Remarks to the community in Carbondale

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 18, 1995

All this progress is now threatened by the budget debate now going on in Congress. The congressional majority proposes to balance the budget a little faster than I do and to give a tax cut much larger than the one I propose. Much of it goes to people who are already doing very well and don't really need the money.

To do this, they have been willing to cut education and training by $36 billion below the present budget, which is $76 billion less than I propose to spend while we balance the budget, too. They've proposed to get rid of AmeriCorps. They've proposed to get rid of the direct lending program and go back to the old system which was more cumbersome, which will cost the students more money, which will lead to fewer people taking advantage of the loan program which will mean more headaches to the colleges and universities, but the banks will make their money back. That's all that will happen.

They propose to make changes in the interest payments on college loans so that the cost of college loans could be raised by as much as $3,000 for undergraduates and over $9,000 for graduate students. I'm not even talking now about the risks to the education programs that help kids get ready for college. Under these proposals, there will be 50,000 fewer children in the Head Start program. All the public schools in our country that are participating in our Goals 2000 program will lose their money. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools program will be denied to millions and millions of American children.

Two million American children would face roadblocks on the road to college between now and the end of this decade, the beginning of the next century, if the proposals of the Republican Congress become the law of the land. That is penny-wise and pound-foolish. We shouldn't cut education to balance the budget. We don't have to do it, and we shouldn't do it.

Folks, before I came out here, I spent a fascinating hour or so talking to 11 students from the various States that are represented here, from Indiana and Kentucky and Tennessee, and I met some people from Missouri here earlier, as well as from Illinois, students, people who are starting their own lives. They're behind me today. Every one of them could not have pursued his or her education without the benefit of student financial aid.

I'd like to ask the people who were with me before I came out here to stand up and be recognized. Would you all stand up? [Applause] They range in age from 21 to 51. One is a community college student; one is in graduate school. They go to public and private universities. They have different life stories. One has worked her way off welfare and into a position in college leadership. One was an Upward Bound student who is going to be very upward bound, who will become a doctor. All these people are America. They are what this is all about, not the organized forces that lobby in Washington. These 11 people--I am doing my best to represent them and their future in your Capital. That is what this is all about, your future.