Bill Clinton: “We don't want a mandate. That is about the average of what employers in the country spend. And what we're trying to do…”

“We don't want a mandate. That is about the average of what employers in the country spend. And what we're trying to do is to work out a system of lifetime training that doesn't have mandates on employers but will give them more incentives to do that. You know, there are a lot of employer mandates right now on Social Security and other things that are just very expensive. Let me tell you where we're beginning. What we're beginning is with the kids who just get out of high school and with older people who come back into 2-year vocational training programs. We're going to try to help to set up a system by putting a little Federal money in and by giving States and localities more flexibility over the money we spend now to guarantee that people will always be able to go back and get at least 2 years of education after high school even if they don't go to college. And then we want to move from there to see what we can do to give the employer community more incentives to do that kind of training or access those things, because the average 18-year-old will change jobs eight times in a lifetime. And if we want to raise incomes in America, we've got to have a very well-trained work force, and people have to think of education as something they do always. We're going to have workers in their sixties going back to school and learning new skills. And if it is a source of security, they will be excited about it. We've got to find a way to make change the friend of Americans, instead of the enemies. That's the idea. But I don't want to mandate it. Education Mr. Smith. We have a couple of young women here who are about to become teachers, right?”