of enemies along the way trying to upgrade the educational system. you re right, candy. and there are other factors, one issue playing a significant role also carries significant national implications. education reform. a little back story. then known as the democratic dynamo, mayor adrian fenty came into office in 2006, quickly took complete control of d.c. s failing public sool system and handed it over to the new chancellor michelle rhee w then ushered in controversial change, including shutting down two dozen schools, firing hundreds of educators, including more than 100 teachers over the summer r po performance. also overhauling the teacher evaluation system, linking it to student performance. and doing awayth in large part with tenure, putting in its place teacher performance pay. but fenty, once a rising star, well, he s now in the fight for his life. we caught up with hi on the
trouble with your teachers unions because that s essentially what s happening in d.c. they re going after fenty and want to knock him out. i guess that s the moral of the story. that is te fear. and the teachers unions say they want to help the schools too. they say this is too much, too fast, and too harsh. the reforms in d.c. schools ruffling many feathers along the way. and this is why it matters nationally. they are exactly what the obama administration is calling for nationwide. these types of very kind of aggressive and innovative reforms. and the administraon is putting up some serious cash to prove it. they re not just talking about it, offering more than $3 billion in competitive grants for innovative reformfforts just like wc.hat s going on in d.c. and in the most recent polls, fenty is neck and neck or losing to his challenger vincent gray. voters count education as a chief concern heading into the polls,us leaving, as you just mentioned, jim, if this race could create a
efforts. simply the fear that politicians see these reform effortsked by the obama administration as just too risky to take on. all rht. kate, we ll be watching down in d.c. thanks so much. appreciate it. it is almost 7:32, and that means, of course, time for this morning s top stories. bl sifting through the rubbl in san bruno, california, victims of the devastating gas explosion and fires were allowed back into their neighborhood for the first time yesterday. four people are37 confirmed dea 37 homes destroyed. and now pg&e has been ordered to inspect all the gas lines in the state.> port-au-prince doesn t look much different. the associated press reports only 2% of e rubble has been picked up, no one s really in charge of the government. so there s no one to manage the cleanup. recoveryeams say it s difficult for heavy equipment to navigate all the debris and few places to put it. and officials in chile now lowering cigarettes to the group of 33 trapped miners. they ll have
we ll talk about that forecast a little bit later on the program. and then behind that, which you can barely see off to the right of your screen, that is tropical storm julia. a weaker thing f sure. but she ll have time to develop, as well. now, right now, battering the cape verde islands. we re in the heart of tropical season here, this is typically the peak ofna it. and mother nature s not disappointing. hopefully we lkeep some of these out to sea, but no promises on that. back to you guys in n york. and rob, we won t get into the whole igor versus igor debate. i m a young frankenstein fan. who is that? when iat hear that debate going, it brings me back. thanks for that. or not. thanks, rob. but it s igor. yes. education reform. you re going to be hearing about that a lot this week. it sounds great, everybody wants better schools for their kids, right? yes. but in d.c., the former mayor
adrian fenty is battling for his political life. it could have an affect on education reform nationwide. live in washington this morning. mayor fenty has made a few enemies along the way trying t upgrade d.c. s school system. he has. there are other big local factors in d.c. s democratic mayoral primary, one issue playing a significant role also carries significant national implications, education reform. then, known as a democratic dynamo, mayor fenty came into office in 2006, he quickly took complete controlli of the faili public school system and handed it over to new chancellor michelle rey. she ushered in change that grabbed national attention, including shutting down 200 schools, firing more than 100 teachers. and overhauling the system, linking it to student performance for the first time