[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[June 16, 2000]
[Pages 1154-1157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With Matt Lauer of NBC's ``Today'' Show 
in New York City
June 16, 2000

``VH1 Save The Music Today'' Campaign

    Mr. Lauer.  Mr. President, good morning; nice to have you here.
    The President.  Good morning, Matt. Thank you.
    Mr. Lauer.  I don't think I'm betraying any confidence when I say 
that I checked with the VH1 people and I said, ``How did you get the 
President involved in this campaign?'' And they threw their arms up and 
they said, ``He kind of volunteered''----
    The President.  That's true.
    Mr. Lauer.  ----``I mean, he's called many times and said, `What can 
I do?''' Why is this so important to you?
    The President.  Well, Hillary and I both spent a lot of time on 
this, and it's important for two reasons. One is, I was in music when I 
was the age of these children, and I know what it can do. And secondly, 
I've been very disturbed over the years--over the last 20 years, more 
and more, as schools have come under financial pressure, they have 
tended to drop their music programs. You know, the principals have a lot 
of problems. They have a lot of challenges they have to meet, and many 
times the money is not there. And the school districts have cut a lot of 
these music programs out all over the country.

[[Page 1155]]

    And when I heard what VH1 was doing, I did kind of volunteer to get 
involved. I wrote John Sykes a letter and said, 
``Look, I'm for this, and I think we've got to get music back into these 
schools.'' A lot of young children--we know that a lot of our young 
children learn better if they have access to music education. Not 
everyone learns in the same way. Not everyone's brain is stimulated in 
the same way. And the schools that have vigorous music programs tend to 
have higher academic performance.
    Mr. Lauer.  What do you say, though--I mean, let's say, devil's-
advocate it for a second--I'm a member of the local school board, and I 
sit down, and I look at the budget, and it's shrinking. And I say, 
``I've got choices. I have to make cuts. I've got school lunches over 
here. I have books for the library here. I have music education over 
here.'' How do you stop me from cutting music education?
    The President.  It depends on what your options are. But very often 
there are some options. And that's what that wonderful movie about music 
education here in New York City, ``Music of the Heart,'' was about. But 
what this program tries to do is to encourage the schools to put some 
money into music education by giving them extra help with instruments 
and sometimes with other support.
    And what we've tried to do at the national level, with the National 
Endowment for the Arts and the President's Commission on the Arts and 
Humanities that Hillary's the 
honorary chair of, is to constantly support music education, to 
emphasize that the schools that have good music education programs see 
positive other academic advancements as a result of it, and of course, 
try to get some more funds for the lower income schools out there.
    Mr. Lauer.  But is the message getting out? I mean, you had music 
education as a kid; so did I. We took it for granted. We're now in a 
time of unprecedented economic prosperity, and still today, only 25 
percent of schools across this country offer music education as a basic 
part of the curriculum.
    The President.  See, what a lot of people don't know is, over the 
last 20 years and particularly in the last decade or so, while our 
school populations have been growing again, a smaller percentage of 
property-tax payers have kids in the schools. And an awful lot of our 
schools are funded primarily through the property tax. So the schools 
have had all kinds of financial problems. Their energy bills go up. A 
lot of them have substandard physical facilities. They have the need to 
hire more teachers to teach various academic requirements that may have 
come in. And they don't want to stop any of their competitive athletic 
proposals. So the two things that have suffered most in the schools are 
the music programs and the art programs, on the one hand, and the 
physical education programs for people who aren't in competitive team 
sports.
    Mr. Lauer.  But is this the way it's going to be? I mean, when 
people like VH1 come in and they donate money like this, it's great, but 
it's private and public partnership. Why can't we find a way, even 
through the Federal Government's assistance, to make sure that this is a 
basic part of education?
    The President.  I think we should do that. But the main thing we 
have to do is to build broader public support for doing it. Let me say, 
interestingly enough, you asked me the budget question. That's the first 
question: Well, what would you do if you had all these tough budget 
decisions? Our research indicates that the number one factor in whether 
music education programs stay or come back to schools is strong 
community involvement pushing for it. In other words, where people at 
the grassroots want it, the people who make the budget decisions tend to 
find a way to provide it.
    And so, what we can best do, I think, is to point out consistently 
what the overall educational benefits are, number one, and number two, 
to try to get more Federal assistance out there to the schools to help 
deal with their big problems. That's why I'm trying to get the Federal 
Government to help with school construction and school repair, to help 
the school districts hire teachers to lower class sizes so they don't 
have to cut out music to hire that extra teacher when the population 
goes up, and to get the overall aid to low income schools up. So if we 
do those things and we get the kind of grassroots support we need, then 
what VH1 will be doing is supplementing a growing trend, instead of 
trying to fill a huge hole.
    Mr. Lauer.  Is it possible to take it a step further? From what I 
understand now, the Federal Government supplies about 9 percent of 
funding for schools; local and States provide the rest. Can you offer 
States incentives? Can you say to them, ``Look, we'll provide more 
funding if you take it upon yourselves to make music education part of 
your basic curriculum?''

[[Page 1156]]

    The President.  We could do that. I hadn't thought of that, exactly 
in that way. What we tried to do--let me just say this. What we've tried 
to do for the last 7 years, since I've been President, is to say, 
``Look, here are the Nation's education goals. They include music and 
the arts. And if you come up with a plan to meet those goals, we will 
give you some help to implement the plan, which included music and the 
arts.''
    Basically, the specific targeted dollars we have for schools go to 
schools that have greater financial need, because they've got a higher 
percentage of low income kids, or to hire more teachers, generally, 
because the school population is going up.
    I think if we will stay with the position that we're going to help 
all the schools that have these goals, which include music and the arts, 
and then we come in with the big ticket items, which are personnel and 
school building and repair, and we can build the kind of grassroots 
support we need, then these music programs will be able to survive.
    But one of the things that really happened is a lot of folks just 
took the music programs for granted. A lot of people who were making 
tough budget decisions assumed nobody would care if they were 
eliminated. And it was tragic, what happened. So I think what's going to 
happen--you'll see a big infusion of public money going back into these 
programs because of what VH1 has done and because more and more parents 
will insist on the music being there. And I'll be glad to do whatever I 
can to help.
    Mr. Lauer.  We're going to take a little break. When we come back, I 
understand we're joined by another special guest, and we'll talk more 
about music education.
    The President.  Thank you.

[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]

Los Alamos National Laboratory

    Mr. Lauer.  And we're back with President Bill Clinton at P.S. 96 in 
East Harlem. Let me ask for a couple of quick answers to some questions 
in the news. Los Alamos: Congress is holding hearings on security 
breaches there. Two hard drives containing nuclear secrets disappeared. 
Do you think national security was jeopardized?
    The President.  It's not clear, but I think it's very important to 
get to the bottom of it. The FBI is investigating it, and we've got 
Senator Baker and Congressman 
Hamilton, who have agreed to take an 
independent look. It's a serious issue, and I think what we ought to do 
is just see the investigation through and see where the facts lead us.
    But we need to do what we can to find out what happened, whether 
there was a security breach, and if so, how we can change it so it will 
never happen again.

Gasoline Prices

    Mr. Lauer.  You and I were both watching the news earlier about gas 
prices.
    The President.  Yes.
    Mr. Lauer.  People in Chicago, Milwaukee, in particular, paying 40 
cents a gallon more than the rest of us.
    The President.  Than anybody else in the country. It's been very 
frustrating to me. I'm quite concerned about it.
    Let me tell you what we know. We know that the prices were affected 
by the shutdown of a refinery, which is coming back up, a leak in a 
pipeline, which is the cheapest way to transport gas, and an unusual 
increase in demand in the Chicago-Milwaukee area. And all that affected 
it. Also, they used the cleaner gasoline, which is more expensive to 
produce, but that's only about 5 or 6 cents a gallon. So we know that it 
would be more expensive for a little while until the transportation and 
the refinery problems are solved.
    What we don't know is whether there was any price gouging. So we've 
got the Federal Trade Commission looking into that, and we've also had 
the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency looking 
into it. I'm very worried about it. But I'm hoping that we can break the 
logjam on it soon.

``VH1 Save The Music Today''

[Mr. Lauer introduced musician Billy Joel, who 
offered his advice to the young musicians present.]

    The President.  The only thing I would say is, don't get discouraged 
early. If you'll stay with it long enough, until you like to hear 
yourself play, then it will be easier for you to keep practicing. But if 
you play one of these reed instruments, you'll squeak a lot. If you play 
a string

[[Page 1157]]

instrument, it'll hurt your ears in the beginning. Just stay with it; be 
patient. And when you reach the point where you like to hear yourself 
play, then it's all downhill from there. You just keep working.
    Mr. Lauer.  Maybe it's a good time for you to relate to them also. 
You had a music teacher in your early life who had a pretty strong 
impact on your life.
    The President.  Oh, absolutely I did. I had a--well, my high school 
band director, Virgil Spurlin, is still a 
friend of mine, still writes me to this day. My grade school band 
director was a man named George Grey, who had a big impact on me. My 
vocal--my choir teacher when I was in elementary school, I still 
remember vividly. Her name was Lillian Rutherford. All the kids I knew 
had access to choir and could be in the band if they wanted to. And I'm 
so glad that John Sykes and VH1 and all these 
people are trying to make it possible for you to do this, because it's 
something--you don't have to--I was not as good as Billy Joel, see, so I didn't get to be a professional musician. But 
I had a wonderful time. It changed my life for the better. And it still 
benefits me, and I still play.

President's Legacy

    Mr. Lauer.  I'm sure at this point in your Presidency, you have to 
be thinking a lot about legacy. And you look at young people in the 
third and fourth grade--how do you want them to be a part of your 
legacy?
    The President.  Well, I want them to have more opportunity, more 
educational opportunity, than they had when I became President. And I 
want them to grow up in a country that is a more just and decent 
country, where there is less discrimination and where people work 
together more. And I think that that will be the case. But it's really 
important that kids are not deprived of opportunities like music, just 
because of where they happen to live and whether their parents have 
money or not. That shouldn't be what determines this.
    Mr. Lauer.  Just a suggestion: You've got some free time coming up 
in January, and Billy, you've got a little free time. I'm thinking, you 
go to the garage in Chappaqua; you get a little amplifier like you used 
to do in high school--[laughter]--aggravate the neighbors, and put 
together a little band here.
    The President.  I accept.
    Billy Joel.  How close is the next house 
over, because--[laughter].
    Mr. Lauer.  Thank you so much for coming in. Billy Joel, it's always 
good to see you. President Clinton, nice to see you, as well.
    The President.  Thank you.

 Note:  The interview began at 8:08 a.m. at the Joseph C. Lanzetta 
School in East Harlem. In his remarks, the President referred to John 
Sykes, president, VH1; and former Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr., and 
former Representative Lee H. Hamilton, appointed to lead a Presidential 
Commission to investigate possible security breaches at the Los Alamos 
National Laboratory. The transcript released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary also included the remarks of Mr. Joel.