    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [October 22, 1994]
    [Pages 1834-1837]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to Students at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California
    October 22, 1994

        It's nice to be back in California. It's nice to be here in Belmont.
    It's nice to be here at Carlmont High School. I'm honored to be the
    first President to come here. And it's only fair that I came here to see
    your principal, since he didn't get to come and see me. Now that should
    not be interpreted as a sign of dissatisfaction with the lady who got to
    be the principal of the year, but he would have made an awful good one.
    [Laughter] And he sounds to me like the principal of the year here.
        I want to say how very honored I am to be here with all of you. I
    thank Mayor Rianda for her welcome, Mayor Davids for what he said. I
    thank them for their leadership and their devotion to public service at
    the grassroots level, where so many of our problems and challenges have
    to be met. I thank Congressman Lantos and Congresswoman Eshoo for not
    only being my friends but for their extraordinary service in Washington.
    I can tell you that there is this popular feeling, I think, that nearly
    everybody who goes off to Washington has something bad happen to them
    and forgets about the folks back home; they do not. And they represent
    you well, and you should be very proud of them. I'm also very pleased to
    be joined today by your State treasurer, Kathleen Brown, and your State
    insurance commissioner, John Garamendi. Thank you, John. I'd like to
    introduce one other person, too, who is my partner in these education
    endeavors, a former colleague of mine and former Governor of Vermont and
    now the Deputy Secretary of Education, who's come all the way from
    Washington with me today, Governor Madeleine Kunin. Please make her feel
    welcome. [Applause] I want to say a little more about Senator Feinstein
    in a moment, in connection with this work, but I appreciate what she
    said today.
        But let me begin by saying that, as all of you know, I had the
    opportunity to spend a great deal of time in this magnificent State of
    yours a couple of years ago. And since I have been President, I think
    I've been back here a dozen times. I've worked on emergencies for
    California, like the earthquake and the fires. I've worked on trying to
    get the economy of this State going again, to sell computers overseas,
    to sell the farmers' rice to Japan for the first time, to start the
    shipbuilding industry in the southern part of the State, to help the
    defense conversion momentum really get going here so we could build a
    lot of jobs out of this defense downsizing and not just lose them. I've
    tried to do things that would help you deal with the

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    crime and the immigration problems, real, concrete steps, not just talk
    about it. Ten thousand more police officers will come to California
    under the crime bill. We have doubled the number of immigration officers
    along the southern border of the State. We've begun to have a real
    impact in dealing with the problem of illegal immigration.
        But what I want to say to you is that over the long run, if we are
    going to have a bright future for the people of the United States, and
    if California is going to work--and it can work, you look around at the
    students here, look at all the different ways they found to say welcome
    to me up there--if this country is going to work, and this State is
    going to work, then schools like this school have to work all across
    America. We have to prove that there is strength, not weakness, in our
    diversity. We have to prove that all children can learn. And we have to
    prove that with all the changes that we're going through in America
    today, we can still give our kids an old-fashioned, safe upbringing and
    a good education, because that is the key to the future of the global
    economy.
        One of the least known stories, perhaps, of the recent concluded
    session of Congress is that it was the best session for education in at
    least three decades. [Applause] That's worth clapping for. I appreciate
    that. This Congress expanded the Head Start program, making more
    children eligible and making younger children eligible. This Congress
    passed the Goals 2000 bill, writing into national law our national
    education goals, world-class standards, and saying that we would help to
    develop means of measuring whether we're meeting those standards but
    emphasizing that education reform has to come from the grassroots,
    school by school.
        Just a couple of days ago I signed the elementary and secondary
    education act, which dramatically reduces the Federal regulations
    telling schools how to spend the money we give them to help kids who
    need extra help in school and encourages schools to do things that will
    actually prove that children can learn without regard to their racial or
    economic background. The bill also, as Senator Feinstein said, helps to
    support safe schools initiatives and promotes the concept of character
    education when basic civic values to be taught in the schools are
    developed at the community level.
        We also passed a bill for young people who don't go to college but
    do want to get good education, an apprenticeship bill to help every
    State in the country develop a system to guarantee that even those who
    don't go to college will have a chance to get some further education and
    training and get a good job with a prospect of a growing income.
        Finally, and perhaps most important, we dramatically reorganized the
    system by which the National Government makes college loans available,
    not only to low income but also to middle class young people.
        One of the things that's always bothered me in the last couple of
    years is seeing the cost of a college education go up faster than any
    other essential part of a family's budget, even more rapidly than health
    care costs. In my own State, I saw young people start college and then
    drop out because they either couldn't get loans or they were convinced
    they would never be able to repay them. Then I saw young people get out
    of college with big debts and take jobs that paid higher wages, not
    because they wanted them but because they were afraid they couldn't
    afford to do something they really wanted to do, like work with people
    in the community to help kids get a better start or be schoolteachers or
    police officers or do other things, because they were afraid they could
    never repay their college loan.
        Under this system, you won't have to worry about that anymore when
    you become of age and you get out of high school. You'll be able to
    choose to borrow money and pay it back over a longer period of time at a
    lower interest rate as a percentage of your income, so that if you
    choose to serve the public and you choose not to get rich, you at least
    won't be driven into the poor house by the cost of your college
    education.
        The last thing the Congress did was to pass a program that's already
    being felt here in California, the national service program, AmeriCorps,
    to give young people the chance to serve their communities and earn
    money for their college education. This year, 20,000 young Americans are
    doing it; year after next, 100,000 young Americans are doing it. If the
    Congress will continue to support it, I am convinced we can have as many
    as a half a million young Americans paying their way to college by
    solving the problems of this country one on one, person by person, at
    the grassroots level all across America. And I thank the Congress for
    that record of education reform.

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        Now, having said that, let me come to the point. Education still
    does not occur in Washington. Education occurs school by school, class
    by class, student by student. The magic of education is in what happens
    between the teachers and the students, what the role of the principal
    is, whether the parents are supportive at home, what is going on inside
    the student. None of that can happen in an atmosphere of fear.
        We all know stories, horrible stories of children being shot or cut
    or terrorized. When I was in California last year, I did a town meeting
    and a young man from northern California told me that he and his brother
    changed schools because they thought the school they were in was so
    dangerous. And then when they lined up to register in the new school
    they thought was safer, somebody just came in the school door and shot
    his brother, standing right there in line to register. He just happened
    to be in the wrong place.
        You would not believe the letters I get from children of all ages
    begging me to do something about the violence that terrorizes their
    lives. You may have seen me read a letter that I got from a young man
    from New Orleans, when the crime bill was being debated, who said, ``I
    know you can do something about crime, and I am frightened.'' That young
    man was shot a couple of weeks after he wrote a letter to me.
        I got a letter after the crime bill was signed from the son of a
    friend of mine in my administration who said, ``I have a nice family. We
    have a high income. We live in a good neighborhood. I go to a good
    school. My friends and I are still scared every time I go downtown to
    the movies. I feel better now that the crime bill has been signed.''
        We cannot operate in a country where children are afraid and cannot
    feel, much less think. You cannot learn in that kind of atmosphere. That
    is why, as the principal said, we're trying to be tough and firm and
    strong in some of these critical areas. That's why we had to pass the
    Brady bill. That's why we had to pass the crime bill. That's why we
    adopted Senator Feinstein's amendment to ban assault weapons on the
    streets of our cities. And that's why we come here today to sign this
    executive order. I know here in this high school you already have a zero
    tolerance policy for guns, and I applaud you for it. I applaud your
    principal, and I applaud the students who support it. Now students all
    over the country, their parents, their teachers, their principals will
    be required to meet the challenge that you have met, to follow your
    example. Students have to take the lead to take responsibility for this.
    We can do better, and we must.
        ``Zero tolerance'' is a commonsense policy. Why does anybody need to
    have a gun in school? That's why this order directs the Secretary of
    Education to withhold funding the States that don't comply with the law.
    Young people simply should not have to live in fear of young criminals
    who carry guns to school.
        And again I will say, just like the assault weapons, this bill is in
    the Federal law because Senator Feinstein sponsored it and demanded it.
    And we got it thanks to her efforts and those of Senator Dorgan, and I
    thank them both.
        As I sign this order, just before I do, I want you to think about
    it, all of you students here. What are you going to do? What are you
    personally going to do about what's going on? That's really what counts.
    We can have this rule, and fewer people will bring guns to schools. We
    also need fewer guns on our streets. One of the things in the crime bill
    is the banning of juvenile possession of handguns unless the juvenile is
    under the supervision of an adult. We are doing all we can to pass laws.
    But in the end your future will be decided by what is inside you, what
    you decide to do.
        I think all Americans have been very moved--I know I certainly
    have--by the sight of the Haitian people getting their freedom back and
    President Aristide going back, to bring democracy back to Haiti. You
    know, one of his biggest challenges after all the violence that those
    people have suffered is to make sure that his own supporters now do not
    resort to violence to retaliate. Why is violence going up so much among
    young people in our country? Violence begets violence, begets violence,
    begets violence. It has to end somewhere.
        And if you watched President Aristide back in Haiti, perhaps the
    most gripping thing was when he stood there--having had many of his
    friends killed, having had children that he tried to help terrorized--
    standing there saying to the masses of his people, ``No to violence, no
    to retribution, yes to peace, yes to reconciliation.'' And if they are
    saying that inside their heart, that will do more than any law.
        So I say to you, as your principal said, we've done some tough
    things to try to give you a bright future. And we're not ashamed of
    them;

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    we're proud of them. If we can think of other things to do, we will do
    them as well. But in the end, what you say inside is even more
    important. You must say no to guns, no to gangs, no to drugs; yes to
    education, yes to hope, yes to your own future.
        The 21st century can be the best time this country and this State
    ever knew because of all of you, because of our diversity, because in a
    global society we will be the great global nation, because everybody can
    be an American. You don't have to be of a certain race or ethnic
    background or religious conviction. You just have to come here and share
    our land and share our values and make the most of your own life. That
    is what you have to do.
        But in the end, you will have to do it. So I say to you, I'm proud
    to sign this order to give you the chance to say yes to your future. And
    I hope and pray you will do it.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:11 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Carlmont High School principal Michael Johnson, Mayor Pam Rianda of
    Belmont, CA, and Mayor Tom Davids of San Carlos, CA. The memorandum on
    implementation of safe schools legislation was released by the Office of
    the Press Secretary on October 25.