[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[October 10, 1998]
[Pages 1776-1777]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
October 10, 1998

    Good morning. In the next few days, as it completes its work on the 
budget, Congress has the opportunity and the obligation to make enormous 
progress to renew and strengthen our schools. There is no more critical 
task before it.
    Ten days ago we closed the books on our fiscal year, yet Congress 
still has not opened the books for the new fiscal year at hand. Last 
night, for the second time in 2 weeks, I signed stopgap legislation to 
keep our Government running. But I can't keep granting extensions 
indefinitely.
    This week, unfortunately, we saw partisanship defeat progress, as 51 
Republican Senators joined together to kill the HMO Patients' Bill of 
Rights. Rest assured, I will ask the next Congress to guarantee your 
right to see a specialist, to receive the nearest emergency care, to 
keep your doctor throughout your course of treatment, to keep your 
medical records private, and have other basic health care rights. I hope 
next year we'll have a Congress that agrees.
    But I do not want to see this Congress walk away from America's 
schoolchildren as it has walked away from America's patients. We should 
be able to make real, bipartisan progress on education. After all, we've 
got the first balanced budget and surplus in 29 years; our economy 
continues to create jobs and broaden prosperity, despite the economic 
turmoil abroad. We must use this moment of good fortune to make an 
historic investment in the quality of our public schools, and we've 
still got a few days to do it.
    Our Nation needs 100,000 new, highly qualified teachers to reduce 
class size in the early grades. All the studies confirm what every 
parent already knows: smaller classes and better trained teachers make a 
big difference--better academic performance, fewer discipline problems, 
more individualized attention. Of course, basic math tells us that 
smaller classes plus more teachers demand more classrooms, especially 
since we already have a record number of children in our schools. All 
across America, children are being forced to learn in school buildings 
that are overcrowded or even crumbling, or in temporary housing 
trailers.
    So again today, I call on Congress to help communities build or 
modernize 5,000 schools with targeted tax credits. I can't think of a 
better tax cut for our country's future than one that gives our children 
a modern, safe, adequately equipped place to learn. And these tax 
credits are fully paid for in the balanced budget.
    The budget should also bring cutting-edge technology to the 
classroom, continuing our efforts to connect all classrooms and 
libraries to the Internet by 2000, and make sure that the teachers are 
trained to use such technology. It should fund innovative charter 
schools so that parents and teachers can bring the benefits of choice 
and competition to our public schools. It should fully fund after-school 
programs, so young people learn their lessons in the classroom, not the 
streets. It should expand Head Start for the early years and insist on 
high standards in the basics, providing for voluntary national testing 
with a nonpartisan system to measure progress. It should fund our child 
literacy programs so that every child will be able to read well and 
independently by the end of the third grade. It should help bring out-
of-school youth back into a learning environment. And it should support 
our new mentoring initiative to reach out to young people and encourage

[[Page 1777]]

them early to stay in school, learn their lessons, and go on to college.
    Small classes, trained teachers, modern schools, high standards, 
public school choice, and more--this is a plan that can revolutionize 
education in America. But the Republican majority in Congress hasn't 
even passed the annual education investment bill yet. When it comes to 
education, Congress simply must not settle for an incomplete. I ask the 
Republicans in Congress to join the Democrats to put progress over 
partisanship, and send me a full education investment bill.
    Remember, the budget Congress must now finalize will be the last 
complete budget of the 20th century. We cannot pass up this golden 
opportunity to invest wisely now to help all our children seize the 
promise of the century to come.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the 
White House.