    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [September 30, 1997]
    [Pages 1270-1271]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1270]]

    Remarks on Congressional Action on Education Legislation and an Exchange
    With Reporters
    September 30, 1997

        The President. I have said that I had no higher priority than
    getting our children the best education in the world in the 21st century
    and that to achieve that politics must stop at the schoolhouse door. I'm
    committed to making sure 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,
    every adult can continue to learn through a lifetime. And we have made
    significant progress in our efforts to strengthen, improve, and hold
    more accountable public education.
        As Congress continues to debate the education bill this fall, it's
    become clear that there are some who are waging an effort to undermine
    our commitment to public education and our public schools. First, the
    Senate has passed an amendment that would virtually close the Department
    of Education and abolish some of its most successful efforts to expand
    school choice and charter schools, to bring computers to every
    classroom, to create more safe and drug-free schools.
        Second, the House of Representatives has actually voted to prevent
    our country from setting high standards of academic excellence with
    voluntary national tests to ensure that every child masters the basics
    in reading and math. I will veto any legislation that damages our
    commitment to public education and to high national standards. I am
    pleased that our effort on standards has received strong bipartisan
    support in the Senate, and I intend to continue this fight for as long
    as it takes.
        Third, in a vote to occur today, some in Congress would diminish our
    country's commitment to public education by siphoning badly needed funds
    away from our public schools into a voucher program that would support
    private academies for a very limited number of students.
        Ninety percent of our children in America attend public schools. Our
    public schools do face a host of challenges. Every city especially faces
    problems with large numbers of poor children and often old facilities
    and other difficult challenges. But the answer, the answer is to put
    competition, change, excellence, accountability back into the public
    school system, not to take limited funds away from it.
        The District of Columbia has some very good public schools, and
    others that are not performing as well as they should. We can have more
    competition there and more options for parents and children without
    abandoning the schools through public school choice and greater use of
    charter schools. I have worked very hard on these things for the last
    several years and will continue to support them.
        But instead of abandoning our schools, we should continue to support
    proven reform efforts, including getting more parents involved,
    improving teaching, getting drugs out of the schools, getting more
    discipline in the schools, raising the standards so that we can hold
    teachers and principals, schools, and students accountable.
        Public schools are the cornerstone of our democracy. We have always
    recognized our common responsibility for preparing all our young
    children for the challenges of the future. I call upon Congress to
    challenge our public schools, to change our public schools, but not to
    walk away from them.
        Thank you.

    Internal Revenue Service

        Q. Mr. President, what are your concerns about a credibility or
    confidence crisis for the IRS, and what do you think about this
    Republican idea for an independent board for oversight?
        The President. Well, first of all, I think some very important
    things came out of those hearings to which the IRS has to respond. There
    has been some response already. But let me back up a little bit and say
    we have been working to professionalize, not to politicize, the IRS for
    the last several years. I signed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights about a
    year and a half ago. We established an IRS modernization board to
    improve technology and customer service.
        One of the things that I asked my staff to find out for me after the
    hearings were held is, how many of the abuses that were reported
    occurred before the Taxpayer Bill of Rights was

    [[Page 1271]]

    passed? How many, if they occurred after the Taxpayer Bill of Rights was
    passed, were a violation of those law's requirements? And then, where
    are we going to go from here? That's the most important thing.
        For quite a long while now, the Vice President and Secretary Rubin
    have been working on a project, part of the Vice President's National
    Performance Review, to change and improve the IRS, and Secretary Rubin
    will have some more to say about that later. But we believe that we have
    to respond to what was said.
        There were some difficult issues posed, and you have pointed out
    some of them in your reporting. But I think that we should continue to
    press ahead with change. But I think it's very important that all the
    American people have confidence that they're going to be treated fairly
    and that taxes will be collected in a fair, nondiscriminatory, and
    nonburdensome manner, and that we will not have any kind of abuse there.
    And so we intend to push ahead.
        Q. But are you concerned that the Government's tax collecting agency
    faces credibility and confidence problems because of the specter of
    those hearings?
        The President. Well, I think they raise some legitimate points that
    ought to be responded to. I believe the IRS is functioning better today
    than it was 5 years ago. I think it has to improve more. And I think we
    should not try to sweep any of these problems under the rugs. I followed
    the hearings with great interest, and I am glad to see that there has
    been some action based on the evidence that was adduced at the hearings
    already, and there will be more. But I think it's also important to know
    that we have done a lot of things to try to make the IRS more
    accountable, more professional. We can do more. We should not politicize
    it, and we should not do anything that will in any way call into
    question whether it's being even-handed or fair in the future.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House.