White House Conference Call with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

In a conference call with college media organizations including WRGW News, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stressed the importance for America's children to go to college in order to move the nation forward in the 21st century, stating that "economic security depends on education."

Duncan emphasized America's college completion rates, saying the White House has a "laser-like focus on improving college completion rate - only 40% of our children complete college, that not enough."  Duncan said that although the 40% rate was the envy of the world just a decade ago, America is now well behind other competitive countries.

Duncan also described the 'Income Based Repayment' system, created to reduce the burden of college loan payments.  IRP institutes a loan repayment cap of 10% on a former student's income, and the debt would be forgiven after 20 years.  However, for student entering the public sector, the loans would be forgiven after only 10 years, which Duncan said is incentive "to bring talent into the public sector.  Duncan believes 1 million teachers are needed in the next 5-8 years and that Obama's latest education proposals will cumulate as the "biggest investment in education since the G.I. Bill."