[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 26 (Monday, June 30, 1997)]
[Pages 978-982]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With the League of United 
Latin American Citizens

June 27, 1997

    Thank you very much. Thank you, President Robles. I enjoyed very 
much our meeting with you and your board members a few days ago, and I 
know since then several members of my administration have had the chance 
to visit with you during your convention--our United Nations Ambassador, 
Bill Richardson; SBA Administrator Aida Alvarez; Ida Castro, the 
Director of Women's Bureau at the Labor Department; and my Deputy 
Assistant for Legislative Affairs, Janet Murguia. Secretary Pena would 
have been there, too, except that he has just become a new dad for the 
third time, little Ryan Federico, so he now has a namesake.
    I thank you for inviting me to join you in celebrating the 
achievements of LULAC and of Latinos across our Nation. LULAC has a 
proud history, and for more than 65 years now you've fought to advance 
the rights and the opportunities of Hispanic-Americans, and in so doing, 
your dedication has helped all of America.
    Two weeks ago I asked all Americans to join me in thinking about and 
talking about how America can use our great diversity of race and 
ethnicity as a strength to get past our divisions and closer to what 
unites us so that we can become the world's greatest multiracial, 
multiethnic democracy in the 21st century. Hispanic-Americans must be a 
big part of this initiative. Latinos represent the youngest and fastest 
growing population in our Nation and in many ways America's success 
depends upon Hispanic success. That's why we have to all work in 
partnership to create a plan of action to allow every child to make the 
most of his or her life.
    Earlier this week, Aida Alvarez and I met with Belen and the LULAC 
executive council, as I said a moment ago. We had a very constructive 
talk about the work that still needs to be done to ensure that Hispanics 
share in the fruits of the strong economy. In the last 4 years, the 
Hispanic unemployment rate has gone down from 11.3 percent when I took 
office, to about 7.4 percent in May. That's been one of the great 
dividends of more than 12 million new jobs created in our economy. And 
when we won a raise in the minimum wage, 1.6 million Hispanic workers 
benefitted directly.
    In the first 3 years of our administration, more than 220,000 new 
Hispanic-American-owned businesses were created. Our Small Business 
Administration helped even more Latino-owned businesses to get the 
management training and counseling they need to succeed. A new study 
shows that between 1987 and 1996, the number of companies owned by 
Hispanic women, in particular, has grown at three times the overall rate 
of business growth. All of this signals progress.
    But our work is far from over. That's because despite a strong work 
ethic and a strong sense of personal responsibility, Hispanic-Americans 
are the only racial or ethnic group in America that has experienced a 
decline in income during our current economic boom. One big reason is 
the high Hispanic high school dropout rate: it's far above that of 
blacks and whites; it's holding young Hispanics back. Many times these 
dropouts only want to help their families by bringing in income. But 
long, hard hours at the low paying jobs will never amount to the earning 
potential of someone who stays in school. In the new economy, education 
is the key and responsibility means staying in school. That's the 
message we must get out to young Latinos.

[[Page 979]]

    I know you share my concern that too many Latino youth are missing 
out on an education. I'm especially pleased by the interest your 
organization has shown for our America Reads initiative. Since our 
meeting on Monday, your president has spoken with Carol Rasco at our 
Department of Education, and we have committed to work with LULAC to 
ensure that LULAC volunteers are a critical part of this important 
effort.
    Latinos know about helping others, an impressive 15 percent of the 
participants in our AmeriCorps program of national service are Hispanic. 
With your help in the participation of AmeriCorps and other volunteers, 
we'll be able to mobilize a million people to make sure that all of our 
children can read independently by the third grade. America Reads will 
help our children to succeed and to stay in school.
    I want all young people to have the tools they need. That's why our 
budget agreement increases funding for bilingual education by 27 
percent. It's the bridge that some students need to achieve in English. 
[Applause] Thank you. We've also worked to widen access to college, with 
the largest increase in Pell grants in two decades, a big increase in 
work study funds, and by proposing scholarships that would make 2 years 
at a community college affordable for every single family, because I 
believe the 13th and 14th years of school must become as universal as a 
high school diploma is today.
    We also want every family to be able to deduct up to $10,000 a year 
to help pay for the cost of any higher education after high school. All 
that is part of the biggest increase in higher education since the GI 
bill 50 years ago, and it's included in our balanced budget proposal. We 
are working with Congress to ensure that the budget agreement does not 
short-change education. And I ask you to stand with us in that. 
[Applause] Thank you.
    I also want to tell you where we are in the budget negotiations on 
the matter of benefits for legal immigrants. As you know, when Congress 
enacted last year's welfare law, it included provisions affecting legal 
immigrants that were harsh and had nothing to do with the real goal of 
welfare reform, moving people from welfare to work. Since then, we've 
worked hard to restore SSI and Medicaid eligibility for disabled legal 
immigrants. I place a great deal of importance on this issue, and I'm 
hopeful that with the recent Senate action we will be able to restore 
benefits to both disabled and elderly nondisabled immigrants who were in 
the United States when the law was signed last August.
    We all have a role to play in making a better future for coming 
generations. Citizens and Government must work together. We've got to 
give every child a fair chance to live out his or her dreams. We have to 
give every child a safe place to grow up. We have to give all of our 
children decent health care, a world-class education, and a more united, 
stronger America--one America.
    I applaud LULAC for your commitment to improving the lives of 
Hispanic citizens, and I look forward to continuing our work and 
partnership toward the great goal of one America for the 21st century.
    Thank you, and God bless you.
    Ms. Robles. Thank you very much, Mr. President. And now, if you will 
permit us, we do have some questions from the LULAC membership. And I 
would like to introduce to you the national president of the LULAC 
youths, Alejandro Meraz, a senior at Skyline High School in Dallas, 
Texas, that will pose the first question.
    Q. Good morning, Mr. President.
    The President. Good morning, Alejandro.

Hispanic High School Dropout Rate

    Q. As you are aware, the Hispanic high school dropout rate is 
extremely high. Allowed to continue, this problem would devastate the 
Hispanic community. What initiatives are you already undertaking to 
reduce the dropout rate in Hispanic communities? And what additional 
steps can be taken to alleviate this problem?
    The President. First of all, let me say that I take this problem 
very, very seriously. I have been talking about it all across America. I 
raised it at the University of California in San Diego at my race 
speech, where 45 percent of the graduates in the class were Hispanics. I 
think that we all understand what we have to do here. I have charged 
Gene Sperling, who is the head of National Economic Council, and Maria 
Echaveste, who heads my Office of Public Liaison, to make

[[Page 980]]

sure that our educational initiatives address the specific concerns 
regarding Hispanic dropouts. They, along with the Department of 
Education, will work with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other 
Hispanic leaders to evaluate our current programs to identify positive 
actions that can be taken right now to increase the percentage of 
Latinos graduating from high school and increase the number going on to 
college.
    Let me just mention two or three specific things that I think can be 
done. Number one, if we can succeed in our goal of making sure that 
every 8-year-old is proficient in reading by the third grade, that will 
increase the ability of children whose first language is not English to 
do well in school, and it will increase the chances that they will stay 
there.
    Number two, having national standards for all children will help 
Hispanic students. I spoke with the wonderful Latino superintendent of 
the San Antonio, Texas, school district the day before yesterday, and 
she said that San Antonio would become the first large city in Texas to 
participate in our national standards program, including testing fourth 
graders for reading and eighth graders for math in 1999. Why? Because 
they are learning in San Antonio that when you raise academic standards, 
you make school more interesting and more meaningful to people, and they 
are far less likely to drop out.
    So I believe raising these standards and giving children a chance to 
get a good education in high school will, in fact, lead to a substantial 
reduction in the Hispanic dropout rate, especially if we've done our job 
on reading in the early grades.
    Now, in addition to that, I think it is very, very important that we 
follow up on another one of the goals of the Presidents' Summit of 
Service. We need to make sure that all these young people who are at 
risk of dropping out have an adult mentor who is working with them, 
trying to help them and encourage them to stay in school and continue on 
their road in education.
    So I think that that is another thing that we really need to focus 
on. We know from experience in community after community after community 
that if there is at least one caring adult which is trying to tie the 
young boy or the young girl to school, to school life and help them 
succeed, that will also make a big difference.
    So those are just three things that I think we should start with. 
But we're going to work on it here at the White House; we're going to 
work with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Department of 
Education. And we want to do everything we can to make sure that there 
are more young people like you as we move into the 21st century.
    Ms. Robles. Thank you very much, Mr. President. And now I would like 
to introduce to you the District Director of LULAC in Hollister, 
California, Ms. Micki Luna.
    Q. Greetings from the Golden State of California, Mr. President.
    The President. Hello.

Affirmative Action

    Q. We applaud your recent announcement to create a commission to 
study race relations in our country. However, we are increasingly 
concerned about the effects of California's Proposition 209, which 
eliminated affirmative action programs in our community. What actions 
are you taking to lessen or to reverse the effects of Proposition 209, 
which have already drastically lowered Hispanic enrollment in higher 
education within the university system of California?
    The President. Well, Micki, first of all, I've tried to continue to 
speak out in favor of affirmative action as I have been, as you know, 
for the last several years, to discourage anyone else from doing the 
same thing. I think that's very important.
    Secondly, I have asked the Domestic Policy Council to coordinate a 
review by the Justice Department and the Education Department on the 
impact of Proposition 209 and the Hopwood decision in Texas. We need to 
make sure that we do everything we can to keep the doors of higher 
education open to all Americans, including all minorities. We are 
looking for specific things that we can do to ensure that higher 
education does not become segregated or that the progress we've made 
over the last 20 years is not reversed.
    Secondly, I think we need to do more in secondary schools to prepare 
young people for college. If we can really implement the standards 
movement that I'm pushing for

[[Page 981]]

over the country and get all the schools, like the San Antonio district, 
to participate, what we will see is that we will do a better job of 
giving our young people the tools they need to get into college in the 
first place.
    One of the things that I have noted is that so many affirmative 
action students have done very, very well in the universities of our 
country. They've also improved the quality of education there for other 
students by diversifying the student body. And because they do well it 
means that they could have done better on the entrance test, they could 
have done better in the beginning if we, their parent's generation, had 
provided them a finer elementary and secondary education. So I think 
that's a big part of this answer, too.
    But I'm not willing to give up on affirmative action in education. 
I'm not about to give up on it. And we are exploring what our legal 
options are, as well as what policies we might implement to try to stop 
public higher education in America from becoming resegregated.
    Ms. Robles. Thank you, Mr. President. And at this time may I 
introduce to you the LULAC national vice president for the Southwest 
from Dallas, Texas, Mr. Hector Flores.
    Q. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Mr. President.
    The President. Good morning, Hector.
    Q. I'm glad to see you again.
    The President. Thank you.

Empowerment Zones Along the Border

    Q. Mr. President, despite the general low level of unemployment 
throughout the country, our communities along the United States and 
Mexican border continue to experience high unemployment levels, ranging 
from as high as 12 to 15 percent. Will you work with LULAC to increase 
empowerment zones along the border to reduce the devastating high level 
of unemployment in these areas, sir?
    The President. The short answer to your question is, yes, I will do 
what I can to increase the availability of empowerment zones, enterprise 
communities, incentives in all the high unemployment areas of our 
country.
    Two weeks ago, the Vice President was in southwest Texas and hosted 
a townhall meeting in McAllen at the Southwest Border Conference. It was 
a gathering of over 200 people from the rural empowerment zones, 
including mayors, local elected officials, Representatives from five 
States that are involved in these issues. And one of the things we 
learned is that we must have economic development along the borders to 
combat these double-digit unemployment rates.
    We're working to find additional moneys now to fund more zones to 
help people help themselves. And let me say that in my budget, I call 
for a doubling of the number of empowerment zones and enterprise 
communities. We know that these things will work. [Applause] Thank you.
    One of the continuing struggles I'm having up here in Congress to 
get the right kind of balanced budget is to get the Senate and the House 
to agree to invest funds in the empowerment zones, in the enterprise 
communities. Now, we've had one empowerment zone in south Texas. You 
know that it can work. And one of the things I'd like to ask LULAC to do 
is to write or call the Members of the House and the Senate who 
represent the border States and remind them that these empowerment zones 
are important and that they will work. We've got to get in the final 
budget coming to me--we have got to get funds for the empowerment zones 
and the enterprise communities, because we know we have to turn these 
communities that are in difficult shape, that have not participated in 
our economic revival. We know we've got to turn them around one by one 
with local leadership and private sector investment.
    I will do my part. But when you leave here I want to implore you all 
to contact the Members of Congress, especially in the border States, and 
intensely argue for not only reauthorization of the empowerment zones 
but to expand their number. If you do, I will go in there and work with 
you to get these high unemployment areas fully participating in our 
economic recovery.
    Thank you.
    Q. Thank you, Mr. President.
    The President. Thank you.
    Ms. Robles. Thank you, Mr. President. On behalf of all the LULAC 
membership,

[[Page 982]]

110,000 grassroots members from across the United States and the Island 
of Puerto Rico, I thank you. I particularly want to thank you also on 
behalf of the State director of the State of Arkansas, Mr. Ben 
Rodriguez----
    The President. My long-time friend.
    Ms. Robles. ----and the membership of your native State.
    The President. Thank you. Tell him I said hello. Bless you.
    Ms. Robles. He's here in the audience, sir. He's listening to you.
    The President. Hello, Ben. [Laughter]

Note: The President spoke at 11:12 a.m. by satellite from Room 459 of 
the Old Executive Office Building to the meeting in California. In his 
remarks, he referred to Belen Robles, president, and Mickie Luna, 
district director, San Bernardino; and Hector Flores, vice president, 
Southwest, League of United Latin American Citizens.