    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [November 4, 1999]
    [Pages 1965-1967]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in a Discussion With Project GRAD Students in Newark, New Jersey
    November 4, 1999

        The President. You know Senator Lautenberg, Congressman Payne, your Mayor
    James. Jayson, don't you think you ought to
    introduce Mr. Katz to these people?

    [At this point, NBA New Jersey Nets player Jayson Williams made brief remarks and introduced Nets co-owner Lewis
    Katz who also made brief remarks.]

        The President. Tell us about this Project GRAD program. Anybody want
    to tell me about it? Go ahead.
        Student. Project GRAD is a scholarship program that guarantees you a
    $6,000 scholarship.
        The President. If you do what?
        Student. If you maintain a 2.5 grade point average, and you have to
    take two summer institute college preps for two summers. And you have to
    go to Malcolm X Shabazz for 4 years and graduate within that 4 years.
    You can't do it in 5 years but 4 years. You have to take college
    preparatory courses.
        The President. So harder courses and two summer schools?
        Student. Not harder courses, it's like college prep.
        Student. We also have to take 40 hours of community service in our 4
    years. We can take 10 hours a year. We can do how many hours that we can
    do in our 4 years.
        The President. What community service are you doing?
        Student. Me, I'm a freshman, so----
        The President. You haven't started yet. Do you think the community
    service requirement is a good thing?
        Students. Yes, yes.
        The President. In the State of Maryland--Maryland is the only State
    in America where you have to do community service as a requirement. It's
    like taking American history or English or whatever. It's like a
    requirement for getting your high school diploma. And it's a requirement
    to be in this program.
        Are you in the band?
        Student. Yes.
        The President. What's your instrument?
        Student. Trumpet.
        The President. Good. How long have you been playing?
        Student. Six years.
        The President. That's great. It's not quite as big a thrill as
    Jayson Williams, maybe, but I also got to--I
    spent a lot of time with Wynton Marsalis. He's the only musician, I
    think, in the world who is both the greatest jazz musician and the
    greatest classical musician on his instrument. Good guy.
        What else do you want to tell me about this program?

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. Is there a limit to the number of young people who
    can be in the program in this high school?
        Student. No. You just have to meet all the requirements.
        The President. So anybody who meets the requirements can be in the
    program?
        Student. Yes.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. How long has this program been going on? Do you know?
        Student. This is the third year. This will be the third year.
        The President. Are there three groups of people who have already
    graduated from high school?

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        Students. No.
        The President. You're the first. Just juniors. And how many juniors
    are in the program? Most of them? And do you think 100 percent of the
    juniors in the program will go to college?
        Student. Yes.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. Is Bob Milliken here?
    Mr. Milliken started the communities in schools program--how long ago
    now? He's been working at this for 25 years, and over 15 years ago, when
    I was Governor of Arkansas, he came to Arkansas, and he put some of--the
    program started off in big cities like Newark, and then he put them in
    small towns and rural areas, too. It's a wonderful thing. People that
    commit their lives to this are real heroes in my opinion.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. What you're doing is better, I think, it's more
    comprehensive. We couldn't afford nationally to put it in everywhere.
    What we're doing I think can be used also by you. This GEAR UP program
    is one that Congress adopted last year that was developed based on a
    model that colleges in Philadelphia had pioneered, and the Congressman
    from Philadelphia, Chaka Fattah, got Mr.
    Payne and Senator Lautenberg and others to help, and we passed a program that
    basically provides funds to help college students go in with junior high
    school kids, middle school kids, and say, ``Look, you've got a guarantee
    of going to college if you make your grades, and we'll help you.'' And
    then the colleges come in and tutor and mentor the kids and work with
    them wherever we have this.
        This is better because it works from the beginning of school all the
    way up. But anything we can do, it seems to me, to make every young
    person know that college is a real possibility if they stay in school
    and do the work and learn the subjects I think are very important.
        How does the scholarship program work? Where does the money come
    from? Do you put up the $6,000 for all the kids?
        William M. Freeman. It's not just
    Lucent Technologies, Mr. President. It's a combination of a lot of
    things together. And we give $1,000 the first year, $1,000 the second,
    $2,000 the third, and $2,000 the fourth year. And that's reserved for
    each child from when you start out. And we committed over 12 years, so
    that the first kindergarten class is guaranteed when they graduate, from
    that year through 12.
        The President. And you can calculate based on your family income
    whether you can also get a Pell grant. And they get it over and above,
    don't they?
        Mr. Freeman. Yes, no matter what,
    they get that.
        The President. And whether you're eligible for college loans and all
    that. Those of you who have families who can help, they're also entitled
    to a $1,500 tax credit for what they pay towards your college education.
    So if you get the scholarship and the Pell grant and your family puts up
    $1,500, they can get the money back from their taxes.
        So if you put it all together now, we pretty much open the doors of
    college to everybody.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. I was out in Los Angeles the other day, the first one
    of these tours we took called the new market tour, trying to get more
    investment into our cities. And I went to this program where young
    people like you who were interested in automotive engineering were
    designing their own cars by computer. And they had this software program
    where they could manage--the program would allow them to drive their
    cars and see how their design worked when they took sharp curves at high
    speeds, how they handled crashes, how they did everything. It was an
    amazing thing.
        By the time you go to school on this, you could do the whole thing
    on a computer with a software program to figure out how to build the
    cars of the future. They're already building automobiles with--
    experimental cars, for example, with composite materials, that is, not
    all steel. And I went to the Detroit Auto Show, and they can build cars
    now that weigh 500 to 1,000 pounds less than the normal car, but that
    don't get hurt anymore in crashes.
        They've always been able to make real light cars to get high mileage
    and be efficient, but they've been more dangerous. And now the materials
    are being developed so that we can make very light cars which are much
    more energy-efficient, pollute the atmosphere a lot better, and which
    don't get--if anything, they're safer in collisions and crashes.
        So it will be very exciting. By the time you get into that, we'll be
    doing things with transportation we can't even imagine now. And to

    [[Page 1967]]

    avoid traffic jams, you'll be able to put a little computer program in
    your car and just program it, and your car will take you wherever it's
    necessary to avoid the traffic, which, for people that live in highly
    congested areas will be a welcome development. You may be the most
    popular person in your class. [Laughter]

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. I'll tell you, one great thing about our country is
    that, of all the countries in the world, we have the best system of
    undergraduate college education. And so, the good news for you is that
    we have--there are literally probably 300 schools in America, maybe
    more, where you can get a world-class undergraduate education in a whole
    lot of different areas, which means that it's a good thing to have it in
    your mind where you want to go to school, but you also should remember
    that you've got a lot of options, and you can't lose. So it's not like--
    if you think you want to go one place, and it doesn't work out there,
    and you get a better deal somewhere else, you really should know that
    America has--we're so blessed. We've got this wonderful, wonderful
    system of undergraduate education and colleges where there are literally
    hundreds of good choices. So you'll all do well.
        And I just want to thank you for what you're doing with your lives
    and what an example you're setting for other young people in this
    community. I hope my coming here will give this program and you some
    nationwide publicity so more schools will set up things like this,
    because this is really wonderful.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:45 a.m. in the library at Malcolm X
    Shabazz High School. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Sharpe James;
    jazz musician Wynton Marsalis; and former Gov. William E. Milliken, of
    Michigan, founder and president, Communities In Schools, Inc. William M.
    Freeman is president and chief executive officer, Bell Atlantic-New
    Jersey. The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary
    also included the remarks of Mr. Williams and Mr. Katz. A tape was not
    available for verification of the content of these remarks.