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THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Hello, Austin! (Applause.) Hello, Longhorns! (Applause.) It is good to be back. It is good to be back.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you, Obama!

THE PRESIDENT: I love you back. (Applause.) I love Austin. Love Austin. I remember — by the way, anybody who’s got a seat, feel free to take a seat. (Laughter.) I remember paying you a visit during the campaign. (Applause.) Mack Brown gave me a tour of the stadium, along with Colt and a couple other guys. And I got a photo with the Heisman. (Laughter.) I rubbed the locker room’s Longhorns（音乐探测器，长角牛） for good luck. (Applause.) And I’m just saying, it might have had something to do with how the election turned out. (Applause.) There might be a connection there.

I also remember the first time that I came to Austin on the campaign. And there are a number of friends who are here who have been great supporters; I want to make mention of them. Representative Lloyd Doggett is here, a great friend. (Applause.) Senator Kirk Watson is here. (Applause.) Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee is here. (Applause.) Mayor Leffingwell is here. (Applause.) And your own president, Bill Powers, is in the house. (Applause.)

But this is back in 2007, February 2007. It was just two weeks after I had announced my candidacy（候选资格） . I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true — my hair was not gray back then. (Laughter.) Not many people thought I had much of a shot at the White House. (Applause.) Let me put it this way（这样说） , a lot of folks in Washington didn’t think I had a shot at the White House. (Laughter.) A lot of people couldn’t pronounce my name. (Laughter.) They were still calling me Alabama or Yo’ Mama — that was — (laughter.)

So then I come to Austin, this was back in February of 2007. And it was a drizzly（下毛毛雨的） day, and that usually tamps down turnout. But when I got to the rally over at Auditorium Shores there was a crowd of over 20,000 people –- 20,000 people. (Applause.) It was people of all ages and all races and all walks of life（各行各业） .

And I said that day, all these people, they hadn’t gathered just for me. You were there because you were hungry to see some fundamental change in America — (applause) — because you believed in an America where all of us — not just some of us, but all of us — no matter what we look like, no matter where we come from, all of us can reach for our dreams. All of us can make of our lives what we will; that we can determine our own destiny. And that’s what we’ve been fighting for over the past 18 months.

I said then that we’d end the Iraq war as swiftly and as responsibly as possible –- and that is a promise that we are keeping. This month we will end combat operations in Iraq. (Applause.)

I said we’d make health insurance more affordable and give you more control over your health care -– and that’s a promise we’re keeping. And by the way, young people are going to be able to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26 because of the law that we passed. (Applause.)

I said we’d build an economy that can compete in the 21st century — because the economy that we had even before the recession, even before the financial crisis, wasn’t working for too many Americans. Too many Americans had seen their wages flat-line, their incomes flat-line. We were falling behind and unable to compete internationally. And I said we need an economy that puts Americans back to work, an economy that’s built around three simple words — Made in America. (Applause.) Because we are not playing for second place. We are the United States of America, and like the Texas Longhorns, you play for first — we play for first. (Applause.)

Now, when it comes to the economy, I said that in today’s world we’re being pushed as never before. From Beijing to Bangalore, from Seoul to San Paolo, new industries and innovations are flourishing. Our competition is growing fiercer. And while our ultimate success has and always will depend on the incredible industriousness（勤奋，勤勉） of the American worker and the ingenuity（心灵手巧，独创性） of American businesses and the power of our free market system, we also know that as a nation, we’ve got to pull together and do some fundamental shifts in how we’ve been operating to make sure America remains number one.

So that’s why I’ve set some ambitious goals for this country. I’ve called for doubling our exports within the next five years, so that we’re not just buying from other countries, I want us to sell to other countries. (Applause.) We’ve talked about doubling our nation’s capacity to generate renewable energy by 2012, because I’m actually convinced that if we control the clean energy future, then our economic future will be bright — building solar panels and wind turbines and biodiesel（生物柴油） and — (applause.)

And I want us to produce 8 million more college graduates by 2020, because — (applause) — because America has to have the highest share of graduates compared to every other nation.

But, Texas, I want you to know we have been slipping. In a single generation, we’ve fallen from first place to 12th place in college graduation rates for young adults. Think about that. In one generation we went from number one to number 12.

Now, that’s unacceptable, but it’s not irreversible（不可逆的） . We can retake the lead. If we’re serious about making sure America’s workers — and America itself — succeeds in the 21st century, the single most important step we can take is make — is to make sure that every one of our young people — here in Austin, here in Texas, here in the United States of America — has the best education that the world has to offer. That’s the number one thing we can do. (Applause.)

Now, when I talk about education, people say, well, you know what, right now we’re going through this tough time. We’ve emerged from the worst recession since the Great Depression. So, Mr. President, you should only focus on jobs, on economic issues. And what I’ve tried to explain to people — I said this at the National Urban League the other week — education is an economic issue. Education is the economic issue of our time. (Applause.)

It’s an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have gone to college. Education is an economic issue when nearly eight in 10 new jobs will require workforce training or a higher education by the end of this decade. Education is an economic issue when we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that countries that out-educate us today, they will out-compete us tomorrow.

The single most important thing we can do is to make sure we’ve got a world-class education system for everybody. That is a prerequisite for prosperity. It is an obligation that we have for the next generation. (Applause.)

And here is the interesting thing, Austin. The fact is we know what to do to offer our children the best education possible. We know what works. It’s just we’re not doing it. And so what I’ve said is, let’s get busy. Let’s get started. (Applause.) We can’t wait another generation. We can’t afford to let our young people waste their most formative years. That’s why we need to set up an early learning fund to challenge our states and make sure our young people, our children, are entering kindergarten ready for success. (Applause.) That’s something we’ve got to do. (Applause.)

We can’t accept anything but the best in America’s classrooms. And that’s why we’ve launched an initiative called Race to the Top, where we are challenging states to strengthen their commitment to excellence, and hire outstanding teachers and train wonderful principals, and create superior schools with higher standards and better assessments. And we’re already seeing powerful results across the country.

But we also know that in the coming decades, a high school diploma is not going to be enough. Folks need a college degree. They need workforce training. They need a higher education. And so today I want to talk about the higher education strategy that we’re pursuing not only to lead the world once more in college graduation rates, but to make sure our graduates are ready for a career; ready to meet the challenges of a 21st century economy.

Now, part one of our strategy is to make college more affordable. I suspect that that’s something you’re all interested in. (Applause.) I don’t have to tell you why this is so important. Many of you are living each day with worries about how you’re going to pay off your student loans. (Applause.) And we all know why. Even as family incomes have been essentially flat over the past 30 years, college costs have grown higher and higher and higher and higher. They have gone up faster than housing, gone up faster than transportation. They’ve even gone up faster than health care costs, and that’s saying something. (Laughter.)