President Barack Obama gave remarks at NOVA's Annandale campus about the 2013 budget, emphasizing the role education plays in creating a successful future for a nation. Photo by: Traci J. Brooks

Dr. Jill Biden. Photo by: Traci J. Brooks

By: KJ Mushung
Newspaper Training Director

U. S. President Barack Obama came to the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College on Feb. 13 where he spoke to a select group of students and supporters about his proposed budget. However, a core component of the president’s speech was about the importance of community colleges in training today’s workforce in an effort to get more unemployed people into jobs.

Among the audience members was Dr. Jill Biden, who is a teacher at the Alexandria campus of NOVA and the wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

“[We need] to make sure that businesses don’t have to move overseas to find skilled workers, we’ve got to invest in places like NOVA. And make sure higher education is affordable for every hard-working American,” Obama said, to the applause and hoots of many in attendance.

“That’s what I want to focus on today: What we need to do in terms of higher education and community colleges in particular. Employers today are looking for the most skilled, educated workers. I don’t want them to find them in India or China. I want businesses to find [them] here… When an American of any age wants to pursue any kind of higher education… we’ve got to make sure that education is affordable and available to everybody who wants to go.”

“Now’s not the time to make school more expensive for young people,” stated Obama, who also said that Congress needs to make the temporary tuition tax credit permanent.

The president continued to rail against ever-increasing college tuition.

“Students and taxpayers can’t just keep on subsidizing skyrocketing tuition,” he said. “We’re putting the colleges and universities on notice. You can’t just keep on raising tuition and expect us to keep on coming up with more and more money… If you can’t stop tuition from going up then funding you get from taxpayers will go down because higher education cannot be a luxury. It is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.”

“Now’s not the time to make school more expensive for young people.” — Obama

Obama spoke of community colleges becoming community career centers where people can learn the skills that businesses are looking for today. He told the crowd that there are jobs available and many people who are unemployed, but businesses can’t always find workers with the right skills to do those jobs, many of which are in the science and technology industries.

“In a time when millions of Americans are looking for work, we shouldn’t have any job openings out there,” the president remarked.

“America needs to put Americans back to work. And community colleges are the closest thing we’ve got to an organization that can help unemployed find work for those that are trying to skill-up to find better work. I think we’re the best and most flexible, so I think he’s right to put an emphasis there,” said Dr. Robert Templin Jr., president of Northern Virginia Community College, after Obama’s speech.

However, Templin had some reservations about Obama’s remarks that college tuition needs to be lowered.

“I think it’s a complicated subject. If the state continues to cut the funding to community colleges, they won’t have much choice. And if we freeze tuition and they’re state funding cuts, then that means actually fewer students will be able to come,” he said. “So we have to be careful that we don’t freeze tuition and freeze students out at the same time.”

Dr. Robert Templin Jr., president of Northern Virginia Community College, smiles after U. S. President Barack Obama's speech at the Annandale campus Feb. 13. Photo by KJ Mushung

By: KJ Mushung

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