Obama Slams Republicans Over Education Cuts

President Barack Obama says Republicans sharpening their budget ax would damage the U.S. economy by taking a big whack at education spending.

Opening a meeting of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board on Monday, Obama said he agrees with the Republicans that America's fiscal situation is "untenable," but its plans would force a 20 percent cut in education funding.

He said that "just doesn't make sense" at a time when the economy's struggling and other countries are becoming fiercer competitors.

Obama announced a new initiative called "Skills for America's Future" that aims to promote partnerships between America's top companies and community colleges.

The intent is to build a nationwide network to maximize workforce development, the president said.

"We want to make it easier to join students looking for jobs with businesses looking to hire," Obama said in a White House fact sheet. "We want to put community colleges and employers together to create programs that match curricula in the classroom with the needs of the boardroom."

The initiative has the backing of Gap Inc., McDonald's, Accenture and other big-name companies, the official said.

The announcement came on the eve of a White House summit on community colleges, which is being led by Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Joe Biden's wife, who is a community college teacher.

The president has said that increasing enrollment and completion rates in two-year colleges will bolster U.S. competitiveness in the world economy, and is a major component in his drive to restore America's world leadership in the percentage of its population earning college degrees.

The Skills for America's Future plan projects each state creating at least one high-impact partnership between industry and community colleges, the official said. It also foresees expanded partnerships helping achieve Obama's goal of an additional 5 million community college degrees and certificates by 2020.

[verypublishedwriter]

It seems to me that Republicans/Regressives/Teahadists rant almost endlessly about money. They minimize society and culture and call it the economy. Sad, pitiable. As someone who has taught at liberal arts colleges and universities, I'm heartened that most young voters do not think this way. And, unlike many of their Reagan-propagandized parents, the current generation of university students is not anti-government; if anything, they are more uncomfortable with the role of big business in American life than they are with that of federal government. ************************************************************************************************************************************************ Vote Progressive/Democrat the first Tuesday of this November. It's the only vote of merit for large-hearted, big-minded people.

[I-READ-THE-BOOK]

As soon as Greaseburgers, Inc. corporations can make burgers in China and ship them to the U.S. ready-to-serve Obama will lose a large portion of the Latino (illegal immigrant) voters who will be put out of jobs.

[I-READ-THE-BOOK]

How many people has the Department of Education educated?
The major effort at that Department now is trying to get complete control of student loans and grants, further nationalizing education.

[I-READ-THE-BOOK]

Obamaites who live in large cities need only enough education to fill out welfare forms. The few jobs in the welfare business are held by welfare workers who will help you fill out the application forms if you can't read and write; therefore, education for this large voter block becomes moot.

[I-READ-THE-BOOK]

What turnip truck did Obama fall off?

Partnerships between community colleges and such large industries as McDonald's and The Gap.

Retail stores take a few hours to train clerks to sell imported products, greaseburger joints hire illegal immigrants, who need to learn English if they're to pass courses in community colleges.

Besides jobs doing R&D in engineering and the sciences, what jobs are going to be created in the U.S. economy that can't be done by anyone ambitious person with an 8th grade education? Scientists and Engineers graduating from colleges in the U.S. already compete with jobseekers from India and other third world countries who will work for less, and get permanant resident visas for themselves and their families. Our doctors will come from India, Mexico, and Voodoo University.

[pasha128]

Republicans once again attempting to undermine US Military and Economic capabilities and allow other countries like China to develop the educated technologists and professionals to compete both militarily and economically in the future world environments while blocking the production of similar capabilities in THIS COUNTRY. IF you want to understand the meaning of treason -- deliberately undermining educational opportunities in this country is just another means of undermining this country's position both militarily and economically in this world.

[RobAla]

The part of the education funding that should be cut is the education tax dollars going to the federal Department of Education. The federal government educates no one, the states are in charge of education. There is absolutely no reason to send education tax dollars to Washington, just so that the federal government can take a cut and pass only a portion back to the states to pay teachers and educate children. This is ridiculous. The federal Department of Education should be done away with.

[wasadem1]

It is the teachers union that is the problem. It is not about the children. But don't expect the truth from the libs.

[noloyalisti]

The Republicans benefit greatly by keeping the population largely ignorant and uneducated. It keeps people stupid enough to keep voting for the same people that caused all our problems (failed economy, endless wars, worldwide hatred of the racist Americans, etc.).

They represent only the Top 2% of the country who generally are large corporate CEOs that have bought into the race-to-the-bottom mentality of Wall Mart. Keep everyone watching Fox Propaganda Channel that keeps you stupid. Now THAT is Mission Accomplished!!!!

[retm-w]

The Gap and McDonalds sounds like obama, you really need a college education to sell clothes or flip burgers. Notice no high tech companiesd mentioned. What's with GE obama's buddies, they don't want educated Americans. GE sent most of their jobs overseas. Looks like obama is folowing reagans policy, a service economy.