    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [November 8, 1999]
    [Pages 2005-2008]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Budget Negotiations and an Exchange With Reporters
    November 8, 1999

        The President. Good afternoon. Over the weekend, we made some
    progress toward creating a budget that reflects the values of the
    American people, respects the need for our Government to live within its
    means, and looks to our future. I believe we can finish our work by
    Wednesday if we put partisanship aside and focus instead on achieving
    goals that the vast majority of the American people want us to achieve:
    a better education for our children, safer streets, a clean environment,
    more Americans brought into the circle of our growing prosperity.
        Improving education is perhaps the greatest domestic challenge our
    Nation faces. Education is at the heart of this budget debate. Last fall

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    we took an important step to improve learning in the classroom. We
    reached an agreement with Congress to help States and school districts
    begin hiring 100,000 new, highly trained teachers to reduce class size
    in the early grades.
        The need was obvious. School enrollments are exploding. Record
    numbers of teachers are or will soon be at retirement. And the research
    is clear that students do learn more in smaller classes with quality
    teachers.
        Last week we learned from a new survey of the Nation's largest
    school districts that our class size reduction initiative so far has
    done precisely what it was intended to do. It has put more teachers in
    the classroom and increased training for those already there with a
    minimum of redtape and bureaucracy. Now we have even more new evidence
    that our class size reduction is working.
        Today I am releasing a new report from the Department of Education.
    It's called ``Local Success Stories: Reducing Class Size.'' It shows
    that in just one year, schools across America have actually hired over
    29,000 new, highly trained teachers, thanks to our class size reduction
    initiative. The report also shows that in the early grades in those
    schools, class size has been reduced by an average of five students per
    class. Over 1.7 million students are now directly benefiting from this
    class size initiative.
        It shows we are headed in the right direction, and that's the good
    news. But we must remember, only a fraction of America's students have
    been reached. So we must continue down that path, not abandon it. I am
    committed to providing more teachers and better teachers for all our
    schools. I want to make sure every young student in America receives the
    benefits of more individual attention and a more disciplined learning
    environment in a smaller class size setting.
        Now, last fall congressional Republicans agreed to support this
    initiative. Indeed, it was election season, and they even went home and
    campaigned on it. It was a good idea then, and it's still a good idea.
    But suddenly the Republican majority has mysteriously changed its mind.
    Instead of keeping their commitment to hire more teachers and reduce
    class size--again I say, something they bragged on and ran on last
    year--now they want an open-ended block grant which could even be used
    for vouchers for private schools. I think that is wrong.
        Nine out of 10 students in our country attend public schools. The
    percentage of the funding coming from the Federal Government is already
    too meager, in my judgment. Therefore, our taxpayer money should go for
    more teachers and smaller classes in our public schools, not for
    vouchers for private schools.
        I am absolutely committed to keeping the promise that I made, and
    the promise that Congress made, to reduce class size with more quality
    teachers in the early grades. We need to work together to find a way to
    keep that promise.
        We also must demand more accountability for results, so I call on
    Congress to pass our plan to help States and schools districts turn
    around failing schools or shut them down. Working together, we can find
    a way to deliver a budget that meets our values.
        We also value the safety of our families, so we must extent our
    successful COPS program, which has given us already the lowest crime
    rate in 30 years, and now put up to 50,000 new community police officers
    in our neighborhoods with the modern equipment they need to keep the
    crime rate coming down.
        We must support our lands legacy initiative because we value the
    environment, to set aside precious natural areas for future generations
    and reject special interest riders that would endanger our environment.
        Because we value one America with justice for all, we must pass
    strong hate crimes legislation. And I would like to say that I want to
    express my personal appreciation to the parents of Matthew Shepard and to the police
    officers who have come with them here today and have gone to Capitol
    Hill to lobby for the hate crimes legislation.
        We value our national security and our leadership in the world.
    Therefore, we have to pay our dues to the United Nations. We value equal
    opportunity. And so before Congress leaves, we should tackle one more
    urgent priority: We ought to raise the minimum wage so that more people
    will participate in our prosperity. And we ought to raise the minimum
    wage without holding it hostage to special interest tax cuts that are
    not paid for and don't address national needs.
        We can do all this, and we can do it and pay for it, not spend the
    Social Security Trust Fund and continue to pay down the debt so that in
    15 years we'll be debt-free for the first

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    time since 1835. I urge Congress to continue to work with me in a
    bipartisan fashion to finish the job the American people sent us here to
    do.
        Thank you.

    Reduction of Class Size

        Q. Mr. President, on the issue of funding for teachers, sir, you
    resent it when Congress tells you to spend money in ways in which you do
    not deem appropriate. Why should a State Governor, who would like to
    spend that money differently, feel any differently?
        The President. Well, because it's not their money. If they don't
    want the money, they don't have to take it. If they're offended by it,
    they can give it to other States and other school districts.
        Look, we have--the difference is, we are acting on evidence, based
    on what the local school districts tell us and what we know. We have a
    record number of schoolchildren; we have a record number of teachers
    starting to retire. We have mountain upon mountain of evidence that
    smaller classes in the early grades lead to permanent learning gains if
    the teachers are well-qualified.
        And Congress agreed with that last year. I'd like to see them answer
    instead why they're ready so--excuse me, so willing to abandon something
    they campaigned on and asked people to vote for them for doing just a
    year ago.
        This is the right thing to do. It's good educational policy. And let
    me remind you that the teachers have supported this, the educators have
    supported this, and the evidence supports this. That's why I'm for it.
        Q. Mr. President, do you expect China to get into the----
        Q. The Department of Labor----
        The President. One at a time, sorry.

    Unemployment Insurance

        Q. The Department of Labor, at your direction, is drafting
    regulations to change the use of unemployment insurance so that it could
    be used for family leave purposes. Opponents of this idea say you don't
    have the authority to do this, that any such change should be done by
    Federal legislation. How do you respond to that?
        The President. Well, I was informed that we did have the authority
    to do it in the narrow way that we're doing it. And I think if you want
    more information on what the arguments are, you will have to talk to
    either the Labor Department Counsel or the appropriate people at the
    White House. But I obviously would not have done it if I hadn't been
    told that we had the authority to do it.
        Helen [Helen Thomas, United Press International].

    World Trade Organization Talks With China

        Q. Mr. President, do you expect China to get into the World Trade
    Organization this time around?
        The President. I don't know, but I hope so. Ambassador
    Barshefsky and Mr. Sperling have gone over there to work on it, and we're doing our
    best.
        Q. Are things looking better?
        The President. Well, I don't know yet. Let's not characterize the
    in-between until we see whether we can produce the product.

    Budget Negotiations

        Q. Mr. President--[inaudible]--real sticking point?
        The President. Obviously, we have a big difference of opinion on
    education, and I feel very strongly about it. The education community
    and the country feel strongly about it. And the Democrats in Congress
    feel strongly about it. And the Republicans felt strongly about it when
    they were facing an election, and I think it's wrong for them to abandon
    a commitment the next year that they were proud of in an election year.
    So I hope we can work that out.
        But the other issues I mentioned are all important to me, as well.
    Can we do it all by Wednesday? In a heartbeat, if we decide to get
    together. We resolved very quickly many of our differences over the
    foreign operations bill, and we can do that on these other bills if we
    really work at it.

    Mexican Presidential Primary

        Q. Mr. President, Mexico has held its first Presidential primary.
    The PRI has governed Mexico for over 70 years. What do you think about
    it, the primary yesterday?
        The President. I think it's a good thing that they held a primary,
    and I think the more democracy they embrace, the better. So I would
    applaud them and congratulate them for having

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    done so. And particularly, I would like to congratulate President
    Zedillo, who took the initiative to promote
    this primary and to open up the political process in his country.

    Situation in Pakistan

        Q. Mr. President, how would you characterize the situation in
    Pakistan differently than George W. Bush did this last week?
        The President. Look, I don't want to get into that. You all can
    handle the Presidential campaign without me. You know that I'm very
    concerned about the interruption of civilian leadership in Pakistan. We
    would like to see a stronger democratic system there, not the
    abandonment of the system that they did have. And we are--we have
    communicated that to General Musharraf and
    to the others, and we will continue to work with them and hope that we
    can achieve some progress there.
        And I also want to encourage them to continue to work to diminish
    tensions with India and to resolve matters in Kashmir, not to continue
    to use that, as has been done in times past, to inflame tension on both
    sides of the line of control, and in both countries. Those countries
    need to be working on their long-term challenges and their common
    interests. And so I will continue to push for that as well.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:30 p.m. on the South Grounds at the White
    House prior to departure for Georgetown University. In his remarks, he
    referred to murder victim Matthew Shepard's parents, Dennis and Judy;
    President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico; and Gen. Pervez Musharraf, head of
    the Pakistani Armed Forces, who led a military coup d'etat in Pakistan
    on October 14. A reporter referred to Republican Presidential candidate
    Gov. George W. Bush of Texas.