[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 24 (Monday, June 19, 2000)]
[Pages 1369-1371]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks to United States Dream Academy Participants
June 15, 2000
The President. Thank you. Well, good afternoon.
Audience members. Good afternoon.
The President. First, I want to say, Principal Jones, thank you for
having us here. My great friend Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton--
there is not a better Member of Congress than Eleanor Holmes Norton, you
should be very proud of her.
I thank all the representatives of the DC government that are here.
Can you hear me? Is this on?
Audience members. Yes.
The President. No, it's not on, but you can hear me anyway?
[Laughter] Whoever
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controls this, turn it up! [Laughter] Turn the sound up. That's a little
better.
Let me say a special word of appreciation to my long-time friend
Wintley Phipps. You heard the story of how I met him. I'm glad his
family is here today. And I guess you're all his family, in a way. But
when I met him in Alabama a long time ago, he may not have known who I
was, but once I heard him sing and I saw the expression on his face, I
knew I'd never forget him again for the rest of my life.
I want to thank the U.S. Dream Academy and all of you who are its
partners; a special word of appreciation to the staff, the students, the
teachers at the Ferebee Hope Community Services Center and Elementary
School. I thank you all for helping these children through this
wonderful program to realize their dreams and their God-given potential.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said this: ``The future belongs to those who
believe in the beauty of their dreams.'' We are here today because
Wintley Phipps believed in the beauty of his dream, believed that all
children, given the right support, could realize their dream. That's why
he founded the Dream Academy, to give children who have fallen behind a
chance to catch up and soar ahead and to pay special attention to
children whose parents were incarcerated.
You know, I used to tell people all the time, when they said to me
when I was a Governor, ``Why are you for all these education programs in
the prisons and all these training programs and all these treatment
programs?'' And I said, ``Well, first of all, 90 percent of those folks
are going to get out some day, and we want them to be good citizens. And
secondly, if they'd had these things in the first place, a lot of them
wouldn't be in there.''
And so I want to thank the people associated with this Academy for
helping give nearly three-quarters of the students at Ferebee a chance
to live their dreams. I want to thank the parents who are involved. I
want to thank everybody who give these children the learning
environment, the personal attention, the academic tools they need. I
want to thank you for teaching not only academic subjects but character-
building and the importance of maintaining good health.
I worry about how many kids in our schools in disadvantaged
neighborhoods never get a chance just to learn about the basics of good
health. I've seen all these physical education programs and music
programs and art programs cut out of our schools over the last decade
because of financial problems they've seen, and I thank you for giving
these kids a whole education and a chance to be whole people.
And of course, I want to say a special word of thanks for having an
Internet-based curriculum. These children need to be part of the
information society. I have seen the power of the Internet in the
poorest villages of Africa and India and Latin America. I have talked to
children all over the world on the Internet, and no child in America
should be without its blessing.
You know, the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is now on the Internet.
In schools in the poorest parts of this country, schools where they have
no building as nice as this one, if they have an Internet connection and
a printer, they can have textbooks as good as anyone else, thanks to the
miracles of modern technology. These children deserve it, and all of the
children of America deserve it. And so I thank you.
Now, what I would like to say, especially for the benefit of the
members of the press who are here covering this, is that this is not
just a feel-good program. It works. In the last year, math and reading
scores are up sharply. Suspensions are down. Class attendance is up,
which shows that more and more of these young people understand the
importance of going to school, staying in school, and doing well in
school. This works.
I thank Wintley for pointing out that this program receives funding
from the Department of Labor. And I'm happy to report that another
$200,000 will be granted over the next 2 years because of what you're
doing. I know you've gotten money from energy companies, from the NFL,
from other places, and I want to thank all the people who have given you
private money, as well.
I think we ought to be thinking about how we can make sure these
kinds of opportunities are available to all of our children. I think
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that means that, as Wintley goes national, the National Government ought
to go with him and help him all across the country. But it also means
that we have to continue our efforts for smaller classes, for better
school buildings, to make sure all our classrooms are hooked up to the
Internet, to make sure every child who needs it has access to an after-
school or a summer school program, to make sure that all kids have
access to preschool programs, to make sure every low performing school
has the resources it needs to turn around. Because I believe that
intelligence is evenly distributed throughout the human race,
opportunity is not, and we need to give them a chance to do it.
I believe every child from a disadvantaged neighborhood should have
access to a mentor who can say to that child, ``Look, if you take these
courses and do this well, you can go to college. Here's the proof of it.
Here's the money. Here's the scholarships. Here's the loan. Here's the
aid.'' We need to make sure that all kids can do it, and then when
they're of age, we need to make sure the doors of college are open to
all of our people. Money should never keep anybody from going to school.
One of the things that I'm proudest of is that since I've been
President, we've had the biggest expansion of college aid since the GI
bill 50 years ago. And if we get the provision passed that I've asked
this Congress to adopt, we'll allow every family to deduct up to $10,000
of college tuition from their income tax every year, and that will be
good.
One other thing I'd like to say--I'm sure you never have it here--
but I've noticed in my own home that the children sometimes know more
than the adults, even the teachers, about the technology. I'm sure
you've never seen that here. [Laughter] But we just have provided over
$120 million to make sure that nearly 600,000 teachers are properly
trained to make the most of this Internet technology, because I think
that's important.
What I came here today to say is this: Number one, I am grateful to
God that somehow 10 years ago I ran into Wintley Phipps, who didn't know
who I was, but I determined I'd never forget who he was; number two, I
am grateful to him and to all of you who have done the U.S. Dream
Academy; number three, I want to support you, but I believe what you do
for these children, somebody should do for every child in the United
States.
And finally, again, I want to say to the American people through our
friends in the press, this is not just a feel-good program; this works.
Every person who ever amounted to anything in life did so with a dream.
We need to make all of our kids believe they can dream and that their
dreams are just as worthy as anybody else's dreams and that, if they're
willing to work at it, their dreams are just as possible as anyone
else's dreams.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
Note: The President spoke at 6:15 p.m. in Mitchell Hall Auditorium at
Ferebee Hope Elementary School. In his remarks, he referred to Lester
Jones, principal, Ferebee Hope Elementary School; and gospel singer
Wintley Phipps, founder and director, United States Dream Academy, a
pilot program designed to help children of imprisoned parents acquire
basic learning skills, incorporating mentoring and on-line academic
support. The President also referred to NFL, the National Football
League.