[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.