    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [September 6, 1995]
    [Pages 1312-1313]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Business Leaders Supporting Goals 2000
    and an Exchange With Reporters
    September 6, 1995

        The President. Good afternoon. As you can see, I'm about to have a
    meeting here with some distinguished American business executives who
    support the idea that our most important agenda here in Government is to
    advance the cause of education, and they have in particular been good
    supporters of the Goals 2000 program in which 48 of our 50 States are
    now participating and which is the most grassroots-oriented reform
    program the United States Department of Education has ever promoted for
    improving the quality of education through reforms at the State, school
    district, and school level to provide more technology, to raise
    standards, to have smaller classes, to do a whole range of things that
    will make education better.
        There is a way to balance the budget without destroying the Goals
    2000 program. The proposed congressional majority budget would get rid
    of Goals 2000, and it would deprive 44 million students of the
    opportunities that they would otherwise have to be in more grassroots
    reform efforts.
        This Goals 2000 project is the result of the recommendations we've
    gotten over the years from business leaders, as well as educators and,
    frankly, the result of all of the work that Secretary Riley and I did
    for more than a decade in our previous jobs. And I very much hope it can
    be saved, and it is not necessary to balance the budget to back up on
    the education commitment. I think the partnership we've enjoyed, both
    the bipartisan partnership between Republicans and Democrats and the
    partnership between business and government that we've enjoyed in this
    education reform effort should not be destroyed, because it doesn't have
    to be to balance the budget.
        I'd like to ask Mr. Joe Gorman to make a couple of remarks about the
    program, and then we'll go on with our meeting.
        Joe?

    [At this point, Joseph Gorman, chairman and chief executive officer,
    TRW, Inc., made brief remarks supporting Goals 2000.]

        Q. Mr. President, are you also going to discuss with the CEO's the
    stagnant wages over the last two decades that you always keep talking
    about?
        The President. Every time I talk to business leaders I talk about
    that. But let me just say, as I've said on Labor Day, there are a lot of
    alternative explanations being offered for this, but one of the clear
    lessons not only for our country but for every wealthy country is that
    is we want to continue to raise incomes in a global economy, we have to
    raise the level of education of the work force. We've got to do it.
        There are some other things we can do and that I hope we will do and
    some things they can do and that many of them are doing. But if we don't
    raise the educational level of the American work force and if we don't
    set up a system of real reform for excellence in our public schools and
    then lifetime education afterward, nothing they or we do will achieve
    that goal.
        So I will say again, the purpose of balancing the budget is to
    remove the burden of debt off of our children and grandchildren and to
    free up more capital for private investment so that the economy will
    grow. The purpose of balancing the budget is not to shut the economy
    down by undermining our fundamental commit-

    [[Page 1313]]

    ment to education. So the question is, how can we meet both objectives?
        I've presented a plan which does that, there are lots of ways to get
    it done, and that's what I think we're all agreed on, again without
    regard to party.

    United Nations Conference on Women

        Q. Have you heard from the First Lady, sir?
        The President. Yeah, I had a nice talk with her. I've talked to her
    twice since she left for China. I talked to her after her speech. I told
    her I thought she had done a great job on the speech. I liked it very
    much, and she seemed very pleased with it. And she said that the women,
    the many thousands of women who were there gave it a very good response.
        We had a very--we had kind of a brief conversation; the connection
    wasn't the greatest because I was in an airplane.
        Q. Was there any concern about the treatment of Secretary Shalala?
        The President. Secretary Shalala spoke for herself on that. I
    thought what she said was just great. She'll do just fine. [Laughter]
        Q. Any public relations----
        Q. Was there any concern that the First Lady's remarks might have
    any impact on the U.S.-Chinese relations?
        The President. No, I don't think so. You know, she said--what she
    said was what we have both said many, many times on the issues that
    affect China, and much of her speech pertained to conditions in other
    countries, not China, and some of it related to conditions in our
    country as well. So I thought it was a balanced speech. There was no
    attempt to single any country out. She stood up for the rights and the
    potential and against the abuse of women everywhere in the world.
        I thought that's what made the speech powerful, that there was no
    attempt to have a particular political agenda or single any country out.
    It was a very strong speech.
        Q. They know who they are.
        The President. I was proud of her.

    Note: The President spoke at 2 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these
    remarks.