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PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
�Tmp, WHITE HOUSE
Office :of the Press Secretary
January 20, 2000
For Immediate Release
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
I
AND THE FIRST LADY
,
AT COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY EVENT
, Presidential Hall
Executive Office Building
Eisenhow~r
1:55 P.M. EST
MRS. CLINTON: Welcome to the White House. And we are really a white White
House today with all of the snow. An~ we thank all of you for th~ considerable effort that you
went to to be here -- no one more thad Senator Schumer, who had to take the train and there was
. a lot of delay in that. So we are delig~ted to have you all here with us.
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It's an honor to be joined by so many people who have worked so hard on behalf of
improving access to education in ouricountry. I'm pleased that, ,n addition to Senator Schumer,
we are joined also by Congressman Rush Holt, who has been a leader on behalf of college
access. As a former college professqr that's an especially appropriate role for him to assume.
Secretary Slater, we're glad you coul;d be with us. And you'll ht1ar in a moment from Secretary
Riley.
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, The idea that we can transform lives in America through education is one that is
especially rooted in our own experi~nce, because each of us have seen over and over again what
a difference it can make. By opening the doors of college to more and more Americans; we will
. be extending the possibility of the American Dream to countless young, and not so young,
Americans into the 21st century. :
From the moment a child i~ born in our country, many of us have the,same question
lurking in the back of our minds, h,'ow am I going to pay for college? It's a vague concern at first,
when we worry more about toddlers bruising their knees and pre-schoolers getting ready to go to
school. But as the years progress ,and as our children begin high school, as they sign up for
SATs and the college brochures start coming in themail.our.pride in our children's future and
. our hopes for them is certainly mi;xed with some anxiety -- because we start looking at the
. numbers under the section on the iapplication marked "tuition." And then we look at the numbers
in our bank statements and wond6r again, how am I going to pay for college?
�The challenge of paying for college is one that has gotten even more acute in the last 20
years, because the average tuition has doubled, while median familY,incomes and'financial aid
have not kept pace. And this challenge tduches Americans in all inc~mes and from all walks of
life. Not just lower-income parents, but parents who, by most standards, are doing well, have
told me about sleepless nights worrying about how they will pay the tuition bil1s without going
broke or shortchanging their younger chi,ldren.' Mothers and fathers ,have talked about taking
second jobs or second mortgages, scrambling to make sure their children are not denied this
essential tool for their future. And youn~ people themselves, like those on the stage here with us:
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are graduating and incurring thousands df dollars of debt.
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I wonder how many worthy, but ,less lucrative professions, from teaching to social work
to public service, are losing many young people because they are too burdened by debt to afford
to take such jobs.
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At the turn of the century, we ar~ seeing not just how college education can open a path
to a better and brighter future, but how in many ways it has become the principal, the most
important path, that any of us can take the information age. In the coming years, the number
of new jobs requiring a bachelor's degree will grow almost twice ~ fast as the average for all
jobs. The three fastest-growing occup~hons, all of them in the field of technology, require at
least a bachelor's degree, and pay much higher than average for all: full-time workers.
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That's why it's more important than ever that we as a nation continue to make college
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more affordable for more Americans. for the past seven years, with the President's leadership
and the help of so many of you in this ,'oom, we've worked very hard to make the dream of a
college education a reality for millions: of Americans -- with new HOPE scholarships and
Lifetime Learning tax,credits, more w~rk-study opportunities, higher Pell grants, and more
affordable student loans. But we know that even with this progress, our work is not yet done.
Growing up in the 1950s, I saw how the G.I. Bill opened the doors of college for millions
of Americans who had never dreamed that they could go to college, and it really did fuel the
American middle class and the expanJion that so many of us have enjoyed and taken for granted.
Today, the challenge of paying for coilege, though, has become a: daunting one for that very
same middle class that was really created by the G.!. Bill.
In this era of unprecedented prosperity, at a time when higher education is not just an
advantage, but essential to individual! and n~tional progress, no qne who wants to improve his or
her prospects through education shou,ld have to risk poverty to gain that education. That's why,
as we balanced the budget, we must ~lso support targeted tax cuts to help middle class'
Americans afford college. We cannqt afford to keep college out of the reach of any American.
We'll hear in a moment from:a young woman who .can speak firsthand about the
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importance of college in her life, Nina McLaughlin. Arid she is 'speaking for not only the young
people here behind me and in this a~dience, but young people throughout America.
Over the past seven years, rye certainly spoken at or attended my share of college
commencements, and it always is o~e that brings tears to my eyes as I see the gt-aduates walking
�across the stage and proud parents and grandparents sitting in the audience, whether it's a small
private college or a great public land gradt university or a communitY college. So I think we're
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here today to recommit ourselves to making that experience truly available to every American.
I'm particularly grateful to Senator Schu~er for his hard work and leadership on this issue, and
so pleased he could join us.
And it's now my great privilege tp introduce someone who has been a champion for
education at all levels and really understtmds the importance of what we're doing today -- the
Secretary of Education, Richard Riley. CApplause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Nina, for being exhibit A fot the
announcement that we're here for today.: Thank you, Secretary. Riley, for your ieadership in
every aspect of education, and especially in this one.
,
I thank Secretary Slater for comfng. I expect he's here for two reasons. One is, Rodney
Slater grew up in a county that, when I}vas governor, was one of the 10 poorest counties in
America. And he happened to be a godd football player, and was able to go to college in
Michigan and play football. And he, la~er in his career, became an officer at a university in our
horne state. So he also is exhibit A for ;Why every child should be able to go to college.
I want to thank Representative Rush Holt for being here. He is not only a former
distinguished professor at Princeton, b6t he has a task force on access to higher education in his
congressional district. And the people;who live in his district actqally are among those who will
be most benefitted if this entire propos,hl passes, as we hope it will.
In their absence, I want to thank Congressman Ford and Senator Olympia Snowe, who
have been very, very strong on this isshe. And the two people I want to thank most, obviously,
are Senator Schumer and the First Laqy, who lobbied me relentleSsly on this for the better part of
a year. If you've ever been lobbied by: either one of them, you know -- (laughter) -- it's SOli of
like, are you going to say yes now, or put yourself through all this misery and say yes later? But
it's been very interesting. I'll say more about it in a moment. (Laughter.)
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We know when we open the doors to college, we open th¢ doors to opportunity. When
we make college more affordable, we' make the American Dream more achievable. That's.why
we're all here today. I'm glad there ru:e so many young people here today. They're probably
sorry that they're not really getting mit of school; they could have gotten out of school anyway -
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(laughter) -- but I'm glad you all cam~ and waited.
Some in Congress, I note, are saying that because this is an election year, we really .
shouldn't try to do anything for the Aimerican people. We're here today to give perhaps the most
powerful example for why we should reject that view. Nothing -::- not a national election or a
Washington snowstorm -- should get in the way of making a college education more affordable
. for all Americans. (Applause.) Students can't put off their growing up for a year; families can't
put offgoing to work for a year -- ~d neither should we.
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Today is a happy day fof, me. This is my 7th anniversary as President of the United
States. (Applause.) I am profoundly gra~eful for the long way we have come as a nation in these
last seven years; that today we have the lpwest poverty rate in 20 years, the lowest,
unemployment and welfare rates in 30 y~ars, the first back-to-back budget surpluses in over 40
years. I am grateful that we are coming tbgether; that we have the lowest African American and
Hispanic unemployment rates we have eyer recorded; that we have the lowest female.
unemployment rate in 40 years; the lowe;st single-parent household poverty rate in 46 years; and
that in the last couple of years we have ~nally begun to see a reversal in the increase in
inequality of in'comes of working people', which was going on for nearly three decades.
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So the family of America is growing stronger, and that is fundamentally a tribute to the
hard work and adaptability of the Ameripan people. It has also been helped along the way by our
hard-won economic strategy of increasing trade, getting rid of the deficit, and investing in the
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education of our people and in ~e econ~my in which they will live. .
More than ever, with 'globalizati~n and the information-based economy, investing in the
minds of oUf people is the most imp0l1ant thing we can do to assure our continued success as a
nation. But that has been the American/policy for quite a long time now. The land grant college
system was established under Abraham; Lincoln; the G.I. Bill after World War II; the Pell grants
in the 1970s; and the HOPE Scholarship in 1997. We have made education and access to higher
education a bipartisan; national priorityiforquite a long while.
You heard the other stories thatiwere told. I was sitting her:e thinking, I was the first
person in my family to go to college. ~nd I remember when I was accepted to Georgetown -
rather late, I might add, in the year. (Laughter.) And they gave me a $500 scholarship, for
which I was very grateful. And I think:the tuition back then was about $6,000, which 37 years
ago, -6 years ago, seemed likeall the IIt0ney in the world to me. And I was literally guilt-lidden
when I went off to college to think of t~e burden I was imposing on my family'..
And I remember we had a family meeting about it. I remember my high school guidance
counselor called me in the office and s~d I was nuts~ that I'd pay it back many times over in the
. future. But it bothered me a lot. And then later, as I stayed in sch:ocil and went on to law school,
. I was able to do it all because I had th~ help of scholarships and loans and jobs. And if I hadn't
had that help, there's no way in the w~'rld I would be standing here today. I know that.
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And because of the changes iruthe financial costs of higher education that Senator
Schumer talked about, and because o£the changes in the economy, it's even more important that
we do more today, not only for individual students, but for the health and well-being of the
American system.
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So that's why we're here. YoJ have already heard that w~ have been working on this hard
for seven years. We've more than doabled college aid in those seven years, increasing Pell
grants by more than 50 percent, rewri~ing the student loan prognim to make it easier and cheaper
to get student loans, and then importantly, to let students pay offtheir loans as a percentage of
�their income, so there would never be an tncentive for people who had those loans to drop out of
school for fear that they could never, repay them anyway.
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We established AmeriCorps, which now has allowed 150,000 of our fellow citizens to
serve in their communities and earn som~ money to go to college. We've expanded the work
study program from 700,000 to 1 millioniwork-study slots. We've allowed families to save more
in their IRAs and then to withdraw the money tax-free if it's being used to pay for a college
education.
:
And, of course, as Secretary Riley said, we created the $1,500 HOPE Scholarship tax
credit to make two years of high school ~fter education through a community college just as
universal as a high school education is tQday. That HOPE Scholarship tax credit and the
Lifetime Learning tax credit, which help:s families pay for the last two years of college, graduate
schools, o~ going back to school or to a training program, were designed to open the doors of
college to all, and to recognize that in this economy, learning must go on _for a lifetiine.
.
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And it's ,working. Today --liste* to this -- today, 67 percent of high school graduates will
be enrolling in college next fall. That's an increase of 10 percent just since 1993. But we know
we haven't truly succeeded in opening t~e doors ofcollege to all if you mean everybody who
wants to should be able to go to a four-year school and stay -- and stay -- until they finish.
Parents all across the country ar~ genuinely stretched. And parents in a surprisingly wide
range of income groups are stretched because of the loan eligibility, the Pell Grant eligibility
limits and other things. So today what Fe're attempting to do is to launch an agenda for higher
education and lifetime learning for. the 21 st century that will make college more affordable for
.
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more families and, in the process, genu,inely open the doors of college to everybody.
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But we also want to encourage more people to stay in college once they go. And we
want to do more to guide young peoplJ, starting in their middle school years, to be thinking
about college so that if they can't affor~ it, they'll be able to get in land go.
First, the centerpiece of this bu;dget for 'the 'coining year will be a landmark $30-billion
. college opportunity tax cut, to help mipions of middle-class families pay for college. It will give
families a tax deduction of up to $10,000 in tuition costs, providing as' much as $2,800 in much
needed tax relief. And as Senator Sch1umer said, this has' never been done before. .
.
' Now, let me tell you how this works. 1 am for this, and I believe it's the right thing to do.
But all of you need to know that we t~ink there's a pretty strict liIhit on whatthe total aggregate
tax cuts I can propose and sign into l~w is. I had to veto one last year, because I thought it was
too big. Why? Because the main thi?g that's brought us all along is the strength of our
economy, and that requires us, in my judgment, to keep this budget balanced, to keep running
surpluses, and to get this country out ,of debt over the next 15 years for the first time since 1835,
So as you might imagine, one: of the things that we have to do, we have these huge,
fascinating debates at this time every; year about what does or doesn't go in the administration's
budget. And that's where the arm-tWisting from Senator Schumer and the First Lady came in.
0
�And they made the compelling argument :-- and you heard Chuck say he and Olympia had this
bill in the Senate -- that there was no benyfit we could give to middle-class people that would
benefit more families more than this one,iand no benefit we could give to families that would
benefit America more than this one. '
:
So again, I say we know this idea: has bipartisan support, even in Washington. And I'll
bet you would have to take a magnifying'glass to find anybody out in the country who is against
it, once I can explain that it won't affect bur ability to balance the budget and payoff the debt.
So this is the core -- this has nev~r been done before by our country. And when you take
this, plus what we've done with the HOPE Scholarships, with the other lifetime tax credits, with
the Pell grants, with the work-study slotS and with the changes in th:e student loan program, we
will really be able to say, everybody wh~ wants to go to college can: go. It is important that it
pass, and I want to ask all of you to help; me to pass it in this sessio~ of Congress. (Applause.)
Nina talked a little about her situation; but she was too modest to tell you that she's on the
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Dean's List, so that helps her qualify fori additional scholarship aid. I But her father works
overtime when he can, her mother work~ two jobs. Now, what does all this mean to her? For
her family in their income group, with the HOPE Scholarship, the new college opportunity tax
cut would translate into a $4,300 tax br~ak for her family by the time her brother, George, enters
college. That's real money. That will make a difference to her family and it will make a
difference to America.
'This plan, I say again, is import~t for families, but it's also important for the state of our
economy. We give tax relief today for businesses that invest in new plants and equipment; in an
economy that runs on brain power we qught to give tax credits and tax cuts for people that invest
in that brain power. With this action
are much closer toward taking the worry out of paying
for a child's college education. We're a,hother step forward toward helping the middle class with
a targeted tax cut. And we're another step forward again in saying that we have literally opened
the doors of college to all. I am also pl~ased to announce that we will increase Pell grants to up'
to $3,500, and that will benefit nearly 4. million Pell grant recipien,ts. And that's important.
(Applause.)
we
Now, for all of you who are in higher education -- this is the second thing I want to say'
that's important -- the second element 9f our plan is to strengthen our efforts to help Americans
stay in college. We have really good Jiunibers now, and it's going to get better with, this -- with
,the number of young people going to college. But the dropout ratb is way, way too high, given
the needS of the economy and the ben~fits to young people in staying and getting their degrees.
One-third of the lowest-incom~ students drop out ofcollege and less than half of them
earn degrees within five years. Our bVdget will establish the college competition challenge
grants to reduce the dropout rate and improve the chances of success for nearly 18,000 of these
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students. We're also going to expand Ithe successful TRIO program to help even more students
stay in college. We will launch a dual degree initiative to expand opportunities for students at
minority' institutions to allow about 3,'000 minority students to earn a degree in fields where
minorities today are woefully under-r~presented.
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The third and final part of our higher. education agenda is focused on helping young
people get on the right track to college an1d to stay there. We need to encourage more students at
an early age to get them excited about ac~demic achievement and to give them a sense that they
actually can go to college and get a degrde, and have the life of their I dreams.
We passed an initiative we called:,Gear-Up, which does just that. It reaches out to middle
. school students who are at risk, using coVege students to mentor them -- to encourage them to set.
high expectations, to stay in school, to study. hard, to take the right courses to go to college, and
to make sure they know exactly what kirid of aid they would qualify: for, so they don't decide
when they're 12 or 13 or 14 that they won't be able to afford to go. ' ,
Our budget will double the num~er of students who can participate in Gear-Up to include'
1.4 million young people. Many of theIl} come from families where they would never entertain "
the prospect of going to college, and where the message they get no~ -- on the street, in the
school-- is that because of their circumstances, they won't be able t9 make it. We're giving them
the exact reversernessage: that they wili absolutely be able to mak y it. And young people in
universities all across America who have participated in mentoring these kids deserve the thanks
of" a grateful nation. We1re going to dou~le this program, and I hope you'll help us pass that as .
well. (Applause.)
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One more aspect of this is our. Ycmth Opportunity grants, under the leadership of
Secretary Herman at Labor, and the Y outhbuild initiative at HUD. These things are working
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again to reach young people who otherJise too often get left out and, left behind. Taken
together, these steps will provide famili~s with the college relief they need; students with the
support they need; our economy with th,e skilled work force we need; and our communities and
our nation with the better citizens we al~ need.
People who decide to invest in their futures through education are taking the long look
ahead, making sacrifices today for rew<l;rds tomorrow. That is the challenge we face today as a
nation. We have, for the first time in my lifetime, economic
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prosperity, social
progress, national self-confidence, the absence of serious crisis .at nome or paralyzing threat from
abroad. All those conditions have not ~xisted at one point in my lifetime. And it is imperative
that we take the long look ahead. There is no better way to make the most of this magic moment
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than by helping all Americans make the most of their God-given abilities.
!
Thanks for being here.
END
2:33 P.M. EST
�
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Lissa Muscatine - Press Office
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First Lady's Office
Press Office
Lissa Muscatine
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1993 - 1997
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36239" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431941" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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2011-0415-S
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<p>Lissa Muscatine first served in the Clinton Administration as a speechwriter. Within the First Lady’s Office, she served as Communications Director to the First Lady.</p>
<p>Lissa Muscatine’s records consist of materials from First Lady Hillary Clinton’s Press Office, highlighting topics such as health care, women’s rights, the Millennium Council, Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, and deal extensively with press interviews given by the First Lady; her domestic and foreign travel; and speeches and remarks, on a wide variety of topics, given by her before and during her time as First Lady. The records include interview transcripts, press releases, speeches and speech transcripts.</p>
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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1,324 folders in 27 boxes
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FLOTUS Statement and Speeches 10/16/99 - 4/28/00 [Binder]: [College Affordability Event - Washington D.C. 1/20/2000]
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<a href="http://clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/Systematic/2011-0415-S-Muscatine.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431941" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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7431941