Terrorists stand for. They have nothing to offer but hatred and human suffering. We stand for freedom and hope and the dignity of all human beings. Thats what the city of paris represents to the world. And that spirit will endure is for ever after the scourge of terrorism is banished from this world. [applause. ] i am at knoxville not only because i just like knoxville, but i am here today because one of my resolutions is to make sure that folks across this great country feel like they are coming back there is no doubt that the steps we took early on to rebuild this foundation and put it on a new Foundation America is coming back. [applause. ] president bush president bush president bush i am not running for office anymore. So let me just present the facts. I promised that 2014 would be a breakthrough year for america. This morning, we got more evidence to back that up. In december, our businesses created 240 new jobs, our Unemployment Rate fell to 5. 6 , which is the lowest in six and a half years. What that means is 2014 was the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s [applause. ] unemployment [applause. ] unemployment fell in 2014 in any year since 1994, 30 years since unemployment fellows fast as it did last year. And most importantly, we are seeing faster job growth in industries that provide good paying jobs traditionally middle class jobs than anything else. Since 2010, the United States of america has created more jobs than europe japan, and every other advanced economy combined [applause. ] American Manufacturing is in the best stretch of job growth since the 1990s. We are seeing companies insourcing instead of outsourcing. They are realizing, we want to be here with American Workers making american products. America is now the worlds number 1 producer in oil, gas. We have doubled the production of clean energy. And by the way you are saving about a buck 10, a gallon over this time last year [applause. ] although i keep on reminding folks, gas prices they go up and they come down and then they go up. So, i just want everybody to know that you should enjoy this. Take the money you are saving, you know pay off the credit card or go get a new appliance or buy a fuelefficient car so that when prices go back up, you are still well positioned. Thanks to the Affordable Care act, about 10 million have gained Health Insurance over the past year. [applause. ] and by the way, we have done this while cutting our deficit by about 2 similar 3 residence. In every survey, they say is the deficit going up or down. 70 say the deficit is going up. The deficit has come down by 2 3rds since i took. [applause. ] meanwhile, thanks to the hard work of students and educators, dropout rates are down. Graduation rates are up. And after 13 long years, our war in afghanistan has come to a responsible end and we have more troops that were home all this week. So, i say all of this because these six years demand a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice on everybodys part. As a country, weve got every right to be proud of what weve got to show for it americas resurgence is real. And now that we have seen calmer waters economically, if we all do our part if we all pitch in then we can start making sure that all boats are actually lifted again and wages and incomes start rising again and we can make sure that the middle class is the engine that powers americas prosperity just as it always has. So thats going to be the focus of my state of the Union Address in a couple of weeks. I wanted to give you a little preview. Dont tell anybody i said that. I am giving you the inside scoop. Thats the thats going to be the essence of my message. How do we build on the progress that we have made. I figured, why wait for the state of the union. Why stand on formalities. Lets get the ball rolling right now. Two days ago, visited michigan where workers have brought the Auto Industry roaring back. We talked about what else we can do around advanced manufacturing. Yesterday, i was in arizona where i aannounced new actions to make the dream of homeownership a reality for more middle class families. Later today, joe and i are going to head to a company in clinton to take action that will develop hightech industry even further here in tennessee and right here right now at the school i am going to announce one of my most important state of the Union Proposals helping every american afford a Higher Education [applause. ] now, part of the reason i wanted to come here was because tennessee is at the forefront of doing some really smart stuff. Weve got some proud tennesseeages who can take some great credit. First, your governor base has haslam. Hes here. Two fine senators, bob corker, and your senior senator, Lamar Alexander who is former secretary of education. So, he knows a little bit about this. We have congressman john duncan [applause. ] your mayor, madeline regerra. [applause. ] and weve got anthony wise. And weve got all of you. Now, joe touched on these themes. Let me just amplify them a little bit. Here in america, we dont guarantee equal outcomes. Some folks work harder. Some folks dont. Some folks take advantage of opportunities. Some folks dont. Some people have good luck. Some people have bad luck and, you know things do always work out where everything is perfectly equal. But we do expect that everybody gets an equal shot. We do expect everybody can go as far as their dreams and hard work will take them. We dont expect anybody to be bound by the circumstances of their birth. If they were, i wouldnt be here, and neither would joe. Jill, shes so accomplished she would have succeeded no matter what. But we expect everybody to get a fair shot. And in exchange we do our fair share. Thats the basic bargain at the heart of this country. If you work hard, you can get ahead. It shouldnt matter what your last name is or what we look like or what family we are born in to or how we worship. What matters is effort and merit. Thats the promise of america. And the way we deliver on that is making sure that our Education System works on behalf of every person who lives here america thrived in the 20th century in large part because we made high school the norm. And then we sent a generation to college on the gi bill including my grandfather. And then we dedicated ourselves to cultivating the most educated workforce in the world and we invested in whats one of the crown jewels of this country, our Higher Education system and then dating back to abraham lincoln. We invested in land grant colleges. We understood that this was a hallmark of america. This investment in education. But eventually the world caught on and the world caught up. And thats why we have to lead the world in education again. Thats why my administration is working to make high quality Early Childhood education available to all of our kids [applause. ] we know if we invest in them early, it pays dividends on the back end. Thats why we are work to go bring high Speed Broadband to 99 of americas students within the next four years. We want to make sure every child is plugged in. Thats why we are recruiting more highly trained math and science teachers. Thats why we are working to raise standards and invest more in our elementary and middle and high schools than every young person is compared for a prepared for a competitive word. This work is not easy. Sometimes, its controversial. Its not going to be the same in every state. But in places like tennessee we are seeing incraig i had strides. In the state of tennessee, students have improved their reading and math scores more than any other state in the country [applause. ] thats a credit to their hard work, their teachers hard work Governor Haslams hard work. Leaders from both parties. Every tennesseean should be proud of that. In a 20th central economy where your most valuable asset is your knowledge, the single most important way to get ahead is not just to get at high school education. Youve got to get some Higher Education. Thats why all of you are here at value of an education is not purely instrumental. Education helps us be better citizens. You came to college to edgengage with the world and discover new ideas and discover the things you are passionate about, and it may be have a little fund and to expand your horizons. Thats ter inc. Thats a huge part of what college has to offer. But you are also here now more than ever because a College Degree is the surest ticket to the middle class. It will is the key to getting a good job that pays a good income and to provide you the security where even if you dont have the same job for 30 years, you are so adaptable and you have a skill set and the capacity to learn new skills it ensures you are always employable. That is the key not just for individuals but this whole countrys ability to committee compete in the new economy. In the new economy, jobs will go where the best skilled and educated workforce resides because business business is mobile now. Technology means they can locate anywhere and where they have the most educated most adaptable, most nimble workforce, thats where they are going to locate. And i want them to look no further than the United States of america. I want them coming right here. I want those businesses here, and i want the American People to be able to get those businesses, to get those jobs to those businesses created. Thats why we have created grants and said lets cut out the middleman and go to students. Instead, we can help more students. We have increased scholarships. We have cut tax for people paying tuition. We have let students cap their federal student loan payments at 10 of income so that they can borrow with confidence particularly if you are going in to a job like nursing or temporarying that may not pay a huge salary but thats where your passes are. We are creating a new College Rating system that will give parents and students the kind of clear, concise information you need to shop around schools with the best value for you t lamar and i were talking about how we can do more to simplify the application process for federal student loans, which is still too complicated [applause. ] we have done a little of good work for the last six years. We will keep at it. I want to focus on the Community Colleges like this one. For millions of americans, Community Colleges are essential pathways tots middle class because they are local they are flexible they work for people who work fulltime. They work for parents who have to raise kids fulltime. They work for folks who have gone as far as their skills will take them and want to earn new ones but dont have the capacity to just suddenly gol study for four years and not work Community Colleges work for veterans in civilian life. If you are first for college or coming back after many years ago, Community Colleges find a place for you, and you can get a great education. Jill has been teaching english at Community Colleges for 20s years. She started when she was like, like 15. And she is still fulltime today. I talked to her. She talks about her students and she can see the excitement and the promise and sometimes the fear of being a 32yearold mom who is going back to school and never finished the degree that she had started and life got in the way, and now shes coming back and suddenly getting a whole new skill set and seeing a whole range of Career Options opening up to her. Its exciting. And thats what Community Colleges are all about. The idea that no 1 with drive and discipline should be left out, should be locked out of opportunity. Certainly that nobody with that drive and discipline should be denied a College Education just because they dont have the money. Every american whether they are young or just young at heart, should be able to earn the skills necessarily to win in the 20th century economy. Sod sod, today i am announcing a new plan to bring down the cost of Community College in america. I want to bring it down to zero [applause. ] i want to [applause. ] i want to make it free. Community colleges should be free for those willing to work for it because in america, quality education cannot be a privilege that is reserved for a few. I think its a right for everybody who is willing to work for it. Now the good news is you already do Something Like this in tennessee. You call it tennessee promise [applause. ] we thought why not build on what works . So we are going to call it Americas College promise. [applause. ] the concept is simple. Americas College Promise will make two years of Community College free to responsible students who are willing to work for it. I want to underscore that last clause. Everybody who is working hard for it. There are no free rides in america. You would have to earn it. Students would have to do their part by keeping their grades up. Colleges would have to do their part by offering highquality academics and helping students actually graduate. States would have to do their part, too. This isnt a blank check. Its not a free lunch. But for those willing to do the work and for states and local communities that wants to be a part of this, it can be a gamechanger. Think about it. Students who started at Community Colleges during those two years and then go onto a fourinstitution, they essentially get the first half of their bachelors degree for free. People who enroll for skills training will graduate already ready to work and they wont have a pile of student debt. Two years of college will become as free and universal as high school is today. Now, we are also taking another page out of tennessees playbook and expanding Technical Training through Community Colleges as you do through your college of applied technology [applause. ] joe did a wonderful job looking at Technical Training systems all around the country. At a time when jobs are changing and higher wages call for higher skills, weve got to make sure workers have a chance to get those skills. We want young people to graduate with realworld training that leads directly to good jobs and we want Older Workers to get retrained so they can compete and we want more women and minorities to get jobs in fields that traditionly they have been left out of likely science and technology and engineering and math, and we want to connect Community Colleges with employers because when thats done right, these partnerships pay off for everybody. Students learn on the job. Employers get access to talent. Colleges get help designing courses that actually prepare people for the workplace. All of which creates better pathways to todays middle class. So we are going to find the programs that work. We are going to help them grow. Now, in a few weeks, i am going to send to congress my plan for free Community College. I hope that congress will come together to support it because opening the doors of Higher Education shouldnt be a democratic issue or a republican issue. This is an american issue. Governor haslam is a republican [applause. ] Governor Haslam is a republican and thanks to his leadership he and helped tennesseans to have free education. In my hometown of chicago, the governor a democrat is offering tuition and students graduate with good jobs. If a state with republican leaderhip is doing this and a city withdrantic leadership is doing this then how about we all do it . [applause. ] lets do it for our future [applause. ] a i said before, there are a bunch of good bipartisan ideas out there. The legislation was introduced that would make Financial Aid forms simpler. I notice a lot of people applauded because its been a while since i filled it out, but i understand there is more than 100 questions on it. It just shouldnt be that hard to apply for aid for college. And so, i have committed to working with senator alexander. Lets shrink it down. Lets make life a little easier for millions of families. The point is, we are not going to agree on everything. But simplifying that form, thats something we should be able to agree on. Lets get that done this year [applause. ] because in the end, nothing is more important to our country than you our people. Thats our asset. Weve got very nice real estate here weve got in the incredible bounty, the godgiven resources that we enjoy in this country. Our greatest resources are people. I want to say to the students here, how proud of what you are doing. A lot of students i know you had to overcome some obstacles to come here. Many of you are the first in your families to go to college. Some of you are working fulltime while you are going to school. But you are making this investment in you and by doing that, you are making an investment in this countrys future and i just want to use one persons story as an example. Mckatelyn mclaughlin. Is she here . I thought she was hear second ago. But i am going to tell her story anyway. She was raised by a single mom. She helped make ends meet getting her first job almost the minute she could, two days after her 16th birthday. When it came time for college, the money wasnt there. Mckatelyn lives in tennessee so she knew she had a great free option. She completed two years at this institution. Now, shes a senior at maryville college. She is working fulltime just like she has been since her first day of college. And katelyn