Obama proposes investing $12 billion in community colleges, warns of higher unemployment

Obama says unemployment will keep ticking up

WASHINGTON — As he conceded that unemployment will keep growing, President Barack Obama on Tuesday said new jobs will require greater training and post-high school education to achieve a better skilled work force.

Obama was traveling to Michigan to make a pitch for greater spending on community colleges, an investment he said will ready workers for the demands of a changing jobs picture.

In prepared remarks he planned to deliver at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., Obama said jobs requiring at least an associate degree are expected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college attendance.

“We will not fill those jobs — or keep those jobs on our shores — without the training offered by community colleges,” Obama said.

The president had sobering words for his audience in a state hard hit by reeling car makers and where the unemployment rate stands at 14.1 percent, the highest in the nation.

“The hard truth is that some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won’t be coming back,” Obama said. “They are casualties of a changing economy.”

Obama is proposing a multibillion-dollar investment in the nation’s community colleges, a $12 billion effort to help the two-year institutions reach, teach and train more people for “the jobs of the future.” He was to outline his program in a speech Tuesday afternoon at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich.

Before leaving town, Obama was pressed on how high the unemployment rate might climb. In Michigan, the jobless rate is 14.1 percent, worst in the nation.

“How employment numbers are going to respond is not yet clear,” Obama said after a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

“My expectation is, is that we will probably continue to see unemployment tick up for several months,” Obama said. “And the challenge for this administration is to make sure that even as we are stabilizing the financial system … are people able to find good jobs that pay good wages?”

More than 2 million jobs have been lost since Congress passed Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package. Without that government intervention, Obama said, states like Michigan would be in even worse shape because they would have had to lay off more teachers, firefighters and other workers.

Obama said renewed hiring tends to lag behind other signs of economic recovery. The White House has been criticized for being overly rosy in its projections of the economic rebound, particularly in terms of employment.

Obama defended his multi-pronged agenda of investing in health care, energy, science innovation and infrastructure as keys to lasting economic growth.

Under Obama’s college initiative, schools could qualify for “challenge grants” so they’ll have money to try new programs, or expand training and counseling. Dropout rates would be addressed by designing programs to help students who want to earn an associate’s degree or transfer to a four-year institution do so.

Money would be spent to renovate outdated facilities or build new ones, and to develop online courses and make them freely available to students and others who want to use them.

The total federal cost is $12 billion over a decade. Of that, $9 billion would go toward challenge grants and addressing dropout rates. Half a billion, or $500 million, would go toward online education. The remaining $2.5 billion would be used to spark $10 billion in renovation and construction nationwide, said James Kvaal, an Obama economic policy adviser.

The plan would be paid for as part of a package that cuts waste from the student loan program, administration officials said. Some of the money could be available by the 2010 budget year that begins Oct. 1.

Obama speaks of expanded education and job training as a way to help workers compete for jobs such as those expected in the clean energy industry, when the economy turns around and begins to create jobs again instead of shedding them.

Community colleges have been feeling pinched lately. Enrollments have been increasing for several reasons, including rising college costs at public and private institutions, and because of the economy, as people who’ve lost jobs enroll to learn new skills.

About 6 million students currently attend community college, administration officials said. Obama is setting a new goal of 5 million additional college graduates by 2020, Kvaal said.

Obama’s stop in Michigan will be his first visit to the state since he defeated Republican Sen. John McCain there in the presidential election.

The trip wasn’t all about policy, however.

Before returning to the White House, Obama, an athlete who is more into basketball and, lately, golf, was dropping into Busch Stadium in St. Louis to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Major League Baseball’s annual All-Star game.

It will be his first pitch as president.

Associated Press writer Ben Feller contributed to this story.