SPEECH OF THE FIRST LADY
AT NATIONAL EDUCATION
ASSOCIATION CONVENTION
New Orleans, Louisiana
July 3, 1994
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for that
warm welcome. Thank you for all that you have done and are doing every
single day across this country for our children. Thank you for your
leadership at the local, state and national level on behalf of education
and other issues that affect our children and our nation's future. Thank
you, Keith Geiger, for your leadership and for your commitment to making
this country be what it should be for our children. And thank you all for
honoring me with the Mary Hatwood-Futrell* Award that Keith delivered.
I was honored to receive it and very pleased to have a chance to visit
with Keith recently when he came to the White House to deliver it on behalf
of the NEA. I am also delighted to be here with all of your officers and
your wonderful staff in Washington. And I'm pleased that I could bring
with me one of your former staff members, Debra Delee*, who is now doing an
excellent job at the Democratic National Committee. I was
fortunate enough to view the video that you just saw, and it was a little
difficult for me seeing again the faces of the people whom I have met,
particularly the children who read their letters about health care. And I
was very pleased that you had a chance also to see their faces and to hear
their words and to know how deep their concerns are. But you know
that because you see children on a daily basis. You understand that our
nation's obligation to improve the health and education of our people is
not simply an economic or political imperative. It is a moral imperative.
It speaks to our basic humanity and who we are as a people. And
that is why, with your help, this President has proposed a comprehensive
agenda to safeguard the future of America's children. And I want for a
minute just to focus on what you and the President and supportive members
of Congress have already accomplished, particularly in the field of
education. If we think back to two years ago when my husband was
running for president, and when he came and spoke to many of you, we did
not believe then that we would have 3 million new jobs as we do today, 18
months into a new administration. We did not believe then that we would
begin to get our fiscal house in order and see the kind of decline in the
deficits that is real and absolutely putting us on the right track. We did
not believe then we would see the list of legislative accomplishments that
were listed on the video ranging from beginning to get some control over
handguns in this country through the Brady bill and the ban on assault
weapons.
We did not think we would have the kind of legislative
achievements that someone who told you, as my husband did, that he wanted
to be the education president, could achieve in a relatively short period
of time. But the record speaks for itself, and despite often people's
attempts to deny or distort what you and this administration are
accomplishing. Finally, if you are, as I am, a believer that the
truth wins out, then the truth is winning in America and will continue
to win on behalf of the people of this country. The President
promised a lifelong learning system. And with only a few months to go in
the 103rd Congress, look at what has already been achieved to realize that
vision. The Corporation for National and Community Service will be placing
20,000 young people in our communities and our neighborhoods to do national
service starting this fall, thanks to you and your support for national and
community service. We have reformed the Head Start program and
reauthorized it. And because of that, we will, if we see our
reauthorization through and achieve the appropriations we require, many
thousands more young children having a chance for a real head start for
their educational experience. We have with your help and guidance
achieved a landmark piece of educational legislation with the Goals 2000
education legislation to educate America. It is a piece of legislation
that does not tell you from the top of Washington what you should be
doing in your classrooms and in your schools. It sets goals and
standards, but then, because of this President's belief that the best
solutions for education reside in the interactions between children and
their teachers and among teachers working together, it says you figure
out how to achieve these standards. You are the real experts in
education in America. But let me warn you -- there are forces at work
in this country who do not believe in you and do not believe in our
children and do not believe this country should have goals for our
education system that you and our children achieve together. Those forces
want to undo the work that is represented in Goals 2000. I ask you to
stand firm for the President's vision that this country can achieve goals
because we have dedicated educators, concerned parents, and students who
want to learn and can do so if given the encouragement.
This President's vision has already resulted in the
School to Work Opportunities Act. What a great piece of legislation, that
again, you helped achieve. For too long, the children who do not go on to
college, the forgotten half who do not share the kind of final educational
experience that most of us in this hall do, carrying our four-year degrees
out of our colleges, for too long those young people have been ignored by
our education and social systems. And it is finally time, and this
President understands it, when we hold out a hand to young people who want
the additional skills and training, not every person has to go to college
to be a success. Let's give success to these young people who can serve
their country and their families. And for all who do want to go on to
college, one of the most important pieces of legislation that has been be
passed in 50 years was passed in this Congress again, thanks to the
President's vision and to your help. We finally now have cut through the
red tape, the bureaucracy, the extra administrative costs, to create a
system that will permit direct lending for college loans to the young
people who need them in order to go on to college to realize their own
personal dreams. That is what has been achieved, and I do not know
any president or any secretary of education or any group of people who
are concerned about education as you are, who have more to be proud of
because of what has been achieved. But we face two more legislative
challenges before Congress adjourns. First, we have to complete work
on the reform and reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act. It has passed the House of Representatives; it awaits action in the
full Senate. And we also have to work to create support for
the Reemployment Act of 1994 which will give workers an alternative to
what we now call the unemployment system. We don't need an unemployment
system in America. We need a reemployment system in America. And
finally, we face the challenge of funding adequately the education and
training reforms such as Head Start and Goals 2000 that has already been
passed in the Congress. We understand, and my husband understands, because
he was the first president in many years to present a responsible budget
with trustworthy numbers. He was the first president to present three
budgets in a row with declining deficits for the first time since Harry
Truman was president. So he understands what it means to be
fiscally responsible, but he also understands that within those fiscal
restraints, there is no better investment than to invest in the education
and training of all of our children from preschool all the way through
their working lives. And we need your help to make that happen.
So much has been accomplished despite the naysayers, despite the
pessimists, despite those who deny reality. But we still have a long way to
go before we can honestly say we have created an environment where no child
will be left behind, where every child will be given the kind of security
and education and health care that that child needs. But we are beginning
to put together not only the vision but the structure to make that happen
so that our children will be better educated, they will be safer, they will
be able, if we pass the crime bill once and for all after seven years of
trying to, walk to school in safety again, to play in parks in safety
again. But as part of that vision that the President has talked
about, we know that too many of our children come to school every day
without adequate health care. Too many of our children face problems
because of health in their families where the families are not secure or
able to provide for their children. Health care should be, must be, can be
a right for every American if we act and we act now. All of you know,
because you see the children of our country, why we are struggling so hard
to achieve what is called universal coverage, what the President calls
guaranteed insurance for every American. You see the stories. Every one of
you, whether you're a teacher, administrator, a cafeteria worker, a school
bus driver, or anyone else who works to keep our schools going every
day, you have a story that you could tell. I have more stories
than I wish I had. I have been privileged for more than 25 years to work on
behalf of children's needs. I have been in and out of schools and
hospitals, in and out of homes and community centers. I have looked into
the eyes of far too many children whose health needs are not being met. I
have listened to far too many parents who tell me how they cannot
manage to meet their own children's health needs. I don't want to
have to keep hearing these stories. I don't want to have to keep receiving
the now more than 1 million letters from children and mothers and fathers
that I have read. And yet, I know that the struggle to insure every
American is far from over, despite how much progress we have made toward
that goal. In many respects, it is now just beginning as we move to the
House and Senate floors with bills that will guarantee health care coverage
and have to fight through the opposition to that goal. I want to
speak for just a few minutes about what we should be trying to achieve. You
understand it. The NEA and many of you in your local and state affiliates
have supported health care reform, and I am very grateful. It has made a
difference. But now we must redouble our efforts. Because, as with any
significant piece of social legislation, you will face very strong and
organized opposition. I heard Keith say, as in so many ways,
Eleanor Roosevelt was here before I. She was here before most of us. In
her persistent articulation of what needs to be fixed in America, she
pricked our consciences. It has been said that what she did was to comfort
the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And that is what makes her
live in our memories and why she is such an example to millions of people
all over the world today. Because she used her position of privilege, her
position to speak out on behalf of those who had no voice. You must do the
same. You must join with the President, me, all of us in Washington who
are trying to give voice to the literally millions and millions of
Americans for whom this debate over health care reform is not apolitical
issue, not an abstract, academic discussion, but literally a matter of life
or death. Who are these Americans? How do we think about them? I
suggest you look to your right, your left, in front of you and behind you.
Because the Americans of whom I speak are all of us. There is not one of us
who has the security in this, the greatest of all countries and economies,
that we will have health insurance at an affordable price when we need it
at any time in our lives now and into the future. For too many Americans,
they are one job away from not having health security. They are one divorce
away from not having it. They are one illness or accident away. No one in
America except the very rich are secure. And that is wrong. Every
American deserves health security. This debate will come down to
whether or not the Congress of the United States is able to hear and see
the problems in front of their eyes and extend health insurance coverage to
every American or whether they will hear the well-organized voices of
opposition. But that is the way it has always been. Think back. At every
point when we were attempting to provide security for every American, we
heard the same arguments against doing that. Social security was an issue
in the eyes of the opposition that would bankrupt America, would make
people lazy, give them no incentive to work to save for their old age.
Every argument you hear today was heard then 60 years ago. Thankfully, we
had members of Congress who heard and acted on what they saw in front of
their eyes -- namely, that older people in American deserve to have their
retirements secure. And then 30 years later, we face the same
opposition with Medicare. Medicare was going to absolutely destroy our
American way of life, destroy American medicine and our health care system.
Thankfully, we had leadership that saw what was happening with older
Americans and acted to provide them with health security. We've heard the
same arguments when it comes to the minimum wage. Oh, my goodness, if you
raise the minimum wage, no businesses will be able to continue. Small
business will be bankrupted. There will be no opportunities for economic
expansion. Again, the opposition was wrong and the people who care
about what happens to ordinary, average working, middle-class Americans
were right. And what we have to do is to build on social legislation like
social security, Medicare, the minimum wage, all of which made America
stronger to make sure we give universal health care coverage to every
American because that will make America stronger as well. Now
during the next weeks, people will say, well, we don't really need
universal coverage. We can get by without it. Well you know that that is
just not the case. Universal coverage is essential to help control and
contain health care costs. Without it, those of you in this hall who have
health insurance will continue to subsidize people who do not. You will
continue to pay for those whose employers and those employees do not pay
for themselves. That is not fair. If you have everyone in the
system, you can begin to make sure that costs do not get shifted from the
uninsured and the underinsured to those of us with insurance. That is the
kind of system that will make it possible for us to take care of more
people, to emphasize primary and preventive health care, to make sure that
we retain choice because we will have a system in which individuals
will get to choose who their doctor is, to make sure that what we do
will put us on a firm financial footing for the future. And yet
there will be those who say, no, we cannot do this. It will not work. Let
me suggest to you there's a very simple set of questions to ask. Those who
say universal coverage will not work, ask them if they want to repeal
social security or Medicare. Ask them if they're willing to give up on
what those two programs have done to make Americans secure. If you hear
from members of Congress that they do not believe that hard-working,
middle-class Americans should have health insurance coverage, ask them then
why they have figured out a way to give members of Congress guaranteed,
affordable health care coverage. Some members of Congress do not like
it when I say that. They do not like it when I suggest that you ask your
member of Congress, especially those who are not in favor of universal
coverage, why they can do it for themselves and not for your neighbors,
friends and relatives. But for those members of Congress who are fighting
hard to give Americans what they have which is guaranteed, affordable
health care coverage, make sure they know that you will recognize their
commitment and help support them in the battles to come. If you
strip away all of the rhetoric, what you have basically are several camps
of opponents. You have opponents who ideologically do not believe that we
should extend health care coverage to every American. I respect that
position, but I think they are dead wrong, and they are not living in the
real world that you and I see every single day. There are
opponents of health care reform who are concerned that health care reform,
especially building on our employer-employee system, will cost jobs. Remind
them that that was the same argument used against social security,
Medicare, and the minimum wage, and it never, ever was proved to have any
effect. What we are asking for is health security for everyone in a private
system where the employers and the employees bear their fair share. That
is an American solution to the health care system problem that we
confront in our country. And finally, there are opponents, who for
their own political purposes, do not want this president to continue
the success he has enjoyed for the last 18 months. They want to turn
back the clock to a time when the rich were taken care of, the poor were
subsidized, but everybody in the middle was basically left out. This
president ran for the presidency because he was sick and tired of everybody
in this country who works hard for a living, plays by the rules, makes a
contribution, being forgotten in Washington. And that is why he has worked
so hard to change this national agenda. But unless Americans
understand what is at stake in this health care debate and how many issues
are wrapped up in it, then the opponents will think they have a free ride,
that they can continue to be negative, they can continue to say no, they
can continue to feed gridlock and partisanship when what this country needs
is to move beyond politics as usual, to move beyond partisan rhetoric.
Health care is not a political issue. When you look in the eyes of a
sick child, you are not looking at a Republican or a Democrat, you are
looking at an American who deserves to be taken care of. And so as we
leave this hall, as you finish your assembly in a few days, please take
home to every corner of this great country why you personally and why the
NEA and why a majority of Americans favor universal coverage. In every
single poll that has been done, more than 70 percent of Americans know what
is right -- that is, universal coverage built on employer-employee system
that contains costs. And explain to your friends and neighbors
that this is not just an economic issue -- although it is that -- it is
because we are spending more money than we need to on our health care
system. We can do better. We can actually extend care to more people if
we are more efficient and careful and if we emphasize primary and
preventive health care and begin to convince people that the emergency room
is not their family doctor. We can save money and do a better job.
And tell your friends and neighbors that it's also a social issue. You
know sometimes people say, and I know they write about me, they say, you
know, I get so intense, I get so serious, you know, all of that. I really
do have a sense of humor. I promise. But it's hard for me to be humorous
about the problems I see in the health care system. I don't know how to
make a joke out of the stories that I've heard. I don't know how anyone can
ignore what all of us see. This is a social problem that needs to be
resolved. It is not fair -- (Tape ends.)
|
