American Morning
GOP campaign rallying cry returns
One of the saving graces of this recession has been the low prices at the pump. But not anymore. High gas prices are making a comeback. And so is a campaign battle cry from 2008... "Drill baby, drill!"
Pay as you go?
We landed an interview with Kent Conrad, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee yesterday to talk about the president’s plans to restore fiscal sanity to Washington.
Conrad says, “We're headed for a cliff. A fiscal cliff." He’s trying to sound the alarm and get people to pay attention to the fact that the nation’s deficit is now projected to be 1.8 trillion dollars this year. A record when it comes to red ink.
He fears the president will not be able to keep his promise to cut the deficit in half in four years. Why? Check out our story and find out:
Stimulating the stimulus
Start spending! That's expected to be the message today when President Obama brings his cabinet together. After all that talk of "shovel ready" projects, the Congressional Budget Office says only about 3% of the $787 billion recovery plan has been spent so far. CNN's Jim Acosta reports.
Teaching 'Peace Corps' attracts recent graduates
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/29/art.greer.cnn.jpg caption="Molly Greer, in her New York classroom, says she now wants to make teaching her career."]
By Deborah Feyerick and Sheila Steffen
NEW YORK - Talking excitedly and pacing the front of her classroom, Molly Greer engages her students. "What are different paces you can go when you're reading aloud? Christina?"
"Low." "Okay, low or soft, yes."
On the first day of school, most of the kids in Greer's eighth-grade class could not read at a sixth-grade level. With summer almost here, it's a totally different story for these kids, who according to their school are expected to read at or near grade level. "It is an incredible thing for these students."
Greer graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin. She arrived at PS 212, the multicultural magnet school in the Bronx, New York, two years ago with a degree in political science and a desire to change the world.
"When I found out about Teach For America," she said, "I realized that teaching would be such an incredible way to make an impact."
Teach For America is like a local Peace Corps serving some of the country's poorest public schools in inner cities and in rural areas. It has grown every year since its inception in 1990, sending 20,000 college graduates into the nation's neediest classrooms for a two-year commitment. This year, amid a tight job market, it is more popular than ever.
According to the organizations Web site, their teachers get paid the same salary and benefits as beginning teachers in their area and are paid by the local school district.
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