President Obama delivered his third State of the Union speech Tuesday night, pleading for economic fairness and pledging to reinvest in manufacturing and bring offshore jobs back to the United States.

Obama said he wants to turn our “unemployment system into re-employment system that puts people to work.” Part of his plan calls for investment in community colleges, which would work in partnership with business to train workers for jobs.

“Now you need to give community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers — places that teach people skills that local businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing,” he said.

Unfortunately in California, we are doing just the opposite by taking funding from community colleges, as well as four-year colleges, to balance the state budget. The president and Gov. Jerry Brown need to get on the same page on this issue. This newspaper has always urged investments in education, which will be paid back many times with more taxpaying citizens and a stronger economy. College education is no longer a priority in California.

But Obama was very direct on the college tuition issue: “So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. “Higher education can’t be a luxury — it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.”

Obama also pushed for much-needed tax fairness. Debbie Bosanek, secretary to billionaire Warren Buffett, was a White House guest for the speech. “Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30% in taxes,” he said.

Obama also confronted the Republican mantra that insisting that the rich pay more taxes is divisive. “Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.”

By calling for higher taxes on the very wealthy, the president aimed a salvo at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who had finally released his 2010 tax return on Tuesday. It showed he paid taxes at a rate of only 13.9% on income of $21.7 million. Obama and everyone listening in the House chamber understand that there is little chance he will be able to accomplish his goal of overhauling tax law in a year when Republicans see an opportunity to hold onto the House, take control of the U.S. Senate and win the White House.

Obama's hopeful rhetoric on jobs also runs counter to what has become a reality: Many factory jobs, particularly in the electronics industry, will not return.

In California, the 1.24 million manufacturing jobs represent 8% of the total nonfarm jobs. Twenty years ago, there were almost 1.8 million manufacturing jobs in this state, representing 14% of the total nonfarm jobs.

No doubt, changes in tax policy could help boost manufacturing somewhat. But the decline of manufacturing in this country has many causes, including inexpensive labor in developing nations, improved technology and subsidies offered by other governments.

The speech sounded a lot like a campaign kickoff, and that’s fine. This is an election year, and Obama and his opponents are in a battle of ideas. The president had the stage last night, and his GOP opponents will get their chance to respond as the primary season wears on.