[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 9 (Monday, March 7, 2005)]
[Pages 340-349]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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?
    Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Mom and Dad are here.
    The President. Mom and Dad--still listening to Mom, aren't you?
    Governor 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 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.
    Governor 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.

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    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 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.

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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 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 monies 
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 the money to meet the 
needs of the Maryland citizens. In other

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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.
    Governor Ehrlich. Mr. President.
    The President. Why don't you share with the good folks, the C-SPAN 
watchers what--[laughter]----
    Governor Ehrlich. Hi, everybody.
    The President. ----like my mother. Hi, Mom. How are you doing? 
[Laughter]
    Governor 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.
    Governor Ehrlich. First of all, I want some extra credit for wearing 
my ``W'' tie today.
    The President. Very good, yes. Hot item.
    Governor Ehrlich. He didn't even charge me.
    The President. I don't know about the pink. [Laughter]
    Governor 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.

[At this point, Governor 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

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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.
    Governor 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?
    Governor 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.
    Governor 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----
    Governor 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.
    Governor 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.
    Governor Ehrlich. Thank you.
    The President. They call you Bobby?
    Governor Ehrlich. Absolutely, Mr. President. You can call me 
anything you want, Mr. President.
    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?
    Dr. Martha A. Smith. I'm in year 11.
    The President. As the president.
    Dr. Smith. Yes, sir, I am.
    The President. And so, is this your only community college 
experience?
    Dr. 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.
    Dr. Smith. Sure. First of all, I have to say, on behalf of all of 
us, we are so honored

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to have you at Anne Arundel Community College.
    The President. Thank you.
    Dr. Smith. Thank you so much for selecting Anne Arundel Community 
College.
    The President. Thanks.
    Dr. Smith. You're welcome.
    The President. Appreciate you putting up with the entourage.
    Dr. Smith. Oh, they were wonderful. They were wonderful.
    The President. That's good. That's the way they should be.
    Dr. 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.
    Dr. Smith. ----related to job training, so thank you so much.

[Dr. 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.
    Dr. 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?
    Dr. 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. 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?
    Dr. 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

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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.]

    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. 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. Smith. Shortly after high school, I started working in a textile 
plant----
    The President. Right.
    Ms. 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?

[[Page 347]]

    Ms. Smith. I thought about it, and I thought I should leave before I 
got cut. [Laughter]

[Ms. 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. 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. 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. Smith. Yes.
    The President. I don't blame you. [Laughter] It's a beautiful part 
of the world.
    Ms. Smith. It's a wonderful State, also.
    The President. Yes, it is. And so what are you doing?
    Ms. 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.
    Ms. 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. 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. 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. Smith. Three percent is great.
    The President. Was it easy to get the loan?
    Ms. 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. 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,

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``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. Smith. Well, I graduate in May, May 25th.
    The President. There you go, good.
    Ms. Smith. And you're invited.
    The President. I'm invited? Thanks for the invitation. [Laughter] 
And so then what happens?
    Ms. 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. 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. 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] 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.

[[Page 349]]

    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 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., the Governor'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.