[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[October 22, 1994]
[Pages 1833-1834]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1833]]


The President's Radio Address
October 22, 1994

    Good morning. As the autumn leaves begin to reach the height of 
their color, students all across our country are hard at work preparing 
for math tests and spelling bees, history papers and midterm exams. 
Their knowledge and skills are being tested. Their report cards will be 
a measure of their success.
    Well, just like those students, America is also being tested. We're 
facing difficult questions about how we should guide our children in 
today's world and whether we'll prepare them for the challenges they'll 
meet. It's not an easy test, perhaps one of the most difficult we have 
ever undertaken. But the right answers are before us, and our children 
will be the measure of our success. We've found a number of right 
answers already. Our national report card shows some exciting progress.
    When I became President, I knew the only way we could continue to 
lead the world would be if we developed the learning capacities of as 
many of our citizens as possible. That's why the progress we've made on 
our lifelong learning agenda is so vital to the long-term strength of 
the United States.
    In all our education proposals, we've tried to make a fundamental 
change in the way the Federal Government helps students to meet their 
goals. Instead of prescribing detailed rules and regulations that 
schools have to follow, as the Federal Government has done in the past, 
we've tried to show that it's the responsibility of individual teachers 
and students and communities, with the help of our National Government, 
to work hard to make good lives for themselves.
    In everything from an expanded Head Start program to new youth 
apprenticeships for young people who don't go to college, we've worked 
to build on those principles. In our Goals 2000 law, which I signed last 
spring, we set tough world-class standards in the basic subjects for 
students and schools, but we made it clear that students and teachers at 
the school level have to decide how to meet those standards. We made it 
clear that we have to keep guns and drugs out of our schools, that we 
have to encourage our parents to stay involved with our children's 
education.
    Now this past week, I had the opportunity to sign into law the 
elementary and secondary education act. That bill says that while the 
National Government will set the standards and help to develop the 
measurements of whether schools are meeting them, it is fundamentally 
the responsibility of people at the grassroots to make sure those 
standards are met. We are encouraging what we know is the true magic of 
education, that which occurs between teacher and student, with the help 
of parents and principals and communities.
    This new law does another thing. It supports programs that teach our 
young people that character does count, that helps them to learn the 
difference between right and wrong, based on standards developed in our 
local communities.
    We also have to work to make sure more Americans have the higher 
education they need to compete and win in the global economy. One of the 
biggest obstacles has been soaring college costs and an inadequate 
national system of college loans. We've started two new programs to help 
fix those problems. Our national service program, AmeriCorps, is already 
giving 20,000 people the chance to serve their country and earn money 
for higher education. Within 3 years, 100,000 people will be 
participating in this domestic Peace Corps. To give you some idea of how 
many that is, the largest number of young people who ever participated 
in the Peace Corps in a single year was 16,000.
    Over and above the national service program, this week I announced 
that Americans will be able to open what we call individual education 
accounts. We already have individual retirement accounts that help 
people direct the growth of their own retirement benefits, and now all 
Americans will be able to have individual education accounts, so that 
they can pay back college loans over time in ways that meet their own 
needs and the requirements of their own working lives. This program will 
save the Government money, reduce defaults, lower fees for everyone. 
With these reforms, we're helping to make sure that America can embrace 
the challenges we face in the world economy as we look to the next 
century.

[[Page 1834]]

    But you should know that there are those who would take us in a very 
different direction, back to the policies of the past which have failed. 
Our political opponents have signed what they call a contract that tells 
us what they would do if they control Congress. They'd give a $200 
billion tax cut to the wealthiest Americans. They would explode the 
deficit. That would mean cutting many of the education reforms we've 
worked so hard to pass, along with Medicare and other programs. Our 
opponents have even made a specific proposal to cut college aid for 3 
million American student borrowers each year to pay for their trillion 
dollar package of promises in tax cuts, defense spending increases, 
revitalization of Star Wars, and an allegation that they can balance the 
budget. Well, we tried that before, and it didn't work out very well.
    My contract with America is for our future and for the future of our 
children. I don't want us to go back. To guarantee that we keep moving 
forward, we have to be willing to meet the tests of our time, to keep 
doing everything we can for young Americans who are looking to us for 
help in meeting the world's demands. We can't give in to easy promises. 
We have to embrace the challenges of the future. And if we do, we'll be 
rewarded. The world places many demands on us, but I'm sure you believe, 
as I do, that that's a test we can pass with flying colors.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 5:55 p.m. on October 21 in the 
Roosevelt Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on October 
22.