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Excerpts from the Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan, January 15, 2004 (Full Transcript)
QUESTION: I had one other question on education. College tuition is skyrocketing in many parts of the country and middle-class voters, that's a big concern for them.MR. McCLELLAN: What is?
QUESTION: College tuition going up very sharply. Does the President plan to unveil something in the State of the Union, or any time prior to, that would address that?
MR. McCLELLAN: He already has made some proposals regarding higher education. One, of course, he's been pursuing expanding the Pell Grants to help more low-income Americans go to college, and make college more affordable and accessible for all. And the President is strongly committed to working to make college affordable and accessible. And that's one important initiative right there that he is pursuing.
He's also -- when you talk about employment, one thing that we have moved forward on aggressively, too, is job retraining initiatives through the Department of Labor. The President has worked to expand our help to community colleges, which play an important role in helping retrain people for today's economy and get them -- and find them jobs.