. >> next, white house education advisers zakiya smith on the quality and affordability of educationnd remarks from analysts and activists. this was hosted by the center for american progress. it's an hour and 25 minutes. >> good morning everyone. i am the director of the post-secondary education program here at this center for america progress and i want to welcome you all to the release of our new brief, including more student voices in higher education policy. for those of you that are familiar with the post-secondary application we spent a good part of the last two years working on the issue of college affordability but from a slightly different tack than some of our peer organization to do excellent work. the conversation is tended to revolve around how do we make college more affordable regardless of the price? what cap has been trying to do in building policy analysis and development is how do you make quality post-secondary education more affordable with regard to price and cost, and evolved over the last two years tube for bodies. one is around consumer information rolled ou

the senior adviser --zakiya smith. prior to this was the director of government relations on to the advisory assistance. she also holds a master's degree in education policy and management from the harvard graduate school of information. let me add on a personal note relevant to the topic today, she has been accessible at the white house through questions large and small and has always been interested in hearing the student perspective. please join me in welcoming the first speaker, zakiya smith. >> thank you. thank you all for being here today and being interested in such a relevant topic. these education policies -- it is one of the most interesting policy that anyone can be involved. it garners a lot of interest. what i think about my colleagues on the staff, there are some people who work on housing policy and others who work on health policy. you don't usually have read the people of the street kelly d. what you should do about housing policy. anyone who tells me here is what i work on education will give a perspe