    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [May 1, 1993]
    [Pages 550-551]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    May 1, 1993

        Good morning. It's the first day of May, and for many of our high
    school seniors it's time to begin thinking about their last final exams,
    packing up their rooms, and setting out on the adventures that will come
    in the next stage of their lives. Whether they are heading to college or
    looking for their first jobs, these students are getting ready to cross
    a threshold that will shape them and their futures as people and
    citizens.
        All of us have a big stake in whether these young people have
    opportunities for success. The great promise of American life has always
    been expanding opportunities for each succeeding generation,
    opportunities for education, for employment, for home ownership, for
    good health care for all those willing to work hard and play by the
    rules. I am determined that we won't ever lose that promise of American
    life.
        I sought this office because the dreams of working Americans were in
    deep danger. And I promised all of you that I would work my heart out to
    restore them. All the work we do in this administration springs from
    that determination and is rooted in our values, the values that have
    strengthened our families and given generations of Americans brighter
    futures than their parents, values that have made this Nation without
    peer, those of opportunity, responsibility, and community. With them, we
    propose putting Government back on the side of America's hard-pressed
    families.
        In the first 100 days of this administration we've tried to do that.
    We've worked hard to cut the big Government deficit, and interest rates
    are down, enabling millions of Americans to refinance their homes and
    get interest rates lower in business and consumer loans. We've made a
    long-term commitment to invest in jobs and education and technology.
    We've begun to reform the Government by cutting unnecessary spending and
    having tougher lobbying rules and moving to reinvent the whole way
    Government operates. And of course, we're facing the big crisis of
    health care, trying to guarantee security to all Americans and control
    costs so that we can move forward with the kind of basic health care
    that other people in other countries take for granted but that threatens
    to bankrupt America.
        In addition to that, I am determined to open the doors of college
    education and to give American students the opportunity to pay for it
    through a program of national service. In the last several years, the
    cost of a college education has become more important than ever before.
    And yet, those costs have gone up more than any other basic in American
    life, including health care. We've simply got to do something for all
    these high school seniors and all those coming along behind them to open
    the doors of college education and to help those now in college to stay
    in and to succeed.
        As a first step, I will ask Congress to approve legislation changing
    the terms of college loans. By giving our students a new way to finance
    college, we will be able to ensure that many more go and stay. This new
    method will be called an EXCEL account. With it, students will be able
    to repay the loans on a schedule based on a percentage of their future
    earnings and not just on the amount they borrow, as is the case today.
    This will be nothing less than liberating for many students who drop out
    of college because of financial strains or who graduate with big debts
    and then feel driven into careers with higher pay but lower
    satisfaction. A student torn between pursuing a career in teaching or
    corporate law, for example, will be able to make a career choice based
    on what he or she wants to do, not how much he or she can earn to pay
    off college debt.
        Another problem with the current student loan system is that far too
    many students default on their loans, costing taxpayers billions of
    dollars a year and adding to our deficit. Giving students the chance to
    pay their loans back as a small percentage of their incomes will reduce
    the default rate by making it possible for more students to repay. But
    we're also going to make it tougher for those who can repay the loans to
    avoid doing it by involving the IRS in the collection process so that
    those who work and

    [[Page 551]]

    pay taxes must also repay their loans. With this new opportunity must
    come new responsibility.
        But these EXCEL accounts are just the beginning. I also want to give
    tens of thousands of young people the chance to pay for part of their
    college education or advanced job training through a program of national
    service. With national service, we can open a new world to a new
    generation, one where higher learning goes hand-in-hand with a higher
    purpose of addressing our Nation's unmet needs, educational, social, and
    environmental. Things that will secure the future, we will all share
    together.
        Americans, without regard to age, will be able to earn credit
    against college costs before, during, or after college by working as
    tutors for children, volunteers at hospitals, as public safety officers,
    or in countless other grassroots community efforts that are working all
    across America today but need more help. College graduates can repay a
    portion of their loans by working as teachers or police officers in
    underserved areas. National service will mark the start of a new era for
    America, one in which every citizen can become an agent of change, armed
    with the knowledge and experience that a college education brings and
    ready to transform the world in which we live, city by city, community
    by community, block by block, person by person. National service will
    operate at the level Americans know best, the grassroots. Its programs
    will be locally driven, because we trust communities to know what works.
    And this program is designed and will succeed without a traditional
    Washington bureaucracy. And believe me, no one will miss that.
        Expanding opportunity, restoring responsibility, reviving our sense
    of community: these are the values that have always made our country
    strong. America has always succeeded when we've understood that we're
    all in this together. With national service, Americans can help
    themselves by helping each other. It's the best investment we could ever
    make in our future.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the
    White House.