Remarks in Fresno, California

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 16, 1996

Thank you. Wow! Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your wonderful signs. Thank you for making me feel so welcome. Thank you, Dot Powell. Thank you, Cal Dooley, for being a great Congressman and a truly extraordinary human being. You're very lucky to be represented by Cal Dooley in the United States Congress. Thank you, Debbie Manning, for devoting your life to teaching. Thank you, Shianne Lenhof, for being such a good representative of the young people of today and the future of America. You both made me very proud, and I can't wait to tell Hillary that you did say, "It takes a village." Thank you.

I know there are a lot of schools here today and a lot of students represented, not only here from Dailey but also from Fresno High, from Waona, Tenaya Middle School, Powers-Ginsburg, Edison Computech, Edison High, Muir, and Holland. Thank you all for being here. I want to thank the people who provided our music: the McLean High School Highlanders, the Hoover High School Marching Band, the Roosevelt High School Mariachi, the McLean High School Marching Band, the Raisin Babies Jazz Band. Thank you all very much. Thank you.

I am delighted to be back in the Valley. I did not know until Cal Dooley told me on my way over here this morning - Cal and I were in the car, and he said, "Do you realize that no President has ever come to the Valley twice in one term?" And I said, "I have a hard time believing that. What were they thinking about? I've had a good time here, and I'm glad to be here."

Your Valley contributes so much to America, especially in the power of its agricultural production, and it's been a great honor to me to work to open markets for the products produced here all around the world. And I'm proud that American exports and American farm exports are now at an all-time high, thanks to the efforts of the farmers right here in this fine Valley.

I understand we are also joined here today by some members of our Olympic champion softball team, all from Fresno State, assistant coach Margie Wright, Julie Smith, Laura Berg, Shelly Stokes, Kim Maher, Martha Noffsinger-O'Kelley. They're all here. Thank you very much for being here.

Ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls, I want to talk to you today about what you're doing here and what we have to do as a nation to give our children the best education in the world. Just this month, as you can see from the extra buildings around here, the largest group of children in the history of America began school, the largest group of children ever, the first class of American children to be bigger than the biggest of the so-called baby-boom classes.

The education that you receive today will determine the kind of country we live in and the kind of people we are tomorrow. We must say to ourselves, to our children and for our future, we will expect and receive the highest standards from our students, our teachers, our schools, and all of us who have a responsibility to lift them up and support them.

You know, our country has had an interesting 4 years. I have pursued a straightforward strategy, that I believe in very much, to help all of you go into the 21st century with every person, every person that was talked about in the introduction, without regard to their race, their religion, their ethnic group, their background, where they start in life, every person having a chance to live out their dreams and live up to their God-given potential. The strategy is: opportunity for everyone, responsibility from everyone, and an American community where everyone - everyone - has a place, plays a role, and we all grow stronger together. And I believe that is the key to realizing our dreams in the 21st century.

If you look at where we are today, compared to where we were 4 years ago, this strategy is showing some results. We have the lowest unemployment rates in 7 1/2 years; we have 10 1/2 million new jobs; we have almost 4 1/2 million new homeowners. We have a record number of new small businesses starting in our country in every year, record exports, the deficit has been cut in all 4 years for the first time since before the Civil War. We are moving in the right direction.

There are 1.8 million fewer people on welfare; child support collections are up 40 percent. In October, 10 million hard-working Americans will get an increase in their minimum wage, and all small-business people will get tax cuts when they invest more in their businesses or when they buy health insurance. And it will be easier for them to take out retirement plans for themselves and their employees and for people to keep their retirement when they move from job to job.

Twelve million Americans have taken advantage of the family leave law, when a baby was born or a parent was sick, to keep their job, not lose it, and take care of their families. This country is moving in the right direction.

The Kennedy-Kassebaum health care reform bill made 25 million Americans eligible to get or keep their health insurance by saying you cannot be denied health insurance because somebody in your family has been sick or because you have to change jobs. That is a major step forward to strengthen the security of America's families.