In a speech at Georgia Tech on Tuesday, President Obama spoke on subjects ranging from college affordability to economic strength. A third year, Tiffany Davis, introduced the president to a crowd that included students, faculty, and staff of the Institute as well as local leaders. The president’s speech, which lasted just under half an hour, began with the acknowledgement of Governor Deal, several congressmen, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and the president of Georgia Tech, Bud Peterson.
Davis, an aerospace engineering major at Georgia Tech, wrote the president about how expensive college was and her struggles to pay for college (Davis, of course, was actually just procrastinating on her thermodynamics homework). The president wrote her back and delivered similar remarks in his speech as he did in the letter he wrote.
President Obama thanked the students for investing in their economic futures as well as that of the nation; an economy that, according to the Commander-in-Chief, is better than the one he inherited from his predecessor. He also touched on the theme of democratic involvement in a changing economy that Tech students should be prepared for. Then the real substance of the speech began.
The president unveiled his “Student Aid Bill of Rights” that will entail borrowers certain protections from lenders—these are designed to make college more affordable in an environment where the average college graduate’s student loan debt is around $28,000. He reiterated his free community college proposal and praised Georgia Tech’s “affordable” online computer science graduate degree program. The president went on to criticize local governments of moving budget funds out of education and schools and into things like “sports stadiums and tax cuts for the wealthy”, an apparent dig at Mayor Reed and Governor Deal.
He closed with the importance of young people, which made up most of the crowd, in the future of his college affordability program and encouraged them to “get organized and mobilized”, a comparison to the Selma anniversary he attended last weekend. With a hostile Congress and a majority of less-than-friendly state governments, President Obama may need all the help he can get.
The full speech is below.
