    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [June 15, 2000]
    [Pages 1148-1150]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the White House Strategy Session on Improving
    Hispanic Student Achievement
    June 15, 2000

        Thank you very much, and good afternoon. I have received a good
    report on what you have done so far, and I want to get right into our
    program, but I would like to make a few remarks first. I'd like to thank
    Governor Glendening and Senator
    Bingaman and Congressman Hinojosa and Guillermo Linares and
    Secretary Riley for joining us, along with
    our other panel members.
        And I'd like to thank Congressman Joe Baca, Carlos Romero-Barcelo
    for being here. I think Congressman Reyes
    from Texas is on the way. And I want to welcome Mayor Beverly
    O'Neill from Long Beach, and especially
    Lieutenant Governor of California Cruz Bustamante, who is here. And I'd like to thank Maria
    Echaveste and Mickey Ibarra from the White House for the work they have done on
    this, along with all the others who have worked so hard.
        This is very important to me. One of the things that I have learned
    traveling America is just how diverse Hispanic America is, something
    that a lot of Americans don't really know yet. I think there is a common
    core of values around family and community and work and faith, but
    Hispanic America is growing more diverse every day with different
    challenges and, unfortunately, still different opportunities. There are
    still a lot of gaps that we all want to close. Most of them are
    narrowing, but we've still got a lot of work to do.
        Last August the First Lady hosted
    the first-ever White House Conference on Hispanic Children and Youth.
    And today we're following up on that Conference by setting forth
    specific goals and an agenda for closing the student achievement gap
    over the next 10 years in ways that we can all be held accountable for.
        The first step to closing that gap is to believe, as I do, that high
    expectations are for all students. I believe intelligence is equally
    distributed throughout the world, but opportunity is not. And the same
    is true within our own country.
        For over 7 years now, we've pushed hard for higher standards, for
    more choice, for greater accountability, and for more support for
    children and teachers and parents and schools who need it. We have hired
    nearly 30,000 new, highly trained teachers now, on the way to our goal
    of 100,000 more teachers to lower class sizes in the early grades. We've
    connected about three-quarters of our classrooms to the Internet; that's
    up from 3 percent in 1994, when we started in northern California, the
    Vice President and I did, with our first NetDay.
        We've made it possible for over 90 percent of our schools in very
    low income areas to have at least one Internet connection because of the
    E-rate program that the Vice President and I fought very hard for in the
    Telecommunications Act in 1996. And we have more than doubled college
    aid in the last 7 years, the biggest expansion since the GI bill 50
    years ago. In all these areas, I actually believe we have more to do.
        We also, as all of you know, put in place a Hispanic Education
    Action Plan that includes, this year, a $436 million increase for
    programs

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    to improve Latino student outcomes. And I want to double that
    investment. This strategy of investing more and demanding more is
    working. Test scores are up across the country; more students than ever
    are going to college. If we just keep it up, we'll really take this
    country and all its children where we want to go.
        Unfortunately, that progress is threatened by the education bill
    that the House Committee passed yesterday--or that the House passed
    yesterday. I think it demands too little accountability, and I know it
    puts in too few resources. It, in my judgment, underinvests in
    everything from after-school programs, which we have taken from $1
    million to over $400 million in just 3\1/2\ years. And if that bill were
    to come to my desk, I would have to veto it. But I hope we can work with
    Congress on a bipartisan education bill. We've had some success in
    recent years, and I am confident we will this year.
        I'd like to talk just a moment about what many of you already know,
    which is that Hispanic students are sharing in this academic success,
    but still too many are lagging behind in ways that I find deeply
    troubling.
        Today I'm releasing a study by my Council of Economic Advisers,
    which shows that the average educational level of native-born Hispanics
    has increased substantially over the last several decades, and the gap
    between Hispanics and whites has declined. Compared to 1993, Hispanic
    students are scoring higher on math tests; greater percentages are
    completing high school, graduating from college, and getting advanced
    degrees.
        However, there's some bad news in this report, because the need for
    education is growing even faster. For example, since 1993, the
    percentage of Hispanics with 4 or more years of college has increased
    but only by about 2 percent. Over the next decade, the number of jobs
    requiring at least 4 years of college will more than double.
        The study shows that Hispanics, who represent 11 percent of our work
    force, hold down just 4 percent of the jobs in information technology,
    jobs that pay much more than average in the area where jobs are growing
    most rapidly. Every American should be concerned about that gap. When
    the fastest growing demographic group in our country is underrepresented
    in the fastest growing employment sector, it means less opportunity and
    a violation of the values that we all share. It also means that, sooner
    or later, our economy will have a shortage of highly skilled workers
    where we really need them.
        One other finding in the report bears mentioning because it will
    inform the debate we're going to have today. The problem is not that
    Hispanics are not choosing careers in key industries like information
    technology. In fact, according to the report, Hispanics who graduate
    from college enter the information technology industry at about the same
    rate as non-Hispanics and earn about as much. The problem, therefore,
    quite simply, is that not enough Hispanics are getting college degrees.
    That can be remedied only by raising the educational achievements of
    Hispanic students in schools, beginning in pre-school years, continuing
    into adulthood, and by making sure that no person is ever denied access
    to college because of cost.
        We know that the achievement levels can be raised. The question is
    whether we have the will to do what we know works. If we're going to set
    high expectations of students, we must have high expectations of
    ourselves to do what it takes to make sure all of our students can make
    the grade.
        We know that we can make college more accessible. That's what the
    HOPE scholarships do, the Direct Student Loan Program, the lifetime
    learning tax credit. But I think we ought to do more. I have got a
    proposal before Congress to give up to $10,000 of tuition tax-deductible
    status every year and to do it at a 28 percent income tax rate, even for
    people in the 15 percent income tax bracket, which is a very, very
    important proposal. And it could make it possible for even more of our
    young people to go to college and for more of our families to afford it.
        So today, we know what we have to do, and we know we can do it. And
    what I think is always helpful is to translate what we wish to do into
    specific goals. So I think we ought to adopt five specific goals to
    close the Hispanic student achievement gap over the next 10 years.
        First, let's make sure that in 10 years, young Latino children are
    enrolled in quality early childhood programs at the same rate as other
    Americans. Second, let's make sure that in 10 years, every Hispanic
    student graduating from high school will have demonstrable proficiency
    in English. Third, let's make sure that in 10 years, there is no gap in
    test scores and other assessments between Hispanic students and their
    peers. Fourth, let's make sure in 10 years,

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    90 percent of Latino students complete high school. And fifth, let's
    make sure that over the next decade, the percentage of Hispanic students
    who earn college degrees will double what it is today.
        Now, these goals are specific and ambitious but clearly achievable.
    If we are serious, we have to do something about meeting them. This
    morning the Secretary of Education released the first of what will be
    annual reports measuring progress in Hispanic student achievement. We
    also need an entity outside electoral politics to keep a national
    spotlight on these goals, because they should be the Nation's goals,
    without regard to party.
        Today I'm happy to announce the creation of such an entity: the 2010
    Alliance, a partnership among a wide variety of Hispanic organizations,
    including La Raza and the National Association for Bilingual Education,
    and corporate and non-profit groups, from the Ford, Irvine, Kellogg, and
    Hazen Foundations to AT&T, GM, Univision, and State Farm.
        The alliance will be, as they say, in your face. [Laughter] It is
    designed to remind the Nation of these goals and to spur commitments,
    specific ones, at every level of government and the private sector to
    help to meet them. I'm happy that a number of organizations have already
    committed to taking specific steps to help achieve the goals.
        The Discovery Channel will publicize the goals in public service
    announcements to run on its Discovery and Espanol Network. The
    educational software firm Lightspan is teaming up with the Department of
    Housing and Urban Development to provide special software and Internet
    access for computers in HUD neighborhood centers in Hispanic
    communities. Many other organizations, from the American Library
    Association to the Hispanic Radio Network, also are contributing.
        Closing this achievement gap is a challenge that may seem daunting
    now, but it will seem inevitable once we do it. And when we do it, if we
    work hard, stay together, and stay focused on the goal, America will be
    a better, stronger place in the 21st century.
        Thank you very much.
        I'd like now to introduce Governor Parris Glendening of Maryland, who increased his State's investment
    in education by $600 million and doubled funds to build and modernize
    schools in his first term in office. In more ways than I can count right
    now, since he's been Governor, Maryland has been on the forefront of
    change in our Nation. And I wish every State would follow Maryland's
    lead.
        Governor.

     Note:  The President spoke at 2:48 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Guillermo Linares, Chairman,
    President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic
    Americans.