And ing on College Access was joined by duncan and took students, from parents. His is one hour and ten minutes. Barack obama. [cheering and applause]. Iowa. Lo,. [cheering and applause] back in is good to be iowa. [cheering and applause] go polar bears. [cheering and applause] be back in des moines. And saw at the airport the hampton in there, i must have stayed there 100 days. Im ure ive got some points there or something, a couple of free hampton. The. [laughter] everybody have a seat, relax. I know i know its september, so i know you guys are all about to be flooded with ads and calls who want ch of folks this job. What kind t imagine of person would put themselves through Something Like that. [laughter] i didnt know he was on the ballot. Unitedt president of the states. Prouder of him, ot only for the introduction but the story hes told. Young example of what people can do when they put their minds to it. Principal. Thank you mike. Wheres mike . [cheering and applause] he is. [applause] here. Uperintendent is wheres tom . [cheering and applause] is here who rank is where is he . City council o a meeting. Miller. [cheering and applause] mike fitzgerald, great supporter. [cheering and applause] and secretary of education, arty. [cheering and applause] im not going to give a long want to spende we most of the time taking questions from all of you. Explain that we came to this high school because you guys have done some great hings over the past few years. Students have e laptops and ipads and ap scores , improving test so you have become a great country of he whole whats possible. [cheering and applause] we thought wed come and pay you talk to some of the students in des moines and talk to your parents. Theres nothing that High Schoolers love more than being parents. With their. [laughter] week, thats ago, this a financial crisis, on wall street, ended up ushering in some really hard times on main street. Incredible to the rezilance and grit and hard work f the american people, we bounced back. We have more jobs. We have more than 16 Million People that have security of insurance, many of them for the first time. Our High School Graduation rate is the highest that its ever been. [applause] id like to point out, by the way, if youd like to see the best Graduation Rate in america, its right here in iowa. [cheering and applause] so, weve been investing in things that help to grow the middle class and help provide opportunity for every young person. But no 21st century economy nobody in the 21st century economy is going to do what they lives do with their unless they get a great education. By 2020, two out of three job openings are going to require posthigh School Education whether its a Community College or tech school and its an investment that pays off. It empowers you and gives you a of who you are and your hopes and your dreams. Sharpen how you see the world and empowers you in all sorts of ways. Has some pretty practical ramifications. High school diploma, a 2year school could 10,000. An extra could earn you 1 million more. Never been tion has immortants important or expensive. E are trying to make high school and postcollege most affordable. We funded a student loan bill. Cut out the s middle man and put that money to students. We did a tax credit of up to 2,500 for families to work for uition and books and fees and to cap their federal student of their income. If you want to be a teacher, you can still do that knowing that youre not going to go, you know youre still going to be able to afford to support yourself and your family while doing it. Yearsere fighting for two of free Community College for whos willing to work for it. [cheering and applause] that knowttom line is young person in america should be priced out of college. They should not be priced out of an education. Know that finding the right school the for you, the best school for you is a process. You are juggling applications. Some of you are asking what you plan for a career and what you life. To do with your i think we should make that process easier, so a couple of things that weve done, that were announcing over the course introduced , weve. Ollege score card right now, a lot of families need to e what they choose a good school. A lot of the College Rankings reward schools for spending more money or rejecting students. I think thats the wrong focus. It should be on helping the students. We pulled together data on college costs. You can scroll through the score are and see which schools more likely to graduate their students, are more likely to result in good jobs for those studen likely to make sure those students are likely o pay off their Student Loans and make decisions that are right for your future and budget. Can go to ollegescorecard. Edgo collegescorecard. Collegescorecard. Edu. Gov. A lot of students dont claim theyre cial aid qualified for. Those young people are leaving money on the table. There may be young people here the re not aware of all financial help you can get. We have shortened the form down to 20 minutes. Timesed to be two or three s long. Because only congress we have a e rules, ongressman here who traveled with us, bobby scott. Back there. The. [cheering and applause] hes a democrat and working with republicans to further shorten and make this form simple. S ginning next year, familie will be able to fill out fasa even earlier. Starting on october 1, right bout the time College Applications ramp up. You wont have to wait for your w2s. Youll know sooner how much aid morel qualify for and have time to evaluate your options nd were working with colleges and universities and scholarships to aid this new start date. Taken these steps, together, should help students pay for college. Im going to end, my opening with a story from somebody who wouldnt be here today. His name is nico green. Him for the ember basketball team. [cheering and applause] to tell n that i want hat story is, for the past few homeless. Co was as a junior and senior, he was his coach stay with or counselor. Before that, he spent nights in shelters and in Church Basements or in hotels with his mom, sometimes, sleeping next to drug worse. S or he said hes seen terrible for s and hes thankful what hes been through because it made him strong. Study, keeping his eye on college, applying for and winning scholarships. Of ualified for thousands dollars in state aid. Hes studying accounting and still playing ball, hoping to make enough money to build and that he ck to the mom loves. [cheering and applause] here. Ts why were thats what this is about. Nico and rusean and many of you who want to take have big step and dreams. We want you to know that were there to help you achieve those dreams. We want to make sure that were iving every student, who is willing to put in the effort, all the tools they need in order to succeed. Thats not only good for the students, by the way, thats also good for america because his country was built on the notion that it doesnt matter where you came from, what you look like, what your last name youre willing to work hard, you can make it. Key to cation is the making that future possible. Thats how we grow this country, thats how we make it successful and thats the incredible project, the great experiment in are racy that all of you apart of. Everybody. Ery much,. [cheering and applause]. Can everybody hear me . Working . All right. So, heres how this is going to work. You raise your hand and ill call on you. Girl boy, to go girl boy, to make it fair. Here should be people in the audience, with microphones, so wait until they get there and yourself. Try to keep your questions short enough that we can get as many in as possible and contrary to what he said, hes nsing to get the tough questio and i just want the easy ones. All right . Who wants to go first . Shot her lady, she hand up quick. Right here. Here. D a microphone up all right. Hi, my name is angelica and my question is for you, what do you believe the world of teachers should be . Role ofdo i believe the teachers should be . Hats a great question when i think about my own life some of you may know, my dad left when i was very young, so i really didnt know him so i single mom and we didnt have a lot when we although, my mom had this great love of learning. Teenager when she had me, she was 18. School and g to working fulltime when she was sister. Me and then my she was my first great teacher. Taught me was compassion, caring about other people. But she also taught me to be curious. And when i think back to all the that ive had, the facts that theyve taught me because i can books, but it has been teachers who have been able sense of in me, a curiosity. Like, how does that work . Is . Is that the way it want to whos helped me learn more. That, to me, is the role of a great teacher. Somebody who can teach you to be the subject in that you, in time, start teaching yourself. Great here are a lot of teachers here. Part of the challenge, i think, for being a teacher is that sometimes students dont always appreciate good teachers. Lets face it. Sometimes we k think education is somening that from somebody else, its passive. Knowledge in here. But, in fact, good teaching is a having with youre somebody where theyre giving also ot just answers, but asking you questions and helping your brain get a workout and try to learn how to figure things out yourself. I think Great Teachers are somebody that have confidence in you and have High Expectations in you and they see and get a sense of, you know what, you are important and you can do amazing things. And when you feel that from a teacher, that a teacher really g in s youve got somethin you thats worth saying or writing or those are the teachers that you remember. Teachers that inspire you. What do you think . Be quick. The only think i would add is reat teachers see things in students that they dont see in of selves and pull them out you. He talked about his mom being locked up. A lot of teachers see him as a student body president and a leading the community. Mazing teachers see things in kids. They helped to bring that light. [applause]. Quick question . All right. I think its the guys turn now. That gentleman right back there, right around the corner there. Dennis. Me is im a senior here at north high school. [laughter] whats so funny . [laughter] are you the one thats embarrassing . Maybe. Its a give and take. Hey embarrass me, im going to embarrass them [laughter] im right there with you. In your opinion, of all the next president ial candidates that are in line, which ones ideas for st education reform to make them accessible . Able and i let ou know, e [laughter] i promise, im generally going to give you straight answers. Im going to wiggle around it a little bit. [laughter] right now, im going to try to season of the campaign until partly, because i cant keep track of all the candidates. [laughter] windled t until its down a little bit before i have an opinion. Is what i can say, that are reflectedlues time, our put our effort, our money. Sufficient for us to education. About if we arent actually puting resources into education. Am mrauz mra [applause] e have gotten some guff sometimes because weve said that money, alone, is not enough. That its important for us, if a teaching constant constantly, ids kids, so they can achieve, we things. Change how we do in collaboration with teachers and principals and parents and students, we have to figure out better. Ake it it has increased accountability creativity ing more and empowering teachers more. You know, those dont cost money. Also know is that science labs dont have the right equipment, then its harder to teach science. If kids dont have access to broadband and laptops in their theyre at a en disadvantage to those who do. If youve got a school that oesnt have enough counselors and so come time to apply for college, there arent enough counselors to go around and kids are getting the best advice that selling d, they may end themselves short when it comes to going to college. Part of the reason im making his point, when youre evaluating candidates, you Pay Attention to this. Were going to have a major debate, in congress, coming up. Doneudgets supposed to be and congress has not come up with a budget. And there are some, in the other comfortable with keeping in place something which is goingr, to be it is going to result cuts over the next several years in the amount of federal support for education. Them, ats going to force either layoffs or kids not getting the kinds of support they need. It will have an affect on the education of students. Everybody to be clear, without endorsing any ideas, ar candidates running for bodys president and they say they want to be the education president , things. Two one is that you care about every student doing well, not just some, because whoevers president for all people. Not just some [applause] and point number two is that ouve got to be willing to provide the resources, particularly, for communities as much of a ave Property Tax Base so they cant their own,e money on in order to help their students achieve. All right. You want to add to that . Just very quickly, about getting into this candidate or that, you have about two dozen to choose from and they all want you vote. I have questions i want you to ask, one, what are you willing do to have more children have access to Early Childhood education . Thats the best investment we can make. [applause] two, what are you going to do to continue to increase our nations High School Graduation rate . High. T an alltime what are you going to do to make School Students are ready for college. Ourth, we need to lead the world in College Graduation 12th. Today, we are if every candidate you ask, what for our concrete goals those four things and what resources are you willing to put behind that . Our country would be a much stronger place. Here. To be a tag team heres one last thing because im sorry. What was your name . Angela asked a question about a great it mean to be teacher. Candidate say that the big problem with education should not vote for that person. [cheering and applause] because [cheering and applause] it is a hard job and it is the got. Important job weve and folks who going into teaching dont go into it for the money. They go into it because they are passionate about kids. That doesnt mean that there arent some bad teachers. It doesnt mean that we shouldnt hold teachers to high standards, as well, and continue to work in terms of professional development and recruitment and retention of Great Teachers. Have been times where we have had some disagreements with on certain unions issues because we want to ntation. E experime but, the bottom line is, though, ou can measure how good a school is by whether or not it is respecting and engaging teachers in the classroom so they are professionals and they feel good about what they are doing and they are given freedom and theyre not being forced to teach to a test. For us, y important then, to make sure that what a bunch of ust teacher bashing. To vote ell you who for, but at least not right now. Will. , i. [laughter] i can tell you who to vote against and that is somebody who decides that somehow teachers ont deserve the kind of respect that and decent deserve. At they [applause] all right. Its the young ladys turn. Ou right there, in the brown sweater, right there. Thats fine. Thank you. A senior at d im roosevelt and an intern at the Hillary Clinton campaign. I guess i know who youre voting for [laughter] yeah. Do you think its possible or free tic for there to be tuition for college in the United States . I think that is absolutely realistic for us to have the first two years of Community College free because it is in my budget, and i know how to pay for it. [applause] president obama essentially if you close up some Corporate Tax loopholes that are not growing the economy and are a boondoggle, you take that money. You can then help every state do what tennessee is already doing. Tennessee is already making Community Colleges free the first two years. What that does is first of all, it helps young people who may not right now want to get a Fouryear College education but know they still need some Technical Training or they want to get an associates degree. Right away, that group, they know they can get their education for free as long as they are working hard. For those thinking about a Fouryear College education, they can also get the first two years at Community College, and then transfer those credits to a Fouryear College and they just cut their Overall College costs in half. It would be good for everybody whether you are going two or four years. If we can get that done, we can Start Building from there. In the meantime, i want to make sure everybody understands what we are talking about in terms of fafsa. You have to fill out this form. We are making it easier for you to do. You have no excuse. Parents, even if you did not go to college, you need to nag your kids to make sure this fafsa form gets filled out so you know the student aid you may be entitled to. My grandma did not go to college, even though she was probably the smartest person i knew. But she did know you had to go to college, and you had to fill out this form. So i want everybody here to make sure you stay focused on that because there is more help already than a lot of people are aware of. The College Scorecard we talked about, collegescorecard. Ed. Gov, what that does is it allows you to look at the schools to find out do they graduate students, how much debt do they have, are they getting a job after they graduate . We are not just ranking the most prestigious school. We are getting your news you can use in evaluating whether the schools you are applying to actually deliver on their commitm