state senate. >> woodruff: we take a second look at jeffrey brown's conversation with philip levine named today the next poet laureate of the united states and a man who comes from working class america. >> i realized that this world that i thought was going to stop me from writing a decent body of poetry had in fact become central to my writing poetry. >> warner: and from our student reporting labs, we have the story of new york city schools labeled drop-out factories and now slated for closure. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i mean, where would we be without small businesses? >> we need small businesses. >> they're the ones that help drive growth. >> like electricians, mechanics, carpenters. >> they strengthen our communities. >> every year, chevron spends billions with small businesses. that goes right to the heart of local communities, providing jobs, keeping people at work. they depend on us. >> the economy depends on them. >> and we depend on them. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the rout on wall street was back on today. the dow jones industrial average dropped more than 500 points just a day after gaining more than 400. on the trading floor today, it was mostly a question of how low stocks would go, after tuesday's big rally. some analysts said the back-to- bearish outlook should have been expected. >> the market doesn't seem that schizophrenic from a trader standpoint in that the trend is definitely down, we only had one day and when you have nine or eight sessions of straight down, you are going to get like a dead-cat bounce, so to speak. >> woodruff: the tuesday bounce followed the federal reserve's pledge to keep interest rates low. today, the focus shifted to the fed's downbeat view of the economy and the dow blew through nearly 520 points, to close below 10,720. the nasdaq was off 101 points, at 2,381. the selling was also driven by concerns about the financial health of europe's major banks and the possible effects here. >> there's all these cross lines between u.s. banks and the european banks, so now the thought is that if europeans are in trouble with their own capitalization ratios, it's going to impact the u.s. banks. >> woodruff: the chairman of one major u.s. bank-- jamie dimon of j.p. morgan chase insisted there was no cause for panic. >> we have manageable exposure to all the banks. we're not going to cut and run. we're very careful with what we do but we're not going to leave europe. there's a lot of companies we do business with so we feel quite comfortable with it. >> woodruff: and bank officials across europe insisted they were victims of unfounded speculation. >> ( translated ): there are rumors that some european banks have problems with their bond holdings but i am convinced that those rumors are unfounded and spread by some market participants to make profits on the up and down of the markets. >> woodruff: but shares in french banks plunged, on worries that france might follow the u.s. and lose its coveted triple-"a" credit rating. and president nicolas sarkozy returned early from his vacation for an emergency meeting. his finance minister announced the french government would go ahead with efforts to reduce the country's deficit in an effort to shore up confidence. meanwhile, late this afternoon, the white house announced that president obama discussed the u.s. and european situation with federal reserve chairman ben bernanke and treasury secretary tim geithner. today's plunge marked the fourth time in just over a week where the dow jones has dropped by triple digits. market volatility levels are again near record levels. we look at this and the larger picture with two people who have worked closely on economic policy. christina romer was the chair of the council of economic advisers for president obama until september 2010. she's a professor of economics at the university of california at berkeley. and matthew slaughter served on president george w. bush's council of economic advisers from 2005 to 2007. he's now associate dean of the tuck school of business at dartmouth college. and we thank you both for being with us. christina romer, to you first. the scary roller coaster ride on the stock market continued again today. how do you explain it? well, i think obviously one of the things about the stock market is it's very hard to explain the ups and downs. i think in truth some of the biggest mystery about the stock market was why it was going up as much as it was earlier in the year when we were starting to get some distressing economic statistics. i think part of what we've been seeing in the last couple of days is people really waking up to just how grim the economic numbers have been coming in in the last several months. >> woodruff: matthew slaughter, what would you add to that? >> i would add... i agree with christina that there's a lot of grim statistics out there, but the volatility we've mean? the past couple of days... the other issue is the markets like a lot of business and workers are uncertain. they're uncertain about the looming fiscal crisis in europe. they're uncertain about the possible fiscal crisis in the united states and more generally they're uncertain about where economic growth is going to come from both in the united states and the broader global economy. and so part of the news that came yesterday was when the federal reserve acknowledged that they themselves are much less certain about the outlook for the u.s. economy. that puts more fear and concern into the minds of markets and then it relates businesses and workers. >> woodruff: staying with you, matthew slaughter, whasht that federal reserve pronouncement? a weak economy for at least the next two years? did you agree that assessment? >> as talented as chairman bernanke and colleagues are at the fed, they don't a crystal ball to foresee the future and one of the big news item was them acknowledging that the forecast they had was too optimistic. that the u.s. labor market is much weaker than they anticipated and that broader sources of demand growth in the u.s. economy are come in much weaker than they expected. the fed announced to the markets and the world they'd try to support business activity in america and a strong labor market by maintaining low interest rates. that will help but that isn't a magic and with that whether l address the jobs crisis that we have in america where we have 25 million under or unemployed americans. that's a challenge that will require a lot more. >> woodruff: i want to ask you more about that in just a moment but, christina romer, what about the feds' pronouncement yesterday that this weakness is here to stay for a while? >> well, i do think it's important that the fed downgraded their forecast because it does, i think, reflect what a lot of the numbers have been showing. i also think it's important to realize that what the fed said is they thought economic conditions would be severe off in it would warrant long interest rates for another two years. that's not them saying that we think things will necessarily be terrible for the next two years, but that whatever recovery we're going to get is not going to be you have no put a lot of upward pressure on inflation. so i think we wouldn't want to read too much into the fed being grim going forward. i do think the fed's decision was very important because i actually read the fact that there were three dissents as in some ways important because right... for the last several months the way the fed has dealt with its internal conflict is to frankly, not do very much and i think fact that chairman bernanke was willing to taken a action that brought forth three dissents was a sign that he and the majority are willing to fight for more expansion their policies, willing to have that very public fight and i think that's important because i think the facts are very much on the chairman's side. >> woodruff: and matthew slaughter, do you think it's good as well and do you think it's good for the economy? >> it will help but, again, the fed can't magically address all the dimensions of the american job crisis. the real challenge facing america is where demand growth is going to come from in the related job growth. the fed can indirectly support business borrowing and hiring by minute thaining low interest rates, but a bigger challenge that both large and small business leaders talk about is where am i going to get business from? i think a big challenge is how we can try to grow millions of jobs in the united states that are linked to the global economy through exports and related capital investment. to date there's still much stronger growth in countries like china and india. and what we need are some real policy changes in america to try to allow a lot of american companies and their workers to link up with that dynamism and demand growth that's much stronger in the rest of the world at least in the near term than it is for the united states. >> woodruff: and what are some of those policy changes, the most important ones, you want to see? >> i'd start with the three pending trade agreements that the united states has yet to ratify with korea, panama and colombia. ratifying those as soon as possible is really important. hopefully closing a broader doha development around would be important through the world trade organization. we could be doing more very soon to encourage foreign-based multinationals to be doing hiring capital investment here in america. they're traditionally very strong companies. immigration reforms come into the picture as well. high-skilled immigrants end to start new businesses much more in america than native-born americans do and they bring financial and personal links to the global economy that can help pull exports out of america as well. those are things we could b doing today despite the fiscal and broader challenges in america. is. >> woodruff: christina romer, do you believe those things would make a difference? >> the president has certainly supported very strongly passing those free trade agreements because he, too, has stressed the importance of exports as a source of demand but i don't think those are policies to big enough to deal with what matthew has described as a very fundamental lack of demand in the economy. and i think truth is that we still actually need government support. looks like we may be getting more of that from the federal reserve, but we also need it on the fiscal side and certainly were i still advising president obama i would be urging them to come forward with a very bold two-pronged fiscal plan. i think it needs more fiscal help for the economy in the short run. something like a very big tax cut for firms that hire unemployed workers and the way you make that fiscally responsible or get that additional certainty that professor slaughter was talking about is to actually to more deficit reduction over the longer run. so tell that supercommittee you don't want them come up with $1.5 trillion of deficit reduction, make it $3 trillion. that would be a good two-prong strategy that would hope the deal with the problem. >> woodruff: just quickly dr. romer, on that stimulus, given the fact that the first stimulus back in 2009 did not have spectacular results, how do you persuade people another one would? >> i'd first disagree you strongly. i think it did have spectacular results. i think what we now know is not that stimulus didn't work but that the problem was much bigger than almost anyone anticipated and then our original numbers or statistics actually told us. so i actually this the studies as they come out about the recovery act are very conclusively saying that it was helpful. i think we need to explain those studies to people and say that it did work and that we can come up with another proposal. i think some like a new jobs tax credit, something that rewards firms for doing what we want them to do, which is actually hiring people. i think's a lot of evidence that that would work and i think we could make the case for it. >> woodruff: finally, matthew slaughter, what about that prescription that another stimulus, a bigger stimulus as dr. romer just said and a larger deficit reduction package proposal to come out of the supercommittee in congress? >> well, i think one important issue to keep in mind is the s&p downgrade of last week and the broader sovereign debt crises that are playing out in europe makes clear to the united states may not control how much fiscal stimulus washington, d.c. might want to put into place. so thoughts might be more infrastructure investment, that inhibits job creation for big and small companies in america but beyond that efforts to link companies and workers to the global economy through trade, through immigration, through comprehensive tax reform, those should be seen as complements to whatever might happen on the fiscal front because the scope of the jobs crisis is so large we need a lot of solutions to deliver results. >> woodruff: hear you both. tough problems; tough solutions. matthew slaughter, dr. christina romer, we thank you both. >> warner: still to come on the "newshour": the crackdown on rioters in britain; a nationally watched election over budget cuts and union rights in wisconsin; the next poet laureate of the united states and schools known as drop-out factories in new york. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: the u.s. budget deficit is now officially over $1 trillion for the third year in a row. the treasury department announced the latest totals today. with two months left in the federal fiscal year, the red ink is on pace to exceed last year's deficit of nearly $1.3 trillion. the record was more than $1.4 trillion in 2009. international forces have killed the taliban militants who shot down a u.s. helicopter on saturday. 38 u.s. and afghan troops died in that attack. today, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan marine general john allen said the insurgents died in an air strike on monday. >> we tracked them, as we would in the aftermath of any operation, and we dealt with them with a kinetic strike. and in the aftermath of that, we have achieved certainty that they in fact were killed in that strike. >> sreenivasan: separately, nato troops got into firefights with afghan police in two parts of the country overnight. four afghan officers were killed. the circumstances were under investigation. missiles fired by u.s. drone aircraft have killed at least 20 militants in pakistan's northwest. pakistani intelligence officials reported the new round of strikes today. they said 14 of the dead were afghans who belonged to the haqqani network, a faction linked to the taliban. in syria, activists reported government forces have taken full control of two major centers of resistance. the eastern city of deir el-zour fell after a four day assault. that followed a week-long siege of hama in the north. amateur video showed intense shelling and gunfire on tuesday, as tanks rolled into deir el- zour. another showed the minaret of a mosque that collapsed after being shelled. and in washington, the u.s. treasury department announced new economic sanctions against syria. china's first aircraft carrier began conducting sea trials today, in a sign of the country's growing military might. the 1,000-foot vessel sailed from the northern port of dalian. chinese officials said the former soviet carrier-- now refurbished-- will be used for research and training. analysts in hong kong said it was an outgrowth of china's ongoing military build-up. >> ( translated ): historically, china has not been a big naval power. commanding an aircraft carrier is something new. how to utilize it, and incorporate it into its national defense strategy, is the start of a new chapter. they need the experience of trial and error, and for their navy personnel, this is still an area of weakness for china. also today, taiwan unveiled its most advanced missile-- what it calls "an aircraft carrier killer"-- at a defense exhibition in taipei. china regards taiwan as a renegade province. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to margaret. >> warner: and to the riots in britain, where nearly 1,200 have been arrested. london remained relatively calm today but violence and looting has spread to other cities. prime minister david cameron authorized police to use plastic bullets and water cannons, though so far they haven't been deployed. cameron also denounced the rioters and others, including those who carried out an assault and robbery on a foreign student, captured on camera. >> we needed a fight back and a fight back is under way. there are pockets of our society that are not just broken but frankly sick. when we see children as young as 12 and 13 looting and laughing, when we see the disgusting sight of an injured young man with people pretending to help him while they are robbing him, it is clear there are things that are badly wrong in our society. >> woodruff: some of the worst rioting in the past 24 hours has been in the city of manchester. we have a report from steve douglas of "independent television news." >> reporter: another night and another city consumed by rioting. this was a store ablaze in manchester's city center. it appeared to be started by a teenager moments earlier who calmly walked away. today an 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson. hours earlier, greater manchester police released images of those they're searching for on a night when they struggled to cope. here you can see a t.v. being looted from this shop. but with the possibility of violence, was it right to send 100 officers to help in london? >> we were prepared. we've done a huge amount of work during the day. we had a lot of officers on duty. we've already changed to 12-hour shifts so having even more officers on duty. >> reporter: the riots were worse here. here, cars and buildings burned. the police charged, but for large periods the streets didn't belong to them. lawlessness and looting prevailed. at the center was a shopping precinct-- on fire and under siege. >> it's just a bit sad. people are frustrated because they're going into the right benefit. >> reporter: in total, 113 arrests were maechltd some have sympathy with the police, others believe they were unprepared and overstretched but few want the repeat. >> warner: one incident attracting attention and demonstrating how the violence is crossing ethnic lines took place last night in england's second largest city birmingham. three young men are dead and a community is in mourning. itn's lewis vaughan jones reports. >> reporter: on this street, three people were killed after a collision with a car. police have been testing conditions as part of their murder investigation. in the early hours of the morning, a group of men were standings here to protect their businesses from looters. three of them were hit by a car. shahzad ali, his brother abdul and haroun jahand died this morning. >> i can't describe to anyone what it feels like to lose your son. >> tariq jahan heard the crash. >> someone told me my son was lying dead behind me so i started c.p.r. on my own son. my face was covered in blood, my hands were covered in blood. why? why? >> reporter: this was haroun as a schoolboy. he was 21 when he died. >> he was a good lad and basically he was standing here defending his community. anything i ever wanted done, i would always ask haroun to sort it out for me. not my eldest, though, my daughter, but my youngest. and they killed him. that's all. >> reporter: at a public meeting anger at police that people feel they have to protect themselves and fears of divisions between communities. relatives of shahzad ali and abdel told me brothers were popular and hardworking. >> always done well for everybody around them and that's what they were doing last night. they were doing well for the mosque and the neighborhood. doing what the police should have done. >> reporter: many are standing together here, for there are fears of more breakdown on the streets tonight. >> woodruff: the british house of commons, called back from summer vacation, will hold a special debate on the violence tomorrow. >> warner: now, the struggle for the state senate in wisconsin. republicans defied a bid to oust them from power on tuesday, in a recall battle waged fiercely by unions for public employees, and anti-tax groups. wisconsin voters lined up to cast ballots in huge numbers for an off-year, summer election. at stake-- the republicans' approach to deficit-reduction. >> this is people saying, "hey we want more of a voice in what's happening in our nation, in our country and in our state." >> it's just like you say when you're a carpenter: you measure twice and cut once. we already put her in office once. what do you want to get rid of her for? >> warner: in the end, two republican state senators lost their jobs, but four kept theirs. that means the g.o.p. will retain control of the state senate, by at least a one-vote margin. after the vote, republican governor scott walker struck a conciliatory note, saying in a statement: "i look forward to working with legislators of all parties to grow jobs for wisconsin and move our state forward." walker's tone was decidedly more combative earlier this year, shortly after he took office and fellow republicans took control of both houses of the legislature. >> we've got an economic and fiscal crisis in this state and we need leaders who are gonna stand up and look at things differently than what we've done in the past. >> warner: it wasn't long before huge protests erupted over walker's approach to cutting the state's $3.6 billion deficit. he proposed slashing spending, raising no taxes and most controversial of all, sharply curtailing public employees' right to collective bargaining. teachers, firefighters, prison guards and their supporters staged sit-ins under the state capitol dome and rallied through cold winter nights. >> this is not about protecting our pay and our benefits. it's about protecting our right to collectively bargain. >> warner: democrats delayed a vote for weeks, fleeing wisconsin to leave the state senate short of a quorum. but walker ultimately got to sign the measure into law after republicans found a way to vote without the democrats. that, in turn, triggered the recall drive. on the "newshour" last month, the governor was asked if he'd tried to move too sharply too fast. >> i think what we weren't ready for-- and i have said this before-- i have had to make a change was to spend more time in january and february building the case. but i think what we weren't prepared for was the national focus, the national attention, the national money that came in. >> warner: an unprecedented $35 million was spent on the recall campaigns-- much of it on nearly nonstop tv ads and much of it financed by national unions and interest groups. >> representative sandy pasch let them down... >> warner: some voters said the money could have been better spent. >> if they would've saved all the money that they have put into all this, they would have money to work with. it's crazy. >> warner: next week, two democratic senators face recalls of their own. for more on the meaning of the recall results, we are joined by craig gilbert, washington bureau chief of the "milwaukee journal sentinel" and author of the blog "the wisconsin voter." and, craig, welcome. thank you for being here. >> good to be with you. >> warner: what are the party leaders on each side saying about the result what is what do they say explains them >> well, democrats are saying that they fell short but they that they did something historic. they recalled two republican senators in one election, never happened before in the state of wisconsin and they were fighting upnil districts that leaned republican so that was mig mountain to climb. republicans are pointing out-- quite legitimately-- that democrats put a lot of money and effort into this and fell short. i mean, they fell one seat short of dealing a real body blow to governor walker and his agenda. >> warner: you've been covering wisconsin politics a long time. what do you think explains it? what do you think there the important factors? >> i think one reason democrats did fall short is because they were playing on republican turf, five of the six districts were republican districts, that's what happens when you try to recall an incumbent in the other party. the other thing that happened was republican voters turned out to be just as motivated as democratic voters. we didn't know that going in. we knew democrats and their labor allies were very jacked up about this election. they were up in arms over governor walker's agenda but governor walker is arguably the most polarizing governor in america in terms of his almost unanimous support among republicans and his unanimous opposition among democrats and that brings out people on both sides. >> warner: so you're saying the high turnout helped the republicans? >> well, it did. i think if you're in a recall election, you're the opposition, you want to take advantage of a low of a small electorate and skew the electorate toward your side. >> warner: get the angry people out. >> and have the angry people really control the election. and that was really neutralized to some degree in some key districts by how motivated the republican base is. >> warner: now, i've been reading that the spending for these races was absolutely unprecedented. something like $35 million and that most of that financing came from outside the state. who were the groups? >> well, on the left they were the labor unions, of course, primarily, and some progressive groups. >> warner: like? >> like emily's list and a number of other organizations. on the reduction nationally. >> some of the democratic adds did talk about medicare. the author of that plan is paul ryan from wisconsin and they tried to tie medicare cuts to republican candidates. it's not clear how effective that was. >> warner: as a long-time analyst of wisconsin voting trends as you know this race, as the governor said, was eagerly watched nationally. do you think it can be read as a harbinger of wisconsin voters' attitudes going into the 2012 sflex >> yeah, but it's a very mixed verdict. we had a big blowout for barack obama in 2008, that's gone. he's not going thief in 2012. he's going to have a real tough slog, especially given the economy. we had the best republican year since 1938 last year in wisconsin and that's not going to be the electorate of 2012, either. there were some signs if you look at the voting returns this time around that there were some erosion in republican support. it wasn't enough to cost them the state senate but i think where we are is something closer to 2004, the election in wisconsin in 2004, between bush and kerry was decided by a fraction of a percentage point. so very divided and intensely mobilized electorate. >> warner: so it's definitely a swing state. what does this do... the democrats vowed to now mount a recall challenge to governor walker when he becomes eligible after a year in office, that's in january. has this dimed this? >> well it complicates it for financial reasons or will labor put that kind of money into it after spending the money this year and also psychological reasons. they're not going to springboard for the energy and the boost of having taken back the state senate it's more complicated. i think we'll still see a recall drive against the governor but democrats have to make tough decisions about that and the timing. >> warner: what's next for organized labor nationally? >> well, they have a big referendum in ohio coming up where they're taking on the law that was passed in ohio that curtailed collective bargaining rights there. and i think there's clearly frustration among labor that they fell just short of their goshlgs there's frustration with all these big issues in play some races came down to the personal vagaries and flaws of candidates. >> warner: and very briefly, back to wisconsin for a minute, governor walker, we saw this conciliatory statement from him. do you think he's going to kind of cool his jets or is he going to push forward with this... he still has other items on his agenda. >> but they've already enacted so much of their agenda that i think they can to some small degree rest on their laurels. unless they can pick off a democratic legislator or two next week they'll have a much smaller margin in the state senate and clearly governor walker is try redefine himself as a less polarizing governor. >> warner: craig gilbert of the "milwaukee journal sentinel" thanks so much. >> pleasure. >> woodruff: next, a conversation with the new poet laureate of the united states. he's philip levine, a former auto worker turned pulitzer prize winning writer. the librarian of congress, james billington, announced today that levine will be the 18th poet in that post. jeffrey brown profiled levine last year. >> we sand? the rain in a long line, waiting at ford highland park. for work. you know what work is. if you're old enough to read this, you know what work is, although you may not do it. >> reporter: at 82, phillip levin is author of some 20 volumes of verse and one of the nation's most honored poets with a pulitzer and numerous other prizes, but he started life in detroit working in auto plants, sometimes waiting in line for a job as he describes in his poem "what work is." >> this is about waiting. shifting from one foot to another, feeling the light rain falling like mist into your hair blurring your vision until you think you see your own brother ahead of you maybe ten places. >> brown: so these feel familiar to you? levin joined me at the yancy richardson gallery in new york. he'd written an essay for an exhibition of photographs by andrew moore that capture a lost world of detroit. an old school, homes, and factories including ford's river rouge plant where levine himself once worked. >> when i was a young guy working in these places and didn't see a way out as yet-- and i certainly didn't think the way out would be poetry-- what were you doing? >> usually five people would taken a enormous piece of hot steel which four or us would hold with tongs and put it into a huge press. what it was i didn't know. >> brown: really. >> no, i didn't know. i remember a young guy from west virginia, a young kid, and he said to me "what are we making?" that's what he said. "what are we making?" and i said "i'm making $2.15 an hour, i have no idea what you're making." he said "no, what are we making out of this here metal?" and i said "i don't know, i never have." and i called the foreman whose name was lonnie... i have such strong memories of these things. "lonnie, what are we making with near this here metal." and he said something like "stop screwing off and get back to work." >> brown: don't ask questions. >> and i wondered if he knew. >> brown: so what was poetry then? where did the poetry come from? >> no one knows where poetry comes from. i had been writing poet friday the age of 14. it was just something i loved doing. i loved language. i recognized that i had a facility for it. my teachers praised me to the skies, which was wonderful. >> brown: levine graduated from wayne state university and left the auto plants behind. he taught at fresno state in california for many years and he and his wife franny now divide their time between fresno and new york. you've kept writing about detroit to this day. you've kept writing about work. did that become a kind of mission almost, if that's the right word? >> well, one thing i was struck by very young in my middle 20s, very young, was that i didn't see any work, written work, about this experience. as far as poetry, zero. so i actually did at one time say to myself, hey, there's a whole world here no one's touched. >> brown: and this should be a subject for poetly. >> it should be there, yeah. it should be there. my attitude toward the work changed enormously over the years. at the time, i hated it. when i faced my late 30s and early 40s i realized this world that i felt was going to stop me from writing a poem, writing a decent body of poetry had, in fact, become central to my writing poetry. and i began to feel that i was really in some ways very fortunate, especially meeting the people that i met. >> brown: a lot of your poems tell stories about people from the past and work. there's one even in the current collection, an extraordinary morning. would you read the beginning of that? >> sure. "an extraordinary morning. too two young men-- you just might call them boys-- waiting for woodward streetcar to get them downtown. yes, they're tired. they're also dirty and happy. happy because they've finished a short work week and if they're not rich, they're as close to rich as they'll ever be in this town. >> brown: over the decades, phillip levine has written about many subjects and places, engaged with politics and events around him, he writes, as he titled his most recent book, the news of the world. >> you started out talking about your life in the factories, many years later you've made a life as a poet. does that surprise you? >> oh, god, yeah. i mean, i'm stunned. one of the things that made it happen was pure luck on my 26th birthday i met my present wife and how many women could stay with a guy who has no prospects and wants to write poetry and stay with him now 55 years. sometimes she worked so that i could sit home and scribble and she honor what is i'm doing. and i think that is the most crucial thing to be honored as a poet. even if they... not by a nation, because a nation is an abstraction, but just to be honored by this person or that person or especially by your wife or your brothers or your mother father. it's just fantastic, it just keeps you going in a way that nothing else could keep you going. >> brown: phillip levin, nice to talk to you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: philip levine-- now 83 years old-- begins his term as poet laureate in october. >> warner: we'll be back shortly with the story about some new york schools facing shutdown over low graduation rates. but first: this is pledge week on pbs. this break allows your public television station to ask for your support. >> warner: finally tonight, a student perspective on one effort to improve the quality of new york city high schools. this report is the product of a unique partnership involving the "newshour's" educational division and an after-school journalism program run by wnyc- radio in new york. ten students from around the city worked on researching and producing this. it is narrated by shi-vahn sen, a freshman at hunter college in manhattan. >> reporter: in the united states, 1.3 million students from the class of 2010 didn't graduate from high school. nearly 73,000 of these students were from n.y.c. alone. fazya bacchus was dangerously close to becoming one of the 7,000 students that drop out of school every day. >> before, i was involved with drugs, and going out to parties and fights, and stuff like that, and now it's going to school and getting my credits and graduating. >> reporter: fortunately, she had a friend who helped her get back on track. >> my best friend, she just told me go to school, we'll graduate together, we'll go to college together. you know, we just want to do everything together. >> reporter: however, many of fazya's classmates fall victim to the numerous difficulties facing flushing high school, which is located in queens, new york. >> they have drug selling in the school, there's gang fights, a lot of stuff going on. >> reporter: flushing high has been labeled a drop out factory by some educators. the term was coined by dr robert balfanz of johns hopkins university. he characterizes a dropout factory as a school from which fewer than 60% of the students graduate in four years. new york city's department of education has closed many such schools and targeted others, like flushing high, for closure. robeson high school in brooklyn is also on the shut down list. however, teachers and students at that school think their school's characterization as a drop out factory is unfair. >> in every high school, you'd always have one or two students that dropout. but in robeson, i see a lot of people graduating. and the fact that they may not graduate in four years but they will graduate in their fifth or sixth years, so i despise the fact that many people believe that robeson is a dropout high school. >> reporter: stefanie seagle is a long time teacher at robeson high. >> one of the things we've always been proud of is that even though we have young people who come with lots of challenges, we're able to keep them here. they won't graduate in four years for a variety of reasons: learning disabilities, or such challenges in their home life, it's just hard for them to have a good attendance. so it ends up taking them longer for those reasons, but they stay. >> reporter: robeson is not the only new york school dealing with low graduation rates. the international school in prospect heights, where rosie fresecella teaches, is experiencing similar issues. >> you know, my school is special because they are all english language learners. >> reporter: in fact, students who speak english as a second language have a 4-year graduation rate of less than 40%. teachers at prospect also disagree with the label dropout factory. >> it's another cliche name. i know what i do, i know about my job. i know when i go home, i dream about my kids, i know i think about my them, i know i spend at least ten hours of my day working. i know we are doing whatever we can with the resources we have, and i have full confidence in my school. >> reporter: when it is overwhelmingly young people of color who attend the schools targeted for closure, some believe this is a civil rights issue. anurima bhargava is the section chief of civil rights education in the justice department. >> it is a civil right issue because it is about fairness, it is about making sure that someone has a chance and that the doors are open to them, but its also about making sure that we are actually preparing students to be able to work and live and survive in the american economy today, which is very different than it used to be. >> reporter: advocates like bhargava point to research that suggests that one of the most important factors to graduating is simply keeping the kids engaged and providing them with support. >> so the question is how do we actually think about education not as a factory and not as a place where kids drop out, but as a place where we're actually figuring out what their needs and how do we keep them there. and that's going to be a very different model than what we have today in schools. >> computers and spending a billion dollars on technology and infrastructure is not going to keep kids from dropping out. human beings stop kids from dropping out. calling their parents, having that human conversation, that interaction. >> reporter: fazya couldn't agree more. she thinks having an adult who listens would help keep kids in school. >> and when i talk to somebody, it helps me. i feel better and i go to my classes, i do what i have to do. >> reporter: paul robeson high school increased its four-year graduation rate from 40.4% last year to 50% this year. however, the school remains slated for closure. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: wall street tumbled amid fears of a global recession and worries about european banks. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 520 points. the u.s. military said an air strike has killed the taliban militants who shot down a u.s. helicopter on saturday. 30 u.s. troops died in that attack. and british prime minister david cameron authorized police to use plastic bullets and water cannons, in a bid to quell rioting. and before we go, we'd like your help on a special project we've just launched. it's something we're calling the 9/11 video quilt. and it begins online. hari sreenivasan explains. >> sreenivasan: this september will mark a decade since the biggest terrorist attack on american soil. the events of 9/11 changed our nation and the world in ways both big and small. so, as we approach this 10th anniversary, we want to turn the camera on you and hear what impact the events of 9/11 had on your life or your outlook. so here's the idea. we have five questions about 9/11's legacy. you'll hear them in a moment. we'd like you to send us a video response. you can use your camera, your cell phone, your laptop if you like and send it to us through our youtube channel. we'll use some of your answers on our web site and perhaps even on the broadcast. keep your answers to under 90 seconds. so here are the questions. >> ifill: i'm gwen ifill and here's what i want to know. is the u.s. any safer than before 9/11? >> woodruff: i'm judy woodruff. next question. was the course or direction of your life changed on 9/11? if so, how? >> suarez: i'm ray suarez with question number three. maybe you've heard it said over the last ten years that 9/11 changed everything. did it? >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. here's my question. how would you describe current relations between muslims and non-muslims in the united states? >> sreenivasan: here's our final question: have we achieved a balance between security and civil liberties? remember, you can send us your video response through our youtube channel at youtube.com keep your answer to under 90 second. we look forward to hearing what you have to say on this day of remember rens. >> warner: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on thursday, we'll look at the stakes for republican presidential contenders in tomorrow night's debate. i'm margaret warner. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org