>> and although this city was the nation's capital for only a short time, from those early days, the eyes of the world have continued to be on new york. one year ago, this great center of history, enterprise and creativity suffered the gravest of cruelties and showed itself to be a place of valor and generosity and grace. here where so many innocent lives were suddenly taken, the world saw acts of kindness and heroism that will be remembered forever. >> c-span, powered by cable. >> more than 3,200 students from across the currently participated in the 20-year anniversary of c-span's studentcam documentary competition. this year we asked students, in the next 20 years what's the most important change you'd like to see in america, or, over the

past 20 years what's been the most important change in america? all this month we're featuring our top 21 winning entries. this year's second prize high school winner is a 10th grader from jenks high school in jenks oklahoma. their winning documentary which talks about the impact of citizens united and how super p.a.c.s influence elections is titled "how super p.a.c.s broke campaign funding." >> super p.a.c.s are a disaster. they're a scam, you better get rid of them. >> right now, super p.a.c.s can spend as much money as they want, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars to elect the candidates who they want, who represent their interests. >> voting, a crucial aspect of our democracy that allows everyone to have a say in government. along with casting your vote, you can volunteer and vote with

your dollar to your preferred candidate, so long as your donation sunday $3,300. these caps are put in police to ensure elections are fair by preventing the wealthy from having too much influence. at least this used to be the case until citizens united happened in. december, 2007, citizens united, a nonprofit organization sthied f.c.c., because they couldn't air their movie smearing hillary clinton. airing any kind of campaign had been made illegal. citizens united argued it violated their freedom of speech. the supreme court sided in their favor saying that -- >> political speech must be

allow. >> now there are fewer rules when it comes to donations. >> corporations are just the same as an american citizen in terms of campaign finance laws. >> the supreme court reversed a century of law that i believe will open the floodgates for special interests. >> it established a new norm that allowed individuals and corporations to donate unlimited funds to super p.a.c.s, political action committees. >> if you can receive unlimited amount of money you can speak louder. it's harder for candidates to answer back. >> these organization have gained momentum with groups spending over $4 billion in the 2022 election cycle. >> people talk about the money spent in politics but americans spend more money on halloween than they do on their democracy. >> americans, arguably, consider free speech their most crucial

right. it's the foundation of the united states. super p.a.c.s allow americans to voice their political aspirations without limitations. >> the premise is freedom of speech, the more speech, the better. >> the more people participate, the more information people are getting, it's a good thing. it has given candidates who may not have otherwise had much of a chance to win they have outside allies and sizable support networks they otherwise didn't have. >> in 2022, voter turnout and donations to political campaigns were the highest they have ever been. 3.7 million small donors donated over $740 million. this sounds incredible and it is. until you look at the other doe no, sir. >> almost 60 donors have accounted for nearly one third of all of the money donated so far in the presidential race. >> these 60 donors currently hold an incredible amount of

leverage over politicians and that just isn't right. the citizens united decision has played a pivotal role in american politics over the years. that's why many people have started calling for increased donor transparency. super p.a.c.s have to disclose all their donors but 501-c-4 nondrofts -- nonprofits don't. the nonprofit can donate to the same super p.a.c. this money is called dark money and it's a way foreign governments and corporations exercise secret criminal in u.s. elections. >> long story short it created a landscape where it's easy for very wealthy people to influence politics without any of us knowing. >> because super p.a.c.s operate on independent expenditure they're prohibited from being in contact with a candidate. they find ways around this. take ted cruz. his campaign uploaded 15 hours of stock footage of him doing good deeds, sharing it with anyone interested in making any

kind of support for him. or jessica cisneros who used a method called red boxing when she targeted the particular voters she wanted to target and what she wanted them to hear. >> this isn't a good system. many cities are implemented democracy voucher programs. >> instead of people individually donating to political campaigns they get vouchers to give to a politician of their choice to spend in. oakland, california, a ballot measure passed to give every resident a $100 voucher to give to any politician. in seattle, washington, a ballot measure passed to give every eligible citizen a $25 to give to a city council or attorney candidate while only costing the average seattleite $8. this encourages candidates to appeal to voters rather than corporate donors to get their money, leading to a greater sense of