andrew rossi, the war and bill?ink it is important of relief or legislation for student debt holders. the idea those who hold student debt should not be afforded the same ability to refinance as those who hold auto loans and mortgages seems totally unfair. "ivory tower" looks at how the whole system itself as senator war says in the film is actually rotten or stinks, think it's her direct quote. as pam says, the entire system is really broken. we look in the film at historically how government has played a really important role in making higher education a public from the moral act that created the universities to fdr's g.i. bill and lyndon johnson's higher education act of 1965. i think we wish at this time the president obama could similarly be able to overhaul the whole system was such dramatic legislation, but unfortunately, i think as the president says, legislatively there is not that pathway to be able to do such a thing. i agree with pam that it would be great to really recall the entire system, but i do app

hello, andrew rossi. you certainly covered all the bases. you went all around the country.er, nobody knows what to do about it and it doesn't seem to be changing. >> it's true. even though there are new reform, for example president obama proposed last week. those don't get at the financial documentary. >> a girl in the video said she hates to even dream. she's going to leave college with $140,000 in debt. >> exactly. it's interesting. it's millennials accusing of being tired or lazy but in fact for baby boomers who were able to pay for college with a job like painting a house for the summer, now it's totally impossible. >> tuitions are drying up because o'funds are going away? >> that's right. one of the main drivers, states are going up. >> if you leave college with 140,000 dollar in debt, is it worth it? >> absolutely. we see that there's a wage premium for those who do go to college and certainly on those terms college financially is a good investment but when you're takinging on that amount of debt. but if you go and drop out, it decreases significantly. >> it's $1 mil

. >> in the documentary, andrew rossy looks at alternatives to universities and solutions to growing student debt. i spoke about the crisis and control. >> the fm model for the universities is massive. it needs to grow bigger and better, including ameant yes and buildings -- amenities and necessary. >>> we used to think the school dorm was part of the experience, now we see kids choosing colleges on the basis of dorms and modern amenities. the kids choose the colleges, and colleges have to provide it for kids to choose. >> as state funding declines, they need to find a way to get the students on to the campuses. they build these things to persuade the young to choose a school, but they are not necessarily parts of learning. >> there's a lot of misleading statsment but the unemployed rate for college students is at a low. in the end doesn't the debt get paid off. that statistic is valuable and important to consider a million more over the course of the arranges. wholent students that don't finish. 68% don't finish the curriculum in four years. they are paralyzed and a have a lot of di

. >> and filmmaker andrew rossi joins me now, welcome to you. >> thanks so much for having me. >> the starting point seems to be something is lost, being lost, already lost what did you want to explore? >> i think what we're looking at in ivory tower is whether college is worth it. but in a way that is hopefully more nuanced and complex than simply either looking at the wage premium that one finds, which of course is a very striking statistic, the fact that people make a million dollars more over the course of their lifetime with a ba. >> it is still worth it. >> it is still worth it. >> in spite of the cost you still end up making more money. >> precisely, on those terms it's worth it and then those who, for example, like peter, who are arguing that one should drop out of college. there's a sort of a middle ground that we wanted to explore. what really is happening in classrooms as diverse as harvard to san jose state, from spellman college to wesleyan-- . >> brown: much of it revolves around money, whether it is tuition or debts, what people-- administrative costs, right. >> absolut

andrew rossy documentary film maker behind "ivory tower". is the bottom line that college is worth it only if you are not one of the debt outliners and if you finish and only if you have a major that happens to be rewarded in the economy right now? >> in this economy you need an education after high school. that is definitely true. the problem is many students go to college because they are not sure what else to do after high school. 400,000 of them drop out of college every year. and those are many of the students who are thousands of dollars in debt and don't have anything more than a high school diploma and are having trouble getting a job and having trouble paying off loans. there are a lot of caveats to this. the biggest problem here is that we have excessive debt from a lot of students out there and that is the issue we should be focused on right now. >> i want to bring you in here before we play a clip of your film the brookings institution study is households until 40. over the last few years the student debt has spiked might not be

to the promise and short falls of online education, and filmmaker, andrew rossy, covers it all. >> higherthe cost is enormous. we have a product that is so expensive that a lot of people can't pay for it and they have to go into debt and it just isn't viable. in the entire u.s. economy since 1978. >> andrew joins us at the table. you went all around the country and covered all the bases, and what i took is that college costs is getting higher and higher and nobody knows what to do about it and it doesn't seem to be changing. >> tuitions have hissen by 120% since 1978 and president obama proposed something last week and that doesn't get at the financial model. >> you had a girl that said i am afraid to leave. she will leave with $140,000 worth of debt. >> absolutely it's an interesting example of millennials that feel they are being accused of being entitled or lazy but for many baby boomers who were able to pay for jobs like painting a house during the summer now that's just totally impossible. >> tuition is rising because of the drying up of funds of other universities. >> yeah state fun

with us now on set to talk about this, columbia university professor and andrew rossi. cost of college. it has gotten outrageous. how expensive it is for middle-class americans and working-class americans to send their kids to school. >> it really is expensive. as these colleges look at how they can become profit centers, business models, they kind of take the lead from the other ones. andrew, we have andy on the left and andrew on the right here. andrew, why did you want to take a look at this, the ivory tower? obviously the american dream is for -- all of us, you know, our kids to grow up and send them off to a power-year institution. we know college graduates can earn better throughout a lifetime. what was it that attracted you to make this film? absolutely. we have seen in ivory tower college is still that engine of social mobility. however, the price has increased in such an alarming way that it is creating other sort of complications to the value of college. 1120% since 1978, the cost of tuition increased. and when you factor in student loan debt, sort of the calc