Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and his senior staff, Sen. John Kerry, and Rep. Steny Hoyer will visit three states on Monday, Feb. 6—Florida, Massachusetts and Maryland—to promote access and affordability in higher education by asking states to rein in rising college costs. Over the past three years, the Administration has taken historic steps to help students and families afford college, including reforming the federal student aid system to expand grant aid and college tax credits.
Biden, joined by the U.S. Department of Education’s Under Secretary Martha Kanter, will visit Florida State University in Tallahassee at 11 a.m. to discuss the importance of tackling rising college costs to ensure America’s students and workers can obtain the education and training they need for jobs in this global economy.
Duncan will join Kerry at a town hall meeting with college students from Massachusetts at 1 p.m. at Emerson College in Boston. Duncan and Kerry will discuss a number of higher education issues, including college affordability and student debt, and preparing students for the jobs of the 21st century.
Later that afternoon, at 3:30 p.m., Duncan will participate in the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Askwith Forum, “Fighting the Wrong Education Battles.” The forum will be held on campus in the Askwith Lecture Hall located inside Longfellow Hall. Duncan will discuss a number of topics, including the importance of school reform and school accountability, and student achievement. He also will address the debate over competing claims about the importance of in-school and out-of-school influences on student achievement and the argument that the struggle to advance a well-rounded curriculum is at odds with creating school accountability.
In Maryland, college affordability will be the topic of an afternoon roundtable discussion with students attending two- and four-year colleges—both public and private—and career schools. The U.S. Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education Eduardo Ochoa will join Hoyer at 1 p.m. at the Waldorf Center of Higher Education in Waldorf, Md. Ochoa will provide an overview of the President’s proposal to keep college affordable. Following remarks by Ochoa and Hoyer, students will have the opportunity to ask questions and share their campus’ perspectives on various issues.