Local Public Schools closed. A group of activists a closing schools most of text poor and minority students. Most effects poor. We would like to hear from you. Here are the numbers to call you can also find us online. Send us a tweet. Wheat can share that on the air. You can join the conversation on facebook by looking for cspan. R email us in the headline in the Washington Post this morning what you thinks . Is closing Public Schools a civil rights issue . The Washington Post says other stories related to this, from the Huffington Post those phone numbers again we will start with an independent caller this morning. Lou in connecticut. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to see all Public Schools closed. Public schools are a government monopoly, and utter failure. It would be like having a government monopoly in the Automobile Industry and we would all be driving hugos. It is a ripoff. The American People should be booked to choose the school for their children and the cost would drop in half. It is a government monopoly and is a disaster. I went through public education. I am 53 years old and i did not learn anything. It was a joke. Host what about the responsibility of your local School District as opposed to the federal government . Caller i guess it was better 30 years ago or so when i went to Public School because we did not have the National Education association. But i would say to close all the Public Schools. I am getting fleeced totally and the schools are garbage. It should be privatized. The private sector does 1000 times better than the government. Thats what i have to say. If anybody disagrees, they should have a history exam. Host lakota kathy colleague from oregon this morning on our independent line. Cathy from to oregon. Caller good morning. Im curious about the civil rights issue. I would like it done by zip code. All u. S. Citizens should get the same type of educational matter what state they move to. Americans and everyone else. Whether you be rich or poor, no matter what state you move to because of your job, you would have the same education. It would be really love to r children to know our constitution inside and out. And for all the words in their vocabulary to be excellent. Thanks so much. The best of luck. Host our next caller is in washington, d. C. , on the democratic line. Caller thanks for taking my call. Its my first time. I dont have a dog in the fight. I dont have any kids, but i am an advocate of education. I do have cousins and siblings in the city here. Im a taxi driver and i get into the middle of conversations and over here conversations. The problem i have is the impact that the private schools are having in the inner cities you dont find Charter Schools where there are less minorities. They are concentrated in minority areas. They take away funding from the Public Schools. The impact when they shut down the schools, as a taxi driver, you have people having to get their kids up early just for transportation purposes to get the kids farther to other areas that they have to transition to. I just think that it so much of a business. I watched 60 minutes when they talk about the boarding school. The impact of that charter school, it had such a profound impact. That is the other side of the story. For the most part, the starter schools are targeted at minority neighborhoods. Anybody listening can show me where there is a concentration of a Charter Schools and theyre not in minority neighborhoods, i would like to know. Host sounds like some of your fares are families bringing their kids to school outside the walking district. . Heyre not being bused caller thats right. You see the kids. Sometimes you see them standing at the bus stop and you wonder where are their parents. It is just an inconvenience. When Michelle Reed took over in d. C. And started closing schools, the impact was huge. It went under the radar of the media, the impact. If you get some callers to talk about the impact of the cost of transportation, the human impact of having to get the kids up super early to get them to school that they have been assigned to, its all because the Charter Schools are for profit. The payroll comes first like most. Host the d. C. Schools insider with the Washington Post emma brown reports are cholera is mentioned Michelle Reed, a former chancellor at d. C. Schools. Heres a story from the Washington Post from last fall. What do you think about clothes in Public Schools . Is it an issue in your community or something you and your neighbors are talking about . Do you see it as a civil rights issue . Thad in georgia, republican. Caller i believe our Public Schools are failing us as a nation. I live in atlanta. Many of our Public Schools in atlanta have been questioned or lost their accreditation because they are not meeting standards currently. Our Public Schools are failing us as a nation. That is evidenced by many of your callers who dont have a very firm grasp of the english language. Host do you think the closing of a school thats not performing to a federally set standard is a fair move . Caller fair in an unachievable goal. I was told my entire life by my parents that life is not fair. Life is not fair. Host glencore go on to brandon in dover, delaware, on our independent line. Caller how are you . Nice show as usual. In delaware in my area we are having no problem with school closings. They are building more schools and bigger high schools and things of that nature. So were having no problem here. Do awaythink you should with the Public Schools. I have seen it being a problem because i used to travel a long way to school and i used to see houses out in the country. I used to think, sooner or later, that will be a problem. I went to a good Public School, polytechnic. It was a vocational school. If any thing, the government needs to have more Vocational High School is so people can have a trade and go to college at the same time. In delaware, elementary schools, schools, and so forth, its not a problem. Host heres what the Huffington Post says about the meeting that took place yesterday in washington. Our next caller is from North Carolina on the democratic line. Good morning. Caller how are you . School or Public Private school or charter or anything else. The systemic structure of it is cool was designed an 18th century when there was slavery. Let me give you an example of how we are doing it right now. The word proficiencydoes not mean you are intelligent. In means you can take artificial test. Second, it means you pass it on the same day as everybody else. We have kids who are severely cognitively disabled all the way up to Mensa Society and at all the range in between. We are saying they have to be at the same place at the same time. The reality is kids blossom at different times. We dont yet have a concept in education that kids blossom at different times. Until we get that concept, we are just wasting our time with all this other stuff that does not mean anything. Host sandra in charleston, west frontier new, independent line West Virginia. Caller im calling about it defects closings have had on the Rural Communities in my state. When we had our little rural schools there was a sense of community. The teachers knew the parents. The parents saw the children that were walking to school. They closed almost all those schools and consolidated in the larger schools where the children ride on the buses and it makes the day so long for young children. It is immoral in my opinion what has happened to the younger children the way they are bused to the big Consolidated Schools where nobody knows their families. It has destroyed any sense of community and parental involvement and control in the schools. R white know whether poo children are entitled to civil rights or not, but they ought to be. Host what would your solution be . Would you advocate having a one room schoolhouse or having students of multiple ages talk in the same instructional area . What would you do to keep those schools in your community . Caller some of the schools i am thinking about or 1room and tworoom schools. They focused on basic education. Reading, writing, and arithmetic. I could name many people i knew who attended schools like that who are literate and who went on to universities and some of them are even professors. I dont think children are getting the same quality education now, because theres no emphasis on teaching basic skills as. Host lets hear from richard in mount vernon, new york, republican line. Caller good morning. Michelle rhee and ben chavis should be the two people in charge of the Education System in this country. Instead we have unions and the secretary of education doing nothing. All the unions care about is money. We have a teacher now who molested children and this man will get 85,000 a year for 13 years and hes being protected by the union. I am quite sure that none of these union people would want their children being taught by this man, to be in the classroom with him. Host have you thought about Public School closures and if the closures and everywhere from West Virginia to cities like philadelphia and chicago are something that affects kids and families . Caller no. As far as closing schools, michelle rhee, when she marched into washington, she started closing schools. Things were getting better, but they did not want that, so they got rid of her. A person who was doing exactly what you are talking about. What bothers me is i am African American and we need more than any other race of people on this planet, but educators. But the bottom line is money. It is not going to get any better, no matter what happens. Host lets turn our attention to some other news. Heres a headline from the Washington Post his Relentless Campaign against distracted driving, is safety first mantra, and his determination to visit every state gave him a higher profile than several predecessors in the role. We also see this headline on the phone with us now to talk more about john kerrys confirmation and what it means for massachusetts politics is Frank Phillips, boston globe Statehouse Bureau chief. Guest good morning. Host we will get more into how the confirmation hearing went, but first, what happens next in terms of filling his seat . When will we see him take the position of secretary of state and when did the vacuum get created . Guest we just came through a tremendously Competitive Senate race last fall with Elizabeth Warren and scott brown. Now theres going to be a special election, of which will be held on june 25 with the primary on april 30. Everybody is lining up to see whats going to happen. Ed markey, the dean of the congressional delegation from massachusetts, immediately got into it several weeks ago and drew some important endorsements. But now it seems he will be challenged for the race for the nomination by steve lynch, a south boston democrat, a little bit more conservative on issues, particularly on abortion. He will announce on a thursday that he will get into the race. We will have a democratic primary. The republicans are not clear. Everybody thought scott brown would try to get back into the u. S. Senate, having been defeated by Elizabeth Warren, but he is not showing his cards yet. He will have to within the next several days, because time is running out. The republicans are very anxious. Scott brown has been standing in the polls, despite his loss. They dont really have anyone else to put in the field. The democratic primary could be the whole ballgame. Host that is Frank Phillips talking about who might run to replace john kerry in the senate seat in massachusetts. What happens in the short term . Governor Deval Patrick can name a temporary successor. What are we looking at for that . Guest we will know in a couple hours. Everybody is on edge on that. This is massachusetts politics. Several names are being floated around. Hes keeping it close to his vest. Vicki kennedy, edward kennedys widow, is one person whose name is on the top of the list. And his former chief of staff, moe, he could be one of those. The governor said he was leaning toward putting somebody in there, a woman or person of color. Carol, a woman named prominent africanamerican business woman who has been active in democratic politics. Her name has been floated. But we really dont know. We should know sometime this morning what hes going to do. That person will be committed to not run for the seat. They will serve as a temporary interim senator until the election is held on june 25. Host is there a guarantee they will not run . Could prepareo pledged to the governor. But theres nothing in the law that would prevent them from deciding to run. That would be another great Political Developments in massachusetts politics. Host governor Deval Patrick gets to make a choice and will be on the National Stage for a moment. Is this an opportunity for him or are there other potential winners from this announcement today . Guest the person who is chosen will have on their resume former u. S. Senator. Its a nice little thing to have. Deval patrick, is his decision. He has been very deliberators about it and very close to the vest. He will be on center stage. It will be his show. I dont a lot of people say that he is setting himself up for a president ial run or something. He says no and i believe him. Host thanks so much for joining us. Guest youre welcome. Host years the wall street journal headline on senator kerry in other news, relating to the secretary of state, secretary clinton says if shes not inclined to run for president in 2016. The outgoing secretary of state leaves the door open, says that she will write a memoir. She is doing a series of interviews. Gave a q a with students around the country. Thats where she said she would start a memoir and work on causes dear to her. We are talking to new this morning about the closure of Public Schools and whether you think its a civil rights issue. We have gotten some comments from our facebook page. You can join the conversation by looking for cspan on facebook. Daniel taub is our next caller from broken arrow, oklahoma, democratic line. Daniel. Caller good morning. We had a couple schools around the area that theres been talk of turning them into prisons. That scares me a lot. Im about to have a child soon. I want to know what is going to be going on when its time for her to go to school. I think its very much a civil rights issue. I can understand how other such a gray area. When you dont have a Good Foundation for education, you cannot expect the next generation to step up and able to lead and have good jobs and things like pat quinn. I went to an alternative school where we have smaller classrooms and there was a more personal relationship with teachers. That did make a difference. I can see where people are coming from. Host was your alternative school Public School . Caller it was a publicschool run by the broken arrow school department. They did not like to run it, but they had to. And it worked very well. A lot of kids would not have graduated its not for the school. Host why was a school set up . Caller we had a block schedule. Eight classes per week. He would alternate. One day you would to four glasses and the next day the next four. Host what was the reason for establishing the school . Caller when they first did it, it was all behave your problems. By the time i got there a couple years down the line it was for more at risk students. I was in danger of dropping out of high school because a lot of bad things happened and i lost faith in myself. If i had not gone to that school, i would not be where i am right now talking to somebody on the news. I did not use my opinions. I did not think, anything like that. I never wanted to be involved in anything. It was a great opportunity and really changed my life. Host whats go to milton in san jose, california, on our independent line. Caller good morning. That was a wonderful caller before me. I wanted to say of my concern is how do we calculate failing . If we base it on standardized tests, we should remind ourselves that standardized tests have a lot of problems and they measure a certain type of intelligence. That has been disproven, that intelligence can be measured. When we have privatized school, i want to know what the motivations are. One of the communities i lived in recently, a Christian School was formed. I have a lot of respect for christian theology and philosophy and was raised in a christian background. But when your premise is it a logical and you want to have your kids separated from Public Schools that use