Obama addresses education in speech

Thursday night, President Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for his reelection race amid a large crowd in North Carolina.

Obama acknowledged his time in office has been tough for many Americans and the future may involve more pain, but he told the crowd to trust him once again to solve the problems this country has faced since far before his time in office.

“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy,” Obama said to the crowd. “I never have. You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth. And the truth is, it will make more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades.”

Obama referred to his achievements and vision for education various times during his speech, asking voters to stand with him on education so “we can out-educate and out-compete any country on Earth.”

“Government has a role in this. … Help us work with colleges and universities to cut in half the growth of tuition costs over the next ten years,” Obama said. “We can meet that goal together. You can choose that future for America.”

University of Wisconsin College Republicans Chair Jeff Snow called Obama’s policies a failure for college students by not being able to stop tuition increases and not creating enough jobs for graduates.

On his overall reaction to the speech, Snow said everyone has heard those policies and ideas before from the president.

“Same old speech, same old policies. He promised all this great hope and change in 2008, but he has yet to deliver on any of the promises,” Snow said. “It was a pretty ineffective speech. A lot of Democrats are wishing Bill Clinton was still president rather than Barack Obama.”

Snow contrasted what he called a “weak record” from Obama on job creation with the “pro-growth” agenda of his opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. He said college students are graduating into an economy with an unemployment rate that has not gone below 8 percent in 40 months.

Young Progressives Chair Peter Anich said Snow’s comments on Obama’s overall job creation missed the point that Obama has had 29 straight months of job growth, noting those were jobs created in America. Anich said this is different from Romney’s time in the private sector, where he said many jobs Romney created were in other countries.

Anich also praised Obama’s record on higher education and said Obama has made getting student loans cheaper and expanded Pell Grants.

“It is one of his primary goals to help people go to school and get training to get jobs. We are happy to see President Obama has that listed so high on his list of priorities,” Anich said.

Anich said the Young Progressives held six watch parties throughout campus. He used the Obama campaign rally chant to describe the attendees as “fired up and ready to go.”