[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
[January 21, 2004]
[Pages 89-96]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in a Discussion at Owens Community College in Perrysburg 
Township, Ohio
January 21, 2004

    The President. Thank you, Dr. Adams. Well 
done. [Laughter] You read it just like I wrote it. [Laughter] I 
appreciate your invitation. Thank you for your leadership. I want to 
thank you all for coming. I particularly want to thank the panelists who 
are here. We're about to have a discussion about how a community college 
can change people's lives in a positive way, how we can use our 
community college system to help people who want to work gain the skills 
necessary to find jobs in what is a changing economy.
    Before we get there, I do want to say a few comments, now that 
you're stuck here. [Laughter] First, it's great to be in Toledo, the 
home of the Mud Hens. I've always been intrigued by the nickname, the 
``Mud Hens.'' [Laughter]
    I'm glad to be in the presence of two Members of the United States 
Senate who actually hitched a ride on Air Force One. They endured a 
rather long speech last night, then got on the airplane and endured 
another speech. [Laughter] And that would be Senator George 
Voinovich and Senator

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Mike DeWine. I want to thank you for coming. 
There they are, yes.
    I was telling--talking to George 
about what we were going to do here today. He said, ``You know, when I 
was a Governor, I recognized the role of community colleges in job 
training.'' And I want to give George credit where credit is due. He was 
a pioneer in making sure that the curriculum of the community college 
system in Ohio was relevant to the needs of employers and potential 
employees. What we're really here to talk about is something that George 
Voinovich started, and I'm grateful.
    That tradition is being carried on by your current Governor, 
Governor Bob Taft. I'm honored you're here, 
Governor. Thank you for coming. I appreciate Paul Gillmor; Congressman Gillmor is with us today. Congressman, thank 
you for coming. He was quick to point out that Owens is in his district. 
[Laughter] I'm quick to point out, you better take care of Owens. It's 
doing a fine job, Congressman. I appreciate you. And you are--and you 
are.
    We've got a lot of local officials here, mayors, and--I appreciate 
you coming. We've got members of the school board who are here, trustees 
of this important college, and I want to thank you all for being here.
    Last night I had the opportunity to address the Nation. I talked 
about a lot of subjects that were on my mind. One of them, of course, is 
that we still fight the war on terror. I just want to assure you that I 
understand, my most important obligation as your President is to keep 
this country secure and strong. And there are a lot of really good 
people working on your behalf, whether it be people in the Homeland 
Security Department--and thank you for training people for the Homeland 
Security Department--local police, local firefighters, or the brave men 
and women who wear our uniform, all of whom understand the solemn 
obligation to protect the people. We will never forget the lessons of 
September the 11th. We will stay on the offensive. We will win the war 
on terror and make sure that America is secure and free.
    I see local officers here. It is very important that we provide law 
enforcement with the tools necessary to fight and win this war. I called 
for the renewal of the Patriot Act. I want to tell you why. It is 
important that we be able to share information at the Federal level. 
It's important we have the authority to be able to seize assets. These 
tools in the Patriot Act, most of the tools, we have been using for 
years against embezzlers or criminals. We're at war. It seems like to me 
it is logical that we apply tools that we've used to catch embezzlers to 
be able to catch terrorists. The Congress needs to renew the PATRIOT Act 
so we can win the war on terror and secure the homeland.
    I also reminded the people that we've been through a lot in this 
country, particularly when it comes to the economy. Just a brief recap: 
We've been through a recession. That means three quarters of negative 
growth, which means people get laid off their jobs. We had a terrorist 
attack which affected the psychology of the country. It really did. It 
changed foreign policy, by the way. When you see a gathering threat, we 
can no longer ignore it and hope it goes away. It also said to America 
that we are--we can be hurt by an enemy that hates us. And it affected 
us. It really did.
    We had corporate scandals. I oftentimes talk about the need to usher 
in a period of personal responsibility. If you're a CEO in corporate 
America, you're responsible for telling the truth to your shareholders 
and your employees. And we passed laws to make that abundantly clear.
    And then, we marched to war. We took gathering threats seriously, 
and we dealt with them. The world is better off without Saddam 
Hussein and the Taliban. But all that--the 
march to war affected our psychology and confidence. It is hard to be 
optimistic about the future when you turn on your TV screens and say, 
``America is marching to war.'' War is not positive. War

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is--it sends the signal that there will be uncertainty. We're now 
marching to peace. But we overcome a lot, and it's important for our 
citizens to remember that.
    We overcame it, in my judgment, because we properly stimulated the 
economy by letting people keep their money. And now we're growing. 
Nationwide, this economy is strong: Housing up; inflation's low; 
interest rates are low. We had good exports the last quarter. New jobs 
are being created--I mean, last month on the exports. Things are 
happening.
    I fully recognize, in Ohio there are still troubled times. The 
manufacturing here is sluggish at best, and therefore, people are 
looking for work. People who could rely upon a steady job in the 
manufacturing sector are hoping to be able to realize their hopes by 
finding work elsewhere.
    There are some things we can do to make sure the Ohio manufacturing 
sector is strong. One is to make sure our trading partners understand, 
we expect there to be free, but level--the playing field needs to be 
level, that we expect countries like China to understand that trade 
imbalances doesn't mean--that says that the trade is not balanced and 
fair, that they've got to deal with their currency.
    We also need an energy policy, by the way. If you rely upon 
manufacturing to have a vibrant job base, you've got to have an energy 
policy. Manufacturers need to have a reliable source of energy. We're 
too dependent on foreign sources of energy. We got public policy that 
is--that makes it difficult for Ohio's manufacturers to say, ``We got a 
reliable source of energy.'' We've run up the demand for natural gas. We 
haven't had a corresponding increase in natural gas. It's hard to keep 
people working when your energy bills are going out of sight. We need an 
energy policy. I called on Congress to pass one, and they need to get 
one to my desk.
    One other issue that makes it hard for people to stay working in 
certain industries is that we got a problem with medical liability. 
There are junk and frivolous lawsuits which are running good docs out of 
business. Now, look, any doctor who is a bad doc deserves to be held to 
task. But you can't have a system where people just file lawsuit after 
lawsuit after lawsuit, fishing for a rich settlement, because what 
that's going to do is, it's going to run up the cost of health care and 
drive good docs out of business. And that affects the ability for 
employers to keep people working. Congress needs to pass medical 
liability reform now.
    These are some of the ways to make sure the manufacturing activity 
of this State remains strong. But the truth of the matter is, there is 
job growth in other sectors, and therefore, we'd better have a system 
which is able to be flexible enough to help people who want to work find 
a job, to match willing worker with willing employer. And that's what 
we're here to talk about.
    Very quickly, the first stage to make sure workers are trained is to 
make sure our public education system does its job. The No Child Left 
Behind Act is challenging what I call the soft bigotry of low 
expectations. We're raising standards. We're trusting local people to 
make the right decisions. But we expect every child--every child--not 
just a few but every child to learn the basics of reading and math. Like 
I said last night, I'm going to repeat here, the days of just quitting 
on kids early and shuffling them through our public schools is over.
    The ability for these community colleges to do their job means we 
better have people coming out of high school who can read and write and 
add and subtract. The best place to start is early, and we're starting 
early now in America. We're testing to make sure we figure out who needs 
extra help. And the Federal Government is increasing Federal spending, 
particularly on Title I students, in dramatic fashion. I also think we 
need to spend additional money for kids in high school. See, there's a 
learning gap where the accountability systems

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are late in arriving in certain places, and therefore, some kids have 
been shuffled through.
    Last night I didn't specify what I meant, but I'll tell you right 
now what I meant. I think we need to spend an additional $100 million 
for high school and intermediate reading programs. We want these kids at 
least reading when they're coming out of high school. And you've got to 
be honest about it, and these presidents of these community colleges 
will tell you, sometimes they're getting kids out of high school that 
can't read. And that's a shame, and that's not right. And we can focus 
extra resources there.
    We need people who are more steeped in math and sciences. And 
therefore, it's important for us to encourage scientists and 
mathematicians to teach part-time and to make sure our teachers are 
properly trained in the math and sciences so they can impart knowledge 
that is necessary for kids to have a bright future. We got extra teacher 
training money, about $120 million a year.
    I think we need to have more advanced placement programs in low-
income schools to encourage rigorous curriculum for all students. See, 
if you're challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations, you believe 
every child can learn. And therefore, we ought to be raising that bar 
for all students. And so we've got money in the budget, $28 million to 
encourage advanced placement programs to go into neighborhoods that have 
not had the benefit of an advanced placement program. And then, to 
coincide that, I think we ought to have increased Pell grants for 
students who qualify and take rigorous curriculum, and that would be 
Pell grants of up to $1,000 additional money.
    I'm telling you--what I'm telling you is we're focusing on people 
who can achieve the great promise of our country. We're not going to 
quit on anybody, and we're going to make sure the community college 
system does its job. As you know full well, particularly if you're a 
trustee of the community college, that most of the money is local money, 
but the Federal Government can help, particularly when it comes to job 
training.
    The president talked about the job training initiative I talked 
about last night. It's $250 million of direct money to help on these 
programs which match workers with employers. There's no better place to 
do that than the community college system. The community college system 
is flexible. The community college system is local. The community 
college system accepts input.
    And that's what we're here to talk about. It's very important for 
people who are listening to this conversation that if you're running a 
community college, I want you to pay attention to what Owens has done. 
And as importantly, if you're somebody out there who doesn't see a 
bright tomorrow, listen to the two students. They may look old to be 
students--[laughter]--but nobody's too old to be a student.
    Let me--why don't we--you heard from Dr. Adams. I don't know if you want to elaborate beyond this, 
Dr. Adams. I thought your explanation about what your community college 
is doing was great. It should be clear to people when you hear the 
number of students being trained for work--18,000, I think you said--is 
the reason I'm here. You've got 18,000 people coming through here who 
are better skilled to meet the jobs being generated in this part of the 
world. And if you want to elaborate on that, you can. She also told me a 
lot about nursing, by the way. We've got a nursing--[applause]--yes, 
there you are. It's a nursing shortage?
    Participant. Yes.
    The President. Forty thousand students? Well, anyway.

[At this point, the discussion continued.]

    The President. Yes, I appreciate the guy who is responsible for 
making sure the curriculum actually adjusts and doesn't stay stuck. What 
you've got to worry about, if you're in the local community, you've got

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to ask this question to a provost, ``Are you flexible?'' [Laughter] In 
other words, if somebody shows up and says, ``We've got a demand for 
jobs,'' will the community college adjust?
    It used to be, in the old days when they held Governors to account 
as to whether or not we were meeting workforce requirements, it didn't 
matter what job you trained somebody for. All that mattered is, you 
train them. So--I'm sure this didn't happen with Voinovich; it might have happened with me--you go out and 
train 1,000 hairdressers for 50 jobs. But everybody said, ``You're doing 
a fine job. You're training a lot of people.''
    The key is to train people for the work which actually exists. No 
better place to do that than in a community college; that's why we're 
spending $250 million to encourage that.
    Paul Unger is with us. He's the provost--
fancy word for the guy responsible for making sure it works. [Laughter] 
And he is.

[Paul Unger, provost, Owens Community College, made brief remarks.]

    The President. Yes, see, I hope everybody listened to what he just said. He said, ``We take input.'' Sometimes 
institutions of higher education don't take input and miss opportunity. 
Owens takes input because they're willing to listen to the people on the 
frontlines of hiring, making the hiring decisions, for which I'm 
grateful.
    Jim Gilmore is the coordinator here of the 
Skilled Trades Technology and Integrated Systems Technology Programs. 
Why don't you tell us what that means, what a coordinator does, and--
just tell me what you do.
    Jim Gilmore. Coordinator is a fancy word 
for the guy who does a lot and----
    The President. And gets no credit.
    Mr. Gilmore. And gets no credit. 
[Laughter]

[The discussion continued.]

    Mr. Gilmore. The other part of my position 
is to work with local area business and industry and find out what those 
needs are, what are they looking for, and if they have an opening, to 
put those students with those companies and match them up.
    The President. How do you do that? In other words, if some person 
out there says, ``I need to hire five new people,'' how does that person 
get in touch with you? How does----
    Mr. Gilmore. What are you looking for, Mr. 
President? [Laughter]
    The President. I'm trying to think of a cute answer. [Laughter]
    Mr. Gilmore. The quiet ones are dangerous. 
[Laughter]
    The President. That's right. I don't need a new wife, fortunately. 
[Laughter] I married really well. [Laughter]
    Mr. Gilmore. In my position, companies 
will usually seek us out and ask us specifically, ``We are looking for 
people with these skills.'' For example, a company might say, ``We're 
looking for maintenance people, and we need our maintenance people to 
have skills in hydraulics, pneumatics, electronics, PLCs.'' And they 
might come to me and say, ``Do you have somebody in mind or can you put 
me in touch with a placement service, with anybody that would have an 
idea of what Owens and Owens students have to offer?'' And most 
typically, we'll put them in touch with our placement service, the Wood 
County's placement service, or Lucas County or whatever county that that 
company happens to reside in. And we match those people up to find them 
the right job. So it's a two-way street.
    The President. Good job. Here's the thing, that--he talks about one-stop; let me tell you what that means. 
That means there's one place at the local level where a--somebody who is 
looking for work can go to try to find a job. That's what that means. 
And there's a lot of opportunities around the country at one-stops. It's 
one

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of the interesting innovations which Government put in place in the past 
decade to make sure that people are able to find a job. They can find 
help there. They can find counseling services.
    Better to explain the one-stop than me is Ruth Larabee. She is the director of the Wood County Department of 
Jobs and Family Services. Would you please tell everybody what a one-
stop does, what your day is like, what--here in the community, are 
people looking for workers? What do you see, and what do you hear?

[Ruth Larabee made brief remarks.]

    The President. Thanks, I appreciate you sharing that with us. You 
heard me talk about statistics, and they're good. There's no doubt 
things are getting better, and that's positive. There's no doubt the 
economy is changing because of technology, and that's interesting. It 
makes for great, interesting opportunities.
    But one of the things we've got to recognize in our society, as 
technology races through the economy, some people could conceivably be--
are being left behind because of the skill sets, and that we welcome 
innovation, productivity increases. These are all positive for labor 
stability, higher wages, better opportunity. But this country of ours 
must also recognize that the workforce needs to be constantly trained to 
stay up with the technological advances.
    And two people to best talk about that are with us today--students, 
people who are not satisfied with falling behind, people who have found 
that there's opportunity and are willing to seize it.
    I was teasing Becky, publicly, of 
course, here. [Laughter] But I did so with pride in my voice, I want you 
to know, because she is--has struggled. And here she sits with a bright 
future. And so I want you to share your story with us, Becky. She's a 
good soul who has got--and I told Becky coming in here today, I said, 
``There's people just like you, Becky, who are probably watching, or may 
be watching, who just got to know that because of what you have done 
here at Owens, they've got a shot too. They've got an opportunity to 
improve themselves.'' So let her go.

[Rebecca Albritton, student, Owens Community College, made brief 
remarks.]

    The President. This good soul says, 
``I've got a skill set; I need to upgrade it,'' that ``The world is 
changing; I need to change with it.'' Community colleges need to change, 
but people also have got to make the conscious decision to seize 
opportunity, to see a brighter future. That's what I love about Becky's 
story. She could have just said, ``Well, I quit.'' But she didn't. She 
found opportunity.
    Some of the people may be out there wondering whether or not this is 
affordable, whether or not there is any help. And why don't you tell us, 
Becky, what you found.
    Ms. Albritton. I found, when I went 
out to the one-stop, that tuition was available, and they pay for your 
tuition; they pay for your books. The only thing they don't pay for is 
your time. That's honest.
    The President. That's good. [Laughter] Let me ask you this question. 
Is it worth it?
    Ms. Albritton. Very much so, very much 
so.
    The President. There you go.
    The other living example of what is possible when people make up 
their mind to improve themselves and seek opportunity, and the local 
community provides those opportunities, is Mike. Mike Potter is with us. He's the pretty one down there on the end. 
[Laughter] I asked Mike to share his story with you because I think 
you'll find it interesting. I think anybody who wonders whether or not 
they can learn a new skill should listen to what Mike has to say. Mike, 
why don't you let her go.

[Mike Potter, maintenance technician, Oracle Packaging, made brief 
remarks.]

    The President. How long did it take? I mean, you're laid off; you 
come here. How

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long did it take you to get prepared, to get--to be ready for the new 
kind of job, the higher paying job? Because, frankly, he was more productive as a worker. He had the skills 
necessary to fit into the changing economy. How long were you here for?
    Mr. Potter. The program--actually it's a 
self-based program. It's an excellent program for anybody that doesn't 
have much trouble with--well, that has trouble with bookwork, I'm sorry. 
It's hands-on, self paced, and that's what was a great part. It actually 
took me about, probably about maybe 3 or 4 months to finish the program.
    The President. So it's not a lifetime?
    Mr. Potter. No, no, not at all.
    The President. You're able to come in, move quickly, get some 
skills, and all of a sudden, somebody says, ``I love his attitude. 
He's a hard worker, and he's got the skill sets 
necessary to fit into this new workforce.'' That's what people need to 
know.
    Mr. Potter. Everything is changing. People 
don't just want to see a person with just one skill anymore. They want 
several skills, and that's what the IST program offers.
    The President. That's good. Thanks for sharing. You did a great job.
    Our two students here are serving as mentors, in a way, aren't they? 
They're saying what is possible. And I want to thank you all for sharing 
your story. I'm sure it was a nerve-wracking experience--[laughter]--
thinking about coming here. [Laughter] Look at all those cameras.
    We've got another mentor with us today. Bruce Vanisacker is with us. He came out to the airport to meet me. It's 
an interesting idea he's doing. He has started what's called First 
Robotics, that teaches and inspires young people to be interested in the 
sciences, and that's important. Science and engineering and mathematics 
are all essential as we head into the 21st century.
    I appreciate Bruce coming because it 
gives me a chance to remind people here and in Toledo and around the 
State of Ohio and the country that the true strength of the country lies 
in the hearts and souls of our fellow citizens, that we're a mighty 
military country--we'll stay that way, in order to keep the peace--that 
we've got wealth, compared to other countries, and that's good. But the 
true strength can be found in neighborhoods where people have decided to 
mentor a child, to teach a person to read or write, to love the 
homeless, to help feed the hungry.
    Bruce is with us. Bruce, thank you for 
coming. You might stand up right quick. He happens to be interested in 
science and robotics, but really what he's doing, when you think about 
it, is mentoring a child.
    This country is prosperous. We're going to be more prosperous, but 
we don't want anybody left behind. No child should be left behind in the 
education system, no worker left behind because we haven't created a 
flexible system in order to get skills, nobody who needs love left 
behind. Government can't make people love one another, but we darn sure 
can encourage people who love to reach out to a neighbor in need. 
America can change for the better one heart, one soul, one conscience at 
a time, and I call upon you to be a part of the army of compassion, to 
help make this community and this State and our country one of hope for 
every single citizen who lives here.
    It's such an honor to be here today. I thank our panelists for what 
I have found to be an interesting discussion. I hope you have as well, 
and thank you all for coming.
    May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:24 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The President also referred to 
Title I of the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (Public Law No. 
103-382), which amended Title I of the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act of 1965 (Public Law No. 89-10).

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