Bill Clinton: “Good morning. The closing gavel has come down now on the 105th Congress, and I want to take a moment to discuss what…”

“Good morning. The closing gavel has come down now on the 105th Congress, and I want to take a moment to discuss what we've done and the unfinished, vital business that still remains. Just a few moments ago, I was pleased to sign into law important legislation requested by my administration to encourage States and to help them to open more innovative, independent public charter schools and to hold these schools strictly accountable for results. This will make sure that other public schools can actually learn from the best of these charter schools. That is the right way to strengthen our public schools. When I took office in 1993, there was only one charter school actually operating in America. Now there are 1,000, many of them helped by previous administration-supported legislation. This legislation puts us well on our way to creating 3,000 charter schools by the year 2000. On charter schools, Congress did put progress over partisanship. But on too many other issues, Congress has left town and left the work of the American people behind. This Congress' failure to act in many areas has had real costs for our families. Partisanship killed my proposal to use tax cuts, fully paid for in the balanced budget, to build or modernize 5,000 schools.…”