    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [April 26, 1997]
    [Pages 497-499]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    April 26, 1997

        Good morning. Tomorrow I will be in Philadelphia at the Summit for
    America's Future. Together with Presidents Bush, Carter, and Ford, and
    General Colin Powell, I will issue a call to citizen service to all
    Americans. For 3 days we'll explore how we can all play a role in
    helping America's young people build a better future and, just as
    important, how all our young people can help to build a better America.
        This is the right time to enlist in America. We're on the verge of a
    new century filled with promise and challenge. But to make the most of
    it, we must ensure that all our people, and especially all our children,
    have the opportunity to reach their highest potential. And we must
    understand that we can do that only if we all join hands, reaching
    across the lines that divide us, to build one America together. That's
    an enormous job, but it's a job we'll have to do if we really want to
    prepare our country for the 21st century.
        Citizen service is neighbor helping neighbor. It's part-time
    volunteers and full-time community service workers. It's communities
    coming together to solve common problems. And it is an essential part of
    what it means to be an American. We all have to promote it.
        That's why I was so proud to launch our AmeriCorps program 4 years
    ago. Since then, 50,000 young people have taken a year or two to work
    full-time, mobilizing hundreds of other volunteers, helping the old and
    the young, the

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    environment, helping communities afflicted with disaster, as I saw in
    North Dakota just a couple of days ago. And in the process, they also
    earn some money for college tuition, as they give back to their country.
        But one of the important ways our AmeriCorps volunteers have found
    to give back is to help our children learn to read. Their success has
    been remarkable. To give just one example, 25 young AmeriCorps members
    went to work in Simpson County, Kentucky, where second graders' reading
    scores were disturbingly low. With the help of AmeriCorps volunteers,
    second graders all across that county jumped three full reading levels
    in just one year. The AmeriCorps volunteers made all the difference in
    those students' lives, and the service changed the lives of the
    AmeriCorps volunteers.
        We know that intensive tutoring like this works. Now we have to do
    for all America's children what the AmeriCorps volunteers did for the
    children of Simpson County. That's what our America Reads challenge is
    all about. It's spearheaded by our Secretary of Education, Dick Riley,
    and Carol Rasco, my former Domestic Policy Adviser here in the White
    House. The America Reads challenge marshals the resources of entire
    communities--schools and libraries, religious institutions,
    universities, college students and senior citizens, all working together
    with teachers and parents to teach our children to read.
        We need America Reads, and we need it now. Studies show that
    students who fail to read well by the fourth grade are more likely to
    drop out of school and less likely to succeed in life. But 40 percent of
    our fourth graders still can't read at a basic level. We can, and we
    must, do better than this.
        With me today are AmeriCorps members, tutors, and parents from four
    different organizations who are helping to make a real difference in our
    children's lives: First, the Home Instruction Program for Preschool
    Youngsters, or HIPPY, an early learning program involving parents and
    children; second, Hands On Atlanta, from Georgia; then, Reading One on
    One from Texas; and Oregon's SMART. All help to recruit volunteers and
    teach our children to read. Together these groups reach thousands of
    children every year. America Reads will help them and others to reach
    millions more.
        This Monday I will send my America Reads legislation to the Congress
    so that we can mobilize the citizen army of one million America Reads
    tutors I called for in my State of the Union Address, to make sure that
    every 8-year-old child in America can pick up a book and say, ``I can
    read this all by myself.'' This legislation is part of my balanced
    budget. It will fund 25,000 reading specialists and tutor coordinators,
    including 11,000 AmeriCorps members and many others. They will recruit
    and train our America Reads citizen army, bringing reading help to the 3
    million children who need it the most.
        It will also help parents to instill a lifelong learning of reading
    in children. Parents are our children's first teachers, and we have to
    do everything we can to make their jobs easier. Community groups like
    HIPPY, which Hillary and I worked hard to bring to Arkansas, are doing
    exactly that. The plan I'm sending to Congress will expand their ability
    to reach more families. My balanced budget also increases Head Start
    funding to reach one million 3- and 4-year-olds, and expands title I to
    aid teaching and learning in classrooms and the Even Start Family
    Literacy Program.
        But it will take more than money to make sure that all our children
    can read. It will take a commitment from our entire community. That's
    why I'm pleased to announce that as part of the Service Summit, many of
    our major corporations and nonprofit organizations will help us to
    recruit tens of thousands of additional tutors for America Reads. One
    hundred sixty-six colleges all across America already have answered the
    challenge I issued in December and pledged thousands of their students
    to be reading tutors. I thank them for their support.
        Last summer in Wyandotte, Michigan, when I announced the America
    Reads program, I sat with two young children and read ``The Little
    Engine That Could,'' a book that has taught countless children that they
    can do anything they think they can. I want every child in America to
    know that he or she can read. And America Reads will make sure that all
    those children can.
        I hope some of you who are listening will consider being part of
    America Reads. After all, we need a million citizen servants, and we're
    not there yet. If you're interested, call 1-800-USA-Learn, the
    Department of Education's hotline, or just contact your local elementary
    school or library.

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        All of us can help. All you really need to do is roll up your
    sleeves, sit with a child, and open a book together. And remember,
    you'll be doing more than just reading, you'll be writing an exciting
    new chapter in America's progress.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the
    White House.