    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [March 9, 1996]
    [Pages 403-406]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on NetDay in Concord, California
    March 9, 1996

        Thank you so very much. I want to say again how much I appreciate
    the wonderful welcome we have received here today. I thank your
    principal, Sheila Walker; Superintendent Allen; your fine superintendent
    of public instruction, Delaine Eastin; and Lieutenant Governor Davis;

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    my good friend Senator Boxer; and Representative Miller. I want to say
    again what a good job I thought--I want to join the Vice President--I
    thought Brian DeGrassi did a good job up here. We didn't even need to
    speak after he talked.
        I want to thank John Gage and Michael Kaufman for originating the
    idea of NetDay. The country will long be in their debt. They have come
    up with something truly remarkable. And I want to thank the Merrills and
    all the wonderful volunteers here. And because of my own past I don't
    want to leave here without acknowledging your award-winning band and
    flag team. I thank them for being here as well. Thank you very much.
        And I want to thank Vice President Al Gore, who 20 years ago--20
    years ago--coined the term information superhighway and is now helping
    every American child to become a part of it. I thank you for that.
        The Vice President and I have looked forward to coming back for this
    day ever since last September when we came to California and met with
    leaders of the communications industry. That day we challenged
    Californians to connect at least 20 percent of your schools to the
    information superhighway by the end of this school year. You didn't fret
    about it; you're simply doing it.
        Think about it. On this day, March 9th, 20,000 of your fellow
    citizens are meeting this challenge. I am honored to be here with you.
        Today one out of five California schools will be wired to the
    future. Within 4 years every school in the State will be wired to the
    future. We are putting the future at the fingertips of your children,
    and we are doing it together in the best American tradition.
        We are living through a moment of absolutely astonishing
    transformation, a moment of great possibility. All of you know that the
    information and technology explosion will offer to you and to the young
    people of the future more opportunities and challenges than any
    generation of Americans has ever seen.
        Our country is changing just as profoundly as it did when we moved
    from farm to factory, from the country to the cities and towns 100 years
    ago. The microchip and the global marketplace are opening up undreamed-
    of prospects but real challenges. If we want to keep the American dream
    alive for every single person who is willing to work for it, we know
    that more than ever before we have to give all Americans the skills, the
    education they need to be winners in this time of change. We must not
    send our children into a 21st century unprepared for the world they will
    inhabit and the jobs they will have to fill.
        All of us are here today because we know purely and simply that
    every single child must have access to a computer, must understand it,
    must have access to good software and good teachers and yes, to the
    Internet, so that every person will have the opportunity to make the
    most of his or her own life.
        I have spent a great deal of the last 3 years trying to open up
    educational opportunity and help educators and parents raise educational
    standards in America. There is more that we must do. Of course we need
    high standards and high expectations. Of course we should open the doors
    of college education to every single American who needs to go.
        That's what the new student loan program is about, which cuts costs
    and makes repayments easier. That's what the national service program is
    about, promoting this kind of community service in return for funds to
    go to college. That's why I believe the most important tax cut we could
    give in passing a balanced budget is to give every American family the
    opportunity to deduct up to $10,000 a year of the costs of college
    tuition.
        But whatever else we do, we must bring the information and
    technology revolution to every, every classroom in America. Every child
    in America sees a computer at work in a grocery store, in a video
    arcade, many at home. One of the few rooms that you can't enter in
    America today and know for sure that you will see a computer and to see
    computer technology is a classroom.
        We are changing this today in the same way our Nation has always
    changed for the better, by working together united as one America. We
    understand there is no generation gap between old-fashioned American
    values of hard work, teamwork, and optimism in our forward march into
    the technological world of the 21st century.
        In a way, NetDay is a modern version of an old-fashioned
    barnraising. Government's not doing this alone, nor is business, nor can
    schools do it alone. All of us are joining together, students,
    scientists, business leaders, engineers, parents, and old-fashioned
    American citizens who have no other interests other than a love

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    for their country, a love for their children, and a belief in the future
    of America. What you are doing today is America at its very best, and it
    is guaranteeing America's future.
        Just think about it. Today in California we are installing 6 million
    feet--6 million feet--of computer cables and plugs. That's a message
    that all America will hear tonight and tomorrow and be proud of, and I
    hope will emulate.
        I want to say a special word of thanks, as the Vice President did,
    to the business leaders all across the State, from Sun Microsystems to
    AT&T, MCI, Netcom, America Online, the Scholastic Network, Apple, which
    is donating computers, Netscape, and Microsoft giving free software--
    we're having trouble with these speakers. Just pretend you hear it even
    if you don't. [Laughter]
        I want to ask every one of you to stop and give a special applause
    to every single business in California that is supporting this endeavor
    today. This is corporate citizenship at its best. I thank the IBEW and
    all the labor organizations that are helping today.
        There are some truly impressive things being done by students today.
    In San Diego, one class sold cupcakes to pay for the cost of their
    NetDay kit. All across the State, teenagers today will be able to teach
    their parents a thing or two about the Net. In Palo Alto, one school
    which was wired a short time ago this NetDay is providing the first time
    many parents will see their child's classroom. But after the classroom
    is wired, the parents are painting the classrooms and repairing a
    decayed building.
        I say that to make this point. One of the most probing comments I
    have seen in reading the press out here in California in preparing to
    come is that some have said, ``Well, should the President and the Vice
    President, should the State be emphasizing computers in all the
    classrooms when some of our school buildings are falling down, some of
    our play yards are in disrepair?'' My answer to you is yes. If everybody
    has those skills, our school districts will be wealthier and better. But
    we do not have to choose; the same volunteers that are wiring the
    schools can also fix them up. And I hope people will do it all across
    California.
        I also want to thank the teachers that are working today. And what I
    think is a real picture of what is so special about today, the teachers
    on strike in Oakland are putting their pickets down and participating in
    NetDay.
        We are trying to do our part. In the telecommunications bill I
    signed a few weeks ago, thanks to the long efforts of the Vice President
    and many in the Congress, there is a guarantee that schools and
    libraries and hospitals will all be able to be hooked up at affordable
    rates. And last month I announced a $2 billion technology literacy
    challenge to help communities all across this country get the right kind
    of computers in every classroom and every library by the end of the
    century.
        But more than anything else, we need volunteers, trained teachers,
    good software. That is what we are celebrating today as well. I cannot
    think of a single endeavor which has involved so many different
    Americans from so many different walks of life to do something that is
    so clearly in the interest of every single American citizen. And again
    let me say to all of you who are here, thank you. Thank you for the
    enthusiasm. Thank you for the numbers. Thank you for your commitment.
        I want to make just one more point, and I want to emphasize
    something the Vice President said. The other question which has been
    raised is whether or not somehow this advance of technology will divide
    our people more, whether or not the poor children or the poor school
    districts will be left behind, whether or not this will inevitably give
    greater advantages to those who already enjoy them. Let me just give you
    one story that will refute that, I hope, forever.
        Last month, I had the opportunity with the Vice President to visit
    the Christopher Columbus Middle School in Union City, New Jersey. Just a
    few years ago the schools there were so bad the State was on the verge
    of taking them over and taking them away from the local school board and
    the parents. But it was a revitalized community effort, involving Bell
    Atlantic and all the local citizens we celebrate here in California
    today, that put computers in every seventh grade classroom and in every
    student's home in a school district that had a low per capita income
    where most of the families are first generation immigrant families.
        New Jersey is one of the wealthiest States in America, and in a
    matter of just a couple of years in this far from wealthy school
    district with first generation immigrants, the children have an
    attendance record, a graduation rate, and most important of all, test
    scores that are above the State average. Technology is going

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    to liberate Americans and bring them together, not hold them back.
        And that's what I want to happen to California. Look at this sea of
    faces here. You are America's present and America's future. Now the
    children will not only be able to access the Magna Carta and the
    Declaration of Independence, they will be able to, how uncomfortably it
    might be, follow how Congressman Miller and Senator Boxer vote--
    [laughter]--and send E-mail to me and the Vice President, telling us
    what mistake we have made that day.
        To the younger people in this audience, I hope you will never forget
    this day. Someday your children will marvel at the idea that there ever
    was a classroom without a computer. You can tell them you were a
    pioneer. Just as our parents and grandparents built our schools and
    libraries and highways for their children, you will leave your children
    a legacy of opportunity along the information superhighway.
        The 21st century is America's for the taking if we are bold enough
    and strong enough and confident enough to go forward together. We will
    make the best of this new technology together. We will educate our
    children with it, improve our businesses with it, make our Government
    more democratic with it, and build a brighter, freer, more prosperous
    future with it. That is the American way. Let the future begin.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:04 a.m. at Ygnacio Valley High School.
    In his remarks, he referred to Paul Allen, superintendent, Mount Diablo
    School District; Lt. Gov. Gray Davis of California; Brian DeGrassi,
    student, Ygnacio Valley High School; John Gage, director, science
    office, Sun Microsystems; Michael Kaufman, director, information
    services, KQED; and Charlie and Margie Merrill, NetDay volunteers.