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i m andrea mitchell. coming up next on andrea mitchell reports debt deadlock. with only 12 days to go, what is it going to take to get past the impasse? we ll ask paul ryan and ranking budget committee member chris van hollen. taking aim at ames. in the race for the republican nomination, tim pawlenty goes on the attack. plus the democratic women of capitol hill take a stand, rallying behind dnc chairwoman debbie wassermann-schultz. see you in 15 minutes on andrea mitchell reports. join us. teachers in memphis are due back at work in less than two weeks but the school board there voted to delay the start of the new school year indefinitely. they re holding the school year hostage until the city pays what it owes the district. dr. kenneth whalen is with the memphis city school board of commissioners. doctor, explain the logic behind
they re holding the school year hostage until the city pays what it owes the district. dr. kenneth whalen is with the memphis city school board of commissioners. doctor, explain the logic behind delaying classes. hi, contessa. the logic is pretty clear. you can t get blood out of a turnip. the school board is being forced to try to operate without adequate funding. the board voted eight to one to delay the start of school, not cancel school, but to delay it until the requisite funding is received from the city council. that was done a couple days ago. that s where we are right now. are you saying you have no money if the city doesn t pay? no, that s an interesting there is an interesting funding formula in the state of tennessee, as you well know, and andrea knows as well. education funding in the united states is very complex. so that although the city talks about their contribution is only about 10% of our budget,
going to be essential. but it has problems, too. some liberal members worry about its impact on social security and medicare, and the closed door meetings that led to the plan. we are an anti-gang group. we are trying to suppress the growth of gangs. we think that it is not healthy for washington. the negotiations could go down to the wire, with the nation s spending power hanging in the balance. it isn t perfect but when the alternative is we re going to drive this country over the cliff, i think we got to start with something that actually gets the job done. the one thing we ve been committed to is getting a solution. mike, where do we stand? reporter: we re 14 days out. i just got an e-mail from a top hill aide and i asked this individual where do we stand. here s the response. it s a mystery. we re all treading water, looking around trying to figure out which way to swim. there have been a number of meetings over the course of the last few days. you know the