Gordon Gee Quotes

The best escalator to opportunity in America is education.

Encouragement of higher education for our youth is critical to the success of our collective future.

We must bring it to pass ... if we have the peace that all the youth now in England, born of free men who have the means that they can apply to it, may be devoted to learning ... until such time as they can read well what is written in England.

College education is the engine of social mobility in this country.

I do not feel that, in these important years, girls should be chosen for college purely on the basis of whether they can afford to pay for this opportunity. They should be there because of the potential value which they will bring to the Nation. If they have this added training, the Nation should be willing to put something toward their development.

In Britain, the idea one could go from blue-collar beginnings to the university was so far out, it was quite unthinkable. I took a variety of jobs to pay for tuition - from ice-cream salesman to night-club bouncer. Whatever earned the most money in the least time.

There is no greater ladder into the middle class than education.

I am a firm believer in education and have worked very hard to tell young Latinos that they must go to college and that, if possible, they should pursue an advanced degree. I am convinced that education is the great equalizer.

You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have. Education was the gateway to opportunity for me. It was the gateway for Michelle. And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life.

So if a college education is indispensable, the challenge as I see it is how to make it more accessible.

I am grateful for the great education at a public university that Germany gave me, and that - added to a little luck - allowed me to achieve. Education is the key to a career, and its basis has to be provided by government.

Further Education should be about the ability to learn, not the ability to pay - everyone who is able should have the opportunity, regardless of their family background. I don't want to see students struggling with huge debts or frightened off even going to university in the first place.

It's great to talk about how good things are now. But we can't sit on our laurels and expect that our time will sustain itself if we don't do a better job on issues like education... It's absolutely the case that the low cost of college tuition that I was able to enjoy and the financial aid I was able to receive made my education possible.

The need for a college education is even more important now than it was before, but I think that the increased costs are a very severe obstacle to access. It is an American dream, and I think that one of our challenges is to find a way to make that available.

Experience burned into me the conviction that access to education ought to be based on how much you are willing to learn and how hard you are willing to work, not on how many dollars your family has in their bank account.

Community colleges provide higher education where people live, helping to build strong ladders of opportunity that allow people to secure a foothold in the middle class.

In America today, a young person needs more education after high school just to have a chance to make it in the middle class. Not a guarantee, just a chance to make it.

One of the most important features of the later stages of capitalist civilization is the vigorous expansion of the educational apparatus and particularly of the facilities for higher education.

A great education is a passport to a new life

Michelle and I—we’re where we are today only because scholarships and student loans gave us a shot at a great education.

… adult education should be made available … so that our less privileged groups may be able to avail themselves of new openings which require more education than they possess.

You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get your degree. Because that's the one thing people can't take away from you is your education. And it is worth the investment.

For me, education has never been simply a policy issue - it's personal. Neither of my parents and hardly anyone in the neighborhood where I grew up went to college. But thanks to a lot of hard work and plenty of financial aid, I had the opportunity to attend some of the finest universities in this country.

I'm a beneficiary of an extraordinary education, and I believe that no matter where you live, the access to education is key to social mobility.

I had an excellent Ivy League education, and it gave me a long view of things.