    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 19, 1998]
    [Pages 401-403]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Safe Schools Initiative
    March 19, 1998

        Thank you very much, Superintendent Berg;
    Madam Attorney General; Senator Robb, thank you so much for your efforts. Congressman
    Castle, thank you. Mayor Donley, welcome; and I want to say a special word of welcome to
    all of the students. I'm glad you're here today, and I thank you for the
    example you're setting for students throughout our country.
        I also want to commend the students who were the winners of the
    State math and science award earlier this month. This school is proving
    that by taking the right kind of action, working with law enforcement,
    enforcing zero tolerance for guns and drugs, involving parents,
    establishing discipline and order as primary goals, we can keep our
    schools safe and give our children the chance to reach their highest
    potential.
        Now, in less than 650 days, all of us will enter a new century and a
    new millennium. At a time when we're doing everything we can to prepare
    our children for the opportunities of that new century, at a time when
    we know

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    that the body of knowledge that human beings have is doubling every 5
    years, and therefore, education will be more important than ever before,
    we cannot let violence, guns, drugs stand between our children and the
    education they need.
        For more than 5 years, we've worked now to make our schools places
    of learning, not fear. We have worked to strengthen and expand the Safe
    and Drug-Free Schools program, to enforce zero tolerance for guns in
    schools, to encourage communities to crack down on truancies, to support
    those who wish to adopt school uniform policies. Wearing uniforms
    instead of gang colors in many places is helping to keep our children
    safe.
        It was just a little over 2 years ago that I went to Long Beach,
    California, the first large school district to adopt a school uniform
    policy. Since then, Secretary Riley and the
    Department of Education have worked to help those schools that wanted to
    do that. Yesterday the New York City school board announced that it
    would adopt a school uniform policy in all its elementary schools. I
    applaud them for taking this important step, and I predict it will have
    very beneficial consequences.
        Our budget makes an unprecedented commitment as we are moving into
    balance for the first time in 30 years to invest for our future, by
    raising standards and improving education for all our children and to
    make our schools safer. We know schools with the biggest discipline
    problems also have the highest rates of violence. Very often, there are
    simply too many students and too few classrooms with not enough
    teachers. Our budget, as Senator Robb said, will help to reduce class
    sizes to an average of 18 students per class in the first, second, and
    third grades, with 100,000 more teachers and funds to build or
    rehabilitate 5,000 schools.
        Perhaps even more important in the short run, on the violence
    issue--and I was glad to hear Mr. Berg talk about this--it will
    quadruple Federal support for after-school programs to keep children in
    school, in wholesome, positive environments. We know that most children
    who get in trouble do so between the time school lets out and their
    folks get home from work. So I applaud you for
    what you're doing, and I hope now, if this budget passes, there will be
    many, many more schools, until every school in America will offer this
    kind of community support to our young people and their families.
        The fundamental issue here is that we do not need to and we must not
    ever have to make a choice between safety and high standards, between
    crime-free schools and modern classrooms. We must do both. I regret that
    the present budget, reported out by the majority in Congress, does not
    embody that kind of commitment to education and our future, does not
    embody the recommendations I made in the State of the Union Address.
        Today I ask the Republican leadership to join with the leaders of
    the other party, to get with the Democrats, and to work with the White
    House so that we can once again, as we have in the past, pass a
    bipartisan budget that puts education beyond politics and says yes to
    safer schools, yes to new teachers and smaller classes, yes to
    modernizing our schools, yes to investing in high standards. We need to
    have a budget that says yes to our children's future.
        The Nationwide Report on School Safety that is being released today
    by the Attorney General and the Secretary of
    Education shows clearly that the majority
    of our schools are safe, free of violent crime. That is good news. It
    also shows, however, that too many of our children face a far more
    frightening reality every time they walk through the schoolhouse door.
    In 1996 alone there were more than 10,000 physical attacks or fights
    with weapons in schools; 7,000 robberies; 4,000 rapes and sexual
    assaults. The threat of such violence hangs over children's heads and
    closes their minds to learning. When children have to worry more about
    guns and drugs than math and science, when teachers are more concerned
    with maintaining discipline than achieving excellence, when parents
    would rather keep their children at home than risk their safety at
    school, then we know we must do more. And if there is even one school in
    America where that is the case, we must all be committed to change it.
    We already know the difference community policing makes.
        Since we began to help our local communities to put 100,000 more
    community police officers on our streets, crime has dropped to record
    lows all over our country. Indeed, in the Nation overall, crime is at a
    24-year low. I thank Senator Robb for his
    sponsorship for the $17\1/2\ million in the balanced budget bill which
    is now being awarded today in grants to communities, parents, and law
    enforcement groups to put these community policing strategies to work in
    our schools, to stop violence before it starts.

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        The more we know about school violence, the more we can do to ensure
    our children's safety. Last December I asked the Attorney General and Secretary Riley to
    develop an annual report on school safety. Today I'm pleased to accept
    their framework for these reports. From now on, at the beginning of
    every school year, parents and principals, lawmakers and law enforcement
    will have a valuable tool that tracks school violence, gives examples of
    school programs that are working, and suggests actions parents can take
    to make their children's lives safer at school.
        We know one of the best ways to reduce violence is to involve the
    young people themselves. In the last several years, AmeriCorps
    volunteers particularly have helped hundreds of students to resolve
    their conflicts peacefully. This adds to AmeriCorps' remarkable record
    of helping improve our schools and communities through volunteer
    service.
        Parenthetically, I want to say that today we had an announcement up
    on the Hill, with the First Lady
    participating, that we are sending legislation to Congress to extend our
    national service program into the 21st century. I hope Congress will
    support AmeriCorps as it has in the past.
        Let me say, finally, as Mr. Berg said so eloquently, we know that
    all of our schools need parents to play the primary role in their
    children's safety, both in the school and in the home, and when
    necessary, in the neighborhood. Today I ask all our parents who are
    concerned about this to become involved in your communities and your
    children's schools, to join a community policing partnership. Senator
    Robb got the budget; we're releasing the
    funds. We can talk about what works, but in the end, real live American
    citizens are going to have to show up in every school in this country to
    make this work.
        You know, if you look at these young people here today, if you think
    about the remarkable achievements of this fine school we honor, if you
    imagine the interesting, fascinating lives they can have, and you
    remember that, as they have good lives, it will make all the rest of our
    lives better, it is clear that we all have a responsibility to ensure
    that their educations will be safe. We can do this, and America's future
    in the 21st century depends upon it.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:09 p.m. in the Grand Foyer at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Herbert Berg, superintendent,
    Alexandria City schools, Alexandria, VA; Mayor Kerry Donley of
    Alexandria, VA; and students from T.C. Williams High School, whose
    success at reducing violence and crime was accounted during the event.