Remarks to the National Education Association in San Francisco, California - Pres William J. Clinton - July 5, 1993 - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 12, 1993 by Bill Clinton

Thank you very much. Thank you for the warm reception you gave to the First Lady and to Secretary Riley. Thank you for inviting me back. You know, last year when we were in Washington I was out in the crowd over there by the Nebraska delegation. Where are the Nebraska teachers this year, over there? And where are the teachers from Arkansas? Over there. Thank you. Always a rowdy group. [Laughter]

I want to thank all of you who teach our children, staff and schools, lead our communities, and build our future. I am very grateful for the support you gave in the campaign of 1992, grateful for the support and the work you continue to do as we work our way through the changes this Nation has to make in the Congress and in the country. But most of all, I want to say at the outset, what I tried to say all along the way last year: Perhaps more than any person who ever sought this job, I spent my apprenticeship in the schools of my State, in the schools of this country, listening to teachers talking with children, learning from principals, trying to inspire people everywhere to work together for reform. And I want to thank you most of all for your clear and simple devotion to the work of teaching.

While I was thinking about this speech, I received a quote from the novel, "The Prince of Tides." Secretary Riley gave it to me. I want to give him full credit. He'll probably have to take the blame for a thing or two along the way. [Laughter] But I love the "Prince of Tides"; it's my favorite novel I guess I've read in the last decade or so. And the main character is a teacher named Tom. There's a passage in the book that I remember vividly where he's asked why he chose to sell himself short when he was so talented, and he could have done anything with his life. He replied, and I quote from Pat Conroy's eloquence, "There's no word in the language I revere more than |teacher'. My heart ngs when a kid refers to me as his teacher, and it always has. I've honored myself and the entire family of man by becoming a teacher."

I am delighted to be here with so many distinguishesd Californians, in addition to the teachers: Senator Boxer, Congresswoman Pelosi, Congressman Lantos, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, Speaker Willie Brown, controller Gray Davis, secretary of state March Fong Eu, insurance commissioner John Garamendi, Mayor Frank Jordan, Brad Sherman, and many others. To all those folks who are here in our administration and to Keith Geiger and all the people who work for you in Washington, I have a special word of thanks to the NEA for the gift of our Assistant Secretary for the Office of Education and Research and Improvement, Dr. Sharon Robinson, who is also here today.

For the past 5 months all of us have been worldng hard with you to change our country and to build our future. The film that you so graciously put together shows some of the progress that as been made; the family leave bill; the motor voter bill; a tough ethics set of rules for the executive branch; one House of Congress having already passed finally a lobby reform bill that requires all lobbyists to register and to report what they spend on Members of Congress; and a campaign finance reform bill that lowers the cost of campaigns and opens the airwaves to honest debate and reduces the influence of organized groups; a new environmental policy, which puts the United States at the head, instead of at the rear of the environmental movement that is sweeping, the globe. We did reverse the gag rule and the ban on fetal tissue research, which was undermining diabetes and Parkinson's and other medical research so critical to the health and the welfare and the future of the United States.

There is much more to be done. Soon we will pass the economic program. Soon we will begin in earnest an attempt to provide health security and to control health care costs and to provide quality health care to every American family. Soon we will have the Vice President's recommendations on how we can literally reinvent our National Government so that we can reduce the amount of regulation and increase the empowerment we give to people at the local level and free up funds not only to bring our deficit down but to invest in people instead of the constant expansion of yesterday's Government.

These things are very important. And already, in spite of the fact that most Americans are still having a very tough time and are very insecure in this tough global economy, the fact that our economic program is two-thirds home has led to a dramatic reduction in interest rates, which has caused millions of people to refinance their home mortgages and save them a whole lot more money in lower interest than the middle class will be asked to pay to bring this deficit down and leave us some modest funds to invest in education and our future.

We have already seen in 5 months nearly one million jobs added to this economy. It is not enough. It is nowhere near where we should be coming out of the so-called bottom of the recession, now nearly 2 years ago. But it is a beginning, and it indicates that we are moving along the right track.