Junior College students to the rescue!

Obama unveils plan to invest in community colleges
LA Times

Reporting from Warren, Mich. -- With unemployment continuing to climb, President Obama on Tuesday unveiled a plan to pump $12 billion into the nation's community colleges over the next 10 years to help struggling workers prepare for new careers, saying a better-educated workforce was crucial to long-term prosperity.

"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," Obama said.

In his appearance here at Macomb Community College and earlier in the day in Washington, Obama sought to draw a direct connection between recovery from the economic crisis and a broad array of administration initiatives, including education, the stimulus package and overhauling the healthcare system.



Before flying to Michigan, Obama acknowledged that unemployment might "tick up for several months," but he said his prescriptions, taken together, offered the best hope for creating jobs.

And here, in a state where the jobless rate tops 14% compared with the national average of 9.5%, the president pointed to the healthcare debate raging in Congress and said stabilizing medical costs was crucial to restoring prosperity.

"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," he said on the Macomb campus. "To build that foundation, we have to slow the growth of healthcare costs that are driving us into debt."

Now don't get me wrong. I'm still solidly behind Obama but I hope he knows what he's getting himself into on this one. Honestly, the only thing I learned at Midland College was the art of lying to my parents about going to class when I was in fact in Lubbock 4-5 days a week. It was an experience though. I once got a letter of congratulations and an angry letter from the President's office in the same week. Then I got put on academic probation because I had dropped to 4 hours. Oh, the joys of undergraduate studies. When noone expected much from me and I never disappointed. If I only had a time machine.