Obama: Number of College Graduates Must Be Increased

The type of kids in schools today are not the same as they were. Eight-year- olds curse at teachers and throw things accross rooms. The number of children being classified as emotional disabled is shocking and the cost for districts to send these children to special schools is extraordinary. Schools are not medical facilities with professionals on staff to deal with the overwhelming issues today’s youth are bringing into the classrooms. Education is not the only barometer of our countries lack of success. What has happened to our work ethic? What has happened to our pride? What has happened to our families? Education is asked to shoulder much of what ails our nation. It is simply not that simple.

“And so today I want to talk about the higher education strategy that we’re pursuing not only to lead the world once more in college graduation rates, but to make sure our graduates are ready for a career; ready to meet the challenges of a 21st century economy.”
What does a college degree matter, Mr. President, if there are no jobs due to your head-on assault on (and demonization of) business?
Git yur degree, git a j-o-b in gubbermint, I suspect. Remember that those with student debt after 10 years who enter “public service” will have their student loans forgiven after 10 years, thanks to the Community-Organizer-in-Chief. It’s the law.

The government now controls student loans, soon to control who goes to college and what they will learn in college. As a result of this utopian world , will we have educated dedicated people in the workforce or brainwashed drones to serve?

At 7-25-39 on 8/9 Nancy’s comments are right on target. PUBLIC schools educate ALL KIDS OF ALL LEVELS.

“Guess what, Irma? Libs don’t hold a monopoly on higher learning”
So there are right-wing elitists too? How about that….you must have hit a nerve Irma.

We need more people in college to be indoctrinated by liberal professors and to keep them out of the job market or the unemployment would be even worse…

Hey did anyone see Republican Congressman John Boner, on Meet the Press? I was a little distracted by that sprayed on tan and woven hair rug, but he couldn’t explain how the tax credits to the top 2% will be paid for if renewed. Huh. That’s weird, he must be one of those who opted for a go-it-alone education.
Well, Republicans are obviously using the “Big Government” argument to convince the people to vote against their own best interest: Public services. Sacrifice the needs of the people in order to relieve the wealthy from high taxes. Yeah, liberals are the ones who are brainwashed. MMMHHHMM, yeah.

With oBama’s economic policies, we’ll have the world’s smartest unemployment lines.

The problem starts before highschool age kids. we are losing our kids by the 7th and 8th grades. i am working on providing an afterschool program but funds needed aren’t available. I plan to have our highschool students help with being tutors, mentors, and help with activities for our younger kids. but we also need funding to provide a person to coordinate our program.

Who paid for Obama’s education? Why are his college transcrips sealed? Bush got better college grades than John Kerry but no one knows anything about the pretender-in-chief. WHY?

Posted by: tjp612 | Aug 9, 2010 9:41:59 PM
When listing out reasons some might consider I forgot to mention the mindless repetition of conservative blogosphere and punditry and Drudge Report talking points, which are often made up or distorted. For example, you don’t seem to mind that the Republicans want a two month paid vacation after mid-terms, but you seem willing to jump on in and smear Michelle Obama despite the facts mentioned at both “Michelle Obama’s Spain trip: The inside story why she went” (Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun Times) and “Right Wing Smears Michelle Obama As A Modern ‘Marie Antoinette,’ Pushes Lies About Cost Of The Trip” (Think Progress).

Make college affordable! What a concept!I watched a news show a few days ago about the for-profit colleges, with a representative on there, sweating, as he was lying through his teeth, justifying the high costs, which are one of the things that contribute to the high cost of medical care, along with many other professions. There are a round of real greedy people out there grabbing massive amounts of money from each other, along with everyone else, and then crying about taxation, while threatening to send the jobs they already sent overseas for slave labor, overseas for slave labor, while blaming the unions for trying to make a fair living. Some one made a comment about supporting a big penthouse on a crumbling foundation. This is a great analogy of what is happening, as the building is falling all around us.

Obama says “Number of College Graduates Must Be Increased.”
Hell, that’s EASY!!! Let’s take a play out of Barry’s playbook to become president…
LOWER THE BAR!!
Let’s quit giving grades to students. Let’s just hand them a diploma if they say they really, really tried. After all, Barry used that same approach, and it won him the presidency AND the Nobel Peace Prize.
Whoo whoo!!!
I love this guy!!

Thanks to Bernie Sanders, and no thanks to Obama, the health care bill included funding to forgiv e the med school debt of up to 20,000 health professionals who work in underserved communities.
Fidel Castro provided more medical school schalorships to US students than George Bush did.

Why? CNN’s own poll shows that 62% of college graduates are NOT working in their own field.
That says education is NOT the problem, but rather JOBS are the problem.
College graduates are unable to find employment in their chosen fields, and are forced to accept whatever work they can get, degree or not.

Abe Lincoln
Andrew Jackson
Barry Diller
David Geffen
David Oreck
Wayne Huizinga
John D Rockefeller, Sr.
Larry Ellison
Michael Dell
Richard Branson
Thomas Edison
W Clement Stone
Vidal Sassoon
—
Unsuccessful nobodies who did nothing.

Unsuccessful nobodies who did nothing.
Posted by: Useless | Aug 10, 2010 11:38:12 AM
Well, I see the list persists as if the average college dropout will necessarily become Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Edison and a college education isn’t a worthy goal.
Why does the right wing have against being well-educated and well-informed?
What’s interesting– since the list persists– is how progressive many of the people on the list are/were. How elitist and forward thinking of them :^)

You wouldn’t know it from reading the press coverage of the report that Obama cited, but this country’s percentage isn’t declining; it has risen steadily in the past decade. In the year 2000, it stood at 38.1 percent. By 2008, the last year with data, it had risen to 41.6 percent. Or at least, so the College Board says.
The US come out 12th, but almost every county is within a couple of percentage points, the difference is really minimal.
The percentage of young people with “college degrees”* is actually rising in the US, and yet Obama and the media cite this as evidence that the US is “falling behind”.
* The report is on the percentage of young people with an Associates Degree or higher. This is not simply a measure of “college education”, but college and industrial education combined.

The exceedingly high cost of private colleges is something that needs to be fixed. Back in 1980, one year at Syracuse University was around $8K. Now it’s around $50K. In fact, there are over 100 colleges that cost over $47K a year, with Sarah Lawrence at the top of the list with $57K. The fee increase exceeds every US industry except pharmaceuticals, and at least that product offering has improved in the last 20 years. At the current pace, it will cost 2/3 of a million dollars for a family with two kids under ten. This is a ticking time bomb that needs attention.

Thomas Edison did have an education. His own mother provided instruction.
Abraham Lincoln too was educated with the help of his mother and other mentors through out his life. He studied history, mostly law.
In their time, that was something. However, with the public school system, a variety of Universities who offer varied skills and degrees, Edison and Lincoln would surely benefit and I know they were intelligent enough to defend the act of educating the citizenry.
Perhaps Edison would be today’s Bill Gates, and like Bill Gates would defend affordable education. Lincoln, might be able to be president, never the less he would most likely not be hired by ANY law firm without some certificate or degree. Those making arguments that education is unecessary or useless seem to be defensive about their lack of education; well, this is your chance. Affordable, higher education, for our people.

I suggest looking at abolishing Sallie Mae for starters.
—
I’ll get Barney Frank to work on that right away.

Irma states:
I personally prefer to be “brainwashed” (as you Republicans are saying) by liberal ideas than the anti-intelligence thing the Republicans seem to be spewing. However, I think you should all keep it up, the argument fits you.
Well Irma, the anti-intelligence thing the Republicans seem to be spewing—
Do not spend what you do not have
– Economics 101
Secure the borders to protect American citizens
—Safety 101
Freedom of Religion, not freedom to worship which is distinctly different
–Logic 101
Belief in Thou should not steal or covet thy neighbors goods, rejection of spreading the wealth or social justice
– Religion 101
Belief in freedom of speech and press, rejection of net neutrality and MSM political propaganda– Journalism 101
——- and you think we are not intelliigent?

I can assure you that an engineering -based degree from Annapolis was a hell of a lot more rigorous than a Poly-Sci major from Columbia. I doubt that Barack Obama has even heard of differential equations while John McCain was solving them at the Naval Academy.Barack Obama WOULD NEVER HAVE MADE IT INTO ANNAPOLIS.Was the unemployment rate better when Obama took office than it is now?

progressive mama wrote:”Why does the right wing have against being well-educated and well-informed?
”
Because many of the “well-educated” get educated well beyond their capacity… then they turn into PROGRESSIVES. And many of the “well-informed” get their information from Ezra Klein and… well we know how credible that JOURNOLIST bunch is now.

VOX, I paid for my education with my hard earned money, scholarships (that I earned) and I am contributing toward society, standing firm on my beliefs. Some of us may be able to pull ourselves up by our own boot straps, but I will tell that in the job I do now, there are people, mostly children who don’t even have a boot, let alone a bootstrap. But good for you.

Nephron, I will never sound like Al Franken. Although I am glad that someone who did benefit from an education at Harvard, based on his own merits and not daddy, like Bush, is on the side of the poor and middle class who have financial obstacles in their way. At least Franken understands that he has had more wealth in his life than the average joe, and is willing to help average joe with debate and policy. Many Democrats who are suggesting a hike taxes are in the very bracket and will be paying higher taxes. So thanks AL!

Nephron | Aug 10, 2010 7:58:33 PM posted: “I can assure you that an engineering -based degree from Annapolis was a hell of a lot more rigorous than a Poly-Sci major from Columbia. Was the unemployment rate better when Obama took office than it is now?”
In your talk show squawking about of Barack Obama’s intellectual rigor, you forgot to mention that our President was the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1991.
And of course Political Science at Columbia and Law at Harvard is different curriculum than Annapolis engineering. Do you know what magna cum laude at Harvard Law means? It’s the top 10%, not the bottom five.
You claim Obama would never have been admitted into Annapolis, I suspect someone who graduated at the bottom of his Naval Academy Class would in turn have trouble being admitted into Harvard Law.
As to your comment about the unemployment rate, I am repeatedly astounded by people who think this VERY deep Recession is somehow like the shallow, mild “V-Shaped” Recession from the early 90s. What gives you the idea that in less than two years, and in the midst of the worst Recession since the Great Depression, that our nation would magically bounce unemployment numbers back to the fantasy Bush era bubble? Delusional.

Irma, there is a difference between lifting up and handing out. Give a man a fish and he will have a meal – Teach a man to fish and he will have food for a lifetime. So many of the social programs mentioned started out with good intentions and hve gotten way out of control and are serioulsy abused.

mj | Aug 11, 2010 12:38:25 PM posted: “So many of the social programs mentioned started out with good intentions and hve gotten way out of control and are serioulsy abused.”
Which social programs are “seriously abused”? President Bill Clinton signed a comprehensive national welfare reform bill back in 1996. The welfare rolls dropped nearly 60%, more than 7 million people, by the time he left office. In 2000, the percentage of Americans on welfare reached its lowest point in four decades. One of the contributing factors was that Clinton’s economic policies created 23 million new jobs.
Unfortunately, the economic environment over the following 8 years increased the poverty rolls from 31.6 Million to nearly 40 Million. One of the contributing factors was the worst job creation on record: just 3 Million new jobs.
If we want people to “fish” on their own, our nation once again needs to help them by building new jobs.

Nephron | Aug 11, 2010 3:58:13 PM posted “it is very easy to see that he was graded at Harvard differently from others-just like his Law Review selection.” Nonsense.
All three of politicians you describe – Senator McCain, President Obama and Senator Jim Webb most likely benefited from some form of “affirmative action”. In the case of McCain and Webb, children of career military personnel (100 per year) are allowed to apply for Naval Academy appointment. Today’s admission process includes a basic college application, personality testing, standardized testing, + personal references. When your Grandfather and father were 4-star Navy Generals, or your dad was a career Air Force Office, weight is on the applicants’ side even if their college application is not.
And yes, Universities try to recruit diverse students, but admission to Harvard Law isn’t a cake walk, regardless of your skin color. Obama graduated Magna Cum Laude, which, according to the Havard Law School website, is awarded to the top 10% of Harvard Law School students. Harvard strongly disputes your notion that its law students are somehow “graded differently”.
Election as President of the Harvard Law Review requires a combination of IQ and EQ – not electing a Prom Queen as you imply. The outgoing President of the Law Review stated that Obama’s election “was a choice on the merits”.
Yes, the President of the LR usually goes on to clerk for the Federal Court of Appeals for a year, and then clerk for an associate justice of the Supreme Court. But the NYT article you recommended states very clearly that was not the career direction Obama chose – there is no suggestion “he wasn’t up to it”. Even at age 28, Obama purposefully decided to “spend two or three years in private law practice and then return to Chicago to re-enter community work, either in politics or in local organizing”.

Obama was never offered a clerkship.The same 1990 article noted that the decision to make him president of the Law Review was not popular;it noted that there was concern that he wasn’t the best candidate.Remember,this was the N.Y. Times, not Fox News.As far as “affirmative action” for Webb,what does that have to do with his admission to Georgetown and his standing at the Academy?You claimed that lower standing Academy graduates couldn’t get into Harvard Law.The same article stated that class standing at Harvard was not emphasized-as such the Magna cum Laude honor may not be as significant as you claim.At least 40% of the graduating class at Harvard Law gets cum Laude or Magna cum Laude;certainly not as impressive as it seems on the surface.

“At least 40% of the graduating class at Harvard Law gets cum Laude or Magna cum Laude;”
Obama graduated magna cum laude.
According to Harvard Law:
“4. The summa cum laude will be awarded to the top one percent of the class according to the Latin honors calculation in I.M.3.
5. The magna cum laude will be awarded to the next ten percent of the class according to the Latin honors calculation in I.M.3.”
“certainly not as impressive as it seems on the surface.”
When you try to distort the accomplishment of being in the top 11% of your class to being in the top 40%, I imagine the only ones impressed are your fellow dishonest right wingers.
After all the ability to lie without shame is valued quite highly by the right wing.

“Indeed,the only measure we have of his college work is that he graduated magne cum laude..” Barack Obama never graduated from college magna cum laude.He didn’t have ANY academic honors when he graduated from Columbia.That is not a lie -it is a fact.

Indeed the only measure we have available of his college work is that he graduated magne cum laude yet you assume he was helped by affirmative action because of his skin color.
Right wingers usually hide their racism a bit better than that.
Posted by: Ryan C | Aug 11, 2010 7:52:16 PM
Unless he is willing to release his entire college record, it is fundamentally dishonest to talk about “cum laude” or any other equal opportunity awards…
Let’s have the all the information, un-spun, for us to consider and judge…
No more BS!

“Unless he is willing to release his entire college record, it is fundamentally dishonest to talk about “cum laude” or any other equal opportunity awards”
Except that wwe know he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law.
That apparently angers Nephron who wanted to go to a graduate school but was not accepted and probably blame a minority student for getting the spot that was “rightfully” his(based on his furious anger at Obama).

Where are the jobs, Champ??

“It is difficult to explain how someone who had no academic honors as an undergrad,who achieved no great distinction at Columbia (nobody remembers him),who couldn’t cut it at Occidental”
I think transferring from occidental to Columbia shows he could cut it.
But its hilarious that you repeat the birther line that no one remembers Obama at Columbia. Google
NYT: Recollections of Obama’s ex-roommate
Or Barack Obama ’83, My Columbia College Roommate in the Columbia alumni newsletter.
Or this
NYT”One person who did remember Mr. Obama was Michael L. Baron, who taught a senior seminar on international politics and American policy. Mr. Baron, now president of an electronics company in Florida, said he was Mr. Obama’s adviser on the senior thesis for that course. Mr. Baron, who later wrote Mr. Obama a recommendation for Harvard Law School, gave him an A in the course.”
Or this
“Michael J. Wolf, who took the seminar with him and went on to become president of MTV Networks, said: “He was very smart. He had a broad sense of international politics and international relations. It was a class with a lot of debate. He was a very, very active participant. I think he was truly distinctive from the other people in that class. He stood out.””
You’re not basing this opinion on crazy Manning’s fake trial are you?
“Ryan,you claimed Obama graduated from college magna cum laude”
ROFLMAO!
Now you’re playing semantic games…how sad.
Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.
You may not be willing to accept it but reality is not dependent upon what you accept or do not accept.

“The fact remains: there is no evidence of academic excellence from Barack Obama from either Occidental or Columbia”
Which I could care less about.
I think graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law carries more weight than making Dean’s list.
But hey someone who didn’t get into grad school might look at that bitterly.
“I would hope that his roommate would remember him;”
You said no one remembered him…guess that was a lie.
I provided a fellow student and one of his teachers.
“it is telling that the only other two people that Ryan mentioned were in the same seminar”
Or I grabbed those two people from the same article.
But hey Neprhon was proven to be lying so there must be some kind of conspiracy vindicating him.

“Ryan,this isn’t rocket science-open your eyes.”
ROFLMAO!.
Time to take off the tin foil hat and/or halve the dosage, Nephron.
Obama did well enough Occidental that he was able to transfer to Columbia. And at Columbia that he did well enough that got into Harvard Law. He then graduated magna cum laude.
That is reality.
Try applying Occam’s Razor occasionally, it would save you the embarrassment of coming off like a nut.

“The simple answer as to how Obama got into Harvard Law School without any evidence of academic achievement is that he benefited from affirmative action”
So we don’t know his grades but we know his skin color therefore he must have gotten in because of affirmative actions.
Again you usually hide your racism.

Nephron | Aug 11, 2010 7:36:46 PM posted: “Obama was never offered a clerkship. At least 40% of the graduating class at Harvard Law gets cum Laude or Magna cum Laude; certainly not as impressive as it seems on the surface.”
According to an article in the Harvard Crimson, Professor David B. Wilkins referred to Barack Obama as “brilliant, charismatic, and focused.” This is the same professor who was voted the top teacher in the Harvard Law School’s Center for Ethics in 2005 by graduating seniors.
The article also states Wilkins advised Obama to become a Supreme Court clerk. However, while Obama recognized the honor in pursuing that post, Wilkins explained Obama had another direction in mind. Clerkships are not simply handed out – there is an application process. Obama “was never offered a clerkship” because he did not apply. Instead, according to Professor Wilkins, Obama purposefully selected another path: to go back to Chicago, get into the community, and run for office there.
Harvard University Professor Laurence H. Tribe (awarded the Loeb Fellowship), who also taught Obama and employed him as a research assistant, remembers Obama as a “brilliant, personable, and obviously unique” person. Professor Tribe said that Obama’s theoretical perspective on applying modern physics to law was “very impressive.”
Since both these recognized Harvard professors knew and taught Barack Obama, we can view their comments about our Obama’s intellectual capabilities as more valid than someone who simply loathes our President.
Also, it is very simple to go on line to the Harvard Law School web site. “Summa cum laude” honors are awarded to the top 1% percent of the class. “Magna cum laude” honors are awarded to the next 10%. “Cum laude” to the next 30%. Barack Obama graduated Magna cum laude. “Not impressive”?
I think the bigger question is why some people try so hard to belittle our President.

Nephron | Aug 13, 2010 2:11:37 PM posted: “I doubt that Mr. Obama ever took a college level Physics course.”
If you want to challenge Professor Tribe’s statement in a Harvard Crimson article that Obama’s “theoretical perspective on applying modern physics to law was ‘very impressive’”, why not contact Professor Laurence H. Tribe for clarification?
Otherwise, perpetuating misinformation that “Obama was held to different standards” is a mean-spirited attempt to dismiss the our President’s educational achievements.
I can’t recall – are you also a Birther?

Nephron | Aug 13, 2010 5:01:47 PM posted: “that interest affected how he was graded and judged.” Nonsense.
According to an interview with the Concord Monitor newspaper, Professor Tribe called Obama the “best student I ever had” and the “most exciting research assistant.” He recalled Obama’s ability to turn an abstract theoretical paper into language lawyers typically use “so people don’t think you’re a pointy-headed conehead.” It was clearly a relationship built on respect and mentoring, not as you imply, an instructor propping up a weak intellect.
Obama decided against your presumed “great lawyer” direction when he intentionally broke from the traditional pattern of clerking at the Supreme Court after graduation. Instead he “planned to spend two or three years in private law practice and then return to Chicago to re-enter community work, either in politics or in local organizing.” Obama’s direction was service through politics, not fulfilling your definition of a “successful attorney”.
And toward that end, President Obama has been extremely successful.

green.goddess, you stated: “I think the bigger question is why some people try so hard to belittle our President.”
First, the obvious. He’s not MY president, I didn’t vote for him (gee, does THAT sound familiar?).
Second, he’s doing a PHENOMENAL job of belittling the office, all by himself. We’re just trying to keep him talking, the rest is easy – all we have to do is just sit back and watch the stammering idiot mumble, tell a lie or two, all while waggin’ his head from left to right, just like the bobblehead I have of him sitting on my dashboard.
…and the office of the President of the United States of America USED to garner such deep and automatic respect the world over. Didn’t take long to strip it of THAT dignity, huh?
But we made history… THAT’S what counts, right?