Obama to boost community colleges

President Obama landed this afternoon in Michigan -- the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate at 14 percent -- to reassure Americans that better days are ahead, and to talk about the importance of education to grow the economy.

He spoke at Macomb Community College -- a common stop for politicians ever since Ronald Reagan embraced white, blue-collar Democrats to create "Reagan Democrats" -- and declared that "the hard truth is that some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won’t be coming back. They are casualties of a changing economy.

"And that only underscores the importance of generating new businesses and industries to replace the ones we’ve lost, and of preparing our workers to fill the jobs they create. For even before this recession hit, we were faced with an economy that was simply not creating or sustaining enough new, well-paying jobs," he said, according to prepared remarks released by the White House.

Obama announced a new initiative to strengthen community colleges in their role of training workers for new jobs.

"Time and again, when we have placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result – by tapping the incredible innovative and generative potential of a skilled American workforce.

"That is why, at the start of my administration I set a goal for America: by 2020, this nation will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world…Today, I am announcing the most significant down payment yet on reaching this goal in the next ten years. It’s called the American Graduation Initiative. It will reform and strengthen community colleges from coast to coast so that they get the resources students and schools need – and the results workers and businesses demand. Through this plan, we seek to help an additional five million Americans earn degrees and certificates in the next decade."

(The full prepared remarks and White House release are below.)

UPDATE: Senator Edward M. Kennedy, chairman of the Senate education committee, praised Obama's community college push.

“I commend President Obama for this major initiative to enable many more Americans to obtain the education and training they need to succeed in our modern economy," Kennedy said in a statement. "Community colleges in Massachusetts and across the country are putting millions of students on the path to a college degree. They are also offering millions of other Americans the opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge they need for family-sustaining jobs. Congress should include this important initiative in the higher education legislation we pass this year.”

Earlier today, Obama told reporters that he doesn't have a "crystal ball" on the jobs picture, but does expect the unemployment rate to rise before topping out. Many economists expect the national rate, now 9.5 percent, will reach double digits.

"Even after you start moving into a recovery, positive growth, hiring typically lags for some time after that. That's been the historic norm," he added. "Now, this has been a more severe recession than we've seen since the Great Depression, so how employment numbers are going to respond is not yet clear. My expectation is, is that we will probably continue to see unemployment tick up for several months. And the challenge for this administration is to make sure that even as we are stabilizing the financial system, we understand that the most important thing in the economy is, are people able to find good jobs that pay good wages."

(His full comments on the economy are below.)

OBAMA'S PREPARED REMARKS

Thank you all very much. It’s great to be back at Macomb Community College. It was terrific visiting this campus as a candidate. But I have to tell you, it’s even better coming back as a president.

This is a place where anyone – anyone with a desire to learn and grow, to take their career to a new level or start a new career altogether – has the opportunity to pursue that dream. This is a place where people of all ages and all backgrounds – even in the face of obstacles, even in the face of very difficult personal challenges – can take a chance on a brighter future for themselves and their families.

These are folks like Joe Iezzi, who just told us his story. When Joe lost his job, he decided to take advantage of assistance for displaced workers, earning his associate degree here at Macomb, and with a pretty impressive GPA, too. With the help of that degree, Joe found a new job, working for the new Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital as a maintenance mechanic – using the skills he learned here and the talents he brought here to make a fresh start.

These are workers like Kellie Kulman who is here today. She’s a UAW worker at a Ford plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan. She used to drive a fork lift. But then she decided to train here at Macomb for a job that required new skills, and now she’s an apprentice pipe fitter. It’s a telling example: even as this painful restructuring takes place in our auto industry, workers are seeking out training for new auto jobs. And Joe and Kelly’s stories make clear what all of you already know: community colleges are an essential part of our recovery in the present – and our prosperity in the future.

Since this recession began twenty months ago, 6.5 million Americans have lost their jobs, and Michigan has been hit particularly hard. If you haven’t lost a job, chances are you know someone who has: a family member, a neighbor, a friend. And you know that as difficult as the financial struggle can be, the sense of loss is about more than a paycheck. We define ourselves by the work we do. It’s a source of pride; that sense that you’re contributing, supporting your family, meeting your responsibilities. People need to work.

Of course, my administration has a job to do as well. That job is to get this economy back on its feet.

I know that many questioned our efforts to help save GM and Chrysler from collapse earlier this year. Their feeling was that these companies were driven to the brink by poor management decisions over a long period of time and, like any business, should be held accountable for those decisions. And I agreed.

But I also recognized the historic significance and economic prominence of these companies in communities across Michigan and the country. I thought about the hundreds of thousands of Americans whose livelihoods are still connected to the auto industry, and the impact on an already struggling economy. So I said that if Chrysler and GM were willing to fundamentally restructure their businesses, and make the hard choices necessary to become competitive now and in the future, it was a process worth supporting.

Today, after a painful period of soul-searching and sacrifice, both companies have emerged from bankruptcy – far faster than some thought possible – with a leaner structure, new management, and a viable vision of how to compete and win in the 21st century. Those sacrifices were shared among all the stakeholders: workers and management; creditors and shareholders; retirees and communities. And together, they have made the rebirth of Chrysler and GM possible.

It was the right thing to do.

But even with this positive news, the hard truth is that some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won’t be coming back. They are casualties of a changing economy. And that only underscores the importance of generating new businesses and industries to replace the ones we’ve lost, and of preparing our workers to fill the jobs they create. For even before this recession hit, we were faced with an economy that was simply not creating or sustaining enough new, well-paying jobs.

Now is the time to change all that. What we face is far more than a passing crisis. It is a transformative moment. And in this moment we must do what other generations have done. It is not the time to shrink from the challenges we face or defer tough decisions. That’s what Washington has done for decades, and it’s exactly what I ran for president to change. Now is the time to build a firmer, stronger foundation for growth that will not only withstand future economic storms, but that will help us thrive and compete in a global economy. To build that foundation, we must slow the growth of health care costs that are driving us into debt, make the tough choices necessary to bring down deficits, and create the jobs of the future in growing industries, including a new clean energy economy. But we also must ensure that we are educating and preparing our people for those jobs.

Time and again, when we have placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result – by tapping the incredible innovative and generative potential of a skilled American workforce. That is what happened when President Lincoln signed into law legislation creating the land grant colleges which not only transformed higher education, but also our economy. That is what took place when President Roosevelt signed the GI Bill which helped educate a generation – and usher in an era of unprecedented prosperity.

That is why, at the start of my administration I set a goal for America: by 2020, this nation will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. And we’ve taken historic steps to achieve this goal. We’ve increased Pell Grants by $500 and created a $2,500 tax credit for four years of college tuition. We’ve simplified student aid applications and ensured that that aid is not based on the income of a job you’ve lost. A new GI Bill of Rights for the 21st century is beginning to help soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan to begin a new life – in a new economy. And the recovery plan has helped close state budget shortfalls – which put enormous pressure on public universities and community colleges – while also making historic investments in school libraries and classrooms and facilities all over America.

Today, I am announcing the most significant down payment yet on reaching this goal in the next ten years. It’s called the American Graduation Initiative. It will reform and strengthen community colleges from coast to coast so that they get the resources students and schools need – and the results workers and businesses demand. Through this plan, we seek to help an additional five million Americans earn degrees and certificates in the next decade.

Not since the passage of the original GI Bill and the work of President Truman’s Commission on Higher Education – which helped double the number of community colleges and increase by seven fold enrollment in those colleges – have we taken such a historic step on behalf of community college in America. And let me be clear: we pay for this plan by ending the wasteful subsidies we currently provide to banks and private lenders for student loans, which will save tens of billions of dollars over the next ten years. Instead of lining the pockets of special interests, it’s time this money went toward the interest of higher education in America.

Now, I know that for a long time there have been politicians who have spoken of training as a silver bullet and college as a cure-all. It’s not – and we know that. But we also know that in the coming years, jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience. We will not fill those jobs – or keep those jobs on our shores – without the training offered by community colleges.

This is training to become a medical technician, health IT worker, lab specialist, or nurse. In fact, 59 percent of all new nurses come from community colleges. This is training to install solar panels, build wind turbines, and develop a smarter electricity grid. And this is the kind of education that more and more Americans are using to improve their skills and broaden their horizons. Many young people are saving money by spending two years at community college before heading to a four-year school. And more workers who have lost jobs – or fear losing a job – are seeking an edge at schools like this one.

At the same time, community colleges are under increasing pressure to cap enrollments, scrap courses, and cut costs as states and municipalities face budget shortfalls. And this is in addition to the challenges you face in the best of times, as these schools receive far less funding per student than typical four-year colleges and universities. Community colleges are an undervalued asset in our country. Not only is that not right – it’s not smart. That’s why I’ve asked Dr. Jill Biden, a community college educator for more than sixteen years, to promote community colleges and help us make community colleges stronger. And that’s why we are putting in place the American Graduation Initiative.

First, we will offer competitive grants, challenging community colleges to pursue innovative, results-oriented strategies in exchange for federal funding. We’ll fund programs that connect students looking for jobs with businesses looking to hire. We’ll challenge these schools to find new and better ways to help students catch up on the basics, like math and science, essential to our competitiveness. We’ll put colleges and employers together to create programs that match curricula in the classroom with the needs of the boardroom. There are all kinds of examples of what is possible. We’ve seen Cisco, for example, working with community colleges to prepare students and workers for jobs ranging from work in broadband to health IT. We know that the most successful community colleges are those that partner with the private sector. We want to encourage more companies to work with schools to build these types of relationships.

We’ll also create a new research center with a simple mission: to measure what works and what doesn’t. Too often, we don’t know what happens when someone walks out of the classroom and onto the factory floor or into the laboratory or office. That means businesses often can’t be sure what a degree is really worth. And schools themselves don’t have the facts to make informed choices about which programs achieve results and which programs don’t. This is important, not just for businesses and colleges, but for students and workers as well. If a parent is going to spend time in the classroom and away from his or her family – especially after a long day at a job – that degree really has to mean something. If a worker is going to spend two years training to enter a whole new profession, that certificate has to mean that he or she is ready.

In addition, we are proposing new funding for innovative strategies that promote not just enrollment in a community college program – but completion of that program. More than half of all students who enter community college to earn an associate degree, or transfer to a four-year school to earn a bachelor’s degree, fail to reach their goal. That’s not just a waste of valuable resources, that’s a tragedy for these students – and our economy. So we’ll fund programs that track student progress inside and outside the classroom. Let’s figure out what’s keeping students from crossing that finish line – and then put in place reforms that will remove those barriers. Perhaps it becomes too difficult for a parent to be away from home, or too expensive for a waiter or a nurse to miss a shift. Or perhaps a young student just isn’t sure if her education will lead to employment. The point is, we need to figure out solutions for these kinds of challenges. Because facing these impediments shouldn’t prevent you from reaching your potential.

Second, we are going to back $10 billion in loans to renovate and rebuild college classrooms and buildings. Too often, community colleges are treated like an afterthought – if they’re thought of at all. That means schools are often years behind in the facilities they provide – which means, in a 21st century economy, they’re years behind in the education they can offer. That’s a mistake and it’s one we’ll help to correct. Through this fund, schools will have the chance to borrow at a more affordable rate to modernize facilities, building on the funds in the recovery plan that are already helping to renovate schools – including community colleges – across this country.

Third, even as we repair brick and mortar buildings, we have an opportunity to build a new virtual infrastructure to complement the education and training community colleges can offer. We’ll support the creation of a new online – and open-source – clearinghouse of courses so that community colleges across the country can offer more classes without building more classrooms. This will make a big difference for rural campuses that often struggle to attract students and faculty. This will make it possible for a professor to complement his lecture with an online exercise, or for a student who can’t be away from her family to still keep up with her coursework. We do not know where this kind of an experiment will lead; but that is exactly why we ought to try it.

Yes, the road to recovery – and to prosperity – will be hard. There will be setbacks and false starts. But I am confident that we can meet the challenges we face. Because of what I see on display right here at Macomb Community College. Because of what I’ve seen at colleges and universities all across this country. Because at each juncture in our history when we have been challenged, we have summoned that resilience and industriousness – that American spirit – that has allowed us to succeed even in the face of the toughest of odds.

That is what we can and must do now, not only to overcome this crisis, but to leave behind something better, to lay a foundation on which our children and grandchildren can prosper, to take responsibility for our future – just as the students at this school, at this difficult moment, are taking responsibility for their futures.

Thank you.

WHITE HOUSE RELEASE

In an increasingly competitive world economy, America’s economic strength depends upon the education and skills of its workers. In the coming years, jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as those requiring no college experience. To meet this economic imperative, President Barack Obama asks every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training and set a new national goal: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.

Today, at Macomb Community College in Michigan, he outlined his plan to reform our nation’s community colleges, calling for an additional 5 million community college graduates by 2020 and new initiatives to teach Americans the skills they will need to compete with workers from other nations. He outlined new initiatives to increase the effectiveness and impact of community colleges, raise graduation rates, modernize facilities, and create new online learning opportunities. These steps -- an unprecedented increase in the support for community colleges -- will help rebuild the capacity and competitiveness of America’s workforce.

The announcement comes a day after the Council of Economic Advisers released a report describing how the U.S. labor market is expected to grow and develop in the coming years. The CEA described an expected shift toward jobs that require workers with greater analytical and interactive skills and summarized the attributes of a well-functioning education and training system designed for the jobs of the future.

THE AMERICAN GRADUATION INITIATIVE

Fifty years ago, President Harry Truman called for a national network of community colleges to dramatically expand opportunities for veterans returning from World War II. Today, faced with rapid technological change and global competition, community colleges are needed more than ever to raise American skills and education levels and keep American businesses competitive. President Barack Obama called for an additional 5 million community college degrees and certificates by 2020 and new steps to ensure that those credentials will help graduates get ahead in their careers. Together, these steps will cost $12 billion over the next decade. The administration will pay for them as part of a package that cuts waste out of the student loan program, increases Pell Grant scholarships, and reduces the deficit.

Community colleges are the largest part of our higher education system, enrolling more than 6 million students, and growing rapidly. They feature affordable tuition, open admission policies, flexible course schedules, and convenient locations, and they are particularly important for students who are older, working, need remedial classes, or can only take classes part-time. They are also capable of working with businesses, industry and government to create tailored training programs to meet economic needs such as nursing, health information technology, advanced manufacturing, and green jobs, and of providing customized training at the worksite.

Business and industry play an important role in training the workforce of the future and meeting the on-going demands of the marketplace. Many community colleges are already working with businesses to develop programs and classes ranging from degrees to certified training courses for retraining and on-going training for enhancing skills. For example, Cisco’s Networking Academy is working with community colleges to train students throughout the country on technology-based jobs and it is expanding this platform to train for broadband infrastructure and health care information technology.

The American Graduation Initiative will build on the strengths of community colleges and usher in new innovations and reforms for the 21st century economy. It will:

· Call for 5 Million Additional Community College Graduates: In February, President Obama called for America to once again lead the world in college degrees by 2020. Affordable, open-enrollment community colleges will play a critical role in meeting that goal. Today, he set a complementary goal: an additional 5 million community college graduates by 2020, including students who earn certificates and associate degrees or who continue on to graduate from four-year colleges and universities.

· Create the Community College Challenge Fund: Too often community colleges are underfunded and underappreciated, lacking the resources they need to improve instruction, build ties with businesses, and adopt other reforms. Under President Obama’s plan, new competitive grants would enable community colleges and states to innovate and expand proven reforms. These efforts will be evaluated carefully, and the approaches that demonstrate improved educational and employment outcomes will receive continued federal support and become models for widespread adoption. Colleges could:

o Build partnerships with businesses and the workforce investment system to create career pathways where workers can earn new credentials and promotions step-by-step, worksite education programs to build basic skills, and curriculum coordinated with internship and job placements.
o Expand course offerings and offer dual enrollment at high schools and universities, promote the transfer of credit among colleges, and align graduation and entrance requirements of high schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities.
o Improve remedial and adult education programs, accelerating students’ progress and integrating developmental classes into academic and vocational classes.
o Offer their students more than just a course catalog, through comprehensive, personalized services to help them plan their careers and stay in school.

In addition, the initiative will support a new research center with a mission to develop and implement new measures of community colleges’ success so prospective students and businesses could get a clear sense of how effective schools are in helping students -- including the most disadvantaged -- learn, graduate, and secure good jobs.

· Fund Innovative Strategies to Promote College Completion: Nearly half of students who enter community college intending to earn a degree or transfer to a four-year college fail to reach their goal within six years. The College Access and Completion Fund will finance the innovation, evaluation, and expansion of efforts to increase college graduation rates and close achievement gaps, including those at community colleges. Promising approaches include performance-based scholarships, learning communities of students, professors and counselors, colleges tailored to promote the success of working adults, and funding formulas based on student progress and success as well as initial enrollment. Resources would also be provided to improve states’ efforts to track student progress, completion, and success in the workplace.

· Modernize Community College Facilities: Often built decades ago, community colleges are struggling to keep up with rising enrollments. Many colleges face large needs due to deferred maintenance or lack the modern facilities and equipment needed to train students in technical and other growing fields. Insufficient classroom space can force students to delay needed courses and reduce completion rates. President Obama is proposing a new $2.5 billion fund to catalyze $10 billion in community college facility investments that will expand the colleges’ ability to meet employer and student needs. The resources could be used to pay the interest on bonds or other debt, seed capital campaigns, or create state revolving loan funds.

· Create a New Online Skills Laboratory: Online educational software has the potential to help students learn more in less time than they would with traditional classroom instruction alone. Interactive software can tailor instruction to individual students like human tutors do, while simulations and multimedia software offer experiential learning. Online instruction can also be a powerful tool for extending learning opportunities to rural areas or working adults who need to fit their coursework around families and jobs. New open online courses will create new routes for students to gain knowledge, skills and credentials. They will be developed by teams of experts in content knowledge, pedagogy, and technology and made available for modification, adaptation and sharing. The Departments of Defense, Education, and Labor will work together to make the courses freely available through one or more community colleges and the Defense Department’s distributed learning network, explore ways to award academic credit based upon achievement rather than class hours, and rigorously evaluate the results.

THE OBAMA-BIDEN AGENDA FOR COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY

Today’s new initiatives complement President Obama’s existing agenda for higher education. At this time of economic hardship and uncertainty, the Administration’s agenda will build the country’s capacity, innovation and confidence to drive the nation to first place in the highly skilled workforce crucial for success in the 21st century. These initiatives include:

· Expanding Pell Grants and College Tax Credits: The Recovery Act increased Pell Grants by $500 to $5,350 and created the $2,500 American Opportunity Tax Credit for four years of college tuition. Now, the Administration is working to make these policies permanent and ensure the Pell Grant continues to grow faster than inflation. Together, the Recovery Act and President’s Budget call for nearly $200 billion in college scholarships and tax credits over the next decade.

· Reforming the Student Loan Program to Save Billions: Guaranteed student loans earn banks and other lenders large profits set by the political process rather than won in a competitive marketplace. The Administration will replace guaranteed loans with direct loans, which are administered by private-sector companies, like Sallie Mae and Accenture, selected through a competitive process and paid based upon performance. Direct loans have essentially the same terms for students, are more reliable and efficient, and will save billions of dollars to finance these investments in community colleges as well as increase Pell Grant scholarships and other investments in college opportunity.

· Simplifying the Student Aid Application: The application for federal student aid has as many as 153 questions, creating major obstacle in the path of aspiring college students. More than a million students fail to apply for aid because of the application’s complexity. The Obama Administration is simplifying the financial aid process by modernizing the online application, seeking legislation that will eliminate unnecessary questions, and creating an easy process for students to use tax data to apply. The end result will be a modernized application that requests only easily obtainable personal information

· Helping Unemployed Workers Get New Skills: In May, President Obama expanded opportunities for unemployed workers to go to a community college and earn new skills. The Department of Education has clarified that these workers should not be denied student aid based upon incomes they no longer earn, and the Department of Labor is working with states to allow workers to keep their unemployment benefits while receiving education and training.

· Expanding the Perkins Loan Program: The low-cost Perkins loan program is an important option for students who need to borrow more than allowed under the larger Stafford loan program. The Administration will expand it from $1 billion a year to $6 billion a year, making loans available to 2.7 million more students and at 2,600 additional colleges and universities.

· Helping Families Save for College: The President’s Middle Class Task Force has directed the Department of the Treasury to investigate improvements to 529 savings plans to help families save for college more effectively and efficiently.

OBAMA'S REMARKS ON ECONOMY

With respect to the employment issue, obviously I don't have a crystal ball. We have looked at a lot of the economic data that's coming out right now. And as I've said repeatedly, we have seen some stabilization in the financial markets, and that's good because that means that companies can borrow, and banks are starting to lend again; small businesses that might have worried just a couple of months ago about closing doors, they are now able to get a little more financing -- that means they're less likely to lay off workers. So that's on the positive side.

What we have also said is that historically, even after you start moving into a recovery, positive growth, hiring typically lags for some time after that. That's been the historic norm.

Now, this has been a more severe recession than we've seen since the Great Depression, so how employment numbers are going to respond is not yet clear. My expectation is, is that we will probably continue to see unemployment tick up for several months. And the challenge for this administration is to make sure that even as we are stabilizing the financial system, we understand that the most important thing in the economy is, are people able to find good jobs that pay good wages.

We had a problem even before this recession, even during periods of economic growth, where the pace of job growth, wage growth, income growth was not moving as quickly as overall economic growth. The last recession that we had, the recovery was termed a "jobless recovery." We can't repeat that approach.

And that's why when I talk about things like health care reform or revamping how we approach energy and investing deeply in clean energy, when I talk about improving our education system, as I'll discuss today when I go to Michigan, those foundations are so critical because we've got to find new models of economic growth, particularly at a time when consumers are just not going probably going to be spending as much as they were -- and that has been driving a lot of the economic growth over the last several months.

Michigan obviously is a state that has just been battered, not only during this recession but in the years leading up to this recession. We're pleased to see that GM now and Chrysler have gotten out of bankruptcy. They have an opportunity to compete internationally. Had it not been for the steps that we took with respect to GM and Chrysler, the situation in Michigan, I think it's fair to say, would be far worse.

The same applies to the Recovery Act. We've made investments that early on have allowed a state like Michigan to lay off fewer teachers, fewer cops, fewer firefighters. Those are all jobs that would have been lost in the absence of the recovery package.

But it's still not enough, and so I would argue that the single biggest challenge that not just the United States face but countries in Europe and all around the world are going to face as we come out of the recovery is how do we generate enough jobs that pay good wages to keep up with population growth.

And unless we are investing in energy, infrastructure, innovation, science, development, and eliminating the drag the health care system is placing on the overall economy, I think we will have a very difficult time generating the jobs that are necessary. If we make those investments, then I have confidence that we'll be able to do so.