Bill Clinton: “Well, thank you very much. I agree with the last thing you said for sure. [Laughter] Let me say, the reason I wanted…”

“Well, thank you very much. I agree with the last thing you said for sure. [Laughter] Let me say, the reason I wanted Governor Hunt to come here today, apart from our 20 years of friendship and my immense admiration for him, is that--if I could go back to the question I asked Secretary Rubin--the great trick we have with all great social questions in America is--that we know that Government can't solve alone, either because we don't have the resources or the capacity--is how to have grassroots, community-based partnerships that still, when the day is over, add up to a system that serves everybody instead of just makes nice, touching stories we can all tell each other at seminars till kingdom come. And that is what they have done in North Carolina. They have kept the entrepreneurial spirit. They have the partnership. They've cobbled money together, from first one place, then another, and he's put a lot of new money in it, and because he has taken this initiative and set up a framework within which creativity and partnership can flourish, they have a system. And I still believe--I'll say it again--I think that is the great sort of challenge that America faces that goes across so many of our problems and plainly relates to this. The only question I wanted to ask you about it that I would like you to specifically address is, do you have enough money to deal with the dilemma that raising quality standards must increase your cost to some extent, and does that price anybody out of it? And if not, why not? [Gov. James B. Hunt of North Carolina stressed the need for additional State and Federal funding, as well as help from the business and nonprofit sectors.]”