Remarks at Springbrook High School in Silver Spring

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, March 23, 1998

Thank you very much. Mr. Durso, thank you for welcoming me here to Springbrook. Secretary Riley, thank you for bringing me along. I want to introduce the Secretary of Education, Dick Riley; the Secretary of Energy, Federico Pena. [Applause] I thank Governor Glendening and Senator Sarbanes and Congressman Wynn and the Maryland State superintendent, Nancy Grasmick; your president of the school board, Nancy King, and all the other people from Maryland who have made us feel so welcome.

The Governor of West Virginia, Governor Underwood; and the Mayor of Los Angeles, Mayor Riordan; and other people who were on our panel are over there. I'd like for all the people who came from all over America to be with us to stand up - Rudy Crew, the superintendent of New York; many other leaders there - [applause]. Thank you all very much, Bob Moses and the others.

Those people came from all over America today to your school to discuss one very important thing for your future: How can we improve the learning of American students in math and science on the edge of a new century and a new millennium, where so much of the public welfare and so much of people's individual lives will be determined by whether they understand and can use and apply math and science? And I think you ought to give them a hand for doing that. [Applause]

Now, you may know all this, but I want to give you a few facts to try to demonstrate to you why whether you know anything about math and science, no matter what you do with your life, is likely to make a big difference. For example, in 1993, when I became President, and all of you were in an earlier grade - [laughter] - in 1993, now, just 5 years ago, there were only 50 - 50 sites on the Web, on the World Wide Web - 50, total. Today millions of Americans and millions of organizations have Web pages, up from 50 in 1993. The White House has one. Your school newspaper has one. My cat has one! [Laughter] One and a half million new pages are created every day; 65,000 every hour.

Today every one of you is just a click of a mouse away from some of the finest libraries in the world. And someday before long, you'll be able to reach every book, every symphony, every painting ever created, through the Web,

I know that Bill Nye talked to you about science in ways that were probably infinitely more entertaining than anything I could say, but I'd like to say a couple of serious things to you. Our scientists are on the verge of making dramatic breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, spinal cord injury, other serious diseases. We have just had a rover on Mars. We're about to put an international space station in the sky the size of three football fields for, in effect, permanent human residence in space.

In the 1980's, it took 9 years for scientists to identify the gene that causes cystic fibrosis. Last year, because of improvements in genetic research, it took 9 days to identify the gene that causes Parkinson's Disease. We're on our way to developing gene chips that will help us prevent illnesses in people even before they happen. A lot of you young people here today, by the time you have your first child and you bring your baby home from the hospital, you will actually be able to have a genetic map which will tell you what your child's genetic strengths are, and weaknesses, what the likely problems your child could have are, what kind of diet your child should follow, what kind of regime you should follow to guarantee your child has the healthiest possible future.

Now, I guess what I'm trying to say is something you doubtless already know, but science and technology and mathematics are profoundly important to the way we live. But they will be even more important to the way you live, you work, you relate to other people, you relate to people all the way around the world.

Now, I know here that preparing for that kind of future is a priority. You have more computers, more students taking computer science than any other school in the county. Congratulations. I hope more students around the country will follow your lead. I hope more of you will go on to college. And if you haven't thought of it, I hope you will decide to do it.

I have worked very hard to make sure that when we start this new century, the first 2 years of college will be as universal as a high school education has been in the latter half of the 20th century. Why? Because we know from all of our census data that young people who have at least 2 years of college education are likely to get a good job with a growing income. Young people who don't are likely not to get a good job with a growing income. And we know that more and more people have to be able not just to know facts but to understand how to use them, how to solve problems, how to think creatively.

That's why we've provided now a HOPE scholarship, a $1,500 tax credit, a reduction to help pay for tuition for the first 2 years of college, and tax credits for the junior year and senior year and graduate school as well. This is important. We've also simplified the student loan program, made interest tax deductible on student loans - if your families or you can save money in an IRA and withdraw it to pay for a college education without having to pay any tax on it. We've increased the number of Pell grants and the number of work-study slots, and provided for more positions in AmeriCorps for people to earn money to go to college by doing community service. All of this is designed not only to help you individually but to make your country stronger, because we will need higher levels of education among all our young people in the new century.