[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 3 (Monday, January 19, 1998)]
[Pages 35-37]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Arrival in Brownsville, Texas

January 9, 1998

    Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I believe that we should 
begin by giving Alma another hand. She did a great job, didn't she? 
Thank you. [Applause]
    I want to thank Secretary Riley for his work and for coming here 
with me today. I want to say a very special word of thanks to your fine 
Congressman, Solomon Ortiz. Thanks to his leadership, you are finally 
going to have the Port of Brownsville bridge you need so much. Thank 
you, Congressman Ortiz.
    I'd like to thank the State legislators who are here--
Representatives Oliveira and Solis; Judge Hinojosa; the city 
commissioners; the city manager; President Juliet Garcia, UT-
Brownsville; Mayor Gonzalez. I'd like to thank Congressman Ruben 
Hinojosa for coming over with me, and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
    I'd like to say, too, that my family and our administration feel 
that we owe a lot to Brownsville. The First Lady was here about a year 
ago, and Hillary told me that she kind of resented my coming back 
without her today. This community has given two of our real stars to the 
Clinton-Gore administration, first of all, the president of the Overseas 
Private Investment Corporation, one of 12 children here, George Munoz, 
and his parents are both here. Thank you, George, and thank you, Mr. and 
Mrs. Munoz. And second, our Secretary of Energy Federico Pena whose 
parents, Gustavo and Lucila Pena, are here. Thank you for a fine son and 
a fine Cabinet member.
    I'd like to thank your land commissioner, Garry Mauro, for joining 
me today; and also thank the White House aides who helped to do so much 
work on this trip, Mickey Ibarra, Janet Murguia, Cynthia Jasso-Rotunno. 
I am very proud of the fact that I have appointed far more Hispanic-
Americans than any previous President to important positions in my 
administration. I'm even prouder of the fact that they're doing a very 
good job for all Americans.
    I'd like to welcome all the students and teachers and Head Start 
teachers and others here today. Thank you for coming. And I'd like to 
thank the bands that provided our music today; thank you very much.
    I'd also like to say a special word of thanks for that plane back 
there. I don't know if you've looked at it; you've probably, those of 
you who live here, doubtless been here to see this plane before. But the 
Confederate Air Force preserved this BT-13 so thousands

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of people can come and learn about an aircraft that helped our country 
to fight and win World War II.
    It reminds me of one of the wisest decisions that President 
Roosevelt made after World War II, and that was to give every returning 
soldier the chance to go on to college through the GI bill. The GI bill 
revolutionized educational opportunity in America. It made millions and 
millions and millions of middle-class families and better futures for 
their children.
    I am exceedingly proud that last year when we passed the balanced 
budget agreement last year, we passed an education program that opened 
the doors to college wider than ever before, the biggest increase in 
college aid since the GI bill 50 years ago. We learned the lesson from 
President Roosevelt. It's the right thing to do.
    You know--all of you know, you live with this every day--that we are 
living in an age characterized by increasing communication across 
national borders and revolutions in technology and information. It's 
changing the way we work and live and relate to each other, and it will 
dramatically change the lives of these children who are here.
    What I have tried to do, as I have said repeatedly, is to build a 
bridge to this new world and the 21st century, so that there is 
opportunity for every American child responsible enough to work for it; 
so that we all work together as one America, united across all the 
racial and ethnic and religious lines of diversity in this country; and 
so that America is still the world's best hope for peace and freedom.
    Now, there are a lot of things that we can do to help to grow the 
economy. We have to do some more here in south Texas. And I met this 
morning with community leaders from the whole region to talk about that. 
But let me tell you, nothing we can do will equip our young people for 
the modern world unless all of our young people have a very good 
education and are able to keep on learning for a lifetime.
    This week I announced that I will soon submit to Congress the first 
balanced budget the United States has had in 30 years. Here's what it 
will do for going on to college, within the context of balancing the 
budget.
    There will be a HOPE scholarship, a $1,500 credit for the first 2 
years of college, enough to make community college free for virtually 
every person in the United States. There will be lifetime learning 
credits, another $1,000 a year tax credit for the 3d and 4th years of 
college, for graduate school, and for older people who have to go back 
to upgrade their skills. There will be education IRA's so that if 
parents save for their children's college education, when they want to 
withdraw the money plus the interest it's earned, they can do it without 
any tax penalty, because we don't want to tax savings for education.
    We have expanded the Pell grant program to cover millions of 
eligible Americans so that the scholarship is larger and the number of 
people who are eligible are more. We now have had 100,000 young people, 
including quite a number from Texas, serve in our national service 
program, AmeriCorps, serving their community and earning money to go to 
college. And today a little earlier, I announced that our budget will 
also include for the first time a request for 1 million work-study 
positions for young people who want to work their way through college. 
What that means is that people literally will not be able to say 
anymore, ``I can't go to college because I can't afford it.''
    We also reformed the student loan program so that you can pay the 
money back as a percentage of your income. You don't ever have to worry 
about being bankrupted if you have to borrow the money. There is no 
financial excuse.
    But we must make sure that more of our young people stay in school, 
graduate from high school, and when they graduate, they know what 
they're supposed to know. There are still too many of our children who 
graduate from high school not knowing that. That's why I have pushed our 
national goals of making sure every 8-year-old can read, every 12-year-
old can log on to the Internet, and every 18-year-old can go on to 
college with high standards, proven reforms, hooking up every classroom 
and library to the Internet by the year 2000, making sure that every 
eligible child has a chance to be in a Head Start program or another 
good preschool

[[Page 37]]

program. We have to do these things so that all of our children can 
learn.
    Let me also say that one of the most troubling things to me is that 
the high school graduation rates in America now are getting quite high--
they're well above 80 percent, moving toward the 90 percent level they 
should reach--for every ethnic group in America except Hispanic young 
people. Too many of our Hispanic young people still drop out of high 
school, very often out of good motivation. They think, ``I ought to drop 
out. I ought to go to work. I can support myself. I won't be a burden on 
my family. I can help my family make a living.'' That has been true for 
generations. That is simply not true anymore, and we have to change that 
attitude. It is not true anymore.
    It has been clear now for at least 10 years that there is a huge and 
growing gap in the job prospects and the earning prospects of people who 
have 2 years or more of college and people who drop out of high school. 
It is imperative that we get 100 percent of our kids to stay in school, 
get their high school diploma, go back and get their GED if they have 
already dropped out, and then go on to at least 2 years of college. The 
financial obstacles have been removed. We have to tear down the walls in 
the minds of people that are keeping them from doing this.
    I have asked Secretary Riley to work with Mickey Ibarra and Maria 
Echaveste, two Assistants to the President, and Gene Sperling, Director 
of my National Economic Council, to help us do everything we can do to 
deal with this. I have talked to Representative Hinojosa and 
Representative Ortiz about this, but I'm telling you, you folks have got 
to change this at the grassroots level. Every single child has got to 
stay in school, graduate, and they need to know what they're supposed to 
know when they get their high school diploma.
    You can make it happen. We can open the doors. We can have the 
opportunity. We can set the standards. You have to make it happen. 
That's the way we can build a bridge to the 21st century that every 
single American can walk across. I want you to help me.
    Thank you. God bless you. It's great to be back.

Note: The President spoke at 2:15 p.m. in the Confederate Air Force 
Museum Hangar at the Brownsville South Padre International Airport. In 
his remarks, he referred to Alma Garcia, principal, Yturria Elementary 
School, Brownsville; Texas State Representatives Rene Oliveira and Jim 
Solis; Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa; Brownsville City 
Commissioners Carlton Richards, Ernie Hernandez, and Harry E. McNair, 
Jr.; City Manager Carlos Rubenstein; and Mayor Henry Gonzalez. This item 
was not received in time for publication in the appropriate issue.