Important, buts it does not help curb the cost of college. The perspective of education policy, theres a few things going on that are interesting. The federal government backs the student loans, but they do not actually administer them. Is not the federal government making sure that students are paying their loans. Its these outside Companies Must be loan contractors. Student loan contractors. The government is turned to give incentive totors make sure students are repaying their loans and doing a good job. Doing a badm are job at that. The are not paid by government based on the performance of students they are overseeing. Some of them are not doing nearly enough to try to keep borrowers on time, give them information they need to be responsible with their loan. It doesnt sound like as big of a deal, but it could stand to make a big change. Host weve heard about the concept of loan forgiveness and maybe allowing some of these student loan holders to simply not pay part of their lives if they have low incomes, etc. The white house has done a lot to expand the loan forgiveness for certain student loan borrowers. Like people who go into the Public Sector and work as teachers or Government Employees can now get their loans forgiven after a certain amount of time. Student loan debt is one of the only forms of debt that cannot be discharged with bankruptcy. However mother are a number of things for very specific students. However, there are a number of things for very specific student groups. Forgivenessfer debt for students who attended for proper colleges and were taken advantage of by those forprofit colleges. If they go to a forprofit college that has been found to be defrauding students and it shuts down come in the past, there was legal language that allowed the federal government but harge that that that debt, but it was rarely used. The obligations for students weapon seriously defrauded could make a big difference and you are sick students who attended seeing colleges students who attended Corinthian Colleges clamoring for that kind. F relief host you mentioned the potential for congressional action. I dont think we are going to see much until next year when we have a new president. Rewrite theeed to Higher Education act. This is one issue where lawmakers have heard a loud and clear from constituents that people want a change would comes to student debt. There are a lot of different ways to do this. It will be front and center when they do get around to reauthorizing the Higher Education law. You will see more action on that front next year. Host the root cause is the rising cost of a college education. Has there been any proposal to address the core issue . You are starting to see proposals like that float around on the hill. Theres a lot of disagreement over how to handle that issue. But a lot of interest in handling it because policymakers understand that is a root problem. When idea is this idea of putting skin in the game. You see this as part of Hillary Clintons education platform. Institutions should be responsible for making sure the money student aro is worth it. Students borrow is worth it. We needed new metrics to judge whether the money students are borrowing is worth it. I dont think anyone would argue that, for most students who take out loans to attend harvard or a Top Law School or medical school , it can be expensive but a really good investment. People would like to see the amount of money more lined up with the amount it benefits the students in the longterm. Host that is maggie severance washington journal continues. We know it is early on a saturday morning, but it is never too early to start cramming for the exam. The exam we are talking about the u. S. Government advanced placement test. Students across the country will be taking this exam on tuesday. Here to provide a guide for us are two teachers. We are joined by Andrew Conneen and daniel larsen. It has been a long time since i was in high school. Tell us a little bit about this test and why it is important . Andrew . Guest this is a test, some students take the course for a full year, or one semester. It prepares them for the basics in Political Science. If they do well enough, they can earn college credit. Host it is called the derby. Guest it is also super tuesday. The questions are 60 multiplechoice questions. For free response questions where students will and to explain, discuss, identify. Few daysre are just a left before the exam. How should students use their time to study . Guest look at the concept of government. Look at the key definitions. Think of synonyms for words, and think about how those concepts ix. Think of those examples of checks and balances. Work hard,betting on work out today. If you work hard, you can do well on the test. Host we are opening the phone lines only to High School Students in this segment. If you live in central or eastern time zones, your number is 202 7488000. If you live in the mountain or pacific time zone, your number is 202 7488001. You can also send your thoughts on twitter. The handle is cspanwj. Mforex. Use apcra we will go straight to the callers. Tara from ohio is the first one. Caller i would like to just give a shout out to my ap government teacher. My question is what are typical questions that you see on the exam . To thank alle want of the teachers out there. Because of you, your students will be well prepared on tuesday. Roy, what types of questions . You will see questions on the big topics. Federalism, participation, Political Parties, campaigns and elections, cut constitution, courts, and dont forget about the president. Guest and learn how to mix those concepts. Political parties is a great example. The more you know about Political Parties and the nomination process, you can use that information to help you. Host what do you expect to see for the free response questions . Guest usually they are higherlevel thinking. Usually it is worth between six to seven points so fight for those points, even if it looks like you might not understand some of the concepts. Try to get some of the easier points in the free response and then right, right, right. Think about how those concepts connect. Guest we tell our students to think less, inc. More. More. 100 minutes, for questions. They will be multiple parts questions. Read carefully, restate the vocabulary, and use examples. Host lauren from elkhart, indiana. Hi. Er host turn down your tv, lauren. Caller just to give it shout out. My question is regarding the amendments and i was wondering which amendments we should know and if we need to know all of them. Guest the amendments, of course. Amendments one through 10. Know the purpose of the bill of rights. It was intended to constrain the powers of the National Government so even if they do not ask a specific question about a specific amendment, we know that you should know the bill of rights were intended to restrain government. With the 14th amendment and the due process clause, the due process clause was used to incorporate parts of the bill of rights. Guest i would know the suffrage amendments as well. Host speaking of the constitution, we have a pocket constitution to give away to a caller. Tell us how you plan to decide who the winner will be. Guest every year we get. Ssigned pocket constitution sometimes it is a Supreme Court justice and sometimes it is hulk hogan. This year it was paul ryan and we are going to award that to a student who calls in with a question about congress. Iowa. Grant from dubuque, caller i would like to give a shout out to ms. Miller us a peek of test. You talk about synonyms. What synonyms do you think will be covered on the test next week . Guest my favorite synonym is suffrage. Students should know that suffrage is voting, voting rights. Projectsalso go pork or federal earmarks. Guest the toughest cinnamon have seen is constituent service cinnamon synonym we have seen is constituent service. Do not freak out. Host we do have a few simple questions from the test here that we can quiz our viewers on. Here is one of them. This is from the ap u. S. Government exam. The original constitution was ratified in 1789. Which political offices were directly elected . House of representatives, u. S. Senate, president , federal judges, or executive department heads. Which one is it . Guest let the students. Host alexis from lake stevens, washington. Did you see our question . Caller is it the house of representatives . Guest it is, they keep studying. Caller i want to give a shout out. Which Supreme Court cases are the most important and what should we focus on especially . Guest Everyone Wants lists. Clearly you need to know some court cases but have a couple of favorites in your pocket to use as examples. Of course the standards are brown v board of education, roe v wade, another Civil Liberties case. Gala versus new york in 1925 becomes a seminal moment of selective incorporation when the Supreme Court of the united states, using the due process clause of the 14th amendment decided to apply free in that free speech to the state. Guest the granddaddy is marbury versus madison. The Supreme Court gave itself the power of judicial review to review the laws of congress, the actions of president , the laws of state and local governments to determine if they are constitutional. Marylandculloch v seems to always find its way. National supremacy. Host from kent, washington, johnny is on the line. On to pageg to move from dublin, ohio. Host i want to give a shout out to mr. Reid has ap government class. Isquestion is, what congressional reapportionment and how does it benefit the states . Guest we love reapportionment. Not so much on gerrymandering. Reapportionment happens every 10 years. The delegation in the house of delegates in the house of representatives is fixed at based on population growth or population decline, different states get different representatives. You are guaranteed a minimum of one representative in california has the most but every 10 years we reapportion and states will redistrict. They will redraw the boundaries of the districts and if the state uses a political protect a to help Political Party or incumbents, we call that type of redistricting gerrymandering. Host our next caller is bethany from florida. I want to give a shout out to my ap government teacher ms. Carbone because she makes the subjects of much fun. Differentiate between the different committees in College Congress and senate. Guest too often we think is about the legislative process. Committees is where the work gets done. Know the difference between the different types. Is standingce committees and Conference Committees. Standing committees are permanent committees in the house and senate and they are all about developing expertise. Members might serve for a decade or more. A Conference Committee is temporary. It is created to reconcile the differences between a house version of a bill and a senate version. Extremely important to know that distinction. Guest the house does have some unique committees. The rules committee determines the rules for debate for legislation before it goes to the house floor, and one of the most important committees is the ways and Means Committee. The house was given the power to initiate tax laws and the ways and Means Committee is enormously important. Host shelby is our next caller from lawrenceburg, kentucky. You have a pop quiz here. Heres a question before you can ask your own. Which exemplifies divided government . Is republican and gop holds congress, the president is republican and democrats hold congress, bipartisan efforts to fix the committee, partisan gridlock suspends all government activity, or a three branch government. Caller is it b . Guest it is. Host go ahead with your question, shelby. Caller how does Congress Check the judiciary . Guest plea love the checks and balances questions and certainly we know that the president can appoint vacancies on to the Supreme Court. It is really up to the senate to confirm his vacancies. We know congress was given the power to create the federal court system so it is not just the Supreme Court, it is the lower courts beneath it. Guest cleo is talk about congress is power of the parts and power of oversight, both of which are tremendous tracks checks on judicial and executive branches. Host remind us what our callers need to do to win this pocket constitution. Still on,shelby is that was our First Congress question. Shelby, please call back in and give your information to our producers. Otherwise we will have to move on to someone else. Braden fromler, parker, colorado. Caller first i would like to give a shout out to ms. Gable. My question is, what type of Supreme Court cases will we have to know for the test . Guest we have heard a little bit already about Supreme Court. The Supreme Court for some reason gives my students anguish. Wade, iboard, roe v would not be surprised to see citizens united, campaign finance. Certainly there will be some multiplechoice on campaignfinance. I liked the mccutcheons case where the Supreme Court kids are the advocate limits unconstitutional. The granddaddys book the buckley the boulet oh. Free speech. Guest my favorite Supreme Court case to teach his heart of Atlanta Motel versus u. S. Because it is a case where you learn about the commerce clause. You learn about commerce trying to desegregate public facilities , the end of jim crow laws through the commerce clause. Host heres a question from twitter about the test itself. Is this test given to schools outside of wealthy districts . If not, why . Guest it is a global test and frankly there is no prerequisite as to what school you are in and where you are from. We get contacted from students in bangladesh, europe, asia, africa, south america. These are schools all around the world in every neighborhood and hamlet of america are taking this test. Over 300,000 students will be taking this test and we wish you all the best of luck. Host there has been a lot of debate about highstakes testing in education. Do you wonder about the dangers of teaching to the test . Guest it depends on how the test is format. This test is written with High School Teachers and College Professors who look at Political Science 101 classes and try to replicate what is a college course. These are students taking not just ap government. There are 37 different ap tests and one of the goals is for a rigorous collegelevel curriculum in the high schools. You see an enormous spread of ap classes in Different College level type classes, school enrollments. Increasingly you are saying High School Students, not just the elite students choose a more rigorous option in high school. Guest we call it a test with benefits because if you do well you will get college credit. The studies are pretty clear. Even if you do not do as well as you would like, students taking the ap test will do better in college. Host i think we are going to have to pick a new winner for the pocket constitution. Who calls inent with a question about congress will be able to win this pocket constitution signed by paul writing. Jaden from gurnee, illinois. You are on the air. Caller i want to give a shout out to miss resected at one township high school. My question is the concept of fiscal federalism. Guest these are those geek on questions that make government teachers quake a little bit but certainly know the difference between fiscal and monetary policy. If you are asking about federalism we are talking about different styles of federalism. We think more times than not, the federal government, National Government, and state governments play together, overlap and mix responsibilities. There is always money involved so the National Government uses financial incentives to encourage state and local governments to comply with certain policy. The 10th amendment reserves powers to the states the so there are certain things the state governments have sovereignty over that the National Government does not. Some might call it fiscal federalism i suppose. These are incentives where the government says, we would like you to do this, here is money through a grant. This is marble cake federalism. Federalism,fiscal categorical grants are given to state and local governments for a very specific purpose purpose. A granttrasts with given to a state and local government for a much broader purpose. Host our next caller is lane from spokane, washington. You have a pop quiz for your call. Heres your question. ,ll revenue bills in Congress Must pass without the consent of the president , must be introduced by the majority party, must be introduced in the president possible budget, must originate in the Senate Finance committee, or must be introduced in the house . Caller is that e . Guest it is, it must be introduced in the house. Because the house of representatives was the only directly elected body the only ones who can raise revenue. Aest i think lane deserves pocket constitution signed by the speaker of the house. Host idu, too. Go ahead with your question. Caller i would like to give a shout out to my ap government teacher and future president , mr. Beale. My question is, what has weakened the influence of Political Parties over the political process . Guest clearly Political Parties have grown weaker. If you have been watching the news in the last 12 months, we have seen that. Not all bad, but we can explain it. Throughplained candidatecentered campaigns. That means that candidates can raise money and run campaigns without that party endorsement. They are running in rogue status. This has weakened Political Parties. Also campaignfinance reform. Mccainfeingold, when they eliminated soft money it took away huge amounts of money from the National Party apparatus. Some would say this is a good thing and others will say it will cause serious problems. Ofst one of the key steps weakening Political Parties was changing the nomination project process. Recordedve this portion to take you to Howard University in washington, d. C. Where president obama is delivering the commencement address. He also just received an honorary doctorate from howard. Hello, howard. Hu. Thank you so much, everybody. Have a seat. I feel important now. Got a degree from howard. Sisley tyson said something nice about me. I love you back. Frederick, the board of trustees, faculty and rants llow recep recipients of honorary degrees, thank you for the honor of spending this day with you, and congratulations to the class of 2016. Applause] ago iobama four years understand many of you came by my house the night i was reelected. I decided to return the favor and come by yours. Parents, grandparents, sisters, family and friends who stood by this class, cheered them on, helped them get here today, this is your day as well. Lets give them a big round of applause as well. [applause] pres. Obama i am not trying to stir up any rivalries. I just want to see who is in the house. Carver . Towers . And meridian . Rest in peace, meridian. [laughter] pres. Obama rest in peace. I know you are all excited today. You might be a little tired as well. Night makingup all sure your credits were in order. Some of you stayed up too late, i at 2 00 a. M. ,ch got some mambo sauce on your fingers. But you got here. And you have all worked hard to reach this day. Between gone challenging classes in greek life, played an instrument or sport, volunteered, in turn, jobs. Own one, 2, 3 made lifelong friends and discovered exactly what you are made of. The howard hustle that strengthens your sense of purpose and ambition. Which means you are part of a long line of howard graduates. Some are on this stage today. Some are in the audience. The spirit of achievement and special responsibility has defined this cant this campus ever since the Freedmens Bureau established howard just four years after the emancipation proclamation. Two years after the civil war came to an end. Universityd this with a vision of uplift, a vision of america where our place would be determined not by our gender, race, or creed, but where we would be free to pursue our intellectual individual and collective dreams. It is that spirit that has made howard a centerpiece of africanamerican life and a centerpiece of a larger american story. This institution has been the home of many firsts. The first black Nobel Peace Prize winner. The first black Supreme Court justice. But its mission has been to ensure those firsts were not the last. ,ountless scholars professionals, artists, leaders from every field received their training here. The generations of men and women who walk through this yard, helped reform our government, grow a black middle class, advance civil. Ights, shape our culture the seeds of change for all americans were sold here sowed here. That is what i want to talk about today. As i was preparing these remarks, when i realized when i was first elected president most of you, the class of 2016, were just starting high school. Today you are graduating college. Old. D to joke about being now, i realize i am old. [laughter] pres. Obama it is not a joke anymore. But seeing all of you here gives me some perspective. It makes me reflect on the changes that i have seen over my own lifetime. With what mayn sound like a controversial statement. Given the current state of our political rhetoric and debate, let me Say Something that may be controversial and that is this america is a better place today than it was when i graduated from college. [applause] pres. Obama let me repeat america is by almost every measure measure than it better than it was when i graduated college. It is also better than when i took office. That is a different story. That is a different discussion for another speech. It, i graduated in 1983. , americas largest city where i lived at the time had endured a decade marked by deterioration and near bankruptcy. And many cities were in similar shape. Our nation had gone three years of economic stagnation. The stranglehold of foreign oil, a recession where unemployment nearly scraped 11 . The Auto Industry was getting its clock cleaned by foreign competition, and do not even get me started on the clothing and the hairstyles. I tried to eliminate all photos of me from this period. I thought i looked good. I was wrong. [laughter] pres. Obama since that year, since the year i graduated, the poverty rate is down. Americans with college degrees, that rate is up. Crime rates are down. Americas cities have undergone a renaissance. There are more women in the workforce. We have cut teen pregnancy and half. Have slashed the africanamerican dropout rate by almost 60 , and all of you have a computer in your pocket that gives you the world at the touch of a button. Fewer thans part of 10 of africanamericans who graduated with a bachelor degree. Today you are part of 20 who will. Many of us say we were better off than our parents were in our kids will be better off than we were. The world is better. A wall came down in berlin. An iron curtain was torn asunder. Apartheid came to an end. A young generation in belfast and london have grown up without ever having to think about ira bombs. Years, wee past 16 have come from a World WithoutMarriage Equality to where it is a reality in nearly two dozen countries. We have lifted more than one billion people from extreme poverty. We have cut the Child Mortality rate worldwide by more than half. Better. Is the world is better, and stay with me now, Race Relations are better since i graduated. That is the truth. My election did not create a postracial society. I do not know who was propagating that notion. That was not mine. But the election itself and the subsequent one, because the first one folks might have made a mistake. The second one, they knew what they were getting. [laughter. ] pres. Obama the election was one indicator of how attitudes have changed. Remarkeduguration, i 60 years earlier my father might not have been served in a d. C. Restaurant. There were no black ceos of fortune 500 companies. Very few black judges. As larry walmart pointed out more week, larry wil pointed out last week, a lot of people did not think lacks had the tools to be a quarterback blacks have the tools to be a quarterback. Not just then is greatest basketball player of all time, he owns the team. Maini was graduating, the black man on tv was mr. T. [laughter] rap and hiphop were counterculture, underground. Now beyonce runs the world. We are no longer entertainers, we are producers, studio executives. A longer Small Business owners, we are ceos. Representatives, president s of the united states. They did notng persist, obviously they do. Racism persists, inequality persists, do not worry, i will get to that. I wanted to start the class of 2016 by opening your eyes to the moment that you are in. If you had to choose one moment in history in which you could be born and you did not know ahead of time who you were going to be , what nationality, or it gender, what race, whether you would be rich, poor, and a or straight, gay or what faith you would be born into, you would not choose 100 years ago. You would not choose the 1950s, the 1960s, or the 1970s. He would choose right now. If you had to choose a time to to be younger, gifted and black in america, you would choose right now. [applause] i tell you this because it is. Mportant to note progress because to deny how far we have come would do a disturbance to justice, to the legions of foot only the to not incredibly accomplished individuals who have already been mentioned, but your mothers, your dads your grandparents, greatgrandparents who marched and toiled and to make and overcame this day possible. Lull youu this not to into complacency but to spur you into action. Because there is still so much more work to do, so many more miles to travel. America needs you to gladly, happily take up that work. All have some work to do. Enjoy the party. [laughter] because you will be busy. [laughter] recovered,onomy is price is stronger than almost any other in the world, but there are folks of all races still hurting, who still cannot find work to keep the lights on, who cannot save for retirement. We still have a racial gap in economic opportunity. The overall Unemployment Rate is 5 , but the black Unemployment Rate is almost 9 . We still have an achievement gap. When black girls and boys graduate at lower rates than white boys and girls. Harriet tubman may be going on , but we have a gender gap when a black woman earns 66 of what the white man gets paid. [applause] we have got to justice gap. Black boys and girls passed through a pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded [indiscernible] this is one area where things have gotten worse. In college, about half a Million People in america were behind bars. Today, about 2. 2 million. Black men are about six times as likely to be in prison right now than white men. Around the world, we still have challenges to solve that threaten everybody in the 21st century. Old scourges like disease, also new but challenges from terrorism and climate change. Make no mistake, class of 2016, you have got plenty of work to do. Sometimesplicated and impractical as these challenges may seem, the truth is that your generation is better positioned than any before you to meet those challenges, to flip the script. How you do that, how you meet the challenges, how you bring about change will ultimately be up to you. , like allion generations, is too confined ir own experience, too invested in , too stuck in our own ways to provide much of the new thinking that will be required. But us old heads have learned a few things that might be useful theour journey, so with rest of my time, i would like to offer suggestions for how Young Leaders like you can before your destiny and shape our collective future. And then it ended direction and bend it in the direction of justice, freedom and equality. First of all, and this should not be a problem for this group, the confident in your heritage. [applause] be confident in your blackness. [applause] changes thateat has occurred in our country since i was your age is the realization that there is no one way to be black. Has it from somebody who seen both sides of the fence on whether i am black or not. Past couple of months, i have had lunch with the queen of england and hosted Kendrick Lamar in the oval office. [laughter] there is no straitjacket, constraints, litmus test for authenticity. Look at howard. One thing most folks do not know about how it is how diverse it is. When you arrived here, some of you are like they have like people in iowa they have a black people in iowa . [laughter] but it is true. This class comes from the cities, rural communities, and some of you across cultures to study here. You shatter stereotypes. Some of you come from a long line of fighters, some of you are the first in your family to graduate from college. [applause] you all talk different, you dress different, lakers fans, celtics fans, maybe even some hockey fans. [cheering] [laughter] and because of those who come before you, you have models to follow. You can work for a company or start your own. You can go into politics or rent an organization to hold politicians accountable. You can write a book that wins the National Book award or you can write the new run on black you can go ahead and do both like one of your alumni. [applause]. Ou can create your own style set your own standard of beauty. Embrace your own sexuality. Think about an icon we lost, prince. He blew up categories. Princedid not know what was doing. [laughter] and folks loved him for it. You need to have the same confidence. Or as my daughters tell me all the time, you be you, daddy. Theirmes i should put variation on it, you do you, daddy. [laughter] because you are a black person do whatever it is you are doing, that makes it a black thing. Feel confident. Embraceeven as we each our own beautiful, unique and valid versions of our blackness, remember the tide that does bind thatricanamerican does bind us as africanamericans is the injustice, unfairness and struggle. That means we cannot sleepwalk through life. We cannot be ignorant of history. [applause] we cannot meet the world with a sense of entitlement. We cannot walk by a homeless man without asking White Society as wealthy as ours allows that state to occur. We cannot just walk up block up the lowerlevel dealer, this boy barely out of childhood, felt he had no other option spirit we have uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters who we remember were just as smart and talented as we were, but got ground down by structures that are unjust, and that means we have to not only question the world as it is and stand up to those africanamericans have not yes, youucky because have worked hard but you have. Lso been lucky that is a pet people of mine. People who have been successful ofthat is a pet peeve mine. People who have been successful did not realize that they have been lucky. That god may have blessed them. It was nothing you