Remarks to teachers, parents, and students of high schools in Houston, Texas: January 9, 1998

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Jan 19, 1998

Now, what's all that got to do with education? You need to understand all this if you're going to make the most of the 21st century. It can be the brightest, best time in all of human history, but it will only work for America because this is a democracy, where we think everybody should have an opportunity. It will only work if everybody has a chance to walk across that bridge to the 21st century together, if we all have a chance.

That's what's special about America. That's how we got started. We believe nobody ought to get an unfair advantage, everybody ought to have a chance, and if people need a hand up, we ought to give it to them. That's what we believe as Americans. Now, the problem is, in this world we're living in, where the pace of change and the scope of change is greater than ever before, where the world is crowding in on you as never before, there is nothing anybody else can do for you unless you're willing to make your own dream by the development of your own mind.

Therefore, the 21st century will not only be known as the information age, the age of science and technology, it will also be known by ordinary people as the education age because what you know will depend - will determine in large measure the scope of your life in the new era.

It's always been an advantage to have an education. But what I want you to understand now is it's not just an advantage; it is a necessity. Let me just give you a couple of statistics. Two decades ago, college graduates made about 40 percent more than people with a high school diploma. Today, in less than 20 years, the gap has gone to 75 percent.

Over a lifetime, people who have 2 years of college will make a quarter of a million dollars more than high school graduates. Each additional year of college after high school means a 10-percent increase in yearly earnings for people. If you graduate from college, you're much, much, much more likely now to get a pension with health care, with other benefits, and where the income goes up, instead of staying the same or actually declining, as against inflation.

We have learned as a people, therefore, that the more we invest in education and the higher the quality is, the faster our economy grows as a whole. In the last 2 years - one of the things I'm proudest of is not only that we're now over 14 million new jobs in the 5 years I've been privileged to be your President, with a 24-year low in unemployment, but in the last 2 years, more than half of the new jobs coming into this economy have paid above average wages. That's the good news. But the challenging news is, you can't get those jobs unless you have the requisite education.

And let me say again, this is about more than money. This is not just about money; this is about our ability to be strong as a nation. You want America to lead the world? Do you really believe we can maintain the world's strongest defense, the world's strongest economy, the world's strongest diplomatic force unless we are the world's best educated people? There is no way. Do you want us to set an example for other people about how we should live and have good values? We also have to have smart enough minds and be sophisticated enough to figure out how to handle the honest differences that we have.