Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who called President Obama a "snob" for promoting higher education, is out of step with both parties on the subject.
“I think there’s an ideological divide between Rick Santorum and all of America on this. I don’t think it’s between the parties,” Biden said in an interview with Radio Iowa. “Look, I’ve been going college campuses and high schools all across America for the past six months talking about what the facts are. Six out of the 10 jobs over the next 10 years are going to require … either a certificate or a degree beyond high school. It’s that simple.”
Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has criticized Obama's push to send more students to college and described college campuses as liberal indoctrination camps. Biden argued that higher degrees keep the middle class strong and America economically competitive.
"Any country that out-educates us is going to out-compete us," Biden said. "It's not about snobbery. It's about allowing people to live a life like their parents lived, in a middle-class environment, decent home, good school, a promise to send their kids to college, and being able to take care of their parents and not have to be taken care of themselves by the time they're their parents' age."
Biden was in Iowa to speak at Iowa State University on the importance of supporting American manufacturing.
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