    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [November 1, 1997]
    [Pages 1473-1475]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks During the Education Session of the Democratic National
    Committee's Autumn Retreat on Amelia Island, Florida
    November 1, 1997

    [The discussion is joined in progress.]

        The President. I'll try to get through this. I think I'll get better
    as we go along. We'll see.
        First of all, I believe that the condition of our children will
    continue to be one of the major issues for the country for the next 10
    to 20 years. And I think we have to admit that with all our economic
    success, with the fact that we've got 3 million fewer people on welfare
    and crime is down and the schools are getting better, there are still a
    lot of kids in this country who don't have the childhood they need and
    that we need for them to have. And I'd just like to make a few comments
    on the issues that all of you have raised.
        First, I think almost every family, even families in comfortable
    incomes, feel the tension of their job in the workplace and their job at
    home. Americans, we know, in general, are working longer than they were
    20 years ago. There are more hours spent at work today by the average
    American family at all income levels than 20 years ago. And I think that
    means that things like child care and family leave are much more
    important.
        Now, if I might just make a comment, the family leave law has
    probably touched more people in a profoundly personal way than just
    about anything else we've done. People still come up to me on the street
    all over the country and talk about it. And I believe we should go
    beyond it. I think we ought to expand the law to require that people
    should be able to get a little time off to go to regular parent
    conferences with the teachers at school and regular medical
    appointments.
        And I believe we ought to have more flextime options for people in
    the workplace, so that if they build up overtime--a lot of people are
    required to work overtime; others wish to work overtime--I personally
    believe that if the employee makes that choice, then he or she should be
    able to take the overtime in cash or in time with their families. So I
    don't think--when we talk about all these other things we need, I don't
    think we should get away from first base.
        The other thing I think Valerie said, there's very little the
    Federal Government can do about this except in some of our specific
    programs like Early Head Start. But there are some States that have
    social service and public outreach programs that do a very good job in
    visiting families before babies are born and trying to help young
    people, especially without much background, get the basics of parenting
    down. Now, we take that for granted, but it's a big mistake. An enormous
    amount of good can be done in that.
        And I guess Ellen's probably already talked, but you know, when we
    had this conference on early childhood and the brain, I read a lot of
    the scientific data, and one research project I reviewed said that a
    child in a supportive family in a child care environment would get
    700,000 positive contacts in the first 4 years of life. A child in an
    environment that might be loving but ignorant, just not knowing what to
    do, where the child was left in front of the television a lot, might get
    as few as 150,000 positive contacts in life. It's not rocket science to
    figure out what the difference in impact is.
        So, beyond the work and family issue, if I could talk just a moment
    about child care, the United States basically doesn't have the national
    systems in many areas that other countries take for granted but
    especially in health and in child care. Businesses can do more. We are
    now reviewing whether we should change the tax laws to try to accelerate
    the activity of larger businesses and make it more possible for small
    businesses to contribute in some way to their employees' child care. We
    also need to raise the standards. That entails costs. We have to meet
    them either directly or indirectly, helping people to do that.

    [[Page 1474]]

        And we are going to try to do more to train child care workers and
    to contribute to that because it is phenomenally important what is done
    with all those hours those babies have, starting at very early ages,
    like Richie said, in the child care centers.
        Then there is a second issue we haven't talked about much, although
    Diana alluded to it when she mentioned the lady who had been on welfare
    with an 8-year-old child, and that is the need of children for
    supervision after they start school when their parents are working after
    school hours. And we're working very hard and have put some funds into
    and proposed more to help schools design programs to stay open to give
    kids things to do in the after-school hours. I think that's terribly
    important.
        I think what we're trying to do in education--I still think we've
    got a lot of work to do there. We're working very hard--I had a long
    talk with Governor Chiles yesterday to make sure that the money we have
    for children's health will be used to add 5 million children to the
    rolls of the health insured.
        Then the last big issue I think is very important is how do you
    connect children to the larger society. And safety is important. Having
    positive role models and specific help is important. That's why this
    mentoring issue is so terribly important. It's one of the goals that was
    set at the Presidents' Summit of Service in Philadelphia. The most
    important mentoring now being done--new mentoring project in America is
    America Reads. We have 800 colleges signed up, tens of thousands of
    college students working today with young children, helping them to
    read, also serving as role models. And there are countless other
    organizations. The church that Hillary and I attend in Washington has 45
    America Reads volunteers. We're going to try to mobilize a million
    people to make sure that all our 8-year-olds have reading confidence by
    the end of the third grade--huge issue. I think children should be given
    a chance to serve, themselves, when they reach an appropriate age.
        And finally, I think it's very important that we broaden our focus
    of education. Children need to understand the relationship of the social
    environment to the natural environment. They're natural
    environmentalists anyway. But we need to build a mindset among our kids
    that they can grow the economy and have a stable family life, they can
    grow the economy and preserve their environment, and that we are living
    in a period where we've got all these conflicts that we have to resolve
    as a society if we want to have people living a good life in the 21st
    century.
        And finally, I think it's very important that children from earliest
    childhood, through the use of the Internet or whatever else is
    available, gain a greater understanding of the relationship of the
    United States to the rest of the world.
        I must say that when my voice is working, sometimes I get credit for
    being a reasonably effective communicator. But I have completely
    failed--according to every public opinion survey, I have completely
    failed to convince a substantial majority of American people of the
    importance of trade to our economic development and the importance--
    although specifically they understand it, but as a general principle--
    and the importance of our involvement in the rest of the world to our
    own success here at home, whether it's in peacemaking efforts or
    contributing to the United Nations or participating in other
    international efforts.
        So these are some of my thoughts: First start with work and family,
    with child care and family supports; then look at education, health
    care; then look at how the children relate to the larger society and how
    children from difficult circumstances can have a safe environment with a
    mentor, with positive experiences, learning about how we can build a
    seamless life between the social environment, the natural environment,
    and the larger world. That's the way I look at this. And I think if we
    keep our focus on children, number one, we'll be doing the right thing,
    and second, I think the American people will like the Democratic Party,
    because we'll be doing the right thing.
        Thank you.

    [At this point, the discussion continued.]

        The President. Before I go, I just want to talk about the standards
    issue. You should all understand, the good news is schools are getting
    better. They're getting better. The troubling news is they are not
    getting better uniformly, and the United States is the only major
    country that has no national academic standard--not Federal Government
    standard, not federally enforced but just a national measurement--so
    that every parent, every teacher, every school can know how kids are
    doing.

    [[Page 1475]]

        The more diverse we get within our country and the more we compete
    with people around the world, the more we need some common standard. And
    that's the biggest fight we've got going in Washington right now in
    terms of what will really affect our children's future.
        So I hope you'll all talk about this. Governor Romer is not only in
    better voice, he knows more about it than I do. But we've been fighting
    for this for 10 years, and it's crazy that we haven't done it. So I hope
    we can rally our party behind it.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:52 a.m. in Salon Two at the Ritz-Carlton
    Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Valerie Rogers, wife of Annapolis,
    MD, energy executive Wayne Rogers; Ellen Galinsky, president and
    cofounder, Families and Work Institute; Richie Garcia, teacher, Music
    Institute of Hollywood; Diana Lawrence, wife of Cincinnati, OH, attorney
    Richard Lawrence; Gov. Lawton Chiles of Florida; and Gov. Roy Romer of
    Colorado.