March 6, 2009

Obama's Higher-Education Goal Is Ambitious but Achievable, College Leaders Say

By SARA HEBEL and JEFFREY J. SELINGO

Before President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress last week, the White House compared the purpose of the event to Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats during the Great Depression. But for higher education, Mr. Obama was more like John F. Kennedy when he issued the challenge in 1961 to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

This president's goal was equally daunting: for the nation to have the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020. "That is a

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