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Clinton Presidential Records
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Campaign for Universal Literacy 9/27/96 [I]
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�Terry Edmonds, Speechwriting
Office# 192
BOX8
Campaign for Universal Literacy
POTUS USA Today Interview
Violence Against Women
Welfare Reform Signing
Welfare Reform
Articles Re: WH and Politics
Wilkes - Barre Roundtable
WJC Speech Edits
Women's Legal Defense Funds
Women'sNGO
Young Presidents
African-Americans/HBCUs
POTUS Remarks on Science 96
POTUS Remarks on Science 97
Science & Biotech Engineering
·AIDS
Cloning
Diabetes
Morgan State Drafts
POTUS Remarks on Science 95
Aviation Safety
Baldridge Award Ceremony
Ron Brown
Budget 97
Seattle CEO/Celebration of Lives
Ecumenical
Education - Lighthouse Elementary
Ellis Island
Ethnic Leadership Day
Family Friendly Workplace
Grand Funk Evaluation 1997
Harvard Commencement - NIH Director
Journalism
Kick Butts Day
Michigan
Net Day
Oklahoma
Ole Miss
Pension Security
Martin Slate
�.
-·
Box 8 (cont.)
Radio Addresses/ ABC Radio
Thanksgiving 1997
Women's Economic Leadership Forum
�..----------;-c,. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL LITERACY
BACON MEMORIAL LIBRARY
WYANDOTTE, MICHIGAN
AUGUST 27, 1996
Acknowledgments: Congressman John Dingell; Senator Carl Levin; Superintendent
Patricia Cole; and two students, Justin Whitney and Nicole Rushman who read to the President
from The Little Engine That Could, ending with the refrain, "I thought I could, I thought I
could" --then they introduce the President.
Justin ... Nicole .. .I knew you could. You did a great job and we are all very proud of
you. It is great to be here in Wyandotte [WINE DOT]. This is a "can do" city in a "can do"
state and I am happy to be standing up here with some of the most outstanding leaders and
future leaders in America.
They're having a great time in Chicago right now. I can't wait to get there, and I'm glad
I'm going on this train trip, because I want all Americans to see what is working all across our
country.
Today, we stand on the edge of a new century. A time of great challenge a~d change,
but, especially, a time of remarkable possibility for all our people. My fellow Americans, I am
as confident as I have ever been that the future ahead is bright, brighter than all the days of our
magnificent past. "I think I can, I think I can" -- that is the spirit that will carry us forward.
That is the spirit that will keep America on the right track to the 21st century!
As we take this trip through the heartland, we are seeing Americans in all walks of life,
mastering our challenges with new solutions based on old values. My Administration set out to
give our people the tools to meet our challenges.
In every city and town of our great land Americans are rising up and coming together to
meet the challenges of our times-- and conquer them. We are doing it in a way that honors our
legacy by protecting our values, but looks to the future by embracing new ideas. It is not a
Democratic approach or a Republican approach -- it is a truly American approach.
Every day of this train trip, I want to highlight how Americans are coming together
around our common values: Opportunity for all Americans to build a great future, and
responsibility from all Americans to make the most of it -- the basic bargain of America that
thrives when we come together as a community. Yesterday, we visited Columbus, Ohio where
we talked about people taking responsibility to take back their streets from crime. Tomorrow, I
will be in Kalamazoo to talk about how communities can come together to protect our
environment. Earlier today, I was at the Jeep plant in Toledo, to celebrate expanding opportunity
and to witness the 2 millionth Jeep rolling off the assembly line. I came here to talk with you
1
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------
about another kind of opportunity -- the opportunity of an education and why it is so important
in this new era. I will say more about that in a minute. But first, let me tell you why it is so
important to build a strong economy as the first step to helping us meet all our other challenges.
When I took office, our economy wasn't creating enough opportunity. Unemployment
was nearly eight percent; the deficit was out of control; new jobs were scarce. We put a
comprehensive economic plan in place to get the American economy back on track: cutting the
deficit, shrinking government, expanding exports, and investing in our people.
Look at the results: America is selling more cars than Japan for the first time in a decade.
The combined rate of inflation, unemployment, and mortgages is the lowest in 30 years. We have
cut the deficit by 60 percent. America has created more than 10 million new jobs -- more than
360,000 right here in Michigan. We cut taxes for 15 million working families, including more
than 390,000 in Michigan. And real hourly wages are starting to rise for the first time in a
decade.
We have seen recently just how much we can do when we put aside partisan politics and
use common-sense. Last week, I signed bipartisan legislation to reform health care so families
will never again be denied health insurance because a family member is sick; to end welfare as
we know it; and to give 10 million Americans a raise, by increasing the minimum wage.
Now we must extend this season of progress by balancing the budget and meeting one
of the most important challenges we face -- improving the education of our children.
Education has always been one of the crowning values of America. We are a country
that says to its young people -- if you get a good education and work hard, there is nothing
you can not achieve. And as America takes its place in the new global economy, it is clear
that education is more important than ever before. Education is literally the fault line that
separates those who will prosper from those who cannot in the 21st century. That is why over
the last four years, my Administration has spared no effort to improve the quality of American
education and expand the opportunity for all Americans to get the education they need to
succeed.
We strengthened and expanded Head Start. We helped schools raise standards for basic
and advanced skills. We introduced School-to-Work that prepares young people for careers
and college. We created safe, drug-free and disciplined schools. We are putting the future at
the fingertips of every American student by putting computers, and software and teachers who
know how to use them in every classroom in America -- and hooking every school to the
Internet by the dawn of the new century. We proposed $5 billion to help communities repair
broken down schools and build new ones. Direct loans are making it cheaper and easier for
students to borrow the money they need to go to college.
These efforts are beginning to pay off. National math and science scores are up. SAT
2
�scores are up -- the SAT scores in math are now at a 24-year high. ACT scores have gone up
three times in the last four years. Half of all four-year -olds now attend preschool. And 88
percent of all our young people are completing high school. We are making progress -- but we
must do more.
That is why I have proposed A $10,000 tax deduction for families to help pay for
education after high school. I believe the best tax cut is one that is targeted to education. I
also believe we must make 14 years of education the standard for every American. That is
why I have proposed a $1,500 tax cut for Americans, modeled after Georgia's successful
HOPE scholarships, to guarantee the first year of tuition at a typical community college, and
the second year if individuals earn it by maintaining a B average.
These efforts will make a difference. But, in the next four years, we must do even
more to make sure America has the best public schools on earth. Why? Because this fall
more children will fill our schools than ever before [51.7 million] and we will see record
enrollments for the next 10 years. We must start by setting high standards and high
expectations for teachers and students. America's students can be the best in the world, if we
give them the right standards, the right support and the right environment. This is so
important. All the economic opportunity in the world will not matter unless we have students
who can read and write and think at world-class levels.
The first step our children must make up the ladder of opportunity is to master the
basics. We spent the last decade working hard to improve our national math and science
scores --and those scores are up. But reading scores for young children have stayed flat.
Now we must make reading a national priority. Reading is the most basic of basics. A child
who never learns to read, will grow into an adult who never has a chance. We know that kids
who learn to read well early get the solid foundation they need to graduate from high school.
They are less likely to drop out, and more likely to become productive citizens. Kids who
learn to read well by the third grade will be the ones who will more likely participate in the
high tech world of the 21st century. Let's remember, you can't surf the Internet if you don't
know how to read.
We have to help our children take this essential first step. Our children should be
reading as soon as possible. But, we must make it our national goal that every American child
should be able to read independently by the third grade. Today, 40 percent of our children are
not learning the basics of reading by 3rd grade. Some learn late; some never really learn at
all. And surprisingly, some of these kids are the children of college graduates. We can do
better -- but only if we all work together in a spirit of community that recognizes that every
child is precious and every child deserves a chance to succeed.
That is why today, I am challenging Americans from all walks of life to make sure
that all our children can read independently by the third grade. I am proposing a $2.5
billion national literacy campaign that must involve every sector of our society -3
�-----------------~--
------------------------
-
businesses, religious institutions, colleges and universities, civic organizations, the media,
the nation's 16,000 libraries, and individuals, including our senior citizens. Our goal is to
mobilize volunteer coordinators and reading specialists to work with schools, teachers and
parents. Together, they will recruit and train an army of 1 million volunteer tutors who
will provide up to 100 hours of extra reading help, after school and during the summer,
for the millions of children in grades K-3 who are behind in their reading.
The first step in fulfilling this goal is to encourage every parent in America to help
their own children learn how to read. Parents are the first teachers our children know --so
are grandparents. The moments we spend reading to our children are some of the most
precious moments we will ever know. So, I urge every parent in America to take time to
spend time -- turn off the TV and read to your kids at least 30 minutes a day. And make sure
they get a library card. They will get more out of this gift than anything we will ever give
them.
While parents are their children's primary educators, helping every child become a
successful reader by the end of the third grade is everybody's business. That's why my plan
will support effective grassroots efforts that help parents help their children. I am urging every
community to respond to this challenge. We know that there is no problem in America that
has not been solved somewhere-- including poor reading among our young people.
There are some great success stories out there. During the 1995 school year, 25
AmeriCorps members tutored 128 second graders in reading in Simpson County, Kentucky.
With their help, students made almost 3 years of progress in reading comprehension in one
school year. This is a remarkable achievement -- and we need to help communities all over
the country achieve those same results.
The hard work has to be done at the grassroots level. But communities cannot do this
alone. As they did in Simpson County, the National Service Corps will play a leading role in
helping to recruit and coordinate these tutors. But reading must be everyone's business.
I want to challenge employers to allow their employees to take time off so they can
volunteer as tutors in schools. I challenge television broadcasters to devote some of the three
hours each week they have already pledged to use for children's programming to shows
designed to help young children learn to read. And I challenge technology corporations to
develop and make available to libraries, schools and families, high-quality reading software for
young children.
This is the way America has always met its challenges --people working together in
their communities to protect our values and honor our commitments to each other.
Literacy is not a luxury -- it is basic to expanding opportunity for all our citizens -especially immigrant children who need this essential tool of citizenship. We have got to meet
4
�----------------------
this challenge -- and we have got to do it together.
depends on our success.
The future of our children and our nation
I want you all to think about what kind of future you want for your children, about what
kind of country you want America to be in the 21st century. That's what this election is all
about. Are we going to meet our challenges and protect our values to make the 21st century the
future we want for our children? All across America, people are coming together and saying,
"Yes."
New solutions for new challenges-- guided by values as old as America. We've got more
to do, and we are going to do it. I look to the future and I am filled with confidence. I want this
train trip to show all Americans what you see every day in Wyandotte -- America is on the right
track to the 21st century!
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
5
�Jan. 24 I Administration of William]. Clinton, 1994
Nomination for Assistant Secretaries of the Army and Air Force
JanuanJ 24, 1994
The President announced his intention today
to nominate three assistant secretaries at the
Pentagon: Gilbert F. Decker to be Assistant Secretary of the Am1y. for Research, Development
<md Acquisition: Robert F. Hale tci be Assistant
Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management; <md Sara E. Lister to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserves.
"As I ask William Perry to take over the reins
at the Department of Defense, I am pleased
to be continuing the process of ensuring that
we have a strong team at every level of the
Pentagon," said the President. "I expect Gilbert
Decker, Robert Hale, and Sara Lister to all play
an important role in keeping our anned services
the best in the world."
NOTE: Biographies of the nominees were made
available by the Office of the Press Secrytary.
Nomination for the Federal Maritime Commission
January 24, 1994
The President announced today his intention
to nominate Joe Scroggins. Jr.; to be Commissioner of the Federal ;\·laritime Comm;ssion.
"Joe Scroggins is a talented public servant
with an outstanding knowledge of maritime is-
sues. I thank him for his senice on the Maritime Commission," said the President.
NOTE: A biography of the nominee W<L~ made
available by the Office of the Press Secretary.
Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union
JanuanJ 25, 1994
Th<mk vou verv much. Mr. Speaker, Mr.
President.. Membe~s of the 103d Congress, my
fellow Americans:
I'm not at all sure what speech is in the
TelePrompter tonight-(lrmghtcr]-but I hope
we can talk about the state of the Union.
I ask you to begin by recalling the memory
of the giant who presided over this Chamber
with such force and grace. Tip O'Neill liked
to call himself "a man of the House." And he
surely was that. But even more, he was a m<m
of the people, a bricklayer's son who helped
to build the great American middle class. Tip
O'Neill never forgot who he was, where he
came from. or who sent him here. Tonight he's
smiling do\\11 on us for the first time from the
Lord's gallery. But in his honor, may we, too,
,Jwavs remember who we are, where we come
fron;, and who sent us here. If we do that we
will retum over and over again to the principle
126
that if we simply give ordinary people equal
opportunity, quality education, and a fair shot
at the American dream, thev will do extraordinary things.
.
We gather tonight in a world of changes so
profound and rapid that all nations are tested.
Our American heritage has always been to master such change, to use it to exp<md opportunity
at home and our leadership abroad. But for
too long and in too many ways, that heritage
was abandoned, and our cot~ntry drifted.
For 30 years, family life in America has been
breaking down. For 20 years, the wages of working people have been stagnant or declining. For
the 12 years of trickle-down economics, we built
a false prosperity on a hollow base as our national debt quadmpled. From 1989 to 1992, we
experienced the slowest growth in a half century. For too 1mmy families, even when both
�Administration
parents were working, the· American dream luL~
been slipping away.
In HJU2, the American people demanded that
we change. A year ago I <L~ked all of you to
join me in accepting responsibility for the future
of our country. Well, we did. We replaced drift
and deadl<x.:k with renewal and reform. And I
want to thank everv one of vou here who heard
the American peo1;le, who hroke gritUock, who
gm·e them the most successful teamwork hetween a President and a Congress in 30 years.
This Congress produced a budget that cut
the deficit hy half a trillion dollars, cut spending,
and raised income taxes on onlv the wealthiest
Americans. This Congress proJuced tax relief
f(Jr millions of low-income workers to reward
work over welfare. It produced NAFTA. It produced the Bradv hill, now the Brad,· law. And
thank ~uu, Jim Brady, for being her~. and Cod
bless vou, sir.
Thi.s Congress produced tax cuts to reduce
the t<L\es of U out of 10 small businesses who
use the rnonev to invest r;10re and create more
jobs. It produ'c:ed more research and treatment
for AIDS, more childhood immunizations, more
support for women's he,Jth research. more <Lffordable college loans for the midtUe class, a
ne\\· nation;J • sen ice program for those who
want to give something back to their country
and their <XJmmunities for higher education, a
dramatic incre<L~e in high-tech investments to
move us from a defense to a domestic hightech economy. This Congress produced a new
law, the motor voter hill, to help millions of
people register to vote. It produced family and
medic;J leave. All p<L~sed; all signed into law
with not one single veto.
These accomplishments were all commitments
I made when I sought this office. And in fairness, they all had to be passed by you in this
Congress. But I am persuaded that the re<J
credit belongs to the people who sent us here,
who pay our s;Jaries, who hold our feet to the
fire.
But what we do here is re<illy beginning to
change lives. Let me just give you one example.
I will never forget what the family and med.ic,J
leave law meant to just one father I met early
one Sunday morning in the White House. It
was unusual to see a family there touring early
Sunday morning, but he had his wife and his
three children there, one of them in a wheelchair. I came up, and after we had our picture
taken and had a little visit, I was w<ilking ofT
of William].
Clinton, 199.J I Jrm. 2.5
and that man grabbed me by the arm and he
said, "Mr. President, let me tell you something.
My little girl here is desperate!~· ill. She's probably not going to make it. But because of the
familv lea~·e law, I W<L~ able to take time oil
to spend with her, tlte nwst important time I
ever spent in my life, without losing my job
and hurting the rest of my Lunily. It means
more to me than I will ever he able to sav.
Don't you people up here ever think what y<;u
do doesn't make a difference. It does."
Though we are making a difference, our work
has just begun. Many Americans still haven't
felt the impact of what we've done. The recoven• still hasn't touched even• communitv or creat~d enough jobs. lncorne~ are still :~tagnant.
There's still too much violenc.:e and not enoue;h
hope in t<xl many plac.:es. Abroad, the you;)g
democracies we are strongly supporting still bee
very difflc.:ult times and look to us f(Jr leadership.
And so tonight, let us resolve to continue the
journey of renewal, to create more and better
j<ihs, to gtmrantee health security f(Jr all, to reward work over welfare, to promote democracy
abroad, and to begin to reclaim our streets from
violent crime and dn1gs ami gangs, to renew
our 0\\~1 American <xHnnnmitv.
Last year we began to put' our house in order
by tackling the budget deficit that \\'<L~ driving
us toward bankruptcy. We cut 82.'5.'5 billion in
spending, ini.:lt~diug entitlements, and ovl'r :3-!0
sep<uate budget items. \Ve froze domestic:
spending and used honest budget numbers.
Led hy the Vice President, we launched a
campaign to reinvent Government. \Ve cut staff,
cut perks, even trimmed the fleet of FedenJ
limousines. After ye;us of leaders whose rhetoric
attacked bureaucracy hut whose aetion expanded
it, we will aetmJiy redut:e it by 2.'52,000 people
over the next .5 ye<LrS. By the time we have
finished, the FedenJ bureaucracy will he at its
lowest point in .'30 ye<LrS.
Bec.:ause the deficit W<L~ so lare;e and because
they benefited from tax euts in Lthe 1U80's, we
did <L~k the wealthiest Americans to pay more
to reduce the deficit. So on April 1.'5th, the
American people will iliscover the truth about
what we did h~t ye<Lr on taxes. Only the top
l-[applause]-yes, listen, the top 1.2 percent
of Americans, <L~ I said ,J] <ilong, will pay higher
income tax rates. Let me repeat: Only the
wealthiest 1.2 per<:ent of Americans will face
higher inGOme tax rates, and no one else will.
And that is the truth.
�Jan. 25 I Administration
of William f.
Clinton, 1994
Of course, there were, as there always are
in politics, naysayers who said this plan wouldn't
work. But they were wrong. \Vhen I became
President, the experts predicted that next year's
deficit would he $.300 billion. But because we
acted, those same people now say the deficit
is going to he under $11)0 billion, 40 percent
lower than was previously predicted.
Our economic program h<L~ helped to produce
the lowest mre inflation rate and the lowest
interest rates in 20 vears. And because those
interest rates are Jow;1, business investment and
equipment is growing at 7 times the rate of
the pre\1ous 4 years. Auto sales <Lre way up.
Home sales are at a record high. Millions of
Americans have refinanced their homes. And
our economy has produced l.n million private
sector jobs in Hl9.3, more than were created
in the previous 4 years combined.
The people who supp01ted this e<.xmomi<.; plan
should he proud of its early results, proud. But
evervone in this Chamber should know and acknm~·ledge that there is more to do.
Next month I will send you one of the toughest budgets ever presented .to Congress. It will
cut spending in more than :300 prot,rrams, eliminate 100 domestic programs, and refcmn the
ways in which governments buy goods and services. This vear we must again make the hard
choices t5> live within the h;LrJ spending ceilings
we have· set. \Ve must do it. \Ve have proved
we can bring the deficit down without choking
off recovery. without punishing seniors or the
middle ch~s. and without putting our national
security at risk. If ~·on will stick with this plan,
we will post :3 consecutive years of declining
deficits fc>r the first time since Harrv Tmman
li\·ed in the \Vhite House. And once 'again, the
huck stops here.
Our economic plan also holsters our stren1-,rth
and our credihilitv around the world. Once we
reduced the defi~it and put the steel hack into
our competitive edge. the world echoed with
the sound of falling trade harriers. In one ye<Lr,
with NAFTA, with GATT, with our effc>rts in
Asia ami the national export strateh'Y· we did
more to open world markets to American products than at anv time in the h~t two generations.
That means mi>re jobs ami rising livit;g standards
f(>r the American people. low deficits, low inflation, low iuterest rates, low trade lxLrriers, and
high investments. These are the building blocks
of our re<.x>verv. But if we want to take full
12S
advantage of the opportunities before us in the
global economy, you all know we must Jo more.
As we reduce defense spending, I ask Congress to invest more in the technologies of tomorrow. Defense conversion will keep us strong
milit<Lrily and create jobs for our people here
at home. As we protect our em-ironment, we
must invest in the em'ironmental technologies
of the future which will create jobs. This ye<Lr
we will fight for a re\'italized Clean \Vater Act
and a Safe Drinking \Vater Act and a ref(mned
Superfund program. And the Vice President is
right, we must also work with the private sector
to <.xmnect everv classroom everv clinic everv
lilmLfY, every h<;~pital in An;erica into a ,;ation;J
information superhighway by the year 2000.
Think of it: Instant access to inf(mnation will
incre<L~e productivity, will help to educate our
children. It will provide better medical care. I(
will create jobs. And I call on the Congress
to pass legishition to establish that information
superhighway this ye<Lr.
As we expand opportunity and create jobs.
no one can he left out. \Ve must continue to
enf(>rce fair lending and fair housing and all
civil rights laws, because America will never he
comple-te in its rene'..,.a] until ever;•one shares
in its hountv.
But we ·all know, too, we can do ,J] these
things-put our economic house in order, expand world trade, t<Lrget the jobs of the future,
guarantee equ<J opportunity-hut if we're honest we'll ;Jl admit that this strateh'Y still cannot
work unless we ;Jso give our people the education, training, and skills thev need to seize
the opportunities of tomorrow. ·
\Ve must set tough, world-class academic and
occupatiomJ standards f(>r ,J} our children and
give our teachers and students the tools tlwv
need to meet them. Our C<ds 2000 propos<J
will empower individu;J sciHx>l districts to experiment with ide<L~ like chartering their sch<x>ls
to he nm by private corporations or hm'ing more
public school choice, to do whatever they wish
to do as long as we measure everv sch<x>l hv
one high st<~;1dard: Are our child;en learning
what they need to know to wmpete and win
in the glolxJ economy? GmJs 2tHX) links worldchL~S standards to gr<L~sroots ref(mns. Ami I hope
Congress will pass it without delay.
Our school-to-work initiative will f(>r the first
time link sclHx>l to the world of work. providing
at le;L~t one ye<Lf of apprenticeship beyond high
school. After ;Jl. most of the people we're
�Ad111irlistmtio11 of \Villi11111]. Cli11tmr. 199-/ I ]a11. 25
countin~
on to build our e<.xmomic future won't
gradnat~· from college. It's time to stop ignoring
thelll and start empowering them.
\Ve must liter;u)y transform our outdated unemplovment syster~l into a new reemployment
system. The old unemployment system just sort
of kept you going while you waited for your
old job to eorue hack. \Ve've got to have a
new system to move people into new and better
jobs. because most of those old jobs just don't
<.:<Hilt' hack. And we know that the onlv wav
to have real job security in the future, to ge"t
a good job with a growing income, is to have
real skills and the ahilitv to learn new ones.
So \\·e\·e got. to stream fine tmlay's patchwork
of training programs and make them a source
of new skills f(>r our people who lose their jobs.
Heemployrnent, not unemployment, must hecome the centerpiece of our economic renew;J.
I urge ;'Ou to pass it in this session of Congress.
And just as we must transf(>rrll our unemployment svstem, so must we ;Jso revolutionize our
welhtre. wstem. It doesn't work. It defies our
values as' a nation. If we v;Jue work, we can't
justif~· a system that makes welfare more attractive than work if people are worried about losing
their he,Jth <.:are. If we v;Jue responsibility, we
card ignore the $.'34 billion in child support absent pare:1ts ought to he paying to millions of
parents who are taking <.:are of their children.
If we v;Jue strong f~unilies, we can't perpetuate
a systt~m that actmuly pemuizes those who stay
together. Can you believe that a child who has
a ~hilt! ~ets m;>re monev from the Government
f(>r lem·'ing home than · f(>r staying home with
a parent or a grandparent? That's not just bad
policy, it's wrong. And we ought to change it.
I worked on this problem for years before
I became President, with other Governors and
with Members of Congress of both parties and
with the previous administration of another
party. I \\•orked on it with people who were
on welf~tre, lots of them. And I want to say
something to everybody here who cares about
this issue. The people who most want to change
this system are the people who are dependent
on it. They want to get off welfare. They want
to go back to work. They want to do right hy
their kids.
I once had a hearing when I W<L~ a Governor,
and I brought in people on welf<Lre from ,J)
over America who had found their wav to work.
T.he woman from my State who te;tified wa.~
<L~ked this question: What's the best thing about
being off welbre and in a job? And without
blinking an eye, she looked at 40 Governors.
and she said, "\\'h<.:n rnv hoy goes to school
and th<.:v sav, '\\'hat does vour mother do f(>r
a living'/ he' can give an an:~wer." These people
want a better systl'rn, and we ought to give
it to them.
LL~t vear we bl'gan this. \Ve ~ave the States
more p;>wer to inr;ovate heeaus~ we know tktt
a lot of great ideas come from outside \\'ashington, and manv States are alreadv usin~ it. Then
this Congress' took a dramatic ~tep. instead of
t<LXing people with 1nmlest incomes into poverty,
we helped them to work their way out of povertv bv dramaticallv incn·<L~ing the earned-in<.:01~1<.: tax credit. It 'will lift J.S million working
families out of povertv, rewarding work over
welfare, making it possihle f<>r peor;le to he successful workers and successful parents. Now
that's re;J welfare rd(mn.
But there is more to he done. This spring
I will send you a comprehensive welfare ref(mn
bill that builds on the Family Support Act of
HJHH and restores the basic V<Uues of work and
responsibility. We'll say to teenagers, "If you
have a child out of wedlock, we will no longer
give you a check to set up a separate household.
\Ve want families to stav to~ether"; sav to absent
parents who a.ier;'t pa)•ing' their chiid support,
"If you're not _providing for your children. we'll
garnish your wages, suspend your license, track
vou across State lines, and if necessarY, make
~orne of you \vork off what you owe.,; People
who bring children into this world cannot and
must not w;Jk awav from them. But to ,J) those
who depend on \~elf~tre, we should offer ultimately a simple compact. We'll provide the support, the job training, the child care you need
for up to 2 vears. But after that, anvone who
can work, m~st, in the private sector' wherever
possible, in community service if necessary.
That's the only way we'll ever make welf.tre
what it ought to he, a second chance, not a
wav of life.
i k'l1ow it will he difllcult to tackle welfare
reform in 1!:194 at the same time we tackle
he;Jth . care. But let me point out, I think it
is inevitable and imperative. It is estimated that
one million people <tre on welfare today because
it's the only way they can get he;uth C:<tre coverage for their children. Those who choose to
leave welfare for jobs without he,Jth hene!lts,
and many entry-level jobs don't have health benefits, find themselves in the incredible position
129
�Jan. 25 I Administration
<if William]. Clinton, 1994
you believe there's no crisis, you tell it to those
of paying t<Lxes that help to pay for health care
coverage for those who made the other choice, people, because I can't.
There are some people who literally do not
to stay on welfare. No wonder people leave work
understand the impact of this problem on peoand go back to welfare to get health C<LTe covple's lives. And ,J! you have to do is go out
erage. We've got to solve the he;Jth care proband listen to them. Just go t;Jk to them anylem to have re<J welfare refonn.
where in anv c:ongressiomJ district in this counSo this year, we will make history by refonntry. They're' Hepublicans ami Democrats and
ing the he;Jth C<LTe system. And I would say
independents; it doesn't have a lick to do with
to you, all of you, my fellow public servants,
party. They think we don't get it. Ami it's time
this is another issue where the people· <LTe way
we show them that we do get it.
,J1ead of the politicians. That may not be popuFrom the dav we began, our he;Jth cme inilar with either party, but it happens to be the
tiative has hee'n desig~1ed to strent,rthen what
tmth.
is good about our he;Jth care system: the world's
You know, the First Ladv h<L~ received now
best he<Jth care profession;Js, cutting-edge realmost a million letters fro;n people ,JJ a~ross
se;rrch and wonderful rese<LTch institutions, MedAmerica and from ,JJ walks of life. I'd like to
ic;LTe ti>r older Americans. None of this, none
skrre just one of them with you. Hich;ml Anderof
it should be put at risk.
son of Heno, Nevada, lost his job and with it,
But we're paying more and more money for
his health insurance. Two weeks later his wife,
less and less care. Everv vear fewer ami fewer
Judv, suffered a cerehr;J aneurvsm. He rushed
Americans even get t<; ~hoose their t!octors.
her' to the hospit;J. where she st:tyed in intensive
Everv vear doctors and nurses speml more time
care !(>r 2.1 davs. The Amlersons' bills were over
on paperwork and less time with patients heSl:?.O,OOO. Altl~ough Judy recovered and Hichard
cause of the absolute bureaucratic nh.!;htmare the
went hack to work at $H an hour, the bills were
present system h<L~ become. This sy'stem is ridtoo much l(>r them, ami thev were liter;Jlv
dled with inefllciencv, with abuse, with fraud,
forced into bankruptcy. "Mrs. _Clinton," he wrot~
ai1d evervbodv know~ it. In tmlav's he<Jth care
to Hillarv, "no one in the United States of
svstem, i;1sur<;nce companies c;Jl the shots. Thev
America 'should have to lose everythi1;g they've
pick whom they l~>ver and how they cover then~.
worked ti>r all their lives because thev were
Thev can cut off vour benefits when \'OU need
unl(Hiunate enough to become ill." It 'w•L~ to
you; c~werage th~ most. They are i;I charge.
help the Hichanl and Judy Andersons of Amer\Vhat does it mean? It means e\-ery night
ica that the First Ladv and so manv others have
millions of well-insured Americans go to bed
worked so hard and ~o long on this health care
just an illness, an accident, or a pink slip away
rd(mn issue. \ Ve owe them our thanks and our
from having no l~Jverage or financial ruin. It
action.
means every moming millions of Americans go
I know there are people here who say there's
to work without anv he;Jth insurance at ;Jl.
no he;Jth care crisis. Tell it to Hichard and something the work~rs in no other advanced
Jud>• Anderson. Tell it to the 5H million Anieri- cmmtrv ii1 the world do. It m~ans that everv
cans who have no cm·erage at ;Jl li>r some time
year 1;1ore and more hard-working people ar~
each vear. Tell it to the H l million Americans
told to pick a new doctor because their boss
with 'those preexisting conditions. Those li>lks
has had to pick a new plan. And countless others
are pa>•ing more. or they can't get insurance
turn down better jobs because they know if they
at alL or they can't ever change their jobs hetake the better job. they will lose their he;Jth
cause thev or someone in their familv h<L~ one
insurance. If we just let the health care system
of those 'preexisting conditions. Tell' it to the
continue to drift, om cmmtry will ha,·e people
s1mJI businesses hmdened by the skyrocketing
''ith less care, fewer choices, ami higher hills.
cost of insurance. \·lost small businesses c~JVer
Now, our approach protects the ~p.ality of
their emplo>•ees, and they pay on average 3.'5 care ami people's ·choices. It builds on what
percent more in premiums than big businesses
works todav in the private sector. to expand
or Co\·ernment. Or tell it to the 7fi percent
employer-based c~werage. to guarantee private
of insmed :\mcricans, three out of l(mr, whose
insurance l(>r everv American. And I might sav.
polides have lifetime limits. and that means they
employer-lHL~ed private insurance li>; eve;;.
can find themseh-es without any c~JVerage at ,Jl
American W<L~ proposed 2.0 years ago by Presi:
just when they need it the most. So if any of
\:30
�Administration of William]. 'Cii11toll, 1994 I Jan. 25
dent Hichard Ni:l:c'm to the United States Congress. It was a gcxH.! idea then, ami it's a better
idea todav.
\Vhv tfo we want guaranteed private insurance? Because right now !:l out of 10 people
who have insurance get it through their employers. And that should cxmtinue. And if vour employer is providing g<x>d benefits at r~asonable
prices, that should continue, too. That ought
to make the Congress and the President feel
better.
Our goal is health insurance evervhodv can
depend' on: comprehensive benefits that 'cover
preventive care and prescription dmgs; health
premiums that don't just explode when you get
sick or you get older; the power, no matter
how small your business is, to choose dependable insurance at the same cmnpetitive rates
governments and big business get today; one
simple fimn for people who are sick; and most
of ,Jl, the freedom to choose a plan and the
right to choose your own doctor.
Our approach protects older Americans. Every
plan bdi>re the Congress proposes to slow the
growth of Medicare. The difTerence is this: We
believe those savings should he used to improve
health care fi>r senior citizens. Medicare must
he protected, and it should cover prescription
drugs, and we should take the first steps in
covering long-term care. To those who would
cut l'vledicare without protecting seniors, I say
the solution to today's squeeze on middle ch~s
working people's he;uth care is not to put the
squeeze on middle ch~s retired people's health
care. \Ve can do better than that.
When it's ,Jl said ami done, it's pretty simple
to me. Insurance ought to mean what it used
to mean: You. pay a fair price for security, and
when you get sick, he;uth care's always there,
no matter what.
Along with the guarantee of health security,
we ;ul have to admit, too, there must he more
responsibility on the part of <Ul of us in how
we use this system. People have to take their
kids to get immunized. We should ;ul take advantage of preventive care. \Ve must all work
together to stop the violence that explodes our
emergency rooms. \Ve have to praqice better
health habits, and we can't abuse the system.
And those who don't have insurance under our
approach will get coverage, hut they'll have to
pay something for it, too. The minority of businesses that provide no insurance at all, and in
so doing shift the <.X)St of the care of their em-
ployees to others, should cxmtribute something.
People who smoke should pay more for a pack
of cigarettes. Ever;hody can wntribute scJJnething if we want to solve the he;uth care crisis.
There can't he any more something fi>r nothing.
It will not he easv hut it can he done.
Now, in the cx;ming months I hope very much
to work with both Democrats and lkpuhlicans
to reform a he;uth care svstem bv usina the
market to bring down cost~· ;tml to :tchi.e\·~.., lasting health security. But if vou i<x>k at history
we ·see that for 60 vears this countrv kts tried
to reform he;uth car~. President Hoo~evelt tried.
President Truman tried. President Nixon tried.
President Carter tried. Every time the speci<U
interests were powerful enough to defeat them.
But not this time.
I know that faeing up to these interests will
require courage. It will raist' critical c1uestions
about the way we finance our campaigns and
how lohhvists vield their inf1uence. The work
of change: frankly, will never get any easier until.
we limit the inf1uence of' well-financed interests
who profit from this current system. So I also
must now c;ul on you to finish the job both
Houses began last year by passing tough and
meaningfi1l campaign finance refimn and lobby
reform legislation this year.
You know, mv fellow Americans, this is reallv
a test for ;ul of {Is. The American people pnl\'id~
those of us. ·in· Government service with terri fie
he;uth eare heneflts·at reasonable costs. \Ve have
health eare· that's <Uwavs there. I think we need
to give every hard-woAing, bLx-paying American
the same he;uth eare security they have already
given to us.
I want to make this very elear. I am open,
<L~ I have said repeatedly, to the best ide<L~ of
concerned Members of both parties. I have no
speci<u brief for any specific approach, even in
our own hill, except this: If ~·ou send me legislation that does not guarantee every American
private he;uth insurance that can never he takei1
awav, vou will force me to take this pen, veto
the 'legislation, and we'll come right back here
and start all over again.
But I don't think that's going to happen. I
think we're readv to aet now. I believe that
vou're readv to ;tet now. And if' vou're readv
to guarante~ every American the 'same health
care that vou have, health care that can never
be taken ~way, now-not next year or the year
after-now is the time to stand \\~th the people
who sent us here, now.
1.'31
�Jan. 25 I Administration
of ·\Villiam].
Clinton, 1994
As we take these steps together to renew our
strength at home, we cannot tum away from
our obligation to renew our leadership abroad.
This is a promising moment. Because of the
agreements we have reached this year, ht~t year,
Russia's strategic nuclear missiles soon will no
longer he pointed at the United States, nor will
we point ours at them. Instead of building weapons in space, Russian scientists will help us to
build the intemation;J space station.
Of eourse, there are still dangers in the world:
rampant <mns proliferation. hitter regiomJ conflicts, ethnic and nationalist tensions in manv
new demoeracies, severe em·ironmental degrad,;tion the world over, and fanatics who seek to
cripple the world's cities with terror. As the
world's greatest power, we must, thereli>re,
maititain our defenses and our responsibilities.
This year. we secured indictments· against terrorists and sanctions against those _who harbor
them. \\'e worked to promote environmentally
sustainable economic growth. \Ve achieved
agreements with Ukrait~·e, with Belarus, with
Kazahkstan to eliminate completely their nuclear
arsenal. \\'e are working to achieve a Korean
Peninsula free of nuclear weapons. \Ve will seek
earlv ratification of a treatv to han chemical
wea~pons worldwide. And 'earlier today, we
joined with over :30 nations to begin negotiations
011 a comprehensive han to stop ,Jl nuclear testing.
'But nothing, nothing is more important to
our secnritv than onr Nation's Armed Forces.
\\'e honor. their contributions. including those
who are carrving out the longest humanitarian
air lift in historv in Bosnia, those who will complete their mission in Somalia this year and their
brave eomrades who 12;ave their lives there. Our
li.>rees are the finest" militarv our Nation h<L~
ever had. :\nd I have pledg~d that as long <L~
l am President, thev will remain the best
equipped. the best tr;tined, and the best prepared fighting li>ree on the bee of the Earth.
Last ;·car l proposed a ddense plan that
maintains our post-eold-war seeurity at a lower
cost. This vear manv people urged me to cut
om defense spending further to pay fi>r other
C:o,·•·rnnH·nt programs. I said no. The budget
I send to Congress draws the line against further
deli: me ents. l t protects the readiness and qu;Jitv of om lim.:es. Ultimately, the best strateh'Y
is to do that. \\'e must not ent delimse further.
l hope th<~ Congn~ss. without regard to party,
will support that position.
Ultimatelv, the best strate1:,rv to ensure our
security anJ to build a durable' peace is to support the advance of democracy elsewhere. Democracies don't attack each other. Thev make
better trading pmtners and partners it{ diplomacy. That is why we have supported, you and
I, the democratic reformers in Russia and in
the other states of the fimner Soviet bloc. I
applaud the hipmtisan support this Congress
provided last year for our initiatives to help Rus- ·
sia, Ukraine, and the other states through their
epic transf(mnations.
Our support of reform must combine patience
fix the enonnitv of the task and vigilance fi>r
our fundament;J interest ami value~ \Ve will
c~miinue to urge Russia and the other states
to press ahead with economic reforms. And we
will seek to c<x>perate with Russia to solve regional problems, while insisting that if Russian
troops operate !n neighboring states, thev do
so onlv when those state' agree to their presence ~md in strict acc~>rd 'with international
standards.
But we must ;Jso remember as these nations
chart their own futures-and thev must chart
their own futures-hm~ mnch mo;e secme and
more prosperous our own, people will he if
democratic and market refimns snceeed all
across the f(mner Communist bloc. Our policv
has been to support that move, and that has
been the policy of the Congress. \Ve should
c~mtinue it.
That is why l went to Europe earlier this
month, to work with our European partners.
to help to integrate all the fimner Comn1unist
countries into a Europe that has a possibilitY
of hemming unified f(>r the first time in its
entire historv, its entire historv, based on the
simple com1;1itments of all n;;tions in Europe
to democracy, to free markets, and to respect
f(>r existing borders.
\Vith our ;Jlies we ha\·e created a P<utnership
For Peace that imites states from the fimner
Soviet bloc and other non-NATO 111emhers to
work with NATO in militarv cooperation. \Vhen
I met with Centr~J Europe's leaders, including
Lech \Valesa and Vadav Havel, men who put
their lives on the line for freedom, I told them
that the securitv of their region is important
to our countrv's seeuritv.
This year ~ve must ~,Jso do more to support
democratic renew;J and human rights and sustainable development ,Jl around the world. \Ve
will ask Congress to ratify the new GATT ac-
�Arllllinislmlion of \Vi/limn]. Clinton, 199·1 I }(Jil. 25
cord. \\'e will continue standing hy South Africa
as it \\'orks its way through its hold and hopeful
and difficult transition to democracv. We will
convene a Slii.Jlmit of the \\'estern H~misphere's
democratic leaders from Canada to the tip of
South America. And we will c~mtinue to press
f(>r the restoration of trne democracv in Haiti.
And as we build a more c~mstn1ctive ~elationship
with China, we must continue to insist on dear
signs of improvement in that nation's human
riuhts record
'\ \";. will ,~]so work f(>r new progress toward
the !\Iiddle E<L~t peace. LL~t year the \\'orld
\\'atched Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat at the
\\'hite House when thev had their historic handshake of recondliation. 'But there is a long. hard
road ahead. And on that road I am dete~mined
that I and our administration will do all we
can to achieve. a comprehensive and h~ting
peace for all the peoples of the region.
1\o\\', there <Lre si>me in our L~Hmtry who
ar[!ue that with the cold war, America 'should
tu~·n its hack on the rest of the \\'orld. Manv
around the world were afraid we \\'ould do ju;t
that. But I took this office· on a pletlge that
had no partisan tinge, to keep our Nation secure
by rt'maining engaged in the rest of the world.
And this ye<Lr, because of our work together,
enacting NAI:'T A, keeping our military "strong
and prep<rred. supporting democrac~· <1hroatl, we
han· reaffirmed America's Ieatlership, America's
en[!a[!ement. Ami as a result, the American penpi~ .~·e more secure than they were before.
But while Americans are more secure from
threats abroatl, I think we ,J] kno\\' that in many
wan we are less secure from threats here at
ho;ne. Every day the natiomJ peac.:e is shattered
b,· crime. In Pet,Juma, C<uifornia, an innocent
siumber party gives way to agonizing tragedy
f(>r the familv of Pollv Kla<L~. An ordimm• train
ride on l..ong !slant! e'ntls in a hail of 9-n{illimeter rounds. A tourist in Floritla is ne<rrlv hurnetl
alive hy bigots simply because he is bh1~k. Hight
here in our Nation's Capital, a brave young man
named }<L~on \Vhite, a policeman. the son and
grandson of policemen, is rnthlessly gunned
dmm. Violent crime antl the fe<Lr it provokes
<Lre crippling our society, limiting persomJ freedom, and fraying the ties that bind us.
The crime hill before Congress gives you a
· chance to do something about it, a c.:hance to
he tough and smart. What ooes that meap? Let
me begin by saying I C<Lre a lot about this issue.
Manv ye<Lrs ago, when I started out in public
life, I \\'iL~ the attorll(~y gener<U of my State.
I served <l~ ;I Governor f(>r a dozen ve<LrS. I
knm~· what it's like to sign laws increasi.ng pen<Uties, to build more prison cells, to carry out
the death penalty. I understand this issue. And
it is not a simple thing.
First, we must reco[!nize that most violent
crimes <Lre committed l;y a small percentage of
criminals who too often break the laws even
when they <Lre on parole. Now those who commit crimes should he punished. And thost~ who
commit repeated violent crimes should ht: told,
"\Vhen vou commit a third violent crime, \'otl
will he put awav, and put awav fill· ~om!; tliree
strikes and vou ;1re out...
'
'
Second, ;ve must take serious steps to reduce
violence antl prevent crime heginninu with
more police officers ami ntore' cont,muni~~ policing. \\'e know right now that police who work
the streets, know the f<>Iks, have the respect
of the neighborh()()d kids. li>cus 011 high crime
m·eas, we know that thev are more likelv to
prevent crime as well as ·catch criminals. Look
at the experience of Houston, when: the crime
rate tlroppetl 17 percent in one year when that
approach W<L~ taken.
Here tonight is one of those cmnmunity policemen, a brave, young detective. Kevin Jett,
whose heat is eight square blocks in one of
the toughest neighborhoods in New York. Every
day he restores some sanitv and safetv and a
sense of V<Uues and connec'tions to th;. people
whose lives he protects. I'd like to ask him to
stand up antl he recognized tonight. Thank you,
sir. [Applause) _
You will
given a chance to give the children of thi~ muntr:•. the law-abiding working
people of this countr:•-and don't li>rget, in the
toughest neighborhoods in this countf)', in the
highest crime neighborhoods in this countr:•, the
vast majority of people get up e\'ef)' day and
ohev the law, pav their t<txes, do their best to
nus~ their kids. They deserve people like Kevin
Jett. Antl you're going to he given a chance
to give the American people another 100,000
of them, well trained. And I urge you to do
it.
You have belc>re you c.:rime legislation which
<Uso establishes a police corps to encuurage
young people to get an education and pay it
off hy serving as police officers; which encourages retiring milit<rry personnel to move into
police forces, an inord.inate resource for our
country; one which has a safe schools prmision
be
133
�Jan. 25 I Administration
of William].
Clinton, 1994
which will give our young people the chance will help to rebuild distressed communities, to
to walk to school in safe tv and to he in school strengthen families, to pro\ide work. But more
needs to he done. That's what our communitv
in safety instead of dodging bullets. These are
empowerment agenda is all about, challenging
important things.
The third thing we have to do is to build businesses to provide more investment through
on the Brady hill, the Brady law, to take further empowerment zones, ensuring banks will make
loans in the same communities their deposits
steps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
I want to say something about this issue. Hun- come from, p<t\sing legislation to unleash the
ters must always he free to hunt. Law-abiding power of capit;J through wmmunity development hanks to create jobs, opportunity, and
adults should always· he free to own t,runs and
protect their homes. I respect that part of our hope where they're needed most.
I think vou know that to reallv solve this
culture; I grew up in it. But I want to <t\k
the sportsmen ami others who lawfully own guns problem, \~e'll ,Jl have to put o~r heads toto join us in this campaign to reduce t,run vio- gether, leave our ideologicJ <trmor aside, and
find some new ideas to do even more. And
lence. I sav to vou. I know vou didn't create
this prohle;n, h~t we need y(mr help to solve let's he honest; we all know something else too:
it. There is no sporting purpose on E<trth that Our problems go wav hevoml the reach of Government. The~'re n;oted in the loss of v;Jues.
should stop the United States Congress from
banishing assault weapons that out-gun police in the disapp~arance of work, and the break. down of our families and our communities.
and cut down children.
Mv fellow Americans, we can cut the deficit,
Fourth, we must remember that. dmgs are
a bctor in an enormous percent<~ge· of crimes. create jobs, promote democracy around the
Hecent studies indicate, sadlv, that dmg use is world, p<t~s welf;tre refimn and he;Jth care, pass
on the rise again among our'young people. The the toughest crime hill in history, hut still lem·e
crime hill contains-all the crime hills contain- t(X> ·many of our people behind. The American
people have got to want to change from within
more monev fi>r dmg treatment for criminal addicts and h(x>t camp~ for youthful offenders that if we're going to bring hack work and Eunil;·
include incentives to get off drugs and to stay and communitv. \Ve cannot renew our countr\'
off dmgs. Our administration's budget, with all when within .~ decade more than ldf of the
its cuts. contains a large increase in funding children will he hom into f;unilies where there
has been no nutrriage. \Ve cannot renew this
fi>r drug . treatment and drug education. You
must p<t\s them both. \Ve need them des- country when 1.'3-ye<tr-old boys get semiautomatic weapons to shoot Y-;·ear-olds fc:>r kicks.
perately.
My fellow Americans, the problem of violence \Ve can't renew our countrv when children <tre
is an American problem. It has no partisan or having children and the f;~thers w;Jk away as
philosophical element. Therefore, I urge you to if the kids don't amount to anvthing. We can't
find ways as quickly as possible to set <t\ide renew the country when our h~1sine~ses eagerly
partisan differences and pass a strong, smart, look f(>r new investments ami new customers
tough crime hill. But further, I urge you to ahroad hut it,'11ore those people right here at
home who would give anything to have their
<..~msider this: As you demand tougher penalties
li>r those who c!Hx>se violence, let us also re- jobs and would gladly buy their products if they
member how we came to this sad point. In had the money to do it. \Ve can't renew our
our toughest neighhorlux>ds, on our meanest countrv unless more of us-I mean, all of usstreets, in our poorest rural areas, we have seen <tre willing to join the churches and the other
a stunning and simultaneous breakdown of com- good citizens, people like ;J] the-like ministers
I've worked with over the ye;u·s or the priests
munitv, f;unilv, and work, the he<trt and soul
of ci\·ilizcd so~:ietv. This has created a V<L\t vacu- and the nuns I met at Our Lady of Help in
tun which h.t\ he'en filled by violence and dmgs e;t\t Los Angeles or my g<x>d friend Ton;·
and gangs. So I ask vou to rem em her that even Campollo in Philadelphia, unless we're willing
as we sav no to crime, we must give people, to work with people like that, people who are
especial!): our young people, something to say saving kids, adopting schools, making streets
safer. All of us can Jo that. \Ve can't renew
ves to.
· l\·lany of our initiatives. from job training to our (.~mntrv until we re;Jize that govemments
welfare rdimn to health c;tre to nation;J service, don't raise ~hildren. p<trents do.
134
�Administration
Parents who know their chiklren 's teachers
and tum ofT the television and help with the
homework and teach their kids right from
wrong. those kinds of parents can make all the
difference. I know; I had one. I'm telling you,
we have got to stop pointing our fingers at· these
kids who have no future and reach our hands
out to them. Our eountrv needs it, we need
it. and they deserve it.
'
So I sav to vou tonight, let's give our children
a future. 'Let 'us take 'away their guns and give
them hooks. Let us overcome their despair and
replac(~ it with hope. Let us, by our example,
teach them to obey the law, respect our neighbors. and eherish our values. Let us weave these
stunlv threads into a new American comniunitv
that ·can once more stand stro;1g against th~
fi>rces of despair and evil because everybody
has a chance to walk into a better tomorrow.
Oh, there will he navsavers who fear that we
won't he equal to the' d1allenges of this time.
But they misread our history, our heritage. Even
. today's headlines, all those things tell us we can
and we will overcome anv challenge.
When the earth shook- and fire~ raged in California, when I saw the Mississippi 'deluge the
4
Willia111
.f.
Clinton, 1994 I Jan. 2fi
farmlands of the Midwest in a .)00-vear flood,
when the century's bitterest cold s~vept from
North Dakota to N('wport News, it seemed as
though the world itself was cOining apart at the
seams. But the American people, they just came
together. They rose to the occ<L,ion, neighbor
helping neighbor, strangers risking life and limb
to save total strangers. showing the better angels
of our nature.
·
Let us not reseiYl' the better angels onh- f(>r
natural disasters, lea,·ing our deepest and most
prof(nrnd problems to petty political fighting.
Let us instead he tnw to om spirit, being Lets,
coming together, bringing hope, and rnm·ing forward.
Tonight, rnv fellow Americans, \H' are smnmoned 'to an;wer a question as old as the Hepublic itself: What is the state of our Union')
It is growing stronger, hut it must he stronger
still. With your help and God's help. it will
he.
Thank you, and God bless .-\meriea .
NiJTE: The President spoke at 8:1.'5 p.m. in the
House Chamber of the Capitol.
Nomination for Commandant ofthe United States Coast Guard
January 25, 1994
The President announced his intention today
to nominate Rear Admiral Robert E. Kramek,
USCG, to he the 20th Commandant of the U.S.
Coast Guard~ Department of Transportation.
"Admiral Kramek has served his country
proudly f(>r .'3.'3 years and has distin~:,'l.rished himself through his perf(mnance in a number of
challenging <L,signments," said the President.
"He has consistently demonstrated the strong
leadership ahility th(' Coast Guard needs to remain the vital service that it al\\'avs h<L~ been.
I am confident that he will perfor.m up to the
high standards set hy his predecessor, Admiral
Bill Kirne."
NoTE: A biography of the nominee \\'<L' made
available hy the Office of the Press Secretary.
Message to the Congress Transmitting a Report on Bulgaria
January 26, 1994
111 the Congress of the United States:
On June .3, 199.'3, I detem1ined and reported
to the Congress that Bulgaria is in full compliance with the freedom of emigration criteria
of sections 402 and 409 of the Trade Act of
1974. This detennination allowed for the continuation of most-favored nation (MFN) status
and certain U.S. Govemment financi<J programs
1.'3.5
�~UG-08
96 16:37
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Office of the Press Secretary
(San Jose, California)
For Immediate Release
August 7, 1996
REMARKS B'i THE PRESIDENT
TO THE COMMUNITY OF SAN JOSE
John Muir Middle School
San Jose, California
5:40 P.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you so much. First of all,
think we ought to give David Auberle another hand. I thought he
did very well, didn't you? (Applause.) When he said he gave his
8th grade graduation speech just a few feet from here, and the only
difference was I wasn't there then, I thought to myself, if I'd
kno~n
you were this good a speaker I might have been there.
(Laughter.)
I
I want to thank Glen Toney for being here today and for his
work for Joint Venture Silicon Valley. It's good to see you again,
Glen. Larry Kubo, thank you for what you said, for your work, as
a parent and as a business leader.
Carol Summers, thank you for
your remarks today and for devoting your life to teaching.
I'm delighted to be here with so many of my friends from
Silicon Valley and throughout California.
I thank Lt. Governor
Gray Davis and Congress~oman Zoe Lofgren for being here.
Mayor
Susan Hammer, thank you.
(Applause.)
I know there are a lot of
people here . from the school and the school district
your
principal, Mike Carr; your superintendent, Linda Murray; Dr. Bill
Eronson and Victor Fritas, the board President of San Jose Unified
School District -- thank you for being here.
We also have Joe Simidian, who is from Palo Alto, a Palo Alto
city council member. Somebody must be here from Palo Alto besides
Joe.
(Applause. )
I want to thank the students who spoke in the pre-program -Sarah Sandower and Marianna. Dominquez. Thank you for doing that.
(Applause.)
I
want to tell you, it's wonderful to look out here and see a
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crowd like this during summer vacation in a school.
{Laughter.)
And I thank the students especially for being here; it shows you
really are concerned about your future. And it's a great honor for
me as President to be here and to hear a little about this program.
I'd like to explain to you why I'm here at this moment to talk
about this issue. The first, and maybe most important, I hope that
my presence here will give your efforts greater publicity
throughout the United States, because I believe this is the sort of
thing that school districts all over America should be doing to
give our children the kind of opportunities they need. (Applause.)
Secondly, I ~ant to explain why that is so, and I'd like to
take just a few minutes -- I know it's warm, and I nearly went
blind in the sun, I can only imagine how much trouble you're having
-- but I ~ant to take a few moments to explain why that is so, what
the national significance of efforts like this are at the
grass-roots level, at local schools throughout our country in terms
of what I am trying to achieve for America as your President.
First of all, let me say that I started off today in a very
happy way. Hillary and our daughter, Chelsea, and I were able to
welcome the United states Olympic Team to the White House to
congratulate them on their remarkable accomplishments. (Applause.)
I think in many ways, at least from my point of view -- and I
realize I'm prejudiced, being an American and being the President
~- but these were the greatest games that I have ever seen because
of the quality of the competition, because of the numbers of
nations involved -- people from 197 different countries were there
-- because so many people were able to watch around the world, and
because there were more people who actually came and personally
participated in Atlanta.
There were 77,000 people watching the
women's soccer final, for exarople -- a remarkable thing in the
United States.
(Applause.)
And I . was thinking to myself, why is it that we love the
Olympics so much
apart from the thrill of seeing these
magnificent athletic achievements. And I think the reason is that
they work the way we think the world ought to work. That is, you
have all these people who come from all over the world, from
different races and cultures and religions and ethnic and tribal
backgrounds, with all kind of differences.
Very often their
countries are fighting, or at least not getting along very well~
And they come together in mutual respect, which often grows into
genuine admiration and affection because they play by the rules of
the game and they honor each other, and because nobody gets ahead
by breaking somebody else's bones or bad-mouthing someone else in
a public forum.
You only get ahead by reaching down inside and
doing weli; individually and as a team. And I think that's the way
(Applause.)
we think the world ought to work.
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�RUG-08 96 16:38
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I was also terribly impressed by the way the athletes, the
coaches and the fans, all the spectators responded to the terrible
bombing incident.
They all showed up the next qay and said, we
hate that this happened, but we're going on with our lives, we're
not going to be terrorized by fear; we're not going to be cowered
into walking away from the Olympics because of a terrible act of
terror and violence.
And so we feel good about that. But ~e want the world to work
more that'way. Keep in mind, one of the reasons it works that way
is that all those people really were prepared to do what they did.
And they didn't all win medals, but they all won -- because they
sacrificed, they worked, they performed to the best of their
ability, the had a fair chance and they were better for the effort.
And that's what we want for all Americans.
Really, it applies more to America than any other nation in
the world.
Your largest county in California, for example, Los
Angeles County, has people living in it from over 150 of the 197
groups that. were represented at the Olympics.
That's a stunning
thing.
No other country can say that.
When Hillary and Chelsea
and I went down to meet with the Olympic team before the games
started, I looked out at the team and I said, you know, this is
amazing, if you all broke up and just started walking in the
Olympic Village, no one would know where you were from. You could
be from Scandinavia or Africa, from Latin America or the Middle
East, from India or Pakistan or the Asian Pacific Region. No one
would have a clue where you're from.
You're bound together not
because of your race, but because you're Americans.
And that is a very important thing to understand at this
moment.
We're moving into this e:xplosi ve Information Age that
Silicon Valley has done so much to create, in a global village
after the Cold War, where no nation on Earth is as well prepared as
the United States to reap the rewards of the 21st century, if we
will simply determine that we are going to create opportunity for
every person who is responsible enough to work for it, and that
we're going to grow together, instead of all ourselves to be torn
apart by the differences in this country. If we decide we're going
forward together and everybody is going to have a chance, we're
going to do fine.
(Applause.)
That's what I want to talk about today in terms of education.
I devoted a great .deal of time the last three and a half years to
trying to get the ~conomy going again.
We cut the deficit,
increased investment.
We've got record numbers of new small
businesses and exports -- a. lot of it coming out of this area. We
have a record number of new businesses owned by · women and
minorities. (Applause.) We have almost 4.5 million new homeowners
-more-
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_,
~-·--·
....... .
- -.. . .
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in America, and we've got 10 million Americans who refinanced their
homes at lower mortgage rates because we'~e been able to drive the
interest rates down.
And the economy has produced 10.25 million
ne~
jobs.
·And that is good news for the United States.
(Applause.)
But I think we also have to recognize that not everybody has
yet benefited from that economic improvement, and those who have
not principally have not either because they live in areas where
there's been no new investment, or because they themselves do not
have the education and skills they need to prosper in a world in
which education is rewarded and the lack of it is punished.
It is one thing to say, well, everybody has got an opportunity
who wants it, but an opportunity only exists if you're capable of
taking advantage of it. The first time I ever heard this expressed
was when I was a student myself about David's age, when I read the
great French writer, Anatole France, say that the poor and rich are
equally free to sleep under the bridge at night and beg for bread.
And ·it's obvious what he meant. He might have said it another way
-- the poor and rich are equally free to walk into the nearest
Mercedes dealership and buy the most expensive car. That is, there
is a difference in saying you have a right to do something and the
reality being there.
Education closes the gap in America bet\o/een
opportunity and the reality of being able to access it.
(Applause.)
In his book, The Road Ahead, Bill Gates says that the
microchip is the greatest advancement in human communications in
500 years, since Gutenberg printed the first Bible in Europe -- in
sao years. The young people in this audience today within 10 years
~ill be doing jobs that have not been invented yet.
some of you
will be doing jobs that have not been imagined yet.
This morning I had the privilege of making a few comments
·about the United States space program, which I have strongly
supported. And you may have seen the news reports that two of our
NASA scientists discovered way back in 1984 a piece of rock which
they believe was blasted off of Mars by meteors millions of years
ago -- and took 16 million years to find its way to Earth.
The
rock is about so big. But they have analyzed it and concluded that
it is about 4 billion years old. At the time, Earth and Mars were
very similar in their composition and makeup, and they believe they
have found evidence of a petrified microorganism, or an elemental
form of life.
Now, no
this finding
peers in the
you can read
one knows for sure whether this is so, or not, and
will have to be ~ubject to rigorous review by their
scientific community. But on the 15th of this month
all about it in Science Magazine if you want to get a
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�RUG-08 96 16:39
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copy of it. But just think of that. Think what that could mean.
We're sending two more robotic missions to Mars later this year as
part of a renewed emphasis on our exploration in Mars that we have
been working on for about three years. One leaves in November; the
other leaves in December.
I should tell you, for those of you who are interested in life
in outer space, that the one that leaves in November will land on
July 4, 1997, Independence Day.
.(Laughter.)
No\.1, we can laugh
about this, but what it says is that there is a fair chance that if
we can nurture scientific interest and capacity in our young
people, that they will be able to do work and discover things that
we have not imagined yet. And it means also that we have a heavy
responsibility to make sure that no child is denied that
opportunity because they happen to be poor or they happen to be
born in an area that hasn't had a lot of economic opportunity, or
they happen to be a member of a racial minority, or they happen to
be otherwise left behind.
·aecause \ole don't have a person to waste.
This is a highly
competitive world and it runs on people power, and we need all the
people ~e can get. (Applause.) The motto of this school district,
"All stud·ents can learn, all students can succeed, 11 is very
important. That's what you're here to celebrate today. Believe it
or not, not everyone believes that. A lot of people don't believe
that.
But everybody should believe that. And this joint venture
can prove that motto true.
If I have learned anything in the years I served as a governor
and the years I've been your President, it is that people are
capable of extraordinary things if there are high expectations of
them and if they have high expectations of themselves. Education
begins with high expectations, high standards, high levels of
accountability, empowering teachers and principals and parents and
students, and then with community involvement.
The riches, the
vast resources, the intellectual resources of this community are a
treasure that you have decided to share with this school district,
a~d it is a very great thing.
We are trying to do more of that everywhere.
Just last
September the Vice President and I announced that we wanted to
challenge California's schools to lead America in hooking our
classrooms up to the Internet. And then we came back a few months
later, in March, on Net Day, to work with 2 0, 000 California
citizens to hook up over 20 percent of the classrooms in the state
in one day.
This idea is now spreading like wildfire across the
country.
We tried to support it, and like all technological change, it
outran our capacity to support. They didn't need our support after
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a while in a lot of places. People saw that it was going on, they
wanted to do it, and they copied·it. And it's a wonderful thing.
Our national goal is to have every ·classroom and every library in
America hooked up to the Information superhighway by the year 2000
every single one. And we can do it.
(Applause.)
But we also know that if we want to do it right, it's not
simply a matter of hooking up to the Internet -- you have to have
enough hardward, you have to have high-quality software and you
must have very well-trained teachers and people in the community
who can understand how to maximize the use of this in the
educational process.
We have put aside $2 billion to help states achieve these
goals.
The telecommunications law that I signed will create
hundreds of thousands of jobs in telecommunications, a lot of them
right here in California. It will also guarantee equal access to
people to the technology of the future, whether they live in
Silicon Valley or the remotest rural areas of the Appalacians, the
ozarks or the High Plains. And that is also very, very important.
(Applause.).
I signed an executive order saying that we were going to do a
lot more to get computers no longer needed by the federal
government out into America's classrooms, and that project is now
being supervised by a man who came Silicon Valley to join the
administration, David Barram, the head of the General Services
Administration. He's doing a terrific job, and I want all of you
to know that.
(Applause.)
This summer we've got a group of -- a kind of a joint venture,
like what you do here -- of national parent and teacher and school
board and teacher organizations who are mobilizing 100,000 teachers
to teach 500,000 more teachers how to use technology for
educational purposes. We do not have enough teachers who can even
keep up with their students in high technology now in many places
to do the job that needs to be done. So training the teachers is
a very, very important part of this.
But in the end it all comes down to the magic of what goes on
in the classroom and what goes on in the school and what goes on in
the community and what goes on in the home.
And that's why I
wanted to come here.
I want every person in the country to
understand that we can do all these national initiative's, but
unless we have true joint ventures like the one you have here in
Silicon Valley, we will never maximize opportunities for our
children.
And you have assets here a lot of communi ties don't
have, but every community has assets that can be brought to bear
for positive educational impact and high technology learning in the
classrooms of every community in America.
And I hope everybody
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will follo~ the lead you have established here.
(Applause.)
I want to thank all of your partners, the San Jose State
University College of Engineering.
I want to thank all those who
work in the other school districts in the area.
I want to thank
IBM for investing $2 million in the San Jose School District for
the development of a new curriculum
to help teachers get the
training they need.
(Applause.)
And I want to tell you, too, that, believe it or not -- and I
think you do -- the truth of your motto, "All children can learn"
applies everywhere. I'll tell you about a school district that I
visited that's not in Silicon Valley, but in the city of union
city, New Jersey. It's a community, not a very large community, in
New Jersey, one of our most heavily urbanized states. New Jersey
has the second highest per capita inco~e in America, but Union City
is one of the poorest school districts in New Jersey, with a very,
very high immigrant population.
Just a couple of years ago they
had a dropout rate that was way above the state average and test
scores that were way below the state average in a state that has a
lot of school districts like the ones in Silicon Valley.
But the teachers and the students and the parents decided that
they were not going to let their school district go down.
It was
so bad that under New Jersey law the state was about to declare it
bankrupt and take it over and start running it.
But the
first-generation immigrant parents knew they could do better. With
the help of their joint venture partner, Bell Atlantic, who went in
and put computers in the classrooms and even in the homes of a lot
of first-generation immigrant parents, who had difficulty speaking
English, but could learn to use computers, they developed the
capacity of parents who were working all day to e-~ail their kids'
teachers and their principals and get student reports, get the
homework assignments and get involved in their classrooms.
People that hardly had a high school education were being
trained to use computers at least to the point where they could be
good parents . . And the children were able to access a lot of the
science programs and other things that were then available only to
the wealthiest school districts. And the good news is, two and a
half years later, that immigrant American school district has a
dropout rate below and test scores above the average in the second
wealthiest state in the United States. We can do this,· folks. If
more people ~ill follow your lead, we can do this. We can do this.
(Applause.)
So I will say again: We all love the Olympics and we know the
American way of life ought to more like that every day. Every one
of those kids had a chance to prepare to do what they were doing.
Every one of them worked hard, they were immensely responsible, but
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they were also given a chance to live out their dreams.
The 21st century will give more people more chances to live
out their dreams than any time in human history.
If we use
· technology wisely it will be able to lift more people out of
poverty more quickly than we have ever been able to do.
But
technology is not inherently good or bad.
You can get on the
Internet and learn how to make the bomb that blew up the federal
building in Oklahoma City. There are terrible things you can learn
with technology, and technology can be abused. A major portion of
my time as your Presi~ent is spent trying to contain the spread of
technologically-advanced l.leapons of mass destruction -- biological,
chemical, and conventional weapons.
I know we have to do these things, but technology can be the
greatest force for good we have ever known if it is properly
applied.
You are doing that here, with people power, with basic
human concern, and with a fundamental belief in the capacity of
your children to learn and grow and have good lives, and to do it
together, across the lines that divide us all too often.
That is what we want for America.
We must do our part in
Washington, but you -- you -- you make all the difference here.
And I want everyone in America to see what you're doing and to say,
if they can do it we can, too.
Thank you and God bless you.
END
6:02 P.M. PDT
�PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL LITERACY
AUGUST 27, 1996
Today, we stand at the dawn of a new century. A time of great challenge and change,
but especially, a time of remarkable possibility for all our people. My fellow Americans, I am
as confident as I have ever been that the future ahead is bright, brighter than all the days of
our magnificent past.
They are having a great time in Chicago right now. I can hardly wait to get there.
And I can think of no better way to get there than to travel through our heartland, making
stops along the way in towns like Wyandotte to see what is happening all across our country.
America is on the right track to the 21st century.
In every city and town of our great land, Americans are coming together to meet the
challenges of our times. We are doing it in a way that protects our time-tested values, but
looks to the future by embracing new ideas. Opportunity for all Americas -- responsibility
from all Americas. That is the basic bargain of America. And it thrives when we come
together as a community.
On this journey, I have seen citizens taking responsibility to make their streets safer by
working with the community police officers we're putting on the beat. Small business owners
and big corporations, creating more opportunity through new jobs made possible by increased
exports to markets we have opened. Teachers, parents and principals, joining us as partners to
set the highest standards in our schools. And everywhere we go, we see living proof that
when America is united, nothing can stop us.
Just think about the enormous progress we have made together over the last four years.
The economy is stronger, the deficit is lower, and government is smaller. We began this
journey by putting a comprehensive economic plan in place to get the American economy back
on track. We were determined to make sure all Americans have the opportunity to share in
the benefits of today's economy: cutting the deficit, shrinking government, expanding exports,
and investing in our people.
We have also seen recently just how much we can do when we put aside the rancor of
partisan politics and use the common-sense approach of the American people. Last week, I
signed bipartisan legislation to reform health care so that workers won't lose coverage when
they move to a better job; to end welfare as we know it, and to reward work by raising the
minimum wage.
Let us extend this season of progress by balancing the budget and meeting one of the
most important challenges we face -- improving the education of our children.
As America takes its place in the new global economy, it is clear that education is more
important than ever before. Education is literally the fault line that separates those who will
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century with every American on board. We must finish the job of balancing the budget. That
will keep interest rates low on everything from new homes to college loans, and it will
encourage even more business investment. But we must balance the budget in a way that
honors our commitments: from the health care of our parents to the education of our children.
That is what I want to talk with you about today. ·
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As America increasingly takes its place in the new global economy, it is clear that
education is more important than ever before. Education is literally the fault line that
separates those who will prosper from those who cannot in the 21st century. That is why over
the last four years, my Administration has spared no effort to improve the quality of American
education and expand the opportunity for all Americans to get the education they need to
succeed.
We increased Head Start funding to expand early childhood education for more
children who need it. We passed Goals 2000 to help schools set high standards, and find the·
resources they need to succeed: the best books, the brighhtest teachers, the most up-to-date
technology. In the next four years, we must do even more to make sure America has the best
public schools on earth. That begins with setting high standards and high expectations for
teachers and students. America's students can be the best in the world, if we give them the
right standards, the right support and the right environment. This is so important. All the
economic opportunity in the world will not matter unless we have students who can read and
think and perform at world-class levels.
The first step our children must make up the ladder of opportunity is to master the
basic skills of reading and writing. In the year 2000, I see an America where every third
grader can read and write. Today, 40 percent of our children cannot read or write by the 3rd
grade. Some learn late; some never really learn at all. We must set our children free.
The train trip that we are taking to Chicago reminds me of the childhood classic, "The
Little Engine That Could." It is the story about a tiny engine that beat the odds by telling
willing itself with the words, "I think I can, I think I can" to climbing a steep mountain to
deliver Christmas toys for chil~ren. It is a story about courage and tenacity and exceeding
your limits. It is a tragedy that many of our young people today are not able to capture the
wonder and wisdom of that story simply because they have not learned how to read.
�conscience, and her God.
Our goal is to make abortion less necessary and more rare, not more difficult and more
'
dangerous. Even as we protect choice, we must make adoption more and more the alternative.
That is why, last week, I signed a $5000 tax credit -- again, fully paid for -- to help families adopt
children. And we also put an end to racial preference in adoption. No longer will the laws of 43
states keep children of one race from the loving arms of adoptive parents of another.
In the next four years, we will bring security to the 500,000 children trapped in the limbo
,.offoster care. No child should be uncertain what the word family or parents or home means. We
must change the law: after a child has had a year in foster care, if his old family is still not an
appropriate place for him to live, we must find that child a home.
We want our children to know the love we have known. My mother was with us four
years ago; she is not here tonight. I miss her very much. But I will never forget what she gave
me. She worked long hours as a nurse; she came home, bone tired, and worked longer hours as a
mother. From her, I learned early in life how deeply a parent wants to succeed at work and at
home. I want an America in the Year 2000 where every child will have the same love with a ·
parent that I was blessed to have with my mother.
I see an America in the Year 2000 where every neighborhood is proud to point to its
rebuilt school, where computers are as much a part of the classroom as blackboards, wher:e
8
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�highly trained teachers demand peak performance from our children. And above all, I see
an America in the Year 2000 where every 8-year-old can point to a book and say: "I read it
·myself."
Over the past two years, we stopped budget cuts that would cripple our initiatives to
double the size of Head Start, to increase remedial reading and math, and to double the number of
anti~drug counseling programs in our schools.
In the Year 2000, I see an America where every third grader can read and write. Today,
:.40% of our children cannot read or write by the 3rd grade. Some learn late; some never really
learn at all. We must set our children free.
I am proposing a bold literacy program: To hire 50,000 reading specialists for our schools
where too many students read below grade level. They will recruit and train volunteers to create
an education army of 1 million people to teach our children to read.
We will provide funds to keep schools open, from early in the morning until early at night,
so young people can stay off the street and develop the skills to live good lives.
In the Year 2000, a diploma will mean something: That this child, educated anywhere in
this country, has attained a satisfactory level ofknowledge and reading and math skills. And a
high-school diploma will proclaim to the world: this child has earned it
9
~ ~.~,}~\-~',.-.'\~~:.._·~·_.....,.,...r-,.71""""t"~·.r.;~·~··...,~-~~:':'"'""y--:·•·•r·-·...-_, .. ____,,.,. .. ,
------·-------------
�We will ask every state to compose rigorous achievement tests. We will expect that state
to make passing that test a precondition of graduating elementary school, middle school, or high
school. We will challenge states to reward good teachers and remove those who don't measure
up. And where schools have failed, we will help parents come together to set up charter schools
to provide quality education to their children. Parents do deserve the choice to send their children
to the best public school their communities cim create.
In the Year 2000, I see America's schools rebuilt, modernized, wired for computers and
'·prepared to cope with the rapidly increasing enrollments. The students who start first
gra~e
next
week will be the largest class in our nation's history. I propose federal assistance to enable
localities to increase school construction by at least 25%. We cannot ask our children to learn in a
landscape of peeling paint and broken glass.
Computers are remaking our world. When this convention gathered four years ago, there
was no such thing as a "web page" on the Internet. Today, even Socks, my cat, has one. Our
mission is simple and imperative: We will connect every single classroom and library in America
to the world wide web of computers, information and knowledge by the Year 2000.
I see an America in the Year 2000 where we all share in the benefits of a growing
economy, where more and more of us go to college. I see an America where the budget
deficit is approaching zero -- but our budget reflects our values. I see an America where
new opportunity opens up to our people, enabling us all to seize this age of possibility.
10
�Ifwe had to ask one question that would determine a person's future economic wellbeing, the answer is not gender, 9r race-- it is, simply, "did you go to college?" Women earn less
than men, but they are gaining; minorities earn less than whites, but they are gaining; those who
have not been to college earn less than those who have, and they are falling farther and farther
behind.
By the Year 2000, every American high school graduate who wan!s to go to college must
have the opportunity to do so.· We have reduced interest on student loans. We have expanded
,.Pell Grant scholarships. And we have offered, through Americorps, the chance to earn your way
through college by serving your community.
In the next four years, we will pass a tax cut to make most community colleges free, and
all college more affordable. If you go to college, we will give you a $I500 a year tax credit for
the first two years, and a $10,000 tax deduction thereafter. And if, you return to college to
advance your skills, your tuition will be covered by this tax cut. We will pay for it by closing tax
loopholes for large multinational corporations. We will say to Americans: Do the-work, expand
your skills, and we will help you pay for it. And Americans will say: Give us the tools to succeed,
and we'll get the job done.
I see an America in the Year 2000 where parents can save for their child's college. I am
proposing an expanded IRA of $2000 for each child, which parents may save each year tax-free.
II
�This tax cut, too, is fully paid for by spending cuts. When the day comes that their child uses these
tax free savings and the tax free interest to pay tuition, those payments themselves will be tax free.
We will reform the tax code to make sure that for middle income Americans, the money that pays
for school is never, ever taxed.
I see an America in the Year 2000 where work pays. Where, when you work at a job, you
don't come home at night to a family in poverty. Last week I was very proud to sign an increase
in the minimum wage. And we have expanded and protected from budget cuts the Earned
Income Tax Credit, cutting the taxes of 15 million working families. When this tax cut is fully in
.place, going to work will mean the end of poverty.
But most important of all, I see an America by the Year 2000 in which those who have
been forced to the bottom, left to a lifetime of welfare dependency are finally climbing up.
I signed last week as much a compact as a law. Those on welfare now have the
responsibility to move to work. But we, who are not on welfare, have the responsibility to keep a
reciprocal promise: to provide them with the opportunity -- the daycare, the education, and, most
of all, the jobs they need.
This is the most important compact of our time. If we succeed in providing work, dignity,
and the chance for advancement to those who now languish on welfare, we can end the permanent
underclass, exiled, forgotten, and cast out by society.
12
·-....---..-·--·· ..
.
...
--~J·:·
.. ----- ·~·-· .
�...----------------------------
-----------------------
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL LITERACY
AUGUST 27, 1996
Today, we stand at the dawn of a new century. A time of great challenge and change,
but especially, a time of remarkable possiblity for all our people. My fellow Americans, I am
as confident as I have ever been that the future ahead is bright, brighter than all the days of
our magnificent past.
They are having a great time in Chicago right now. I can hardly wait to get there.
And I can think of no better way to get there than to travel through our heartland, making
stops along the way in towns like Wyandotte to see what is happening all across our country.
America is on the right track to the 21st century.
In every city and town of our great land, Americans are coming together to meet the
challenges of our times. We are doing it in a way that protects our time-tested values, but
looks to the future by embracing new ideas. Opportunity for all Americas -- responsiblity
from all Americas. That is the basic bargain of America. And it thrives when we come
together as a community.
On this jouney, I have seen citizens taking responsibility to make their streets safer by
working with the community police officers we're putting on the beat. Small business owners
and big corporations, creating more opportunity through new jobs made possible by increased
exports to markets we have opened. Teachers, parents and principals, joining us as partners to
set the highest standards in our schools. And everywhere we go, we see living proof that
when America is united, nothing can stop us.
Just think about the enormous progress we have made together over the last four years.
The economy is stronger, the deficit is lower, and government is smaller. We began this
journey by putting a comprehensive economic plan in place to get the American economy back
on track. We were determined to make sure all Americans have the opportunity to share in
the benefits of today's economy: cutting the deficit, shrinking government, expanding exports,
and investing in our people.
We have also seen recently just how much we can do when we put aside the rancor of
partisan politics and use the common-sense approach of the American people. Last week, I
signed bipartisan legislation to reform health care so that workers won't lose coverage when
they move to a better job; to end welfare as we know it, and to reward work by raising the
minimum wage.
Let us extend this season of progress by balancing the budget and meeting one of the
most important challenges we face-- improving the education of our children.
As America takes its place in the new global economy, it is clear that education is more
important than ever before. Education is literally the fault line that separates those who will
�prosper from those who cannot in the 21st century. That is why over the last four years, my
Administration has spared no effort to improve the quality of American education and expand
the opportunity for all Americans to get the education they need to succeed.
We prevented budget cuts that would have crippled our efforts to double the size of
Head Start, to increase remedial reading and math and to double the number of anti-drug
counseling programs in our schools. We are committed to putting computers and software and
technologically trained teachers in every classroom by the Year 2000. Our efforts have paid
off. National math and science scores are up. SAT scores are up. Half of all four-year -olds
now attend preschool. And 86 percent of all our young people are completing high school.
But, in the next four years, we must do even more to make sure America has the best
public schools on earth. That begins with setting high standards and high expectations for
teachers and students. America's students can be the best in the world, if we give them the
right standards, the right support and the right environment. This is so important. All the
economic opportunity in the world will not matter unless we have students who can read and
·write and think at world-class levels.
The first step our children must make up the ladder of opportunity is to master the
basics. While math and science scores have gone up, reading scores for young children have
stayed flat. Reading is the most basic of basics. A child who never learns to read, will grow
into an adult who never has a chance. We have to help our children take this essential first
step. I believe that every American child should be able to read independently by the third
grade. Today, 40 percent of our children cannot read or write by the 3rd grade. Some learn
late; some never really learn at all. We can do better and we must.
The train trip that we are taking to Chicago reminds me of the childhood classic, "The
Little Engine That Could." It is the story about a tiny engine that beat the odds by willing
itself with the words, "I think I can, I think I can" to climb a steep mountain to deliver
Christmas toys for children. It is a story about courage and tenacity and exceeding your
limits. It is a tragedy that many of our young people today are not able to capture the wonder
and wisdom of that story simply because they have not learned how to read.
We can change this, if we all work together in a spirit of community that recognizes
that every child is precious and every child deserves a chance to succeed.
That is why today, I am challenging Americans from all walks of life to make sure that
all our children can read independently by the third grade. We want to mobilize 1 million
volunteer tutors to provide extra reading help, after school and during the summer, for the
millions of children in grades K-3 who are behind in their reading. My proposal calls for $2.5
billion to train and recruit volunteers for trained reading specialists and tutor coordinators,
who will provide instruction to
The first step in fulfilling this goal is to encourage every parent and every grandparent
in America to be a tutor. Parents are the first teachers our children know. And moments we
�spend reading to them are some of the most precious moments we will ever know. So, take
time to spend time -- turn ot(the TV and read to your kids at least 30 minutes a day. And
make sure they get a librar:fcard. They will get more out of this gift than anything we will
ever give them.
While parents are their children's primary educators, helping every child become a
successful reader by the end of the third grade is everybody's business. That's why I am also
challenging the entire nation to take action to meet this goal. The PTA, the Girl Sc~e
Urban League, religious institutions, the nation's 16,000 libraries, businesses and civic /1tt-vt, _/
organizations -- we all have a role to play. Many have already launched efforts, and a
- 1~
growing number of states are rising to meet this challenge. But we need more grassroots
involvement from every sector of society.
_ n~ew-that-ma-n.y;~iU need a helping liand to meet this chalten~~
~tlno/ plan will support effective grassroots efforts that help parents help their children
become successful readers. All parents would be given information on what they can do to
help their children read-- things like, reading aloud to younger children, playing word games,
sounding out words, havign books, magazines and newspapers in the home. Some
communities wou8ld receive funding to develop more intensive efforts such as parent drop-in
centers, Parents as Teachers ahd HIPPY programs thathelp parents learn how to help their
pre-schoolers get ready for reading, and their school age children learn to read.
This is the way America has always met its challenges --people working together in
their communities to protect our values and honor our commitments to each other.
If we take the actions I am proposing today~in-tYear 2000, a diploma will mean
something: That every American child, educated a· . e in this country, has attained a
statisfactory level of knowledge and reading and mat s ills. A high school diploma will
proclaim to the world: this child has earned it.
For America to prosper and grow in the new century, it is imperative that every child
is able to read up to his or her highest level. This is more important than it has ever been in
our county's history because at this moment we are moving at a rapid rate toward a new
century. We are moving into an entirely different economy -- one that is more global and
more competitive. We are moving away from the Industrial Age into the Information and
Technology Age. And we are moving into an era where most people will be working with
their minds far more than their hands, and many of them will be working in businesses and
industries that have not even been invented yet.
~_:.~~~cm:~~~~¥Y will not be ab
that await em. They wil
exciting new e~onomy. I ·
be a e tot
antage
·
good~
apply or qualify for the
the · mou
portunities
.
·
~f;hiJ
fw
-~L.Iteracy
~.IS not a Iuxury -- It. :'b
. to expand.mg opportumty
. fior a11 our Citizens.
.. ~
IS asic
have got to meet this challenge -- and we have got to do it together.
alla- bq#;;gAn:mrica
e
�prosper from those who cannot in the 21st century. That is why over the last four years, my
Administration has spared no effort to improve the quality of American education and expand
the opportunity for all Americans to get the education they need to succeed.
We prevented budget cuts that would have crippled our efforts to double the size of
Head Start, to increase remedial reading and math and to double the number of anti-drug
counseling programs in our schools. We are committed to putting computers and software and
technologically trained teachers in every classroom by the Year 2000. Our efforts have paid
off. National math and science scores are up. SAT scores are up. Half of all four-year -olds
now attend preschool. And 86 percent of all our young people are completing high school.
But, in the next four years, we must do even more to make sure America has the best
public schools on earth. That begins with setting high standards and high expectations for
teachers and students. America's students can be the best in the world, if we give them the
right standards, the right support and the right environment. This is so important. All the
economic opportunity in the world will not matter unless we have students who can read and
write and think at world-class levels.
The first step our children must make up the ladder of opportunity is to master the
basics. While math and science scores have gone up, reading scores for young children have
~tayed flat. Reading is the most basic of basics. A G~il~~ho ~ever lea:ns to ead,_ will ~w
mto an adult who never has a chance. We have to ~ur children~.
· .~
I believe that every American child should be able to read independently by the third grade. ·
5
'
Today, 40 percent of our children cannot read or write by the 3rd grade. Some lea~n
some never really learn at all. We must s.et;-Qntl:~bi>ldren fr.ee.VJ_,e ~ cl<.,_~
;tJl
!.$---
.
The train trip that we are taking to Chicago reminds me of the childhood classic, "The
Little Engine That Could." It is the story about a tiny engine that beat the odds by willing
itself with the words, "I think I can, I think I can" to climb a steep mountain to deliver
Christmas toys for children. It is a story about courage and tenacity and exceeding your
limits. It is a tragedy that many of our young people today are not able to capture the wonder
and wisdom of that story simply because they have not learned how to read.
We can change this, if we all work together in a spirit of community that recognizes
that every child is precious and every child deserves a chance to succeed.
That is why today, I am challenging Americans from all walks of life to make sure that
all our children can read indpendently by the third grade. We want to mobilize 1 million
volunteer tutors to provide extra reading help, after school and during the summer, for the
millions of children in grades K-3 who are behind in their reading. My proposal calls for $2.5
billion to train and recuit volunteersfor trained reading specialists and tutor coordinators, who
will provide instruction to
The first step in fulfilling this goal is to encourage every parent and every grandparent
in America to be a tutor. Parents are the first teachers our children know. And moments we
�moving forward on the right track to the 21st century. The So much of this is not about
ability -- it is about expectation. I have been in a lot of schools as both a governor and as your
President nd the one thing that is consistent in good schools is that that have high standards
and high e pectations. They believe that students can learn and they will learn if given the
right kind f standards e right kind of support, and the right kind of environment. We must
have those kinds of p tations for all o students. We h
to make eve child in this
country be ieve in 1ms for herself.
e have to hold t /m ccountable.
ed to
reward the
at th m on the b
wh n they do ell.
and effort paren
teachers have r our childrenis reading up to his or her
abilities. and and We must not turn our backs on this problem. Out children's future and the
~
future of our nation are at stake. We must have thos
<'
·<;P
The future of our children and our nation depend on ~t aHow this to be -especially as we move into the global economy of the 21st
en what you learn will
rlvw~r children to Today, I want to
depend more than ever
hat you learn.
talk about what has alw s een the
o exp~ opportunity for every citizen in America
ll
eri
s
to
11 a great
future, and responsibility from all
Opportunity fo~
I
.
Americans to make
m
Ytt. Th is th basic bargain of America. And it thrives when
we come together a a c
nity.
hether w re ta · g about fighting crime, improving
health care or improvmg educ · n. That is what I want to talk with you about today.
-- education, and specifically, the ability to read and write. and
ce
�RUG 23 '96
05:12PM OFFICE OF SECRETRRY
OTHER THEMES
1. SECRETARY RILEY'S BELIEVES THAT THIS IS AMERICANEDUCATION'S
NUMBER ONE PRIORITY
2. READING IS THE FIRST BASIC. THERE IS NO POINT GETTING EXCITED
ABOUT CRUSING OR USING THE INTERNET IF YOU DON~T KNOW HOW
TOREAD.
.
3, I RAl.SBD THIS WITH THE NATION~S GOVERNORS AT THE EDUCATION
SUMMIT
4. TIDS IS A NATIONAL PROBLEM --32% OF ALL 4TH GRADERS WHOSE
PARENTS ARE COLLEGE GRADUATES ARE READING AT OR BELOW THE
BASIC LEVEL.
5. START OF THE SCHOOL YEAR-- WHEN WE HAVB A RECOliD NUMBER OF
YOUNG PEOPLE GOING TO SCHOOL.·· 51.7 MILLION-· BABY BOOM ECHO.
6. SO WE HAVB TO START WITH PARENTS
A. ALL OF OUR RESEARCH TELLS US THAT PARENTS HOLD THE KEY
TO GOOD READING HABITS
. B. TURN OFF THE TV AND OPEN A BOOK/OR WATCH 3 HOURS OF
EDUCATIONAL TV
C. W'E WANT TO ENCOURAGE PARENTSTO READ TO THEIR CHILDREN
30 MINUTES A DAY
D. AND WE WANT TO HELP PARENTS WHO NEED OUR HELP
AS WELL-- PARENTS AS TEACHERS-- PART OF THE INITIATIVE ••
EM1?HASIS ON VOLUNTARY NATURE. INVESTING IN SUCCESS IN
THOSE PROGRAMS THAT ARE ALREADY MAKING A DIFFERENCE
6. HEAD START
7. ONE MlLLION TUTORS --LITERACY -- CROSS GENERATIONAL -·
�.,
i
I
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Palisades, New York)
March 27, 1996
For Immediate Release
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE NATIONAL GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION EDUCATION SUMMIT
IBM Conference Center
Palisades, New York
12:25 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Governor Miller, Governor Thompson; Lou
Gerstner -- thank you for hosting this terribly important event. To all of the governors and
distinguished guests, education leaders and business leaders who are here, let me say that I am
also delighted to be here with the Secretary of Education, Governor Dick Riley. I believe that
he and Governor Hunt and Governor Branstad and I were actually there for-- when the "Nation
At Risk" report was issued, as well as when the Education Summit was held by President Bush.
I want to thank Secretary Riley for the work that he has done with the states and with educators
all across the country. And I know that every one of you has worked with him, but I'm glad
to have him here and he's been a wonderful partner for me, and I think for you. (Applause.)
This is an extraordinary meeting of America's business leaders and America's governors.
I know some have raised some questions about it, but let me just say on the front end I think
it is a very appropriate and a good thing to do, and I applaud those who organized it and those
who have attended.
The governors, after all, have primary, indeed, constitutional responsibility for the
conditions of our public schools. And the business leaders know well, perhaps better than any
other single group in America, what the consequences of our failing to get the most out of our
students and achieve real educational excellence will be for our nation.
So I am very pleased to see you here, doing this, and I want to thank each and every one
of you. I also think you have a better chance than perhaps anyone else, even in this season, to
keep the question of education beyond partisanship, and to deal with it as an American challenge
that all the American people must meet and must meet together.
�-----------c------------~-----------
All of you know very well that this is a time of a dramatic transformation in the United
. States. I'm not sure if any of us fully understands the true implications of the changes through
which we are all living, and the responsibilities that those changes impose upon us. It is clear
to most people that the dimensions of economic change now are the greatest that they .have been
since we moved from farm to factory and from rural areas to cities and towns 100 years ago.
In his book, "The Road From Here," Bill Gates says that the digital chip is leading us
to the greatest transformation in communications in 500 years, since Gutenberg printed the first
Bible in Europe. If that is true, it is obvious beyond anyone's ability to argue, that the
educational enterprise, which has always been central to the development of good citizens in
America, as well as to a strong economy, is now more important than ever before.
That nieans that we need a candid assessment of what is right and what is wrong with
our educational system and what we need to do. Your focus on standards, your focus on
assessment, your focus on technology is all to the good. We know that many of our schools do
a very good job, but some of them don't. We know that many of our teachers are great, but
soine don't measure up. We know that many of our communities are seizing the opportunities
of the present and the future, but too many aren't.
And, most important, we know that -- after the emphasis on education which goes back ·
at least unti11983 and the whole country and, to my native region, to the South, to the late '70s
when we began to try to catch up economically with the rest of the country -- we know that
while the schools and the students of this country are doing better than they were in 1984 and
better than they were in 1983, when "The Nation At Risk" was issued, and in 1989 when the
Education Summit was held at Charlottesville, most of them still are not meeting the standards
that are necessary and adequate to the challenges of today. So that is really what we have to
begin with.
Now, America has some interesting challenges that I think are somewhat unique to our
country in this global environment in which education is important, and we might as well just
sort of put them out there on the front end -- not that we can resolve them today. The first is
that we have a far more diverse group of students in terms of income and race and ethnicity and
background and, indeed, living conditions than almost any other great country in the world.
Second, we have a system in which both authority and financing is more fractured than
in other countries, is typically the case. Third, we know that our schools are burdened by social
problems, not of their making, which make the jobs of principals and teachers more difficult.
And, fourth, and I think most important of all, our country still has an attitude problem
about education that I think we should resolve, that is even prior to the standards and assessment
issue, and that is that too many people in the United States think that the primary determinant
of success and learning is either IQ or family circumstances instead of effort. And I don't And
I don't think any of the research supports that.
2
~--
----~-
�---
----------------------------------------------.
So one of the things that I hope you will say is in a positive way that you believe all kids
can learn, and in a stronger way that you believe that effort is more important than IQ or income
-- given the right kind of educational opportunities, the right kind of expectations. · It's often·
been said that Americans from time to time suffer from a revolution of rising expectations. This
is one area where we need a revolution of rising expectations. We ought to all simply and
forthrightly say that we believe that school is children's work and play; that it can be great joy,
but that effort matters.
I see one of our business leaders here, a former state senator from Arkansas, Senator Joe
Ford. His father was the head of our educational program in Arkansas for a long time. We had
a lot of people in one-room schoolhouses, 40 and 50 and 60 years ago, reading simple readers
who believed that effort was more important than IQ or income. They didn't know what IQ
was. And we have got to change that. _And governors, every governor and every business
leader in this country can make a difference.
I'm no Einstein, and not everybody can do everything, but if you stack this up from one
to the other, all the Americans together in order by IQ, you couldn't stick a straw between one
person and the next. And you know it as well as I do. Most people can learn everything they
need to know to be good citizens and successful participants in the American economy and in
the global economy. And I believe that unless you can convince your constituents that that is
the truth, that all of your efforts to raise standards and all-of your efforts to have accountability
through tests and other assessments will not be as successful as they ought to be. And I think,
frankly, a lot of people, even in education, need to be reminded of that from time to time.
Now, let's get back to the good news. Thirty or 40 years ago, maybe even 20 years ago,
no one could ever have conceived of a meeting like this taking place. Governors played little
role in education until just a couple of decades ago. And business didn't regard it as their
responsibility. In the late '70s and early '80s this whole wave began to sweep America. And
one important, positive thing that ought never to be overlooked is that the business leadership
of America and the governors of this country have been literally obsessed with education for a
long time now. And that's a very good thing, because one of the problems with America is that
we tend to be in the grip of serial enthusiasms. It's the hula hoop today and something else
tomorrow. Boy, that dates me, doesn't it? (Laughter.)
In this country the governors have displayed a remarkable consistency of commitment
to education. And at least since 1983, the business community has displayed that commitment.
And I think it's fair to say that all of us have learned some things as we have gone along, which
is what has brought you to this point, that there is a-- you understand now, and I've heard Lou
Gerstner talk about it in his, almost his mantra about standards -- that we understand that the
next big step has to be to have some meaningful and appropriately high standards and then hold
people accountable for them.
I think it's worth noting that the 1983 "Nation At Risk" report did do some good things.
Almost every state in the country went back and revised its curriculum requirement. Many
3
�revised their class size requirements. Many did other things to upgrade teacher training or to
increase college scholarships or to do a lot of other things.
In 1989 I was privileged to be in Charlottesville working with Governor Branstad and
with Governor Campbell, primarily as we were trying to get all the governors together to
develop the statement at the Education Summit with President Bush. And that was the first time
there had ever been a bipartisan national consensus on· educational goals.
The realization was in 1989 was that six years after a "Nation At Risk," all these extra
requirements were being put into education, but nobody had focused on what the end game was.
What did we want America to look like? It's worth saying that we wanted every child to show
up for school ready to learn, that we wanted to be proficient in certain core courses and were
willing to assess our students to see if we were, that we wanted to prepare our people for the
world of work, that we wanted to be extra-good in math and science and to overcome our past
deficiencies. All the things that were in those educational goals were worth saying.
Another thing that the Charlottesville summit did that I think is really worth emphasizing
is that it defined for the first time, from the governors up, what the federal role in education
ought to be and what it should not be. I went back this morning, just on the way up, and I read
the Charlottesville statement about what the governors then unanimously voted that the federal
role should be and what it should not be.
When I became President and I asked Dick Riley to become Secretary of Education, I
said that our legislative agenda ought to be consistent, completely consistent with what the
governors had said at Charlottesville. So, for example, the governors said at Charlottesville,
the federal government has a bigger responsibility to help people show up for school prepared
to learn. So we emphasized things like more funds for Head Start and more investment in trying
to improve the immunization rates of kids and other health indicators; and more responsibility
for access to higher education, so we tried to reform the Student Loan Program and invest more
money in Pell Grants and national service and things like that.
And then, more responsibility to give greater flexibility to the states in K-12 and to try
to promote reform without defining how any of this should be done.
And so that's what Goals 2000 was about. We tried to have a system in which states and
mostly local school districts could pursue world-class standards based on their own plans for
grass-roots reform. And we overhauled the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, an we
redid Title I to do one thing that I think is very important: We took out of what was then in the
law for Chapter One, which was lower educational expectations for poor children -- it was an
outrage, and we took it out of the law. I don't believe that poor children should be expected
to perform at lower levels than other children.
And Dick Riley, since he has been Secretary of Education, has cut federal regulations
over states and local school districts by more than 50 percent. . It seems to me that that is
4
�consistent with exactly what the governors said at Charlottesville they wanted done.
Now, the effort to have national standards, I think it's fair to say, has been less than
successful. The history standards and the English standards effort did not succeed for reasons
that have been well analyzed, although I'm not sure the debate was entirely worthless; I think
the debate itself did some good.
But there are recommended standards that have been widely embraced, coming out of the
math teachers, that most people think are quite good, and the preliminary indications for science
are encouraging. And I want to say again, it would be wrong to say that there's been no
progress since 1983. The number of young people taking core courses has jumped from 13
percent in '82, to 52 percent in '94. The national math and science scores are up a grade since
1983, half of all the four-year-olds now attend preschool, 86 percent of all our young people are
completing high school. We're almost up to the 90 percent that was in the National Education
Goals. That is progress.
But what we have learned since Charlottesville and what you are here to hammer home
to America is that the overall levels of learning are not enough, and that there are still significant
barriers in various schools to meeting higher standards.
I accept your premise; we can only do better with tougher standards and better
assessment, and you should set the standards. I believe that is absolutely right. And that will
be the lasting legacy of this conference. I also believe, along with Mr. Gerstner and the others
who are here, that it's very important not only for businesses to speak out for reform, but for
business leaders to be knowledgeable enough to know what reform to speak out for, and what
to emphasize, and how to hammer home the case for higher standards, as well as how to help
local school districts change some of the things that they are now doing so that they have a
reasonable chance at meeting these standards.
Let me just go through now what I think we should do in challenging the country on
standards for students, as well as for teachers and schools. I suppose that I have spent more
time in classrooms than any previous president, partly because I was a governor for 12 years,
and partly because I still do it with some frequency. I believe the most important thing you
can do is to have high expectations for students -- to make them believe they can learn, to tell
them they're going to have to learn really difficult, challenging things, to assess whether they're
learning or not, and to hold them accountable as well as to reward them.
Most children are very eager to learn. Those that aren't have probably been convinced
they can't. We can do better with that. I believe that once you have high standards and high
expectations, there is an unlimited number of things that can be done. But I also believe that
there have to be consequences. I watched your panel last night, and I thought-- the moment
of levity on the panel was when Al Shanker was asked, when I was teaching school and I would
give students homework, they said "does it count?" That's the thing I remember about the panel
last night. All of you remember, too. You laughed, right? (Laughter.) Does it count? And
5
�the truth is that in the world we're living in today, "does it count" has to mean something,
particularly in places where there haven't been any standards for a long time.
So if the states are going to go back and raise standards so that you're not only trying
to increase the enrollment in core courses, you're trying to make the core courses themselves
mean more -- I heard Governor Hunt last night say he'd be willing to settle for reading and
writing and math and science -- I think were the ones you said.
Once you have to --if you're going to go back and define what's in those core courses
and you're going to lift it up, you have to be willing, then, to hold the students accountable for
whether they have achieved that or not. And again, another thing that Mr. Shanker said that
I've always believed, we have always downgraded teaching to the test, but if you're going to
know whether people learn what you expect them to know, then you have to test them on what
you expect them to know.
So I believe that if you want the standards movement to work, first you have to do the
hard work in deciding what it is you expect children to learn. But then you have to have an
assessment system, however you design it, in your own best judgment at the state level, that
says, no more social promotions, no more free passes. If you want people to learn, learning has
to mean something. That's what I believe. I don't believe you can succeed unless you are
prepared to have an assessment system with consequences.
In Arkansas in 1983 when we redid the educational standards, we had a very
controversial requirement that young people pass the 8th grade tests to go on to high school.
And not everybody passed it. And we let people take it more than once. I think it's fine to do
that.
But even today, after 13 years, I think there are only five states in the country today
which require a promotion for either grade to grade or school to school for its young people,
to require tests for that. I believe that if you have meaningful standards that you have
confidence in, that you believe if they're met your children will know what they need to know,
you shouldn't be afraid to find out if they're learning it, and you shouldn't be deterred by people
saying this is cruel, this is unfair, or whatever they say.
The worst thing you can do is send people all the way through school with a diploma
they can't read. And you're not being unfair to people if you give them more than one chance,
and if at the same time you improve the teaching and the operation of the schools in which they
are. If you believe these kids can learn, you have to give them a chance to demonstrate it. This
is only a cruel, short-sided thing to do if you are convinced that there are limitations on what
the American children can do. And I just don't believe that.
So that I think is the most important thing. I believe every state, if you're going to have
meaningful standards, must require a test for children to move, let's say, from elementary to
middle school, or from middle school to high school, or to have a full-meaning high school
6
�- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
diploma. And I don't think they should measure just minimum competency.
measure what you expect these standards to measure.
You should
You know, when we instituted any kind of test at home, I was always criticized by the
fact that the test wasn't hard enough. But I think it takes time to transform a system. And you
may decide it takes time to transform a system. But you will never know whether your
standards are being met unless you have some sort of measurement. and have some sort of
accountability. And while I believe they should be set by the states and the testing mechanism
should be approved by the states, we shouldn't kid ourselves. Being promoted ought to mean
more or less the same thing in Pasadena, California, that it does in Palisades, New York. In
a global society, it ought to mean more or less the same thing.
I was always offended by suggestion that the kids who grew up in the Mississippi Delta
in Arkansas, which is the poorest place in America, shouldn't have access to the same learning
opportunit~es that other people should and couldn't learn. I don't believe that.
So I think the idea -- I heard the way Governor Engler characterized it last night, I
thought was pretty good. You want a non-federal, national mechanism to sort of share this
information so that you'll at least know how you're doing compared to one another. That's a
good start. That's a good way to begin this. I also believe that we shouldn't ignore the
progress that's been made by the Goals panel, since Governor Romer was first leader of that
going through Governor Engler, and by the National Assessment on Educational Progress. I
know a lot of you talked about that last night. They've done a lot of good things, and we can
learn a lot from them. We don't have to reinvent the wheel here.
I also would like to go back and emphasize something I heard Governor Hunt say last
night. I think we should begin with a concrete standard for reading and writing because the
most troubling thing to me is that we've been through a decade in which math and science scores
have risen and reading scores have stayed flat. Intel recently had to turn away hundreds of
applicants because they lacked basic reading and writing skills.
Now, that will present you with an immediate problem because if you want to measure
reading and writing, you will not be able just to have a multiple choice test which can be graded
by a machine. You'll have to recognize that teachers do real work with kids when they teach
them how to write, and you have to give them the time and support to do that. And then there
has to be some way of evaluating that. I know that's harder and more expensive, but it really
matters whether a child can read and write.
And for all the excitement about the computers in the schools -- and I am a big proponent
of it-- I would note that when we started with a computer program in our school, and I believe
when Governor Caper started in West Virginia, he started in the early grades for the precise
purpose that technology should be used first to give children the proper grounding in basic skills.
So I think that's quite important.
7
�Secretary Riley says that every child should be able to read independently by the end of
the third grade. And, parenthetically, that if that were the standard, I think we would be more
successful in getting parents to read to their children every night, which would revolutionize the
whole system of education anyway.
The second thing I think we have to do is to face the fact that if we want to have these
standards for children, standards and tests, we have to have a system that rewards and inspires
and demands higher standards of teachers. They, after all, do this work; the rest of us talk
about it and they do it.
So that means that, first of all, you've got to get the most talented people in there.
There's been a lot of talk about this for a decade now, but most states and school districts still
need work on their certification rules. We should not bar qualified, even brilliant young people
from becoming teachers. The Teach For America group in my home state did a wonderful job,
and a lot of those young kids wind up staying and teaching, even though they can make two and
three times as much money doing something else. Every state should, in my view, review that.
I also believe any time you're trying to hold teachers to higher standards they should be
rewarded when theY' perform. I know that in South Carolina and Kentucky, if schools markedly
improve their performance, they get bonuses and the teachers get the benefit. That's not a bad
thing, that's a good thing, and we should have more of that.
I want to thank Governor Hunt for the work he's done on the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards. We had the first group of teachers who are board-certified in
the White House not very long ago. Every state should have a system, in my opinion, for
encouraging these teachers to become board-certified. The federal government doesn't have
anything to do with that. Encourage these teachers to become board-certified because they have
to demonstrate not only knowledge, but teaching skills. And when they achieve that level they
·
should be rewarded. There should be extra rewards when they do that.
We also need a system that doesn't look the other way if a teacher is burned out or not
performing up to standard. There ought to be a fair process for removing teachers who aren't
competent, but the process also has to be much faster and fat less costly than it is. I read the
other day that in New York it can cost as much as $200,000 to dismiss a teacher who is
incompetent. In Glen Ellen, Illinois, a school district spent $70,000 to dismiss a high school
math teacher who couldn't do basic algebra and let the students sleep in class. That is wrong.
We should do more to reward good teachers; we should have a system that is fair to teachers,
but moves much more expeditiously and much more cheaply in holding teachers accountable.
So states and school systems and teachers unions need to be working together to make
it tougher to get licensed and recertified, easier and less costly to get teachers who can't teach
out of the classrooms, and clearly set rewards for teachers who are performing, especially if
they become board-certified, or in some state:-defined way prove themselves excellent.
8
�The third thing I think we have to do is to hold schools accountable for results. We have
known now for a long time; we have no excuses for not doing -- we have known for a long time
that the most important player in this drama besides the teachers and the students are the school
principals, the building principals. And, yet, still, not every state has a system for holding the
school districts accountable for having good principals in all these schools and then giving the
principals the authority they need to do the job, getting out of their way and holding them
accountable, both on the up side and the down side. To me, that is still the most important
thing. Every school I go into, I can stay there about 30 minutes and tell you pretty much what
the principal has done to establish a school culture, an atmosphere of learning, a system of
accountability, a spirit of adventure, you can just feel it, and it's still the most important thing.
Secondly, the business community can do a lot of work with the governors to help these
school districts reinvent their budgets, I think. There are still too many school districts spending
way too much money on administration and too little money on education and instruction. And
there needs to be some real effort put into that, that goes beyond rhetoric. I mean, I was given
these statistics, which I assume are true because I had it vetted four different times -- I hate to
use numbers -- if it is true that New York City spends $8,000 a student on education, but only
$44 goes to books and other classroom materials, that's a disgrace, that's wrong. And that's
true in a lot of other school districts.
We cannot ask the American people to spend more on education until we do a better job
with the money we've got now. That's an area where I think the business community can make
a major, major contribution. A lot of you have had to restructure your own operations, a lot
of you have had to achieve far higher levels of productivity. If we can reduce the federal
government by 200,000 people without undermining our essential mission, we can do a much
better job in the school districts of the country.
Let me also say I think that we ought to encourage every state to do what most states are
now doing, which is to provide more options for parents. You know, the terms of the public
school choice legislation and the charter schools -- a lot of you have done a very good job with
the charter schools. But I'm excited about the idea that educators and parents get to actually
start schools, create and manage them and stay open only if they do a good job within the public
school system. Every charter school I visited was an exciting place. Today, 21 of you allow
charter schools. There are over 250 schools with are open, 100 more are going to open next
year. Freed up from regulation and top-down bureaucracy, focusing on meeting higher
standards. The schools have to be able to meet these standards if you impose them.
Secretary Riley has helped 11 states to start new schools, and in the balanced budget plan
I submitted to Congress last week, there is $40 million in seed money to help start 3,000 more
charter schools over the next five years, which would be a tenfold increase. That may become
the order of the day. So I believe we need standards and accountability for students, for
teachers and for schools.
9
�Let me just mention two other things briefly. I don't believe you can possibly minimize
-- and a lot of the governors I know have been in these schools -- you cannot minimize how
irrelevant this discussion would seem to a teacher who doesn't feel·safe walking the halls of his
or her schools, or how utterly hopeless it seems to students who have to look over their
shoulders when they're walking to and from school. So I believe that we have to work together
to continue to make our schools safe and our students held to a reasonable standard of conduct,
as well.
You know, we had a teacher in Washington last week who was mugged in a hallway by
a gang of intruders -- not students, a gang of intruders who were doing drugs and didn't even
belong on the school grounds. We have got to keep working on that. All the federal
government can do is give resources and pass laws. That's another thing the business
community can help with, district after district. This entire discussion we have had is
completely academic uriless there is a safe and a disciplined and a drug-free environment in these
schools. (Applause.)
We passed the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Act, the Gun-Free Schools Act. We
supported random drug testing in schools. We have supported the character education
movement. We've almost ended lawsuits over religious issues by the guidelines that Secretary
Riley and the Attorney General issued, showing that our schools don't have to be religion-free
zones.
We have worked very hard to help our schools do their job here.
The next thing I hope we can do -- all of us -- in this regard, is to help to work our
schools stay open longer. Our budget contains $14 million for helping people set up these
community schools to stay open longer hours. But remember that 3:00p.m. in the afternoon
to 6:00p.m. in the evening are the peak hours for juvenile crime, and all that comes back into
the schools. So I think that's another thing we really need to look at. A lot of these schools
do not have the resources today to stay open longer hours, but they would if they could.
And one of the primary targets I would have if I were a local leader trying to redo my
district school budget is to reduce the amount spent on administration so that I could invest more
money in keeping it open longer hours, especially for the latch-key kids and the other kids that
are in trouble that don't have any other place to go. So that's something that I think is very
important.
Finally, let me just echo what Governor Miller said about the technology. We did have
a barn-raising in California, and we hooked up actually more than 20 percent of the classrooms
to the Internet on a single day. But we need every classroom and every library and every school
in America hooked up to the Internet as quickly as possible. We set a goal as the year 2000;
we could actually get there more quickly. I propose that in the budget, a $2 billion fund to help
the communities who don't have the money to meet the challenge, but every community, every
state in America, at least, has a high-tech community that could help get this done.
10
�The Congress passed a very fine Telecommunications Act that I signed not very long ago
which gives preferential treatment to people in isolated rural areas or inner-city areas for access
to schools and hospitals. So the infrastructure, the framework is there.
Anything you can do to help do that, I think is good if the educators use the technology
in the proper way. And I'll just close with this example. I was in the Union City School
District in New Jersey not very long ago. That school district was about to be closed under the
State of New Jersey's school bankruptcy law-- which I think, by the way, is very good, holding
school districts accountable, and they can actually lose their ability to operate as an independent
district in New Jersey and the state takes them over if they keep failing.
There are a lot of first-generation immigration children in that school, it was basically
a poor school. Bell Atlantic went in and worked with others. They put computers in all' the
classrooms, they also put computer outlets in the homes of a lot of these parents. And you had
-- I talked to a man who came here from El Salvador 10 years ago who is now E-mailing his
child's principal and teacher to figure out how the kid's doing.
But the bottom line is, the dropout rate is now below the state average and the test scores
are above the state average in an immigrant district of poor children, partly because of the
technology and partly because the business community said, hey, you kids are important, and
partly because the place has a good principal and good teachers.
But I do think that the business community -- if you look at the technology as an
instrument to achieve your higher standards and to infuse high expectations into the community
and to give the kids the confidence they need that they can learn, ~hen this technology issue is
a very important one.
Well, that's what I hope we'll do. I think we ought to have the standards, you should
set them. We'll support you however you want. But they won't work unless you're going to
really see whether the standards are being met and unless there are consequences to those who
. meet and to those who don't. I think you have to reward the good teachers and get more good
people in teaching, and that we have to facilitate the removal of those who aren't performing. ,
I think the schools need more authority and should be held more accountable. We've got
to redo these central school budgets until we have squeezed down the overhead costs and put it
back into education. And unless we have an environment in which there is safety and discipline,
we won't succeed. And if we do have an environment in which the business community brings
in more technology, we will succeed more quickly.
I believe that this meeting will prove historic. And again, let me say, I thank the
governors and. the business leaders who brought it about. In 1983, we said we've got a problem
in our schools, we need to take tougher courses, we need to have other reforms. In 1989, we
said we need to know where we're going, we need goals. Here in 1996, you're saying you can
have all of the goals in the world, but unless somebody really has meaningful standards and a
11
�•
system of measuring whether you meet those standards, you won't achieve your goals. That is
the enduring gift you have given to America's schoolchildren and to America's future.
The governors have to lead the way, the business community has to stay involved. Don't
let anybody deter you and say you shouldn't be doing it. You can go back home and reach out
to all the other people in the community because, in the end, what the teachers and the principals
and, more importantly, even what the parents and the children do is what really counts. But we
can get there together. We have to start now with what you're trying to do. We have to have
high standards and high accountability. If you can achieve that, you have given a great gift to
the future of this country.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END
1:00 P.M. EST
12
�---------------------------
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�08-21-96 12: 12PM
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"The L1ttle Eng1ne That Could"
By Hatty P1per
<Platt &Hun~. 1930>
Book Rev,ew
By Cha"cellor Donna E. Shalala
Untvers1ty of H\scons1n-Mad1son
March 1990
"Chug, chug, chug.
Puff. puff, puff.
As great
Dtng-dong, d1ng-dong."
opentng ltnes go. 1t's hardly tn the same class w1th "It was the best of
times.
It was the
w~rst
of t1mes. 11 But that ts how one of my all-time
favorite books begins, and I would argue that the last few 11nes
pac~
one of
th& best messages 1n 11terature.
"The L1ttle Eng\ne That Couldh was f1rst introduced to chtldren 60 years
ago as a moral tale told tn Sunday school.
author for years.
It wasn't even wr1tten down
by
tts
But the story of a tra1nload of toys that gets stalled at
the bottom of a mountn,n, when 1ts engfne can't go another inch, has
s1gn1f,cance that w111 last the rest of th1s century and
~1ght
on 1nto the
next.
for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading the story to a
child. 1t goes thts way: Stuck at the bottom of the mounta1n and worried, the
toys all get together to "ork on a solutton, to find a .substitute
haul them across to the
to~n.
One by one, pass1ng eng1nes refuse.
en~ine
to
Two of the
big engtnes, eas11y able to haul the 11ttle tratn, refuse on orounds that they
a~e
too important to both@r w\th mere toys.
old engtne, pleads exhaustion.
Another cand1date. a rustY. ttred
�08-2!-96 !2: l2PM
FROM OASPA NEWS DIY
p00'3/0 06
TO 94565709
f.
-2-
Then along comes a L1ttle Blue Eng1ne.
It 's what used to be called a
pony engtne, the kind used only for sw,tching cars fn the tra1n yard.
hea.rtbro~en
toys make a last appeal:
The
••w111 you pull us over the mounta1n?
Our eng1ne has broken down and the good boys and gtrls on the other s1de won't
have any toys to play v1th or good food to eat unless you help us."
Ne~t
many
comet the passage that has become part of the Engltsh langu.ge. and
others~
too.
Parents and schoo1 teachers can repeat 't fn thetr sleep.
The little engine gathers all her wfll and starts off:
says .. "I thfnk I can.
I thtnk I can.
I th1nk I
can.~
~I
think I can." she
The rest, of course,
1s h1story.
I've read those 11oes over and over to my favorite 11ttle people as well
as to grade-school classes I've vts1ted w1th over the years.
to hear that chant of
self-conf\d~nce
And I stfll love
and strong mot\vat\on 1o the face of
staggerlng odds.
"The Uttle Engine Tha·t Could .. was wrftten by Mabel Caro11ne Bragg, a
Massachusetts-born teacher who used the pseudonym Hatty P1per, and she
what ,twas 11ke to struggle up a h111 with grav1ty
aga1n~t
kne~
her. Orphaned as
a child, in an era when women•s work. outside the home was hardly commonplace.
Bragg became extremely tnfluenttal fn publ1c health and educat1on circles, and
even was sent overseas to teach educat1on methods as an.appo1ntee of Pres1dent
Hoover.
Her spec1a1 mark on h1story concerns a be11ef I share, that ch1ldren
can't learn unless thetr baste physical health 1s assured.
b1ggest h1t was "The L1ttle Eng1ne That
Could.~
As an author, her
�08-21-96 12: 12PM
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-3-
There's just about nothing this simple little book doesn't re,nforce.
gets the message across loud and clear:
Never g1ve up.
Help others.
It
Work
together.
When I read this book to 11tt1e children, I can see them sitting forward
1n the1r seats, all but urging the 11ttle tra'n up and over, no matter how
many times before they've heard the story read.
But- touraQe ln the face of d1scourag1ng odds isn't the only message.
the littlest engine, the humblest one, that ends up the victor.
judge people by the way they look.
They'll surprise you.
It's
You don't
The hast.
advantaged may have to try the hardest, but they'll go the farthest.
Those
aren't bad messages for any chtld to carry through ltfe.
But I don't th\nk ch1ldreh ·should be the only ones.
I'm not k1dd1ng when
I say that at certa.tn t1mes 1n my 11fe, when I've been really down. I•ve
caught myself saying silently. "I think I can.
tonce~hed, ~The
I think I can.''
As far as I'm
Little Eng1ne That Could" doesn't just belong on library
shelves or 1n the bedroom of the 11ttlest member of the family.
I thtnk execut1ves should keep 1t on the1r desks or 11brary shelves.
Maybe government leaders •. too.
administrators. for that matter.
5584t
Or college students.
And college
<I know one who does>.
�08-21-96 12: 12PM
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2
In the next few weeks, we will :t"each that des·tination and
pull into a station called security.
And when we do, the people who rode these buses across our
country will deserve the credit.
Thirty years ago, another group of freedom riders boarded
buses in cities like Baltimore and drove across this country to
deliver a message.
A message of fairness.
A message of equity.
A message of security.
Those rider~ -- and the civll rights victory they won --
earned a
pl~ce
in our history books.
And it earned every American a chance to live in peace and
justice.
I believe, each of you will earn a similar place in the
history books of tomorrow.
Before I took this job I was president of a Big Ten
university. I've read hundreds, even thousands of books.
But my favorite book is one that I'm sure all of· you are
familiar with.
~~---·······-···-~
..
It's the story about a little train that struggled to get up
~ mountain to bring food and toys to the children in a nearby
town.
The train had never been over a mountain before and wasn't
sure it could make it.
Some people told the train to cast aside some of its goods
and lighten its load so that it could get to the other side.
Others said the train should give up and go back to the
station and start over again n~Yt year.
Some of the bigger ehgines refused to help, telling the
little engine that he had to m~kc i t on his own.
But you and I know that the train kept going.
It used what we now call the powe:r. of positive thinking.
I think
I
can.
I think I can.
I think I can.
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3
And all of the children kept encouraging the train and
pushing it forward.
Of course the train made it over the mountain that night and
the children had a warm meal to eat and fun toys to play with the
next day.
Well, each of us has been pushing and pushing the little
health care reform for almost two years now and
we're getting near the mountaintop.
engine called
And that's making a lot of people very nervous.
The naysayerc in Wushington are telling us:
You know you can't.
can·t.
You know you can't.
You know you
We've here to say:
Yes, we
We've here to say:
We want universal coverage and we want
it now!
r.~nl
What do we want?
When do we want it?
----
~-·--···-·-
I have a challenge for that status quo crowd that's been
trying to follow you around this country.
When they say they think we can't achieve real health
reform, I ask them these basic questions:
Will your so-called reform proposals guarantee every
a comprehensive priv<;ltc health insurance plan Lha.L can
never be taken away?
~mt'!'!rican
Will your plan make sure that women~ and children, and the
elderly get the care they need to live their lives in good
health?
Will your plan make sure that gr.eat· institutions like th.is
one will be able to continue Bervin~ their communities"?
And will your plan kesp health insurance affordable and
within reacho:f hard-working, middle-class Americans who play by
the rules and go to work every day?
I think we all know the answers to these questions.
It's the same answer avery time.
�PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL LITERACY
BACON MEMORIAL LIBRARY
WYANDOTTE, MICHIGAN
AUGUST 27, 1996
Acknowledgments: Congressman John Dingell, Senator Carl Levin ...
Today, we stand on the edge of a new century. A time of great challenge and change,
but, especially, a time of remarkable possibility for all our people. My fellow Americans, I am
as confident as I have ever been that the future ahead is bright, brighter than all the days of our
magnificent past.
In every city and town of our great land Americans are rising up and coming together to
meet the challenges of our times-- and conquer them. We are doing it in a way that honors our
legacy by protecting our values, but looks to the future by embracing new ideas. It is not a
Democratic approach or a Republican approach-- it is a truly American approach.
They're having a great time in Chi'cago right now. I can't wait to get there, and I'm glad
I'm going on this train trip, because I want all Americans to see what's happening all across our
country ... America is on the right track to the 21st century!
As we take this trip through the heartland, we are seeing Americans in all walks of life,
mastering our challenges with new solutions based on old values. My Administration set out to
give our people the tools to meet our challenges. [cops, schools, econ, enviro]
We are coming together around our common values: Opportunity for all Americans to
build a great future, and responsibility from all Americans to make the most of it. That's the
basic bargain of America. And it thrives when we come together as a community. These are the
values that guide millions of Americans across our country every day, and they must guide
America into the future.
When I took office, our economy wasn't creating enough opportunity. Unemployment
was nearly eight percent; the deficit was out of control; new jobs were scarce. We put a
comprehensive economic plan in place to get the American economy back on track: cutting the
deficit, shrinking government, expanding exports, and investing in our people.
Look at the results: America is selling more cars than Japan for the first time in a decade.
The combined rate of inflation, unemployment, and mortgages is the lowest in 30 years. We have
cut the deficit by 60 percent. America has created more than 10 million new jobs. In [state
unemploymen.] We cut taxes for 15 million working families, including more than ... And real
1
�hourly wages are starting to rise for the first time in a decade.
We have seen recently just how much we can do when we put aside partisan politics and
use common-sense. In the last five days, I signed bipartisan legislation to reform health care so
families will never again be denied health insurance because a family member is sick; to end
welfare as we know it; and to give 10 million Americans a raise, by increasing the minimum
wage.
Now we must press forward.
Let us extend this season of progress by balancing the budget and meeting one of the
most important challenges we face -- improving the education of our children.
As America takes its place in the new global economy, it is clear that education is more
important than ever before. Education is literally the fault line that separates those who will
prosper from those who cannot in the 21st century. That is why over the last four years, my
Administration has spared no effort to improve the quality of American education and expand
the opportunity for all Americans to get the education they need to succeed.
We prevented budget cuts that would have crippled our efforts to double the size of
Head Start, to increase remedial reading and math and to double the number of anti-drug
counseling programs in our schools. We are committed to putting computers and software and
technologically trained teachers in every classroom by the Year 2000. Our efforts have paid
off. National math and science scores are up. SAT scores are up. Half of all four-year -olds
now attend preschool. And 86 percent of all ou~ young people are completing high school.
But, in the next four years, we must do even more to make sure America has the best
public schools on earth. That begins with setting high standards and high expectations for
teachers and students. America's students can be the best in the world, if we give them the
right standards, the right support and the right environment. This is so important. All the
economic opportunity in the world will not matter unless we have students who can read and
write and think at world-class levels.
The first step our children must make up the ladder of opportunity is to master the
basics. While math and science scores have gone up, reading scores for young children have
stayed flat. Reading is the most basic of basics. A child who never learns to read, will grow
into an adult who never has a chance. We have to help our children take this essential first
step. I believe that every American child should be able to read independently by the third
grade. Today, 40 percent of our children cannot read or write by the 3rd grade. Some learn
late; some never really learn at all. We can do better and we must.
The train trip that we are taking to Chicago reminds me of the childhood classic, "The
Little Engine That Could." It is the story about a tiny engine that beat the odds by willing
2
�-----------------
itself with the words, "I think I can, I think I can" to climb a steep mountain to deliver
Christmas toys for children. It is a story about courage and tenacity and exceeding your
limits. It is a tragedy that many of our young people today are not able to capture the wonder
and wisdom of that story simply because they have not learned how to read.
We can change this, if we all work together in a spirit of community that recognizes
that every child is precious and every child deserves a chance to succeed.
That is why today, I am challenging Americans from all walks of life to make sure that
all our children can read independently by the third grade. We want to mobilize 1 million
volunteer tutors to provide extra reading help, after school and during the summer, for the
millions of children in grades K-3 who are behind in their reading. My proposal calls for $2.5
billion to train and recruit volunteers for trained reading specialists and tutor coordinators,
who will provide instruction to
The first step in fulfilling this goal is to encourage every parent and every grandparent
in America to be a tutor. Parents are the first teachers our children know. And moments we
spend reading to them are some of the most precious moments we will ever know. So, take
time to spend time -- turn off the TV and read to your kids at least 30 minutes a day. And
make sure they get a library card. They will get more out of this gift than anything we will
ever give them.
While parents are their children's primary educators, helping every child become a
successful reader by the end of the third grade is everybody's business. That's why my plan
will support effective grassroots efforts that help parents help their children. I am challenging
the entire nation to take action to meet this goal. The PTA, the Girl Scouts, the Urban
League, religious institutions, the nation's 16,000 libraries, businesses and civic organizations
-- we all have a role to play. Many have already launched efforts, and a growing number of
states are rising to meet this challenge. But we need more grassroots involvement from every
sector of society.
This is the way America has always met its challenges --people working together in
their communities to protect our values and honor our commitments to each other.
If we take the actions I am proposing today, in the Year 2000, a diploma will mean
something: That every American child, educated anywhere in this country, has attained a
satisfactory level of knowledge and reading and math skills. A high school diploma will
proclaim to the world: this child has earned it.
For America to prosper and grow in the new century, it is imperative that every child
is able to read up to his or her highest level. This is more important than it has ever been in
our county's history because at this moment we are moving at a rapid rate toward a new
century. We are moving into an entirely different economy-- one that is more global and
3
�more competitive. We are moving away from the Industrial Age into the Information and
Technology Age. And we are moving into an era where most people will be working with
their minds far more than their hands, and many of them will be working in businesses and
industries that have not even been invented yet.
In this environment, literacy is not a luxury -- it is basic to expanding opportunity for
all our citizens. If our children cannot read, they will not be able to apply or qualify for the
good jobs that await them. They will not be able to take advantage of the enormous
opportunities of this exciting new economy. We have got to meet this challenge -- and we
have got to do it together.
The future of our children and our nation depends on our success.! want you all to think
about what kind of future you want for your children, about what kind of country you want
America to be in the 21st century. That's what this election is all about. Are we going to meet
our challenges and protect our values to make the 21st century the future we want for our
children? All across America, people are coming together and saying, "Yes."
New solutions for new challenges-- guided by values as old as America. We've got more
to do, and we are going to do it. I look to the future and I am filled with confidence. I want this
train trip to show all Americans what you see every day in f:Ill~~~~~T~America is on the right
V·r-~
track to the 21st century!
--
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
4
�PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL LITERACY
AUGUST 27, 1996
Today, we stand at the dawn of a new century. A time of great challenge and change,
but especially, a time of remarkable possibility for all our people. My fellow Americans, I am
as confident as I have ever been that the future ahead is bright, brighter than all the days of
our magnificent past.
They are having a great time in Chicago right now. I can hardly wait to get there.
And I can think of no better way to get there than to travel through our heartland, making
stops along the way in towns like Wyandotte to see what is happening all across our country.
America is on the right track to the 21st century.
In every city and town of our great land, Americans are coming together to meet the
challenges of our times. We are doing it in a way that protects our time-tested values, but
looks to the future by embracing new ideas. Opportunity for all Americas -- responsibility
from all Americas. That is the basic bargain of America. And it thrives when we come
together as a community.
On this journey, I have seen citizens taking responsibility to make their streets safer by
working with the community police officers we're putting on the beat. Small business owners
and big corporations, creating more opportunity through new jobs made possible by increased
exports to markets we have opened. Teachers, parents and principals, joining us as partners to
set the highest standards in our schools. And everywhere we go, we see living proof that
when America is united, nothing can stop us.
Just think about the enormous progress we have made together over the last four years.
The economy is stronger, the deficit is lower, and government is smaller. We began this
journey by putting a comprehensive economic plan in place to get the American economy back
on track. We were determined to make sure all Americans have the opportunity to share in
the benefits of today's economy: cutting the deficit, shrinking government, expanding exports,
and investing in our people.
We have also seen recently just how much we can do when we put aside the rancor of
partisan politics and use the common-sense approach of the American people. Last week, I
signed bipartisan legislation to reform health care so that workers won't lose coverage when
they move to a better job; to end welfare as we know it, and to reward work by raising the
minimum wage.
Let us extend this season of progress by balancing the budget and meeting one of the
most important challenges we face -- improving the education of our children.
As America takes its place in the new global economy, it is clear that education is more
important than ever before. Education is literally the fault line that separates those who will
�spend reading to them are some of the most precious moments we will ever know. So, take
time to spend time -- turn off the TV and read to your kids at least 30 minutes a day. And
make sure they get a library card. They will get more out of this gift than anything we will
ever give them.
While parents are their children's primary educators, helping every child become a
successful reader by the end of the third grade is everybody's business. That's why my plan
will support effective grassroots efforts that help parents help their children. I am challenging
the entire nation to take action to meet this goal. The PTA, the Girl Scouts, the Urban
League, religious institutions, the nation's 16,000 libraries, businesses and civic organizations
-- we all have a role to play. Many have already launched efforts, and a growing number of
states are rising to meet this challenge. But we need more grassroots involvement from every
sector of society.
This is the way America has always met its challenges -- people working together in
their communities to protect our values and honor our commitments to each other.
If we take the actions I am proposing today, in the Year 2000, a diploma will mean
something: That every American child, educated anywhere in this country, has attained a
satisfactory level of knowledge and reading and math skills. A high school diploma will
proclaim to the world: this child has earned it.
For America to prosper and grow in the new century, it is imperative that every child
is able to read up to his or her highest level. This is more important than it has ever been in
our county's history because at this moment we are moving at a rapid rate toward a new
century. We are moving into an entirely different economy -- one that is more global and
more competitive. We are moving away from the Industrial Age into the Information and
Technology Age. And we are moving into an era where most people will be working with
their minds far more than their hands, and many of them will be working in businesses and
industries that have not even been invented yet.
In this environment, literacy is not a luxury -- it is basic to expanding opportunity for
all our citizens. If our children cannot read, they will not be able to apply or qualify for the
good jobs that await them. They will not be able to take advantage of the enormous
opportunities of this exciting new economy. We have got to meet this challenge -- and we
have got to do it together.
The future of our children and our nation depends on our success.
�PRESIDENT WILLIAM' J. CLINTON
CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL LITERACY
AUGUST 27, 1996
Today, we stand at the dawn of a new century. A time of great challenge and change,
but especially, a time of remarkable possibility for all our people. My fellow Americans, I am
as confident as I have ever been that the future ahead is bright, brighter than all the days of
our magnificent past.
They are having a great time in Chicago right now. I can hardly wait to get there.
And I can think of no better way to get there than to travel through our heartland, making
stops along the way in towns like Wyandotte to see what is happening all across our country.
America is on the right track to the 21st century.
In every city and town of our great land, Americans are coming together to meet the
challenges of our times. We are doing it in a way that protects our time-tested values, but
looks to the future by embracing new ideas. Opportunity for all Americas -- responsibility
from all Americas. That is the basic bargain of America. And it thrives when we come .
together as a community.
On this journey, I have seen citizens taking responsibility to make their streets safer by
working with the community police officers we're putting on the beat. Small business owners
and big corporations, creating more opportunity through new jobs made possible by increased
exports to markets we have opened. Teachers, parents and principals, joining us as partners to
set the highest standards in our schools. And everywhere we go, we see living proof that
when America is united, nothing can stop us.
Just think about the enormous progress we have made together over the last four years.
The economy is stronger, the deficit is lower, and government is smaller. We began this
journey by putting a comprehensive economic plan in place to get the American economy back
on track. We were determined to make sure all Americans have the opportunity to share in
the benefits of today's economy: cutting the deficit, shrinking government, expanding exports,
and investing in our people.
We have also seen recently just how much we can do when we put aside the rancor of
partisan politics and use the common-sense approach of the American people. Last week, I
signed bipartisan legislation to reform health care so that workers won't lose coverage when
they move to a better job; to end welfare as we know it, and to reward work by raising the
minimum wage.
Let us extend this season of progress by balancing the budget and meeting one of the
most importan~ challeng~s we fac~,.-=}~ng tl]~duca~~of o~~~dren.
1)~ ~ -IY]ffcr~---- ~
As America takes its place ~ the new global economy, it is clear that education is more
important than ever before. Education is literally the fault line that separates those who will
�fl!l~~
?fll~b~ L--'c!f?r/Y
�. ..
prosper from those who cannot in the 21st century. That is why over the last four years, my
Administration has spared no effort to improve the quality of American education and expand (
/
1
the opportunity for all Americans to get the education they need to succeed.
~/
..,..,~
We prevented budget cuts that would have crippled our efforts to double the size of
Head Start, to increase remedial reading and math and to double the number of anti-drug ~
counseling programs in our schools. We are committed to putting computers and software and~ ___
technologically trained teachers in every classroom by the Year 2000. Our efforts have paid ~
off. National math and science scores are up. SAT scores are up. Half of all four-year -olds
now attend preschool. And 86 percent of all our young people are completing high school. ~--
~
But, in the next four years, we must do even more to make sure America has the best
public schools on earth. That begins with setting high standards and high expectations for
~
teachers and students. America's students can be the best in the world, if we give them the
right standards, the right support and the right environment. This is so important. All the
~U
economic opportunity in the world will not matter unless we have students who can read and
r1
write and think at world-class levels.
~
/
4t:
The first step our children must make up the ladder of opportunity is to master the
~
basics. While math and science scores have gone up, reading scores for young children have
~~
stayed flat. Reading is the most-basie-of-basiGs.-A_child-who-mwer-leams-to-read,-will_g~ ,..· ..A 1-- rlY'\
. into an adult~ chance. We have to help our children take this essential first
~~~'-'
step. !oeiieve that every A:meriCail child should be able to read independently by the third
~..._
grade. Today, 40 percent of our children cannot read or write by the 3rd grade. Some learn
~~ _
late; some never really learn at all. We can do better and we must. ~ _
The train trip that we are taking-to-ehicag'oreminds me of the-childhood elassic, "The
...----::%
Little Engine That Coul~It-is...--.------the story about a tiny engjn6llai
be3-t/tne/ od~Jj~ ~ willino/
itself with the w~ds-;-"I think I can, I think I can''---t<i.§l'iiTifia steep/mountain to~ eliyer~-.
. a story ab__out/ courage
.--.--.--.-- and)en3-c1ty
/ . ~d
//1. /--your
chnstmas
_!9-YS .--J:10r ch.ld
1 ren. It 1s
an exc~ectmg
limit~Ins a tragedy that many of~y6un~ople today_:are no~to---capjure the wonder
amMvisdom of that story simply.....because they have no&rned how to read.
~
We can change this, if we all work together in a spirit of community that recognizes
that every child is precious and every child deserves a chance to succned.
~r~
That is why today, I am challenging Americans from/all walks of life to make sure that ~all our children can read independently by the third grade/We want to mobilize 1 million
/~# ·
volunteer tutors to provide extra reading help, after school and during the summer, for the
millions of children in grades K-3 who are behind in their reading. My proposal calls for $~2.5 ~
billion to train and recruit volunteers for train~..r,e~g specialists and tutor coordinators,
~
who will provide instruction to ~
fo,
'LrJ
The first step in fulfilling this goal is to encourage every parent and every grandparent
in America to be a tutor. Parents are the first teachers our children know. And moments we
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Terry Edmonds
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
James (Terry) Edmonds
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1995-2001
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36090" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763294" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
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2006-0462-F
Description
An account of the resource
Terry Edmonds worked as a speechwriter from 1995-2001. He became the Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting in 1999. His speechwriting focused on domestic topics such as race relations, veterans issues, education, paralympics, gun control, youth, and senior citizens. He also contributed to the President’s State of the Union speeches, radio addresses, commencement speeches, and special dinners and events. The records include speeches, letters, memorandum, schedules, reports, articles, and clippings.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Extent
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635 folders in 52 boxes
Text
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Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Campaign for Universal Literacy 9/27/96 [1]
Creator
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Office of Speechwriting
James (Terry) Edmonds
Identifier
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2006-0462-F
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 33
<a href="http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/2006/2006-0462-F.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763294" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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Adobe Acrobat Document
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Reproduction-Reference
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12/9/2014
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42-t-7763294-20060462F-033-004-2014
7763294