    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [October 18, 1997]
    [Pages 1397-1399]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    October 18, 1997

        Good morning. This week Hillary and I have been visiting our
    neighbors in South America. Along with the distinguished American
    delegation of Congressmen, several Cabinet members, and other members of
    the administration, we've savored the hospitality and the uniqueness of
    each country. But as we've traveled from Venezuela to Brazil to
    Argentina, we've also had the chance to see that much more unites the
    people of the Americas than separates us.

    [[Page 1398]]

        We cherish the same values: freedom and equality, family and
    community, peace and democracy. We aspire to prosperity through free
    enterprise, open markets, a commitment to give everyone who will work
    for it a chance to succeed, and a dedication to preserving the
    environment while growing the economy. And we all believe in providing
    all our children with a world-class education so that they can fulfill
    their God-given promise in the 21st century.
        Last summer's balanced budget agreement, with the largest new
    investment in education since 1965, will take us a long way toward our
    sweeping but straightforward agenda. By the year 2000, we want to ensure
    that every 8-year-old can read, every 12-year-old can log on to the
    Internet, every 18-year-old can go on to college, and every adult can
    keep on learning.
        On this trip, we worked to establish education partnerships with
    other countries, especially in bringing the benefits of technology and
    the Internet to even the very poorest neighborhoods and village schools.
        Back home, as the new school year gets really underway, we're
    hooking up more of our own classrooms to the Internet, kicking off the
    America Reads program to mobilize a huge number of volunteers,
    especially college students and young AmeriCorps team leaders, to make
    sure that all of our children can read independently by the third grade.
    And we're finally opening the doors of college to anyone who is willing
    to work for it, with more Pell grants and work-study slots, the $1,500-
    a-year HOPE scholarship tax credit for the first 2 years of college, and
    tax cuts and education IRA's to help students pay for the cost of the
    junior and senior years, graduate school, and other training.
        Still, we can't rest. A vital and vigorous debate over how best to
    improve public education will be waiting for me when I get back to
    Washington. Everyone knows we need to do more to boost the quality of
    public schools; the question is, how? Some people think we should give
    students vouchers to help pay for private schools if they don't think
    public schools are good enough. They say the competition will even make
    the public schools better. It may sound like a good argument, but I
    think it's wrong. Too many of our public schools are underfunded
    already, and besides, there are better ways to improve the public
    schools in a way that doesn't siphon off precious tax dollars to help a
    few students at the expense of the other 90 percent.
        My strategy is to set high standards, measure student performance
    against them, inject more competition and choice into the public school
    system, and support local initiatives like school uniforms, after-school
    and summer-school programs that increase order, safety, and learning.
        First, we must set national standards of academic achievement and
    then have voluntary tests, starting with fourth-grade reading and
    eighth-grade math, to measure them. Second, we must recruit more
    volunteers to America Reads so that we can have an army of volunteer
    reading tutors in our schools, helping every child read independently by
    the end of the third grade. Third, we must also bring more choice and
    competition into public education. The right way to do this is by
    empowering more parents and students to choose the public schools they
    attend and by bringing more charter schools to more communities.
        Since I became President, the number of public charter schools in
    America has grown from one to 700. Parents, educators, and community
    leaders are creating and operating these new schools within the public
    school system that are freed from bureaucratic redtape but accountable
    to parents, students, and communities that support them. And they stay
    open only if they meet the high standards of performance.
        I endorse bipartisan efforts in the House and Senate to help
    communities open 3,000 more charter schools in the coming years by
    giving States incentives to issue more charters, more flexibility to try
    new reforms and strengthen accountability, and funds to help them get
    started, funds guaranteed in our balanced budget agreement. Now, that's
    a good example of what I mean when I say politics should stop at the
    schoolhouse door.
        We also have to strengthen existing schools. I support another
    bipartisan proposal that will help low-achieving, low-income schools
    transform themselves through proven reforms, everything from intensive
    reading instruction to school uniforms to after-school tutoring to
    mandatory summer school for students who fall behind.
        Virtually every problem facing our schools today has been solved by
    a community somewhere in America. We have to bring these solutions to
    the schools that need them the most. The good news is we can do it, as
    the rising performance of our students compared to students in other
    nations shows.

    [[Page 1399]]

        Our schools are improving, and they can get better, much better. No
    single magic bullet will improve our schools, but high standards, the
    voluntary tests to measure them, good teaching, well-run schools with
    the latest technology, and old-fashioned, safe, orderly environments
    will make education better. Working together, we can do it. Our children
    deserve no less, and our Nation's future depends upon it.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 8:15 a.m. on October 17 in Room 2233
    of the Sheraton Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for broadcast at 10:06
    a.m. on October 18.