[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.