Vice President Biden Wants to Boost National College Graduation Rates

The Obama Administration believes that in order to be competitive in the 21st century, America must raise its standing in the world among nation’s churning out college graduates. This theme runs through several initiatives launched by President Obama’s teaming, including a new push for state-level competitions to encourage college completion.

Vice President Joe Biden was the featured speaker at the first-ever Building a Grad Nation Summit. He encouraged every state’s governor to host a college completion summit at the state level. He also announced the release of a college completion toolkit from which governors and their teams can gather ideas.

For colleges and universities, they can now apply for the 2011 Comprehensive Grant Program, a competition to encourage schools to boost the graduation rates of their students. Innovative schools will also be rewarded for sharing successful policies that can be implemented across the country. The program is funded by the federal government to the tune of $20 million.

The federal initiatives to encourage college completion at the state level are designed to help the president meet American education goals he set for 2020. By then, he wants America to be the world leader in the amount college graduates it produces. This will require current graduation rates to increase by 50 percent, meaning eight million people need to attain degrees by the end of the decade.

The vice president echoed sentiments of others in the White House, including the president, in his address to the summit. The tie-in of education’s benefit for the U.S. economy was apparent.

“Right now we’ve got an education system that works like a funnel when we need it to work like a pipeline,” said Vice President Biden at the summit.

“We have to make the same commitment to getting folks across the graduation stage that we did to getting them into the registrar’s office. The dreams and skills of our college graduates will pave the way to a bright economic future for our nation,” Biden added.

Speaking at the conference as well, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made his pitch on why the push for education is so needed and important.

“America once led the world in the number of college graduates it produces, and now we’ve fallen to ninth,” said Secretary Duncan on Monday evening.

“While our educational advancement stalled, other countries have passed us by. We need to educate our way to a better economy, and governors must help lead the way,” he reminded the audience.

“The best jobs and fastest growing firms, whether in biosciences, technology, manufacturing, trade or entertainment, will gravitate to countries, communities and states with a highly qualified workforce. In order for America to lead the world, every governor will have to lead the way at home,” Duncan added. The White House has focused specifically on science and math education

The 2020 goal sheet for each state’s graduates ages 25-34 is available on the White House’s website. Also available online is the toolkit that state governors can use to gather ideas about improving college graduation rates.

Matt E. Stevens is the creator and chief blogger of Prune Juice Media. The site takes a sarcastic and informative look at the issues of the day – namely politics and current affairs. The goal of the site is to share information and make people laugh, or at least think. Matt is a contributing writer for Politic365.

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2 Responses to Vice President Biden Wants to Boost National College Graduation Rates

1. Father says:

   6:51pm March 28, 2011 at 6:51 pm

   I am glad that the Obama Administration is focusing on encouraging college completion. A college degree is needed to be able to thrive in our present economy.

   Reply

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