Category: Money

Watch on YouTube
No young person should lack a stable and safe home, or be without a caring adult they can count on. Too many of America’s youth have been robbed of that essential foundation — and thanks to the extraordinary work of practi…

On a beautiful, sunny day just outside Portland, Oregon, the President dropped by Nike headquarters to talk about the impact his trade deal — the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — will have on American businesses, large and small. 

Manufacturing and exports help drive the success of our businesses and the financial security of our workers. Companies that export their goods and services pay their employees up to 18% more, and are more able to expand and hire. In fact, Nike announced that the President’s trade deal, if secured, could lead to the creation of up to 10,000 advanced manufacturing and engineering jobs — and up to 40,000 indirect supply chain and services jobs — here in the U.S. over the next decade. 

But this isn’t just about American icons like Nike. The TPP is a big deal for small businesses too. Right now, small businesses don’t have the support they need to get their handcrafted, Made-in-America products out into the world.  

read more

This week, the President visited Lehman College in New York City for the launch of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, taped an episode of the Late Show with David Letterman, hosted a Cinco de Mayo celebration, announced his nominee for the new Cha…

This morning, actor and filmmaker Tom Hanks sent the following message to the White House email list, recalling his time at Chabot College — a community college in Hayward, California. In his email, Tom explains how Chabot College made him who he is today, and why community college should be an option for more hardworking Americans.

If you agree with him, tell us why you think community college should be available to more Americans — using this form or the hashtag #CommunityCollege. (And if you didn’t get his email, sign up for email updates here.)

Chabot College is a rambling series of academic buildings situated on 94 acres in Hayward, California. It offers more than 100 associate degrees and certificates, an intercollegiate national championship-winning ultimate disc team, and parking for a couple thousand cars. It’s also my alma mater.

Chabot’s a community college — and in the early 1970s, it was all free, save for the effort you put into it and the price of used textbooks.

As a student there, I went to school alongside Vietnam vets, moms, and middle-aged men, as well as a few thousand young people like me who needed time to sort out our lives and our options. We were looking to get our general education requirements out of the way, to learn skill sets to improve our employment prospects, or to discover the road to new, unimagined careers. We all found a different home at Chabot, but it welcomed all of us.

Later today, the President is heading to Watertown, South Dakota to deliver the commencement address at another community college — called Lake Area Tech. (NOTE: If I had grown up in that part of South Dakota, my alma mater would be none other than Lake Area Tech.)

He’ll talk to students who, like those of us at Chabot all those years ago, are going to go out into the world and do great things. And they’ll owe it in part to an educational institution that ought to be an option for more Americans.

You should tune in and hear what he has to say — and then add your voice to a growing conversation about how we can make college a reality for more of us.

read more