[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 5 (Monday, February 6, 1995)]
[Pages 158-164]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With the Mayor's Youth Council 
in Boston, Massachusetts

January 31, 1995

    The President. Let me just begin by--let me make a couple of 
comments, and then I'll answer your questions. First, I want to 
congratulate all of you and the mayor on this remarkable project. I 
wanted to do this for a couple of reasons, but one is I think this might 
spread across the country as more people, through the news media, hear 
about it. I think this is a wonderful idea that every city in the 
country could profit from copying.
    I also want to say I'm glad to be here with your mayor, with Mrs. 
Menino, but also with Senator Kennedy and Senator Kerry, who flew up 
here with me from Washington. We're going to dinner tonight, but they 
wanted to come over here and see you. And I think that's a great tribute 
to you and what you're doing.
    Let's talk about the dropout rate a little bit and especially as it 
applies to teen parents. This is a big issue. We've just been discussing 
this down in Washington now as a part of what we call the New Covenant. 
You mentioned that. The New Covenant is, for me, the obligation that we 
have to create more opportunity and people and citizens have to exercise 
more responsibility. It means that we in Government have to try to help 
give you the tools you need to make the most of your own lives, and then 
all of you have to do the most you can with your lives and help your 
fellow citizens. That's the big reason I wanted to come here today, 
because I think it's so remarkable that you're committed to doing this.
    Now, we know that a lot of people who have children drop out of 
school, and one of the things I said to the Nation and to the Congress 
the other night in my speech is that as we reform the welfare system our 
goal ought to be to prepare people to go to work, to get them in jobs, 
to keep them in jobs, and to do it in a way that helps them be better 
parents. So, what I'm trying to do is to work with the States all across 
the country to structure welfare systems where there are always 
incentives for young people to stay in school and, if they have little 
children, that the children should be given appropriate child care and 
other kinds of support.
    And I think one of the things that you can do is to hammer home to 
people that if they can, if they have enough to get by, they ought to 
stay in high school before they leave and go to work, because in the 
world that we're living in, all the people who live in Boston and all 
the people who live in Massachusetts are competing with people all 
around the world for jobs and for income. And there's been a huge 
decline in the earnings of younger workers who are high school dropouts. 
When you make adjustments for inflation and the cost of living going up 
year in and year out, younger workers without a high school education 
are making probably 20 percent less than they were just 10 or 15 years 
ago.
    So you need to go out and tell people, look, I know it's hard right 
now, but you need to be thinking about the long run. One of the things 
we've got to do that you can do for your peers, for other young people, 
that I can't do as well as you can is say to people, ``Hey, the future 
is not what happens in an

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hour, it's not what happens tomorrow, it's not what happens next week. 
It's what happens 5 years from now or 10 years from now.'' And you'll 
always have to think about not just now but the future. You've got to 
always be thinking about your future. That's what you have to do when 
you're young. And I know it's hard when you've got a lot of 
responsibilities and a lot of problems, but we have simply got to get 
more of our young people to realize that if they don't stay in school, 
then the future won't be what it otherwise could be.

[At this point, a participant stated the need for stronger laws to 
punish people who sell guns to children.]

    The President. Well, in the crime bill that we passed last year we 
stiffened penalties under Federal law for all gun-related offenses, 
particularly those that affect young people. And I see it already, we 
get reports, I get reports from the U.S. attorneys around the country 
that they're beginning to bring cases under all these new laws with 
stronger penalties. What I think you need to look at is the fact that 
most laws that deter crime are passed in the State level, by the State 
legislature. And most laws then have to be implemented as a matter of 
policy by local police organizations. So what I think you need to do is 
to have someone who knows more about that than I do give you a report on 
what the laws are in Massachusetts and evaluate whether you think the 
laws are strong enough, then look and see if you think they're being 
properly enforced.
    And let me make one other point, because this goes back to something 
you can do. I've worked in the area of law enforcement longer than most 
of you have been alive. I was elected attorney general in my State in 
1976. I took office in January of 1977. And I have seen the crime wave 
rise and fall and rise and fall in my home area.
    I lived in a neighborhood, a real old neighborhood in Little Rock 
when I was the Governor of my State. And I saw the crime rate rise and 
fall and rise and fall. And the most important thing that drove the 
crime rate down was neighborhood councils like this council. If there 
were citizens groups working the neighborhood, working with the police, 
calling the police there were strangers in the area, calling police when 
they said there are people here selling guns to kids, there are people 
here pedaling guns out of the back of their cars, it was amazing how 
much the crime rate could be driven down.
    So I think you should look at the laws at the State level, talk to 
the mayor's people here at the local level about how they're being 
implemented but also see whether or not the young people are willing to 
organize themselves in these neighborhood councils in the high-crime 
areas. I'm talking--it does more than anything else I've ever seen to 
lower crime.

[A participant asked how the President could help them to convince the 
media to present a more positive image of young people.]

    The President. I don't know that I'm the best one to ask about 
negative portrayals. [Laughter] I tell you--well, one thing about being 
here, I think it helps, and I came here because you're doing something 
positive, and it's newsworthy, and it's different. If you want some 
advice about it, I'll tell you--I'll give you my advice. I think you 
have to follow the same advice that Senator Kennedy or Senator Kerry or 
Mayor Menino or the President has to follow. You have to always be 
looking for new ways to manifest the idea that most young people are 
good, most young people are in school, most young people are obeying the 
law, most young people care about their friends and neighbors. And every 
time you do something to manifest that, then that's new. That is--let me 
just give it to you in crass terms, because you can't blame them for 
this. If you start a program and it's a good program and you do it every 
day for 2 years, it's an important thing to do, but it may only be news 
the day you start it and then when you have your anniversary. But every 
time somebody holds up a liquor store or shoots somebody on the street, 
that's a new and different story. See what I mean?
    So you may--you've got a lot more good people, but it might not be a 
new thing. So I think one of the things you ought to do is to think 
about, in this youth council, how many different things are now going on 
in Boston that are good news, that show young people in a positive 
light. And how many of

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them have been written about in the papers? How many of them have been 
on the local news? What can you do to get the positive story out there?
    And you ought to have one person on your council who's job it is to 
always be thinking of some new thing you're doing that hasn't yet been 
portrayed. And what you will find is that over time--you can't turn this 
around overnight--but over time, if you're steady about it, you will 
slowly balance the scales, and people will say, ``Hey, we've got a 
problem, but most of our kids are good kids.''

[A participant asked if the President could give more priority to 
school-to-work programs.]

    The President. The answer is, I will. And you have to ask the 
Congress to do that same. Senator Kennedy and Senator Kerry and I were 
talking on the way up here. We have cut a lot of spending from the 
Federal budget, a lot. But we've tried to spend more money on education 
and on job training programs, starting with Head Start and including 
more affordable college loans and these school-to-work programs, which 
train young people to move into jobs and get education while they're 
doing it. And we're just now--we just started that program last year, 
and we're just now expanding it. And I'm really hoping that the new 
Congress will agree to this approach. Cut the inessential spending, but 
put more money into education, because that's really the key to our 
economic future as a country.

[A participant stated that many after-school programs to keep children 
away from drugs and gangs were oriented toward boys rather than girls 
and asked about planned support for these programs.]

    The President. Well, most of those decisions have to be made by the 
local school districts and the local communities. What we do is to try 
to provide the funds, like, for example, in the crime bill, one of the 
more controversial parts of the crime bill, were the funds that Congress 
voted for and that I supported to provide cities, for example, monies 
that they could use in after-school programs and other preventive 
programs, to try to give young people something positive to do.
    The content of those programs, exactly whether there are enough 
programs for girls and they're as good and fair as the ones for boys and 
all that, all those are things that you have to work out here. So my 
answer to you is, that's what this youth council's for. You should--if 
the city controls the programs, talk to city about it. If there are 
local groups who make the decision, but they don't work for the mayor, 
call them into your council and ask them to come testify. Tell them what 
you don't like about the program.
    In other words, use the power of this council. You're talking about 
making news; you've got a forum now. Next time you call a council 
meeting, these folks will come cover you. I won't have to be here. 
[Laughter] The mayor won't have to be here. And bring them in and say, 
``Look, these after-school programs are fine, but they're not good 
enough. There's this preconception that only boys need it, and girls do, 
too, and here's what we need.'' You ought to use the power of this 
council. You ought to think about everything you would change in here, 
in this community, if you could wave a magic wand, and remember that you 
have a public forum to do it. Now, that's what the mayor's giving you.
    Q. Mr. President, I was just wondering if you--I was recently 
accepted at Oxford, and I was just wondering if you could tell me what 
it's like over there. [Laughter]
    Mayor Thomas Menino. Tell him what high school you went to. Tell 
them the background of high school.
    Q. I go to ACC--which is a--[inaudible]----
    The President. And you're going to--and you're to start over there 
next year?
    Q. Yes.
    The President. What college will you be in?
    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. Good for you. I know right where it is. I think 
you'll like it a lot. They're very nice people. The programs generally 
involve more reading and more essay writing and less conventional 
classroom work than the American programs do, so that young people 
coming out of American high schools, even out of very good programs, 
sometimes have to work harder to sort of discipline

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themselves to do more reading alone. So you'll have to find some friends 
and make sure that you do all that, because in general the system 
requires you to do more work on your own. But when you come back you'll 
be a greater writer. You'll be able to write real well.

[Mayor Menino asked the participant to explain the ACC program.]

    The President. What do you want her to explain, Mayor? [Laughter]

[The mayor indicated that the young woman was reluctant to talk about 
her accomplishment.]

    The President. You're being very modest. That's what he's saying.

[The mayor explained that the young woman had achieved a goal that few 
students would attain. Another young woman then explained the ACC 
curriculum and some of its requirements.]

    The President. So they did prepare you well, didn't they? [Laughter]
    Who's next?

[A participant stated the need for more police officers trained to deal 
with the different cultures in the cities. The mayor then thanked the 
President and the Massachusetts Senators for obtaining funding for a 
program to put bilingual police officers in Boston.]

    The President. It's a huge challenge, though, because a lot of our 
urban areas now have so many different racial and ethnic groups. Los 
Angeles County, our country's biggest county, in one county alone, have 
people from over 150 different racial and ethnic groups.
    So it's going to be a big challenge for us to make sure we train our 
police officers not just in the language, but also in the ways of 
thinking of people, because it's so easy for people who have different 
ways of relating to each other to misunderstand one another. And it's 
very important that our police officers get that kind of training. We're 
going to have to work hard on that.

[The mayor discussed several programs that the city provides which teach 
English as a second language. A participant then told the President that 
regarding the November elections, her father wanted him to know, ``This 
too shall pass.'']

    The President. I'm glad to hear that. [Laughter] Tell your dad he 
can send me a message anytime. [Laughter]

[The participant asked the President to urge other colleges to create 
scholarship programs designed to help inner-city children go to college, 
as Northeastern University has done in Boston. The mayor described the 
city program which Northeastern University had recently begun 
participating in and advanced with additional funds.]

    The President. First of all, let me say I applaud Northeastern for 
doing it, because the cost of a college education has gone up quite a 
lot in the last several years. And I'm doing what I can to make it more 
affordable.
    Let me tell you the two things that we have done and what we've 
tried to get others to do as well. The first thing we did was to take 
the existing student loan programs, and Congress passed a bill that 
enables us to let that student loan program be administered in a 
different way, directly by colleges like Northeastern, so that the 
interest rates would be lower, the costs would be lower, and your 
repayment terms would be better. A lot of young people don't want to 
borrow money to go to college because they think, gee, if I get out and 
I just make a modest wage, I won't even be able to repay the loan. So 
under the new rules, you can borrow money to go to college, and then you 
can limit the amount of your repayment every year to a certain 
percentage of your income. So we've made available more loans.
    In addition to that, through the national service program--you see a 
lot of these young people in the city or around here, some of them are 
affiliated with our national service program, and they're earning almost 
$5,000 a year for every year they work in the service program for their 
college education. Now, what we've done is to try to challenge the 
colleges and universities around the country to match that. And this 
year, I'm trying to pass, and I hope the Congress will pass, a bill that 
provides for the reduction from a person's income taxes for the cost of 
paying tuition to any institution

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of education after high school, 2-year or 4-year.
    So these are the things I'm trying to do to make college more 
affordable. When we do these things, that makes it more possible for 
colleges like Northeastern to go out and take their own initiatives and 
to do more. Like that has to be done basically State by State and 
college by college, because as the President, what I have to do is to 
try to set up a network of things that will work everywhere in the 
country.

[The mayor indicated that many law firms in Massachusetts had set up 
programs to help put young people through college.]

    The President. It's the best money you'll ever spend.

[A participant thanked the President for his efforts in helping all 
college-bound youth obtain financial aid.]

    The President. Well, I thank you. But let me just say one other 
thing about this. You know, I said this before in a different way. 
Having a college education has always been an advantage. When Senator 
Kerry and Senator Kennedy and I went to college, it was an advantage. 
But it's a much bigger advantage today than ever before, because in the 
information age, there are fewer jobs that you can perform with no 
education and just a willingness to work hard.
    It's also true--I want to emphasize this because one of you talked 
about this earlier--even for the young people who don't go to 4-year 
colleges, they need to be in the school-to-work program. There needs to 
be something that gives almost everybody, nearly 100 percent of the 
young people, the incentive to get out of high school and then get 2 
more years of some sort of education and training.
    And meanwhile we'll keep doing everything we can to make college 
more affordable, because I think the great advantage this Nation has, 
and Boston has certainly seen it because you have such a wonderful array 
of institutions of higher education, is that we have a higher percentage 
of our people going to these institutions of higher education than any 
other country in the world. And they're higher quality. And what we've 
got to do is figure out how to make it possible for young people to know 
about it, to believe in themselves, and then to have money necessary to 
go.
    Q. Thank you, Mr. President.
    Mayor Menino. We have--Marcos' birthday is today.
    The President. It's your birthday, right? Your 18th birthday?
    Mayor Menino. You'll register to vote today, too, right? [Laughter] 
We need you next time.
    The President. Good for you. Happy birthday.
    Mayor Menino. This woman here has a question, Mr. President. Ask the 
question.
    Q. You just put me on the spot. Actually, I do have a question. Do 
you actually see letters--well, besides the--[laughter].
    Q. She was worried all this afternoon. [Laughter]
    The President. The answer is, as you might imagine, with a country 
with 250 million people I do not see personally all the letters that 
come in. And we have so many letters coming into the White House that it 
requires literally--we have hundreds of volunteers working at the White 
House who help to sort our mail, who help to read our mail. A lot of 
retired military people come in every day and help us. We have a whole 
group of people who know my positions on certain issues, who help to 
write our letters when people write us about certain issues.
    But, what happened to your letter is this: I have--I mean, before I 
was coming here, what happened to your letter is I have a--in my 
correspondence operation, every week they pull out a certain number of 
letters that are either especially moving because of the personal 
stories involved or that represent a large number of letters I'm getting 
on a certain subject, so that even though I'm President and I've got, 
you know, millions of people writing to me all the time, I have a good 
feeling for what's going on.
    I also get a summary every week of how many letters came in, what 
the subjects were about, what people said, whether they were pro or con 
a certain issue. But the most--the thing--every week, I love reading the 
mail that I get sent. And I read the letters and sign them and in that 
way try to really stay in touch with what people are thinking.

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    Mayor Menino. Why don't we have Kristy read the letter.

[The participant then read a letter she had written to the President, 
thanking him for answering a previous letter she had written to him 
about violence and for showing that he cared. Another participant asked 
if the President would videotape a message for their youth summit in 
March.]

    The President. Sure.
    Q. If there's any way possible for that.
    The President. Were you trained in Senator Kennedy's office? 
[Laughter] Yes. I'd be happy to. We'll do it while we're here, maybe we 
can do that.
    Mayor Menino. Is there any other--you have the President now. 
[Laughter] How many young people of America have the President in front 
of them? What's the other--any other question you have to ask, really 
would like to ask?
    Q. I have really a general question.
    The President. What's your name?
    Mayor Menino. Catch up with this guy here.
    Q. He wants your job. [Laughter]
    The President. Some days I'd like to give it to you. [Laughter] But 
not most days.
    Q. As President of the United States, most of us know and we've 
heard the story of how you wanted to shake President Kennedy's hand. 
What advice would you offer to other young adults that are aspiring to 
become involved in politics?
    The President. I would recommend that you do three things. You're 
probably doing all three of them already. I would recommend, first of 
all, that you do everything you can to develop your mind, that you learn 
to think, and you learn to learn. That is, some of you may be strong in 
math, maybe you're strong in science, maybe you like English, maybe you 
like history. There's no--contrary to popular belief, in my view, there 
is no particular academic discipline to get, to have to be a successful 
public servant. But it's important that you learn to learn because you 
have to know about a lot of different things that are always changing.
    The second thing I would recommend you do is more what you're doing 
here. I don't think, over the long run, people do very well in public 
service unless they like people and are really interested in them, 
different people, people who are different from you. Find out what you 
have in common, what your differences really are.
    And the third thing I would recommend that you do is look for 
opportunities to be a leader, working in this group, working in your 
school, working for people who are running for office, working in the 
mayor's next campaign.
    These things really matter. That's what I did. I mean, I came from a 
family with no money or political influence, particularly. I had a good 
education. I had a lot of wonderful friends. I was interested in people. 
I had a chance to work in campaigns and to do other things that gave me 
a chance to get started. This is a great country that is really open to 
people of all backgrounds to be successful in public life. But you need 
to learn, you need to care about people, and then you just need the 
experience.
    Ms. Eugenia Kiu. Thank you, Mr. President. At this time, we would 
like to give you a token of our appreciation.
    Q. On behalf of the Mayor's Youth Council of the City of Boston 
and--[inaudible]--and we'd like to present you with this cap. And Kristy 
is also going to present you with a sweatshirt. [Laughter]

[At this point, the gifts were presented.]

    The President. Now, let's get everybody up here.
    Q. Oh, I have something to say. I would like for you and Mr. Menino 
to sing me ``Happy Birthday.''
    The President. Let's do it.

[At this point, the group sang ``Happy Birthday.'']

    The President.  Well, it wasn't the sweetest sound I ever heard. 
[Laughter]

Note: The President spoke at 4:11 p.m. at Parkman House. Eugenia Kiu is 
chair of the Mayor's Youth Council.

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