that s not why we re playing it. that s a healthy ego. you got to go with the joke. i know. we re just teasing. just want to honor my man. this is in honor of don cornelius. we announced his death yesterday. soul train, did you watch soul train ever? am i right, saturday morning? did you pass by the channel or actually stop? we have a lot to get to. let me introduce our panel to you will cain, john fugelsan, i mangle your name all the time. soledad o brien that s cuban irish. roland martin is back, as well. all right, take it down. here we go. let s get to our starting point this morning which is mitt romney. yesterday should have been the victory lap, the victory lap. but then you had to come in. i did nothing but ask a question and a follow up. here s what he said in my interview yesterday morning. i m in this race because i care about americans. i m not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs a repair, i ll fix it.
100 representative american kids entering high school. what does fate have in store for them? 25 out of that 100 won t graduate from high school. a total of 50 won t go to college. that s half the class that won t go on to higher education. 50 will attend college, but only 22 will graduate within six years. meanwhile, other countries are outsmarting us. on a recent international test, u.s. students ranked only 15th in the world in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math. overall, the world economic forum ranks the quality of our education at 26th. what s odd is that we ve been outspending most developed countries by a long shot. in 2007, we spent over $10,000 per student versus the $7,400 average for rich countries. how can we spend so much money and have so little to show for it? we ll ask that question and others to some of the leading figures in american education here on this special essay. we ll examine the role of teachers, testing and technology. and we ask the man w