of reports because of the FBI widening investigations into the efforts by him to get a job for the husband of his former mistress.
Here's what else we've got.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Here's what's making THE LIST.
This congressman is threatening to hold up the health care vote because of, quote, "public funding for abortions." Is there public funding for abortions? What's the truth?
The man who wrote the book on Karl Rove responds to this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you wrestle with a pig you are going get money.
SANCHEZ: And this.
ROVE: The right decision was made and the world is a better place for Saddam Hussein from being gone.
SANCHEZ: "Bush's Brain" author Wayne Slater joins me live.
The lists you need to know about. Who is today's most intriguing? Who is making news on Twitter? It is why I keep a list. Pioneering tomorrow's cutting-edge news right now.
