Bill Clinton

South Asia—and, indeed, the entire world—will benefit if India and Pakistan promptly turn these commitments into concrete progress.

I think it is very important that we invest more money, as we have more children, and as we are going to have to replace a large number of teachers who will be retiring.

I know we have a lot of things to do today, but I'd like to spend my few moments talking about the education of our kids.

Teachers must be as comfortable with a computer as they are with a chalkboard.

The idea behind the 'Education Accountability Act,' which I will send to Congress next month, is to say after, now more than 15 years of education research and efforts... it is time for the Federal Government to invest in those things…

This is tough politics.

I want to work with you.

I welcome the successful meeting over the weekend between Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif.

Accordingly, the Administration does not support S. 4 in its current form.

That pace of change might have been all right in the 19th century; it won't do for the 21st.

I commend the two Prime Ministers for demonstrating courage and leadership by coming together and addressing difficult issues that have long divided their countries.

I look forward to working with the CEO forum and other leaders in industry and education to give every child and teacher in America access to these high-tech tools for learning.

It triples our budget for after-school and summer school programs to $600 million.

The prosperity the Nation now enjoys gives us a rare opportunity and, I believe, a profound obligation to do more to ensure the education of all of our children.

The President's defense budget ensures that critical readiness needs are met and allows for weapons modernization in addition to proposing an appropriately generous military compensation plan.

I pledged to work with you on welfare reform, and I know all of you are very proud that the welfare rolls are about half the size they were in 1993.

Washington works best when it works as Governors and as the National Governors' Association work: across party lines; focusing on ideas, not ideology; on people, not politics; on unity, not division.

I also pledged to continue the practice I adopted as Governor of stealing the best ideas from other States I could possibly find.

I pledged to work on eliminating the deficit, and now we are into our second year of surpluses.

I pledged to work with you and your communities on crime, and the crime rate is at its lowest level in 25 years.

Strengthening education is a national priority.

We have to make them common practice in every school district in America.

As I have said many times, every problem in education in America has been solved somewhere, by somebody, in America.

I believe the National Government has an obligation to help them do that.

None is more important than educating our children—all our children—to world-class standards.