President Barack Obama gave an education speech last month about boosting college graduation rates across the country, but that goal doesn’t look certain in several states, including Missouri.
“I want us to produce 8 million more college graduates by 2020, because America has to have the highest share of graduates compared to every other nation,” Obama said, according to a transcript of his remarks obtained by The Maneater. “In a single generation, we’ve fallen from first place to 12th place in college graduation rates for young adults.”
The president said education is an economic issue.
“The single most important thing we can do is to make sure we’ve got a world-class education system for everybody,” he said.
Obama also said it was important to boost community college enrollments so that everyone can have a college education and can complete the coursework.
Sara Gast, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Education, said that while many industrialized countries have graduation rates between 50 and 60 percent while the United States’ rate is about 40 percent.
Gast said the crucial thing to do is to make college more affordable and said there have already been many steps in that direction.
“There is a greater access to financial aid, and the value of Pell Grants has been raised to $40 billion,” she said.
Read the full story at the Mizzou Maneater.
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