Posted on 04/11/2015 9:08:40 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Joe Biden and I’m here filling in for President Obama, who is traveling abroad.
And I’m here with a simple message: middle-class economics works.
Our economy has gone from crisis to recovery to now to resurgence—with the longest streak of consecutive job growth ever recorded in the history of this country and more than all other advanced countries combined.
But to make sure everyone is part of this resurgence, we need to build on what we know widens the path to the middle class—and you all know what it is, access to education.
Folks, the source of our economic power and middle class strength in the 20th Century was the fact that we were among the first major nations in the world to provide twelve years of free education for our citizens.
But in the 21st Century, other countries have already caught up and twelve years is simply no longer enough—a minimum of fourteen years is necessary for families to have a surer path to the middle class and for the United States to be able to out-compete the rest of the world.
Consider that by the end of the decade, two out of three of all jobs will require an education beyond high school, from an 18-week certificate to a two-year associate’s degree to a four-year bachelor’s, or a PhD.
And consider that folks with an associate’s degree earn 25% more than someone who graduated just from high school. And folks who graduate with a four-year degree make 70% more.
But today, the cost of higher education is too high for too many Americans. Too many folks are priced out of a piece of the middle-class dream.
And that’s why the President and I have a straightforward plan to remove that barrier and expand the pathway to the middle class—by bringing the cost of community colleges down—down to zero.
Zero—for anyone willing to work for it and for the institutions that meet certain basic requirements.
Our plan is no give-away. Students must keep up their grades and stay on track to graduate. States must contribute funding and hold community colleges accountable for the results. And community colleges must maintain high graduation and job placement rates.
And here’s a key point—community colleges will have to offer courses that are directly transferrable to a four-year degree.
If two years of community college are free—and credits can transfer to a four-year university—that means the cost of a four-year degree will be cut in half for a lot of working families struggling to send their children to college, qualified children.
And under our plan, students from low-income families will be able to keep the benefits that flow from other financial aid, like Pell grants, to cover childcare, housing, transportation—costs that often keep them from attending class and completing a degree in the first place.
But here’s another key point. Not every good-paying job will require a two-year or four-year degree. Some of these jobs will require just a training certificate that can be earned in just a few months.
For example, you can go to an 18-week coding bootcamp—with no previous experience in computers—and become a computer programmer making up to $70,000 a year.
There are other jobs in fields like advanced manufacturing and energy that pay $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 a year—jobs you can raise a family on.
It’s a simple fact that community colleges are the most flexible educational institutions we have. I’ve traveled all over this country, from New York to Iowa to California, to see how community colleges create partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and local businesses to generate jobs; support apprenticeships with organized labor, and prepare hardworking students for good-paying jobs in the areas in which they live.
Making community colleges free is good for workers, it’s good for companies, and it’s good for our economy.
Here’s what we propose: Close loopholes for the wealthiest investors and levy a .07% fee on the biggest banks to discourage the kind of risky behavior that crashed our economy just a few years ago.
Doing just that would pay for free community college—and provide a leg up for working families through tax credits to cover necessities like childcare.
That’s what middle-class economics is all about—giving folks a fair chance to get ahead. A fair tax code. No guarantees. Just a fair chance.
It’s simple folks, two years of community college should become as free and as universal as high school is today if we’re to make this economic resurgence permanent and well into the 21st Century.
So I want to thank you all for listening. I hope you have a great weekend and God bless you all and may God protect our troops.
“Our economy has gone from crisis to recovery to now to resurgence—with the longest streak of consecutive job growth ever recorded in the history of this country and more than all other advanced countries combined. “
—
Hello? We are now running a massive trade deficit with China.
Last year it was a new all-time record, of 342 billion dollars.
And it’s growing again, this year.
What are talking about? Slow Joe promised it would be free!
/s
Midgets are the tallest of all humans and chocolate ice cream tastes like pizza.
12 years isn’t enough because the education is CRAP. An extra 2 years isn’t going to fix illiteracy and total ignorance being pumped out of our schools - you narrow minded, shallow, self serving, pandering, lying, manipulative fool.
Even if it was fiscally possible, which it isn’t, just how many seats do these two geniuses think are available in our current community colleges. And consider, this is a proposition from liberals, so that means they’re not just talking about Americans, they’re talking about every mexican and central american that crosses illegally into America! Yup, brilliance, pure brilliance, I don’t know if Biden has had too many drugs or too few.
CC has always been free to the right people
Who knows what the surgeons may have disconnected during Biden’s two brain aneurysm surgeries.
I'll take "What are the left and right hemispheres" for $500 Alex.
Right on the money.
They want another 2 years in case the commie indoctrination didn’t take complete hold on all the students thoughts and facilities.
How would a small tax discourage risky behavior? That transaction task might discourage repeated transaction, so they go to the big table and place one bet rather than thousands of small ones, but that would increase risk rather than reduce it. Also, they would just move the transactions to other countries in foreign subsidiaries.
What would reduce risk taking is removing the "too big to fail" net. A lot of big banks should have been bankrupted out with shareholders losing everything and the big executives left without golden parachutes, huge bonuses and corporate Gulfstreams. The bones of Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and many others would have served as a warning for future risk taking.
“States must contribute funding ...”
Biden gets the credit; the states get the bill.
silliness but
if they gonna do it
it would make more sense
to fund it
from a tax
on marijuana sales transactions
Up until the 1970s...high school meant something. Today, you can’t really judge some high school graduate...they might be dumb as bricks or actually be fairly intelligent. All I see here is that you’d dumb down community college enough that dimwits would surf through it....get a graduation slip....and then create another wave in thirty years where every kid in America needed a bachelors degree to survive in life. In fifty years....you’d then have to suggest that every kid in America needed a master’s degree to ‘make it’.
none of this makes any sense
not even the part where Biden checks in because Obama is out of the country, does the internet not exist in Panama?
1st qtr GDP growth: 0.0%
resurgence!!
lol
It’s no giveaway because the students ha e to keep up their grades? I had to keep up my grades and I had to pay for my education.
“fund it from a tax on marijuana”
You are brilliant!! I’m not kidding, I like the idea.
Truthfully...many states do fund CC for 2 years for deserving students. It should have nothing to do with the Feds.
I hope everyone here realizes that many people will believe every syllable coming out of Biden’s mouth.
Maybe even enough People to Elect Hillary.
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