Posted on:
October 17, 2016
By:
White House Press Release
High-quality early education is one of the best investments we can make, which is why we've added over 60,000 children to Head Start. We called for high-quality preschool for every four-year-old in America. And when I took office, only 38 states offered access to state-funded preschool. Today, it's up to 46.
There are still too many states that are cutting back on public education. And part of the reason tuition is going up is because states aren't putting as much money into state education, universities, community colleges as they used to.
...a high school education these days is not enough. By 2020, two out of three job openings require some form of higher education. Now, that doesn't always mean a four-year college degree, but it does mean -- whether it's a four-year university, or a community college, or some sort of training program -- you've got to get a little bit more than just what you're getting in high school.
It used to be that a high school job might be enough because you could go into a factory or even go into an office and just do some repetitive work, and if you were willing to work hard you could make a decent living. But the problem is repetitive work now is done by machines.
America's high school graduation rate went up to 83 percent, which is the highest on record.
