[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.