[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 4, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5745-S5747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 Remarks by the President at Princeton University Commencement Address

       The President. Thank you very much. President Shapiro, 
     members of the faculty, alumni, to parents and friends of 
     this graduating class, especially to the graduates of the 
     Class of 1996--(applause.) Let me thank you co-Presidents, 
     George Whitesides and Susan Suh, who came to say hello to me 
     this morning; and compliment your valedictory address by 
     Bryan Duff, and the Latin address by Charles Stowell. I 
     actually took four years of Latin in high school. (Laughter.) 
     And even without being prompted, I knew I was supposed to 
     laugh when he was digging me about going to Yale. (Laughter.)
       I want to also thank Princeton for honoring the high school 
     teachers and the faculty members here for teaching, for today 
     we celebrate the learning of the graduates and we should be 
     honoring the teachers who made their learning possible. I 
     thank you for that. (Applause.)
       It's a great honor to be here in celebrating Princeton's 
     250 years. I understand that Presidents are only invited to 
     speak here once every 50 years. President Truman and 
     President Cleveland--you've got to say one thing, for all the 
     troubles the Democrats have had in the 20th century, we've 
     had pretty good timing when it comes to Princeton over the 
     last 100 years. (Laughter and applause.)
       I want to thank President Shapiro for his distinguished 
     service to higher education in our country. I thank Princeton 
     for its long and noble service to our Nation. I also am 
     deeply indebted to Princeton for the contributions it has 
     made to our administration and my presidency.
       My Press Secretary, Mike McCurry, sat in these seats in 
     1976. I'm sure that Princeton had something to do with the 
     fact that he not only thinks, but talks so fast. The Chair of 
     our National Economic Council, Laura Tyson, was a Princeton 
     Professor then, and Mike McCurry's thesis advisor. And you 
     got back from me Professor Alan Blinder, who was a 
     distinguished member of the Council of Economic Advisors and 
     the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and a brilliant 
     contributor to our efforts to improve the economy. I want to 
     thank Alan Blinder here among his colleagues and these 
     students for what he has done.
       I thank Tony Lake and Bruce Reed and John Hilley and Peter 
     Bass, all members of our staff who graduated from Princeton. 
     Two Princeton graduates who are no longer living--Vic Raiser 
     and his son, Monty, were great friends of mine. Vic's wife, 
     Molly, is here--our protocol chief. And if it hadn't been for 
     him I might not be here today, and I want to recognize their 
     contributions to Princeton and Princeton's gifts to them.
       I also want to say that one of my youngest staff members is 
     a classmate here--Jon Orszag. And when the ceremony is over 
     I'd like to have you back at work, please. (Laughter.)
       I would like to talk to the senior class today about not 
     only the importance of your education, but the importance of 
     everyone else's education to your future. At every pivotal 
     moment in American history, Princeton, its leadership, its 
     students have played a crucial role. Many of our Founding 
     Fathers were among your first sons. A president of Princeton 
     was the only university president to sign the Declaration of 
     Independence. This hall was occupied by the British since 
     1776, liberated by Washington's army in 1777, and as the 
     President said, sanctified forever to American history by the 
     deliberations of the Continental Congress in 1783.
       In 1896, the last time there was a Class of '96, when 
     Princeton celebrated its 150th anniversary and, as has been 
     said, Grover Cleveland was President, Professor Woodrow 
     Wilson gave his very famous speech, ``Princeton in the 
     Nation's Service.'' I read that speech before I came here 
     today. And I'd like to read just a brief quote from it: 
     ``Today we must stand as those who would count their force 
     for the future. Those who made Princeton are dead. Those who 
     shall keep it and better it still live. They are even 
     ourselves.'' What he said about Princeton 100 years ago 
     applied then to America and applies to America even more 
     today.
       At the time of that speech 100 years ago, America was 
     living as it is living today, through a period of enormous 
     change. The Industrial Age brought incredible new 
     opportunities and great new challenges to our people. 
     Princeton, through Wilson and his contemporaries, was at the 
     center of efforts to master these powerful forces of change 
     in a way that would enable all Americans to benefit from them 
     and protect our time-honored values.
       Less than 3 years after he left this campus, Woodrow Wilson 
     became President of the United States. He followed Theodore 
     Roosevelt as the leader of America's response to that time of 
     change. We now know it as the Progressive Era.
       Today, on the edge of a new century, all of you--our Class 
     of '96--are living through another time of great change, 
     standing on the threshold of a new Progressive Era. Powerful 
     forces are changing forever our jobs, our neighborhoods, the 
     institutions which shape our lives. For many Americans, this 
     is a time of enormous opportunity. But for others, it's a 
     time of profound insecurity. They wonder whether their old 
     skills and their enduring values will be enough to keep up 
     with the challenges of this new age.
       In 1996, like 1896, we really do stand at the dawn of a 
     profoundly new era. I have called it the Age of Possibility 
     because of the revolution in information and technology and 
     market capitalism sweeping the globe--a world no longer 
     divided by the Cold War. Just consider this: There's more 
     computer power in a Ford Taurus every one of you can buy and 
     drive to the supermarket than there was in Apollo 11 when 
     Neil Armstrong took it to the moon. Nobody who wasn't a high-
     energy physicist had even heard of the World Wide Web when I 
     became President. And now even my cat, Socks, has his own 
     page.

[[Page S5746]]

      (Laughter.) By the time a child born today is old enough to 
     read, over 100 million people will be on the Internet.
       This Age of Possibility means that more Americans than ever 
     before will be able to live out their dreams. Indeed, for all 
     of you in the Class of '96, this Age of Possibility is 
     actually an age of high probability, in large measure because 
     of the excellent education you celebrate today.
       But we know that not all Americans see the future that way. 
     We know that about half of our people in this increasingly 
     global economy are working harder and harder without making 
     any more money; that about half of the people who lose their 
     jobs today don't ever find another job doing as well as they 
     were doing in their previous one.
       We know that, therefore, our mission today must be to 
     ensure that all of our people have the opportunity to live 
     out their dreams in a nation that remains the world's 
     strongest force for peace and freedom, for prosperity, for 
     our commitment that we can respect our diversity and still 
     find unity.
       This is about more than money. Opportunity is what defines 
     this country. For 220 years, the idea of opportunity for all 
     and the freedom to seize it have literally been the defining 
     elements of America. They were always ideals never perfectly 
     realized, but always our history has been a steady march of 
     striving to live up to them.
       Having these ideals achievable, imaginable for all is an 
     important part of maintaining our sense of democracy and our 
     ability to forge an American community with such disparate 
     elements of race and religion and ethnicity across so many 
     borders that could so easily divide this country.
       And so I say to you, creating opportunity for all, the 
     opportunity that everyone has, that many of you are now 
     exercising, dreaming about your future--that is what you must 
     do in order to make sure that this Age of Possibility is 
     really that for all Americans.
       When I took office, I was concerned about the uncertain 
     steps our country was taking for that future. We'd let our 
     deficit get out of hand, unemployment had exploded, job 
     growth was the slowest since the Great Depression. The 
     country seemed to be coming apart when we needed desperately 
     to be coming together.
       I wanted to chart a new course, rooted first in growth and 
     opportunity--first, to put our economic house in order so 
     that our businesses could prosper and create jobs; second, to 
     tap the full potential of the new global economy; third, to 
     invest in our people so that they would have the capacity to 
     meet the demands of this new age and to improve their own 
     lives.
       This strategy is in place, and it is working. The deficit 
     is half of what it was. The Government is now the smallest 
     it's been in 30 years. As a percentage of the Federal work 
     force, the federal government is the smallest it's been 
     since 1933, before the beginning of the New Deal. We 
     signed over 200 trade agreements. Our exports are at an 
     all-time high. Fifteen million of our hardest-pressed 
     people have gotten tax cuts. Most of the small businesses 
     have as well.
       We've invested in research and defense transformations. 
     We've invested in new technologies. And we've invested in 
     environmental protection and sustainable development. And I 
     will say, parenthetically, the great challenge of your age 
     will be to prove that we can bring prosperity and opportunity 
     to people all across the globe without destroying the 
     environment, which is the precondition of our successful 
     existence. And all of you will have to meet that challenge, 
     and I challenge you to do it. (Applause.)
       Our economy, while most of the rest of the world was in 
     recession, has produced 8.5 million new jobs, the lowest 
     combined rates of inflation, unemployment and home mortgages 
     in three decades, the lowest deficit as a percentage of our 
     income of any advanced economy in the world, 3.7 million more 
     American homeowners, and record numbers of new small 
     businesses in each of the last 3 years.
       We are doing well, but we must do better if we are going to 
     make the promise of this new age real to all Americans. That 
     means we have to grow faster. How fast can we grow? No one 
     knows the exact answer to that. But if we look at the long-
     term, if we believe in our people and invest in them and 
     their opportunities, and our people take responsibility, the 
     sky is the limit.
       We must look with the greatest skepticism toward those who 
     promise easy and quick solutions. We know that the course 
     that leads to long-term growth is in the minds and spirits 
     and ideas and discipline and effort of people like those of 
     you who graduate here today. We are on the right course; we 
     must accelerate it, not veer from it.
       We have to finish the job we started in 1993 and balance 
     the budget--not only because we want to free you and your 
     children of the legacy of debt, but because that will keep 
     interest rates down, increase savings, expand companies, 
     start new small businesses, help more families buy homes and 
     more parents send their children to college.
       We know we have to continue to fight for fair and open 
     trade because we proved now if other markets are as open to 
     our products and services as we are to theirs, we'll do just 
     fine. We know we have to do more to help all Americans deal 
     with the economic changes of the present day in a more 
     positive way by investing in the future and targeting tax 
     cuts to help Americans deal with their own problems and build 
     strong families.
       We know we have to continue to invest in the things that a 
     government needs to invest in, including research and 
     development, and technology, and environmental protection. We 
     know that since so many people will have to change jobs more 
     often than in the past, we have to give families the security 
     to know that if they change jobs they can still carry with 
     them access to health care and pensions and education for a 
     lifetime.
       But finally and most importantly, if we really want 
     Americans--all Americans--to participate in the future that 
     is now at your fingertips, we have got to increase the 
     quality and the level of education not just for the graduates 
     of Princeton and Georgetown and Yale and the state 
     universities of this country, but for all the American 
     people. It is the only way to achieve that goal. (Applause.)
       The very fact that we have been here or our forebears have 
     for 250 years is testimony to the elemental truth that 
     education has always been important to individual Americans. 
     And for quite a long time, education has been quite important 
     to our whole country. Fifty years ago when the Class of '46 
     was here, coming in after World War II the G.I. Bill helped 
     to build a great American middle class and a great American 
     economy. But today, more than ever before in the history of 
     the United States, education is the fault line, the great 
     Continental Divide between those who will prosper and those 
     who will not in the new economy.
       If you look at the census data, you can see what happens to 
     hard-working people who have a high school diploma or who 
     drop out of high school and try to keep up in the job market, 
     but fall further and further behind. You can also see that if 
     all Americans have access to education, it is no longer a 
     fault line, it is a sturdy bridge that will lead us all 
     together from the old economy to the new.
       Now, we have to work to give every American that kind of 
     opportunity. And we've worked hard to do it--from increasing 
     preschool opportunities, to improving the public school 
     years, to increasing technology in our schools. And this 
     spring the Vice President and I helped to kick off a Net 
     Day in California where schools and businesses and civic 
     leaders hooked up nearly 50 percent of the schools to the 
     Internet in a single weekend. What I want to see is every 
     schoolroom and every library in every school in America 
     hooked up to the Internet by the end of the year 2000. We 
     can do that. (Applause.)
       And I am very proud that I was asked to announce today that 
     a coalition of high-tech companies, parents, teachers and 
     students are launching Net Day New Jersey this week to 
     connect over a thousand schools in New Jersey to the Internet 
     by this time next year. That will make a huge difference in 
     making learning more democratic and information more 
     accessible in this country. I thank them for that. Every 
     single person in New Jersey who will be a part of that. 
     (Applause.)
       But we have to face the fact that that is not enough. We 
     have to do more. Just consider the last 100 years. At the 
     turn of the century, the progressives made it the law of the 
     land for every child to be in school. Before then there was 
     no such requirement. After World War II, we said 10 years are 
     not enough, public schools should extend to 12 years. And 
     then, as I said, the G.I. Bill and college loans threw open 
     the doors of college to the sons and daughters of farmers and 
     factory workers. And they have powered our economy ever 
     since.
       America knows that higher education is the key to the 
     growth we need to lift our country. And today that is more 
     true than ever. Just listen to these facts. Over half the new 
     jobs created in the last 3 years have been managerial and 
     professional jobs. The new jobs require higher-level skills. 
     Fifteen years ago the typical worker with a college degree 
     made 38 percent more than a worker with a high school 
     diploma. Today, that figure is 73 percent more. Two years of 
     college means a 20-percent increase in annual earnings. 
     People who finish 2 years of college earn a quarter of a 
     million dollars more than their high school counterparts over 
     a lifetime.
       Now, it is clear that America has the best higher education 
     system in the world, and that it is a key to a successful 
     future in the 21st century. It is also clear that because of 
     cost and other factors, not all Americans have access to 
     higher education.
       I want to say today that I believe the clear facts this 
     time make it imperative that our goal must be nothing less 
     than to make the 13th and 14th years of education as 
     universal to all Americans as the first 12 are today. 
     (Applause.)
       We have put in place an unprecedented college opportunity 
     strategy: Student loans can now be given directly to people 
     who need them, with a provision to repay them based on the 
     ability of the graduate to pay--based on income. This is a 
     dramatic change which is making loans more accessible to 
     young people who did not have them before. Americorps, which 
     by next year will have given over 65,000 young people the 
     chance to earn their way through college by serving their 
     country and their communities. More Pell Grants, scholarships 
     for deserving students every year.
       Now we want to go further; we want to expand work-study so 
     that a million students can work their way through college by 
     the year 2000. We want to let people use money from their 
     Individual Retirement accounts

[[Page S5747]]

     to help pay for college. We want every honor student in the 
     top 5 percent of every high school class in America to get a 
     $1,000 scholarship.
       And we also want to do some other things that I believe we 
     must do to make 14 years of education the standard for every 
     American. First, I have asked Congress to pass a $10,000 tax 
     deduction to help families pay for the cost of all education 
     after high school--$10,000 a year. (Applause.)
       Today I announced one more element to complete our college 
     strategy and make those 2 years of college as universal as 4 
     years of high school--a way to do it, by giving families a 
     tax credit targeted to achieve that goal and making clear 
     that this opportunity requires responsibility to receive it.
       We should say to Americans who want to go to college, we 
     will give you a tax credit to pay the cost of tuition at the 
     average community college for your first year, or you can 
     apply the same amount to the first year in a 4-year 
     university or college. We will give you the exact same cut 
     for the second year, but only if you earn it by getting a B 
     average the first year. A tax deduction for families to help 
     them pay for education after high school; a tax credit for 
     individuals to guarantee their first year of college and the 
     second year if they earn it.
       This is not just for those individuals, this is for 
     America. Your America will be stronger if all Americans have 
     at least 2 years of higher education.
       Think of it: We're not only saying to children from very 
     poor families who think they would never be able to go to 
     college, people who may not have stellar academic records in 
     high school, if you're willing to work hard and take a 
     chance, you can at least go to your local community college 
     and we'll pay for the first year. If you're in your 20s and 
     you're already working, but you can't move ahead on a high 
     school diploma, now you can go back to college. If you're a 
     mother planning to go to work, but you're afraid you don't 
     have the skills to get a good job, you can go to college. If 
     you're 40 and you're worried that you need more education to 
     support your family, now you can go part-time, you can go at 
     night. By all means, go to college and we'll pay the tuition.
       I know this will work. When I was the governor of my home 
     state, we created academic challenge scholarships that helped 
     people who had good grades and who had good behavior to go to 
     college. But my proposal today builds mostly on the 
     enormously successful HOPE Scholarships in Georgia, which 
     guaranteed any student in the state of Georgia free college 
     as long as they had a B average. This year those scholarships 
     are helping 80,000 students in the state of Georgia alone--
     including 70 percent of the freshmen class at the University 
     of Georgia.
       In recognition of Georgia's leadership, I have decided to 
     call this proposal America's HOPE Scholarships. And I want to 
     thank the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, who developed 
     this idea. I also would like to recognize him--he came up 
     here with me today--and thank him for the contribution that 
     he is now going to make to all of America's future.
       Governor Miller, where are you? Would you please stand up? 
     Here he is. Thank you.
       Let me say, as all of you know, money doesn't grow on trees 
     in Washington, and we're not financing deficits anymore. I'm 
     proud to say, as a matter of fact, for the last 2 years our 
     budget has been in surplus, except for the interest necessary 
     to pay the debt run up in the several years before I became 
     President. So we are doing our best to pay for these 
     programs. And this program will be paid for by budgeted 
     savings in the balanced budget plan. We cannot go back to the 
     days of something for nothing or pretend that in order to 
     invest in education we have to sacrifice fiscal 
     responsibility.
       Now, this program will do three things. It will open the 
     doors of college opportunity to every American, regardless of 
     their ability to pay. Education at the typical community 
     college will now be free. And the very few states that have 
     tuition above the amount that we can afford to credit, I 
     would challenge those states to close the gap. We're going to 
     take care of most of the states. The rest of them should help 
     us the last little way.
       Second, it will offer free tuition and training to every 
     adult willing to work for it. Nobody now needs to be stuck in 
     a dead-end job or in unemployment. And finally, this plan 
     will work because it will go to people who, by definition, 
     are willing to work for it. It's America's most basic 
     bargain. We'll help create opportunity if you'll take 
     responsibility. This is the basic bargain that has made us a 
     great Nation.
       I know that here at the reunion weekend the Class of '46 
     has celebrated its 50th reunion. And I want to just mention 
     them one more time. Many members of the Class of '46 fought 
     in the second world war. And they came home and laid down 
     their arms and took up the responsibility of the future with 
     the help of the G.I. Bill. That's when our Nation did its 
     part simply by giving them the opportunity to make the most 
     of their own lives. And in doing that, they made America's 
     most golden years.
       The ultimate lesson of the Class of 1946 will also apply to 
     the Class of 1996 in the 21st century. Because of the 
     education you have, if America does well, you will do very 
     well. If America is a good country to live in you will be 
     able to build a very good life.
       So I ask you never to be satisfied with an age of 
     probability for only the sons and daughters of Princeton. You 
     could go your own way in a society that, after all, seems so 
     often to be coming apart instead of coming together. You 
     will, of course, have the ability to succeed in the global 
     economy, even if you have to secede from those Americans 
     trapped in the old economy. But you should not walk away from 
     our common purpose.
       Again I will say this is about far more than economics and 
     money. It is about preserving the quality of our 
     democracy, the integrity of every person standing as an 
     equal citizen before the law, the ability of our country 
     to prove that no matter how diverse we get, we can still 
     come together in shared community values to make each of 
     our lives and our family's lives stronger and richer and 
     better. This is about more than money.
       The older I get and the more I become aware that I have 
     more yesterdays than tomorrows, the more I think that in our 
     final hours, which all of us have to face, very rarely will 
     we say, gosh, I wish I'd spent more time at the office, or if 
     only I'd just made a little more money. But we will think 
     about the dreams we lived out, the wonders we knew when we 
     were most fully alive. This is about giving every single, 
     solitary soul in this country the chance to be most fully 
     alive. And if we do that, those of you who have this 
     brilliant education, who have been gifted by God with great 
     minds and strong bodies and hearts, you will do very well and 
     you will be very happy.
       In 1914, Woodrow Wilson wrote as President, ``The future is 
     clear and bright with the promise of the best things. We are 
     all in the same boat. We shall advance and advance together 
     with a new spirit.'' I wish you well, and I pray that you 
     will advance, and advance together with a new spirit.
       God bless you and God bless America. (Applause.)

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