    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [July 11, 1996]
    [Pages 1114-1115]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1114]]

    Remarks on the School Reconstruction Initiative
    July 11, 1996

        Thank you very much. I want to welcome Senator Moseley-Braun here,
    along with Senator Claiborne Pell, Senator Bob Graham, Congressman Ben
    Cardin, and Congressman Elijah Cummings. I thank them all for their
    concern for this issue and their leadership.
        I think some of you know that I had originally planned to make this
    announcement in Senator Graham's home State in Florida, but Hurricane
    Bertha had other ideas. So before I get into the announcement, let me
    say that we are all watching the course of that storm. We pray that it
    doesn't cause extensive damage. The people of the Southeast know that we
    will be there to help them if it does. FEMA is now on the ground, and
    they are prepared. Our thoughts are with the people of the Southeast.
    And again, we're hoping for the best.
        I'm here to announce a national commitment to rebuild our schools so
    that they can serve our children in the 21st century. Our Nation's
    mission must be to offer opportunity to all, to demand responsibility
    from all, and to come together as a community so that we can build
    better lives together. Our most basic expression of these values is
    perhaps the education we offer to our children.
        We've worked hard to make our young people the best educated in the
    world as we enter the 21st century, putting in place a comprehensive
    strategy to renew our schools, to lift our standards at every level.
    We've expanded the Head Start preschool program. We've helped schools to
    help to set and to meet higher standards. We've also worked hard to
    develop higher standards and better training for our teachers. And we've
    created an important network of school-to-work programs for young people
    to be properly trained if they don't go on to 4-year institutions of
    higher education.
        We're now on our way to connecting every classroom and library in
    the United States to the Internet by the year 2000. We're making our
    schools safer with the zero tolerance for guns in our schools and by
    encouraging and supporting communities to take their own initiatives,
    including school uniforms, imposing curfews, and stronger enforcement of
    the truancy laws. We're opening the doors of college wider than ever
    through lower cost student loans, including better repayment terms;
    expanded Pell grant scholarships--Senator Pell, thank you for that;
    AmeriCorps; and our proposals to give families tax cuts to pay for
    higher education.
        But all this progress is at risk if our children are asked to learn
    in a landscape that is littered with peeling paint and broken glass, if
    our teachers are asked to build up children in buildings that are
    falling down.
        I remember the schools that I attended. They were pretty typical.
    Most of them were fairly old when I was there. They weren't fancy, but
    they were clean, they were well-maintained, they were treated with
    respect. They sent every student a clear message: You are important to
    us. We take your education seriously. That was how my parents'
    generation kept faith with us, and that is how we must keep faith with
    our children.
        Now, Senator Moseley-Braun mentioned this report from the General
    Accounting Office. I want to hold it up again because I want to urge
    every Member of Congress, every Governor, every State legislator, every
    local school official, every school board member who cares about the
    condition of education and the future of education in our country to get
    a copy of this report and to read it. The report came out 3 weeks ago.
    It was requested by a number of Senators, and it confirms that we are
    not honoring this generational compact.
        I want to thank here, before I go forward, the Members of the Senate
    and the House who have been interested in this, those who are here whom
    I've introduced and especially Congresswoman Nita Lowey who is
    sponsoring efforts in the House along with Congressman Cardin and
    Congressman Cummings and others but most especially Carol Moseley-Braun.
    She was the first person who brought this matter to my attention as an
    area where the National Government ought to do something. And she has
    been literally dogged in her persistence in this issue, staying with it
    day-in and day-out, week-in and week-out, month-in and month-out. The
    school children of our Nation owe her a debt of gratitude.

    [[Page 1115]]

        The report shows that our Nation's schools are increasingly rundown,
    overcrowded, and technologically ill-equipped. Too many school buildings
    and classrooms are literally a shambles. According to the report, one-
    third of our schools need major repair or outright replacement; 60
    percent need work on major building features--a sagging roof, a cracked
    foundation; 46 percent lack even the basic electrical wiring to support
    computers, modems, and modern communications technology. These problems
    are found all across America, in cities and suburbs and one-stoplight
    towns.
        This is a matter of real urgency. In just 2 months our schools will
    open their doors to the largest number of students in the history of our
    Republic, 51.7 million. And enrollment is expected to continue to rise
    over the next few years.
        We have to rebuild these schools for another reason as well.
    Increasingly our schools are critical to bringing our communities
    together. We want them to serve the public not just during the school
    hours but after hours, to function as vital community centers, places
    for recreation and learning, positive places where children can be when
    they can't be at home and school is no longer going on, gathering places
    for young people and adults alike. Bringing our schools into the 21st
    century is a national challenge that demands a national commitment.
        Today I am proposing that the Federal Government for the first time
    join with States and communities to modernize and renovate our public
    schools. We will provide $5 billion over the next 4 years for school
    construction and renovation. Together with investments by States and
    localities, this would result in $20 billion in new resources for school
    modernization. That's a 25 percent increase over the next 4 years.
        Our school construction initiative would be flexible. It would give
    communities and States the power to decide how to use the new resources.
    It would help those who help themselves, requiring local communities to
    take responsibility for this effort. And it would focus on sparking new
    projects, not merely subsidizing existing ones.
        The schools of the future should be safe and spacious, good places
    to learn. The schools of the future should be equipped with computers,
    new media, and state-of-the-art science labs. And the schools of the
    future should not only teach our children during the day but bring
    together families and neighbors in the evening as community schools. Our
    initiative can help to make these goals a reality.
        You know, we expect an awful lot of our schools. We expect a lot of
    our students in this age of possibility. And all Americans have a lot
    riding on their living up to these expectations. But we cannot expect
    our children and our teachers to build strong lives on a crumbling
    foundation.
        This generation has a duty to give the next generation a future of
    genuine opportunity. Our children deserve the best. I am determined that
    they will get it. And this proposal will go a long way toward helping
    those folks who are out there on the frontlines of education to succeed
    and to build the brightest, the best prepared, the most secure, and the
    most successful generation of young people in the history of our Nation.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:15 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House.