[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 7 (Monday, February 17, 1997)]
[Pages 163-164]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

February 8, 1997

    The President. Good morning. This morning the Vice President and I 
are going to talk about the progress we've made to bring 21st century 
technology to our students and our schools.
    In my State of the Union Address Tuesday night, I issued a call to 
action to all Americans to prepare our people for the 21st century. The 
very heart of this mission and my number one priority these next 4 years 
is to give our children the best education in the world.
    Education is about opportunity, about giving our children the tools 
to make the most of their God-given potential. This is a goal every 
American must share for every other American. That's why I'm calling for 
a new, nonpartisan commitment to education. During the cold war, America 
had a bipartisan commitment to foreign policy, and politics stopped at 
the water's edge. Today, education is a critical national security issue 
for our future, and our politics must stop at the schoolhouse door.
    My plan calls for world-class standards for students, teachers, and 
schools. It calls for expanding Head Start, rebuilding crumbling 
schools, opening the doors of college wider than ever before, and 
ensuring that workers can learn and earn for a lifetime.
    To give our children the best education, we must help them to 
harness the powerful forces of technology. That's why we've challenged 
America to connect every classroom and library to the Internet by the 
year 2000. For the first time in history, children in the most isolated 
rural towns, the most comfortable suburbs, and the poorest inner-city 
schools will have the same access to the same universe of knowledge.
    We've come a long way toward meeting that goal, and we owe much of 
that progress to the leadership of the Vice President who will now say a 
few words about our efforts.

[At this point, the Vice President made brief remarks.]

    The President. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. We are making a lot of 
progress. Today we're issuing a report prepared by Secretary Riley and 
the Department of Education that shows that 65 percent of our schools 
are now connected to the Internet, almost double the number of schools 
connected in 1994. But it's not enough to connect every school; we must 
connect every classroom and every library as well. Since 1994, we have 
more than quadrupled the

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number of classrooms with a direct link to the Internet. But the vast 
majority still do not have access. That's why we're now launching an 
aggressive, three-part plan to finish the job.
    First, my balanced budget plan makes an unprecedented commitment to 
education technology, doubling the technology literacy initiative the 
Vice President just mentioned and providing a total of $500 million for 
computers, teacher training, and educational software for our schools.
    Second, we're working to ensure that every school and library can 
afford the Internet. Under the Telecommunications Act, the Federal 
Communications Commission is now developing a plan to give schools and 
libraries access to the Internet at a dramatically discounted rate. Fees 
for most schools will be cut in half. Fees for our poorest schools will 
be almost free. I urge the FCC to act quickly. And I call upon the 
telecommunications industry to support this effort.
    Third, this April 19th, parents, teachers, business people, and 
volunteers from all walks of life will answer our call and hold NetDays 
in all 50 States, connecting tens of thousands of schools, classrooms, 
and libraries to the Internet.
    By doubling our investment in education technology, by dramatically 
lowering the Internet rates for schools and libraries by mobilizing 
Americans all across the country to help wire our schools, we will meet 
our goal of connecting every classroom and library to the information 
superhighway by the year 2000. That's how we must prepare our children 
for the 21st century, with the full promise of the information age at 
their fingertips. And it's an important way to give our children the 
world's best education and the chance to make the most of their own 
lives.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 12:38 p.m. on February 7 in the 
Roosevelt Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on 
February 8.