Bill Owens Quotes

Our goal here in New York is to ensure that every child who graduates high school is ready to start a career or start college and to dramatically increase the number of students that graduate from college.

We have too few college graduates. We also have too few people who are prepared for college.

Ensuring quality higher education is one of the most important things we can do for future generations.

To compete in a global economy, our students must continue their education beyond high school. To make this expectation a reality, we must give students the tools they need to succeed, including the opportunity to take a college entrance exam.

By 2018, an estimated 63 percent of all new U.S. jobs will require workers with an education beyond high school. For our young people to get those jobs, they first need to graduate from high school ready to start a postsecondary education.

The College Access and Opportunity Act addresses the important need to make higher education more affordable and easier to access for low and middle-income students.

Each year India and China produce four million graduates compared with just over 250,000 in Britain.

In the 1940s, about 20% of people in the U.S. had graduated from high school, but less than 5% continued their education to get bachelors' degrees or higher.

With Michigan's economic future on the line, we can't afford to have our 500 local school districts marching in different directions. Instead, we need a high standards, mandatory curriculum to get all our students on the road to higher education and a good paying job.

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.

I believe that it is higher education's purpose and calling to keep open the door to the American dream.

In my family, there was one cardinal priority - education. College was not an option; it was mandatory. So even though we didn't have a lot of money, we made it work. I signed up for financial aid, Pell Grants, work study, anything I could.

One half who graduate from college never read another book.

I'm not saying everyone must go to college. What I'm saying is that every student in Texas, no matter how poor, deserves options. They must be taught to believe they can and will graduate from high school with grades good enough to succeed in trade school, in community college, or in any university in America, including Harvard, Yale, UT or A&M.

America shortchanges half its youth, the half that doesn't go to college.

Governor Romney, how many fewer college degrees would it take to make America more competitive?

We now spend one in four of our higher education dollars sending students to these [profit making] colleges, and for that we reap a new underclass of highly indebted individuals most of whom do not manage to complete their degrees.

We used to be the country with the highest percentage of college graduates. We are no more and the gap is widening.

Twenty years ago we had the highest percentage of college graduates in the world. Today we are number 11.

We want every guy to graduate, and we work very hard on that.

The government sets targets for increased four-year high school graduation rates as part of its agenda for improving Americans' health.

I would certainly look at a proposal for tuition-free community college for two years if the students kept a certain high grade-point average.

One reason I like to highlight reading is, reading is the beginnings of the ability to be a good student. And if you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams, it's going to be hard to go to college. So when your teachers say, read - you ought to listen to her.

A permanent, growing fund for student aid will help all Oregonians afford needed education and training and build a path towards a stronger future.

Every young man that we want to bring here to the University of Georgia, we want them to graduate from this place.