Biden Pushes Education Spending at Stops in Virginia

PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA - President Joe Biden traveled Monday to coastal Virginia to promote his plans to increase spending on education and children, part of his $1.8 trillion families proposal announced last week. 

Visiting Tidewater Community College with first lady Jill Biden, the president discussed his $109 billion proposal to provide Americans with two years of tuition-free community college. He's also seeking more than $80 billion for Pell Grants to help college affordability and $62 billion for programs that could improve completion rates at community colleges and institutions that predominantly serve disadvantaged students.  The president said that education was the key to the country's dominance and that people needed classes beyond high school for the nation to be globally competitive.  "When America made 12 years of public education universal in America in the early 1900s, it made us the best educated nation in the world," Biden said. "The rest of the world has caught up to us. They're not waiting. And 12 years is no longer enough to compete with the world in the 21st century and lead the 21st century."