US President Barack Obama says the country 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.
Mr 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,” Mr Obama said at a fundraiser 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 healthcare debate, but we added billions of dollars in funding to student loans by cutting out the financial middlemen,” Mr Obama said amid 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.”
Mr Obama 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.
He 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.