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Hi, I’m Arne Duncan. I want to respond to a couple of questions and comments we received
via Facebook. First, Ginger and Adriana wrote in about great teachers who were thanked as
part of the StoryCorps Thank a Teacher Program, and it’s so important that all of us reach
back and say thank you for those amazing teachers who made a difference in our lives. Ginger
actually went to my high school. She was a classmate of my sister and she said my favorite
teacher, Mr. Campbell, was one of hers as well. And Mr. Campbell is still teaching and
doing an amazing job in helping students fulfill their great, great potential there in Chicago.
And, then Adriana talked about a great teacher in Philadelphia who with almost no budget,
but tremendous heart and tremendous commitment continues to make a difference in students’
lives. I met him here, heard his story, was extraordinarily moved by his leadership and
thrilled that we were able to thank him as well. We’d encourage many other Facebook
followers to thank their teachers, partner with us, partner with StoryCorps, whether
you graduated last year, whether you are still in school or whether you are 50 years out
of high school or elementary. It is never too late to go back and say thank you. Jimmy
talked about the tremendous stress of having significant college debt and that’s a huge
worry that we’re all so very, very concerned about. We’ve done a lot to try to increase
Pell Grants, double Pell Grant funding over the past couple of years. That helps on the
front end. Very recently you probably saw with the President, we announced a pay as
you earn program. Once you graduate to start to reduce some of that – those debts – those
loan repayments by as much as a couple of hundred dollars each month. But, at the end
of the day this is a very, very serious challenge that we as a country have to take on. Over
the past 15 years, the average debt of young people leaving college has about doubled from
about $12,500 to about $25,000 and particularly in tough economic times where it’s hard
to find a good paying job or a job at all these days. Having debt not of just 25, but
50, 60, 70, $80,000 is a major challenge. Please visit our website -- Studentaid.ED.gov
-- studentaid.ed.gov -- for options that are out there now for folks. But, President Obama
and I are both absolutely committed to doing more in this area. We want to increase access,
we need to make sure that as American families go to college it is not breaking them and
that colleges aren’t just seen as something for wealthy folks, not for the average citizen.
And, so we feel proud of what we have already accomplished but there is a lot of hard work
ahead of us and we welcome your ideas as well. Thank you so much.