[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[October 21, 2000]
[Pages 2251-2252]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
October 21, 2000

    Good morning. By any standard, this fall is something special. Today 
New York hosts the first game of the first ``subway series'' since 1956. 
We're about to hold the first Presidential election of the 21st century. 
And this school year features the biggest class of students in our 
Nation's history.
    Fall is also budget season in Washington, time for Congress to put 
everything else aside, step up to the plate, and complete its work on 
behalf of our students and all Americans. Instead, we're 3 weeks into 
the new fiscal year and still running the Government on a week-by-week 
basis and still fighting to get a budget that reflects the priorities of 
our people. Today I want to talk about what's at stake, starting with 
education, because in the last days of this Congress, our first priority 
should be the future of our children.
    Al Gore and I came to Washington almost 8 years ago now with a 
strategy of fiscal discipline, targeted tax cuts, and investment in our 
people. Our determination to live within our means has brought our 
country out of an age of deficits into an era of surpluses. We're 
actually paying down the national debt, and Government spending is the 
smallest percentage of national income it's been since 1966. And our 
education strategy--higher standards, accountability, greater 
investment--is being embraced all across America, and it's working.
    The dropout rate is down; test scores and graduation rates are up. 
The percentage of kids going on to college is at an all-time high, 
thanks in part to the largest expansion of college aid since the GI 
bill.
    This past February I submitted a balanced budget that would sustain 
America's prosperity by maintaining our fiscal discipline and investing 
in our future. The budget strengthens Social Security and Medicare, adds 
a Medicare prescription drug benefit, keeps us on track to pay down the 
debt by 2012, and invests in education, technology, the environment, and 
health care.
    Unfortunately, while we've been working to save money for our 
Nation's future, the Republican majority in Congress has been focusing 
on ways to spend it, loading up the spending bills with record amounts 
of pork-barrel spending. So again this week I'm asking Congress to bring 
its priorities back into line with the Nation's, and there's no better 
place to start than education.
    We can't lift our children up in schools that are simply falling 
down. Congress should approve my plan to help communities build new 
schools and repair old ones. Every day they fail to act is another day 
too many children attend class in drafty trailers, crowded classrooms, 
and crumbling buildings. There's a bipartisan majority ready to pass tax 
credits for school construction. It's time for the Republican leadership 
to stop blocking it, schedule a vote, and let it happen.
    We've also made a bipartisan commitment to hire 100,000 new teachers 
to reduce class sizes in the early grades and proposed an initiative to 
improve teacher quality. We've hired about 30,000 of those teachers. But 
now, the Republican leadership is trying to back out of our commitment. 
Instead, we should follow through. I've also proposed doubling our 
funding for after-school programs to cover 1.6 million children.
    We know after-school programs result in higher test scores, lower 
juvenile crime rates, and fewer drug problems. We ought to do it. And

[[Page 2252]]

we're still waiting for Congress to show that it supports holding our 
schools accountable by providing the resources to turn around failing 
schools or shut them down and reopen them under new management.
    Congress also needs to finish the rest of its work, passing a real 
Patients' Bill of Rights, strong hate crimes legislation, and a raise in 
the minimum wage. Now, in all these cases, there is a bipartisan 
majority in both Houses for these bills. But the majority party's 
leadership again is blocking progress.
    Congress should also act to ensure equal treatment for immigrants 
and equal pay for women. And it should pass the right kind of tax cuts 
for middle-class Americans, targeted tax cuts that preserve our fiscal 
discipline, allow us to get this country out of debt, and still give 
Americans tax relief to save for retirement and meet the costs of long-
term care, child care, and college tuition, and tax credits that support 
investments in our inner cities, rural areas, Native American 
reservations, and other places our prosperity has not yet reached.
    These priorities deserve attention now, not later. If I were a 
Member of Congress, I wouldn't want to go home and ask people to send me 
back to Washington so I could finish last year's work next year.
    Yesterday I signed a fourth continuing resolution to keep the 
Government open until next Wednesday. But I told the leadership that if 
they fail to meet yet another deadline, we're going to have to take the 
continuing resolutions one day at a time until we get the job done. So I 
urge them: Come back next week, and let's finish work on the budget, so 
the benefits can start flowing to students and families who need them 
most.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 9:25 p.m. on October 20 at a private 
residence in Lowell, MA, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on October 21. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
October 20 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.