On Monday President Barack Obama announced his "Skills for America's Future" initiative. The aim of this is at increasing cohesion between community colleges and industry partners, at a meeting of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board. This initiative will use $2 billion over four years which will be taken from the controversial Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. The plan will create private partnerships and training programs in community colleges nationwide. Since the recession has placed such a burden on state and local budgets, community colleges have been forced to cap enrollments and scarp courses. Obama said, "Not only is that not right--I think it's not smart." A few corporations which Obama said will be participating in this program will include, McDonald's, Dap Inc., Accenture and United Technologies. The goal of this program is 5 million more community college graduates and certificates by 2020. This plan is definitely needed and extremely valuable. Education in America in the past years has declined and unemployment rates are at its peak. This plan could only help both of these crisis issues. Students with lower financial status and who are not able to attend public colleges and have the grades for four year colleges still deserve a chance and a some what equal chance to all other students; this plan will give these students the equal opportunity they deserve. Having 5 million more students with certificates rom 2 year colleges and actually graduated from these colleges is a huge impact from that of just $2 billion.
http://www.lsureveille.com/news/obama-pledges-aid-to-2-year-colleges-1.2354197
This article is extremely relevant to our v160 class. Education reform is high on the public agenda making it both culturally and economically relevant. The United States currently ranks 18th in the UNICEF world ranking of education. This is an unacceptable ranking that could potentially damage this Nation's economy, and reputation. Citizen's must be as educated as possible to succeed in a knowledge/information based country. Obama making it more affordable to go to college will help to further educate individuals who could not afford to continue their educations. This will hopefully help our citizens to become as intelligent as possible and succeed in business helping the economy to recover.
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