worth being reported by the AP. Gee, Kerry's just talking about the future, the importance of science and education in our society, about long range planning. That's not important is it?
As President, I will fight to strengthen important industries here at home, invest in our people not in corporate tax giveaways, and will lead in the technologies of the future so that we can grow the economy on a sustained and sustainable basis.
An economy based on innovation, ingenuity, and imagination is the only economy that can create and expand 21st century jobs. And we need a President who will work with you to make that happen. The old options of the last century – top-down hand-holding regulation or a hands-off retreat to laissez-faire – won’t work now even if they ever did. Instead, we need a government that will act as a partner, that will strictly but fairly enforce the rules of the road, and that will work hand-in-hand with businesses that do right by their country and by their workers.
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A well educated workforce is essential to economic leadership. We need to start producing more scientists and engineers here at home. And we need to produce the scientists and technicians and engineers of the coming years so that their innovations will power our economy into the future. A decade ago, the United States led the world in the percentage of 24 year olds who had earned a degree in natural sciences or engineering. Today, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Canada, and Japan have a greater percentage than the United States. Today, there are more information technology engineers in Bangalore than in Silicon Valley – and we need to invest in our people if we want them to invent the products of tomorrow here at home.
In the nineteenth century, a manufacturing worker’s knowledge and creativity were thought to just get in the way of the assembly line. They were seen as nuisances. Today, they are necessities. The manufacturing jobs of today require 21st century skills. I’ll make sure America has a cutting edge workforce with grants to help manufacturing workers upgrade their skills and retrain for the jobs of the future. And we will encourage students to study subjects like engineering and computer science by helping them repay their student loans if they put their knowledge to work in the manufacturing sector.
If America is going to lead in the 21st Century, we need to make sure our kids are meeting their full potential from the start. That’s why I am proposing a new Education Trust Fund that will guarantee we fully fund educational excellence in our public schools. This will ensure our children’s future is not beholden to political whims and the changing tides of Washington. One out of every six children live in poverty. 11.7 million children! That’s 16.3%! George Bush has left our children behind. He has mortgaged their future to pay for a wrong war. That’s not the kind of country – the kind of America – we want.
Our children’s future will be founded on the best education we can offer – one that has reforms matched by resources, opportunities matched by a means to achieve those opportunities. I want to make four years of college as universal as a high school education is today. In a Kerry Administration, we will make all four years of college more affordable with a single, easy-to-use “College Opportunity Tax Credit” of $4,000 for each and every year of college. And my “Service for College” initiative will pay for college for students who give two years of service to their country or community.
Remarks by John Kerry at Stanford University
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