[House Document 105-287]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



105th Congress 2d Session - - - - - - - - - - - - House Document 105-287


 
                           VETO OF H.R. 2646

                               __________

                                MESSAGE

                                  from

                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              transmitting

 HIS VETO OF H.R. 2646, THE ``EDUCATION SAVINGS AND SCHOOL EXCELLENCE 
                             ACT OF 1998''





July 21, 1998.--Veto message and bill referred to the Committee on Ways 
                  and Means and ordered to be printed


To the House of Representatives:
    I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 2646, the 
``Education Savings and School Excellence Act of 1998.''
    As I have said before, we must prepare our children for the 
21st century by providing them with the best education in the 
world. To help meet this goal, I have sent the Congress a 
comprehensive agenda for strengthening our public schools, 
which enroll almost 90 percent of our students. My plan calls 
for raising standards, strengthening accountability, and 
promoting charter schools and other forms of public school 
choice. It calls for reducing class size in the early grades, 
so our students get a solid foundation in the basic skills, 
modernizing our schools for the 21st century, and linking them 
with the Internet. And we must strengthen teaching and provide 
students who need additional help with tutoring, mentoring, and 
after-school programs. We must take these steps now.
    By sending me this bill, the Congress has instead chosen to 
weaken public education and shortchange our children. The 
modifications to the Education IRAs that the bill would 
authorize are bad education policy and bad tax policy. The bill 
would divert limited Federal resources away from public schools 
by spending more than $3 billion on tax benefits that would do 
virtually nothing for average families and would 
disproportionately benefit the most affluent families. More 
than 70 percent of the benefits would flow to families in the 
top 20 percent of income distribution, and families struggling 
to make ends meet would never see a penny of the benefits. 
Moreover, the bill would not create a meaningful incentive for 
families to increase their savings for educational purposes; it 
would instead reward families, particularly those with 
substantial incomes, for what they already do.
    The way to improve education for all our children is to 
increase standards, accountability, and choice within the 
public schools. Just as we have an obligation to repair our 
Nation's roads and bridges and invest in the infrastructure of 
our transportation system, we also have an obligation to invest 
in the infrastructure needs of our public schools. I urge the 
Congress to meet that obligation and to send me instead the 
legislation I have proposed to reduce class size; improve the 
quality of teaching; modernize our schools; end social 
promotions; raise academic standards; and hold school 
districts, schools, and staff accountable for results.

                                                William J. Clinton.
    The White House, July 21, 1998.





                                
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