Barack Obama and Farai Chideya

“ And unless we do a better job with early childhood education, fixing crumbling schools, investing to make sure that we've got an excellent teacher in front of every classroom, and then making college affordable, we're not even going to reach the point where our children can benefit from affirmative action. ”

“ You don't have to go far on the Internet to find predictions that you could be the target of violence, and one of our listeners made this observation: How do you weigh the risks of being injured or even killed because you are a black man running for president versus your daughters, your love for your family? ”

“ The federal government has to make sure that it's fulfilling its financial obligations to states, because part of the reason tuition is going up so quickly is because states aren't providing as much support to colleges and universities as they used to because they're strapped trying to pay their Medicaid bills. Number two: Right now, our student loan programs are often funneled through banks and financial intermediaries like Sallie Mae, and those financial institutions are making $8 billion or more every year in profits off the backs of students who are trying to go to school. ”

“ So you spent much of your 20s in Chicago as an advocate for the poor in largely black communities, and compared to what you have to do to be a presidential candidate — to be careful about every word — do you miss the freedom of who you were? ”

“ This is just on the government subsidized loan program. This sets aside the whole private financing of student loans that has become a big racket. And so what I've said is let's eliminate those subsidies. Let's stop giving $8 billion to companies that don't need it. Let's take that money and expand grants which were much more prevalent when I was going to college and don't require young people to take on these enormous debts. ”

“ And we're not going to be able to tackle those issues, which I think the American people understand are one of the most prominent threats we face, unless we are not entirely bogged down in this mess in Iraq.
CHIDEYA: Let's move to the domestic front. You have said that your daughters, because of their economic privilege, should not benefit from affirmative action in the same way that some other people might. If elected, will you fight to keep affirmative action alive? ”

“ They recognize that the war in Iraq has been a failure, that we are struggling under a health care system that doesn't work, that our education system isn't adequate for making sure that our kids can compete in an international economy. ”

“ The third thing that I'd like to see is an expansion of national service programs so that if young people are committed to going into teaching or going into nursing or going into social work, or going into the public sector that they can get significant loan forgiveness so that they can actually afford to do those jobs. ”

“ That means building schools that work, putting people back to work, making sure that we've got a criminal justice system that is just. Those are the steps that I think as president I'd be much more focused on. ”

“ She said, "I am a sophomore in college who has worked up to two jobs while taking on a full course load. I have a high number of loans already, I've had to transfer from a tier one private university to a state college, primarily because of cost. I would like to know what you would do to make college truly more affordable for students."
OBAMA: This is a critical issue. College has become out of reach for hundreds of thousands of students around the country. ”

“ And so I think there are a lot of disaffected Republicans, there are a lot of independents who could get behind a progressive message, and I think we could also revisit and restore the sense that we've got to take on some of the issues of poverty in this country right now. ”