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CNN Student News

Aired May 02, 2002 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: CNN STUDENT NEWS is going to college and we're counting the cost coming up in today's "Lead Story."

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: We go back to high school to meet a student making waves in the world of science.

WALCOTT: Later, you'll be seeing double. The explanation coming up in our "Science Report."

MCMANUS: After that, Student Bureau tells you about a program in the state of Florida that has kids and parents turning page after page.

And welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Michael McManus.

WALCOTT: And I'm Shelley Walcott.

We're in the first week of May and graduation season is upon us.

MCMANUS: That's right.

WALCOTT: Many students are planning for college, some with excitement, others with anxiety. That's because estimates show that it costs up to $100,000 to go to four years of college.

MCMANUS: Incredible. And a recent study, Shelley, shows college education has taken an even bigger bite out of family income over the last 20 years. The poorest families appear to be hardest hit with up to 25 percent of their income going toward tuition at a four-year state school. Now two years ago, 64 percent of college students graduated with student loan debt. That's up from 42 percent 10 years ago and that average debt is nearly $17,000, double what it was 10 years ago.

WALCOTT: Unbelievable.

At Atlanta's Emory University, CNN's Judy Woodruff spoke with some college students facing what may be the biggest exams of their lives and the biggest debt which somehow will have to be paid back after graduation. MCMANUS: That's right.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: All of you are about to graduate from different parts of this campus.

Shundrikka Banks, from Cleveland, Ohio, you're 28 years old. How much do you owe? You're about to get an MBA. How much do you owe right now?

SHUNDRIKKA BANKS, STUDENT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: About $25,000.

WOODRUFF: All right, and let me turn to Jeannine Bell. You're from California. You're about to get a BA in political science.

JEANNINE BELL, STUDENT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Correct.

WOODRUFF: How much do you owe?

BELL: About $25,000.

WOODRUFF: And, Andrew Belofsky, you are 25. You are from New Jersey. You are about to graduate from law school. What is your debt load?

ANDREW BELOFSKY, STUDENT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: About $66,000.

WOODRUFF: Sixty-six thousand.

And, finally, Rebecca Grayson, also from New Jersey, about to graduate from law school, how much do you owe?

REBECCA GRAYSON, STUDENT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I owe $130,000.

WOODRUFF: Not only do you owe $130,000, but you're about to get a masters in law. And what is that going to entail?

GRAYSON: And that is going to cost me another $30,000 next year in loans.

WOODRUFF: So, $160,000 you're looking at.

GRAYSON: Yes.

WOODRUFF: How does that make you feel as you go forward as you think about a career?

GRAYSON: Well, I'm definitely scared about what the economy is going to bring and whether or not I'm going to be able to find a job. And that's one of the reasons why I'm staying in school indefinitely until I can find a job that would enable me to pay off my debt quickly. And, right now, it doesn't seem like I'll be able to find a job that is going to give me $160,000 that quick.

WOODRUFF: Shundrikka, $25,000 is not $160,000. It's still a lot of money. Are you concerned about being able to pay it back? Or do you feel like it's something you can handle?

BANKS: What I'm concerned about is moving to New York. I am going to be working in New York when I graduate. And, of course, everyone knows the cost of living there is a lot more than it is here. And what I'm concerned about is buying a home. I guess, being a little older, I'm looking forward to buying a home. And with my debt ratio being so high, I'm worried about not getting a loan to buy a home because of my outstanding debt for school.

WOODRUFF: Jeannine Bell, what about you? You are just finishing undergraduate, but what are you going to have to do in terms of living? You're moving back to your hometown of Oakland.

BELL: I'm moving back home as, a matter of fact, into my house. My mom told me that if I worked in California and lived at home, she would help me pay off my loan in a year. So, that was my incentive.

WOODRUFF: And how does that make you feel, to be moving back? I know you love your mom.

(LAUGHTER)

WOODRUFF: But how does that make you feel?

BELL: Definitely pressure in regards to -- I knew that that was what I had to do. But it's a year. I'm willing to sacrifice to pay off my loan.

WOODRUFF: Andrew, $66,000, what does that make you -- how do you feel going off to work? You're going to work for a law firm?

BELOFSKY: I am working for a law firm. I'm working for (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in New Jersey. I feel like I can pay it off slowly. I hope that, over time, I'll basically be out of debt so I can also purchase a home. Also, the property taxes in purchasing either a home or apartment in New Jersey are quite expensive as well. And so I'm just hoping that the future allows me the ability to do so.

WOODRUFF: Rebecca, this big debt affecting your choice of a career, do you think, down the road? You said a minute ago you thought about teaching, but now?

GRAYSON: It definitely has affected my choice of career. I used to think that I would like to maybe work for the government in the foreign service or something along those lines. But jobs like that pay only like $40,000 a year. And it would take me a lifetime to pay off my debt.

WOODRUFF: The Bush administration had floated a proposal this week changing fixed -- when it comes to federally subsidized loans, changing from a fixed rate to a variable rate. They have now withdrawn that idea.

Would that effect you very much, Shundrikka, if they had done that? BANKS: Definitely, because all my loans are federal loans, a combination of subsidized and unsubsidized. So, it definitely will affect me as far as my interest and how much I have to pay back and how soon.

WOODRUFF: And what about you, Jeannine? Would it have affected you if they had gone to the variable?

BELL: Correct. It definitely would have, because I have federal loans as well.

WOODRUFF: And, Andrew?

BELOFSKY: Definitely. I was banking on the fact that I would have a low consolidation interest rate so that I can pay it off as quickly as possible.

WOODRUFF: And, Rebecca, to what extent do you think the government should be in a position of helping college students? Because there are some who say this ought to be on the families of these students. Not everybody in the country can go to college. Not everybody can go to law school. Why should the federal government, in other words, the taxpayers, be funding your education, or helping fund it?

GRAYSON: I think that any time that someone is intelligent enough to get a higher education that they are entitled to it, and that, if they can't afford it based on their family circumstances, that the federal government should have an obligation to loan them the money. And imposing arbitrary caps on the amount of federal Stafford loans that you can get impedes the ability of a lot of students to be able to get their higher degree.

WOODRUFF: And finally, Shundrikka, who do you feel about the role of the federal -- do you think taxpayers ought to helping subsidize your education?

BANKS: Definitely. I think it contributes to our overall competitiveness as a nation. I think that, when we have to make choices on jobs based on how much money we're going the make to pay back loans, I think it affects how diverse we are as a community in terms of what jobs we take.

So, if you have to say, "I'm not going to be a teacher because I need to pay back my loans," and you get a high finance job or become a corporate lawyer, I think that affects us as an overall community. So, I think that it behooves us all to our contribute to our education so we can pursue whatever we want to do in life.

WOODRUFF: All right, we are going to have to leave it there, but we want to send our congratulations to all four of you, graduating from different schools here at Emory. Thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

WOODRUFF: Thank you. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: So, you know the bad news.

The cost of college is up. Working and middle-class families have to go heavily into debt to pay for it. And even for the better off, those fat stock portfolios that were supposed to pay for college, they have grown a lot thinner. But does that mean the ivy-covered gates are swinging shut? Well, not necessarily.

(voice-over): Let's look at some numbers. As of October 2000, 35.5 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in college. That's more than a full percentage point higher than it was in the fall of 1995.

And the long-term increase is apparently across the board. In 1997, college enrollment for whites, Hispanics and blacks all registered double-digit increases over 1972. Why is this happening? Well, for one thing, most American students, nearly three-fourths of them, are working while in school. Those bright college years, the carefree days of life, that's from the old days when only the well-off got to go the college.

Second, one of the most significant and least noticed of the Clinton administration's domestic programs was a huge tax credit, some $30 billion worth, for higher education. By 1999, some 10 million Americans used that credit. By contrast, the famous G.I. Bill of Rights after World War II touched a little less than eight million Americans.

(on camera): Now, there are some clouds in this sunny picture. Tax credits, after all, don't do much for the poor. And many college graduates find themselves burdened with an unwelcome graduation present: a mountain of debt. But, for all of that, it is still true that a college education is within reach for more and more Americans.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Now starting May 13, we'll spend a week focusing on college life, from who's getting recruited to how to pay the cost. Be sure to tune in. But for now, log on to CNNstudentnews.com. There you'll find loads of information and interactives, including a savings calculator. So check it out.

WALCOTT: Today is Space Day. It's an annual tribute to space exploration. And in keeping with this theme, today we meet a woman set to become the next teacher in space. Barbara Morgan's trip to the stars has been a long-time coming. In 1985, she was selected as the backup candidate to Christa McAuliffe for the NASA Teacher in Space program. McAuliffe and the crew of the space shuttle Challenger were killed when the shuttle exploded.

In an interview with "AMERICAN MORNING's" Jack Cafferty, Morgan says memories of her lost colleagues keep her encouraged.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I mentioned the lesson in perseverance, what has caused you to stay with this all these many years? This must be terribly important to you.

BARBARA MORGAN, TEACHER: Well, I'm a teacher, and teachers are patient and persistent and that's why we're able to do a good job in our classroom. No, it takes -- it takes years to reach goals in the classroom and it's just a natural part of teaching.

CAFFERTY: Do you have any idea why it's taken NASA so long to get back around to sending a teacher into space? It would seem to me that would be a pretty good investment in terms of the kind of impact a returning teacher from space could have on a whole bunch of school kids.

MORGAN: Well I don't really know, but I'm just really glad that it's happening. And it shows the same thing it did years ago that NASA values -- NASA knows that we reach our students through inspired and inspiring teachers and NASA values teachers and education. And I'm just delighted that the opportunity has come up. And what I'm really delighted about is that it is a permanent kind of thing. It's not just a teacher here and a teacher there but that teachers will become a part of the ongoing NASA mission and the astronaut program.

CAFFERTY: Can you -- can you tell us a little bit about the advanced phase of training you're in right now and what you're going through in preparation for this?

MORGAN: Yes, in fact this next week -- right now I've been doing some independent study on the robotic system for the International Space Station. And this next week, five of my colleagues and I will go up to Canada for a week of training on the robotic system, and I'm very much looking forward to that. The other part of our advanced training that's just starting now is our EVA or space walking training. And I've been space -- fitted for my spacesuit and expect to be in the neutral buoyancy lab any week here now to begin some actual training in the water.

CAFFERTY: Can we -- can we conclude from the EVA training that you're assigned to do some space walk of some kind once you get up there? What will your mission consist of once you're in space?

MORGAN: Well the mission, of course, will depend on which mission my crew mates and I actually get assigned to and what the goals of that mission are, but in general, the mission specialists do a variety of activities. We run the science, we run the robotic arm, we do EVAs or extra vehicular activities. We help monitor the systems on the station and on the shuttle and can serve as flight engineers to help in the different phases of flight. So it could be a variety of things and of course, education is a big part of that too.

CAFFERTY: Can you give us a sense of the anticipation? It's been a number of years, 16, 17 years. You're not there yet. It's 2004, as I understand it, before you're actually scheduled to go. When you're finally seated in the cockpit aboard that rocket and those big engines thunder to life on the launch pad and you feel the thing start to vibrate as you start to lift off, Christa McAuliffe sitting with you then?

MORGAN: Well actually, she sits with me every day and has for the last 16 years whether it was in my classroom or here as I go through the training. I carry -- I carry Christa and my -- and her fellow Challenger crew mates with me every day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Well space lovers like Morgan are no doubt thrilled about some new images from space. A multimillion dollar high tech camera attached to the Hubble Space Telescope has captured some amazing pictures, pictures scientists say may reveal the future of our own galaxy.

Ann Kellan explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behold the first snaps taken from orbit by a $75 million camera that you paid for.

HOLLAND FORD, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: We had underestimated how extraordinary the images would be.

KELLAN: This cluster of galaxies is named for its shape: the tadpole.

FORD: 420 million light years away, we see a spectacular tail of stars that stretches across the image, is composed of stars, gas and dust.

KELLAN: This one, called the mice, shows two galaxies colliding and gives us a peek at what scientists expect is going to happen to our own galaxy.

FORD: Our Milky Way and our nearest large neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, are falling towards one another. Several billion years in the future, the Milky Way and Andromeda will likely undergo a merger like the one you are seeing at this moment. The simulation shows that the two galaxies will eventually merge, forming a large elliptical-like galaxy.

KELLAN: This is just a test drive of the camera, offering one example of what scientists hope to learn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe just go a little bit to your left.

KELLAN: It's called the advanced camera for surveys, and replaces the faint-object camera on board the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. Shuttle astronauts Jim Newman and Mike Massimino made the switch in March. The new camera is designed with new lenses and updated optics for sharper, higher-resolution images and can peer farther into space to capture faint objects billions of light years away.

These images show the collection of gases and dust where hot new stars are born further proving how this camera can peer farther into space to capture faint objects billions of light years away.

Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW BIGELOW, NORCROSS, GEORGIA: Hi, my name is Drew Bigelow from Norcross, Georgia. And I wanted to ask CNN how stars are formed.

KELLAN: Scientists believe stars form in outer space from what's leftover from dead stars, and that's clouds of hydrogen and dust called nebula. Now with the help of gravity, these particles come together and hydrogen atoms collide to form a bigger atom. That collision causes intense heat and light and a star is born.

Now stars have a life span. The sun is probably the most popular star in our galaxy. Now according to astronomer Steve Marrin (ph), it's going through the same stages that any other star in the sky will go through. The sun will eventually lose all of its hydrogen and start to swell into an enormous star called a red giant. It will then shed its layers and turn into a white dwarf, which is similar to the ashes burning out after a campfire.

Now we don't have to worry about the sun going through all these changes for another five billion years or so. But once it does, what's left over, the dust and hydrogen, remember that, will be the makings of another star.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Our look at education today continues now with a teenager who is something of a star herself. Lia Brant is only 17 and already researching a cancer drug. She even won a national science award for her work in the field. Pay attention now as this young scholar tells us about what she hopes to help cure.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She beat us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: She fits in real well at school, even though she can use some pretty big words.

LIA BRANT, STUDENT: And I took endofidic (ph) fungus.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: And she'd like to help cure some pretty mean diseases. BRANT: Melanoma, caposisycoma (ph), renal cell carcinoma.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: And she does some pretty complicated research.

BRANT: High performance liquid chromatography.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: (on camera): Do you realize that probably 99 percent of the people don't understand anything that you just said?

(voice-over): Those that do understand this 17-year-old include the judges at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium this weekend. Her research project won first prize in San Diego. She's earned a $20,000 scholarship and a trip to an international science fair in London this summer.

BRANT: I hated science in middle school.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: But it's grown on her. Lia's research involves Taxol. It's a proven cancer-fighting drug, but it's only found in the endangered Pacific Yew tree. Scientists around the world are searching for new sources, and this high school student may have found some.

BRANT: So last year I examined four different plant samples to see if any of them had it, just sort of randomly picked from my backyard, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Well that backyard, those plants and the endofidic fungi in those plants did indeed have taxol, and Lia had an award-winning science project.

She's been accepted to three pretty good colleges and one has put her on a waiting list. But now maybe with that national science award, that school won't make her wait anymore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."

WALCOTT: From science to politics as we continue our look at the presidents. Today, the man who was the 40th president of the United States, can you name him? Well here's a hint. Before he was president he was an actor in Hollywood and also the governor of California. Have you figured it out? Well ready or not time's up. The answer is Ronald Reagan.

As Anne McDermott explains, there's mountains and mountains of material on this Republican leader.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President generate lots of paper and by law it belongs to the government but usually winds up in presidential libraries like Ronald Reagan's where bit by bit the papers are declassified and released to be poured over by scholars so we can all learn...

DUKE (ph) BLACKWOOD, RONALD REAGAN LIBRARY: How decisions are made, the process.

MCDERMOTT: Well we can learn about that and much, much more about the Reagan administration from the latest document released, about 60,000 pages worth. We can learn about presidential schedules. Note that Ronald Reagan's haircut was scheduled for 4:30 but didn't actually take place until 4:42. Some of the papers are from presidential aides like Patrick Buchanan. Here he suggests spinning the glories of a presidential budget. Another aide received a poem from a prison inmate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Society said I belong with these because evil marked me good.

MCDERMOTT: The author received a lovely thank you note.

Oh hey, remember that flap over Nancy Reagan's new White House china? Well maybe not because it was 20 years ago, but there were memos galore about that, including one with suggestions on how best to unveil the china.

Researchers say it'll take them months, maybe years to go through all this, but it'll be worth it.

JASON SALTOON-EBIN (ph), (ph): You don't know what you're going to find it's (ph) uncovering. It's kind of like -- it's putting a puzzle together.

MCDERMOTT: A puzzle for some but not the American people who were clearly fond of this man who generated all this paper.

Anne McDermott, CNN, CV Valley (ph), California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Would you be willing to take a break from your life, leave your job and your home, your pets for 30 days and spend all that time in bed? Well if this somehow sounds appealing there is a catch, you have to be an identical twin.

As CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland reports, this experiment is all in the name of science.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet the Ashmont twins, 24-year-old Stacy and Casey. They left behind modeling careers and cleaning business in Atlanta to come to the University of California-San Diego and spend a month in bed. Why? To help scientists understand what happens to us physically if we're confined to bed rest? Information that will also help astronauts in space, since lack of gravity is almost the physical equivalent. By a flip of a coin, Casey got assigned the bed by the window, and no exercise, while Stacy has to do exercise 45 minutes a day, six days a week. We met the twins on day 29. Were they bored yet?

CASEY ASHMONT: No, because we have a TV, we have our books, we have our journals that we're keeping.

ROWLAND: It doesn't hurt that they're each making $100 a day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of like a paid vacation.

ROWLAND: Just down the hall, the Smith twins fro Orlando, Ray and Ron, saw the study as an opportunity to study for a career change and work on their game of gin rummy, and it helps time pass when you get a visit from a real life astronaut, like Bill Shepherd.

BILL SHEPHERD, NASA ASTRONAUT: We're moving toward the period where we understand how to have people living, and working and being healthy in space indefinitely. There are big questions about how to do that.

ROWLAND: To help get the answers, the twins have to do everything in bed. No visits to the bathroom.

ALAN HARGENS, UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA: It's very difficult and a challenging protocol for our subjects.

ROWLAND: Actually, their herds always tilted down at a six- degree angle, mimicking the effects of being in space.

HARGENS: In other words, you get a fluid shift up toward your head. You have a lot of muscle atrophy. You lose blood volume. You start to lose bone.

ROWLAND: Why put both twins through the trauma?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of doing twins is that so we can study, essentially, the same person at the same time under two different conditions.

ROWLAND: And find out if exercising at a vertical angle can help prevent that physical deterioration.

Whether you're in bed recovering from injury, or confined to outer space. So how did it feel on day 30 when it was time to get up?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

ROWLAND: Rhonda Rowland, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: And we come full circle now as we return to the topic of education. Following the footsteps of his famous parents, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida has continued a family tradition by placing high value on the ability to read. His reading initiative is a state- funded program providing Floridians with opportunities to enhance their reading skills.

CNN Student Bureau reporter Christine Yorks (ph) gives us the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE YORKS, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): What once began as a pilot program in southeast Florida, the Governor's Family Literacy Initiative program, is now statewide and serves over 1,100 families.

JEB BUSH, GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: We have raised $2.25 million and provided grants for 45 family literacy programs all across the state.

YORKS: Governor Bush believes reading begins in the home and that parents should begin reading to kids at an earlier age.

BUSH: We have a real challenge in our state to assure that the next generation learns. And the way that we do that, in my opinion, is to assure that every Floridian can learn to read.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of books at the house, and we try virtually every night to have what I call story time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I encourage them by letting them know that they can earn money and they can have treats when they do read a good book.

YORKS: Since the governor's reading initiative began, first appointed Secretary of Education Jim Horne has an important role working under Jeb Bush.

JIM HORNE, FLORIDA SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: My job is to do what he tells me to do and make it happen and make sure that we -- reading scores go up and that we get more parents involved in reading to their children.

YORKS: The importance of the literacy program affects children both in school and at home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The most important thing for them to learn in school is to read.

YORKS: The governor's reading initiative is still in its (UNINTELLIGIBLE) stage but is rapidly affecting children, parents and schools all over.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And like our school principal says, if you can't read, you can't learn anything.

YORKS: Christine Yorks, CNN Student Bureau, Estero, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WALCOTT: And here's a programming note for you, CNN STUDENT NEWS will be exploring the deep blue sea from May 13 through the 15. And we get up close and personal with environmental explorer and activist Sylvia Earle who explains why she's so passionate about the planet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVIA EARLE, SUSTAINABLE SEAS EXPEDITION: The ocean, life on earth, our connection to all of the rest of life, the importance of taking care of the natural systems that take care of us. I see myself either and sometimes as a mirror so people can see themselves or as a window so that they can see beyond and the things that they should be caring about if they don't already.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCMANUS: As you can see, there's lots coming up in the weeks to come right here on CNN STUDENT NEWS.

WALCOTT: That's right. Join us again tomorrow when we'll talk about teen stars.

MCMANUS: Ooh la la. See you then.

WALCOTT: See you then. Bye-bye.

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