And ing on College Access was joined by duncan and took students, from parents. His is one hour and ten minutes. Barack obama. [cheering and applause]. Iowa. Lo,. [cheering and applause] back in is good to be iowa. [cheering and applause] go polar bears. [cheering and applause] be back in des moines. And saw at the airport the hampton in there, i must have stayed there 100 days. Im ure ive got some points there or something, a couple of free hampton. The. [laughter] everybody have a seat, relax. I know i know its september, so i know you guys are all about to be flooded with ads and calls who want ch of folks this job. What kind t imagine of person would put themselves through Something Like that. [laughter] i didnt know he was on the ballot. Unitedt president of the states. Prouder of him, ot only for the introduction but the story hes told. Young example of what people can do when they put their minds to it. Principal. Thank you mike. Wheres mike . [cheering and applause] he is. [applause] here. Uperintendent is wheres tom . [cheering and applause] is here who rank is where is he . City council o a meeting. Miller. [cheering and applause] mike fitzgerald, great supporter. [cheering and applause] and secretary of education, arty. [cheering and applause] im not going to give a long want to spende we most of the time taking questions from all of you. Explain that we came to this high school because you guys have done some great hings over the past few years. Students have e laptops and ipads and ap scores , improving test so you have become a great country of he whole whats possible. [cheering and applause] we thought wed come and pay you talk to some of the students in des moines and talk to your parents. Theres nothing that High Schoolers love more than being parents. With their. [laughter] week, thats ago, this a financial crisis, on wall street, ended up ushering in some really hard times on main street. Incredible to the rezilance and grit and hard work f the american people, we bounced back. We have more jobs. We have more than 16 Million People that have security of insurance, many of them for the first time. Our High School Graduation rate is the highest that its ever been. [applause] id like to point out, by the way, if youd like to see the best Graduation Rate in america, its right here in iowa. [cheering and applause] so, weve been investing in things that help to grow the middle class and help provide opportunity for every young person. But no 21st century economy nobody in the 21st century economy is going to do what they lives do with their unless they get a great education. By 2020, two out of three job openings are going to require posthigh School Education whether its a Community College or tech school and its an investment that pays off. It empowers you and gives you a of who you are and your hopes and your dreams. Sharpen how you see the world and empowers you in all sorts of ways. Has some pretty practical ramifications. High school diploma, a 2year school could 10,000. An extra could earn you 1 million more. Never been tion has immortants important or expensive. E are trying to make high school and postcollege most affordable. We funded a student loan bill. Cut out the s middle man and put that money to students. We did a tax credit of up to 2,500 for families to work for uition and books and fees and to cap their federal student of their income. If you want to be a teacher, you can still do that knowing that youre not going to go, you know youre still going to be able to afford to support yourself and your family while doing it. Yearsere fighting for two of free Community College for whos willing to work for it. [cheering and applause] that knowttom line is young person in america should be priced out of college. They should not be priced out of an education. Know that finding the right school the for you, the best school for you is a process. You are juggling applications. Some of you are asking what you plan for a career and what you life. To do with your i think we should make that process easier, so a couple of things that weve done, that were announcing over the course introduced , weve. Ollege score card right now, a lot of families need to e what they choose a good school. A lot of the College Rankings reward schools for spending more money or rejecting students. I think thats the wrong focus. It should be on helping the students. We pulled together data on college costs. You can scroll through the score are and see which schools more likely to graduate their students, are more likely to result in good jobs for those studen likely to make sure those students are likely o pay off their Student Loans and make decisions that are right for your future and budget. Can go to ollegescorecard. Edgo collegescorecard. Collegescorecard. Edu. Gov. A lot of students dont claim theyre cial aid qualified for. Those young people are leaving money on the table. There may be young people here the re not aware of all financial help you can get. We have shortened the form down to 20 minutes. Timesed to be two or three s long. Because only congress we have a e rules, ongressman here who traveled with us, bobby scott. Back there. The. [cheering and applause] hes a democrat and working with republicans to further shorten and make this form simple. S ginning next year, familie will be able to fill out fasa even earlier. Starting on october 1, right bout the time College Applications ramp up. You wont have to wait for your w2s. Youll know sooner how much aid morel qualify for and have time to evaluate your options nd were working with colleges and universities and scholarships to aid this new start date. Taken these steps, together, should help students pay for college. Im going to end, my opening with a story from somebody who wouldnt be here today. His name is nico green. Him for the ember basketball team. [cheering and applause] to tell n that i want hat story is, for the past few homeless. Co was as a junior and senior, he was his coach stay with or counselor. Before that, he spent nights in shelters and in Church Basements or in hotels with his mom, sometimes, sleeping next to drug worse. S or he said hes seen terrible for s and hes thankful what hes been through because it made him strong. Study, keeping his eye on college, applying for and winning scholarships. Of ualified for thousands dollars in state aid. Hes studying accounting and still playing ball, hoping to make enough money to build and that he ck to the mom loves. [cheering and applause] here. Ts why were thats what this is about. Nico and rusean and many of you who want to take have big step and dreams. We want you to know that were there to help you achieve those dreams. We want to make sure that were iving every student, who is willing to put in the effort, all the tools they need in order to succeed. Thats not only good for the students, by the way, thats also good for america because his country was built on the notion that it doesnt matter where you came from, what you look like, what your last name youre willing to work hard, you can make it. Key to cation is the making that future possible. Thats how we grow this country, thats how we make it successful and thats the incredible project, the great experiment in are racy that all of you apart of. Everybody. Ery much,. [cheering and applause]. Can everybody hear me . Working . All right. So, heres how this is going to work. You raise your hand and ill call on you. Girl boy, to go girl boy, to make it fair. Here should be people in the audience, with microphones, so wait until they get there and yourself. Try to keep your questions short enough that we can get as many in as possible and contrary to what he said, hes nsing to get the tough questio and i just want the easy ones. All right . Who wants to go first . Shot her lady, she hand up quick. Right here. Here. D a microphone up all right. Hi, my name is angelica and my question is for you, what do you believe the world of teachers should be . Role ofdo i believe the teachers should be . Hats a great question when i think about my own life some of you may know, my dad left when i was very young, so i really didnt know him so i single mom and we didnt have a lot when we although, my mom had this great love of learning. Teenager when she had me, she was 18. School and g to working fulltime when she was sister. Me and then my she was my first great teacher. Taught me was compassion, caring about other people. But she also taught me to be curious. And when i think back to all the that ive had, the facts that theyve taught me because i can books, but it has been teachers who have been able sense of in me, a curiosity. Like, how does that work . Is . Is that the way it want to whos helped me learn more. That, to me, is the role of a great teacher. Somebody who can teach you to be the subject in that you, in time, start teaching yourself. Great here are a lot of teachers here. Part of the challenge, i think, for being a teacher is that sometimes students dont always appreciate good teachers. Lets face it. Sometimes we k think education is somening that from somebody else, its passive. Knowledge in here. But, in fact, good teaching is a having with youre somebody where theyre giving also ot just answers, but asking you questions and helping your brain get a workout and try to learn how to figure things out yourself. I think Great Teachers are somebody that have confidence in you and have High Expectations in you and they see and get a sense of, you know what, you are important and you can do amazing things. And when you feel that from a teacher, that a teacher really g in s youve got somethin you thats worth saying or writing or those are the teachers that you remember. Teachers that inspire you. What do you think . Be quick. The only think i would add is reat teachers see things in students that they dont see in of selves and pull them out you. He talked about his mom being locked up. A lot of teachers see him as a student body president and a leading the community. Mazing teachers see things in kids. They helped to bring that light. [applause]. Quick question . All right. I think its the guys turn now. That gentleman right back there, right around the corner there. Dennis. Me is im a senior here at north high school. [laughter] whats so funny . [laughter] are you the one thats embarrassing . Maybe. Its a give and take. Hey embarrass me, im going to embarrass them [laughter] im right there with you. In your opinion, of all the next president ial candidates that are in line, which ones ideas for st education reform to make them accessible . Able and i let ou know, e [laughter] i promise, im generally going to give you straight answers. Im going to wiggle around it a little bit. [laughter] right now, im going to try to season of the campaign until partly, because i cant keep track of all the candidates. [laughter] windled t until its down a little bit before i have an opinion. Is what i can say, that are reflectedlues time, our put our effort, our money. Sufficient for us to education. About if we arent actually puting resources into education. Am mrauz mra [applause] e have gotten some guff sometimes because weve said that money, alone, is not enough. That its important for us, if a teaching constant constantly, ids kids, so they can achieve, we things. Change how we do in collaboration with teachers and principals and parents and students, we have to figure out better. Ake it it has increased accountability creativity ing more and empowering teachers more. You know, those dont cost money. Also know is that science labs dont have the right equipment, then its harder to teach science. If kids dont have access to broadband and laptops in their theyre at a en disadvantage to those who do. If youve got a school that oesnt have enough counselors and so come time to apply for college, there arent enough counselors to go around and kids are getting the best advice that selling d, they may end themselves short when it comes to going to college. Part of the reason im making his point, when youre evaluating candidates, you Pay Attention to this. Were going to have a major debate, in congress, coming up. Doneudgets supposed to be and congress has not come up with a budget. And there are some, in the other comfortable with keeping in place something which is goingr, to be it is going to result cuts over the next several years in the amount of federal support for education. Them, ats going to force either layoffs or kids not getting the kinds of support they need. It will have an affect on the education of students. Everybody to be clear, without endorsing any ideas, ar candidates running for bodys president and they say they want to be the education president , things. Two one is that you care about every student doing well, not just some, because whoevers president for all people. Not just some [applause] and point number two is that ouve got to be willing to provide the resources, particularly, for communities as much of a ave Property Tax Base so they cant their own,e money on in order to help their students achieve. All right. You want to add to that . Just very quickly, about getting into this candidate or that, you have about two dozen to choose from and they all want you vote. I have questions i want you to ask, one, what are you willing do to have more children have access to Early Childhood education . Thats the best investment we can make. [applause] two, what are you going to do to continue to increase our nations High School Graduation rate . High. T an alltime what are you going to do to make School Students are ready for college. Ourth, we need to lead the world in College Graduation 12th. Today, we are if every candidate you ask, what for our concrete goals those four things and what resources are you willing to put behind that . Our country would be a much stronger place. Here. To be a tag team heres one last thing because im sorry. What was your name . Angela asked a question about a great it mean to be teacher. Candidate say that the big problem with education should not vote for that person. [cheering and applause] because [cheering and applause] it is a hard job and it is the got. Important job weve and folks who going into teaching dont go into it for the money. They go into it because they are passionate about kids. That doesnt mean that there arent some bad teachers. It doesnt mean that we shouldnt hold teachers to high standards, as well, and continue to work in terms of professional development and recruitment and retention of Great Teachers. Have been times where we have had some disagreements with on certain unions issues because we want to ntation. E experime but, the bottom line is, though, ou can measure how good a school is by whether or not it is respecting and engaging teachers in the classroom so they are professionals and they feel good about what they are doing and they are given freedom and theyre not being forced to teach to a test. For us, y important then, to make sure that what a bunch of ust teacher bashing. To vote ell you who for, but at least not right now. Will. , i. [laughter] i can tell you who to vote against and that is somebody who decides that somehow teachers ont deserve the kind of respect that and decent deserve. At they [applause] all right. Its the young ladys turn. Ou right there, in the brown sweater, right there. Thats fine. Thank you. A senior at d im roosevelt and an intern at the Hillary Clinton campaign. I guess i know who youre voting for [laughter] yeah. Do you think its possible or free tic for there to be tuition for college in the United States . I think that is absolutely realistic for us to have the first two years of Community College free because it is in my budget, and i know how to pay for it. [applause] president obama essentially if you close up some Corporate Tax loopholes that are not growing the economy and are a boondoggle, you take that money. You can then help every state do what tennessee is already doing. Tennessee is already making Community Colleges free the first two years. What that does is first of all, it helps young people who may not right now want to get a Fouryear College education but know they still need some Technical Training or they want to get an associates degree. Right away, that group, they know they can get their education for free as long as they are working hard. For those thinking about a Fouryear College education, they can also get the first two years at Community College, and then transfer those credits to a Fouryear College and they just cut their Overall College costs in half. It would be good for everybody whether you are going two or four years. If we can get that done, we can Start Building from there. In the meantime, i want to make sure everybody understands what we are talking about in terms of fafsa. You have to fill out this form. We are making it easier for you to do. You have no excuse. Parents, even if you did not go to college, you need to nag your kids to make sure this fafsa form gets filled out so you know the student aid you may be entitled to. My grandma did not go to college, even though she was probably the smartest person i knew. But she did know you had to go to college, and you had to fill out this form. So i want everybody here to make sure you stay focused on that because there is more help already than a lot of people are aware of. The College Scorecard we talked about, collegescorecard. Ed. Gov, what that does is it allows you to look at the schools to find out do they graduate students, how much debt do they have, are they getting a job after they graduate . We are not just ranking the most prestigious school. We are getting your news you can use in evaluating whether the schools you are applying to actually deliver on their commitment because a lot of times students who get big Student Loans, debt after they graduate, it is because they did not think through where they should go, what they should be studying, what resources are available. We want you on the front end to have as much information as possible in order to make a good choice. Arne, anything to add . Secretary duncan how much do we give out each year in grants . 30,000 . Total. How much . 30 billion. Any other guesses . We give out 150 billion in grants and loans each year. The president said we have a lot the best long way to go and do more to make college free. We dont care whether your family has money or not, you work hard, 150 billion. It is the only form you will ever fill out in your life that will give you access to 150 billion. I want to emphasize this. You have got to fill it out. President obama got to fill it out. All right. This gentleman back here. I dont want to neglect the folks in the back. How are you doing, mr. President . My name is rudolph dawson. My concern is the historically black schools, a lot of pressure is put on them in terms of not getting the budget they need to continue to educate people like myself. They are not getting programs they need to attract students that want higher pay. What can you do, what can your administration or the next Administration Due to right the wrong done in the past and continues to be done to these universities . It is also a landgrant college. They have not been getting all the money they need for agriculture, like the university of georgia. I would like to see some changes there. President obama weve got a lot of young people here. To give you a little bit of history, the historically black colleges and universities arose at a time when a lot of schools were segregated. African American Students could not attend a lot of the traditional state colleges and universities. Many of them went on to become incredible educational institutions that produced some of our greatest thinkers. Morehouse college, howard, spellman. All across the country, particularly in the south, a lot of these historically black colleges and universities were the nurturer of an African American middle class. Many of whom went on to become the civil rights pioneers that helped lead to dr. King, and the civil rights movement, and all the history i think you are aware of. A lot of those schools are still doing well. Some of them have gotten smaller and are struggling, partly because of good news, university of georgia is not segregated anymore. It is good african American Students or latino students have more diverse options. But they still serve an important role. Working with people like congressman bobby scott others, we have continued to provide support to those schools. But one thing arne and i have been doing is saying to these historically black colleges and universities, you have also got to step up your game in terms of Graduation Rates because there are some of the schools who taken a lot of students but dont always graduate those students. Those students end up being stuck with debt, and it is not a good deal for them. We have a task force and commission devoted to working with the schools to make sure they have the resources they need to continue to perform an important function. But they are also stepping up their game so kids who attend these universities and colleges are graduating on time and are able to pursue the kind of careers they need. Anything you want to add . Lets see. It is a young ladys turn now. I need to go up top. That young lady in the striped shirt i can barely see. This is what happens when you get older, young people. First time i came to iowa, i had no gray hair. I didnt. Look at me now. Im currently a junior at Lincoln High School on the south side of des moines. I know you dont want to get involved with the president ial race at the moment. But a candidate has said they want to cut Government Spending to politically biased colleges. I was wondering if that would hurt the Education System for those who depend on that or what it better education as a whole . President obama first of all, i did not hear this candidate say that. I have no idea what that means. [laughter] president obama i suspect he does not either. [laughter] [applause] president obama look, the purpose of college is not just, as i said before, to transmit skills. It is also to widen your horizons, to make you a better citizen, to help you evaluate information, to help you make your way through the world, to help you be more creative. The way to do that is to create a space where a lot of ideas are presented and collide. And people are having arguments. And people are testing each others theories. And over time, people learn from each other because they are getting out of their own narrow point of view and having a broader point of view. So, arne im sure has the same expense i did. When i went to college, suddenly there were folks that did not think at all like me. If i had an opinion, they would look at me and say that is stupid. Then they would describe how they saw the world. They might have had different sets of politics or they might have a different view about poverty or a different perspective on race. Sometimes their views would be infuriating to me, but it was because there was this space where you could interact with people who did not agree with you and had different backgrounds that i started testing my own assumptions. And sometimes, i changed my mind. Sometimes i realized maybe i have been too narrowminded. Maybe i did not take this into account. Maybe i should see this persons perspective. So, that is what college in part is all about. The idea you would have somebody in government making a decision about what you should think ahead of time or what you should be taught, and if it is not the right thought or idea or philosophy that they would not get funding, runs contrary to everything we believe about education. [applause] president obama i guess that might work in the soviet union. But it does not work here. That is not who we are. That is not what we are about. One thing i do want to point out is it is not just sometimes folks who are mad that colleges are too liberal that have a problem. Sometimes there are folks on College Campuses who are liberal and maybe agree with me on a bunch of issues who sometimes are not listening to the other side. That is a problem, too. I was talking to a friend about this. Ive heard of some College Campuses where they dont want to have a guest speaker who is too conservative, or they dont want to read a book if it has language that is offensive to African Americans or somehow sends a demeaning signal towards women. You know, ive got to tell you, i dont agree with that either. I dont agree you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view. [applause] [laughter] president obama anybody who comes to speak to you and you disagree with, you should have an argument with them. But you should not silence them by saying you cant come because i am too sensitive to hear what you have to say. That is not the way we learn either. What do you think, arne . Secretary duncan [indiscernible] president obama he said amen. Ok. Lets see. I think it is a guys turn. This gentleman in the tie, you had your hand up a couple of times. I did not want you to feel neglected. You almost gave up. I wanted to call on you. Wait for the microphone. Thank you. My name is james quinn, this is my wife, and our daughter. We have been saving for her College Education for 10 years. Over that time, the federal deductibility of 529 contributions has gone away even though we can still get the deduction from iowa income taxes. It would be nice to see a reward for saving rather than just making borrowing money easier. [applause] president obama im going to let arne hit this one because he is an expert on our various savings programs. Secretary duncan as a parent with two kids, my wife and i are putting money in 529s and getting the government to encourage that would be fantastic. This is something where we have to work with congress to do the right thing. Some families starting kindergarten are saving each year to help their kids go to college. We need to incentivize that. Great point. President obama there was a time when the deductibility of Student Loans was more significant than it is today. Whenever you make something taxdeductible, that means theres less money going into the treasury. That means either somebody has got to pay for it with other taxes or the deficit grows or we spend less on something else. This is part of why this debate right now in congress about lifting the sequester is so important. It is a washington term. I hate the term. Essentially what congress did is it said we are going to lop off spending at this level for the next decade. The problem is the population is going up. The economy is growing. Even though the deficit right now has been cut by 2 3 since i came into office, which is [applause] president obama you would not know that listening to some candidates, but it has. If sequester stays in place, not only our ability to spend for education or help families with Student Loans, but also things like Early Childhood education, head start programs, pell grants, all those things can be adversely affected. This is one thing i would ask everybody to consider. When you hear budget debates, i know your eyes glaze over. But the federal budget is where we express our values. A lot of times, people say we should just cut Government Spending because there is all this waste. But in fact, the vast majority of Government Spending is for social security. It is for medicare, medicaid. It is for helping vulnerable populations, and it is for defense. And not a lot is left over for helping middleclass families send their kids to college or to save. If you have this ceiling, this artificial cap, without taking into account the growing population and more young people going to college, you end up with a situation in which fewer people are getting help. That is why it is important for us to lift this artificial cap. It is also why it is important for us to close some of these tax loopholes going to either the very wealthy or the corporations that really dont need them because they are doing just fine and not having a problem financing their College Educations, their kids College Educations. [applause] president obama all right. It is a young ladys turn. All right. Im going to go with this young lady. Originally, i called on her first but we got mixed up. Go ahead. I go to roosevelt high school. Hopefully, my question is not too difficult. What is your best advice for malia as she goes off to college . President obama my best advice to malia . This is assuming she listens to my advice. [laughter] president obama she is very much like her mother at this point. [laughter] president obama she has got her own mind. One piece of advice i have given her is not to stress too much about having to get into one particular college. There are a lot of good colleges and universities. It is important for everybody here to understand, you can find a college or university that gives you a great education and just because it is not some name brand, famous, fancy school does not mean youre not going to get a great education. One is, lower the stress levels in terms of having to get into one particular school. I think that is important. The second piece of advice i have is keep your grades up until you get in. After that, make sure you pass because it is important you run through the tape in your senior year and not start feeling slack. I dont worry about that with her. She is a hard worker. The third thing is the advice i already mentioned, which is be open to new experiences when you go to college. Dont go to college just to duplicate the same experience you had in high school. Dont make your decision based on where my friends are going so i can do the exact same things with the same friends i did in high school. The whole point is for you to push yourself out of your comfort level, meet people you have not met before, take classes you had not thought of before. Stretch yourself because this is the time to do it when you are young. Seek out new experiences because when you do that, you may discover you may think you wanted to do one thing, it may turn out you want to do something completely different and you have an amazing talent for Something Different but you have not been exposed to it yet. You have to know what it is that is out there, and that requires you to do some things differently than you have in high school. Arne, anything you want to add . Secretary duncan particularly for seniors, please dont apply to one school. Apply to five or six. It is amazing how many just apply to one school. It might be the best fit, but keep your options open. Apply to a bunch of places. Finally to emphasize, the goal is not to go to college. The goal is to graduate. Figure out where you are going to go and graduate. It might take you three years or five. The big thing is we need you not to just attend but to walk across the stage with a diploma in your hand. [applause] president obama the gentleman right here. You can use my mic. Thanks, mr. President. I am Elementary School principal. One of the things we value is the diversity we have in our community. Im curious to hear from you and secretary duncan the value you see diversity brings to a Young Persons education. President obama that is a great question. How long have you been a principal . Five years . That is outstanding. We are getting old, man, because i thought he was a student. [laughter] president obama he is not just a teacher. He is a principal. Thank you for the great work you are doing. To some degree, i have already answered this question. The value of diversity is getting to know and understand people who are different from you because that is the world you will be living in and working in. It is really interesting. They have been showing through a variety of studies that people who can understand and connect with a wide range of people, that ends up being as important if not more important a skill than anything else in terms of your career success. Whatever the field. It also is part of what makes our democracy work. I was having a discussion about this earlier today. Our democracy is premised on an assumption that even if somebody is not just like me, that they are a good person and a generous person, that we have things in common, and that we can work things out. And if we have a disagreement, we can have an argument based on facts and evidence. I might sometimes lose the argument. I dont persuade as many people. That is how voting works. Majorities are formed and change. That is how our democracy is supposed to work. That starts early because when you have diversity in schools, you are less likely as an adult to start thinking that person, they are not like me, or those persons dont have the same values or dont care as much about their kids. And then democracy starts breaking down because then everything is a fight to the death because there is no sense we can bridge our differences and disagree without being disagreeable and find common ground. It is not only good for your career, but it is also good for our country. The same holds true as part of diversity. Studies Show Organizations that have women in decisionmaking positions function better than those who dont. [applause] president obama and so, seriously. If you look at corporate boards, you can correlate their performance with the number of women they have got on those boards. It also is valuable for us to make sure not only is there diversity, but that in leadership positions different voices are heard. Arne, anything you want to add . So, keep it up. The young lady right there. Yeah, you. Im sorry. I will call on you first and get back to you. The mic is already there. Hi. I am a junior here at north high school. I have two questions. One is for my friend. He is shy. We are part of a group called upward bound, and we work through simpson college. There have been stories of our budget being cut. We want to know if the government can work with us for that. My other question is, in your professional opinion, how much is visual arts important to our school and how will you save it . [applause] president obama ok. I will take the first i will take the question on visual arts. Secretary duncan it goes back to what the president talked about. It is not just upward bound at risk. It is pell grants at risk. Early childhood education, folks in Congress Want to zero that out of the budget. We need to hold folks in washington accountable for investing in education. We want to make sure we are getting results. There are lots of things in our budget, upward bound being a piece of it, in danger. The president is fighting hard. There are some backing us. Others see this as extras. It is important that your voices be heard. He cannot by himself prevent these cuts. That is not how democracy works. Hold us accountable. We will continue to push hard. But we need voters voices being heard saying we need upward bound programs. We need Early Childhood. We need afterschool programs. We need arts. You can talk about arts as well. President obama the arts are what make life worthwhile, right . [applause] president obama you know, you need food and shelter and all that good stuff. But the things that make you laugh, cry, connect, love, so much of that is communicated through the arts. I dont want our young people to think that the arts are just something you sit there passively and whats on the tv screen. I want everybody to have the experience of making art, and have the experience of making music, because that is part of what makes for a wellrounded education. We also know young people learn better if they are not just looking at a textbook and multiple test quizzes all day long. It breaks up the monotony and gives expression to different sides of themselves. That is good for the overall educational experience. I think visual arts, music, it is all important. And we should not be depriving young people of those experiences. They are not extras. They are central to who we are. Part of what makes us human is our ability to make art, to represent what is inside of us in ways that surprise and delight people. And i dont want us to start thinking that is somehow something we can push aside. Now, i want you to be able to read and be able to do algebra. But i dont know where we got the idea we have got to choose between those things. Weve got to be able to do them all. It used to be standard practice. There was no debate, even in the smallest town in a Poor Community or a world community, there was always the art teacher and a music teacher. Nobody assumed that was an extra. That was part of it, just like having a Sports Program was part of it. That is part of what a wellrounded education is all about. But it does cost some money. That is something i want to emphasize. You cant do all this stuff on the cheap all the time. How many more questions . How much more time . Only one . Im going to take two. [laughter] president obama im going to get to you. Dont worry. I promised. It is a guys turn. This guy right there. All right. [applause] alright, ok. President obama what is your name . My name is marcus carter. I am a senior. Out of all the schools in iowa, why did you come here . And after this, can i get a picture with you . [laughter] [applause] president obama now, marcus, im going to answer your first question. [laughter] president obama second question, if i start taking pictures with you, look at this crowd. We would be taking a lot of selfies, so i am imposing the no selfie rule although i will try to shake as many hands as possible. We came here because some really good work is being done here. I think your teachers, principal, and the superintendent, deserve credit for the improvements made. [applause] president obama i want arne to address this because arne travels to schools across the country. Sometimes we get so focused on what is not working that we forget to lift up what is working. And when a school is doing a good job, im sure the teachers feel they want to do even better, but when we have made progress, we have to acknowledge that because it makes us feel hopeful we can continue to make more strides. Secretary duncan a couple of quick things. It is not a coincidence we are here. This is a school that struggled, had some hard times. New leadership, new expectations, the president talked about technology, a better sense of culture, different ways of discipline. I think a couple of years ago, you had two a. P. Classes. And now you have 15. [applause] secretary duncan to go from two to 15 is a big deal. What i say is the students here are not seven times as smart as four years ago. It is just higher expectations. A different belief about what is possible. We try to highlight places that have not always been successful but are moving in the right direction. No one is satisfied. You are trying to get better, but that is real progress. That is adults saying and people deserve the opportunity to take College Class in high school, deserve technology. I think there are lots of lessons other schools could learn from the progress you are making at north high school. [applause] president obama i promised i was going to call on this young lady last. Go ahead. What is your name . My name is tonya montoya. If you legalize free twoyear college, is everyone including illegal students with a good g. P. A. Able to get this . President obama this is an important question. I know this is a debate taking place among president ial candidates. Right now, the way the federal student loan programs work is that undocumented students are not eligible for these loan programs. That is how the law is currently. It is my view well, two things i want to say. First, if you fall in that category, you should still fill out the fafsa because states or universities or colleges may have private scholarships or other mechanisms. So it does not automatically mean you may not qualify for some benefits. It is still important for you. That is a standard form used by everybody. But this raises the broader question i have been talking about now for a couple of years. And that is that for young people who came here, their parents may have brought them here, and they are now america kids by every other criteria except for a piece of paper. They may be your classmates, your friends, your neighbors. The notion that somehow we would not welcome their desire to be fullfledged parts of this community and country and to contribute and serve makes absolutely no sense. [applause] president obama you know, this whole antiimmigrant sentiment in our politics right now is contrary to who we are. [applause] president obama because unless you are a native american [applause] president obama your family came from someplace else. [applause] president obama and although we are a nation of laws and we want people to follow the law, and i have been pushing congress to make sure we have strong borders and we are keeping everybody moving through legal processes, dont pretend that somehow 100 years ago the immigration process was smooth and strict. That is not how it worked. There are a bunch of folks who came here from all over europe, all throughout asia, all throughout central america, and certainly who came from africa. It was not some orderly process where all the rules applied and everything was strict, and i came the right way. That is not how it worked. So the notion that now one generation or even four or five generations removed, that suddenly we are treating new immigrants as if they are the problem when your grandparents were treated like the problem or your greatgrandparents were treated like the problem or were considered unworthy, uneducated, uneducated, or unwashed no, that is not who we are. That is not who we are. We can have a legitimate debate about how to set up an immigration system that is fair and orderly and lawful. I think the people who came here illegally should have the consequences of paying a fine and getting registered, and all kinds of steps they should have to take in order to get right with the law. But when i hear folks talking as if somehow these kids are different from my kids or less worthy in the eyes of god . That somehow they are less worthy of our respect and consideration and care . I think that is unamerican. I do not believe that. I think it is wrong. [applause] president obama and i think we should do better because that is how america was made, by us caring about all of our kids. Thank you, everybody. I love you. [a