    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [January 9, 1998]
    [Pages 21-24]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at Mission High School in Mission, Texas
    January 9, 1998

        Thank you. Good morning. Well, first of all, weren't you proud of
    Elizabeth? Did she do a great job or
    what? [Applause] And she looked so tall standing here. [Laughter] Thank
    you, Elizabeth.
        You know, there's been a lot of exciting things in Mission in the
    last couple of weeks. The valley got its first snowfall in 40 years,
    and, you know, all these limousines and cars descending on the area--to
    get an unexpected visit from Koy Detmer.
        Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be here. I have so many
    people to thank, but I want to start with Congressman
    Hinojosa, who has been a great friend of
    yours, a great Representative, and a great ally of mine to expand
    economic opportunity and trade and to improve education and to reduce
    the dropout rate especially among young Hispanic students. He represents
    you very, very well, and I thank him for helping me to come here today.
        I'd like to thank Congressman Solomon Ortiz and Congressman Ciro Rodriguez and a native of Mission, Mission High School class of
    1946, the former chairman of the Agriculture Committee in the House of
    Representatives, Congressman Kika de la Garza, and his wife, Mrs. de la Garza. Thank you for being here.
        I'd like to thank the education commissioner, Mike Moses; the land commissioner, Garry Mauro; members of my administration who are here, including
    White House aides Mickey Ibarra, Janet
    Murguia, Cynthia Jasso-Rotunno; and the head of the Overseas Private Investment
    Corporation, George Munoz. All of them came
    down here today to meet with community leaders before I came out here to
    talk about the economic future of the valley and what we could do to
    help to accelerate the growth of your area.
        I want to thank the legislators and the mayors who are here: Senator
    Carlos Truan, Representative Ismael
    Flores, Representative Miguel Wise, Representative Roberto Gutierrez; Mayor Ricardo Perez of
    Mission; the McAllen mayor, Leo Montalvo; the
    Edinburg mayor, Joe Ochoa. I thank the chairman of
    the Democratic Party, Bill White, for
    coming here. And as an old member of the band, I'd like to thank the
    high school bands from Mission, Edinburg, Weslaco, and Hidalgo for
    playing.
        I thank the college students from South Texas Community College and
    UT-Pan Am, high school students from Hidalgo, Willacy, Bee, Brooks, and
    San Patricio Counties, and I thank the other AmeriCorps volunteers for
    being here.
        This morning I talked with some community leaders about economic
    opportunity. Today, to this great and happy crowd, I want to talk with
    you about educational opportunity. And I want America to know about this
    school district. The Mission school district may not be the wealthiest
    one in the Nation, but it is rich in results. Attendance is up; dropout
    rates are down. Ten years ago, only about a quarter of Mission's high
    school seniors went on to college. This year, thanks in part to the new
    opportunities at the South Texas Community College, almost two-

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    thirds of the high school graduates will go on to college.
        I am trying to see that every high school classroom, every middle
    school and elementary school classroom, and every library in this
    country are hooked up to the Internet by the year 2000. Let me tell you
    what that piece of paper says that just blew away--it says that just 2
    days ago, every classroom in Mission High School was hooked up to the
    Internet, well ahead of schedule. Congratulations to you. Now some of
    the classrooms will become laboratories for the Nation as you begin
    using state-of-the-art video conferencing to take advanced college
    courses, as well as virtual field trips all around the world.
    Congratulations. I want America to see you and know that all children
    can learn and every school can improve. You have proved it, and I want
    you to stay on the course.
        I want America to have an educational system where every 8-year-old
    can read, every 12-year-old can log on to the Internet, every 18-year-
    old can go to college, and every adult can keep on learning for a
    lifetime. We have to have high standards and proven reforms, the best
    use of new technology, help to the children who need it, and a real
    commitment to the proposition that every child can learn.
        We have to work to reduce the dropout rate. We have to convince many
    of our students, interestingly enough, especially in Latino communities
    throughout the United States, that what used to be a good thing to do,
    to drop out of school and go to work to help your family, can now in
    fact hurt your family and hurt your future because there is so much
    difference today between what someone with an education can learn and
    what someone who leaves high school before graduation can learn. That
    message has to be hammered home. And again I say, together we can do it,
    and you are setting an example here in Mission. And I thank you for
    that.
        I also came here with a guarantee, one that is embodied in the sign
    that I stand in front of, for young people and for adults who work hard
    and achieve in the classroom, the results will pay off. Just a week ago,
    we began a new era in American education. Thanks to brand new HOPE
    scholarships and other initiatives, money is now no longer an obstacle
    to any American going to college. For the first time in this country's
    history, we can literally say we have opened the doors of college to
    everyone who has the desire and who has the preparation to go. That is a
    signal, important achievement for the United States.
        Ladies and gentlemen, I loved it, and I think you did, too, when
    Elizabeth said that I was the first sitting President to come here not
    running for election. But I did come here in 1992 running for election,
    and I saw good, hard-working Americans, patriotic Americans, people who
    always answer the call of service when their country needs them, people
    who love their families and believe in their children and desperately
    want a better future for their communities. And I said I wanted us to
    take a new direction to the 21st century to make the American dream
    alive for every person who was willing to work for it, to make every
    American, without regard to race or background, part of our American
    community, and to do what is necessary to keep America the world's
    leading force for peace and freedom and prosperity.
        And the bargain I offered the American people was opportunity for
    everyone who is responsible, but we must have responsibility for
    everyone if we want opportunity, and a community in which everyone was
    part of our national family. The Government's job in that kind of
    America is to create the conditions and give people the tools to make
    the most of their own lives. That is what we have tried to do with the
    economy, and we must do more. That's what we talked about this morning
    in our community leaders meeting, and that is what we must do with
    education.
        Right now, our approach looks pretty good. Our Nation is on a roll.
    Just this morning we learned that the economy added another 370,000 jobs
    last month. That means 14.3 million new jobs for Americans in the last 5
    years. The deficit has been reduced by 90 percent, and next year, for
    the first time in three decades, we will have a balanced budget. Wages
    are rising for ordinary working people for the first time in 20 years.
    Hispanic unemployment is dropping. Record rates of small business growth
    are occurring. Hispanic-American new small businesses are being started
    at 3 times the national average rate. There are hundreds of thousands of
    new Latino homeowners in America, and we have over two-thirds of the
    American people in their own homes for the first time in our history.
        Despite these gains, you and I know that Hispanic family income is
    not yet on the rise, and

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    here in the valley and other areas of America, the unemployment rate is
    still unconscionably high. One of the biggest reasons is that too many
    young people who live here drop out of school. Many leave for good
    reasons, as I said earlier; they want to help their families by working.
    But in a global economy, the best way for a young person to help his or
    her family is to stay in school, set yourself on a college path early,
    and complete at least 2 years of college. People who at least have a
    community college degree have a very good chance of getting a job with
    stability and prospects of a growing income. People who do less than
    that in a global economy where we depend more and more on what we can
    learn every day and the new skills we can apply, are playing Russian
    roulette with their future. That is why we have worked very hard with
    dedicated Members of Congress like Mr. Hinojosa to reduce the dropout rates and to reward people who
    stay and learn.
        And let me tell you what I meant when I said there's a guarantee for
    people who go on to college now. Last year in the balanced budget, we
    put in place a college opportunity agenda that literally had the largest
    investment in helping people go to college since the GI bill was passed
    when the soldiers from the valley came home 50 years ago.
        Here's what it means to the people who live here. First, we created
    HOPE scholarships and an education IRA; they started on January 1st.
    HOPE scholarships will basically use the tax system to reimburse
    families for up to $1,500 a year to pay for the first 2 years of
    college. That means schools like South Texas Community College will be
    virtually free to virtually all Americans. With education IRA's, parents
    will now be able to set money aside for their children's college
    education and let it grow, and then withdraw from the fund later without
    paying any taxes on it.
        The second thing we've done is to create lifetime learning credits,
    tax cuts worth up to $1,000 a year to students who go to the 3d and 4th
    years of college or who go to graduate school, and those are available
    to adults who go back to school or to training programs because they
    have to change careers or they need to upgrade their skills.
        The third thing we did is to increase Pell grant scholarships for
    nearly 4 million low and moderate income families. And finally, we made
    student loans easier to get and easier to pay off as a percentage of
    your income, so that no one ever has to fear borrowing money to go to
    college because they're afraid they will go broke trying to pay the loan
    back. Now you can get the loan at lower cost and less time and pay it
    back as a percentage of your income when you get out of school.
        We are also offering young people more opportunities to do community
    service through the AmeriCorps program and earn money to go to college;
    100,000 have taken advantage of it.
        Now, there is one other thing I want to talk about. A lot of people
    have to work their way through school, like I did, and usually those of
    us who do think we're the better for it. Sometimes, if you have to work
    a little, you even are more disciplined with your time and you wind up
    studying a little more. The balanced budget I will submit to Congress
    next month will include a record 1 million work-study positions for
    college students. That represents an increase of nearly 50 percent
    during the last 3 years alone. It's not just about increasing financial
    aid, that's about increasing the circle of community service and the
    winner's circle of opportunity for the future.
        For example, work-study students at more than 800 colleges in
    America today are helping to make sure that we reach one of our
    education goals, that every 8-year-old can read. Through the America
    Reads challenge, tens of thousands of college students are earning money
    for college while going into our schools to tutor young people to make
    sure that they don't get out of the third grade without being able to
    read independently; and now we'll have a million people doing that kind
    of work.
        Let me just say this to all the young people here in this audience:
    We can create opportunities, but you have to seize it. I am determined--
    whenever I come to South Texas, I leave more determined than ever to
    find some way to better reward the energy, the patriotism, the
    commitment, the vision of the people here. We can do more to build on
    the empowerment zones and to do other things to help you to grow your
    economy, to preserve your environment, to create more jobs. But
    nothing--nothing--will matter in the end unless the young people who
    live here are committed to developing their own minds and keeping their
    visions high and believing in themselves and their futures. That is the
    most important thing. You have to believe that.

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    You have to make sure that you have raised your sights as high as you
    can.
        And let me just say, I don't want to embarrass him, but I'd like to
    compliment the principal here at Mission High School, Mr.
    Ahmadian. He came here in the late seventies
    from Iran, without being able to speak a word of English. Now, as the
    leader of this remarkable school, he's helped thousands of people go on
    to careers in education, in medicine, in law enforcement. He's helping
    them to do what he did with high standards for higher education. Whether
    you're the son or daughter of a migrant laborer, or a doctor, the same
    formula applies: high standards and higher education; taking
    responsibility; sitting down with family, teachers, guidance counselors;
    committing to work hard to learn, to do the homework, to think about the
    future.
        We're going to do our part in Washington to make sure that those of
    you who are prepared for the future can go on to college. We've removed
    the obstacles. There's an open field ahead, but you have to reach the
    goal line. Take the ball and run with it. Your future is bright; the
    future of the valley is bright; and the future of the Nation is in your
    hands.
        God bless you. Gracias. Viva el valle. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:05 a.m. in Tom Landry Stadium. In his
    remarks, he referred to Mission High School student body president
    Elizabeth Gonzales, who introduced the President, principal Masoud
    Ahmadian, and alumnus Koy Detmer, NFL Philadelphia Eagles player;
    Lucille de la Garza, wife of former Representative Kika de la Garza; and
    William H. White, chair, Texas State Democratic Party.