Selectivity Question News Today

Yes, theres always been money in politics, but look at the explosion of it over the course of the past couple of election cycles, in particular 2012. lesley, do ordinary people still have a voice when theres this much loud spending going on? >> i think you mentioned a point about the 915,000 political ads. what wasnt added to that is its a 44% increase from 2008. you wake up in the morning, your twitter feed is full of political ads. the truth is, all your mailings and everything else, i do want...

Theres no immediate perceived effect. one of the biggest barriers that politician haves to make the case to my generation about is the fact that sloeting is more than a historic right and necessity. its something as to how resources and investments are allocated. when we talk later about education, higher education is often the first thing on the menu to cut in many states because young people dont vote in as great a number. that needs to be clearer and more boldly stated by the candidates. >> i...

Statistics. to getting to the first thing you said, at the presidents state of the union address, he said we can keep protecting the pell grant, but thats going to skyrocket to the point where it doesnt make sense anymore. at a certain point you have to force colleges to keep their costs in check. and the way to do that is ultimately going to be, you know, a tough decision and holding higher administrators of these colleges and universities accountable for the next decade or so. >> when we come ...

Quickly because shes been making the point about on voting day it should be that every vote counts the same. if its not advertising, if theyre putting voter suppression action in the field, that strikes me as particularly troubling. >> yes. whats especially enraging is that in this time of economic depression so economic waste is being poured into these campaigns. the majority is being spent on negative ads. it would be one thing if this money was deepening political discourse. its actually chea...

Down the street from you. i think, well, thats the internet. free access thats down the street from you isnt your local college anymore. it is internet classes. >> which is an interesting point, because as the cost of learning is becoming cheaper, ironically the cost of education keeps going up and up and up. so why might that be? >> interesting. >> one of the problems -- this is what i like to call the "u.s. news & world report" industrial complex. >> oh, i know this one. >> people rank schools...

Specific skill set is skills inevitably become obsolete and people get more in debt to retrain. liberal arts degrees teach you edification, t you can solve complex problem sets irrespective of what time or decade or era youre living in. thats a lifelong skill. >> felicia, on the one hand im with you. i want more investment particularly in community classes. then i worry about a two-tier system, a tuition paying june it in who get edification unit and another set that get trained in skill set lea...

I had the incredible privilege of getting my education at stanford, harvard and yale. that kind of access to knowledge, to mentorship, to networks is something i think every hard working student should have a shot at. that means a traditional college experience. but absolutely we need to innovate college so theyre stepping up their game, so theyre making it less expensive for students to attend, so theyre making learning more relevant, were actually teaching skills more about learning and the do...

Would love to hear that. i also know why the president doesnt say im about to engage in a massive spending program. >> but at the same time theres a difference between spending in investment -- excuse me -- smart investment and wasteful expenditure. look at the money we spend on people on unemployment insurance. look at the money we spend on social welfare programs, on food stamps, prison costs. if their investment -- we put in money to a company. it grows. people earn wealth. everyone wins. in ...

>> i see. >> i think in agreement its criminal to try to suppress -- >> yet that is really quite different, myrna in terms of the state-by-state individual efforts. i want to press on the point you just made. even to the extent the courts have turned much of this back, the confusion itself can be suppressive. >> certainly. thats why its really important that there be a lot of very good and very concentrated voter education efforts. it also would do us well to be thinking about election preparedn...

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