WARRENSBURG Mo.—President Barack Obama praised a new Missouri program that fast-tracks students to low-cost college degrees as a national model as he kicked off a traveling tour Wednesday intended to emphasize his economic initiatives.
Obama spoke to more than 2,000 people at the University of Central Missouri, which is a partner with a Kansas City-area community college and public school district in what’s been dubbed the “Missouri Innovation Campus.”
The initiative allows select students to start earning community college credits in high-tech, high-demand jobs while still in high school, then earn a bachelor’s degree after spending just two additional years at the university campus in Warrensburg.
The program also pairs students with business internships, and their education is to be paid for by a mixture of corporate funding and state scholarships, grants and loan-forgiveness programs. The goal is for students to graduate debt-free while entering the workforce sooner than normal.
“That is exactly the kind of innovation we need when it comes to college costs,” Obama said, with nearly 100 students standing behind him as a backdrop.
“I want the entire country to notice it, and I want other colleges to take a look at what’s being done here,” he added.
Obama’s speech marked his first appearance in Missouri since May 2012, when he delivered a commencement address for Joplin High School on the one-year anniversary of a deadly tornado.
