Of. Youre about to finish your first year. How much money do you owe . None. How much money will you owe at the end of four years . Zero. I visit Marshall University in West Virginia to learn about their program to help students graduate debt free. Plus, state leaders are trying to Work Together to address issues facing americans without getting bogged down by political divisions. We cant solve problems if we all hated each other. I talked to governor spencer cox about how his disagree Better Initiative works, and what we could all learn from it, and discovering a dinosaur launched a career he never knew existed, just really kind of a dream come true. A look at what goes into bringing relics of the past to life. Those stories right now on matter of fact. College in the United States is expensive. Tuition at a Public University averages about 26,000 a year for a private college, its 38,000. Increasingly, middle class families are finding themselves in a bind. They make too much money to qualify for financial assistance, and recent changes to federal student aid rolls back some of the help they could get, but they dont make enough to afford tuition. Well, now some colleges are looking for a way to help students pay for College Without taking on crippling debt. I recently traveled to Marshall University in West Virginia, where theyre launching a Pilot Program that they hope will one day lead to students not needing loans. Mike ali spends a lot of time in his car. Hes a College Freshman and commutes five days a week for 40 minutes each way from his childhood home in winfield, West Virginia, to Marshall University. Ive really enjoyed working with the professors and just like being in a its a very the classroom setting is much more relaxed. Hes studying psychology and has plans to go to med school, hopefully to work in clinical psychiatry in a hospital, or maybe even open up. You know, a private practice. Thats my dream. But its a dream mike wasnt always sure would become a reality because of the price tag. Marshall university estimates that an instate Student Living on campus will spend about 28,000. Their freshman year. That includes books, meals, housing, and tuition, and marshall is one of the most affordable universities in the country to save money, mike lives at home with his parents and two siblings. Im the oldest. Ive always felt like ive had to be, you know, have everything locked in. I figured out what i wanted to do and then i had to figure out how i was going to get there. And i remember even taking a personal finance class, uh, and there was an assignment regarding, like, looking up your college, your dream colleges, and then, like, how much it would cost to go there. And just seeing those numbers of even a place like this, i, i was like, oh, i, i had honestly didnt know exactly how i was going to be able to pull it off. Are your parents middle class . Is that how you describe them . We are middle class is about as middle of the road as you can get. According to the Us Department of education, roughly 45 million americans have Student Loan Debt and on average, middle class borrowers owe 45,000 a piece. When you interview the families and the students who are considering college, the number one concern they have is affordability. Brad smith is the president of Marshall University. His goal is to have every student at marshall graduate with zero debt in ten years. Whats the number one reason why someone chooses to go to college or not . And we know the College Going rate is declining at 12 a year across the nation. So a problem if youre a College President. Huge problem. And its a huge problem for the nation. Because if you think about the economy today, in the 21st century, we need people who have the skills and capabilities and the Critical Thinking skills to navigate the uncertainty around us. The marshall for all program, launched in the fall of 2023, is based on their financial need. 100 students were randomly selected and given the chance to go to school for free in exchange, they have to complete an internship, attend work, study, or have a job, and most importantly, complete a Financial Literacy course. College debt, which is causing many young people to put off buying a home and having children, is a focus of several College President s. I saw what was happening at Ohio State University under the former president christina johnson, and she was looking at something which would find a way to have students come in, actively participate in the system, and ultimately graduate with no debt. Christine johnson was president of Ohio State University from 2020 to 2023. She says that collaboration from all parties is required for a debt Avoidance Program to work. Its a coalition outside the university, but its also a coalition inside the university. So youve got a Financial Aid working with Academic Affairs and also working with admissions. They all have to come together and collaborate and then also with the philanthropy piece, if theyre all in the same team, you can make this happen at marshall, the Pilot Program is funded in part by a private. 2 million donation, except its students must first apply for federal student aid. From there, they work with advisors like jennifer jimison to figure out the rest. Hey, hey, mike. What are you doing . Jennifer . Factors in scholarships, work study grants, and Financial Aid. If theres a balance, thats if theres a balance due. Thats when the gifted funds kick in. Being able to just study and not have to worry about, you know, the room, their board, their books, their tuition. You know, its its very helpful for mike getting into marshall for all has been life changing. It gives me the ability to do the things that i want to do with my life. For the rest of my life. How big of a relief is it to know that youre going to come out of college owing zero . Like, like the heaviest weight lifted off of my shoulders . It is absolutely unreal. It is the biggest relief. At least 37 colleges across the country are considering similar programs to help students graduate without debt. Next on matter of fact, when scrolling social media, the political fights can seem everywhere. The algorithms of social media are specifically designed for this because cause they know that outrage is addicting. But is the nation really as divided as it reads online . Plus, a new survey highlights a knowledge gap. We found something very startling results. It turns out that most americans consistently over the last four years cant name a single famous Asian American. Well explain how that leads to ignoring serious issues facing Asian American communities. Aanhpis, anita, designer behind these dinosaur replicas in colorado, we have more on what life is like for this unique artist who even has a dinosaur named after him. Youre watching, matter of fact, americas number one nationally syndicated Public Affairs news magazine. Welcome back to matt hi, im greg. I live in bloomington, illinois. Im not an actor. Im just a regular person. Some people say, why should i take prevagen . I dont have a problem with my memory. Memory loss is, is not something that occurs overnight. I started noticing subtle lapses in memory. I want people to know that prevagen has worked for me. Its helped my memory. Its helped my cognitive qualities. Give it a try. I want it to help you just like it has helped me. Prevagen. At stores everywhere without a prescription. Stay ahead of your childs moderate to severe eczema, and they can show off clearer skin and less itch with dupixent. The number one prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, that helps heal your childs skin from within. Serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes, including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Dont change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. Ask your childs eczema specialist about dupixent. Listen to this statement. Republic and democrats are more focused on fighting each other than on solving problems. That statement was included in a recent survey by Pew Research Center and an astounding 86 of respondents said it was a good description of american politics. So how do we bridge the divide that has been on utah governor spencer coxs mind . He leads the National Governors association, a group of state leaders from all parties. Governor cox launched the disagree Better Initiative last summer. Governor cox, very nice to have you on on the program. I appreciate your time. Lets begin with the reason why you decided to launch a disagree better. We were looking at the biggest problems facing our nation. The energy prices, health care, all of these, these, these things that matter to to americans. But it just dawned on us that we we cant solve any of those problems if we all hate each other. Were sadly seeing a congress that is very dysfunctional and and so we we wondered if there was a better way to do this. What is it specifically entail . We certainly didnt want it to just be another civility or niceness initiative. This is something more and its very influenced by by actual research. Weve been working with the depolarization lab at stanford university, dartmouth has has a lab that is working on this as well, duke and others, and experiment that theyve run to show how we can help depolarize us as a society. And its also about participation. So we had an ad that i filmed with my democratic opponent when i ran in 2020. We are currently in the final days of campaigning against each other about how we could we we disagree on lots of things, but we can we can still we still love our country. We love our state. That was one of the experiments that stanford ran and found that it had a measurable depolarize effect, including a reduction in urges towards violence. And so taking that research, weve asked our fellow governors to do the same thing. So there seemed to be many a lot of problems like immigration, right . One governor drops a bunch of undocumented people into another Governors State at great expense. Like i could see governor was now, you know, feeling a certain way about that, that its its a fight. Sure. Politics has always been a fight, but but how we fight and the way we fight. Absolutely matters. Sometimes we do passionately disagree with each other. I think process is really important. Our country wasnt wasnt founded or set up for hyperpolarization, but it was set up for polarization. It was designed to have a bunch of people who disagree. In fact, our nation was founded in profound disagreement. The, you know, the constitution was was called the great compromise. This this is the way we we come together and we set up these institutions to allow for participation. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but people have to feel like the game is fair. When we start, when we start cutting corners and not following procedure, when we dont follow the constitution, then thats when people start to think, okay, its not a fair fight. So im willing to do anything i need to to if the other side is willing to undermine the constitution and throw it out, then, well, my side has to do that too. And i think thats where it gets dangerous. It also seems like were in a time of misinformation, disinformation, deep fakes, just full on lying. How do you navigate realistically . Navigate that that environment . Weve always had politicians that have used fear and divisiveness and lies and misinformation to try to gain power and to tear the other side down. That is not new. What im trying to do is, is to encourage other governors and other politicians in this country to try something different, that its actually its not just just the right thing to do, although it is. Its good politics. You can actually get elected by by telling the truth and treating others with dignity and respect. Spencer cox is the governor of the state of utah. Thank you, sir, for joining me. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Coming up restored. A dinosaur is an incredibly labor intensive process and hed no. We introduce you to the artist behind some massive dinosaur replicas. Plus, the covid pandemic spurred an increase in discrimination and racism towards Asian Americans, but has it gotten better in the years since . What a new survey reveals about the treatment of the Aapi Community . We. This next story takes us back. Its a beautiful. Day to fly. Wooooo you know that thing your family does . Someone made it a thing, back in the day. But where did it come from . And how did it get aaaaall the way to you . See for yourself at ancestry. Way back. Dinosaurs have been extinct for about 65 million years, and yet we see their life size replicas in museums all over the world, and theyre thought to be pretty accurate depictions of what dinosaurs look like. And thats difficult to achieve, since scientists hardly ever find a complete skeleton. Designers like Robert Gaston work with paleontologists to accurately research and redesign the life size figures, so we now take you to western colorado to an area known as the dinosaur diamond, to find out more about gastons work. My discovery of gastonia was the the whole launch into what i do today, what was through participating in the excavation that kind of snowballed. My degree was in fine arts, so i was really well suited to all the skills that you need to restore dinosaurs. So it was just kind of something i never could have planned for, but just really kind of a dream come true here. Its very, very badly crushed. This skull is distorted. Its the process basically begins with the prepared material that the museum has excavated. A lot of times, the analogy i like to use is cars and junkyards. Youve never seen that type of car. You get one thats been run through the crusher, and you dont really have a good idea of what it looks like. But maybe you have other sports cars that look similar and so youre trying to, with the help of paleontologists, dig, decipher what that animals bones look like before they went through that whole process. Im doctor julie mchugh. Im the curator of paleontology for the museums of western colorado. So i first started working with robert pretty soon after, i came to the museum of western colorado. So thats the animals blind spot. Blind spot . Yeah, its really difficult for some people to imagine from just a handful of bones what a whole animal would look like. And so these full skeleton mounts provide that missing link to bring these pieces of information together to create a representation of what what these animals would have looked like in their lifetime. To see something weve done in a museum is really a wonderful experience. And the other the other part of that is knowing that were here for such a short time, especially when were looking at all this stuff. And on a geologic scale, our lifetime is poof, its gone. Were watching Climate Change take place over decades, which may be to us seems like a little bit of a protracted, um, event. But looking geologically, this is instantaneous, like a meteorite hitting. And so to know that youre doing something that leaves a mark that will be here after youre gone is is is really, really wonderful. Kind of cool. Cool thing to to know ahead. Un matter of fact, stereotypes can become scapegoats and that can lead to violence. The number one answer is education. The effort to combat racism and discrimination against one of the Fastest Growing ethnic groups, plus, she was one of the most gifted singers of her generation. How Venus Williams and a group of artists are now working to preserve ninas simones legacy. To stay up to date with matter of fact, sign up for our newsletter at matteroffacttv. Over the last four years, the whether someone is across the neighborhood, across the street, or across the room, you have the power to make them feel right at home. Ritz. A taste of welcome. Nutrish whole health blend. For happy, healthy dogs. [dog food pouring] ugh. Im a stick. Made out of stick. Nutrish whole health blend for balanced energy, active mind and immune support. Helping dogs dog healthy. Asian American Foundation has been surveying Asian American, native hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, or aanhpi aanhpis in the United States. Theres some of the Fastest Growing ethnic groups in the u. S. , with a total population of more than 20 million. The foundation says its tracking the communitys experience, since it plays such an Important Role in shaping the future of american society. This past week, they released their latest survey. Here are some of the key findings. More than 30 of Asian Americans say they were called a racial slur in the last 12 months. More than half think they are at least somewhat likely to be the victim of discrimination in the next five years, only 18 say they feel accepted in the u. S. For their racial identity. At the same time, most americans of non asian descent say they dont think hate towards Asian Ame