City Year Is Taking On Some Of

Young People Know How Important It Is For Dads To Be Involved In Their Lives. As I Travel The Country And Talk With Students, Some Of Them Tell Me That Their Lives Would Be Totally Different If Their Father Was Around.

The Cost Of College Should Never Discourage Anyone From Going After A Valuable Degree.

When Schools Truly Become Centers Of The Community, Where You Have Extraordinary Teachers, The Best Teachers, The Best Principals, Great Nonprofit Partners Coming In During The Non-school Hours To Support And Do Enrichment Activities, Social Services, Then Those Students Will Beat The Odds, Will Beat Poverty, Will Beat Violence In The Community, Will Beat Sometimes Dysfunctional Families, And Be Productive Citizens Long Term. They Will Go To College.

If The Goal Is To Dramatically Improve College Completion Rates, Not College-going Rates By Itself But College Completion, It's Not Just A College Problem. We Need A Big Focus On Early Childhood Education. Our Early Childhood Education System Is Pretty Good In This Country. Not Enough Students Have Opportunity. And, Very Discouragingly, They Lose Their Advantage Because They Go To Poor Schools After That. So, Let's Focus On Our Babies.

If Children Are Hungry, They Need To Be Fed. It's Hard To Learn If Your Stomach Is Growling. We Need To Take That On. If Students Can't See The Blackboard, Need Eyeglasses, We Need To Do That. If Students Need A Social Worker Or Counselor To Work Through The Challenges They're Facing At Home In The Community, We Need To Do That.