type. breaking news this hour from las vegas, another senseless act of gun violence adding to a monthly toll that is far too high. any minute now las vegas police will hold a news conference updating us on shooting spree that ended up with two of their own dead. a man and woman ambushed two officers and shot them both, point blank. >> what precipitated this event, we do not know. my officers were simply having lunch when the shooting started. >> the bloodshed ended at the nearby walmart and police say the suspects shot a third person there and the woman shot her partner before finally shooting herself. not before they yelled out this according to some eyewitnesses.

>> they were screaming the revolution that's begun. >> again, we're waiting on news of the start of this news conference that's expected to happen any minute. until then, we're going to get a legal and political perspective on this. john fineblat, president of every town for gun safety and msnbc analyst, lisa bloom, lisa. i'll start with you, the las vegas joernl review reports this couple spoke about white supremacy and voiced a desire to kill police before this. how common is this kind of home grown extremism? >> it's very common. the difference between the united states and every other developed counted in the world is that we have angry revolutionary crazy people just like every other country. we just allow ours to be armed. we know that in nevada, for example, there are very high rates of gun ownership and some of the laxist gun laws in america.

those two factors taken together are a recipe for disaster. today it was two police officers, my condolences to their families, tomorrow it will be another and another. about 40 people lose their lives to criminal gun violence every day in america. and it doesn't have to happen. >> that's on very full display this month and particularly today. john, another las vegas paper reports that the neighbors have said to -- that this couple was outspoken about some of these extremist desires and said they were threatening to commit the next columbine well in advance of today. in a case like this where there are warning signs and others know there are warning signs, is there any preventative action that can be taken? >> the most important thing, ronan to say is how tragic this is and how our heart bleeds for the families hurt by this event. but there are common sense things you can do and in fact the nevada legislature did them last year. both houses of legislature passed a comprehensive background check. unfortunately governor sandoval

vetoed it. as you know last year senator heller from nevada voted against it. we hope both sandoval and heller reconsider this. there's plenty we don't know but some things we do know. in the 16 states that passed comprehensive background checks, cop killings by gun are 39% lower. that should tell us there is something we can do and do right now. that would prevent the loss of lives like we just saw in nevada. certainly when you hear -- we have to do something about the fact that when friends and family and law enforcement know that there are very, very bad warning signs that violence must occur. we have to craft some legislation that allows for what i would call a temporary restraining order where a cop or family could go into court sean get a restraining order to take guns away for a very short period of time, subject to a full court hearing. but something that would

interrupt these kinds of actions. >> it is a tricky issue because you obviously can't be prosecuting people for just speech but when people do signal genuine mental health problems, one doesn't want them to then have access to buying guns and buying large amounts of ammunition as we saw in the uscsb shooting. >> something with full hearing afterwards, something for 72 hours might work. the one thing we can do right now is pass background checks. we know if you look at the shootings of police officers, over 40% of them involve people who should have never had guns in the first place. if we have comprehensive background checks in this country, if we had comprehensive background checks in the state like nevada, there would be far less chances for people who shouldn't have guns to get their hands on them. >> in many respects it seems like the big surprise is not that the killings happen again and again but how often they come from individuals who do show warnings signs. >> we see that in the mass

shootings but let's remember 86 are killed a day by gun violence. in the mass shootings we see these issues where somebody knew the authorities should have known and i think there are things we can do. but background checks is probably the most important and it would be a good moment for both senator heller and sandoval to rethink their position. >> lisa, we're just getting more news out of nevada, specifically right now they are delaying this press conference. they are fifth in the states with the highest rates of gun deaths in this country. is this going to put heat on nevada specifically to reform? >> it should. it certainly should. and to underscore what john has just said, we do have precedent in america for taking guns away when people are dangerous. that is in the area of domestic violence. if i go into court and get a temporary restraining order on behalf of one of my clients against an abusive husband, guns get taken away immediately, that in effect in 50 states and

happened with george zimmerman when his girlfriend made a complaints against him. later when the charges were dropped, he got them back. there's not only legal precedent for it but the courts upheld that. to the point about nevada being the fifth worst state in terms of gun violence, let's be clear what the facts are. we know the higher amounts of guns, the more quantity of guns in a state, the more gun violence. many people think if we had more guns we would have less gun violence, but that's clearly not the case. look at what happened today, this horrific case of police officers who are people who are armed and trained shot and killed by crazy shooters, not just with one gun or two guns but these people developed a huge arsenal of guns. that would not be allowed anywhere else in the developed world. >> and lisa, you're correct in actually drawing a correlation obviously, it's controversial whether there's casualty, but if we can put up the the list of t

five death rates and all are states with high gun ownership. there is something of an alignment there. >> what's important about domestic violence, six states just this year made it tougher for abusers to get their hands on guns. bobby jindal signed a law making it tougher and scott walker signed a law making it tougher. they have presidential ambitions that just decided to have gun sense. >> on the broader picture of the politics of this, we've seen after shootings again and again, fits and starts of activity on the hill and then the death of those. it was less than a month ago we had the horrific uc santa barbara shooting. >> we have to listen to the words of mr. martinez, whose son christopher was killed -- >> on this program, very moving. >> we have to listen to those not one more. 550,000 americans have signed a petition. we are going to be delivering over 2 million postcards to

senators, congressman and governors and the american public have to say not one more and politicians in this country have to start choosing public safety over the gun lobby. >> all right, john and lisa, thank you for the commentary, where this fits into the larger conversation. we're still awaiting more news out of las vegas. they delayed this press conference indefinitely. we'll bring you updates as they come. coming up next, developing humanitarian crisis within our own borders. we'll tell you to arizona where there's a story of survival playing out and another story about what the government should do about it. don't go away. [ male announcer ] people all over the world know us, but they don't yet know we're a family. we're right where you need us. at the next job, next adventure or at the next exit helping you explore super destinations and do everything under the sun. 12 brands. more hotels than anyone else in the world.

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hundreds of children a

warehouse full of them in fact, nothing but cots and foil blan kets to keep them off the concrete floors. sounds like an internment camp, right? it's not. it's the scene playing out in arizona where hundreds of unaccompanied and undocumented children have been shipped and are now being held by the federal government. they are all part of a surge of immigrants fleeing drugs and gangs and violence in honduras, el salvador and guatemala. arriving by the busload every day. numbers now expected to surge past 1,000. some are as young as 1 year old. all are alone. this isn't an isolated incident but a much larger problem. the number of children who cross the border into america on their own has doubled every year for the last five years. u.n. now estimates that by this year, 60,000 kids will have made that dangerous lonely journey. nbc news correspondent mark

potter has the story. thank you so much. what is the long-term plan for these kids? is there one? >> reporter: there is. there's a process, ronan, the kids are picked up at the border by the u.s. border patrol. under law they have 72 hours to process the kids and then move them into the hands of the department of health and human services, which then puts them in temporary facilities while they try to find long-term places to house them, hopefully with family members or others in the country while they wait processing and immigration courts. kids from central america have to go through processing unlike kids from mexico who can be pushed back across the border immediately. the reason for the place where i'm standing right now in arizona is that the facilities in texas, where most of the kids are coming in, in the rio grande valley area, are so overwhelmed now. the holding facilities there that they are flying kids to tucson and bringing them here and there are probably 1,000 kids here now. we've been watching buses bring

kids in and buses take kids out. they come here for a few days of processing and go out to go into the hands of health and human services. the 72 hour deadline is not being met because everything is overwhelmed but they are trying to get as close to that as they can. that's the future plan to get them in other people's plans? >> what are you hearing about the well being of these children? >> it's a mixed bag. and the story on their well being actually begins with they live in central america whereas you said conditions are tough but very much tough situation coming up through mexico. they do that through the hands of smugglers. kids do not track across a country to enter another one by themselves. these smugglers are paid by their parents to bring kids up or by others and they are very rough on those kids and some of the stories are horrific. they come here and conditions are not great. but the officials we talked to yesterday from the central american country said they

thought the border patrol was doing a pretty good job given the circumstances of trying their best to help these kids bringing in cots and showers and clocks even so they can understand the time because they are not seeing the sun culturally sensitive food, all of that stuff. it's not great, some have gone nine days without a shower. it's tough, they are trying to make it better. it gets better once they leave here and go into other facilities. but the problem is all because of those kids, 47,000 since october is the official number but it's froblly much greater than that as numbers keep growing every day. that number is froblly out of date now, ronan. >> there's a lot of outrage about this in arizona. any chance this could trigger serious reforms there? >> reporter: well, not here so much. that would be a national issue but i can tell you that the arizona senator john mccain was just on the air talking about this is the reason you need an immigration agreement. you need two things, tighter border security and border

control and you need an immigration plan that states very specifically who gets in and who doesn't get in and how it works. he's arguing there needs to be immigration reform and asking his fellow republicans to get with it to join the democrats to get that done. maybe that's the way it happens ultimately. it's not going to be a state issue but a federal issue if it occurs. >> it will be interesting if the push is tore more or less forgiving on this immigration system. thank you so much. that last question is one that actually the supreme court of the united states is contemplating just today. in today's decision, they upheld a section of u.s. immigration law that says that children of some applicants for visas are out of luck in the government hasn't acted on their request by the time they turn 21. this case involved rosa lee oes rio, in line for a visa along with her 13-year-old son. after years and years of waiting her son turned 21 and government

officials said that he no longer qualified as an eligible minor. was placed at the back of the line resulting in more years of waiting. joining me now is a professor of yale law school and one of the foremost constitutional law experts and got a uniquely personal take on the challenges of the immigration system which we'll get to. professor, in the case of unaccompanied minors in arizona and this case, we see a similar unfolding fight about how this snarled dysfunctional immigration system treats young people. is the honous on the president to change that? >> well, i applaud senator mccain's idea that we need a plan that ideally a plan would involve both branches of the political branches, that congress as well as the president and both parties. what you heard him say is that the republicans and democrats have to work together on a plan. the supreme court decision is interesting because it's 5-4. but it's not the usual 5-4.

there are democrats and republicans on five side and on the four side. and it's a very complicated fractured ruling but the one thing in it that i think is very heartening, there's at least one place in washington, d.c. where it's not always a partisan division, even though there are tough issues. >> pretty unusual to see scalia and kagan on the same i'd of an issue. >> and thomas and sotomayor on the other side. >> that's right. a really aggressive disagreement in these documents that came out of the court today with a lot of the justices on the majority side really cracking down on what justice sotomayor said and accusing her of being idealogical. what does this tell you how fevered this debate on immigration is? >> i don't think it's idealogical because justice alito agreed with her result and said most of her reasons justice thomas agreed with every words she said except for one footnote, but a very technical

fo footnote. it's a reminder that justices can disagree with each other, even pretty sharply and it's not necessarily all about partisan ideology. it's just sometimes good lawyers confronting a very complicated statute might have different interpretations. >> was the fact that this immigration process can take so long in this particular case it was over seven years on a wait list a factor in how the judges ruled? >> they in the end -- the majority deferred to the bureaucracy, complicated statute and all sorts of people get lost in the shuffle and drop through the cracks and the majority basically said we're going to let the bureaucrat sort it out and defer to the bureau -- the immigration bureau and that means that some people fell through the cracks. the counter argument is but yes to grab them up from the cracks and bring them back up puts them ahead of the line for other people who have been waiting patiently in line and so it's

just a very difficult and frankly broken system. i do think we need comprehensive immigration overhaul in the absence of that, one thing that president obama has tried to do is say on my own i'm going to try to introduce some measures of mercy and common sense and adjustments in the system until we have a comprehensive plan in place. >> the court's post tour as is so often is as deferring to others for decision-making does keep the ball in the administration's court on this. you've got a story of your own in terms of confronting the immigration system. what did you learn from that experience? >> so, this is -- my heart goes out to the kids and to their parents. it's a real human story. it's personal for me because i'm a constitutional scholar and here's why, on the daytime born, the united states constitution gives me a great birthday present and makes me a citizen on the day i'm born, even though my parents are not u.s. citizens on that day.

i'm born in ann arbor michigan and lucky to be born on american soil but my parents were students. they were medical students at the university of michigan ann arbor and young doctors. i get to stay because i'm a natural born u.s. citizen but they would have had to leave when their student days were up. that would have -- or else left me with strangers or some distant relatives or something, which would have been to break up the family. i was very lucky. the constitution made me a citizen and some folks in congress introduced a bill to let my family stay. it's just out of the kindness of their hearts and basically i've tried to live my life repaying that great gift that this country and the constitution gave me and high heart goes out to all sorts of people who weren't as lucky as i was. >> it's a reminder how central it is to the american dream, we have an immigration system that is forgiving sometimes. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> coming up, they play a butch

prison lesbian and guard with little too much affection with an inmate. "orange of the new black" is out of the penitentiary and in the studio. stay with us. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone.

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so let's simplify things. let's close the gap between people and care. ♪ welcome back, everybody, it's time now for a weekly under reported competition where remember we asked you do tell us what what story you think we're overlooking. send us your thoughts using the hash tag rfd under. we'll report on the winner for you. most recent choice, the rise of millennials in corporate culture. we'll have that report this week. ahead, they have escaped from lichfield prison and came into our studio, two of the stars of "orange is the new black" up ahead. are you ready grandma? just a second, sweetie. [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain, you turned up the fun. tylenol® provides strong pain relief

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creating massive lists of movies you're never going to watch, but also home to the new frontier in scripted tv. it's on a lot of people's minds after binge watching the new season of "orange is the new black", it is so popular, headlines about it are the new black. entertainment weekly calls it the strangest most surprising hit on tv. "time" says the show's depiction of one group often underrepresented on tv is playing a role in the trans gender tipping point. and the show recently won one of the most renovated awards in journalism, getting the peabody for exposing a prison system shrouded in mystery and making it a place of possibility and connection. it's an interesting time for the format and it's an interesting time for this particular show, one that proves that streaming content isn't a novelty and reminds us that nuanced depiction of women in underrepresented min orts shouldn't be a novelty.

it is overstuffed with those great roles and they may be criminals but there's always someone you're rooting for. >> that's my blanket. >> this is miss claudette's blankket. >> it's mine. we talked about this and i'm taking it back. >> really? and how do you suppose you're going to do that? >> i don't want to have to get physical with you. >> please, i could snap your feel you are like a toothpick twigy. >> joining me now, leah delar ya and matt mcgory correction officer john bennett. the show is incredible. what's interesting is it is bridging the divide between entertainment and politics. >> you stop, you're giggling. >> i'm laughing because we are holding hands very much in love -- >> getting hot and bothered. >> on the serious side, you are depicting the prison system and filmed some of your scenes, not all, but some at the riverhead

correctional facility and the new york civil liberties has caught on with a new campaign against that facility. the new yorker just wrote a great piece about conditions there, which are so close to the horrifying conditions depicted on the show. we have a quote there. the people housed in the riverhead facility, are forced to live with overflowing sewage and black mold and rust and rodent infestation and stench rising from the sewers is revolting. a lot of depicted in different plot lines on the show. do you think it can stir real reform thin a case like this? >> i think it's possible and -- >> and matt, what do you think, has this opened up your eyes to a range of you shall yus that you don't normally get involved in? >> without a doubt.

across many different areas prompted social change and awareness that i never had before. and it's -- that's kind of first step is becoming aware of the issues and i think having -- become a part of your life that you're actually interested in them. >> i found it eye opening actually as someone interested in prison reform and conditions within the prison system, i didn't know all of the details conveyed in the show. how is the netflix model having this be something released in a big batch changed the kind of content that can be on the show? >> i think that you kind of hit the nail on the head right there. the fact they are all released at once and the studio can't fiddle with it. i think that it allows stronger voice from the writers as well as the actors and directors and people piecing this thing together. i mean, whenever anybody asks me about the netflix model, i basically say who am i to talk about their business plan except i don't think you can argue with

success? it's obviously turned out to work incredibly well. >> it's a smash hit in this case. even when they are more experimental, it provides an opportunity to do very different things creatively from a writing standpoint they did that arrested development when all episodes are concurrent. matt, one of the things that captivated so much, it has incredible female characters but you're one of the few male leads in the show. what is it like to be on a show that is so dominantly women driven and have to hold up the other end of the equation? >> it's a lot of fun. it's sort of like -- >> speak carefully. >> like a big girl sleepover except i get to hang out there too. it's a lot of fun. there's i think in some ways it mirrors the dynamic of the prison, which is interesting, you get maybe more attention than you might get otherwise if there's not a lot of male energy. that's been an interesting thing as well and bonding separately with the other people who play

the corrections officers because they are males. it's sort of fun anyhow that works and becomes divided. >> separate but equal. >> what about you? does the depiction of women in the show, do you think it ups the ante for the rest of hollywood? xbl i believe it did. on a more personal note, i'm so happy, just happy. what can i say? >> i love hearing that. >> i'm so happy working with all of these women and the men who work on the set aren't intimidated by that. we're all really happy and it's great. >> look, having grown up around actresses hungering for great roles i totally get how this is such a wind fall for great actresses. >> absolutely. you never see it. that's something we hear on the street all the time. i'd be surprised if you didn't hear it as well, although probably girls run at you and want to rib your clothes off. >> i got so many tweets saying,

you treat him well, we love him. >> thank you, very nice. >> one of the reasons they connect with your character, this character arc of you're a corrections officer and you get one of the inmates pregnant and it's an interesting legal issue because that is sex assault in the eyes of the law. without spoiling anything from the new season, which a lot of people are still working through like me, i've been bingeing. >> you haven't finished it either sfwl i finished an hour ago, literally. >> here's a clip about that plot dynamic. >> i want to be better than my mom. >> i know. >> i want this baby to have everything. i'm going to tell them that i'm pregnant. >> you can't do that. >> what if there's something wrong with the baby, john? >> we have been over this. >> half of the girls know anyway? >> but not the administration. >> so what -- >> educating yourself there, bennett? >> yeah. >> it's such a sweet relationship but obviously so

frout. what has playing that out as an act or talk you about real corrections officers? >> part of what i was saying before, the dynamic of having such a male -- female dominant cast and being one of the few males in prison is one that closely mimics the one in real life. i get to talk to the one who is a therapist for corrections officers and this happens all the time. we see this all the time. that's essentially, it is tv and sweet as it can be in what we do. but it's none consensual at the end of the day, just like an underage person cannot consent to adult. it makes for good tv, there's something inherently wrong about it obviously. >> as we part ways, what would you say to real inmates in the situation that you're portraying fictionally? >> believe in yourself. >> all right. i think we can all get behind that message and be bingeing. thank both of you, this was a

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♪ dear graduating class of 2014, today marks the first day of the rest of your lives repaying the loans you took out to be here today. yes, this year's bright eyed and bushy tailed graduates join the more than 40 million americans who owe more than a trillion dollars in student debt. you see that number there. that's a whole lot of zeros. today a potential big step. president obama will announce new executive action to help reduce that debt. we're going to be taking you there live. he's expected to expand on a 2010 law to make more people

eligible to cap their student loan payments at 10% of their monthly income. this event is coincidentally happening the same week that senator elizabeth warren's proposed student loan legislation is expected to hit the floor. it would allow those with student debt to refinance loans the same way you can with mortgages paid for by higher taxes on the rich, which is a controversy obviously, something president obama also talked about in his weekly address. >> that's the choice that your representatives in congress will make in the coming weeks, protect young people from crushing debtor protect tax breaks for millionaires. >> president obama's promise of change connected with millions of young people back in 2008, can this move timefinally live o that promise? joining us now "washington post" columnist jonathan capehart and carolyn finney, a former dnc communications director and

msnbc contributor. karen, i'll start with you, president obama will take questions about the student loan debt issue on tumblr, which mez to the demo they are trying to get to. is it just a ploy to excite young voters or do you think there's substance behind this? >> i think there is real substance behind it in that we know that this issue isn't just affecting college kids but affects families an this is part of the fight for the middle class and sort of that framing that we know democrats have been setting up for the midterm elections. on the policy side there's substance to it but the timing and sort of -- all of that, sure, it's also i would say good politics because they are setting it up as a political choice. is it millionaires or are you looking out for college kids so that they cannot have crushing debt? >> it's a pretty astoout framing aimed to connect with a dis illusioned young populist who doesn't like how inactive this congress can be some of the time. the president is taking

executive action here and it allows him to skirt a pretty uncooperative house. could it back fire politically ultimately? >> i think -- well, the president on a whole host of issues has been using executive action because quite frankly nothing can get done with congress. i think the president has been on record from the very beginning about trying to make college more affordable for young people also because education and the education they would get in these two year and four-year institutions and colleges and universities, the education they will get there is the key to the middle class. and the whole thing if you listen to president obama and the folks in his administration, everything that they are doing in this regard and in others is about making it possible for people to have access to the middle class. so if you lighten the debt burden, if you make it potential for more people to avail themselves of the cap and to -- with senator warren's bill maybe

even refinance their student loans, that's a big help compared to the nothing that's happening now. >> i mean it is an issue that so impedes people getting involved in the economy, young adults not able to take out mortgages and not able to put food on the table. we talked to so many people reporting this story going through those circumstances. you see a live shot of the podium. we're awaiting president obama on this very subject. karen, jonathan mentioned this legislation, what are the prospects on the hill? sfl particularly given it will be financed or pay for is increasing taxes on millionaires, not so great. unfortunately. let's be honest, right. that's where again i go back to the politics, right, so i think -- i don't think they are going to have enough votes in the senate. i can't see a way this would have a path forward in the house given how obstructionist they've been. but again, it sets up a political framework to say --

and that's why he as you heard the president say in his weekly radio address, that again, here's the choice. they are setting up the political choice around something that actually is a good policy idea. >> jonathan, president obama made a variety of promises on this issue and has to his credit hit it repeatedly in the state of the union addresses. one of the promises he made in last year's state of the union was to introduce a system that rates colleges on affordability and pegs their affordability to financial aid from the government. is that dead in the water? arne duncan was asked and didn't have updates yet. what do you think will happen? >> if the secretary doesn't have updates on that, you can imagine what i might have which is nothing. >> where's your inside knowledge that duncan lacks? >> the thing about this rating system, i think what the president and administration has been doing and all of those issues, whether it's student loans or affordability, is putting power in the hands of

students and their parents or guardians to start -- to start asking the questions, asking colleges and universities, hey, why is my son or daughter's tuition going up x percent every year. why are tuition payments going up so high? if once you get -- once you empower people to start asking the tough questions, there might be a bit of a shaming effect there where colleges that are ramping up tuitions 5 and 10 and 20% every year will be forced to step back and say, you know, maybe we don't need to raise tuition that high. also, practically pricing themselves out of a market of people who are really hungering to get in through their doors. >> it really has gone out of control at this point. the average tuition cost more than tripled in the past 30 years. there should be a lot of pressure on these institutions and we'll see how much the president's move contributes to that. people are lining up but the president is still aways away. there's going to be an

introduction first. we'll keep watching that from the white house. stay with us on this subject. we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ thebut in the case of the s to for athlexus ls...ement. ...which eyes? eyes that pivot with the road... ...that can see what light misses...

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welcome back. we're anticipating remarks from the president on student loan reform. he's expected to expand on a 2010 law to make more people applicable to cap their student loan programs at 10%. the president is expected to speak immediately after this individual so we're going to go to this live. he should be on momentarily. >> to introduce a true champion for students, parents and graduates nationwide. please join me in welcoming president barack obama. >> thank you, every. everybody have a seat.

welcome to the white house. and i want to thank andy for the terrific introduction. this is commencement season. it's always a hopeful and exciting time. i bet we might have some folks who just graduated here today. raise your hands. let's see you. yeah, we got a couple of folks who were feeling pretty good. of course once the glow wears off, this can be a stressful time for millions of students, and they're asking themselves how on earth am i going to pay off all these student loans? and that's what we're here to talk about. and andy i think gave a vivid example of what's going through the minds of so many young people who had the drive and the energy and have succeeded in everything that they do but because of family circumstances have found this sefs in a situation where they've got significant debt.

now we know, all of you know, that in a 21st century economy, a higher education is the single best investment that you can make in yourselves and your future. and we've got to make sure that investment pays off. and here's why. for 51 months in a row, our businesses have now created new jobs, 9.4 million new jobs in total. and over the last year we've averaged around 200,000 new jobs every month. that's the good news. but while those at the top of doing better than ever, average wages have barely budged and there are too many americans out there working harder and harder just to get by. everything i do is aimed towards reversing those trends that put a greater burden on the middle class and are dichl initialing the number of ladders to get into the middle class because the central tenet of my presidency, partly because of the story of my life and

michelle's life is this is a country where opportunity should be available for anybody. the idea that no matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, how you were raised, who you love, if you're willing to work hard and live up to your responsibilities, can you make it here in america. and in america higher education opens the doors of opportunity for all. that doesn't have to be a four-year college education. we got community colleges, we got technical schools, but we know that some higher education, some additional skills is going to be your surest path to the middle class. the person with an education earns $28,000 per year and right now the unemployment for folks with a bachelor degree is about

half for folks with just a high school education. you know this is a smart investment, your parents know it's a smart investment. that's why so many of them have made such big sacrifices and nagged you throughout your high school years. the problem is at a time when higher education has never been more important, it's also never been more expensive. the average education at a public university has more than tripled and at the same time, the typical family's income has gone up just 16%. michelle and i both went to college because of loans and grants and the work that we did. but i'll be honest with you, now i'm old i got to admit, but when i got out of school, it took me about a year to pay off my entire undergraduate education. that was it. and i went to a private school.

i didn't even go to a public school. so as recently as the 70s, the 80s, when you made a commitment to college, you weren't anticipating that you'd have this massive debt on the back end. now, when i went to law school, it was a different story. but that made sense because the idea was if you got a professional degree, like a law degree, you would probably be able to pay it off and so i didn't feel sorry for myself or any lawyers who took on law school debt. but compare that experience just half a generation, a generation ago to what kids are going through now. these rising costs have left middle class families feeling trapped. let's be honest. families at the top, they can easily save more than enough money to pay for school out of pocket. families at the bottom face a

lot of obstacles but they can turn to programs designed to help them handle cost but you have a lot of middle class families who can't qualify for help, can't save up enough savings and as andy described, heaven forbid the equity in their home gets used up for some other family emergency or like what happened home values sink, they feel they're left in the lur lurch. i'm only here because the country gave me a chance of higher education. this country has always put a higher education in the reach of those willing to work from it.

i just came back from normandy where we celebrated d-day. what that johnsgeneration of pe come back from world war ii, at least the men, my grandfather was able to go to college on the gi bill and that helped build the greatest middle class the world has ever known. grants helped my mother raise two kids by herself while she got through school, and she didn't have $75,000 worth of debt and she was raising two kids at the same time. neither michelle nor i came from a lot of money but with hard work and help from scholarships and student loans, we got to go to great schools and we didn't see the burdens that people are seeing now.

we were paying off our law school at the same time we had to start saving for malia and sasha's education. we said let's cut out the middle man, banks should be making a profit on what they do but not off the backs of students. we reformed it. more money went directly to student. we expanded grant for low-income student, created a new tuition tax credit for middle class families, offered millions of students the opportunity to cap their student loan payment at 10% of their income. that's what andy was referring to. michelle is working with students to help them reach higher and overcome the obstacles that stand between them and higher education.

but as long as college costs keep soaring, we cannot keep throwing money at the problem. states have continue to vest more in higher education. historically the reason we had such a great public education system, public higher education system was states understood we will benefit if we invest in higher education and somewhere along the line they started thinking we got to invest more in prisons than we do in higher education. and part of the reason that tuition has been jacked up year after year after year is state legislatures are not prioritizing this. they're passing the cost on to taxpayers. it's not sustainable. so that's why i laid out a plan to shake up our higher education system and encourage colleges to finally bring down college costs. and i proposed new rules to make sure for-profit colleges keep their promises and train students with the skills for today's jobs without saddling them with debt. too many of these for-profit

colleges, some do a fine job but many of them recruit kids in, the kids don't graduate but they're left with the debt. and if they do graduate, too often they don't have the marketable skills they need to get the job that allows them to service the debt. none of these fights have been easy. all of them have been worth it. you've got some outstanding members of congress who have been fighting right alongside us to make sure that we are giving you a fair shake. and the good news is more young people are earning college degrees than ever before. that's something we should be proud of and that's something we should sell brarkts but more of them are graduating with debt. despite everything we're doing, we're still seeing too big a debt load on too many young people. a large majority of today's college seniors have taken out loans to pay for school. the average borrower at a four-year college knows nearly $30,000 by