Secretaries of Education, Labor visit Community College of Philadelphia

Leaders of community colleges met in Philadelphia with two members of the president’s cabinet to talk about their future.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan complemented the community college administrators from the East Coast who gathered at Community College of Philadelphia.  He says there is no future with just a high school education, and community colleges play a big part in postsecondary education.

“The president’s drawn a line in the sand.  He said by 2020 we have to lead the world in college graduates,” said Duncan.  “We are now tied for ninth with four other countries.  Many others have passed us by.  To get us there is going to take some pretty hard work, we are going to have to increase completion rates by about 50 percent.”

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says spending on education has to increase to train men and women to become productive members of society.

“We’re competing with India, China, Brazil and other countries.  They pay a lot more attention in terms of funding their educational systems and we need to do the same,” she said.