are considering changing the curriculum for public schools. there are some who actually favor eliminating details about our founding fathers, like george washington. and instead, putting more of an emphasis on current events. molly henneberg is in d.c., talk about why the change in curriculum in the first place. reporter: hi jane. north carolina, commissions studied the school curriculum, which is about a decade old, and recommended it needed an update, so every subject is getting a review and new set of learning standards. and one of the proposals suggest that for social study, ninth graders take global studies which focuses on modern issues and 11th graders would take u.s. history but only starting from the 1877 to the present. take a listen. we are certainly not trying to get away from american history. what we re trying to do is figure out a way to teach it, where students are connected to it, where they see the big idea, where they re able to make connections and draw relation
amount of debt. accumulated a staggering am of debt and problems with medicare certainly are not helping. economists have said more medicare benefits promised thaten the government can pay for and in the end the system may prove to be fiscally unsustainable. don t want to hear those words do you? jim angle is in washington, d.c.. medicare has been at the center of the health dare debate and sounds like center of the debt problems too. very much so medicare is titanic of entitment programs seniors and i mean that titanic in the worst sense because it s huge unfundsed promise that will sink under its own weight without massive help. listen. medicare is a much more challenging situation than social security. medicare was under-funded 38 trillion dollars as of last year. and growing. between 2010 and 2030 the number of americans age 65 and over is expected to go from 41 million to about 71 million.
requiring our students to learn as ninth graders is we ll be requiring them to learn about global warming and third world debt relief. reporter: he says that s not the way to go, jane. jane: molly henneberg in d.c. for us, thanks molly. jon: fresh snow in parts of the northeast, and guess what? a new storm on its way. heavy rain, sleet, and ice developing over the southern plains. i was just thinking about my weekend. janice was just telling us during the commercial break about what s coming, and oh man. jane: it could rival the storm we got before christmas, d.c., over a foot of snow. i want to show you these average to dates, look at philadelphia, baltimore, d.c. and richmond, three times the average already and we could get on top of that over a foot of snow with the next storm system. this storm system is depart departing, not worried about this one, this one getting
illustrated that washington simply doesn t work anymore. the president said that the debate actually improved the health care bill, but he blames republicans for the failure, if you will. here s a bit of what he had to say. in order republicans sthai they can insure every american for free, what is which is what was claimed the other day, at no cost, i want to know, because i told them, i said why would i want to get a bunch of lumps on my head doing the hard thing if you ve got the easy thing? but you ve got to show me, you ve got to prove to me that it actually works. reporter: lance lynn blanche lincoln of arkansas asked the president if the folks in his administration actually know what it means to have to get up and know to work to work or worse, not have a job, she said the congress and the administration have broken the back of the recession but can t go back to the policies that led to it. jane? jane: wendell goler, we ll let you know if anything
president has singled out las vegas as an example of excessive spending. vegas businesses are already hurting from the recession and some of them worry that these words from the president really could have a significant effect on tourism. shannon bream is in d.c. for us. shannon, exactly what did the president say? reporter: well, jane, we re talking about his visit to new hampshire yesterday. he was there to talk about jobs the economy those important things to put this in context he was saying he hopes families are being responsible with their budgets and with their money. here s what he said. don t blow a bunch of cash on having gas when you re trying save for college. you prioritize. you make tough choices. it s time your government did the same. reporter: well senator reid fired back saying it s time for the president to lay off las vegas. by the end of the day yesterday the white house and the president had sent a let tore senator airy reed saying we didn t mean to say anyt