American Graduation Initiative

President Obama announced a 10-year, $12 billion investment plan called the American Graduation Initiative.

The initiatives include:
• Community college challenge grants, to help underfunded colleges that are dealing with limited capacity and to build partnerships with schools and businesses.

• The Access and Completion Fund, to provide performance-based scholarships and give colleges the tools to design more programs around work schedules.

• Modernization of community-college facilities, with $2.5 billion to help renovate facilities and keep up with maintenance costs. The renovations will create jobs, Obama said.

• Open online courses, to create options online as a tool that some think can be more effective than classroom instruction alone.

There are 6 million Americans in community colleges. The administration's initiatives are seen as the foundation to help boost enrollment and graduation rates.

Read the entire article at: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/14/obama.community.colleges/