Obama to focus on education-economy link in UT speech | Politics | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN – President Obama will focus on the link between education and economic success in today's speech at the University of Texas and is expected to skip criticism of the Republican he succeeded as president or the one who governs Texas, according to White House officials.
Democrats including Obama have invoked former President George W. Bush's name as the midterm election nears and polls showing more people blame Bush than the current president for problems including economic woes.
Obama's administration has been roundly criticized by Gov. Rick Perry, who rejected applying for Race to the Top funds touted by the president's team as a key part of Obama's education agenda.
But as Obama ventures into Texas for a policy speech and fund-raising, he'll meet with Perry. The governor, who will greet Obama at the airport here, has said he wants to talk with the president about border security.
Asked whether Obama's UT speech might include any criticism of Perry, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said, "I would not expect that in this speech." As for any mention of Bush, Pfeiffer said, "I would not expect to hear much about President Bush here."
The debate over the economy isn't just about Bush but other GOP leaders, Pfeiffer added.
"We're not trying to re-litigate the past. We're trying not to re-live it," he said. "People try to simplify it as Obama vs. Bush, but it's much more than that."
Pfeiffer said education is an area "where we haven't agreed always with everything that former President Bush did." But he said that Obama "admired the way in which he was willing to take it on and try to do it..... a lot of times in a less than partisan way.
The Sunday conference call with White House officials previewing Obama's UT speech didn't touch on what the president is expected to say at fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee in Austin and for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Dallas.
Obama's speech at UT will draw the connection between his education efforts and economic improvement, officials said. Obama is aiming to make the United States the world's leader in college completion by 2020, up from its current ranking of 12th, behind – among others – Canada and Russia.
"President Obama's top priority has been to turn around our economy. He knows we have to educate our way to a better economy. He understands that a country that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow," said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
"This goal to begin leading the world in college completion is the north star for all our educational efforts," Duncan said.
Duncan cited efforts to increase the money available to low-income students for college financial aid, make it easier for them to apply and more affordable for them to pay the loans back, including forgiving student loan debt after 20 years of payments. If students pursue a job as a teacher or another public service position, the debt will be forgiven after 10 years of public service, he said.
Duncan also touted investment in community colleges and higher education institutions that serve African American and Hispanic students. And he highlighted the Race to the Top initiative, which is mean to give school financial incentives to boost achievement and ready students for higher education.
States were given precedence if they signed on to the initiative for common national education standards. Perry opposed that and kept Texas out of the competition for the funds.
Cecilia Rouse, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers,said to become first in the proportion of college graduates, the United States will need an estimated 60 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds with degrees, up from about 40 percent. That will mean an increase of 11 million college graduates by 2020. About 2.5 million to 3 million of them will come naturally from population growth, she said: "We need to produce an additional 8 million degrees."
As for how Texas' performance fits in to that goal, Roberto Rodriguez, special assistant to the president for education, said, "We are hopeful about some of the initiatives underway in Texas," including an exploration of integrating college completion into state higher education formulas.
Rouse said the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems has reported that 31 percent of 25-to-44-year-olds in Texas have a college degree.
"And so Texas has a little ways to go," she said.
I am certainly motivated and inspired to help kids graduate from both high school AND college. And I am amazed that this is a patriotic effort!
