pd07se99 The President's Radio Address...

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<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
                         

[Page i-ii]
 
Monday, September 6, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 35
Pages 1669-1687
 
Contents

[[Page i]]

Weekly Compilation of

Presidential

Documents



[[Page ii]]

  

  


Addresses and Remarks

    Drunk driving, radio remarks--1682
    New York
        Democratic National Committee dinner in Bridgehampton--1675
        Receptions honoring First Lady
            Cazenovia--1683
            Syracuse--1685
        Saxophone Club reception in East Hampton--1673
        State comptroller's annual lunch in Skaneateles--1678
        Victory 2000 dinner in East Hampton--1670
    Radio address--1669
    Turkey, earthquake relief, radio remarks--1681

Proclamations

    Contiguous Zone of the United States--1684

Statements by the President

    Bosnia-Herzegovina National Day, announcement--1682
    Democratic Republic of the Congo, cease-fire agreement--1682
    ``Futurework'' report--1682

Supplementary Materials

    Acts approved by the President--1687
    Checklist of White House press releases--1687
    Digest of other White House announcements--1686
    Nominations submitted to the Senate--1687
  
  
  

Editor's Note: The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is also 
available on the Internet on the GPO Access service at http://
www.gpo.gov/nara/nara003.html.




              WEEKLY COMPILATION OF
          ------------------------------
              PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS

Published every Monday by the Office of the Federal Register, National 
Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408, the Weekly 
Compilation of Presidential Documents contains statements, messages, and
other Presidential materials released by the White House during the 
preceding week.

The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is published pursuant to
the authority contained in the Federal Register Act (49 Stat. 500, as 
amended; 44 U.S.C. Ch. 15), under regulations prescribed by the 
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Distribution is made only by the Superintendent of Documents, Government
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There are no restrictions on the republication of material appearing in 
the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.






[[Page 1669]]




<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
                         

[Page 1669-1670]
 
Monday, September 6, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 35
Pages 1669-1687
 
Week Ending Friday, September 3, 1999
 
The President's Radio Address


August 28, 1999

    Good morning. This week students all over the country are getting 
ready for the first day of school. Like every year, parents will send 
their children off to school with new backpacks and fresh hopes that 
they'll get the world-class education they need and deserve. Today I 
want to talk about our continuing efforts to strengthen and renew our 
Nation's public schools, by encouraging more choice, competition, and 
creativity.
    For more than 6\1/2\ years now, Secretary Riley and I and our whole 
administration have worked hard to raise standards, raise expectations, 
and raise accountability in every public school in America. I have 
advanced a comprehensive plan to strengthen and renew our Nation's 
schools and education agenda for the 21st century--from reducing class 
size to improving teacher quality, from modernizing and rebuilding 
thousands of schools to finishing the job of connecting every library 
and classroom to the Internet, from putting an end to social promotion 
to expanding after-school and summer school programs.
    We've also worked hard to promote the creativity, competition, and 
accountability that can turn around failing schools and make our good 
schools even better. That's the big reason I've encouraged States to 
pass charter school laws and urge communities all across our country to 
give charter schools a chance.
    Charter schools are innovative public schools started by educators, 
parents, and communities, open to students of every background or 
ability. But they're freer of redtape and top-down management than most 
of our schools are, and in return for greater flexibility, charter 
schools must set and meet the highest standards, and stay open only as 
long as they do.
    Also, charter schools don't divert taxpayer dollars from our public 
school system; instead, they use those dollars to promote excellence and 
competition within the system. And in so doing, they spur all our public 
schools to improve.
    I am proud of the progress we've made so far. When I was first 
elected President, there was only one charter school in the entire 
country. This year there will be more than 1,700 of them. We're well on 
our way to meeting my goal of establishing 3,000 charter schools 
nationwide in the first year of the new century.
    For an increasing number of families, charter schools are the right 
choice. In fact, there are now waiting lists at 7 out of 10 existing 
charter schools, as more parents realize that more innovation and 
creativity can produce good results for their children.
    Let me give you just one example. When Bowling Green Elementary 
School in 
Sacramento ranked third from the bottom in its district, parents and 
teachers decided they had to do something to take control and turn the 
situation around. So they set up a charter school there. Since becoming 
a charter school, Bowling Green has seen student performance soar--with 
greater gains in test scores than any other school in the school 
district.
    The charter school movement is a real grassroots revolution in 
education. We must do everything we can to support it. Today I am 
pleased to announce nearly $100 million in funding for charter schools 
all around America. These funds will help teachers and parents open new 
charter schools in 32 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
    They will help existing charter schools hire more well-trained 
teachers, buy more books, computers, and educational software, and 
ensure that classrooms are safe and accessible for all students. 
Finally, these funds will help charter schools develop accountability 
systems to measure whether they are meeting or exceeding State 
standards.

[[Page 1670]]

    Charter schools are living proof of what parents and teachers can do 
to reinvigorate public education. Investing in them means investing in 
accountability and excellence and a much better future for our children.
    But just as our children are returning to class, the Republican 
leadership's risky tax cut plan would undermine these investments by 
forcing deep and irresponsible cuts in education and other important 
national priorities. So, as Congress comes back to Washington, let's 
remind them what the creators and the students of America's charter 
schools already know: We're all accountable for our children's future, 
and an investment in it is our best investment in all our future.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Edgartown School in 
Martha's Vineyard, MA.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
                         

[Page 1670-1673]
 
Monday, September 6, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 35
Pages 1669-1687
 
Week Ending Friday, September 3, 1999
 
Remarks at a Victory 2000 Dinner in East Hampton, New York

August 28, 1999

    Thank you. Let me thank all of you for the wonderful welcome you 
have given to Hillary and to me, and to the cause that we come here to 
advance tonight for the Democratic Committee and for the Senate Campaign 
Committee and for our prospective candidate from New York over here. 
[Laughter]
    This is a very special night for me for many reasons. Most of you--
and perhaps some of you know this, but Liz Robbins has been a friend of 
Hillary's and mine for about 20 years now. And she and Doug have brought 
a lot of light into our lives, and I want to thank them for opening 
their home to us. You know, this is kind of a--if you've ever hosted one 
of these deals--[laughter]--you know, the nice wears off after about 10 
minutes, and you start thinking about it. And you think, ``If it's a 
bust, I'll be humiliated; and if it's successful, they'll destroy all 
the hedges.'' [Laughter] So I think we ought to give them a hand and 
thank them for doing this. [Applause]
    I also want to thank all the people who--starting with the folks--
the singer--and the Turtle Crossing restaurant for donating the food, 
and all the people who served us here tonight. Thank you all very much 
for what you've done. I appreciate it very much.
    We have mentioned our New York State chair, Judith Hope, and 
Governor Romer and Joe Andrew and Beth Dozoretz and Andy Tobias, all the 
people from the DNC, I thank them.
    I'm very grateful to the Members of Congress who are here--to 
Senator Torricelli and Senator Lautenberg and Congressman Forbes; and 
Congresswoman McCarthy, who had to leave. I'd also like to acknowledge a 
presence that you won't be hard to find in the former Congressman, Tom 
McMillan from Maryland, and the former Chairman of the President's 
Council on Physical Fitness. Thank you, Tom, for being here. And Mark 
Green, the New York City comptroller, thank you very much, Mark, for 
being here--the consumer advocate.
    And I love Phoebe Snow. And she has been so good to me, and so good 
to the Democratic Party, and she has sung a lot of different songs. 
Those of you who know a lot about American gospel and music may know 
that ``His Eye is on the Sparrow'' was perhaps Martin Luther King's 
favorite hymn.
    But if you think about it, it's a pretty good reason for being a 
Democrat, because our eye is on the sparrow, and all the other people 
around, and we figure--most of us who can afford to be under this tent 
tonight--that if they do well, God has given us enough gifts that we're 
going to do just fine. If ordinary folks do well and the conditions of 
the country are good, then those of us who have the resources and have 
been gifted with certain talents and certain training, we're going to do 
very well. And so the hymn was a good setting for our meeting here 
tonight.
    I will be very brief. I want to make a case for our party in the 
coming election. I think that the First Lady made a pretty good case for 
herself--[laughter]--but I'd like to say a word or two about that. And I 
want to talk about you and what you're going to do between now and 
November of 2000. And I'll do it quickly.
    When I was elected in 1992, the people of New York and the people of 
the United States took a chance on me and Al Gore, because they were 
worried about the direction of the economy and the direction of the

[[Page 1671]]

society and the fact that we were becoming more divided when we should 
become more united. And we made an argument and said we would challenge 
the country to change. And the country took a chance.
    And when we moved to Washington, we challenged the Democrats to take 
the lead in restoring fiscal responsibility. I didn't think you could 
ever be the progressive party in the country if the wheels were running 
off the economy. And we quadrupled the debt in 10 years, 12 years. And 
interest rates were too high. And so we challenged our Democratic Party.
    We challenged the Democratic Party to take the lead in ending a 
welfare system that was dysfunctional. We challenged the Democratic 
Party to put a human face on the global environment, but not to walk 
away from global trade. And we asked the Republicans to discard their 
hatred of government, and their blind faith that the only thing that 
would ever matter was having more tax cuts. And we asked them to abandon 
wedge politics.
    I think it is very interesting--when the history of this era is 
written and people write the history of New York politics, it will be 
very interesting that New York gave us two party switches based on 
principle: Carolyn McCarthy switched from the Republican to the 
Democratic Party and ran for Congress--and ran for Congress when she 
paid the highest price a human being could pay, and she realized she had 

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