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We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world.

America is the best half-educated country in the world.

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

If we do not provide education for every single American, we are consigning those without an education to second-class status.

We know that if we're going to remain economically competitive in the world, and viable as a civic democracy, that we're going to have to get more people educated to higher levels.

We Americans have the great gifts of freedom and democracy, but it has been our education system that has fulfilled the promise of democracy.

Already we're seeing graduates of U.S. higher education going back to their home countries and contributing to societies there, where in the past they would have stayed in the U.S. and built new companies here. We have to have immigration reform that allows talented foreigners to become Americans.

We have to build a better education in this country. We need to step it up.

This is a universal human dream - that brains, not brawn, will rule - and the fact that America has the world's finest institutions of higher education may be our greatest single national asset.

On education, in order to ensure that America remains a world leader, we must create an educated, skilled workforce in the vital areas of science, math, engineering and information technology. At the same time, we must give every student access to a college degree.