Obama Renews His Educational Goals for the Nation

Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - 19:54 | By: Becky Anderson | Category: Press

Here what The Chronicle of Higher Education had to say about it, and see below an excerpt from his speech:

So college affordability is the first part of the strategy that we're pursuing. The second part is making sure that the education being offered to our college students -- especially, by the way, our students at community colleges -- (applause) -- that it's preparing them to graduate ready for a career. See, institutions like the UT are essential to our future, but community colleges are, too. They are great, under-appreciated assets that we have to value and we have to support.

So that's why we're upgrading our community colleges, by tying the skills taught in our classrooms to the needs of local businesses in the growth sectors of our economy. And we're giving companies an assurance that the workers they hire will be up to the job. We're giving students the best chance to succeed. We're also that way giving America the best chance to thrive and to prosper. And that's why we're also reinvesting in our HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions like Huston-Tillotson and St. Edwards.

The third part of our strategy is making sure every student completes their course of studies. I want everybody to think about this. Over a third of America's college students and over half of our minority students don't earn a degree, even after six years. So we don't just need to open the doors of college to more Americans; we need to make sure they stick with it through graduation. That is critical.

And that means looking for some of the best models out there. There are community colleges like Tennessee's Cleveland State that are redesigning remedial math courses and boosting not only student achievement but also graduation rates. And we ought to make a significant investment to help other states pick up on some of these models.

So we've got to lift graduation rates. We've got to prepare our graduates to succeed in this economy. We've got to make college more affordable. That's how we'll put a higher education within reach for anybody who is willing to work for it. That's how we'll reach our goal of once again leading the world in college graduation rates by the end of this decade. That's how we'll lead the global economy in this century, just like we did in the last century.

Tags: cleveland state, community college, education, mymathlab, obama, redesign