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When cap-and-trade and nationalized health care gets through with us, our children will be lucky to be able to afford even local junior colleges.

Yes, the people need cheaper college tuition. Send them to inferior Community Colleges where they will learn what they should have learned in high school. That will solve the problem.

When we all get our phds, we ain't gonna let no drop-outs mow our yards no more.

Yes sir, in today's increasingly competitive global market where high paying jobs routinely require advanced degrees, a $12 billion investment in a 2-year associate degree is just what Dr. Obama would order. Guess he believes that an Associates Degree is equivalent to his Harvard education.

With a $1,000,000,000,000 deficit today, expected to hit $1.8 trillion by the end of the fiscal year...how are we going to pay for this?

Obama you are an IDIOT.....Nobody respects you and further more no other tyrant fears you.....Democrats, Obama will be treated with the same respect that you showed Bush for 8 yrs. All you pathetic losers keep crying about how your messiah is being treated by Republicans well that is nothing compared to how you treated Bush and just remember what comes around goes around.....Isnt Karma beautiful.

There is absolutely no way you can find anything negative to say about promoting cheap *quality* continuing education that is provided by our community colleges...right? I mean, people benefit greatly from community colleges. Surely you can't hate on him for this...right?

Who can object to supporting our community colleges. Education is the best way to imrprove one's prospects in our society (except, of course, being born into a prosperous family). Also, children of college graduates go to college.

Can there even be a Conservative with a heart so black and flinty that he or she would oppose a program to improve the quality and accessiblity of American community colleges?

Plan "B" to replace ACORN???

This president is so out of touch with reality. But what can we expect from a community organizer who doesn't know anything about running a business or even working for one. He has no experiences that enable him to understand us common folk. College is not the cure all for the economy and jobs, someone has to own all these big bad businesses that the college grads want to work for.......hope the college grads don't mind moving over seas to work!

Higher skilled workforce– That's how you build a competitive economy for the future. Now we will have some people to make all those tax breaks for business work.

The $12 billion can come from getting out of Iraq one month earlier.

An excellent choice, again!

It is not the institution that is the problem, it is the individual that has the responsibility. You could line the building with gold and still have the same outcome. The students have to have the drive for success.

Or a Short "Cop-Out" for "Free-Loaders". Sherkers!!!

thats why i respect him. he's challenging us all. asking every american. and each one on this site right now, to do their part. its not about pouring money into the economy. its about changing how we do things.. the core of it. buying american, being easy on the gas to drop our need of foreign oil, and investing in whats american to keep our money flowing in this country. and for alot of big cities. community colleges are the best first steps. you have to respect that.

It's easy for someone with a Harvard degree to push for community colleges. It is hard enough when graduating for young people to find a job but if you were an employers and had two people you liked one from Yale the other from Yavapai college in Prescott AZ, who do you think the employer would choose.

The campaign promise was that any young person could go to college for free if they agreed to do service (community, military, etc) after graduating. So I guess this is another broken promise from the Obama administration.

The two major universities in my state do not accept the majority of credits earned at community colleges in engineering or other technical areas of study.
They are mainly a waste of time if your goal is a BS at a mojor university.

He has to spend that $$. We are going to be paying for the mistakes of Obama for generations to come.

that's great thing to do,but give em money to do it.they are not, and those schools' that are trying to teach nowdays on the money uncle sam is giving them(those on programs becouse of freetrade)give them under the bare minimum to get us who had their jobs shipped over sea's(still tring to figure out who's bright idea that was).also,for those who did get their jobs sent over seas are getting a huge pay decress becouse unemployment does not replace the wages lost to overseas compitition(unfair).
How about this idea,lets bring those jobs back untell freetrade means a even playing field for all.Can we stop the great american job give-away for corp. proffits and stop giving countries that don't play by those rules all our work and money..we need a goverment with some balls to stop putting up with all this nonsense.Time for a new party for the american people to watch out for it's own and not this lame idea of FREE TRADE.We all know it's not free trade it's just giving all our hard work and effort over the last 200 years for lobbiest and corp.greed.

Hussein Obama is FINISH. He put this country HEAVILY in debt within less than 100 days in office. BIGGEST DEFICIT IN US HISTORY created by Hussein Obama! SICK! SICK!

This is a much needed alternative. I have a 17 year old who will be a senior this year. His grades qualify him for dual enrollment. He will begin college early as a result of this but, beyond high school he is resitant to discussing college. His only argument is that he does not want to be in debt. Community college is an affordable alternative to 4 year universities they facilitate transfer to four year schools and make graduates more employable. My local community college has several locations throughout the region, has a student run restaurant, which serves as a lab for its culinary arts students. There is an on going partnership with Penn State University for transfer students and is a major employer in the region. Not bad for a community college.

Great job President Obama!

Not everyone wants nor has access to a college for a variety of reasons.

However, everyone does need a marketable skill, and the community colleges in addition to tech schools can both be used to teach marketable skills in a shorter period of time.

President Obama has the right priorities with education.

Community colleges provide a constructive foundation towards advancement in higher learning. An associate degree from my community college proved invaluable prior to progressing to the university.

Keep up the great work, Mr. President.

TOTUS Has Crashed who is running the country?????I hear flags will be lowered to half staff today, such a sad day for Amerika

Just add the 12$ Billion the the now trillion dollar shortfall. With three months left in the fisical year we are now a trillion dollars in the hole and that does not include Health reform and Cap and Trade. Obama's money machine needs to start working three shifts to pay these bills. Now that is CHANGE we can believe in.

Obama stop spending money.. Somebody needs to stop him. He is out of control, out of his leage and has no experience to being a leader/ President. Someone STOP his Spending.

Community Colleges are important and I am glad to see them getting funding. They provide an avenue for young people who cannot afford a traditional four-year school to go to college at a lower rate, while still getting a good education. More importantly, they provide adults a chance to learn new or additional job skills to make them more employable. I just finished taking a series of UNIX classes that would have cost me thousands at a specialized school for only a few hundred dollars. The professor was also a top-notch professional in the field and taught us skills that the workplace is searching for. Bravo Mr. President.

While I support community colleges and everything they do in retraining American workers, I question why the president has to spend more tax payer dollars to travel to a community college to deliver this message. What's wrong with the rose garden? It's a beautiful day in Washington DC.

OK, bash me for picking on the president. With a deficit at $1 trillion dollars and groing, every little savings will help. The president challenged his Secretaries to find millions in savings earlier this year. OK, here is a perfect example of how we could save some money.

Thsi is a GREAT move and I would suggest that the idea of having more students complete the first two years of college is commendable. I believe this idea could be accelerated if state, community college, and local high school leaders would work together to bridge the gap between high school and college. One way would be to ratchet up the last two years of high school courses to be equal to those offered by a community college and be counted toward a high school diploma and an associates degree. Students could major in a work based program leading toward a high pay career or major in transfer program leading to a four year degree. The funding is already in place–local school district taxes are already paying for these last two years of high school and if thees courses could be designed to meet college requirements, it would be a win-win for students, parents, and the economy.

Education is the best way to move people from poverty to the middle class. Also, the children of those with college degrees typically go to college themselves. John McCain proposed, in his acceptance speech:
"We're going to help workers who've lost a job that won't come back find a new one that won't go away. We will prepare them for the jobs of today. We will use our community colleges to help train people for new opportunities in their communities. For workers in industries that have been hard hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower-paid one while they receive retraining that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage."
I recall a spontaneous burst of applause and cheers as McCain said this to the Republican Convention, so promoting community colleges is something that Liberals and Conservatives can both support.

Community colleges in the US are not getting the recognition they deserved, But may be the US should look for another approach, May be the US should have a look North one more time, in Canada Community colleges do an outstanding job supplying highly qualify personnel to local business.
Community colleges in Canada offer 2 year certificates, 3.5 year certificates and some offer a 4 years bachelors degree, In the US only a two year certificate..

I believe the Great White North may have the right formula.

I would bet that many Community Colleges have a huge Price tag to go with it. Isn't it bad enough we can't get assistance as a white American to send our children to college even community because our economy stinks. I am not racial however I have seen to many last name applicants with Perez, washington, or smith with a different ethnic race get get more fed aid than I can imagine. The system is not fair by any means and the tax payers will certainly see increases from this. I say put it in the Elementary and High Schools. Not college funds

As a parent who has put two young men through college (annual cost per school 43k & 45k per year times 4 times 2) I was emphatic about the importance of excellent grades and extra-curricular activities (sports, community service) while they were in high school in order to boost their qualifications for scholarships. We looked into community colleges in our area but walked away feeling that they were lacking in their curriculum offerings, availability of scholarships, and facilities.

I strongly support Pres. Obama addressing this particular area: community college education. It was VERY tough financially, even with scholastic scholarships, to educate my sons in private institutions that charged 'mortgage-type' tuitions. Ultimately the sacrifice was well- worth it: gainful careers, valuable networks. However if there had been a bit more parity to the community colleges I would've liked to have had them as a viable option.

I knew it would not take long before I read that he was going to take more of our money. We support these schools through local and state taxes, Obama and the Obamatrons have to get control somehow, otherwise they can't create new Obamatrons through the education system. It is part of the liberal/NEA plot against America.

Education is important; higher education extremely important! But, can't this man stay focused on the really, really important issues of the day – JOBS and ECONOMY? This man is a dismal failure and people are finally starting to wake up!

Free college educations and healthcare for everyone! Entitlements at their best! All to build his constituancy and keep democrats in power. Meanwhile, their spending our Country into oblivion.

I REALLY don't get it. I did use my degree (an associates degree in executive secretarial studies–I took "college" courses in high school, so didn't have secretarial basics when I graduated, but could have picked up what I didn't know in 2 hours on a job (except shorthand)) in my jobs, but neither of my children are using theirs. With relatively few exceptions, no college education is necessary to excel in any job. A decent high school education and a first job are all that is required to do most jobs (almost all employers are looking for work experience, so getting that first job is really tough, unless someone knows someone.) The problem with this elitist attitude of most employers and the present administration is that they think college graduates are smarter than others. Look around–just about anyone can get a degree if they have the money, and many are morons. Am I sorry that my children have degrees? No, but I am sorry that they need that piece of paper to enable them to get jobs. It is ridiculous.

Some of you people keep saying he's not doing anything?

But,

I don't get it?

I've never seen a president plant so many seeds for the youth of this country.

It may be true most of his policies will take a couple years to really get going, but you and I both know once they get going, well, let's just say it's going to be an incredibly significant time period in our history.

This so called debt your worried about will get taken care of sooner than you think.

But hey, go ahead, play the lowsy game of politics and complain about tax and spending.

The majority of us could truly care less.

What about Government offering a scholarship paying 100% of tuition and books for students who meet certain grade requirements? That would be a lot better for the country and would cost a lost less than the $380,000 we are paying now for each job saved/created under the so-called stimulus package.

Why does the federal government need to intervene in community colleges? We can't afford it. The federal government is bankrupt. Our taxes are already too high I can't afford them anymore.

education is key. local even better. helps local business hire qualified employees. helps people better themselves. nothing wrong with this.

I think if community colleges have an online program, there will be a higher enrollment. I've been puuting off going back to school because of my work day. So accesisibilty to the classroom will be very convenient.

where is all this money coming from?

Hello! We thought those community colleges do offer 4-yr. baccalaureate programs as well. How misconceived we are! Somebody ought to look into the veracity of this report. It could be potentially problematric.