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The single most important investment anyone can make in their future is to pursue higher education. But the one thing I often hear from families is that they are worried about the cost.

Too many students are graduating from college feeling burdened by their student loan debt. The Obama Administration has – and will continue to – make college more affordable through increased Pell Grants and education tax credits, while improving transparency so that students and families have the information they need to select schools that provide the best value. Today, we are building on the Administration’s success helping students manage their debt and stay on track. 

My team at the U.S. Department of Education been working with our federal partners to make sure that student loan borrowers are getting accurate information about how to avoid – or get out of – delinquency and default. And we’ve been doing more to improve student loan servicing and protect borrowers so they receive the treatment and respect they deserve, regardless of the type of loan they have. 

But across the Administration, we want to do more. 

That’s why today, President Obama has proposed a new Student Aid Bill of Rights that outlines a series of new actions that direct the Department of Education, Department of Treasury, Office of Management and Budget, Office of Science and Technology Policy and Domestic Policy Council, working with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Social Security Administration, to make paying for higher education an easier and fairer experience for millions of Americans.

Working together, the Obama administration will: 

• Develop a state-of-the-art – and simple – process for borrowers to file complaints involving their federal student aid, and working with a team across the federal government to figure out the best way to address those complaints.
• Make sure the banks that service federal loans are held to high standards and provide better information to borrowers; and raising the bar for debt collection to make sure that fees charged to borrowers are reasonable and that collectors are fair, transparent, and help borrowers get back on track.
• Use innovative strategies to improve borrowers’ experience and improve customer service. At the Department of Education, we are committed to finding new and better ways to communicate with student loan borrowers and to creating a centralized, easier process for repaying loans. And we will see what changes to regulations and legislation, including bankruptcy law, may be necessary to protect borrowers – regardless of the type of loan they have.
• Work across the federal government to see what lessons can be learned from similar situations, like mortgage and credit card markets and other performance-based contracts, to help us make sure that ultimately, we are continually strengthening consumer protections for students.

It is our responsibility to make sure that the more than 40 million Americans with student loans are aware of resources to help them manage their debt, and that are doing everything we can to be responsive to their needs. The Student Aid Bill of Rights builds on the efforts our Administration has been taking over the last several years to make college more affordable and continues to chip away at the burden of student debt – so no one should feel overwhelmed by their student loans.

Agree with me? Take the pledge for a Student and Borrower Bill of Rights: obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/college-opportunity

When President Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) initiative one year ago, he did so with a powerful call to action to help more of our young people stay on the right track and achieve their full potential. Too many young people, including boys and young men of color, face daunting opportunity gaps and, like all of us, the President knows that America will be most successful when its young people are successful.

At the launch of MBK, the President called for government, businesses, nonprofits, schools, districts, and individuals, to commit to making a difference in the lives of our nation’s young people. Since then, nearly 200 cities, counties, and tribal nations from 43 states have accepted the MBK Community Challenge, a call to build and execute locally driven plans with a focus on achieving excellence and equity from birth through adolescence and the transition to early adulthood.

Last May, I joined young men in Denver, an MBK Community, for an open and honest discussion about their lives – their challenges, support systems, and visions for the future. So many of their stories – both heart-wrenching and inspiring – stick with me, but what perhaps struck me most were the words of Elias, who was once told he was “an exception to his race.” The words weighed heavily on him, as they did on me.

Elias told me that he doesn’t want to be an exception to his race. Rather, he envisions a system where schools partner with nonprofits and higher education to create a pipeline to success that will work for everybody.

The good news is that Elias’s vision is starting to take shape. Partners from across the country are recognizing the important work of MBK, with more than $300 million independently pledged by foundations and corporations. And, in July, AT&T, the NBA, and the NBA Players Association announced efforts that will expand opportunities for learning, mentorship, volunteerism, and jobs for all youth, including boys and young men of color. From nonprofits and foundations to businesses, private sector efforts are accelerating the work of MBK to promote academic and career success, and mentoring and public engagement.

The Department of Education is doing its part, too, by improving existing programs to better serve our youth, and by creating new and better public-private partnerships that best serve the needs of our young people. And, the Council of the Great City Schools is coordinating the leaders of 63 of the largest urban school systems in the country in an unprecedented joint pledge to change life outcomes by better serving students at every stage of their education.

In December, the Department of Education convened the White House Summit on Early Education, where we announced $750 million in new federal grant awards from the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, to support early learning for over 63,000 additional children across the country.

And, I was pleased to join US Attorney General Holder in releasing a Correctional Education Guidance Package, which builds upon the recommendations in the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force report. The guidance will help states and agencies strengthen the quality of education services provided to the approximately 57,000 young people in confinement every day.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice released joint guidance reminding states, school districts and schools of their obligations under federal law to ensure that English learner students have equal access to a high-quality education and the opportunity to achieve their full academic potential. The Departments also released additional tools and resources to help schools in serving English learner students and parents with limited English proficiency, including a toolkit to help school districts identify English learner students. 

Great efforts are underway in communities across the country – but our young people still face great challenges. To truly change the face of opportunity in this country – to truly make the bounty of America available to the many, and not just the few – we must replicate and expand what’s working.

Our work is far from over. Let’s move forward, together, to do right by all our nation’s young people.

Read the My Brother Keeper’s Task Force one-year progress report to the President.

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In June 2013, I joined the President in Mooresville, NC, to launch ConnectED – an initiative to close the technology gap in our schools and bring high-speed Internet to 99 percent of America’s students within five years. This vision – that all students should have access to world-class digital learning – is well on its way to becoming a reality. 

Thanks to the leadership of the President and the FCC, the resources are in place to meet the President’s connectivity goal. In addition, various private-sector partners are making over $2 billion worth of resources available to students, teachers, and schools. These include tablets, mobile broadband, software, and online teacher professional development courses from top universities. Fewer than 40 percent of public schools currently have the high-speed Internet needed to support modern digital learning.

But now we have the resources to solve this problem. We just need help from our nation’s superintendents and school technology chiefs.

Last year, the FCC approved the first major update to the E-Rate program since it was created in 1997. E-Rate (also known as the Universal Service Program for Schools and Libraries) makes it more affordable for schools and libraries to connect to high-speed Internet – with the goal of making the gigabit speeds we see in cities like Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Chattanooga, Tennessee the norm in schools across the country.  

These updates have unlocked funding to support internal Wi-Fi network upgrades in schools and libraries this year for the first time since 2012. Wi-Fi is important because no matter how fast the Internet connection is to a school, students can’t take full advantage of it without a robust wireless network within the school.

To secure E-rate support for Wi-Fi, schools and libraries must submit a form describing their project needs to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). USAC then posts the request for competitive bidding. The Department of Education has prepared an Infrastructure Guide to help district leaders navigate the many decisions required to deliver cutting-edge connectivity to students. That said, schools and libraries have the final say when they submit an application to USAC for approval.

Bringing our schools up to speed is a major priority, and E-rate provides an opportunity to make doing so much more affordable. For all of the superintendents and technology officers: If you haven’t yet done so, get your requests submitted by February 26, 2015, and your applications in before March 26, 2015 (requests must be up for 28 days before a school can choose a vendor). Your students, your community, and your country will thank you for bringing our classrooms into the 21st century.  

Ed. note: This is cross-posted on The Root. See the original post here.

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Following Michael Brown’s tragic death, people across the country — and the world — have grieved together and engaged in critical conversations about race and community relationships. When President Barack Obama hosted a dialogue in December with young people on the issues in Ferguson, Missouri, I asked the youngest members of the Ferguson commission how I could be helpful. They asked me to visit Ferguson — to listen to the stories of the people who live there — because youth, in particular, were hurting.

I listened. Recently, I traveled to Ferguson. I visited the Clyde C. Miller Career Academy High School, Grandview High School, Ferguson library and the Greater St. Mark Family Church to meet with students, educators and community leaders to hear their thoughts on race, equity and trust since Brown’s death.

The stories I heard from students showed a real sense of uncertainty about the future that far too many young people in communities across this country feel. During one of several stops through Ferguson, I met with Gbemisola Fadeyi, a student at Hazelwood East Middle School. Gbemisola said that since the death of Michael Brown, “I feel like it would be a blessing to get to the age of 16 without being killed by someone. I am so fearful of a lot of things now, and I shouldn’t be scared, I shouldn’t be scared.”

She’s right: All young people should grow up free from fear and violence. But there are too many neighborhoods and communities where fear and violence are part of a student’s daily life. Gbemisola and other young people said that they have been scared — not only for themselves but also for their family members, particularly since Brown’s death.

From the students to the teachers and to superintendents, school board members and union leaders, what I felt was their searing honesty, as well as a deep sense of selflessness. Diamond Smith, a junior at Riverview Gardens High School, shared that in an effort to help her community, she had given her entire paycheck from her after-school job to a homeless man who was feeling broken and hopeless. Stories like these from Gbemisola and Diamond are both heart-wrenching and inspiring.

In Ferguson, I also saw a willingness to reflect and a commitment to long-term action. While there is a great deal of hurt and anger, there’s also great interest among the young people, community leaders and educators to work together to turn around a very tough situation — to ensure trust and to build strong relationships among law enforcement and other officials and the communities they serve. The students I met with at Clyde C. Miller Career Academy High School, for example, are reviewing their old classroom notes on the civil rights movement of the 1960s in hopes of organizing their own movement toward social justice in 2015. They’re seeing and sensing that they are a part of rewriting the history of their own community.

Like civil rights leaders who came before them, these students and educators see education as a means of addressing inequities and injustices. They noted that they are tired of the disparities in their local school systems — whether it’s a lack of access to quality early-childhood education, to Advanced Placement classes, to adequately funded schools, to strong instruction or to after-school programs.

Education is — and must continue to be — the great equalizer that overcomes differences in background, culture and privilege. Educational opportunity represents a chance at a better life, and no child should be denied that chance. Where our children lack that opportunity, it’s not just heartbreaking; it is educational malpractice. It is morally bankrupt, and it is destructive to our nation’s future. I don’t believe that we’re going to solve the challenges in Ferguson and other communities from Washington, D.C., alone, but we can be part of the solution if we listen closely to the people living in these communities. Making things better for kids, their families and their schools will take all of us working together. We can — and we must — get to a better place.

President Obama and this entire Administration are committed to finding practical solutions to seemingly complex problems. In keeping his promise to find a way to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the communities they serve, the President established the Task Force on 21st-Century Policing, which will be releasing its recommendations by March. I also have assigned members of my team to continue to work with the Ferguson community. In the long term, we are committed to growing opportunity through the My Brother’s Keeper initiative and through laying out principles for equity that must guide a new Education and Elementary Secondary Act.

Arne Duncan is the U.S. Secretary of Education.

See more about:

• The Task Force on 21st Century Policing
• The "My Brother's Keeper" initiative

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Yesterday, the President announced his "America's College Promise" proposal. It makes two years of community college free for responsible students.

Yes, you read that right. Under his plan, any student who earns good grades would get two years of community college education at no cost.

Get the facts on yesterday's announcement, and pass it on to someone who stands to benefit from the President's proposal.

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Think about this: The President's new proposal would let students earn the first half of a bachelor's degree, or get the skills they'll need when they enter the workforce after school.

When it's fully implemented, the move could benefit about 9 million students per year. And a full-time community college student could save, on average, $3,800 in tuition each year.

In fact, Tennessee and Chicago have already started similar tuition-free community college programs, and the demand has been amazing: 57,000 students, representing almost 90 percent of Tennessee's high school graduating class, applied to Tennessee's program in just its first year.

In order to succeed in the 21st century economy, access to some form of higher education is a must -- so it only stands to reason that we should make it more accessible and affordable to more of America's students.

Let's help out our next generation of students, and put them on the road to success.

Find out more about the President's announcement, and make sure to share the news.

Thanks,

Arne

You should also see:

• The President Proposes to Make Community College Free for Responsible Students for 2 Years
• Why Access to Free Community College Matters
• What They're Saying About the President's Free Community College Proposal

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Last week, I met Brittany.

She's a hardworking student at West Georgia Technical College who is now just months away from being certified as a nursing assistant, but there was a point when she didn’t think she’d be here. In high school, Brittany became pregnant and her future suddenly became uncertain. Her high school counselor suggested she apply for the 12 for Life program, a local program that offers students who have fallen behind in high school the opportunity to attend class, work and get back on their feet.

As I talked with Brittany and her fellow students — many of whom were the first in their family to graduate high school — they spoke powerfully and tearfully of the program’s success, and how it had given them hope for the future.

Brittany’s inspiring story is just one of many I heard last week during the Department of Education’s annual back-to-school bus tour. This year’s tour took us to Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, and provided my team and me with the opportunity to see innovations in education and to discuss progress, promise, and results.

I wish I could see every innovative program — every initiative creating promise for our children — happening across the country, but even after visiting all 50 states and more than 350 schools during my time as Secretary, I can’t visit every school. So that’s where you come in.

What cutting-edge programs are your local schools undertaking? Or, if you don’t know of any, what would you like to see them do?

We'll share some of your stories and suggestions on the White House blog.

Brittany tells Secretary Arne Duncan about her positive experience in the 12 for Life Program during a stop on his back-to-school bus tour in Carrolton, Ga. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Education by Joshua Hoover.

This was my fifth back-to-school bus tour, and with each tour, I become increasingly optimistic about our country’s ability to elevate and strengthen education. High school graduation rates are at an all-time high, college enrollment has hit record levels, dropout rates are dramatically down, and principals, teachers, parents, and students are taking the lead on improving education for all students.

But during the bus tour and around the country, I also hear a lot of people worried that our children won’t inherit a better America than we did. That’s why we have such an important shared mission: to make sure that every student, everywhere, gets an effective education. It’s a mission that we can all agree on, and it’s one that matters immensely.

The best ideas in education will never come from Washington, which is why the Obama Administration is working hard to help states and communities strengthen schools — in particular, through supports for great teaching, and higher standards. It’s inspiring to see states and local communities stepping up to expand access to high-quality early education, transition to college- and career-ready standards, and support innovation in education.

So I want to know what's happening in your community. Share the innovative things the schools in your area are doing — or what you'd like to see happen.

We should celebrate the gains we’ve made these past couple years, but we can’t be fully satisfied. There’s still more to do to support all students so they may reach their full potential. So, in this new school year, let’s get to work.

Thanks for sharing,

Arne

Secretary Arne Duncan
Department of Education
@arneduncan

For the fifth year in a row, I’m hitting the road for our Department’s back-to-school bus tour. This year’s tour is themed “Partners in Progress,” and I’ll be traveling through Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee to see innovation in education at work, and to discuss progress, promise, and results.

Today, I’m taking over the White House’s Instagram account to give you a behind-the-scenes look as I meet teachers, parents, students, and education leaders who have been partners in making progress for our nation’s children. Keep checking back throughout the day for more photos, and remember that the tour won’t end today, so stay up-to-date with our tour by following me on Twitter, by checking out the hashtag #EDTour14, and by visiting ed.gov/progress. 

I’m here for every American who works their tail off; who does everything right; who believes in the American Dream and just wants a chance to build a decent life for themselves and their families. You are why I ran for President in the first place. 

In his 2014 State of the Union address, the President tasked Vice President Biden with leading a review of job training programs, with the aim of making them more job-driven. That review is complete and earlier this week, the President and Vice President announced significant reforms in the way Federal programs train and retrain workers.

As a result of this review, the Administration is kicking off a significant new public-private effort to help hard-working Americans get ahead through an initiative we are calling “upskilling”: working with employers, educators, tech innovators, unions, training providers, cities, states, and non-profits to help turn low-wage and entry-level jobs across the country into stepping stones to the middle class.

We will be doing this in a number of ways. Increasing access to high-quality education and training is an important component, and new federal investments in an online skills academy will leverage technology to offer open online courses of study, helping students earn credentials online through participating accredited institutions. These investments also will expand access to curricula designed to shorten the time it takes to complete training, enabling workers to efficiently develop skills in demand by employers. We will also build partnerships across the public and private sectors to provide opportunities for low-wage and entry-level workers to gain the skills required to be competitive in the workforce. 

Research shows that an individual’s skill level strongly affects her or his social mobility: the economic payoff to individuals with higher skills is greater in the United States than in almost any other OECD country. In fact, studies have found that wages increase by 28 percent with an improvement in numeracy skills alone.

Most training in the United States occurs at the workplace (Robert I. Lerman, Signe-Mary McKernan, and Stephanie Riegg, “The Scope of Employer-Provided Training in the United States: Who, What, Where, and How Much?” Job Training Policy in the United States (2004)), but the vast majority of employers’ investment in education and training is focused on more highly skilled employees. In fact, in 2012, only 21 percent of adults with the lowest measured level skills were participating in job-related education and training, compared to 69 percent of adults with the highest level skills (“Survey of Adult Skills,” The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2013)). And despite significant investments by the Federal government, the current federally-funded adult education system reaches fewer than 6 percent of the 36 million adults with severe deficits in workforce literacy (“Adult Education Basic Grant Program Factsheet,” Department of Education Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (June 2014)).

The good news is that there are emerging career ladders for entry-level workers who have access to the right educational content and receive some on the job training, and clear success stories. Take Enisael Aguilera, a Wisconsin resident, who spent years repairing shipping and storage pallets before deciding to improve his skills in order to obtain better paying employment. As he studied to pass the GED exam at Waukesha County Technical College, Enisael earned the Metal Fabrication Technical Diploma and became aware of its associated Career Pathway. After finishing the course, he began work at the Wausau Equipment Company as a finish welder, and shortly thereafter received his “welder registration” from the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, gaining a 12 percent pay-raise in just his first-year on the job.

Similar pathways are available in other sectors, too. In industries as diverse as healthcare, manufacturing, and insurance, many skilled technical workers are nearing retirement, and employers need to diversify their talent base. To stay competitive, employers will need to tap into the abilities of all Americans, including their own entry-level workforce.  

Our goal is to get 24 million low-wage, hard-working Americans the training that puts them on pathways to fill hundreds of thousands of vacancies employers have right now in mid-skill, better-paying jobs. As the President said this week and has stated many times before, our focus is on ensuring that every American who works hard and plays by the rules gets a fair shot. Entry-level jobs should be stepping stones to robust career pathways into the middle class, and to the American dream.

Arne Duncan is the Secretary of Education. Jeffrey Zients is Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks detailing progress toward his ConnectED goal of connecting 99% of students to next-generation broadband and wireless technology within five years, at Buck Lodge Middle School in Adelphi, Maryland, Feb. 4, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

One year ago, President Obama unveiled his ConnectED initiative to empower students and teachers with technology in the classroom. The President called on businesses, states, districts, schools, and communities to support this vision, and through the power of his pen and phone, he is building momentum and we are seeing results. 

Over the past year, the President has worked with the private sector to catalyze impactful commitments of free hardware, software, educational content, and wireless connectivity — amounting to over $2 billion in value for American schools. 

On top of that, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler has pledged to invest an additional $2 billion to connect 20 million more students to fast broadband and wireless in their classrooms over the next two years. Taken together, this represents more than $4 billion in public and private support starting this calendar year.

This investment is the shot of adrenaline our schools need to surge into the 21st century. It is a major down payment on providing every child in America with the high-quality teaching and technological skills that they deserve, and the economy demands. 

And we are keeping our foot on the accelerator.

Today, we are announcing that the 10 companies who have made ConnectED commitments are making those private funding resources available to schools across the country, and information about these and other resources will be accessible through a new ConnectED Hub. 

Companies like Adobe, Autodesk, Esri, O’Reilly Media, and Prezi are opening up learning software and content resources to all eligible schools across the country. Others, like Apple, AT&T, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, are partnering with non-profit organizations and communities to help equip some of the neediest schools with hardware, software, and wireless connectivity crucial to the ConnectED vision. You can learn about it all on our Hub.

But don’t take our word for it. We’ve heard from students, at schools like Mooresville High and Buck Lodge Middle School, who tell us they’re more engaged and are better prepared for college and the workforce as a result of technology in their classrooms. We’ve heard from educators who say ConnectED is already setting off a wave of enthusiasm among their peers, allowing them to unlock teaching opportunities they have tried to implement for years. And we’ve heard from venture capitalists who tell us that they are taking a second look at the education technology market, and are encouraging start-ups to develop for schools.

These are the kinds of opportunities we want to create for every student, for every educator, in every school, and across our economy. And one year later, ConnectED is making good on that promise.

Learn more about how your school can take advantage of the ConnectED commitments:

• Adobe will deliver creative tools in the form of free software, and teacher professional development, to Title I schools across the United States — with the goal of helping youth express their creativity and build their skills for future success. Click here to complete the application form to apply for free software from Adobe.

  For teachers, Adobe provides a range of free teacher training and curricular resources from the Adobe Education Exchange and Adobe Youth Voices. Click here to access Adobe teacher resources.

• Apple is helping transform America’s schools by providing iPads, MacBooks, software, and support to schools in need as a major contributor to President Obama’s ConnectED initiative. Apple is contributing $100 million in equipment and expertise to bring Apple's love of learning and experience in the classroom to the schools that need it most.

  With an Apple ConnectED Grant, Apple will provide iPads, Macs, and the very best educational content students need to personalize learning and inspire their best thinking. Apple will also provide Apple Professional Development, giving teachers the training they need to implement these powerful tools. Apple's innovative technology, interactive learning tools, and ongoing support can have a profound impact on students and teachers in the communities that need it most and Apple can't wait to get started.

  Apple is inviting economically disadvantaged schools where 96 percent or more students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches to apply for a ConnectED grant. Invited schools will have until June 20 to let Apple know if they intend to apply. Final applications are due July 25.

  Click here for additional information.

• AT&T has committed to provide a broad array of services that enable a comprehensive tablet-based education capability to 50,000 middle and high school students in Title I districts. Schools and districts can apply now for this AT&T Aspire program. Click here to learn about the application parameters and to apply for comprehensive tablet-based education capability from AT&T Aspire.

• Autodesk, a designer of leading advanced software products in design, drafting, and engineering, has committed to expand the company’s “Design the Future” program to be available to every secondary school in the country in 2014. The program, which offers free 3D design software, project-based curricula, training, and certification, will help secondary school teachers teach critical problem-solving and technical skills in demand, in high-paying STEM fields like engineering and architecture.

  Administrators, click here to learn about “Design the Future” and register your school.
  Teachers, click here to directly connect with teacher training or professional development resources from Autodesk.
  Students, click here to access free software and learn how to use the software.

• Esri will provide to every U.S. K-12 school in America free access to ArcGIS Online Organization accounts — the same GIS technology used by government and business. These allow users to map and analyze data, create and share content, and collaborate in the cloud — via computers, tablets, or smartphones, anytime, anywhere connected.

  This commitment expands on Esri’s successful program in pilot schools at all levels across the country, and will allow students to do projects of unlimited content, from global to local, so that they can build community, as well as build knowledge and skills for college and career.

  Administrators, click here to learn more about Esri and download a request form.
  Teachers, click here for an instruction manual, ready-to-use maps, and career info.
  Students, click here to learn how to use online maps and build your mapping skills.

• Microsoft created a new affordability program open to all U.S. K-12 public schools to connect 99 percent of America’s students to the digital age within five years. The program includes:

  • A range of discounted partner and Microsoft devices built with Windows 8.1 Pro
  • Communication and collaboration tools with Office 365 Education (for administrators and teachers)
  • Teacher training and resources through the Microsoft Educator Network (for teachers)
  • Ad-free search with Bing in the Classroom (for administrators and teachers)
  • Broadband as a critical component to connected learning through Microsoft’s nonprofit partner EveryoneOn (for administrators and teachers)
  • Student training and resources for fundamental technology skills through Microsoft IT Academy (for administrators) for up to 2,000 high-needs academic institutions and their educators, students, and staff with digital curriculum and certification

  Click here for full details on Microsoft commitments.

• O’Reilly Media, through a partnership with Safari Books Online, has committed to provide educational content and tools such as technology books and publications, for free, to every school in America. This commitment can provide students at a range of grade levels with the technological skills they need to be prepared in a globalized, digital economy.

  • Starting in January 2015, teachers should click here to sign up for on-demand access.
  • For students, O’Reilly Media and Safari Books Online are supporting curious kids with world-class content. American high school students interested in technology, programming, and software now have free, on-demand access to the same O'Reilly Media ebooks and videos that millions of professionals turn to every day. The more than 2,000 titles in the Safari K12 program cover a wonderful range of subjects, from Python to PowerPoint to Photography. Early access for summer 2014 is now open to the first 500 curious high school students (13 years old or older) that click here to apply now, with nationwide access coming in September.

• Prezi has committed to provide Edu Pro, a program for creating memorable presentations, licenses for high schools and all educators across America. Click here to learn more about Prezi and their ConnectED-related software commitments.

  Administrators and teachers, click here to fill out a form to receive updates on Prezi's ConnectED commitment in presentation software, and to be notified when applications will begin to be accepted.

• Sprint has committed to provide high-speed wireless broadband service for up to 50,000 students at schools across the country starting in August 2014 and over the next four years. Click here to submit an application for participation in Sprint’s ConnectED commitment. Upon selection, the applicant will receive additional information, including a secure website to manage their account.

• Verizon will be expanding one of its key education initiatives, the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) by introducing the Verizon Mobile Learning Academy. VILS provides two years of comprehensive professional development for teachers on how to effectively incorporate mobile technology into their classrooms to change the way they teach and students learn. Currently, VILS serves 24 schools, 229 teachers and 11,500 students. In partnership with the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) and Johns Hopkins University, the Verizon Foundation is launching the Verizon Mobile Learning Academy, a virtual, moderated professional development course offered to teams of educators for free.

  The course includes five modules developed around ISTE standards. Course modules are designed to help teachers, administrators, and tech coaches implement effective mobile learning initiatives in their schools and classrooms. Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be offered through Johns Hopkins University to teachers upon completing the course. The training will reach up to 3,000 teachers across all 50 states over the next three years, beginning this fall.

  Administrators and teachers can sign up to receive more information about the Verizon Mobile Learning Academy by clicking here.

It's easy to talk about the importance of college. But some folks really walk the walk.

I had the thrilling opportunity to meet some of them a few years ago, when I joined the college signing day at YES Prep in Houston, Texas. As I told the audience that day, I was moved nearly to tears as students announced their college plans to a cheering stadium, and signed letters committing to their college. It was the kind of unbridled enthusiasm we usually reserve for sporting events – and yet it was also like a family reunion. It was overwhelming.

Today, First Lady Michelle Obama will take that experience to a whole new level when she gives a name to her college access initiative, Reach Higher, at the culmination of a city-wide college celebration in San Antonio, Texas. All week, the entire city has been focused on the vital importance of getting a college degree. Today, the First Lady will witness an auditorium full of high school seniors committing to entering and completing college.

Their embrace of that goal is part of changing our country's future. A generation ago, our young people were first in the world in their college completion rate – but now we are 12th in the world. President Obama has set a goal of reclaiming our world leadership.

And we are seeing some really important progress. Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of announcing our new cohort high school graduation rate, which at 80% is the highest in US history. And last month, we learned that attainment of college degrees last year saw its biggest rise since 2008.

These improvements are badly needed and long in coming. African-American, Latino and low-income students have helped to drive many recent increases in high school graduation and college-going – but they still don't have the same opportunities, or the same success rates, as many other students. The need for equitable opportunities has always been pressing – but is even more so as we project that this fall, America's public school students will for the first time be mostly nonwhite. We are working hard to ensure stronger opportunities – but we have a long way to go.

And college matters in a way that it never has before – because without some postsecondary education, there are very few opportunities in today's knowledge-based economy.

The First Lady understands this at her core. Fighting for and committing to getting a great education isn't some intellectual exercise for the First Lady. She lived this experience on Chicago's South Side. Her parents didn't have a college education, but they pushed her and her brother Craig to work hard in high school and concentrate on getting a college degree. She pushed herself to study as hard as possible – benefiting from the encouragement of those who supported her, and pushing past the doubts of those who didn't.

So when students hear from her, when she tells her own story of perseverance in high school, in college, in law school – they listen. Because they understand that she's not that different from any of them. All those struggles, whether it was picking classes, navigating student loans, or even just knowing the right sized sheets to bring that first day of college – she's faced them, persevered, and been successful thanks to getting a great education. And she wants to make sure others understand how to navigate that path.

So I feel really lucky to have her as a better partner to inspire students across the country and push them to reach higher and commit to postsecondary education. In San Antonio, she won't just be celebrating the importance of the college-going culture in one city, but the college-going culture she's trying to create across the country. Her story, her candor, and her energy ensure that young people across this country will reach higher – and will achieve more.

Learn more about the Reach Higher initiative here.

Follow Sec. Arne Duncan on Twitter: @ArneDuncan.

The very best person to talk to about how modern technology is changing our classrooms isn't me, or even the President.

It's a student who is actually learning from those tools every day -- accessing school assignments online, watching online video lessons to learn a new concept, or even talking directly with other students around the world with new technology.

That's why, a few months ago, the White House challenged students all across the country to create short films answering a simple question:

Why is technology so important in the classroom -- and how will it change the educational experience for kids in the future?

The response was overwhelming. And today, the 16 official selections are going to be screened at the first-ever White House Student Film Festival.

You're going to want to tune in for this one. Watch the official selections, then tune in today at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Today's going to be a fun day, but this event speaks to something much bigger.

That's because these students' films all illustrate the critical conversation about education in our country right now: the importance of connecting our classrooms.

The fact is that right now, only around 30% of our students have the high-speed Internet access they need for digital learning. That means millions of kids across the country aren't currently benefiting from the kinds of technologies that made the student films you'll watch today possible.

The President's ConnectED initiative is making sure that changes -- by connecting 99 percent of students to next-generation, high-speed broadband within five years.

Want to see exactly why that's so important? Just take a look at some of the incredible things kids can produce when they're connected.

See the official film festival selections, then make sure you're watching the event at 2:30 p.m. ET today.

Looking forward to continuing the conversation.

This is an exciting future, and for some districts and schools across the country, that future is now.

Today the Department of Education announced the second round of grantees in the Race to the Top-District (RTT-D) competition. (Five winners, representing 25 districts, won a total of $120 million in grant funds.) These grants will support locally developed plans to personalize and improve student learning, directly increase student achievement and educator effectiveness, close achievement gaps, and prepare every student for success in college and careers. Through these grants, innovative school districts will be able to better support teachers and students by increasing educational opportunities through more personalized learning.

President Obama described the promise of personalized learning when he launched the ConnectED initiative last June. Technology is a powerful tool that helps create robust personalized learning environments, but unfortunately, too many of our schools cannot support such environments. ConnectED is about establishing the building blocks for nearly every school to achieve this vision—by boosting broadband speeds through a modernized E-rate program, working to make learning devices and quality content available to all students, and ensuring that teachers have the support and professional development resources they need as they transition to a digital world.

This year’s RTT-D grantees exemplify the types of opportunities created by personalizing learning environments supported by technology. Indeed, most of the districts that won funding represent rural, remote, or small town communities, and their plans show that technology can be a powerful equalizer for schools in such communities. For example:

• Technology as a tool for teachers and students. Clarendon County School District Two in South Carolina (leading a consortium of four districts) will make personal learning devices like laptops and tablets available to all students in the Carolina Consortium for Enterprise Learning. Teachers will have digital tools to help them differentiate instruction and share standards-aligned materials and assessments.
• Professional learning communities. Clarksdale Municipal School District in Mississippi will train teachers to become facilitators of instruction and to learn from and support one another through professional learning communities.
• Continuous improvement. Houston Independent School District in Texas will implement a continuous improvement cycle to measure and support teacher effectiveness and will partner with an external evaluator to provide ongoing feedback to the district on program implementation.
• Accessible data systems that support instruction. The Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (a consortium of eighteen rural districts) will create and implement data systems that measure student growth and success and that help teachers improve instruction.
• Helping close the digital divide through community access to technology. Springdale School District in Arkansas will expand parent access to technology through school-based and community “hot spots” along with community liaisons with computer access.

It’s clear that much of the innovative work by the districts in this year’s and last year’s RTT-D grantees requires a robust technology infrastructure. And in order for more districts to embrace a future of personalized learning, we must work urgently to meet our ConnectED goals. That future is waiting, but it’s up to us to make it a reality.

In the aftermath of the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School last December, the courage and resilience of teachers, parents, children, and communities in the Newtown area has been nothing short of remarkable.

From Governor Dannel Malloy to state lawmakers to the members of the Sandy Hook Promise, the entire state worked together to pass comprehensive legislation to reduce gun violence.

Unlike here in Washington, Connecticut’s lawmakers didn’t defend the status quo or shrink from tackling difficult questions. With bipartisan support, they enacted a comprehensive law to help curb gun violence and mass shootings that does not infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and hunt.

Connecticut’s leaders have set an example of political courage that can teach a lot to Congress and the rest of the nation. At today’s town hall meeting, Governor Malloy talked about how he decided to press ahead for new gun violence prevention measures, despite fierce attacks from the NRA.

By contrast, in Washington, Congress has so far failed to take the sensible step of expanding the background check system to close loopholes that allow criminals and the mentally ill to buy guns.

Those loopholes make no sense—and 90 percent of the public backs expanding background checks. I hope that Congress soon takes up universal background checks again.

Both the state and federal government are lending a helping hand in the recovery of Newtown and surrounding communities affected by the violence at Sandy Hook. At today’s town hall, Governor Malloy and I announced two new grants to help in the recovery process.

Under Connecticut’s new Gun Violence Prevention and Children’s Safety Act, signed into law by Governor Malloy last month, Connecticut will provide $5 million to municipalities to boost school security.  State funding will go to schools with the most need—buildings with little or no security infrastructure in school districts that are struggling financially.

At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Education will provide a $1.3 million Project School Emergency Response to Violence (SERV) grant to the Newtown Public School District to assist the community in recovering from the shootings.

The Project SERV grant will help fund grief support groups for siblings who lost classmates, skill-based counseling for students suffering posttraumatic stress, security guards, an academic-booster summer session for students, and many other services.

Our efforts to assist the recovery of Newtown from this tragedy are only the beginning of the steps that our schools, communities, Congress, and our country must take to ensure our children grow up safe and free from fear.

Every community needs to appraise its values--and look at whether the community, parents, business leaders, faith-based leaders, political leaders, and schools are doing everything that they can to keep our nation's children safe from harm.

This is a collective responsibility. None of us gets a pass. As a nation, we cannot “move on” and forget the pain and unbearable tragedy of 20 young children and six educators gunned down in an elementary school in a matter of minutes on December 14, 2012.

The students I talked in Connecticut today were bright, spirited, and eager to go on to college to get their degrees. They are the faces of the future. Our nation’s leaders, our parents and our educators owe it to them and to all our children to do everything in our power to make sure their dreams are not cut short by violence.

So many of America’s teachers are amazing. Each day, they take on the extraordinary responsibility and highly complex work of moving all students forward. As I visit schools across the country and talk with teachers at the U.S. Department of Education, they astound me continually with what they accomplish every day. Not only are teachers some of the smartest, most compassionate people I know, but they do work that few of us could accomplish on our best days.

During Teacher Appreciation Week, the people who value teachers often take time to send them a note of thanks or a token of appreciation. This is appropriate. The least we can do once a year is to push “pause” on our lives and thank them in the short term. However, what our teachers really need—and deserve—is our ongoing commitment to work with them to transform America’s schools. They need us to acknowledge them as professionals who are doing our nation’s most important work. We can begin this work by making it a priority to listen toand to celebrate teachers.

Here are some ways we plan to listen to and to celebrate teachers at the Department of Education this week.

Listening: On Monday, May 6, we will host a Google hangout celebrating African-American educators around the country, broadcasting from the campus of Howard University. You can view the conversation – “Celebrating African-American Teachers in our Classrooms” –live at 4 pm Eastern or check out the archived version of the Hangout afterwards at our YouTube site. You can also follow the discussion on Twitter at #AfAmTeachers. On Wednesday and Friday, our Teaching Ambassador Fellows will host roundtable discussions with teachers of children with exceptionalities and teachers of English language learners. We want to know from them what is working in their schools, what is not working, and how we can better support them.

Celebrating: Every day this week I will be making phone calls to great teachers who are leading change from their classrooms. We will also be celebrating teachers on Twitter; please be part of that by using the hashtag #thankateacher. On Wednesday I will drop by a local Teacher Appreciation Breakfast to thank teachers for making tremendous progress closing gaps and raising achievement in their school. We are also hosting a reception at the Department for the more than 400 current and former teachers who work at the Department of Education, and talking about how we can better make use of their experiences to improve our work.

Walking in Teachers’ Shoes: One of my favorite activities all year long is our ED Goes Back to School Day, taking place this year on Thursday, May 9. More than 65 of my senior staff and regional officers will shadow a teacher for a day or half-day, witnessing firsthand how demanding and rewarding it can be to juggle reforms, pedagogy, and practice. After the shadowing, the teachers and staff will meet with me back at ED to talk about their experiences and share lessons learned. Last year our staff benefitted tremendously from the experience, talking about what they saw for months afterward and connecting their experiences with their daily work here.

I encourage everyone to take time this week to not only take a more active role honoring teachers, but to listen to them actively and to celebrate their great work. I hope this week will be your chance to ask a teacher, How can I support you in America’s most important work, all year long?

“… My administration will release a new “College Scorecard” that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria — where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.” - President Obama, 2013 State of the Union

The interactive College Scorecard gives students and families five key pieces of data about a college: costs, graduation rate, loan default rate, average amount borrowed, and employment.

Too often, students and their families don’t have the right tools to help them sort through the information they need to decide which college or university is right for them. The search can be overwhelming, and the information from different colleges can be hard to compare.

That’s why, today, our Administration released a “College Scorecard” that empowers families to make smart investments in higher education. As the President said last night, we want to help families get the most bang for their educational buck.

The College Scorecard – as part of President Obama’s continued efforts to hold colleges accountable for cost, value and quality – highlights key indicators about the cost and value of institutions across the country to help students choose a school that is well-suited to meet their needs, priced affordably, and is consistent with their educational and career goals.

The tool is interactive, so students can choose among any number of options based on their individual needs – including location, size, campus setting, and degree and major programs.

Each Scorecard includes five key pieces of data about a college: costs, graduation rate, loan default rate, average amount borrowed, and employment. This data will be updated periodically, and the Department plans to publish information on average earnings in the coming year.

Get started by visiting WhiteHouse.gov/scorecard.

Read more about President Obama’s State of the Union address.

I have been proud to serve President Obama and this administration since day one, but Wednesday was one of my proudest days. The actions that the President is taking and proposing to reduce gun violence echo what America’s educators say they need to better protect and support students in school and in their communities. I thank the President and Vice President Biden for leading this critical national conversation. America’s schools are among the safest places in our country. The President’s comprehensive approach will make schools and communities safer.

We will never fully understand why 20 first-graders and six educators were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School—or why still more students and educators lost their lives at Columbine, Chardon or Red Lake high schools, Westside Middle School, Virginia Tech or the many other campuses and communities in our country where guns have cut short dreams and created fear. We can, however, take a number of common-sense steps to help prevent future tragedies.

As the President called for this week, we can limit access to the deadliest guns and ammunition, and we can put in checks to keep guns out of the wrong hands. We can also provide new resources, so schools can develop and implement comprehensive emergency management plans.

We can expand student support systems by allowing communities to decide what they need most, including more school resource officers, psychologists, social workers and counselors. A renewed commitment to students’ mental and emotional well-being is key.

President Barack Obama listens to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan during a meeting in Vice President Joe Biden's West Wing office at the White House, Dec. 17, 2012. The President dropped by the Vice President's meeting to discuss the Administration’s effort to develop policy proposals in response to the tragedy in Newtown, Conn. Pictured, clockwise from the President, are: the Vice President; Attorney General Eric Holder; Margaret Richardson, Counselor to the Attorney General for Executive Branch Relations; Sarah Bianchi, Director of Economic and Domestic Policy for the Vice President; and Eric Waldo, Deputy Chief of Staff for Sec. Duncan. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Helping schools reduce bullying, drug abuse, other forms of violence and problem behaviors is also vital. And as we seek to prevent tragedies, we cannot be reluctant to do research and collect data so we can understand the causes of gun violence.

Our goals are simple: fewer children dying from gun violence and fewer children living in fear. Harder to realize are the policies, actions, and value changes necessary to reach those goals.

Today, looking into the eyes of parents who have lost children due to gun violence, I am more committed than ever, and the President is, too. Those parents’ unimaginable heartbreak and extraordinary strength must motivate us to act. Now is the time. Our children, families, educators, communities and our country deserve better. We can’t let them down.

Learn more:

• Read President Obama's plan to curb gun violence
   
• Watch the President announce his plan to curb gun violence
   
• See a photo gallery of Vice President Biden's meetings with concerned groups
   
• Sign on to show your support for the President's plan

See the full size gallery

For the third year in a row, our team at the U.S. Department of Education has gone on a back-to-school bus tour. This year was more ambitious than ever. Senior leaders traveled from coast-to-coast and have participated in almost 100 events over the past 10 days.

It started on Sept. 12 with a town hall meeting about the potential of technology to transform learning in Redwood City, Calif., and ended with a rally at the Department of Education headquarters in Washington, DC. Across the country, I’ve seen examples of communities in Topeka, Kansas, and McDowell County, West Virginia, coming together to turn around struggling schools. I met with Hispanic students in Reno, Nevada, to discuss how a college degree will help ensure their economic prosperity. And I visited a school in Denver that takes nutrition and student health seriously. They even got me to dance.

The theme of this year bus tour has been “Education Drives America.” As the whirlwind of events ends, I’m more convinced than ever that Americans understand how important education is to America’s future and are working to ensure our children get the world-class education they deserve.

For more information:

• Learn more about helping early learners
• Learn more about preparing K-12 students for success
• Learn more investing in higher education
• Learn more about education reform

As President Obama said in a message commemorating the 40^th anniversary of the enactment of this program:

Forty years ago, our Nation codified a commitment to bringing higher education within reach for every American by creating the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant—later renamed the Federal Pell Grant after Senator Claiborne Pell, to honor his efforts in creating the program.  On this anniversary, we reflect on four decades of progress toward fulfilling that fundamental promise and rededicate ourselves to making college affordable for all.

Federal Pell Grants have helped millions of Americans achieve their fullest potential by not only opening the doors to college, but also providing students the financial support necessary to complete their studies and prosper in today’s economy.  That is why my Administration has prioritized Pell Grants as a source of funding they can count on each and every year.  We have provided resources to support a 50 percent increase in Pell Grant recipients, giving college access to millions of additional students across our country; aggressively raised the maximum Pell Grant award to keep pace with rising costs; and strengthened the Pell Grant Program by cutting banks out of Federal student lending and delivering financial aid directly to students.  By continuing to provide grants that extend educational opportunity to students, we make critical investments both in their personal success and in America’s success in the 21st century.

As we mark the 40th Anniversary of the Federal Pell Grant Program, we also celebrate the individuals and organizations who have worked to widen the circle of opportunity for countless Americans through higher education.  Today and tomorrow, let us recommit to empowering the next generation with the tools and resources they need to achieve their dreams.  I am confident that, through programs like Pell Grants, our Nation will reach our goal of once again leading the world in college completion by the year 2020.

Senator Claiborne Pell, the chief sponsor of the program, liked to say, ‘Any student with the talent, desire, and drive, should be able to pursue higher education.’ Because of his commitment and vision, millions of students from poor and working class backgrounds received the economic lifeline they need to earn a college degree. The Pell Grant program has literally transformed millions of lives.

In today’s global economy that’s more important than ever. High school graduation is no longer a path leading to a good paying job. College, or other postsecondary training, has never been more important to finding meaningful and substantial employment.

More students than ever are relying on Pell grants, and if we are to reach our goal of out-innovating, out-educating and out-building the rest of the world, we need to continue our investment in Pell. 

To save energy and decrease their environmental impact, the winning schools are using a range of methods. Many purchase renewable energy and generate it on school premises. One boasts the world’s largest closed loop geothermal heating and cooling system and another features the nation’s first off-grid solar and wind powered school. We’re honoring schools that use green roofs, pervious pavement, rain gardens, rain barrels, rain cisterns and low-flow water equipment of all types. At some of the winners, the buses run on ultra-low sulfur diesel, compressed natural gas or the discarded cooking oils of local restaurants. Their conservation efforts extend from the cafeteria to the classroom, as they devise reusable snack bags and water bottles; dine with reusable plates, napkins and utensils for meals; and save paper by converting to digital assignments and grading.

To keep students healthy and engaged in learning, there are almost as many innovative ideas as there are winning schools. Kids are outside climbing ropes, kayaking, orienteering and learning in their outdoor classrooms. They’re reading ‘on the green,’ conducting GPS mapping studies of creeks, performing water quality testing, creating and maintaining trails, tapping maple trees, reconstructing wetlands and going on wilderness adventures. Many students are growing their own food – with vegetable gardens, herb gardens, colonial gardens, organic gardens, butterfly gardens, aquaponic gardens, salad gardens, pizza gardens, lasagna gardens and Native American medicine wheel gardens – as well as fruit trees, berry patches, peach orchards and olive groves. They’re preparing their harvest in the kitchen, learning about its nutritional value in the classroom, and sending many pounds of produce to local food pantries. Winning schools are also ensuring that kids’ health is protected in other ways, by using certified green cleaning products, for example, or by posting “no idling” signs in the driveways and parking lots.

Today’s winners are also providing a comprehensive environmental education that is essential to help students become good citizens, prepared for life and work in the 21^st century global economy. They are learning health, science, sustainable agriculture and business acumen by caring for their chickens, bunnies, goats, fish, ducks and bees. They tend to trout and salmon in the cassroom, on-site forests, ponds and lakes, or find ones nearby to adopt. Older students take Ecology, Environmental Leadership, Horticulture, Biology, Renewable Energy and AP Environmental Science. Students are learning green technologies, renewable energy and sustainability by converting cars to electric power and designing solar panels, solar cars and wind generators. Students are constructing energy efficient modular homes, retrofitting diesel engines, producing biofuel, welding recycled scrap metal and assembling robots.

It’s important to note that these schools represent a cross section of America. Almost half of the honored schools are serving disadvantaged students. Several of the winners serve American Indians; others’ enrollments are two-thirds Hispanic and another is 98 percent African American. Several dozen are high poverty where more than half of students receive free and reduced priced lunch.

Today we are shining the spotlight on 78 terrific and innovative schools, but our real aim is more ambitious. We don’t want just pockets of excellence – we want success to be the norm. All our children deserve green schools, as all our students deserve a healthy, sustainable and prosperous future.

With this goal, the President set our sights on achieving excellence and equity for every student in America. To achieve this goal, we must vastly improve the opportunity to learn for all Americans and we must unleash technology's potential to power up the education experience and to fully support the development of our workforce.

As we search for and incentivize breakthrough innovations, we are also aware that there are policy barriers that hinder the ability to realize the full benefits of existing and emerging technologies to improve teaching and learning. These barriers may include current seat time based system of credentialing or existing textbook and educational materials adoption policies.

They may include the policies associated with funding or with broadband and Internet access both in school and out of school.

We would like you to help identify these policy barriers, as part of the Startup America Policy Challenge. Specifically, we are interested in your answers to these questions:

• What do you see as the primary barriers to entrepreneurial activity in the educational technology sector?
• What Administration policy changes do you think would enable the best use of new learning technologies?

We want educators, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders to identify the barriers so we can make progress towards leveraging the power of technology to transform the way teachers teach and students learn.

Our job is to support reform that is good for students at the state and local level.  We need to get out of the way wherever we can.  We need to be tight on the goals but loose on the means of achieving them -- providing as much flexibility as possible, while maintaining meaningful accountability for improving student outcomes and closing achievement gaps.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) got it backwards -- it was loose on the goals but tight on the means -- and today it's forcing states into one-size-fits-all solutions that just don’t work.

The President understands this and he has directed the Department of Education to move ahead in providing relief in return for reform.

With the new school year fast approaching and still no bill to reform NCLB, it’s time to create a process for states to gain flexibility from key provisions of the law, provided that they are willing to embrace education reform.

We will not be giving states a pass on accountability. There will be a high bar for states seeking flexibility within the law, working off a framework that the states themselves have put together with the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Over the past few days, I have talked with more than half of the nation’s governors, and they are pushing us to provide the relief they desperately need and want.

There is no magic bullet for fixing education, and the best ideas will always come from the local level, where hardworking men and women in our schools are doing the hard work every day to educate our children.

We're still hopeful that Congress can continue its work this fall because a strong bipartisan reauthorization continues to be essential.  In the meantime, states and districts have an opportunity to move forward and receive relief from NCLB’s mandates.

At an education summit organized by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, I directly challenged the city’s leaders, community groups, unions, parents, educators and students. Los Angeles, I told them, is a world-class city with a second-class school system. They can use the current and very real budget crisis as an excuse to continue on the road they have been on, or they can take the road less traveled—the harder road. To paraphrase the poet Robert Frost, that road less traveled will make all the difference.

At L.A.’s Fremont High School, I was greeted by the energy and enthusiasm of student leaders. In February, some of them came to Washington for a national youth summit that the Department of Education convened. These students have taken ownership for their educations and are demanding more from their schools and from themselves.

Another school with high expectations—and great results to show for it—is Tincher Preparatory School in Long Beach. There, I participated in a roundtable with Tincher’s fantastic principal, Bill Vogel. A music teacher, Laura Strand, asked me if I could pull off “a miracle” and solve California’s budget problems, which are cutting into arts programs like hers. I am proud that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has saved more than 300,000 education jobs over the last two years and supported state and locally led reforms, but I recognizethat schools in California and elsewhere are facing brutally tough funding decisions. There are smart and not-so-smart ways to make those decisions. The not-so smart ways include cutting back on arts and music instruction or implementing other cutbacks that harm learning in the classroom.

Education’s miracle workers are teachers like Ms. Strand who work magic with their students, and in very tough conditions. What those of us in Washington, D.C., can do is give states, school districts, schools and the educators who work in them greater flexibility—with accountability—to be creative in addressing their students’ individual needs. This is where the current federal education law known as No Child Left Behind(NCLB) falls short. While the law is rightfully credited for shining the spotlight on achievement gaps, it’s too prescriptive and too punitive. As President Obama said recently, we want to get this law fixed before students go back to school in September.

In the San Diego area, I was pleased that one of Congress’s leaders on education, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), agreed that this year we need to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—the official name for No Child Left Behind—and fix NCLB’s problems. With Congressman Hunter, I visited Shoal Creek Elementary School. Then we joined current and retired military leaders at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. It is astounding to me that three out of four young Americans do not meet basic requirements to serve in our military; either they lack a high school diploma, they’re physically unfit, or they have a criminal record. This is a national security risk that we must address. And the best way to get our children ready for college and careers, including military service, is to invest first in high-quality early education programs.

March was a busy month for education. The President, Vice President and I, as well as other administration officials, visited schools throughout the country to emphasize the importance of investing in education to win the future. President Obama put it best when he said recently that “in the 21st century, it’s not enough leave no child behind. We need to help every child get ahead.”

Arne Duncan is the Secretary of Education.

Teaching is a rewarding and challenging profession where you can make a lasting impact. Teachers have a positive influence on students, schools, and communities, now and into the future. Schools across the nation are in need of a diverse set of talented teachers, especially in our big cities and rural areas, and especially in the areas of Math, Science, Technology, Special Education, and English Language Learning.

That’s why the department launched the TEACH campaign -- a bold new initiative to inspire and empower the most talented and dedicated Americans to become teachers. We know that next to parental support, there is nothing more important to a child’s education than the quality of his or her teachers.

Many of you are already thinking about becoming teachers. The TEACH campaign provides tools at your fingertips to navigate the academic and professional requirements that will credential you to succeed as a teacher in one of our schools. TEACH.gov features an online path to teaching and over 4,000 listed, open teaching positions.

In addition to information on job postings, teacher prep, and financial aid, prospective candidates can watch testimonials from current teachers. Each one was looking for a professionally challenging and financially rewarding career that would allow them to bring their passions, their lives, to work every day.  Go to TEACH.gov and listen to their stories. 

We’re also setting up TEACH Town Hall events around the country to encourage discussions in communities and at colleges for those who are preparing to step into the workforce. Help us spread the word about teaching careers. If you know someone who is considering becoming a teacher, send them to TEACH.gov so they can learn about the resources available for their state and district. Also be sure to let them know that we have an application called Raise Your Hand on Facebook that allows prospective teachers to join a community of teachers across the country and ask about teaching as a career.

Together, we can change the face of American education. We can recruit the next generation of great American teachers.

Yesterday at Morehouse College in Atlanta, I shared a stage with some great leaders who reminded me that the struggle for education has always been a matter of civil rights and that now more than ever it is imperative that we work to ensure all children have access to an excellent education.  I joined Congressman John Lewis, director Spike Lee, Morehouse President Dr. Robert Franklin, and MSNBC’s Jeff Johnson as we spoke to a crowd of nearly 800 young men – both high school and college students – who are deciding their career trajectory.  All of us onstage encouraged these high-achieving men to answer the call to serve their country in the classroom. 

Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks on a panel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia (by Josh Hoover)

The statistics paint a clear picture of where we need to go.  Nearly 35% of our students in this country are Black or Hispanic, but less than 2% of our nation’s teachers are Black or Hispanic men.  We need to change this so the teachers in our schools reflect the diversity of the students that they teach.   It is for this reason, and because we must ensure that we have a new generation of great teachers, that the U.S. Department of Education launched the TEACH campaign this past September.  The mission of TEACH is to increase the number, quality, and diversity of teachers in the classroom as we see the baby boomers retiring over the next ten years. 

Morehouse College was the most appropriate place for our discussion.   A century-old institution dedicated to the education of Black men, the College has an amazing history of producing civil rights leaders who became change agents for our country.  The passion in the air was palpable as students shared their dreams for their future careers.  I was inspired by the stories of several young men who are choosing to become teachers so that they can fill what they feel is a void of male role models in schools.  Dr. Franklin reminded us of the words of perhaps the most famous Morehouse alumnus, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “We can all be great, because we can all serve.”

Dr. Franklin urged the students of Morehouse College, and to young African-American men everywhere, to answer the call to serve by being a teacher. After yesterday, I’m hopeful that many of them will answer that call.

For more information on teaching, and how you can start your pathway to the classroom, visit www.teach.gov.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks on a panel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia (by Josh Hoover)

Arne Duncan is the Secretary of Education

Now is the time to press on with our full support for the DREAM Act.  We’re closer than we’ve ever been and we’re not giving up.

The President, myself, and many of my Cabinet colleagues have held conference calls, talked to the press, and written op-eds and letters of support.  We will keep doing whatever it takes to make this happen for thousands of hard-working, patriotic young people who are leaders in their communities and who are looking for an opportunity to attend college or serve our country in the military, but who can’t, through no fault of their own.  The Senate has the chance to offer them and our nation a brighter future by coming together in a bipartisan way to pass the DREAM Act.

Wednesday night, the House of Representatives took an historic and courageous step forward by passing their version of the DREAM Act.  Eight Republicans joined Democrats to rise above the heated political rhetoric and embrace this common-sense approach.  Yesterday, the Senate leadership decided to table their version of the DREAM Act and take up the House approved bill.  It was the right thing to do.  This wasn’t the end of the DREAM Act.  It was a lifeline — another chance to build on the tremendous momentum coming out of the House.

In the coming days, the Senate will have the opportunity to open the door to the American Dream of college for these bright, talented youth, unleashing the full potential of young people who live out values that all Americans cherish—a strong work ethic, service to others, and a deep loyalty to our country.  The result will be a new generation of college graduates who will help strengthen our economic security and a new set of future taxpayers who will contribute much more as college graduates than they ever would as struggling workers moving from one under-the-table job to another.  They will help build the economy of the 21^st century.

The students of the DREAM Act are some of the country’s best and brightest.  They were raised and educated in America.  They are valedictorians, star athletes, community leaders, and are active in their faith.  They text and go to the mall.  They are Americans in every sense of the word.  They have deep roots here and are loyal to the country that has been the only home they’ve known.  They are our future pediatricians, teachers, and engineers — if we give them a chance.  They are exactly the type of young people America should be embracing.

But, unlike their classmates, DREAM Act students are in a bind.  It goes against the basic American sense of fairness to punish children for the choices of their parents.  But thousands of young people find themselves in that position.  We can’t let them continue to live unfulfilled lives of fear and squandered hopes.  We need to act before we lose this generation.  It’s who we are as Americans, at our best.  The time is now.

Arne Duncan is Secretary of Education

We understand the financial barriers that students face today, so our Administration has worked to expand college access and opportunity by making college more affordable.  And already we’re seeing results.

Today, the College Board released a report that shows that the net price of tuition -- the cost after grant aid and tax benefits -- is lower than it was five years ago, thanks largely to our investments in Pell and the GI Bill. The new American Opportunity Tax Credit -- formerly known as the Hope Credit -- has lowered college costs even further.  By cutting out the middle man and shifting towards a direct lending system, we’ve been able to pass on billions of dollars of savings to students.  And we have overhauled the student aid application to help more students get the help they need.

However, we know more work needs to be done, and colleges need to do their part by focusing on their mission of providing a quality education at an affordable cost.  The same report shows that tuition has increased by 7.9% at state public four-year colleges and 4.5% at private four-year colleges.  At the University of Austin, TX, President Obama touched on the rising costs of college tuition and the need for an all-hands-on-deck approach to lowering tuition:

Part of the responsibility for controlling these costs falls on our colleges and universities. Some of them are stepping up.  Public institutions like the University of Maryland, University of North Carolina, some private institutions like Cornell, they’re all finding ways to combat rising tuition without compromising on quality.  And I know that your president is looking at some of these same approaches to make sure that the actual costs of college are going down.  I want to challenge every university and college president to get a handle on spiraling costs.

So university administrators need to do more to make college more affordable.  But we, as a nation, have to do more, as well. So that’s why we fought so hard to win a battle that had been going on in Washington for years, and it had to do with the federal student loan program.

See, under the old system, we’d pay banks and financial companies billions of dollars in subsidies to act as middlemen. See, these loans were guaranteed by the federal government.  But we’d still pass them through banks, and they’d take out billions of dollars in profits.  So it was a good deal for them, but it wasn’t a very good deal for you.  And because these special interests were so powerful, this boondoggle survived year after year, Congress after Congress.

This year, we said, enough is enough.   We said we could not afford to continue subsidizing special interests to the tunes of billions of dollars a year at the expense of taxpayers and of students.  So we went to battle against the lobbyists and a minority party that was united in their support of this outrageous status quo.  And, Texas, I am here to report that we won.   We won.  

So as a result, instead of handing over $60 billion in subsidies to big banks and financial institutions over the next decade, we’re redirecting that money to you, to make college more affordable for nearly 8 million students and families across this country.  Eight million students will get more help from financial aid because of these changes.  

As students head back to school this fall, I travelled over the last two weeks on an eight-state bus tour to highlight “Courage in the Classroom.” The mission of the tour was simple: to honor our nation’s unsung heroes—our teachers.  

We started in Little Rock, Ark., where I visited historic Central High School and talked to a group of teachers there about the Obama administration’s proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), commonly known as No Child Left Behind. Our big blue bus then continued on to Hamburg, Arkansas, where I saw the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) at work on a rural high school campus that’s being upgraded and visited a pre-kindergarten center that is helping young learners start school on the right foot.

We then rolled into Louisiana. I joined students at a Monroe magnet school for a tour of their school’s garden and a conversation with the faculty about the importance of creating a healthy school environment. As both Secretary of Education and a parent, I’m a huge believer in the First Lady’s Let’s Move initiative. I also stopped by a lively gathering of the state teachers union and emphasized the important role their organization plays in shaping our nation’s future. In Tallulah, Louisiana, I got a workout when I played basketball with the Madison High School Jaguars.

The next day, we woke up in Jackson, Mississippi, and visited the Kids Kollege Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School at Jackson State University to talk with teacher interns about what we can do to recruit a new generation of effective teachers. We stopped for lunch in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where I got teachers’ ideas for improving assessments of students’ learning and better compensating and evaluating teachers. In the last event of the southern leg of the tour, I visited George C. Hall Elementary School in Mobile, Alabama,  to learn  how the school and surrounding community have successfully turned around that school.

The trip through the South was a busy two days, but our tour didn’t end there. After a weekend back in Washington, the bus set out again, this time in the Northeast. We started in Albany, New York, where I joined Gov. Paterson to praise the state for its courage in reforming education, which the  Department of Education recently recognized with a Race to the Top award.

In Massachusetts, another Race to the Top winner, I visited a high school in Springfield for a conversation about ways we can better engage students in their educations. Next, we went to Keene, New Hampshire, to meet some college students who are preparing to become teachers. We talked about how we can improve training to help them address the challenges they’ll face in the classroom. In Manchester, New Hampshire I dropped by Bakersville Elementary and toured the neighborhood, which is home to students from 18 different countries.

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire I talked with military families at the Naval Shipyard about the difficulties they face in providing their children with a consistently top-notch education as they move around our country and the world in our nation’s service.

Our last stop was Maine, one of several states on this tour that I hadn’t visited before as Secretary. In Portland I enjoyed the presentations of three rising 8th graders about the impact of the civil rights movement in their lives today.
 
Throughout the “Courage in the Classroom” tour, I was encouraged by teachers who are working hard to make a difference in the lives of students, often in difficult circumstances. From a teacher-in-training in Arkansas, who started his education as a 4 year old in the pre-kindergarten program I visited, to a teacher in Maine who has been in the classroom 35 years, the people I met along the way were truly inspiring. Through their tireless work, I am confident our nation will be able to achieve the President’s 2020 goal of having the highest college graduation rate in the world.
 
Although the tour is over, I remain interested in hearing from you about how Americans can educate our way to a better economy and once again lead the world in education. We can continue this conversation on ED.gov’s blog, on my Facebook page and on Twitter (@ED_Outreach).

Have a great school year, everyone.

Arne Duncan is the Secretary of Education
 

Despite the progress, New Orleans still has a lot of work to do. More than 100 school buildings were devastated by the floods of Katrina. The city still needs to replace, rebuild and rehabilitate buildings that were destroyed by the floods. Working together, state and city leaders have produced a master plan to will rebuild and renovate its schools.

Today, I joined Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano in announcing more than $1.8 billion in federal funds to support the rebuilding of New Orleans’ schools. This money will support the city in building the excellent learning environments that the children of New Orleans deserve.

In addition, the Department of Education continues to support schools throughout the Gulf Coast that suffered damage from Katrina and other hurricanes. Our staff is preparing to award $12 million in grants from the Gulf Coast Recovery Initiative. These grants will help districts replace instructional materials, renovate and repair schools buildings, and support afterschool and other initiatives to provide extended learning.

Over the past five years, the Department has provided nearly $2 billion for schools in the Gulf Coast region. The money helped schools re-open immediately after the hurricanes and supported schools that enrolled students displaced by the hurricanes. It also provided the $7 million to Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi to pay for mental health assessments for students, substitute teachers, and emergency transportation, and other needs shortly after the hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast.

Five years later, New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast are still recovering. President Obama and I are committed to doing our part to provide the students there with the world-class education they deserve.

Arne Duncan is Secretary of Education

Read more from the Hurricane Katrina: 5 Years of Remembering & Rebuilding series.

The 10 winning Phase 2 applications in alphabetical order are: the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

These states show what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children.  Every state that applied showed a tremendous amount of leadership and a bold commitment to education reform. The creativity and innovation in each of these applications is breathtaking. We set a high bar and these states met the challenge.

We had many more competitive applications than money to fund them in this round. We're very hopeful there will be a Phase 3 of Race to the Top and have requested $1.35 billion dollars in next year's budget. In the meantime, we will partner with each and every state that applied to help them find ways to carry out the bold reforms they've proposed in their applications.

A total of 46 states and the District of Columbia put together comprehensive education reform plans to apply for Race to the Top in Phases 1 and 2. Over the course of the Race to the Top competition, 35 states and the District of Columbia have adopted rigorous common, college- and career-ready standards in reading and math, and 34 states have changed laws or policies to improve education.

You can watch my video announcement here:

Arne Duncan is the Secretary of Education

The President is dedicated to promoting and developing the work of rural America. That’s why the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $53 billion to support the ability of rural communities to gain access to the health care, educational, economic, and infrastructure development resources. To better understand the needs of rural communities, the President asked Cabinet members to visit communities across the nation on a Rural Tour. Over the last year, the Administration has engaged thousands of people in a conversation about how towns, states, and the federal government can work together to help strengthen rural America. In addition to the Delaware State Fair, I have visited remote villages in Alaska and an Indian reservation in Montana.

At the Department of Education, we understand that rural communities often lack the resources needed to provide students with the academic tools and professional support needed for a 21st century education. Under the Blueprint for Reform, a revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), we’re proposing to maintain formula funding to support rural school districts while increasing funds and flexibility in competitive grant programs by giving priority to rural initiatives and simplifying their application process. A recent evaluation of the implementation of the Rural and Low-Income Schools (RLIS) Program showed that rural district officials appreciate the flexibility of RILS to meet local needs. We want to continue and expand programs like RLIS, which help rural districts purchase technology, provide professional development for teachers and support instructional programs for low-income students.

More than half of the nation’s school districts are located in rural areas and one-fifth of all public school children are enrolled in rural schools. We want to continue to reach out to rural communities and directly engage them as we reform our education policies. Just last week, I joined with Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough to co-host a National Rural Education Technology Summit. Members of the Federal Communications Commission, Department of Agriculture and more than 150 rural education stakeholders and technology experts from 26 states came together to learn from one another and provide vital feedback. Our engagement with rural communities has helped us to propose policies that will better support rural school districts. I look forward to continuing our efforts to maintain outreach to rural communities and to promote policies that best meet their needs.

Secretary Arne Duncan listens to a presentation by 4-H students at the Delaware State Fair (Photo by Leslie Williams, U.S. Department of Education) July 23, 2010.

Secretary Arne Duncan spends his day with 4-H and Future Farmers of America students at the Delaware State Fair (Photo by Leslie Williams, U.S. Department of Education) July 23, 2010.

Arne Duncan is the Secretary of Education