Morning Announcements: August 10, 2010

The New York Times looks into the dozens of companies that are taking advantage of the administration’s priorities to overturn failing schools and are establishing themselves as “school turnaround experts” to compete for part of the business.

For the first time, the New York City Department of Education is sending detailed reports to all of its high schools with information on how many of its students required remedial classes and numbers and how many stayed enrolled after the first semester.

The New Jersey School Boards Association finds students in more than 80 percent of New Jersey's public schools will see fewer teachers when they go back to class in September, leading to larger class sizes and reduced programs

Yesterday at the University of Austin, President Obama gave a speech on higher education and the economy. See below for an excerpt and click here to read the full transcript.

Education is the economic issue of our time. 

It’s an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have gone to college.  Education is an economic issue when nearly eight in 10 new jobs will require workforce training or a higher education by the end of this decade.  Education is an economic issue when we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that countries that out-educate us today, they will out-compete us tomorrow.

The single most important thing we can do is to make sure we’ve got a world-class education system for everybody.  That is a prerequisite for prosperity.  It is an obligation that we have for the next generation.