Remarks at west ashley high school in Charleston, South Carolina

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, August 5, 2002

And as Tommy mentioned, we're making great progress on helping people help themselves, so they do not become dependent upon Government. We're helping people become independent people, so they can realize their full human potential.

The welfare reform is a true success story. Since the passage of the bill in 1996, welfare caseloads have dropped more than 50 percent. It's a remarkable achievement--50 percent fewer people on welfare. Today, 5.4 million fewer people live in poverty than in 1996; 2.8 million fewer children live in poverty. And that's positive for America. And an incredibly vital statistic is, the percentage of African Americans and children in poverty is the lowest ever.

The success of welfare reform is not in the numbers, however. The success of welfare reform is not in the caseloads cut. The success in welfare reform is the number of people whose lives have been changed in a positive way. That's the success. And we've got many success stories in South Carolina and all across the country. I'm sure there are some here who I haven't had a chance to meet.

Today I did meet Lushanda Bright. She talked about her life and her story. First of all, she had the toughest job in America, which is being a single mother. That's the hardest work in this country, by the way, is trying to raise your children on your own. And that's what she was doing. She was a 24-year-old at the time. She had two young children. She was on unemployment benefits, and they were about to run out in August. But she didn't just want a job. She wanted to do something better for herself and for her children. And so she hooked up with a group here, all aimed at helping people go from welfare to work, a group that came to be after the '96 law, because the Federal Government finally in its wisdom said, "We ought to trust the local people to help, the local people to design the programs that best work for South Carolina, people we're trying to help; that all knowledge isn't in Washington, DC. As a matter of fact, the more we trust the local people, the more likely it is that good programs will spring forward to help the Lushanda Brights of the world."

And such a program is called Moving Up. And they helped Lushanda. They asked what she wanted. They asked what they could do to help. She enrolled in Northeastern Technical College. She completed several courses on medical insurance and billing--by the way, while working at a convenience store and being a mother of two. Today, she has a full time job at Marlboro Park Hospital. In the fall she's going back to school to continue her education. And here's what she had to say: "A whole lot has changed for me. My life has turned around. It was hard, but I went from having nothing and ended up with a job I love."

Lushanda, thank you for coming. Thank you for sharing with us. I appreciate you being here.

These are the human stories. These are stories which are repeated over and over again all across America because of a philosophy inherent in the 1996 welfare reform bill that says people can achieve, just give them a chance. Help people help themselves, and amazing things will happen in America.