Blog Posts Related to the African American Community

President Obama at Booker T. Washington High: Commencement Challenge Winners

UPDATE: Also watch video of the President surprising some of the students ahead of the speech, or watch the President's full remarks here.

"Every commencement is a day of celebration," said the President at the commencement for Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, "But this one is especially hopeful."  BTW, as the school is known, was the winner of the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, chosen as a finalist on the basis of its inspiring turn-around story and voted the winner by the public after each finalist school submitted a video making its case.  The President continued:

This one is especially hopeful because some people say that schools like BTW just aren’t supposed to succeed in America.  You’ll hear them say, “The streets are too rough in those neighborhoods.”  “The schools are too broken.” “The kids don’t stand a chance.” 

We are here today because every single one of you stood tall and said, “Yes, we can.”  (Applause.)  Yes, we can learn.  Yes, we can succeed.  You decided you would not be defined by where you come from but by where you want to go, by what you want to achieve, by the dreams you hope to fulfill. 

Supporting these kinds of turnarounds has been a focus of the President’s education policies, from the national Race to the Top contest where states competed to show real reform plans, to School Improvement Grants that demand uprooting entrenched problems, the President has insisted that funding go to states, communities and schools who have refused to give up, and shown their commitment to change so that their kids would be prepared for the competitive world that awaits them after graduation.

President Barack Obama sits with Principal Alisha Kiner as they watch a performance at the Booker T. Washington High School commencement ceremony at Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tenn., May 16, 2011. The high school was the winner of the 2011 Race To The Top Commencement Challenge. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Speaking at BTW, where graduation rates went from 55% in 2007 to 81.6% in 2010, the President was clearly inspired to see the faces that represent that kind of change.  And as he said, his passion for education is based on his own experience not only as a father, but as a child growing up years ago.  He spoke to the graduates on a personal level about the lessons he learned.

Strengthening Social Security and Medicare

Every year, I join my fellow members of the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees to issue reports on the financial health of these essential programs. This year’s reports, released today, show that Medicare and Social Security are strong, but there is far more work to be done. And as we move forward, it is critical that Democrats and Republicans continue to work together to address the long-term solvency of the programs so that we keep the promise of Medicare and Social Security to future generations of Americans.

The Social Security Board of Trustees report shows that Social Security has sufficient assets to continue to provide benefits for seniors and people with disabilities in the coming decades. The combined Social Security Trust Funds have resources to pay full benefits for the coming 25 years.