$4,000 Tax Credit for College Tuition
It also means putting a college education within reach of every American. That's the best investment we can make in our future.
I'll create a new and fully refundable tax credit worth $4,000 for tuition and fees every year, which will cover two-thirds of the tuition at the average public college or university.
I'll also simplify the financial aid application process so that we don't have a million students who aren't applying for aid because it's too difficult. I will start by eliminating the current student aid form altogether - we'll use tax data instead.
And I'll tap the tremendous resource of community colleges, which educate half the undergraduates in this country, by creating a new Community College Partnership Program.
We'll help schools determine what skills and technical education are needed to help local industry; we'll expand new degrees for emerging fields; and we'll reward schools that graduate more students. That's the change we need so that our young people can achieve their dreams.
No Conventional Thinking
This is what we must do to reclaim the American dream. We know it won't be easy. We'll hear from the can't-do, won't-do, won't-even-try crowd in Washington; the special interests and their lobbyists; the conventional thinking that says this country is just too divided to make progress.
Well I'm not running for President to conform to this conventional thinking - I'm running to challenge it. There is too much at stake. Too much at stake for:
- the family that can't get ahead;
- the elderly worker who faces a retirement filled with worry;
- the kid who doesn't believe America has a place for her dreams.
To stand up for these Americans, I don't want to settle for anything less than real change, fundamental change - change we need - change that we can believe in.
American Middle-Class Dreams
It's change that I've been fighting for since I moved out to Chicago over two decades ago. Because those dreams - American dreams - are worth fighting for. And because I wouldn't be standing on this stage today if it weren't for the dreams of those who came before me.
The dreams of my grandfather - who marched in Patton's Army and moved his family west in search of opportunity.
The dreams of my grandmother - who was up at dawn and worked twice as hard at her job because a woman had to work harder to get ahead.
The dreams of my father who crossed an ocean because America offered that light to the world.
The dreams of my mother - a single mom who understood that a life rich in family and experience was more important than a life of riches.
The dreams of those men and women on the South Side of Chicago, who fought with me to create a future for their community after the steel plant was shuttered.
There has been a lot of talk in this campaign about the politics of hope. But the politics of hope doesn't mean hoping that things come easy.
It's a politics of believing in things unseen; of believing in what this country might be; and of standing up for that belief and fighting for it when it's hard.
America is the sum of our dreams. And what binds us together, what makes us one American family, is that we stand up and fight for each other's dreams, that we reaffirm that fundamental belief - I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper - through our politics, our policies, and in our daily lives.
It's time to do that once more. It's time to reclaim the American dream.
For more information, see the full, detailed text of BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN TO RECLAIM THE AMERICAN DREAM.
(See Barack Obama in 2008 Info Hub and News Center.)
