U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will visit Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, Oct. 25. He will hold a town hall at 1 p.m. with students at Wake Tech Community College. The town hall is an opportunity for Duncan to talk with students about the administration’s dual commitments—investing in education to secure the future and reducing spending while increasing efficiency. During the town hall, he also will provide an overview of the American Jobs Act and discuss how it will modernize public schools, prevent teacher layoffs, and support young Americans in North Carolina. A media availability will follow from 2:10 – 2:25 p.m. ET.
In the state of North Carolina, the American Jobs Act would provide:
- $163 million of the $5 billion for community college modernization.
- $46 million for modernization efforts in Wake County to rebuild crumbling buildings and classes, which could help begin work on long overdue upgrades to schools and classrooms.
- $675 million for modernization projects, supporting an estimated 8,800 jobs.
- $900 million—enough to prevent an estimated 13,400 teacher layoffs for one school year.
“As a country, we desperately need this legislation,” Secretary Duncan said. “America stands at a crossroads: we can roll the dice and hope to educate America’s kids amid teacher layoffs and dilapidated school buildings, or we use this opportunity to give our students the world-class education they deserve—with a strong teacher corps working in modern facilities. We need it for our kids. We need it for our teachers. We need it to put people to work. And, we need it to ensure a bright future of our nation.”
Overall, the President’s American Jobs Act plan will invest $30 billion in enhancing the condition of schools — with $25 billion going to K-12 schools for repair, renovation and modernization. While the bill would help finance long overdue repairs, it would also create needed jobs and help put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work.
For more on the American Jobs Act of 2011, see http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/reports/american-jobs-act.pd.