The $100 billion given to the Department of Education by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is the most expensive piece of legislation since the G.I. Bill which provided college education for returning World War II veterans. The investment is intended to shore up state education efforts, while saving jobs and encouraging educational innovation with its main objective to provide a better future for the youth of this country and the future generations said Education Secretary Arne Duncan at a press conference this morning.
“It is a time of economic crisis, it is a time of educational crisis and I am convinced we need to educate our way to a better economy. The challenges are real, the challenges are profound,the stakes have never been higher but the opportunity is absolutely once in a lifetime,” said Duncan.
“With unprecedented resources we want to push unprecedented reform,” said Duncan, adding that “we have to get dramatically better if we were to retain our spot around the world as the education leader... By the year 2020, we want to have the highest percent of college graduates in the world.”
To reach this ambitious goal, investments will be made in nearly every level of education. $5 billion will be invested to early childhood education. $30 billion will be invested in higher education. “There are no good dropouts, no good jobs today for high school dropouts... condemning them to poverty and social failure,” Duncan said. $2.5 billion will be dedicated over five years to retain students in higher education, and “the goal is not to go to college, the goal is to graduate,” he said.
These students are "competing with students in India and China for jobs... We have to raise the bar,” said Duncan.
For Duncan,”we cannot go backwards”, the crisis should lead people “to think very differently, to invest differently... and show what the country is possible.”
