[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[September 30, 2000]
[Pages 1994-1995]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
September 30, 2000

    Good morning. This has been a good week for America. As our athletes 
continue to pile up medals in Sydney, our economy continues to break 
records at home. This week we learned that household income had reached 
an all-time high, poverty a 20-year low; the budget surplus is the 
largest on record; and for the first time in 12 years, thanks largely to 
the Children's Health Insurance Program, the number of Americans without 
health insurance has declined by over 1\1/2\ million.
    Today I want to talk with you about making the most of this moment, 
by putting our children's education first and building better schools 
for them.
    This fall our schools opened their doors to the largest number of 
students in history. We have to work hard to give them the best 
education in history. We're working to turn our schools around, with 
higher standards, stronger accountability, and more investment. Reading, 
math, and SAT scores are up. So are high school graduation and college-
going rates. We dramatically increased Head Start, after-school, and 
summer school programs. The number of students in States with core 
curriculum standards has increased from 14 to 49, and in State after 
State, failing schools are being turned around. With the Vice 
President's E-rate program, we've helped connect 95 percent of our 
schools to the Internet, and we're in the process of hiring 100,000 
high-quality teachers to reduce class size in the early grades.
    But it's hard for students to lift themselves up in schools that are 
falling down. Across our Nation, students are struggling to learn in 
schools that are crowded and crumbling. I visited schools all over the 
country where this is so: a school in Florida where classes were held 
not in one or two but 12 trailers; a school in Queens, where there were 
400 more students than the school was built for; a school in Virginia, 
where the electrical service in some classrooms is so poor that if you 
plug in a new computer in the wall, the circuit breaker cuts off. This 
is a challenge all across our country. In cities and rural areas, small 
towns and Native American communities, the average American school 
building is now more than 40 years old. The estimated price tag to bring 
our schools into good condition--$127 billion.
    Today I'm releasing a new Department of Education analysis that 
highlights the nationwide need to build new schools and modernize 
existing ones. The study provides a State-by-State report card that 
shows that at least 60 percent of the schools in every State are in need 
of repair. Many States and local communities are working to fix their 
schools, but too many school districts simply don't have the tax base to 
handle the burden alone.
    That's why I've proposed a school construction tax credit to help 
communities build or modernize 6,000 schools and, also, grants and loans 
for emergency repairs in nearly 5,000 schools a year for 5 years.
    The good news is, we have a bipartisan majority in the House of 
Representatives ready right now to pass school construction relief. But 
the Republican leadership continues to stand in the way and refuses to 
bring it to a vote. Every day they stall is another day our children are 
forced to go to school in trailers, overcrowded classrooms, and 
crumbling buildings. Congress must act now.
    In a larger sense, this is about our priorities and values. The 
schools I attended as a child were fairly old, but they were very well- 
maintained. They sent every student a clear message: You are important; 
we take your education seriously. That's how my parents' generation kept 
faith with us, and how we must keep faith with our children.
    But the clock is ticking. At midnight tonight the fiscal year runs 
out. Congress still hasn't sent me a budget for education and other 
pressing priorities. Yet, they have found the time, first, to pass huge, 
fiscally irresponsible tax cuts

[[Page 1995]]

and then, after I vetoed them, to load up the spending bills with 
hundreds of millions of dollars in special interest projects. In one 
appropriations bill alone, there is $668 million in extra projects. 
That's enough to do emergency repairs in 2,500 schools, to send another 
one million children to after-school programs, to hire over 15,000 
teachers to lower class size.
    Not long ago, Senator McCain said porkbarrel spending, and I quote, 
``has lurched completely out of control.'' Well, it's time to turn off 
the porkbarrel spigot and deliver for our children's future.
    That's why I've told my budget team to seek final negotiations on an 
education budget that stays true to our values and our children's long-
term needs. We're not going to leave the table until we invest in 
modernizing our schools and continue our efforts to hire 100,000 quality 
teachers for smaller classes. We're going to keep fighting to strengthen 
accountability, to turn around failing schools or shut them down or put 
them under new management, to expand after-school programs and college 
opportunities for young people, and to ensure a qualified teacher in 
every classroom. Our children deserve 21st century schools.
    In this time of prosperity, we have a responsibility to make sure 
they get no less. By building stronger schools, we'll build a stronger 
America in the future.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 5:48 p.m. on September 29 in the Oval 
Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on September 30. 
The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary 
on September 29 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.