news. pfizer now testing an omicron-specific vaccine, this as schools are struggling with how to handle high amounts of positive cases among students. we'll be speaking to one superintendent whose district has gone remote indefinitely. is this doing more harm than good? and we've got other breaking news this morning. after decades of status quo, the s.a.t. exam making a huge change that could impact millions of high school students across the country. it might be time to toss your number 2 pen similars. we start with the tense standoff between russia and ukraine, tensions growing more urgent by the hour, the pentagon putting 8,500 troops on heightened alert as the u.s. weighs military action. none have been deployed as yet. but they could be moving from other parts of europe to neighboring countries like poland and romania. this comes after president biden joined a 90-minute video conference about the crisis with european leaders. the white house posting this photo of the president in the meeting saying they're looking at severe economic costs for russia if russia doesn't back off. plus on capitol hill, house speaker pelosi and senate majority leader schumer want briefings on this for all members of congress. i want to bring in white house correspondent kara lee, matt bradley inside ukraine, peter baker, "new york times" chief white house correspondent, and ben rhodes, former deputy national security adviser during the obama administration. kara, are our allies on the same page? and how serious, how close are we to actually sending troops to eastern europe? >> reporter: good morning, steph. the administration says that they've put these 8,500 troops on heightened alert. that means that they could be ready to deploy to nato countries within a matter of days. at the same time, they're saying no decision have been made on whether or not to deploy those troops at this time, but pentagon press secretary john kirby was saying yesterday that even as all of this is happening, putin is show nothing signs of backing down. take a listen. >> there's been no sign that russians are interested in de-escalating or moving troops away or taking tensions down. quite the contrary. you can see an increased sense of concern by the administration and by our nato allies. >> reporter: now, look, there is a lot of heightened concern. obviously, president biden had that meeting with nato allies yesterday. he came out of it saying that it was a very, very good meeting and that nato allies and europe and the united states were totally united on moving -- how to move forward. but, look, there are divisions between europe and the united states on how to respond if putin does, indeed, invade ukraine again. and the white house is trying to figure out how to at least get everybody sort of mostly on the same page when it comes to that. look, steph, this has been a big frustration for president biden, that in terms of they're united and wanting to deter putin from taking further action and moving into ukraine, but if he does so, it's not clear exactly how everyone is going to come together and respond to that. >> political leaders are frustrated, things are getting more tense, people around the world are worried. but matt, yesterday you said thing were looking calm in ukraine. is anything changing? >> reporter: yeah, nothing has changed in terms of walking around and seeing people. it's still calm and quiet, but things are open. this is business as usual. this is what this city always looks like. it's because the fact that we have to remember here, stephanie, that often gets lost in this is from a ukrainian perspective, this isn't that new. for them, they've been at war with russian-backed separatists, not necessarily russia itself but separatists backed by russia for the last seven or eight years. so this isn't necessarily a new threat. i've been speaking with government officials. they said that, you know, these sorts of escalations could have come at any time in the last couple years and maybe that's why the public and even the government doesn't seem uniquely concerned. but they're having a hard time kind of threading the needle with their rhetoric because we heard from the government yesterday in public comments to the entire nation, and they were talking about those embassies, the u.s. and british embassy, that decided to voluntarily withdraw nonessential staff and send all family of embassy officials home. for them, there were public comments on twit they're sounded salty about that. ukrainian government officials said this is just going to increase tension and increase panic among the population. but at the same time, their messaging to the ukrainian population, don't panic, but also br prepared for the worst, be prepared for a major incursion. but a lot of them are putting their hopes in meetings tomorrow in paris. that's the first time that the full group of four countries known as the normandy four or the normandy format negotiations, will be meeting and this could be the first time we're actually going to be seeing russian and ukrainian diplomats meeting face-to-face in more than a year and a half. >> let's be honest, is there such a thing as a russian diplomat? russia isn't looking to thread any needle, ben. the united states and nato, we're ramping up diplomacy, but russia's got 100,000 troops on the ground and they're moving more in. >> reporter: yeah. i think, you know, steph, when you -- >> yeah, and i mean -- >> ben? >> yeah. i was going to say when you look at the diplomacy that's taken place, it has not really been about resolving some issue inside of eastern ukraine, for instance, where it's the normandy group, which is france and germany and russia and ukraine has been focused on for many years. instead, russia's had these demands essentially that not only stopping that in ukraine but the united states and nato pulling back from eastern europe generally. things that go about issues well beyond ukraine and things russia knows full well the united states is never going to agree to. so the diplomacy itself feels like it's moved into a phase where it's just russian demands they know people are not going to meet that are in line with putin's long-standing ideological positions about reversing the cold war era in european security. i understand the ukrainian perspective of not wanting to depend on citizens, it's important for people to understand what's the statement and is different. it is the case that russia has been engaged in an invasion of ukrainian territory since 2014 and they annexed the crimean peninsula and have had this kind of irregular war in eastern ukraine with perhaps russian special forces and advisers with these russian-backed separatists. what is qualitatively different now is the enormous mek nitzed buildup of over 100,000 troops that is encircling ukraine and has the capacity to do something that will look different from what we saw in 2014 that kind of asimilar mettic special forces cyber-type warfare they were employs in eastern ukraine. this could look like a full-scale land invasion we haven't seen in europe in decades. i think that's why the united states and nato is so set on making these deployments not to go into ukraine with those 8,500 troops but in order to buttress the eastern flank of nato, those countries that either border ukraine or border russia, who just want the reassurance, frankly, that there's additional american personnel there as a signal of our commitment to their defense, not as a signal we'll somehow move those troops into ukraine itself. >> putin's long-standing ideological position that wrestles between delusions of grandeur and hopes for world domination, peter, you covered the biden administration, but you used to cover putin's rise from moscow. having seen both sides, how tricky of a tight rope is president biden walking despite the fact he has significantly more power? >> yeah. it is a tricky tight rope because first of all the most important thing is what does vladimir putin want to get out of this? as ben said, the maximalist demands, he knows things that biden and the west can't agree to, they're not going to say yes, you get to decide who gets to join nato or not, and the question whether putin wants any off-ramps to gather this crisis that he started to begin with. the biden administration's offered a couple. they said, look, we can talk about missiles near the russian territory. we can talk about military exercise, whether there are ways to put limits on both sides there and it will make people feel more comfortable. but they're not tuquing about the future of nato and handle over that right to decide to vladimir putin. here's the thing that putin says his goal is to get nato out of his backyard. what he's accomplished is exactly the opposite. what he's accomplished is encouraging nato to send more troops, planes, warships to the region, closer to russia's backyard than they have been in many years. so it's unclear to me what putin really wants to get out of this if he doesn't intend to invade. maybe he does intend to invade. maybe this is all a lot of throat clearing until he gets forces in there. but there are reasons to think he wouldn't. a full-scale invasion could be disastrous for russia. they would be stuck trying to occupy a country that doesn't want them there with 45 million people who have guns and know how to fight. >> or he loves this visual. vladimir putin, whose country has an economy roughly the size of italy's, is standing off against the all powerful nato. ben, i want to read part of an op-ed from fiona hill, former russian intelligence officer. she writes, "if mr. putin invades ukraine with no punitive action from the west and the rest of the international community, beyond financial sanctions, we will have set a precedent for future actions by other countries." the headline here is that putin has the u.s. right where he wants it, and he doesn't have to worry about midterms like biden. he doesn't care about economic sanctions. he's a billionaire. >> yeah. that's part of the wealth that we have to target with our sanctions, the wealth of putin and his circle. look, i think it's political context where this is not new, his interest in ukraine, but i think he feels like he has a moment now where he can essentially create a buffer between himself and europe and the west and nato and ukraine and belarus are an important part of that buffer. he wants control over the internal politics of those countries. he does not want ukraine to be a democracy. he wants ukraine to either be a part of russia or at least be controlled by russia. i think what he also knows as you know well is we're in a position now where the financial sanctions that the u.s. would want to impose with europe, many of those are in the energy sector, because most of -- a significant amount of russia's -- europe's energy resources come from russia, and a significant amount of russian revenue, by the way, comes from that gas that gets sold into europe. he knows looking at the political context you have a midterm election in the united states, you have a french presidential election this year, you have a new german chancellor and you have a british prime minister in deep political trouble at home. these are the things he's dealing with. he knows the biggest tool they have to sanction him is something that would hurt their economy, would significantly hurt european economies and it would drive up energy prices and prices at the pump in the united states. and he's counting on that leverage to divide the european and american allies. he's counting on the fact that we won't want to throw the book at him in terms of sanctions because it might hurt us as well. that's why i think the administration is not only get europeans on the same page about the type of sanctions we would impose but the capacity to sanction them and put controls in place so they can import something like semiconductors into russia. so you're trying to strangle his capacity in the high-tech industry or inputs into things that are important in aerospace and smartphones and other areas. i think administration is looking at all the different levers it can pull while obviously trying to manage the fact that, you know, energy sanctions are going to hurt us as well. >> they sure will. the lever that would then cause prices at the pump to go up is nothing any political strategist wants to happen. mr. rhodes, our role every day is to help our audience get smarter. you definitely helped us do that. peter baker, matt bradley, carol lee, thank you so much. in the last two minutes we got our toddler view. still ahead, a new york supreme court judge striking down a statewide mask mandate calling it unlawful. and a school district in michigan is set to go virtual indefinitely. i got to ask why. good news, the superintendent is here after the break to explain this one 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>> reporter: yeah. doctors that we have spoken to, they say these are valuable, effective tools to have in the fight against covid-19. a year and a half ago, they didn't have outpatient therapeutics to consider giving to someone. so the fact that they have these, they say it is a very big deal, and production is ramping up. but effective tools are only effective if the people who need them know where to find them. we've spoke on the people who live in california, texas, and north carolina who tell us when they tried to track down these pills either for themselves or for a loved one, they could not find them and often times the people they went to try and get answers and more information, they knew even less than they did. listen to what a woman in houston told us when she called her doctor to ask for a prescription for covid-19 pills. >> he said i will certainly write you a prescription for it, but you will have to do the legwork because i don't know a pharmacy that has it. and that was so discouraging to me because i couldn't physically or mentally do the legwork. so i really felt discouraged and i thought i'm not going to get any treatment that will prevent this from getting worse. >> reporter: kelly who you heard from there is triple vaccinated but immunocompromised. her son after he heard what her doctor told her, she went on an hour-longs search to track down pills for her. he ultimately was successful, but one thing he told us is he was privileged to have the ability, the time, the wi-fi, the computer skills to do all of this work. not everyone else has it. there's a website we can show you quickly here that the department of health runs. it's an interactive therapeutic map. we will post this website on twitter. but i'm a pretty good googler. it is incredibly difficult to find that interactive website. the only why we have the link and found it ourselves is because a doctor sent it to us directly. it's very long, too long to put on screen for you. people say that's part of the big issue. they don't feel like they have clear information on where to find these even if they're out there. stephanie? >> it was on this day we learned ellison barber's secret talent. she's a pretty good googler. ellison, thank you. now to the state of michigan where public schools in flint are going virtual indefinitely after more than 10% of their covid tests in the district were positive. that is an all-time high there. joining us to discuss, the superintendent of flint community schools, kevlin jones. with all the tools we have now, vaccines, testing, why did you make the call to go virtual indefinitely? >> well, we had been looking at data, the positivity rate was 20%. when we came back from the break, the positivity rate was 38.4%. and so speaking with our local health officials, we -- and our board of education, we didn't think it was safe during this surge to send our scholars back. yes, we have spent our covid dollars on ppe, technology, we're working on our hvac systems, but all of those things that we're getting in place and have in place still doesn't. answer the surge that we're in. and so as a school district, we made the tough decision when others have not made that decision. we made the tough decision that we are going to keep our scholars home safe until this surge has ended. indefinitely did not mean that our scholars will be out of school until the end of the year. it just means until this surge has subsided and we have started to see a downward spiral in the covid numbers. >> positivity rate doesn't mean that people are getting very sick. we're hearing from a lot of medical professionals who are saying we have to learn to live with covid and what we need to pay attention to is hospitalizations, and unfortunately deaths. what are hospitalizations looking like beyond just the positive tests for these kids? >> the hospitalization in our community, they're full. i'm on calls every week with our county health officials and nurses and doctors, and in our community, they're full. and the vaccination rate for our scholars 5 to 11 years old is at low was at 11%. so we are struggling with those numbers, and we just felt as a district that we wanted to be safe and we wanted to ensure that we were educating our scholars. we know that face-to-face is the best way. we're going to get them back as soon as we can. but we're waiting for this surge to subside. >> does every kid home have wi-fi? do they have a tablet that they can go to school virtually? >> and there's something that we spent some of our covid dollars on is ensuing that all of our scholars were 2 to 1, meaning they have the computer at the school and they have a computer at home and they also have hotspots. and we have a wellness team that works with our scholars, social worker that work with our scholars on a daily basis, so we have equipped our scholars, we have given classes to our parents, and we're continuing to do so to ensure that they have what they need. we're not sure when we're going to have to come out of face-to-face when we go back, and back into virtual. so we wanted to make sure that we spent those dollars in the way that will make our families ready no matter when we had to pivot. >> well, we hope you can get more of those families vaccinated. stay safe. hopefully you get back to school and sports and to the community soon. >> thank you. >> i appreciate you joining us. >> absolutely. up next, the market will open in just a few minutes. after yesterday's wild ride, i thought i was watching the nfl. no, it feels just the markets. what can you expect today? 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>> so, let me take two parts of that. first, i think the geopolitical issue is a real one and a real risk, but that's not what's been moving the market. what is moving the market is what the federal reserve may or may not do, and effectively whether they're going to hike rates and how fast they're going to hike rates and what that does to demand. are they effectively dampening demand. it's very hard for them to change the supply issues that we have in this country right now. it's another thing for them to change the demand picture, and there's what this is all about. if they do change the demand picture, it raises all sorts of questions for how much risk investors going to take, and you're seeing that play out in the context of perhaps the most riskiest stocks, typically ones in the tech sector, considered growth stocks in some cases that don't have earnings. and so that's what i think is happening right now, and you saw that a little bit of a washout yesterday, the market looks like it will open down today after what -- there was sort of a big pullback roller coaster. but i think we're in for in terms of the markets a lot of volatility and a lot of eyes on what jay powell, the head of the federal reserve, is going to say on wednesday. >> but, neil, isn't a lot of volatility really bringing us back to keeping it real? why should stocks be trading far, far above fundamentals? isn't this where things should be? we shouldn't have this security blanket with the fed. >> yeah, absolutely. i think we've been talking for months and months about how frothy the stock market is, the financial markets are all sorts of risky assets way off the charts in terms of historical valuations. the idea that would be reined in some and come in some is not unwelcome. if you're jay powell and the federal reserve, yes, you're watching markets and hope things don't get too far out of control, but you might like what you're seeing, some of the insanity come out of these markets and valuations get a little more reasonable, financial conditions become a little more consistent with an economy that you say is relatively strong. >> andrew, talk to us about what is this doing to the mean stocks, to the crypto craze, those who like to call you and i boomers and make fun of us when we talk about market fundamentals. >> well, the quote, unquote holdlers, folks -- crypto investors, and sometimes meme stock investors, whether it be game stop or amc that say hold, you have to hold. in some cases they say stack, you have to buy. this has been a real moment, an inflection point. you've seen the price of bitcoin basically we're at about 50% off of its highs. i think it's raising some questions in that world for the first time in quite some time now about whether some of these more speculative investmentings as neil was saying are good buys. they clearly have not proven to be. if you spend enough time on some of these reddit boards, there's now folks asking those questions. i think there's a dynamic change that might be upon us, and as neil said, i think to some degree jay powell and the federal reserve may be happy about that. >> encouraging day traders to stack, lever up on crypto investments. we have seen this movie before. good luck to you. andrew ross sorkin, neil irwin, great to have you here. we'll leave threat. new this morning, police tracking a troubling spike in carjackings in major cities, all part of a larger crime wave sweeping the country. joining us is gabe gutierrez in new york and carmen best, a retired seattle police chief. gabe, what is behind this? >> good morning. well, comprehensive national data on carjacking is not available from the fbi, but many large cities are reporting a significant rise during the pandemic. crimes of opportunities. >> they're taking cars with weapons on point, knives. >> reporter: this shocking attack in new york city caught on nypd body cam video. >> [ bleep ] move! >> reporter: the suspect able to get away, speeding down a busy street, plowing into parked cars as police tried to stop him. in washington, d.c., council candidate nate fleming was carjacked at a gas station, the suspect points a gun at him and gets into his car. >> guns were pointed in my face before i could blink an eye. >> reporter: in new york rangers, a family forced out of their car. >> just starmtded screaming, there's kids, there's kids. >> reporter: police data shows carjackings are on the rise in many cities, up 63% in minneapolis, and 85% in philadelphia. >> the rising numbers are beyond troubling. >> reporter: officials warning food delivery and ride share drivers should be on particularly high alert. in philadelphia, a man delivering food shot an armed teenager who demanded his keys, leaving the teen in critical condition. police say young joy right fielders are sometimes responsible. >> our carjacking offenders are increasingly younger and younger. we're trying to encourage our young people to make better decisions. >> reporter: another example of rising violent crime, the recent shooting of police officers from houston to d.c. in new york city, the new mayor, a retired police captain, is promising more cops on streets and subways including the reinstatement of plain clothes officer units to stem the flow of illegal firearms. >> we will not surrender our city to the violent feud. >> reporter: in philadelphia, police say one of the techniques carjackers are using is what they call a bump and run technique, essentially the criminals use their car to initiate the carjacking by tapping on your vehicle. the best advice, police say, is to be aware of your surroundings, especially in public places like gas stations, stephanie. >> that's what is happening. the question, carmen, is what do we do about it? you've got law enforcement, government officials across the country trying to figure out how do we combat this. what do you think? >> stephanie, i was in law enforcement for years and still a member of the association of the chief of police. can you hear me okay, stephanie? >> it's little hard, but yeah. >> let me try this. i'm still very closely associated with law enforcement as you know as a former chief in seattle an. and one of the things that i like in new york and many other city is there needs to be a plan on how to address this uptick that we've had in violent crime that's happening all across the nation, in major cities and small communities as well with the proliferation of guns, young people having access to guns, ghost guns and their availability and the rise of all of that, combined with people now, you know, starting to come out after the pandemic. we were seeing a rise in crime, and there does need to be a game plan. it can't be a mantra, you know, it needs to be a game plan to systematically go out and actually address these prolific crime issues we're face across the country. >> eric adams here in new york city has a new plan and he's getting some criticism. his plan to reinstate plain clothes officer yunltds. what do you think about that? >> well, i think it's a valid plan. i know that people are concerned because there have been, for lack of better word, transgressions or violations in the past. but the opportunity here is to revisit how it's done, to make sure that constitutional policing -- i know they also have added body cameras, additional training, and with that i think this will make the ability to stop the iron flow into the city and reduce crime, more able to happen. obviously, without a plan, we'll see the numbers continue on the trajectory and increase not only in new york but across the country. >> all right. carmen best thanks for joining us. gabe, thank you as well. we'll leave it there. up next, with arizona republicans putting forth more than two dozen bills, making it harder to vote, will state officials there be ready to protect the ballot box come this november? secretary of state katie hobbs has her work cut out for her. she joins us next. out for her she joins us next. hey hun hey, get your own vapors relax with vicks vapobath or with vicks vaposhower. take a soothing vicks vapo moment wherever you chose. ever wonder what everyone's doing on their phones? 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[copy machine printing] ♪ ♪ who would've thought printing... could lead to growing trees. ♪ to make my vision a reality. i have to take every perspective, and see clearly from every point of view. with my varilux progressive lenses i seamlessly transition from near to far. and see every detail in sharp focus. when you see no limits, there are no limits. book now at your local essilor experts to push the limits of your vision. varilux lenses by essilor. this month republicans in arizona have put forth two dozen billsing that would significantly change the state's electoral process. they include things like fingerprinting voters and holograms on ballots. over the next several months we are inviting every secretary of state to come on your show and talk about what they are doing to keep their elections fair and safe. up now, katie hobbs, the democratic secretary of state in arizona. secretary hobbs, you've got a big job, but there's only so much you can do. you sent a letter to the senate outlining what needs to be done, same-day voter registration, extending the voting day, banning foreign contributions, a long list of important things. but it's just a letter. has any of that actually happened? >> no. we introduced legislation last year, and it didn't get a hearing. we're not anticipating that this commonsense proposal that we put forward will be introduced, or if it does get a hearing, but we wanted to make sure that the information that legislators needed to make informed decisions about election laws was out there, coming from the election experts, not from conspiracy theories. so your letter has been written but no action has been taken. on the other side you've got two dozen republican bills that have not yet been passed, but they're trying to do it. they want to redistrict voting. what's the likelihood they get that passed, and is there anything you can do to prevent this? >> well, we've got a pretty closely divided senate, so there's no guarantee that any of these bills will get out. the division has really increased over the so-called audit that the senate conducted. and these bills are nothing more than based in conspiracy theories and doing things to make election administration harder, making it harder for people to vote. that's exactly the opposite direction of where we should be going. our office is going to continue fighting these measures and making sure voters know the truth about the 2020 elections and how fair and secure our elections in arizona already are. >> there's separation, though, between where things should be and where they are. you've said yourself that the 2020 election was secure because people from both parties with integrity stood up for what's right. let's fast forward to 2022, 2024. what if all these conspiracy theorists, what if they're in those positions and they don't do the right thing? >> well, that's absolutely what's at stake in the 2022 election and something that as a candidate on the ballot i'm going to make sure voters continue to keep at the fore to front of their minds, that if we lose key races like governors' races, attorney general races, secretaries of state races, that we will have partisan actors who are more interested in overturning the will of the voters if they don't like the outcome of the election than folks who are focused on acting with integrity, doing their job, and upholding the election laws that are in place. >> before we let you go, it is important to mention that you're running for governor of arizona. you recently said that no senator opposed to voting rights legislation should get a pass. >> exactly. >> is that true for senator sinema? and was it right for your state to censure her? for your state party. excuse me. >> i'm not going to get involved in the party politics. every senator who voted against advancing voting rights in the senate should be held accountable for that including our senator. this is a defining moment in our democracy, and voting rights is the definning issue of that democracy. if we don't have voting rights, it's questionable if we've haven't a democracy. this is an incredibly important issue. >> secretary hobbs, thank you for joining us this morning. i appreciate it. staying on election integrity, a group of judges in the state of georgia have approved a d's request for a special grand jury to help investigate former president donald trump's efforts to alter the outcome of the 2020 election in that state. fulton county prosecutor fani willis requested that a panel be put together last week. the approval means she will have the power to subpoena witnesses who have been unwilling to cooperate in the probe. the special grand jury will begin soon and has 12 months to complete its work. all eyes will be on georgia. up next, breaking news on the s.a.t.s. just saying the s.a.t.s gives me hives. the most important exam in high school is going digital. school is going digital. 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...or cold? ♪ ♪ no problem, the sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing so you both sleep just right. and it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. so, you can really promise better sleep? yes! you'll know exactly how well you slept, night after night. we take care of the science. all you have to do is sleep. and now, save $1,000 on the sleep number 360 special edition smart bed, queen now $1,999. plus, 0% interest for 24 months on all smart beds. only for a limited time. most bladder leak pads were similar. until always discreet invented a pad that protects differently. with two rapiddry layers. for strong protection, that's always discreet. question your protection. try always discreet. breaking news this morning in the world of college admissions. the s.a.t. is going digital. you heard that right. digital. no more scratch paper, number two pencils, filling in those little bubbles. instead, students will take the shorter test online in their classrooms. and this time, you get a calculator to do the math. that's like a dream for me! here to break down these changes, priscilla rodriguez, vice president of college readiness assessments at the college board. priscilla, i remember, i wish i could say fondly, preparing for months, going to school on a saturday, with my snack in a paper bag, with my number two pencil. explain to us what's changing and what's not. the fact that i'm hearing that you can do this on laptops, i don't know, feels like a cheating bonanza is on the way. >> well, first up, stephanie, thanks so much for having me. we announced this morning that we are transitioning the s.a.t. to all digital. and we're doing that, because we want it to be as student and educator friendly as possible. you mentioned students kicking in in classrooms. 60% of all students who take the s.a.t. actually now take it for free in their school building during the school day, paid for by the school, the district, or the state. so anything we can do to make it flexible and shorter, while still measuring the same core reading, writing, and math skills is something that we want to do. and we ran a pilot recently around the world with students and 80% of them left that pilot, telling us that they felt the digital s.a.t. was less stressful than our current s.a.t.. >> how do you get from not googling the answers while they're on a computer? >> so we built a digital testing application here at the college board and it completely locks down the student's computer. they can't toggle to another screen, google anything, message a friend, there's nothing they can do. and we're able to move from the paper test we have today where students taking the test on the same day, regardless of where they are in the world, are taking the same version of the s.a.t., to in digital, we'll be able to give each student a comparable, but unique version of the s.a.t., so there's no benefit of looking at your neighbor, either. >> comparable, but unique. i don't know what that means. >> it tests the same core skills in math, reading, and writing, so it does it with different questions. it's the same math skill you and i are going to get, but mine has the numbers 4, 11, and 17, and yours has the numbers 16, 23, 2. >> so if i leaned over and saw that you were choosing "a," "b," "c," "d," that doesn't help me, because i have different questions. >> not at all. >> that is not good for a high school cheater. in the last couple of years, because of covid, we saw a number of universities make the s.a.t.s optional. will this change that you are making now bring back the s.a.t.s, make it mandatory again? >> what we're focused on is making s.a.t. the best option it can be for students. 83% of surveyed students say they want the option to take the s.a.t., see how they did, and decide if they want to put their score forward or not. and that's because the s.a.t. can open doors to college and university and important scholarships that help students pay for them. i'll just give you a quick data point. in the high school class of 2020, there were 1.7 million students here in the u.s. who took the s.a.t., and that had an s.a.t. score that either confirmed their gpa, or even exceeded their high school gpa, making it a real point of strength. and among those 1.7 million were 600,000 that were first gen collegegoers and their family and 700,000 black and latino students. >> but if we have the option, we can submit our s.a.t. scores or not, aren't they just going to be a feather in the cap for kids who do really well, and if you didn't do well, just scrap it? >> what we're seeing in the data so far students really are taking the s.a.t., millions still are, and they're looking at their scores and deciding that they feel it represents their strengths and many are putting it forward. and that's what we're focused on, giving students that important information, so they can make the decision with their families and the other adults around them about what serves them well. and this really is an option that opens doors. and i know that personally, i'm first generation american. and my parents, who are probably watching right now, came to the u.s. with really limited financial resources, and the s.a.t. is what allowed me to go to college and pay for the colleges that i went to. and that's true for millions of students every year. so we're focused on making it the best, most flexible, least-stressful option possible. and making sure it's broadly available for students, wherever and whenever they want to take it. >> well, i want to actually bring in a student experiencing this right now. 11 grader natalia kasijo. you actually had a classic high school fire drill. that's why you were late. you were part of testing out the new s.a.t. what'd you think? >> i thought it was very cool. i thought it was very -- it was just very concise, it was easy to understand. i thought the new digital version was very practical in our age and i thought it was very nice tyke. >> very nice to take, very cool. this must be a good thing, because there is absolutely no one my age in this world who would talk about the s.a.t.s as very nice tyke. natalia, priscilla, thank you both for joining us this morning. i appreciate you at home and priscilla's parents at home for watching. i'll wrap this hour. and thank you, again. my friend, jose diaz-balart picks up breaking news coverage on the other side of the break. dr. anthony fauci had such a good time here with me yesterday, he's back today with jose. yesterday, he's back today with yesterday, he's back today with jose you could say it's the steph curry of footlongs. you could, but i'm not gonna. subway keeps refreshing and refreshing and re... what happens when we welcome change? we can make emergency medicine youpossible at 40,000 feet.a. instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. we can create new ways to connect. rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change. faster. vmware. welcome change. ♪ ♪ add downy to your wash for all the freshness and softness of home. even when you're not at home. feel the difference with downy. it's been nearly two years since the pandemic started. our students and teachers tried their best, but as a parent, i can tell you that nearly 18 months of remote learning was really hard. instead of helping students get back in the classroom, the school boards spend their time renaming schools and playing politics. schools that weren't even open. on february 15th, please recall school board members collins, lópez and maliga. our kids cannot wait any longer for new start. those precious memories might make you think o about your future: will my high cholesterol get in the way of moments like these? but appointments don't always fit your schedule. i missed work for this? and you've got better things to do. can't i just get these delivered? managing your cholesterol can be a hassle. we get it. that's why letsgetchecked offers home cholesterol testing. take the test. track your progress. and adjust your treatment as necessary. letsgetchecked. care can be this good. good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart and we begin the hour with breaking news on the pandemic. pfizer and biontech have just announced that trials are underway for a new vaccine. what's next in the fight against the virus. later today, a plane carrying u.s. military aid will land in ukraine, as tensions with neighboring russia reach their highest point in years. also happening this hour, the federal trial continues for the former m