Our second challenge is to provide Americans with the educational
opportunities we will all need for this new century. In our schools, every
classroom in America must be connected to the information superhighway,
with computers and good software, and well-trained teachers. We are working
with the telecommunications industry, educators and parents to connect 20
percent of California's classrooms by this spring, and every classroom and
every library in the entire United States by the year 2000. I ask Congress
to support this education technology initiative so that we can make sure
this national partnership succeeds.
Every diploma ought to mean something. I challenge every community, every
school and every state to adopt national standards of excellence; to
measure whether schools are meeting those standards; to cut bureaucratic
red tape so that schools and teachers have more flexibility for grass-roots
reform; and to hold them accountable for results. That's what our Goals
2000 initiative is all about.
I challenge every state to give all parents the right to choose which
public school their children will attend; and to let teachers form new
schools with a charter they can keep only if they do a good job.
I challenge all our schools to teach character education, to teach good
values and good citizenship. And if it means that teenagers will stop
killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be
able to require their students to wear school uniforms.
I challenge our parents to become their children's first teachers. Turn off
the TV. See that the homework is done. And visit your children's classroom.
No program, no teacher, no one else can do that for you.
My fellow Americans, higher education is more important today than ever
before. We've created a new student loan program that's made it easier to
borrow and repay those loans, and we have dramatically cut the student loan
default rate. That's something we should all be proud of, because it was
unconscionably high just a few years ago. Through AmeriCorps, our national
service program, this year 25,000 young people will earn college money by
serving their local communities to improve the lives of their friends and
neighbors. These initiatives are right for America and we should keep them
going.
And we should also work hard to open the doors of college even wider. I
challenge Congress to expand work-study and help one million young
Americans work their way through college by the year 2000; to provide a
$1000 merit scholarship for the top five percent of graduates in every high
school in the United States; to expand Pell Grant scholarships for
deserving and needy students; and to make up to $10,000 a year of college
tuition tax deductible. It's a good idea for America.
Our third challenge is to help every American who is willing to work for
it, achieve economic security in this new age. People who work hard still
need support to get ahead in the new economy. They need education and
training for a lifetime. They need more support for families raising
children. They need retirement security. They need access to health care.
More and more Americans are finding that the education of their childhood
simply doesn't last a lifetime.