[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 2000)]
[Pages 1273-1274]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

June 3, 2000

    Good morning. Earlier this week, I attended a summit with European 
leaders to focus on the opportunities and challenges of the new economy. 
One of those changes, clearly, is bridging the digital divide and 
helping all our people make the most of technology's promise. Today I 
want to talk with you about new steps our administration is taking to 
help America's students and teachers do just that.
    I'm proud of the progress we've made over the last 7 years to expand 
access to technology in our schools. In 1994 only 35 percent of our 
schools had any Internet connection; today, 95 percent do. In 1994 only 
3 percent of our classrooms were actually connected to the Internet. 
Today, thanks in large part to the E-rate program championed by Vice 
President Gore, 95 percent of our schools, as I said, are wired, but now 
63 percent of our classrooms have an Internet connection. That's a very 
big step. But there's

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more to do, and it's about more than computers and connections.
    Access is important, but it's only a means to an end. The ultimate 
purpose of computers in the classroom is to boost student performance 
and help children learn. That can only happen if teachers have the best 
training to make the most of this technology.
    Today, two out of three teachers with access to a computer say they 
don't feel well-prepared to use it in class. We owe it to America's 
children to help their teachers become as comfortable with a computer as 
they are with a chalkboard. And we must start early. With rising student 
enrollment and teacher retirements, America will need more than 2 
million new teachers over the next 10 years. We have to make sure every 
one of them can use a computer to help students meet high standards. 
We're taking steps to do that.
    Earlier this year, the deans of over 200 colleges of education 
committed to work with our administration to meet this goal. Today I'm 
announcing $128 million in new, 3-year technology grants to help 
tomorrow's teachers prepare 21st century students. We're awarding 122 
grants to teacher colleges and other partners in every region of the 
country. These resources will train new teachers to use technology to 
improve student achievement.
    A grant to Western Michigan University, for example, will be used to 
build partnerships with business leaders and local school districts to 
help future teachers use technology in the classroom. San Diego State 
University is receiving a grant to develop advanced technologies to 
improve student reading and teach educators throughout California.
    Combined with past grants, today's awards will help train as many as 
600,000 new teachers nationwide. My budget for the coming year doubles 
our investment in quality technology training to reach a million 
teachers by 2004.
    Unfortunately, so far, Congress has failed to provide the resources 
to meet that target. The House budget would deny hundreds of thousands 
of future teachers the training they need to use technology to help 
students meet challenging academic standards. Their budget also denies 
the funding I requested to create up to a thousand new community 
technology centers to help young people and adults gain critical 
technology skills.
    In too many ways, the education budget making its way through 
Congress simply doesn't make the grade. It invests too little in our 
schools and demands too little from them. In order to pay for large and 
irresponsible tax breaks, it fails to address some of our schools most 
pressing needs, from increasing accountability to building and 
modernizing schools to improving teacher quality and reducing class 
size.
    In this time of unprecedented prosperity, there is no reason to 
shortchange our children and our schools. So I ask Congress again to 
pass a budget that reflects our values and puts education first, a 
budget that strengthens accountability and helps turn around low 
performing schools, reduces class size and increases after-school 
opportunities, closes the digital divide and opens doors to help 
disadvantaged children gear up for college, rebuilds crumbling schools 
and boosts teacher quality.
    If Congress sends me a budget that fails that test, I'll have to 
veto it. But I hope Congress will work with me to pass balanced, 
responsible budget increases to invest in our children and their future. 
Instead of widening the divide in technology and education, we can widen 
the circle of opportunity for every American. And now is the time to get 
this done.
    Thanks for listening.

 Note:  The address was recorded at 3 p.m. on June 2 in the Presidential 
Suite at the Intercon Hotel in Berlin, Germany, for broadcast at 10:06 
a.m. on June 3. The transcript was made available by the Office of the 
Press Secretary on June 2 but was embargoed for release until the 
broadcast.