Bill Clinton: “Well, first of all, let's talk about why it's important. Most new jobs that will be created in this decade will not…”

“Well, first of all, let's talk about why it's important. Most new jobs that will be created in this decade will not require a 4-year college degree, but most of them will require some learning and skills that go well beyond what most people get in a high school diploma. If you look at the last 10 years, the average salaries of young people that had at least 2 years of good post-high school education was a good salary that went up over the decade. The young people who had less than that tended to have lower wages that did not go up and, in many cases, in real terms, fell over the decade because they weren't productive, they weren't more valuable to their employers. So we think America has a big economic interest in trying to ensure that all the young people who get out of high school but don't go on to college make a transition to work, which includes 2 years of further training either in a community college, a vocational setting, or perhaps on the job. And what I have done in this budget, as you know, is to give you and Secretary Reich some funds and some incentives to try to work in partnership with States and with the private sector to build these programs State-by-State in a way that would be customized essentially by the business community, based on the needs of the economy in any given area. It could revolutionize long term the quality of the American work force and the earnings of American workers. [Secretary Reich and Secretary Riley discussed community involvement, academic excellence, and skills development as necessary components of school-to-work transition programs.]”