[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 24 (Monday, June 19, 2000)]
[Pages 1366-1369]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the White House Strategy Session on Improving Hispanic 
Student Achievement

June 15, 2000

    Thank you very much, and good afternoon. I have received a good 
report on what you have done so far, and I want to get right into our 
program, but I would like to make a few remarks first. I'd like to thank 
Governor

[[Page 1367]]

Glendening and Senator Bingaman and Congressman Hinojosa and Guillermo 
Linares and Secretary Riley for joining us, along with our other panel 
members.
    And I'd like to thank Congressman Joe Baca, Carlos Romero-Barcello 
for being here. I think Congressman Reyes from Texas is on the way. And 
I want to welcome Mayor Beverly O'Neill from Long Beach, and especially 
Lieutenant Governor of California Cruz Bustamante, who is here. And I'd 
like to thank Maria Echaveste and Mickey Ibarra from the White House for 
the work they have done on this, along with all the others who have 
worked so hard.
    This is very important to me. One of the things that I have learned 
traveling America is just how diverse Hispanic America is, something 
that a lot of Americans don't really know yet. I think there is a common 
core of values around family and community and work and faith, but 
Hispanic America is growing more diverse every day with different 
challenges and, unfortunately, still different opportunities. There are 
still a lot of gaps that we all want to close. Most of them are 
narrowing, but we've still got a lot of work to do.
    Last August the First Lady hosted the first-ever White House 
Conference on Hispanic Children and Youth. And today we're following up 
on that Conference by setting forth specific goals and an agenda for 
closing the student achievement gap over the next 10 years in ways that 
we can all be held accountable for.
    The first step to closing that gap is to believe, as I do, that high 
expectations are for all students. I believe intelligence is equally 
distributed throughout the world, but opportunity is not. And the same 
is true within our own country.
    For over 7 years now, we've pushed hard for higher standards, for 
more choice, for greater accountability, and for more support for 
children and teachers and parents and schools who need it. We have hired 
nearly 30,000 new, highly trained teachers now, on the way to our goal 
of 100,000 more teachers to lower class sizes in the early grades. We've 
connected about three-quarters of our classrooms to the Internet; that's 
up from 3 percent in 1994, when we started in northern California, the 
Vice President and I did, with our first NetDay.
    We've made it possible for over 90 percent of our schools in very 
low income areas to have at least one Internet connection because of the 
E-rate program that the Vice President and I fought very hard for in the 
Telecommunications Act in 1996. And we have more than doubled college 
aid in the last 7 years, the biggest expansion since the GI bill 50 
years ago. In all these areas, I actually believe we have more to do.
    We also, as all of you know, put in place a Hispanic Education 
Action Plan that includes, this year, a $436 million increase for 
programs to improve Latino student outcomes. And I want to double that 
investment. This strategy of investing more and demanding more is 
working. Test scores are up across the country; more students than ever 
are going to college. If we just keep it up, we'll really take this 
country and all its children where we want to go.
    Unfortunately, that progress is threatened by the education bill 
that the House Committee passed yesterday, or that the House passed 
yesterday. I think it demands too little accountability, and I know it 
puts in too few resources. It, in my judgment, underinvests in 
everything from after-school programs, which we have taken from $1 
million to over $400 million in just a 3\1/2\ years. And if that bill 
were to come to my desk, I would have to veto it. But I hope we can work 
with Congress on a bipartisan education bill. We've had some success in 
recent years, and I am confident we will this year.
    I'd like to talk, just a moment, about what many of you already 
know, which is that Hispanic students are sharing in this academic 
success, but still, too many are lagging behind in ways that I find 
deeply troubling. Today I'm releasing a study by my Council of Economic 
Advisers, which shows that the average educational level of native-born 
Hispanics has increased substantially over the last several decades, and 
the gap between Hispanics and whites has declined.
    Compared to 1993, Hispanic students are scoring higher on math 
tests; greater percentages are completing high school, graduating from 
college, and getting advanced degrees. However, there's some bad news in

[[Page 1368]]

this report, because the need for education is growing even faster. For 
example, since 1993, the percentage of Hispanics with 4 or more years of 
college has increased but only by about 2 percent. Over the next decade, 
the number of jobs requiring at least 4 years of college will more than 
double.
    The study shows that Hispanics, who represent 11 percent of our work 
force, hold down just 4 percent of the jobs in information technology, 
jobs that pay much more than average in the area where jobs are growing 
most rapidly. Every American should be concerned about that gap. When 
the fastest growing demographic group in our country is underrepresented 
in the fastest growing employment sector, it means less opportunity and 
a violation of the values that we all share. It also means that, sooner 
or later, our economy will have a shortage of highly skilled workers 
where we really need them.
    One other finding in the report bears mentioning because it will 
inform the debate we're going to have today. The problem is not that 
Hispanics are not choosing careers in key industries like information 
technology. In fact, according to the report, Hispanics who graduate 
from college enter the information technology industry at about the same 
rate as non-Hispanics and earn about as much. The problem, therefore, 
quite simply, is that not enough Hispanics are getting college degrees. 
That can be remedied only by raising the educational achievements of 
Hispanic students in schools, beginning in pre-school years, continuing 
into adulthood, and by making sure that no person is ever denied access 
to college because of cost.
    We know that the achievement levels can be raised. The question is 
whether we have the will to do what we know works. If we're going to set 
high expectations of students, we must have high expectations of 
ourselves to do what it takes to make sure all of our students can make 
the grade.
    We know that we can make college more accessible. That's what the 
HOPE scholarships do, the Direct Student Loan Program, the lifetime 
learning tax credit. But I think we ought to do more. I have got a 
proposal before Congress to give up to $10,000 of tuition tax-deductible 
status every year and to do it at a 28 percent income tax rate, even for 
people in the 15 percent income tax bracket, which is a very, very 
important proposal. And it could make it possible for even more of our 
young people to go to college and for more of our families to afford it.
    So today, we know what we have to do, and we know we can do it. And 
what I think is always helpful is to translate what we wish to do into 
specific goals. So I think we ought to adopt five specific goals to 
close the Hispanic student achievement gap over the next 10 years.
    First, let's make sure that in 10 years, young Latino children are 
enrolled in quality early childhood programs at the same rate as other 
Americans. Second, let's make sure that in 10 years, every Hispanic 
student graduating from high school will have demonstrable proficiency 
in English. Third, let's make sure that in 10 years, there is no gap in 
test scores and other assessments between Hispanic students and their 
peers. Fourth, let's make sure in 10 years, 90 percent of Latino 
students complete high school. And fifth, let's make sure that over the 
next decade, the percentage of Hispanic students who earn college 
degrees will double what it is today.
    Now, these goals are specific and ambitious but clearly achievable. 
If we are serious, we have to do something about meeting them. This 
morning the Secretary of Education released the first of what will be 
annual reports measuring progress in Hispanic student achievement. We 
also need an entity outside electoral politics to keep a national 
spotlight on these goals, because they should be the Nation's goals, 
without regard to party.
    Today I'm happy to announce the creation of such an entity: the 2010 
Alliance, a partnership among a wide variety of Hispanic organizations, 
including La Raza and the National Association for Bilingual Education 
and corporate and non-profit groups, from the Ford, Irvine, Kellogg, and 
Hazen Foundations, to AT&T, GM, Univision, and State Farm.
    The alliance will be, as they say, in your face. [Laughter] It is 
designed to remind the Nation of these goals and to spur commitments, 
specific ones, at every level of government and the private sector to 
help to meet

[[Page 1369]]

them. I'm happy that a number of organizations have already committed to 
taking specific steps to help achieve the goals.
    The Discovery Channel will publicize the goals in public service 
announcements to run on its Discovery and Espanol Network. The 
educational software firm, Lightspan, is teaming up with the Department 
of Housing and Urban Development to provide special software and 
Internet access for computers in HUD neighborhood centers in Hispanic 
communities. Many other organizations, from the American Library 
Association to the Hispanic Radio Network, also are contributing.
    Closing this achievement gap is a challenge that may seem daunting 
now, but it will seem inevitable once we do it. And when we do it, if we 
work hard, stay together, and stay focused on the goal, America will be 
a better, stronger place in the 21st century.
    Thank you very much.
    I'd like now to introduce Governor Parris Glendening of Maryland, 
who increased his State's investment in education by $600 million and 
doubled funds to build and modernize schools in his first term in 
office. In more ways than I can count right now, since he's been 
Governor, Maryland has been on the forefront of change in our Nation. 
And I wish every State would follow Maryland's lead.
    Governor.

 Note:  The President spoke at 2:48 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Guillermo Linares, Chairman, 
President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic 
Americans.