President Obama spoke at the Chamber of Commerce today, on combating high school drop out rates in the United States.

He began by saying that it was fitting that the speech would take place at the Chamber, because the success of each American is tied, more closely than ever before, to the level of education that they receive.  It has been a recurring theme in the President's addresses on the subject of education and the economy, that to compete in the 21st century, a century that will be all about competing globally, education must be a priority.

The speech was intended to focus on minimizing the drop out rate in American schools, with government, non-profits, businesses, parents, and students as a part of the solution.  Shockingly, the President said that nearly 1 million students don't finish high school each year, or nearly 1 in 3, with over half being African American and Latino. 

He tied drop outs to higher government costs, saying that drop outs lead to more teen pregnancy, crime, lower wages, and higher use of social assistance, all of which leads to hundreds of billions of dollars over a lifetime.  Add this with the fact that there are no more blue collar jobs waiting for people to walk into after dropping out of high school, and that the future economy will be high tech global trade, it means that education must be a top priority for everyone.

President Obama said that we know that 12% of America's schools have 50% of America's drop outs, so the plan is to help states and school districts to turn around their 5000 lowest performing schools over the next 5 years.  The focus will be on schools with graduation rates lower than 60% and will spend at least $900 million dollars on various programs to help raise the rates.  He added that nothing will be off limits when it comes to changes, including replacing the principle and retraining the teachers to a repeat of what happened in Rhode Island last week where the entire staff was fired. 

Watch the President below: