Debate. Waiving tuition for any student who attends Community College on at least a parttime basis. When he unveiled the idea a couple of weeks ago, it took a lot of people by surprise. Last night he made it official in the state of the union. By the end of this decade two in three job openings will require some higher education. Two in three. And we still live in a country where too many bright striving americans are priced out of the education they need. Its not fair to them. Its sure not smart for our future. Thats why im sending this congress a bold new plan to lower the cost of Community College to zero. Now the audience for the state of the yun yus, now republicans have already balked at the cost and really the feasibility. But here in the bay area. Many Community College students are excited about the idea. California is home to emergency 2 million Community College students. Many say theyre eager to learn more about the president s proposal. Then my brother can go to school. A lot of people go to Community College and then transfer. It makes sense to me. Its probably one of the best deals ive ever heard. I envy it. The president said he would like to see the first two years free for every responsible student who is willing to work for it. So ive invited two people to join me to talk about the proposal. These two gentlemen are both passionate about education. You will see they sit on opposite sides of this debate. Bill evers a research professor. Also with us is bradley davis, hes the president of west valley college. Its a Community College with around 12 students. I want to start with you, bradley. How would Something Like this proposal impact the college . I will say it will benefit us in two ways. The first is access. Right now the state, the nation is struggling with a lack of talented and skimmed employees at the same time that access is being cut across the the Community College systems. This will provide an opportunity for tens of thousands of students to atent college in a way that they otherwise couldnt. Secondly. I think this is an opportunity for very meaningful economy growth. M and the contributions will be paid back tenfold for the investments that we make in this program. Before i get to you. One question here. This issue, through the low graduation rate. The kids dont get out. Many people say that giving it for free. No engagement would only exacerbate the problem. I would tend to disagree. The reason that i would disagree is there are milestones to need to be reach by students who avail themselves o f the program. Those milestones dove tail nicely with those already in place in Community Colleges in ka california and other places. Youll see an up ward trend in completion rates and other mile state of the unions of student auk sesz was there will be more touch points with counselors. There will be more Educational Planning and advancements. Lets look at the specifics together as we know them right now. If Congress Passes a proposal the federal government would pay 75 of the cost. Participating states would pay 25 . Students would have to maintain a 2. 5 gpa. They must make progress towards completing their program. We heard many republicans say this is subsidizing college. Your take . I think thats a correct characterization. The chief figure in the the united states, the the leading expert on College Affordability is an economic at ohio university. He describes the proposal as absolutely awful. And i would agree. Right now were hearing all the arguments between napolitano and Governor Brown about funding the uc system. How do we fund this as well . The biggest is the overhang of the Public Employee pensions. I mean thats astro no, maam call. The california budget is not actually in balance. Theres a potential catastrophe facing us. A potential catastrophe, thats pretty strong. I couldnt phrase it any less strong. One of the things you talked about, and a lot of people dont like to say it. Ft maybe college isnt for everyone. Is that something to consider . Is even Community College is a reach for some students. I would say the statement that the president made is a little bit so if you look at what the Labor Department says about the jobs that are going to be growing, 20 categories of jobs that will be growing until 20, 25 over half of them dont require even Community College. And so the necessity, you know of high school or not even completing high school. So it is exaggerationing the economic command for this. Hes also locking in a certain way of addressing it. Hes privileging. Giving a special status to the Community College the public ones. When boot camps for commuter programmers, all sorts of things like this are more flexible private colleges proprietary colleges are better and liked by lowincome and minority kids and so i think hes giving a special treatment to these guys with the ultra subsidy. Brad i hear a lot from students that basically in Community College they cant get to classes because theyre clambering to get in. How would this impact your campus in terms of student ps showing up and what kind of demand do you see . What do the the kids say . I think the students are overwhelmingly in favor of this. Colleges will see an uptick in admissions. However, i think the the Community College is well equipped to deal with an increase in number of students. If we were to turn the argument around and say high school isnt for everybody you would see a very different attitude. The time has come for much more discussion at the National Level as to where we want to prioritize the educational dollars. In that respect his plan is a success already. This is brought together leaders already carefully dialoguing regarding what is the next step. As long as we continue that dog like, it will lead us in the right direction. The president has painted with broad strokes. Until we see the finer points. Its difficult to evaluate wait this as anything else. Are you confident you can get the dollars to put these programs in place . I am. We can redeploy dollars that already exist within our system to serve the influx of students. How would that change the the economy if we were able to get all these students in for free . Well i read a graphic the other day that said a model 2 increase in students achieving associate degrees could contribute 20 billion in Economic Growth to the state and 1 billion in local and state property taxes every year. Thats an investment well worth the time and energy. Ill give you the final minute. I think its a problem because we already have 400,000 stunltds on the waiting list to get into the system in california. With drop the price to zero youre going to have a much worse waiting light. Right now people with low in incomes are not pating for tuition. Ft 40 get a waiver in california. We have one of the lowest cost Community College systems in the country. This is going to subsidize people from the upper income ranks. The poor are already have Financial Aid to go to Community College. We may do something worse. We may be pushing the poor into the community ledge system. And theyre going to be not going to the high potential ones, the high achieving ones that could go to fouryear schools will be undermatched and going to these Community Colleges that are not as academically challenging and will have a twocap system where the wealthy are going to fouryear colleges and the lower cast people are relegated and lured into this community ledge system. I think thats a bad trend for america. Its a fascinating debate. Well hear more about this. Thank you for coming here and giving us your exexpertise. Schools all over the world use this website. And a spashl math competition just for bay area schools. Its right here after the break. When the flu hits, its a really big deal. The aches. The chills. The fever. An even bigger deal . Everything you miss out on. Family pizza night. The big game. Or date night. Why lose out to the flu any longer than you have to . Prescription tamiflu can help you get better 1. 3 days faster. Thats 30 sooner. Call your doctor right away. And attack the flu virus at its source with prescription tamiflu. Tamiflu is fda approved to treat the flu in people 2 weeks and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. Before taking tamiflu tell your doctor if youre pregnant, nursing, have Serious Health conditions or take other medicines. If you develop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. Children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion or abnormal behavior. The most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. Call your doctor right away. Dont lose another moment to the flu. When theres flu, tamiflu. All it took was a desk and a microphone for this man to change the world of education. He started an academy after he tutored his cousin over the internet and in the process discovered the power of Online Education. Fast forward a few years and millions of students use it all across the country and all over the world. Hes also called the messiah of math. Really anyone a student or not, you can go on and learn about a lot of topics. I have used academy myself. Actually to learn about gdp and statistics that i didnt understand very well and i needed to use in work. I had to go on and use it myself. Youre venturing into something different. Not different but new in bay area centric, which is learn storm. Yeah, its virtual things for the planet and for here in the bay area. We said what if we could kread a celebration of learning. Something that could change culture here in the bay area. And people can go register. Its not for profit. Learn storm 2015. Org. We are hoping they represent their schools. And this isnt i guess, you could say a math competition. We want to celebrate their efforts. Not just individually. But on the school and city level. We want to see how san jose compares to san francisco. Translator a little bit of a competition, but not really. A coopetition. I like that. U you worked with a professor at stanford to come up with the concept . Yeah well this is part of a whole ka campaign called you can learn anything. And thats really about the mind set of learning and a lot is based on the idea that if you have the the right mind set, then the learning is more likely to happen. So heres a question for you. Is perseverance inherent or something you can teach and learn . Are well Research Shows you can teach it and learn it. And this is really to kind of make the culture of the bay area one of perseverance, grit growth, mind set. And learning. What are you learning from it . Well weve always been virtual. But were here in the bay area. Can we celebrate what schools are doing . What teachers are doing. And then convene them together . So people can register right now. And then february 9th the work they do on con academy. Theyll get credit for it. It goes towards their school and city. And in april were going to have a big celebration where we convene everyone in the bay area. We really celebrate what theyre doing. So we talked about it being online. But now you have a brick and mortar addition to your office. What is that. And how is that different, or are you using what you use online in the class . What are you doing with that . Part of the narrative wasnt just to access us online but maybe we could start to reimagine what a physical classroom is all about. Could you have a mixed age classroom . Is Students Learning at their own pace . Could you have year round classrooms . So we started it very small really downstairs from our offices. How is it different than a traditional classroom . Its pretty different. The students all learn at their own pace. Theres some use of technology. Most of the days is spent on project based learning. These are all mixed kids together. Yeah. It harkens back to the oneroom schoolhouse. We have 5 to 12yearolds. And what are you hoping to garner from that . Is this something that youre hoping down the road once you get your data to be able to expand it to different places . Well the model of education were in has been around for 200 years. We wanted it to be able to at least see what is possible. Theres a lot going on in education. We want to use our platform to share it with educators, teachers parents, opportunities to see what can be done. So much has happened so quickly in Online Education. Your name always comes to the forefront of Online Education. What do you see as being the the next big breakthrough in Online Education . Well i think the conversation in on gin line education has been about how do you take what the physical has done and transplant that to online. In our minds its always how can Online Education move everything up . If students can get lectures at their own time and pace cha can be done with the physical environment . More projects . More insquirry . More explanation . Thats where we think everything is going to go. And something im really preoccupied with right now because i have teenager ls. They had a big change a few years ago. Now they decided to change it once again. And you are working with the College Board of education to have these online if im correct. Online prep tests for the new s. A. T. One big criticism has been that it favors the affluent who can take these tests. This is a huge game changer, though. Yeah its always been associated with things that maybe dont exactly learn in school. And the affluent may have access to the Test Prep Companies and get special training and whatever else. M and so the new s. A. T. In 2016 the goal is to be more aligned with what students learn in schools. And theyve recognized perceived and probably real inequity. The affluent or middle class may be able to afford it. Work working with them. Were going to launch on free test prep. Its going to be deep personalized exercises. And it happens to be free. So when i go on and you have it. How will it work for me . You will show up. You will answer some questions. It will really try to build an understanding of what you know or dont know. It will give you exercises to be the best yield for you. Its like a College Counselor that weaves your way through it. That plus i guess kind of a tutor that can understand hey, you have gaps in this type of grammar. For me it would be math. Theres a website for that. Yeah. I know. Ive been on that website. Uhhuh. So then it will walk me through and help me guide me in a different direction. Yeah. Imagine having a personal trainer. How many times can i take this . As many as you want. And this is why they wanted to work with us. Traditional its test taking strategies. This is getting as much practice as you need and getting familiar with the test so you learn the concepts. And the key phrase here is free. Its free but we we also want it to be the best out there. And it will level the Playing Field for people. Thats a goal. A lot has been talkeded about the plenl for different websites. A lot of companies are signing onto this. Is your academy a part of this . Is this something your nonprofit doesnt need to adhere to . Yeah. We have signed it. The spirit of it being not for profit was the idea is this is a trust that we have with our users. People need to understand we have no incentive to sell data or use it in a shady way. We absolutely signed it. What do you see on the horizon . A lot of exciting things. We launched our ipad app yesterday. Thats getting amazing reviews. Its got the exercises and personalization on it. We have the learn Storm Program on it. We think it will pump a lot of people up. Teachers students. And we have the sat log. Do you like being the called the messiah of math . I think its a little much. Another said the matt of kahn. I like that much more. Its wonderful to have you. Well be right back. Welcome back to our class action special. T some followups on story we been covering. Could there be a middle ground in the tenyear wars. The Teachers Union and the state are appealing that judges decision saying it undermines key job protection. But there may be a path to comp migs, at least according to a new survey of teachers. At issue is the Current Practice of granting teacher tenure after 18 months on the job. Teachers say tenure really is important to them but they want it to be meaningful professional benchmark. According to peach plus the reform group that funded the survey. They found 65 says it should be granted after three to five years. 72 agree 18 mons is not long enough to determine tenure. And 75 believe qualified teachers should play the role in granting tenure to new teachers. They have a panel who Work Together to determine those decisions, and it could soon serve ads a model for other districts, too. And another update on oth mik studies. A new bill has been introduced to require all california schools to offer ethnic studies. This is grade 7 through 12. The classes would be elective. The bill comes on the heels of san franciscos move to offer ethnic studies at all the high schools starting next year. Were back in a moment. When the flu hits, its a really big deal. The aches. The chills. The fever. An even bigger deal . Everything you miss out on. Family pizza night. The big game. Or date night. Why lose out to the flu any longer than you have to . Prescription tamiflu can help you get better 1. 3 days faster. Thats 30 sooner. Call your doctor right away. And attack the flu virus at its source with prescription tamiflu. Tamiflu is fda approved to treat the flu in people 2 weeks and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. Before taking tamiflu tell your doctor if youre pregnant, nursing, have Serious Health conditions or take other medicines. If you develop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. Children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion or abnormal behavior. The most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. Call your doctor right away. Dont lose another moment to the flu. When theres flu, tamiflu. Thats going to do it for us tonight. You can see all out of stories by visiting inging nbcbayarea. Com classaction. You can also see it in spanish on our sister station telemunda. Thanks for watching. Well see you next time. Our indepth interview is the american sniper widow. Hi everybody. Welcome to access hollywood, weekend edition. So much criticism directed towards american sniper charge it with glorifying a killer and now in an exclusive interview with access hollywood, chris widow reveals the hero she knew and the message she gave Bradley Cooper shortly before he died. I know when he talked to bradley he said you know you will do great. Only one thing. When you come to texas i have to tie you up in the back of my truck and knock some of the pretty off out of. Bradley laughed of course. Reporter as chris widow explains, chris and bradley only had one conversation before chris died. Allegedly murdered by a vet with ptsd in 2013. It was a tragic end to a complicated life in which chris served 4 tour of duty and was called the deadliest sniper in u. S. History. Chris had such a baby face and he got carded for alcohol until he was 29 years old. Through his time in serving he had a harder look with him. His temper was a little bit short fused. A little more withdrawn sometimes