Remarks at James Ward Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Jan 15, 2001

To further support young students, another thing we did was to start the America Reads program, which now has involved 1,000 universities and colleges in sending out student mentors to help make sure kids can read by the time they get out of the third grade. And there are also countless other religious and other community organizations presenting--doing it and supporting schools.

Eight years ago only 35 percent of our schools--and listen to this--3 percent of our classrooms were connected to the Internet. I said 8; the truth is, it was 1994, 6 years ago. Today, with the help of new Federal dollars to support Internet hookups and the E-rate program, which was pioneered and supported by the Vice President--the E-rate basically guarantees that every school can afford to log on to the Internet and hook up to access it, no matter how limited their resources are--we have gone from 3 percent of our classrooms to 65 percent of our classrooms connected, from 35 percent of our schools to 95 percent of our schools connected to the Internet, including this one.

And you just heard your principal say, before you had this last remodeling, even if you had the money, you couldn't do it, because the wiring wouldn't support it. You'd be amazed how many schools I've been in that can't be connected to the Internet because the wiring in the school won't support it. I was at an old school in Virginia about a year ago, and they kept laughing about how the whole place shorted out every time the classrooms tried to log on. I was in Philadelphia, where the average school building is 65 years old--the average school building--and I couldn't--I can't tell you how many school buildings I've been in just in that one city that couldn't be wired.

On the other hand, as you see in this facility, there's another thing we have in common. This building was built when Grant was President. Every night in my private office, I work on Grant's cabinet table. It was built in 1869, and it served me quite well, but I don't have to wire it. [Laughter] I don't have to air-condition it. I don't have to put heating in it. All it has to do is stand up.

But as you see from this building, a lot of these old school buildings are fantastic in their construction. And things were done then that you couldn't afford to do now. But they have to be modernized. Now, in 1995 the city of Chicago found the resources to make this school safe, warm, beautiful, and usable. That makes a big difference. But across this country, there are 31/2 million students who attend schools that need extensive repairs or should he replaced. There are millions of other students going to schools in housetrailers.

I've been to one elementary school in Florida, in a little community in Florida, an elementary school like this one, that had 12 trailers outside it used for classes.

Now, again I will say, we've got the biggest and most diverse student body in history, more important to educate them than ever before, but a smaller percentage of the property taxpayers in most of our school districts are parents in the school than ever before. More people are renters. You know all the reasons why this is so.