Bill Clinton: “I think--if I might just interject one point based on my personal experience at home--the business community has a…”

“I think--if I might just interject one point based on my personal experience at home--the business community has a critical role to play, not simply in saying, ``Here are the job skills that are needed, and here's what ought to be taught,'' but also in monitoring that excellence. If you have the right sort of partnership there, the people who are paying the taxes and who are going to then be hiring the workers are not going to permit the second-rate programs to survive if they have any way to shape and influence them. So I think that's very important. And when we try to, if you will, fill in the blanks at the Federal level, trying to set some standards and provide some funds, one of the things that we want to be sure and do is to make sure that the employer has a heavy amount of influence over the quality of these programs, because that's really what's going to determine whether the whole thing is worthwhile. [Secretary Riley asked the President about long-term school reform proposals.]”