[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
[March 2, 2005]
[Pages 335-346]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks in a Discussion on Job Training in Arnold, Maryland
March 2, 2005
The President. I appreciate the warm welcome. Thanks for coming.
Please be seated. Thank you all. Go ahead and be seated; we've got some
work to do. We're here to talk about an important issue, and that is how
to make sure people get the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the
21st century. That's what we're here to talk about.
No better place to talk about that than at a community college which
is working, and we're here at a good community college. I want to thank
Marty Smith. She is one of our panelists. As
you can see, we've got a distinguished panel. You're about to hear some
interesting stories that I think will pertain to--will make why I
believe the community college system is vital to the future of our
country real evident to you.
The Governor is here. How about that? Governor Ehrlich, appreciate you coming. And we've got
Kendel, first lady. And we've got
Drew. Mom and
Dad here?
Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.
Mom and Dad are here.
The President. Mom and Dad--still listening to Mom, aren't you?
Gov. Ehrlich. Absolutely.
The President. Yes, so am I. [Laughter] Laura
sends her best. She's back at the White House. She wants to say hello to
her friends in Maryland. She's doing great. She and I are going to go
Pittsburgh next week to talk about her initiative, which I embrace
whole-heartedly, and that is how
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to help young men realize the great promise of this country, how to
fight off the temptation to join gangs and instead join society as a
productive citizen. Part of that is to make sure the education system
works well. So we're here on an education mission, really, to make sure
education is relevant.
I want to thank Jim Fielder, who's
the secretary of labor for the State of Maryland. I appreciate you being
here, Jim.
A couple of things I want to say. First of all, freedom is on the
march. It's a profound period of time. Our Secretary of State is returning from her trip to Europe. I will
visit with her tomorrow afternoon. I talked to her on the phone
yesterday. I applauded the press conference she held with the Foreign
Minister from France, where both of them
stood up and said loud and clear to Syria, ``You get your troops and
your secret services out of Lebanon so that good democracy has a chance
to flourish.''
The world is working together for the sake of freedom and peace. The
world is speaking with one voice when it comes to making sure that
democracy has a chance to flourish in Lebanon and throughout the greater
Middle East. And when democracies take hold, the world becomes more
peaceful; the world becomes a better place for our children and our
grandchildren. So I look forward to continuing to work with friends and
allies to advance freedom, not America's freedom but universal freedom,
freedom granted by a Higher Being.
I also appreciate the good growth of our economy in places like
Maryland. Governor, you get--deserve
a lot of credit for creating conditions where the entrepreneurial spirit
is strong.
Gov. Ehrlich. Thank you, Mr.
President.
The President. You've got an unemployment rate of 4 percent in the
State of Maryland. That speaks volumes about good leadership. We've got
a national unemployment rate of 5.2 percent. The fundamental question
is, how do we keep growing? And so I look forward to working with
Congress to continue to advance commonsensical lawsuit reform.
We did something on class-action lawsuits. Republicans and Democrats
got together and said, ``Wait a minute. We've got a problem. The scales
of justice are not balanced, so let's balance them with reasonable
reform.'' We got a good class-action bill to my desk, which I signed.
Now it's time for Congress to do something on asbestos, to get good
reform to make sure that job creators and people who are harmed--job
creators are able to create jobs and people who are actually harmed by
asbestos get the settlements they're due.
Congress needs to continue to work on legal reform, including legal
reform to make sure good doctors aren't run out of practice. We need
medical liability reform.
We need to get an energy bill to my desk. In order to make sure
people can find work here in Maryland, this country needs to have an
energy bill, something that makes us--that recognizes we can do a better
job of conserving energy, we can spend money on renewable sources of
energy. I like the idea of using corn and soybeans to help produce
energy. I mean, after all, it would be neat, someday, Governor, if somebody walked in and said, ``We're
growing more crop, and therefore, we're less dependent on foreign
sources of energy.'' We need to modernize the electricity grid. And I
put this in front of the Congress 3 years ago or 4 years ago. They need
to get it together. They need to come together, stop debating about an
energy plan, and pass one, for the sake of jobs and job creation.
We've got to do something about the deficit. I submitted a good,
lean budget to Congress. Some of them get carried away when it comes to
spending, and we have--we want to make sure that we meet priorities and
cut this deficit of ours in half by the year 2009. It's important. It's
an important signal to capital markets; it's
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an important signal to the world that we're serious about deficits.
And we're serious about long-term deficits, and we have a long-term
deficit when it comes to Social Security. There's a lot of baby boomers,
like me, getting ready to retire--[laughter]--fortunately, in my case,
later rather than sooner. And baby boomers are living longer than the
generation before us, and baby boomers have been promised more benefits
than the generation before us. And yet there are fewer workers paying
for the baby boomers when they retire.
And if you add up the math, it says ``problem.'' In the year 2018,
the Social Security system goes into the red. In other words, more money
is going out than is coming in. Just catch this statistic: In 2027, the
Government will be $200 billion short--200 billion short. That's money
going out more than coming in on payroll taxes.
So if you're a young person going to school here, you ought to be
asking the question to public officials, ``What are you going to do
about the problem?'' Now, older Americans have nothing to worry about;
nothing changes. I don't care what the propaganda says. You're taken
care of and will be taken care of. But younger Americans need to worry,
because when you think about a system that goes in the red 200 billion
one year, more the next year, more the next year, and more the next
year, you need to be asking people like me and Members of the United
States Congress, ``You better fix it before it becomes a crisis. Don't
be passing on problems to future generations. You were elected, Members
of Congress were elected to solve problems now.'' And so I intend to
work with members of both parties to get this problem fixed.
And I'm going to travel this country a lot talking about the issue
of Social Security. Friday, I'm off to New Jersey and Indiana. Every
week I'm going to be out talking about the problem, assuring seniors
that nothing will change, and reminding young Americans that they need
to write the Congress, the Senators and the House of Representatives,
and demand action, so that we don't stick a young generation with
serious problems that will wreck our economy and wreck their lives.
Today I want to talk about education. Education, making sure we've
got an educated workforce, is a vital part of making sure this economy
of ours continues to grow. I've talked to a lot of employers around and
say, ``What is the biggest concern you have?'' And one of the biggest
concerns they have is the fact that they don't have workers with the
skill sets necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century. So that's the
challenge we face. And what we're going to talk about today is a
commonsense solution of how to address that challenge and solve that
problem.
First thing is, we've got to make sure our kids can read and write
and add and subtract. The No Child Left Behind Act is working. The No
Child Left Behind Act says States get to control the curriculum and
decide what to do, but it says in return for increased Federal money, we
want to see whether or not a child can read. In other words, we believe
in accountability and measuring.
There's an achievement gap closing in America, and that's important.
But how do we know? Because we measure. You don't know if you don't
measure. You can't solve a problem until you diagnose the problem. And
for too long, too many children were just shuffled through the system.
Too many minority children, too many inner-city children were just moved
through in the hopes that somebody got educated. But that didn't work.
So now we're measuring early so we can solve problems early. And No
Child Left Behind is paying off.
And we need to extend those high standards to high schools. I
appreciate the national Governors coming together to talk about how to
build on the reform--not
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weaken the reforms of No Child Left Behind, how to build on the reforms
so that a high school degree means something.
Then the next fundamental question is, what do we do with people
coming out of high school or people who have been in high school and
have gone into the workplace but realized they want to continue to
advance by gaining a new set of skills? That's what we're here to talk
about.
Let me tell you something about the community college system. When I
was the Governor of Texas, I realized what a valuable asset the
community college system was to my State, just like your Governor
recognizes what an asset it is to Maryland. Community colleges are
available. They are affordable, and they are flexible. And that's
important. It's important to have a place of higher education that has
got the capacity to adjust its curriculum to meet the needs of an
employer base, for example. I mean, if all of a sudden somebody pops up
and says, ``We need more nurses,'' it makes sense to have a community
college system that says, ``We'll help you put the curriculum in place
to train people for nursing.'' And we're going to talk a little bit
about that here in a minute.
When you've got a growing economy in the 21st century, there's a
certain skill set that's needed to fill the jobs. And what we're talking
about today is how to fill those jobs. One of the things we've done in
the last couple of years through the Department of Labor was to
encourage public-private partnerships. And we'll continue--going to do
that over the next 4 years. That's--those are fancy words for saying,
``Look, we're going to help employers and community colleges match up
needs, demands, with supply.'' That's what that means.
Last year, I called upon Congress to pass a $250 million initiative
to support our community colleges and to fund partnerships between
community colleges and local employers. They funded it, and now some
money is going to start heading out. And that's an important part of the
initiative I'm talking about. We're going to hear from an employer and a
community college on how they work together and how the system functions
best when it's flexible.
The second thing that I want to talk to you about is--Congress is
now going to debate what's called the--reforms to the Workforce
Investment Act. We spend about $16 billion a year on workforce training,
except only about 200,000 people got trained. It's not a very good
record. See, part of my job as the President and part of people whose
job it is to watch your taxpayers' money, is to say, ``Is the program
actually working?'' It sounds good, doesn't it? ``Let's spend money for
workforce training.'' It's just when you train 200,000 people with 16
billion, I think we can do a better job than that. [Laughter] And one
way to do so is to recognize the problems, the bottlenecks.
The system is very complex and complicated. There's a lot of
programs in Washington with all sorts of different rules across, I
think, 10 different jurisdictions. A bureaucratic nightmare may be the
appropriate way to describe it--kind of, mandates coming out of
Washington, DC, tend to complicate the issue of the Workforce Investment
Boards and make the Governor's job
more complicated. And people at the very end of the system kind of
wonder what the heck is going on between the intent of Washington and
money actually making it down into the trenches.
And so I've called upon Congress to add--to put these moneys
together, reduce the bureaucracies, the strings, and to let States--
gives States the flexibility to focus on workforce training that meets
the best needs of each State. The best reform possible, it seems like to
me, is to kind of bundle up the programs in a flexible way that says
Governor Ehrlich, elected by the
people, ought to work with the local jurisdictions to figure out how
best to spend
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the money to meet the needs of the Maryland citizens. In other words,
more flexibility, in my judgment, will mean more people will be trained
for the jobs at hand.
A little problem for some in Washington--why trust the Governor?
[Laughter] I encountered that when I was a Governor. Good news is, I was
a Governor. I trust local people. It's a fundamental part of my
political philosophy, the closer decisionmaking is to the people, the
better the decisionmaking will be. And so Washington ought to be
flexible. We at least ought to shoot for 400,000 people trained a year.
[Laughter] And it's important.
The other thing is, is when I've mentioned higher ed--community
colleges being affordable, they are affordable, but we've got to
recognize people still need help coming to a community college. We spend
$80 billion a year at the Federal level in student loans and Pell
grants. I've submitted a budget to the Congress that increases Pell
grants from 12.4 billion to 18 billion. And the reason why is--that's a
year, by the way--because Pell grants are important. I love Pell grants
because they help folks that need help. They really reinforce dreams,
don't they? You got a society that says, ``Aim big; dream big.'' And
what a Pell grant does, it says, for those who can't afford higher
education, ``The rightful role of Government is to help you realize your
dreams.''
And so Congress, I'm confident, will act on the Pell grant increase.
The Pell grant increase really talks about increasing the maximum grant
award. It increases the amount each recipient of a Pell grant can get,
and that's good. It needs to be adjusted up, which we want. We also
believe students attending college year-round ought to receive Pell
grants year-round. This will help create flexibility for the students.
And we've got the loans out there. People say to me, ``Do I have to
repay my loan?'' [Laughter] Yes. [Laughter] It's part of a responsible
society, isn't it? We said, ``We want the loans to be more reasonable in
repayment schedule and the interest rates to be more reasonable.''
In other words, I look forward to working with Congress to help
higher ed become more affordable for people from all walks of life. It's
a good use of your money. It really is. And it makes sense,
particularly, in a changing world, where the job base is changing and
the skill sets for those jobs are changing dramatically.
You know, technology changes, but labor lags behind when it comes to
change. And therefore, we have a duty and a responsibility to use our
assets, like the community college system, to enable people to get the
skills to work. And as that happens, this economy is going to continue
to grow. One of the bottlenecks for economic expansion and vitality is
to make sure we match jobs that exist with skill sets of willing
workers.
Somebody who understands that is the Governor. Governor, thanks for joining us. I'm honored you're here.
Gov. Ehrlich. Mr. President.
The President. Why don't you share with the good folks, the C-SPAN
watchers what--[laughter]----
Gov. Ehrlich. Hi, everybody.
The President. ----like my mother. Hi, Mom.
How are you doing? [Laughter]
Gov. Ehrlich. And my mom is here
too.
The President. Yes, well, why don't you tell us what you're doing in
Maryland. People are interested to know. Just give us where you are.
Gov. Ehrlich. First of all, I
want some extra credit for wearing my ``W'' tie today.
The President. Very good, yes. Hot item.
Gov. Ehrlich. He didn't even
charge me.
The President. I don't know about the pink. [Laughter]
Gov. Ehrlich. Mr. President,
we've been joined today by my Cabinet. And if I can just take one
second--and former Governor Marvin Mandel. Would my Cabinet please stand
up? These are the folks that implement your policies, your programs.
The President. Thank you.
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[At this point, Gov. Ehrlich made further remarks.]
The President. Let me--it's important for people to understand what
he's saying there, if you don't mind.
See, in order for--the way the rules are written, in order for the State
of Maryland to implement a workforce training program that meets your
needs, oftentimes the Governor has to come and ask for a waiver. Think
about that kind of system, right? We want to do something. We want to
help the country meet an objective, but we need a waiver. We need
permission.
And so, I think there's like--I forgot how many waivers have been
granted over the last year, but it's a system that says--it begs for
reform. You know, the more time you ask for waivers, the less time
you're focused on what you're doing.
Gov. Ehrlich. The more time you
take up with asking for waivers, the less time you have to put money
into the workplace to train and retrain. At 3.8, 3.9 percent
unemployment, retraining is really part of our focus here. Secretary
Fielder, Secretary Melissaratos, they're living this. So we thank you
very much.
The President. What are you doing different?
Gov. Ehrlich. Well, as I said,
we're ahead of the curve. We have begun one-stop shops. We've
consolidated programs, basically along the line of what you're
advocating.
The President. Nobody knows what a one-stop shop is.
Gov. Ehrlich. You're a worker;
you go online. You're an employer; you go online. You match it up--a
one-stop shop. That's taking advantage of technology. Obviously, by the
way, you are one of the best here. Marty is one of the best. You're one
of the best community colleges in the State of Maryland. We'll work with
our community colleges.
The President. Let me ask you something. Somebody out there
listening who's looking for a job in the State of Maryland--one-stop
shop online. In other words, they--you've got this all----
Gov. Ehrlich. Call Secretary
Fielder's department, his agency, and we'll put you in touch with--if
you have a resume, you have a job waiting for you in the State of
Maryland today. That's the message that needs to go out, not just in
Maryland but around the country. We're at 3.8, 3.9 percent. We want to
go to 0.0, Mr. President. I want to report to you 0.0. How about that
for a goal? I told you we set high benchmarks around here.
The President. That's right. I like the fact that the State has got
a system, a kind of a virtual workforce agency where people can get on
the Internet and find out what's available, I presume, where the closest
one-stop shop is, if they want to go in in person. At a one-stop shop,
people can find all kinds of advice on how to get a scholarship, what's
available, the closest community college, what the curriculum looks like
in your community college. It is a place all designed to help somebody
who wants to advance receive the help necessary to advance.
Gov. Ehrlich. And our ability, by
the way, to do what we've been able to do and get some waivers, although
it is time-consuming, has allowed us to put additional dollars where it
belongs, into what you're talking about. More bang for the buck for the
taxpayer--in this case, the Federal taxpayer and the Maryland taxpayer--
dollars into the field so that employers can truly find the employees
they need and, particularly given this economy and how quickly we turn
over, post-industrial Maryland, post-industrial America, retrain our
workers.
The President. Good job, Bobby.
Gov. Ehrlich. Thank you.
The President. They call you Bobby?
Gov. Ehrlich. Absolutely, Mr.
President. You can call me anything you want, Mr. President.
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The President. Dr. Marty Smith. She is
the--[applause]--she's not going to give you an A just because you're
cheering loud. [Laughter] You have been here how long?
Martha A. Smith. I'm in year 11.
The President. As the president.
Ms. Smith. Yes, sir, I am.
The President. And so, is this your only community college
experience?
Ms. Smith. Actually, I was president of
Dundalk Community College, just up the road, for about 7 years.
The President. Good, good. Give us a sense of how the community
college system--what's changed and what hasn't changed, just over the
last 18 years.
Ms. Smith. Sure. First of all, I have to
say, on behalf of all of us, we are so honored to have you at Anne
Arundel Community College.
The President. Thank you.
Ms. Smith. Thank you so much for
selecting Anne Arundel Community College.
The President. Thanks.
Ms. Smith. You're welcome.
The President. Appreciate you putting up with the entourage.
Ms. Smith. Oh, they were wonderful. They
were wonderful.
The President. That's good. That's the way they should be.
Ms. Smith. And I also want to thank you
for our outstanding support and understanding for our country's
community colleges. You really get it, as we just heard----
The President. Thank you.
Ms. Smith. ----related to job training,
so thank you so much.
[Ms. Smith made further remarks.]
The President. For those of you who are, like, market advocates, who
believe the market is a powerful way to have an efficient delivery of
service, listen to what she just said: ``We respond. We respond to
demand. We adjust. We don't adjust because Government said, `Adjust.' We
adjust because our customers, the students and the employers, have said,
`Adjust; stay relevant.' Otherwise, if you don't adjust, you'll become
irrelevant.'' Great statement. I think it's very important for people to
understand the great assets. This is a tremendous asset you have in your
State.
So, anyway, the reason I asked what has changed over 18 years is
because it was a way for me to lead the witness to say--[laughter]--a
lot has changed. [Laughter] Because community colleges have got the
capacity to change. Seriously, I mean, I presume the emphasis has
shifted quite dramatically.
Ms. Smith. Well, it has. Traditionally,
we have talked about associate degrees and certificates and the credit
program, but what we understand now is that students don't necessarily,
when they're looking for a job that's going to pay them an appropriate
salary, they don't care whether it's credit or noncredit. They want it
now. They want the skill set and the knowledge set that's going to help
them get into that workforce quickly and be successful and advance in
that profession. So it's changed incredibly. Every year, we are
developing 20 new short-term programs to really try to meet the specific
needs of the industry, and as you know, things are changing so quickly
in every industry that it's imperative that we change.
The President. So how do you know? How do you--what do you--how are
you structured so that information is able to get to you and your
curriculum designers?
Ms. Smith. Well, we have a number of
program advisory committees where we have business leaders and employers
who give their time and energy to meet with us on a regular basis to
say, ``This is what we see is coming down the pike for our industry.''
We have a wonderful Governor's Workforce Investment Board that is
investing incredible amounts of time and energy, analyzing each and
every one of the high-growth industries so that they can say, ``These
are the levels of employees that we are going to need in the next 5
years.
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Community colleges, we look to you to make it happen.''
The President. Yes, interesting, isn't it? Fascinating, I think.
It's such a hopeful system, and it's working.
So, Joyce Phillip is with us. You work
with Joyce, right?
Ms. Smith. I do.
The President. Yes, okay. Joyce, tell us,
everybody, what you do.
Joyce Phillip. I'm vice president of human
resources at Anne Arundel Medical Center----
The President. Good.
Ms. Phillip. ----which is a 260-bed not-
for-profit regional medical center, a wonderful place to work.
The President. Well, thank you, yes. So why are you--besides being
invited--[laughter]--why is this conversation relevant to you and your
hospital?
Ms. Phillip. This conversation is so
relevant to me and to our hospital and to all the industries in Anne
Arundel County. We work very closely with the community college. For
instance, you know that there are great shortages in allied health
fields. Last year, we were able to hire 97 applicants from--who had
attended Anne Arundel Community College. Thirteen of them were nursing
students.
The President. Yes, it's interesting, isn't it? So the health care
field, it's changing.
Ms. Phillip. Oh, it is changing
tremendously.
The President. Skill sets--new skill sets are required.
Ms. Phillip. Yes. And when there are new
skill sets that are required, we're able to go to our community college,
which is right there, tell them what we need, ask them, ``How can we do
it?'' And they come up with the creative ways to do it, and they make it
happen.
The President. Isn't that interesting? So the hospital system says,
``We need''--how many people did you hire last year?
Ms. Phillip. Ninety-seven.
The President. Ninety-seven.
Ms. Phillip. Thirteen nurses.
The President. Thirteen nurses. So somebody says--well, you say to
the community college, ``In order for us to hire these people, they've
got to be able to do X, Y, and Z.''
Ms. Phillip. That is correct.
The President. The community college then says, ``Okay, fine. We
will provide professors, teachers, to teach people''----
Ms. Phillip. Develop the curriculum.
The President. ----``develop the curriculum for X, Y and Z,'' and
then the people are able to get work. That's--it's as simple as that.
Ms. Phillip. They are. It sounds simple--
--
The President. It's not. [Laughter]
Ms. Phillip. It's not.
The President. I read your mind.
Ms. Phillip. When you are able to partner
with the community college, and when you're able to partner with an
employer and put some of our money together, some of your Pell grant and
Federal money together, we can do it.
The President. Right. Yes, it's good, interesting. And so, is this a
field that has got a--constantly in need for new workers?
Ms. Phillip. It's definitely going to be a
need for new workers. All you need to do is look at the population as we
age. We're going to need people who are going to be able to meet the
needs and take care of those people who have served America and take
care of those people who are there.
The President. Do you have programs within your hospitals where you
take people who already have a job and enhance their skill set at the
community college?
Ms. Phillip. I wanted to say something.
That makes me more excited, because we have a program that the community
college and the Department of Labor worked on, and it's called School at
Work.
[Ms. Phillip made further remarks.]
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The President. There's something we're about to talk about here.
There's a--the term of art these days is productivity and how does the
worker become more productive. Well, there's one way a worker becomes
more productive, and that is to enhance skills through education,
additional education. And when you hear the word ``productivity,'' you
think about--you need to think about higher wages. A more productive
society is one in which a worker makes more money. That's just a fact of
life. So you can either look at the community college system as a way to
enhance an individual's productivity, or another way to look at it is,
one way to increase your wage is to come back to school and gain a new
skill set. This is a wage-increasing institution.
And it's a--somebody who knows that and understands that is
Jeannetta Smith. She's with us today. Thanks
for coming.
Jeannetta Smith. Thank you for having
me.
The President. It's an interesting story. So where were you raised?
Ms. J. Smith. I'm from North Carolina--
Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
The President. There you go. If you've never been there, it's a
beautiful part of the world. And so what were you doing there?
Ms. J. Smith. Shortly after high school,
I started working in a textile plant----
The President. Right.
Ms. J. Smith. ----textile factory. North
Carolina had lots of textile plants, and the textile industry was
leaving.
The President. The textile industry was leaving is right. A lot of
people were getting laid off. So what did you do?
Ms. J. Smith. I thought about it, and I
thought I should leave before I got cut. [Laughter]
[Ms. J. Smith, Anne Arundel Community College student and licensed
practical nurse, Northwest Hospital Center, Randallstown, MD, made
further remarks.]
The President. Good. By the way, this is--Maryland has got a
fantastic community college system; so does North Carolina. And it's
been a vital part of helping people transition from what was once a
viable industry to the new viable industries within the State, including
health care.
Anyway, so you did the 7-year deal. Then what happened?
Ms. J. Smith. I relocated. I did some
travel nursing, and I ended up here in Maryland.
The President. I found that interesting, travel nursing. It's kind
of like an itinerant preacher in the old days, you know. [Laughter] What
is travel nursing? Explain that.
Ms. J. Smith. A travel nurse is a nurse
that contracts with a hospital in different States or different cities
or even in your hometown. You contract for either 3 months or 6 months.
Your company finds you an apartment. They furnish it. They provide
everything, and you work. So you get to be a tourist for free.
The President. Yes, that's interesting, isn't it? [Laughter] Kind of
an interesting concept. It does say there's certainly an opportunity for
people. If you're having to--if a hospital has to staff a hospital staff
with a travel nurse, I presume that they're looking for full-time
nurses. Not to say the travel nurse isn't important, but it just goes to
show there's a demand for nursing.
And then, anyway, so you're a travel nurse, and you settle here?
Ms. J. Smith. Yes.
The President. I don't blame you. [Laughter] It's a beautiful part
of the world.
Ms. J. Smith. It's a wonderful State,
also.
The President. Yes, it is. And so what are you doing?
Ms. J. Smith. I work at Northwest
Hospital as an LPN on the subacute unit, but I decided because LPN
positions are limited, I wanted to explore other options.
The President. Good.
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Ms. J. Smith. I decided to go to the
community college here in Anne Arundel County because it offered a
flexible program, LPN to RN transition, which would take one year, and
it would increase my salary 50 percent.
The President. Yes, listen to that for a minute. [Applause] Hold on
for a second. If you're out there listening as to whether or not
somebody who had a high school degree and has spent a few years working
after the high school, whether or not going back to a community college
makes sense, just listen to what Jeannetta
said. By going back to school for a year, she increases her pay by 50
percent. That's an important benefit for people.
Was it hard to go back to school?
Ms. J. Smith. It was very difficult. As
most adults start working, they get bills, mortgages, car payments. So
to go back to school requires a commitment of time, which usually means
they can't work full-time.
The President. Right. And did you get help?
Ms. J. Smith. Yes, I did. I was able to
benefit not from Pell grants but from Federal student loans, which have
been wonderful. I have a 3 percent interest rate, which is a great
investment. [Laughter]
The President. It's not exactly a grant, but 3 percent is pretty
low.
Ms. J. Smith. Three percent is great.
The President. Was it easy to get the loan?
Ms. J. Smith. Yes, yes. No credit check.
[Laughter]
The President. We don't need to go that far. Wait a minute. Of
course, you would have passed anyway. [Laughter] Whew. [Laughter]
Ms. J. Smith. But in addition to the
Federal student loan, Northwest Hospital also offers tuition
reimbursement, which has been fabulous in helping me make my ends meet
as I work a part-time schedule there.
The President. Yes, smart employers all across the country are
interested in partnering with a potential employee or a current employee
by saying, ``We'll help you.'' People should recognize there's a lot of
help available if you have the desire to go back to school. Government
can't make you have desire. The Government can't say, ``Be desirous.''
[Laughter] But Government can say, ``If you are desirous, we want to
help you.'' And that's what Jeannetta found
out.
So where are you in your course thing now? You----
Ms. J. Smith. Well, I graduate in May,
May 25th.
The President. There you go, good.
Ms. J. Smith. And you're invited.
The President. I'm invited? Thanks for the invitation. [Laughter]
And so then what happens?
Ms. J. Smith. Well, I'll start working
at least one year here in Maryland as a med/surg nurse at an area
hospital to get my skills up and experience as a registered nurse. And
the sky is the limit after that.
The President. You're going to be the travel thing, travel nurse?
Ms. J. Smith. Yes.
The President. Fantastic. I love the story. Think about this.
Textile worker, hears the textile industry
is laying off, which they were in North Carolina, decides to do
something about it. Community college provides an opportunity to enhance
the skill--her skill set; the Government provides ways to help; and this
person is living the American Dream. I mean, this is--I thank you for
sharing that with us.
Ms. J. Smith. You're welcome. Thank you.
The President. All right, Elliott Ward.
Glad you're here, Elliott.
Elliott Ward. Glad to be here, sir.
The President. Thanks for coming, brother.
Mr. Ward. Thanks for having me.
The President. What are you doing?
Mr. Ward. Working hard.
The President. Me too. [Laughter] It's what you expect of me,
though. [Laughter]
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Give me a little bit on your background. Went to high school----
Mr. Ward. Went to high school, and
immediately out of high school I went into the military. I served 4
years in the U.S. Army.
The President. That's good. Thanks. What high school?
Mr. Ward. Carver Vocational-Technical in
Baltimore City. Born and raised in Baltimore City, Baltimore through and
through.
The President. Are you a Ravens fan?
Mr. Ward. I am a Ravens fan.
The President. That's good. That's the right answer if you're from
Baltimore. Went to high school, went to the Army----
Mr. Ward. Once I got out of the military, I
entered into a series of security positions. And a while after that, I
was blessed with a son, who is here this morning.
The President. Where is the man?
Mr. Ward. Malcolm is right over there.
The President. Hi, Malcolm. I'll see you
afterwards.
As I understand, you're a single dad.
Mr. Ward. Yes, I am.
The President. Thanks for doing your duty.
[Mr. Ward, College of Notre Dame of Maryland student and certified
pharmacy technician, Johns Hopkins Health System, Baltimore, MD, made
further remarks.]
The President. That's good. Good job. By the way, the Labor
Department entered into a contract with Johns Hopkins and the Baltimore
Community College in order to have one of these collaborative efforts, a
little extra funding to help employers and employees match up. Keep
going.
Mr. Ward. Well, upon completion, I was
offered employment as a pharmacy technician at Johns Hopkins Hospital,
which I gladly accepted. I continued to go to school, as a part of the
also-added benefit is the tuition-assistance program that Johns Hopkins
offers. And after this semester, I'll be 15 credits--about 15 credits
away from having enough credits, 65 credits, to enter pharmacy school.
The President. Yes, see, that's interesting, isn't it? So then you
get to pharmacy school. How long does that take?
Mr. Ward. That will be 4 intense years
instead of 4 intense months.
The President. Yes, that's okay. [Laughter]
[Mr. Ward made further remarks.]
The President. Are you getting any help to afford all this?
Mr. Ward. Well, the tuition assistance
through Johns Hopkins helps a great deal.
The President. Yes. Part of the grant, by the way, is to help pay
for tuition assistance.
Mr. Ward. It's a wonderful thing.
[Laughter]
The President. It sure is. What's even more wonderful is both of
your desires to use what's available to improve your skill set so you
can realize dreams--in your case, be as good a dad as you can be. That's
wonderful. That is what is possible and is happening all across the
country.
So the reason we have people come and talk, other than me, is so,
one, you'll listen--[laughter]--and two, so the stories make sense.
These stories make sense to me. It makes sense to support the community
college system, a system that is able to adjust to meet the needs of the
people that we taxpayers expect the community college to serve, people
wanting to work, employers trying to find a skill set so the communities
can stay vibrant and whole and jobs are available.
I told you, one of the objectives of Government is to set the
conditions right for job growth. And a lot of that always times--a lot
of times focuses on tax policy. And obviously, good tax policy matters,
and--but also what matters is to make sure that people understand the
relevance and importance of education. We must never lose sight of the
need to have an education
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system which not only provides--gives people the basic skills working
their way through elementary and secondary and high school but, equally
importantly, an education system that's capable of keeping this country
competitive by adjusting to the workplace as it really is.
I've come to herald success and a Governor who's successful in implementing a vision because he's
got community colleges and community college presidents who are
responsive to the needs of people. Again, I want to thank you all for
letting me come. I hope you have found this as interesting as I have.
May God bless you all, and may God continue to bless our country.
Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 10 a.m. at Anne Arundel Community College.
In his remarks, he referred to Kendel S. Ehrlich, wife of Gov. Robert L.
Ehrlich, Jr., of Maryland, and their son Drew; Nancy and Robert Ehrlich,
Sr., Gov. Ehrlich's parents; and Foreign Minister Michel Barnier of
France. Governor Ehrlich referred to Secretary Aris Melissaratos of the
Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. The Office of
the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these
remarks.