Here are some of the key subjects President Obama touched upon during his speech yesterday at Forsyth Technical Community College. The full text of Obama’s speech is available at www.journalnow.com.
• MATH AND SCIENCE: “As it stands right now, the hard truth is this: In the race for the future, America is in danger of falling behind.… In a generation we have fallen from first place to ninth place in the proportion of young people with college degrees. When it comes to high-school graduation rates, we’re ranked 18th out of 24 industrialized nations — 18th. We’re 27th in the proportion of science and engineering degrees we hand out. We lag behind other nations in the quality of our math and science education.”
• BIOTECHNOLOGY AND INVESTMENT: “As a national leader in bioscience and innovation, North Carolina is now the country’s third-largest employer in biotechnology. And when Caterpillar recently decided to build a plant in this community, they told President Green one of the main reasons was ‘…they were convinced that Forsyth Tech had the capability of providing them with the technical work force that they need.’ … Now, none of this progress happened by itself. It happened thanks to the hard work of students here at Forsyth, the commitment of local leaders, foresight of local business leaders — most importantly, it happened because there was a decision made to invest in the collective future of this community. It happened because there was a decision to invest in this college, and there were loans and scholarships that made it affordable to go here. To invest in the basic research and development that helped jumpstart North Carolina’s biotech industry; to invest in new buildings and laboratories and research facilities that make your work possible — these are the kinds of investments we need to keep making in communities across America — investments that will grow our economy and help us to stay competitive in the 21st century.”
• EDUCATION REFORM: “We’re reforming K-12 education — not from the top down, but from the bottom up. Instead of indiscriminately pouring money into a system that’s not working, we’re challenging schools and states to compete with each other — to see who can come up with reforms that raise standards, and recruit and retain good teachers, raise student achievement, especially in math and science. We call it Race to the Top — where you get more funding if you show more results — because part of the argument here is, is that if we’re going to have a government that’s smart and helping people compete in this new global economy, then we’ve got to spend our money wisely.… So it’s time, for example, that we have a tax code that encourages job creation here in America. And to boost our recovery, I’ve already proposed that all American businesses should be allowed to write off all the investments they do in 2011. We want to jump-start, starting next year, plants and equipment investment right here in Winston-Salem and all across North Carolina, and all across the United States of America.”
• BIPARTISAN SUPPORT: “More recently, infrastructure bills have found support on both sides of the congressional aisle. The permanent extension of research-and-development tax credits was proposed by both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Our education reforms have been praised by both Democratic and Republican governors.… If we’re willing to put aside short-term politics, if our objective is not simply winning elections but winning the future — then we should be able to get our act together here, because we are all Americans and we are in this race together.”
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