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This is the third consecutive year President Barack Obama reiterated the importance of higher education directly to students. He said that high school diploma is very important as many more jobs will require this in the next decade. Our President whose focus is on higher education as a major part of reform said that this is the world students will be walking into and it is therefore imperative for them to realize the importance of reaching out for higher education.

The audience consisted predominantly of teachers and students from Benjamin Banneker Academic High School. His speech in the capital was listened to by at least five hundred students from this high performing, predominantly black school. As we all know, our Democrat President is currently in the fray for a White House second term.

Obama told students that after graduation, each one of them must aspire to continue their education. He also said that it is important to graduate from college and not be satisfied with just getting into it.

Our President’s higher education policies have always been criticized by Rick Perry, Texas Gov and front running Republican rival. He has lashed out at Obama’s programs saying they smack of a trend where federal government is taking over public schools. Significantly, he also kept away from Race to the Top Program. States that adopted national standards are eligible for federal grants according to this program.

Shortly after Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts Governor said that he did not support the Race to the Top Program, Perry accused him of actually supporting it in the GOP presidential debate recently. What Romney actually said was there are many positive elements to the program and it is better to release it first in the state level.

Many critics of our President and Republican governors are actually working towards receiving the funds even as Perry continues to move away from it. In a previous debate, Race to the Top Program was praised by Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker. He said that this was one aspect where he was in agreement with President Obama and that he was impressed with the way it talked about charter schools.

A total of four states did not take part in the funding competition and Texas was one of them. Arne Duncan, our education secretary told Bloomberg Television that a great disservice was done to the students of Texas. He said that he feels very sad for children here as very few of the graduates are prepared to move on to college.

He pointed out that under Perry, school system in Texas faced a huge struggle referring to state funding cutbacks and increase in class size. According to the National Education Association, in student ranking, under the tenure of Perry, the state went down in student spending ranking to 37th in 2010 from 25th in 2000.

The recent state budget has dealt another blow to the public schools in Texas with the $4 million cut. Signed by the governor, at least 43,000 college students will suffer from lack of financial aid and this could further bring down the ranking.