In a speech today at Dorchester pilot school TechBoston Academy, President Barack Obama called on people across the nation to institute comprehensive education reform.
Obama said he chose to speak at TechBoston so the school, which emphasizes math, science and technology, can serve as an example to the rest of the country.
“You guys are a model for what’s happening all across the country,” he said to the students. “Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs will require a level of education beyond a high school degree. Even after you graduate, you’re going to need some additional education.”
Obama said his administration is spending the month focusing on education. His budget includes a $90 million allotted for a grant competition to promote the use of technology in education, and $300 million in grants for projects in math, science and engineering, according to a March 8 Boston Globe article.
“The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations, and America has fallen to ninth in the proportion of young people with a college with a college degree,” Obama said. “We used to be number one, and we’re now number nine. That’s not acceptable.”
Obama said education reform demands high expectations and standards, more time in classrooms and greater focus on math and science.
“All those ingredients are present here at TechBoston,” Obama said.
The president applauded the school for its four-year math, science and technology requirement, which he credits for the school’s high graduation rate.
“Ninety-four percent of the most recent graduating class went to college. Eighty-five percent of those students were the first in their family,” he said.
Obama said the school’s success should be a model for communities around the nation.
“As a nation, we have a moral and economic imperative to give every child the chance to succeed, and that’s why I set a goal when I took office, that by the end of the decade, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. We will be number one again,” he said.
Obama called on businesses, philanthropists, citizens and parents to help improve education.
“Nothing we do in school [will] make much of a difference unless we instill in our kids the self-confidence and the self-discipline and the work ethic that re at the heart of success not just in school, but in life,” Obama said.
Obama said Race to the Top, his administration’s challenge to public high schools to demonstrate college and career preparedness, has already led more than 40 states to raise their education standards. He emphasized that solutions to education reform should stem not from the federal government in Washington, but from the state and local level.
“If we want to prosper in the 21st century, and if we want to keep the American Dream alive in our time, then we’re going to rise together.”
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