[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.