Obama says US has to go back to basic and fix education system

Lalit K Jha
Washington, May 27 (PTI) President Barack Obama says
the US has to "go back to basics" and fix its education system
if it has to continue to be ahead in this highly competitive
world as countries like India and China are catching up fast
with the developed world.
Obama said it is time that Americans said to
themselves that they are ready to make a change on behalf of
the future of their children and grandchildren.
"We know that if we want to build a real future in an
economy this competitive with China and India and Brazil and
other countries on the rise, that we're going to have to go
back to basics," Obama said in his speech at a fund raiser
held for Senator Barbara Boxer in California.
"We've got to fix our education system. We've got to
make sure that every young person in America has a chance to
go to college," the President said.
"We've got to make sure -- and by the way, you may
have missed it during the health care debate, but we added
billions of dollars in funding to student loans by cutting out
the financial middlemen," Obama said amidst several rounds of
applause.
"Everybody knows that we are at an inflection point in
our history, that we've got a choice between going back to the
same status quo, except the status quo won't work anymore."
The President said the US will not be able to run an
economy based on "maxing out credit cards", taking out home
equity loans and running up debt and the financial sector
getting exorbitant profits based on a bunch of financial
shenanigans.
Obama said Americans should get ready to make a change
on behalf of the future.
"It won't happen overnight. It won't happen tomorrow.
It won't happen next week," he said.
He said Americans should investing in clean energy
technology, solar, wind, biodiesel, hybrid plug-ins and making
buildings more efficient.
"...if we start finally saying to ourselves we can't
just let everybody pollute for free, if we follow science and
we follow some common-sense principles, then, look, oil is
still going to be in the energy mix," he said.
"We're not going to eliminate that completely. But we
are going to over time transition to ourselves and we will
become more energy efficient, which will be good for our
national security, it will be good for our economy, it will be
good for our environment, it will be good for our future,"
Obama said.
By doing this, the US can create millions of jobs. PTI